Fall Fun

Remember when you were young and the thought of raking leaves and jumping in them sounded like fun. You didn't think about what could be living in the leaves, or how dirty they might be. You just loved the feel of the leaves crunching as you landed in a big pile of them.

This is the one time of year I don't have to ask my kids to help. They love raking the leaves, jumping in them, throwing them up in the air around them, and even burying themselves in them.

When the playing is all done they even like helping to put them in the bags.

I am sure we will get to have a few more days of play, because while our trees have lost most of their leaves the neighbors big cottonwood trees are just starting to change color.

Three Days of Halloween

School Party's on Thursday

We all went to the school parade and Josh walked through it with Joe. They were Mario and Luigi, and were the first in line. Joe was a good big brother and held Josh's hand so he wouldn't be scared.

Emily had her enthusiasm going as she came by in her Recycling cheerleader outfit.

After the Parade the older kids went to their classrooms for parties and we headed to Josh's preschool for a program. They sang a lot of cute songs, but this witch one was my favorite.

Grandma's Office

Trick-or-treating

on Friday

We always have fun trick-or-treating with grandma, and meeting some of her co-workers.

This year Tamra and I dressed up with Valerie as Star-Trek The Three Generations. Valerie's costume was a Captain Picard uniform from the Next Generation. (Ryan's parents had bought this outfit for Emily when she was a baby) So Tamra and I wore MAROON shirts also and we all went as captains.

As we went around the office people kept saying "Oh you're the Red guys, the Red guy always dies." I guess there were not many Next Generation fans there.

Halloween on Saturday

Ryan took Emily, Joe and Josh Trick-or-treating with Charlie and his family. We gave Emily the choice of going with dad or with her friends. She chose to go with the boys.

When they got home Joe said, "Mom this is the worst Halloween Ever!" My mind started running through all of the things that could have happened while they were out. Boys fighting, dads yelling, too scary, not enough trick-or-treating. So you can imagine my relief when he answered my question Why? with...........

"Someone gave me an apple."

Josh was in the stroller by the end and so tired. He couldn't even carry his bag up the stairs. He didn't want to stop though. When Ryan said they were done he cried because he still wanted to go to more houses. Even though he could barley stand up.

Valerie and I stayed behind in the warm house and handed out the candy.

It was a fun and sugary Halloween..........

When Emily Was Little..........

She won a prize for her Halloween Costume.

By the time Halloween rolled around the Superman outfit had evolved into so much more. Emily had two Characters she loved, Superman and Prince Phillip (from Sleeping Beauty) Who she lovingly called Pea Soup. So when It was time to choose a Halloween costume she did not want a princess dress. Instead she just wanted to wear her favorite outfit with all of its accessories. We called this costume "Superman Princess."

It was her superman outfit topped off with a crown, ruby slippers and her horse. The costume judges at the ward party loved it so much that they gave her a prize.

I would like to say that this was just a Halloween costume, but Emily wore this outfit many more times to places like Sea Port Village and the grocery store. Sometimes the Ruby slippers were replaced by yellow galoshes. I loved how confidant she was riding her horse around and I hoped she would keep that self confidence her whole life.

Once There Was A Snowman

We got our first real snow storm of the season, and it was perfect for snowman building. The boys worked hard rolling up the pieces. We raided my scrapbooking supplies to make a face and found a few sticks in the back yard for arms.



When we got him all put together, we found he was just the right size and looked like one of the gang. Unfortunately the weather warmed up fast, and by the time Emily got home from school our snowman had already fallen over. I am not sure if it did it on it's own or with some help from kids walking by.

Either way It was fun while it lasted.

Garden After Dark

It's Halloween time, and that means our annual trip to Red Butte Garden After Dark.

This years theme is An Olde Fashioned Halloween.

We invited Joseph's friend Charlie to Join us. This is a perfect event for boys their age, and he added some entertainment to the evening.

The kids get to wear their costumes. This year Joe and Josh are Mario and Luigi. Charlie is Boba-Fett from Star Wars. When People walked by us they instantly recognized the Boys and would usually say "Hey, it's Mario and Luigi" But they never mentioned Boba-Fett. This bothered Charlie. So he would always say loudly "AND BOBA-FETT" Usually the people would smile and say something like "Oh yeah, cool." However there was one man who still did not acknowledge Boba-Fett after Charlie told him who he was. Charlie did not like being ignored so he followed the guy and repeated "AND BOBA-FETT" until the guy acknowledged him. There was one boy about Emily's age who instantly recognized Boba-Fett and told Charlie how cool it was. This made Charlie happy.

