HALLOWEEN

LOTS of Parties, LOTS of candy, LOTS of fun, LOTS of cute kids, but none cuter than these..........










This year Trick or Treaters got more than they bargained for when they came to our house. We let Hannah answer the door, and along with the candy, she passed out some great advice to every group that came. Here are a few of my favorites:

"Happy Halloween, I hope you find Jesus"
"Happy Halloween & Merry Christmas, I hope Santa brings you Hotdog soup"
"Happy Halloween, watch out for zombies with red shoes"
"Happy Halloween, you should go home when it rains, Your mom will be mad if you get your costume wet, and you'll get no hotdog soup"
"Happy Halloween, Cockadoodle doo" (screamed at the top of her lungs)

I LOVE that girl!

JABBA the HUT

This afternoon Brent dropped by to help me carve the pumpkin. We used a saw to cut the top off, and a huge knife to carve out the face. The walls were not as thick as I thought they would be, only about 6-7 inches, but there was plenty of guts inside. We decided it kind of looked like Jabba the Hut when we were done.




Our cat Xena, decided she wanted to have snack and started chewing on the face a bit. She'll be camped out there as long as the pumpkin lasts.

Snowbird

Saturday we took the kids up to ride the TRAM at Snowbird. It was the first time for Josh and Bear, and they loved it! The weather at Snowbird was perfect, around 60'. At the top of the mountain however, it was windy and a very cold 33'. After playing for a little bit the kids all bee-lined it for the heating shack, all except for Bear. She was loving the wind, and spent the whole time chasing Bruce around the summit giggling. Another pefect day!

The Tram

Cute kids!

The Famdamily

Happy BEAR

Bear & Bruce

Frozen kids

Playing in the dirt

Daddy love- Bear is definitely a Daddy's girl.

Bruce looking HOT, Kristin looking NOT! I'm pretty sure people are always wondering what he see's in me. (It's the Stellar personality people :)

Hooray for UEA

I love when the kids are out of school and we can can play schedule-free for a few days. We started off UEA on Thursday, by going to the Aquarium with Lauri & girls. The little kids loved the Jellyfish and the Octopus, and they all had fun playing on the boat. None of my kids wanted to touch the Stringrays, they all thought that was too GROSS!

Bear, Hannah, & Josh UNDER THE SEA

Alex petting the STARFISH

Cool FISHTANK

HAPPY KIDS

A NOT so HAPPY kid


Friday we spent the day at the Gateway with Holly & kids, exploring the Children's museum and having lunch. Forgot my camera, so no pictures.

Saturday we had lots of plans, but when we discovered 2 boxes of LEGOS on our front porch, the plans went out the window, and the kids+Bruce, literally played LEGOS for 10 hours straight. Thanks Cindy! Over the next 18 years, everytime I step on one, I'll be cursing your name. :)


Bruce and the kids in LEGO heaven


Monday my friend Sage and three of her kids came to play all day. We had a BLAST!!!

And Tuesday was Emma's birthday so we headed up to This is the place for her party. It was freezing, but we still had fun.

Bear, Melissa, & Alli

Emma, Hannah, & Alli

Counting down the days til Thanksgiving Break.

407 lbs.

No that's not how much I weigh, (pretty close, but not quite). Today was the Giant Pumpkin