We started off with the face painting. They pretty much let the kids and parents do the painting.

Emily and Joe stuck to the themes of their costumes. Josh wanted a mustache, but he also did a little painting himself. Charlie wanted a spider and a mustache.

After the face painting we headed into the garden.

The first stop was a broom making station. The kids picked out a stick and then we helped them tie dried weeds and straw to the end.
The kids thought their brooms were great.
At the next stop the kids got to have broom races.

My favorite station of the night was the hay stacks. There were plastic bugs and spiders hidden in the hay. The kids had to find one and when they did they could exchange it for a prize. The boys found theirs pretty fast Emily had a harder time seeing the bugs. After a while I started trying to help her by pointing them out to her. The only problem was when she would turn to look where I was pointing she would brush hay over the bug I was pointing at.

When she finally found her spider we all cheered including her.

Another fun spot was the potion room.

The kids were given a vile to put plant pieces in to make a potion. (potpourri) The boys really thought this was cool. Especially when the lady told them they had to warm up the potion for it to work. They headed right out to one of the fire barrels on the trail to cook their potions.


There were other fun things like painting a pumpkin, a haunted forest (very kid friendly) a story teller, and a real owl. Our prize at the end was a cob of popcorn. The kids are excited to try popping it in the microwave. I am not so sure.


Usually Ryan's dad comes with us. He was not able to come this year and the kids really missed him. They decided to bring a cob of popcorn home for Grandpa, so that he would not miss out on all of the fun. Maybe we can try popping it at his house.

Family TV

I have noticed that there is not much on T.V. that the whole family can sit and watch together. There are plenty of shows I like to watch that are not kid friendly, and there are shows my kids like that make me want to run screaming from the room, but finding something we all enjoy and that I don't have to worry about covering my kids eyes or ears is pretty rare now a days.

So I want to say a big

THANK YOU

to the people at Disney who came up with the idea of Phineas and Ferb.

Maybe it is because the show is about two brothers playing together and their older sister always trying to get them in trouble.............................But we love this show at our house, and we often watch it together as a family.

When Emily Was Little............

She loved Superman.

Just before Emily turned two she discovered Superman. Ryan and I are not exactly sure where she learned of him, but she loved him.

When we went to Utah to visit Ryan's parents for her 2nd birthday, Grandma had a Superman outfit for her. Once Emily put it on, she would not take it off. We had to wash it at night while she was sleeping, so it was clean and ready for her to wear when she woke up.

This was no big deal until Sunday when we wanted to go to church. Ryan's parent's ward had one of the later starting times. So I let Emily wear the Superman outfit in the morning. I had bought her a new yellow dress and I thought that she would be excited enough to wear it that we would not have a problem. Boy was I wrong.

Everyone got ready for church and after I was dressed I brought out the dress for Emily. She started to scream and cry because she did not want to wear anything but Superman. For a minute I was tempted just to let her go in superman, but then I realized how bad this could be for me. So I continued to try to get her into the dress.

Ryan and his family all went to church without me, while stubborn little Emily and I fought over what she was going to wear.

I know I could have just forced her into the dress and made her go, but I also knew that if I did I wouldn't be able to go into the building anyway, because Emily could scream and she could throw fits for hours. (You know how they say you should just put your baby in the crib and let them cry it out. I tried that with Emily and three hours later she was still screaming at the top of her lungs. Of course I checked on her during the three hours.)

About 45 minutes after they left, somehow, we had come to a compromise. Emily put on the beautiful yellow dress and then she put on the red cape with it.

We got to church just in time to go to nursery. Ryan's family was a little surprised to see Emily in the dress, and there were many understanding smiles from people as they saw the red cape on her back.

I have to say that in the end I felt both triumphant and a little defeated in our battle. (and I admit I am a little sad I didn't take a picture.)

A few months later my mom came to visit and made her these two great capes. And a week after that I found myself in the fabric store looking for some fabric for a cape to match her dress. So it wasn't as noticeable when she wore it to primary.

As I look through the pictures of Emily when she was two and three, there are many times when she wore her Superman shirt, and many more with capes.. I am not sure she ever really grew out of this stage. In fact if you looked in Emily's dresser today you will still find a pair of Superman Pajamas.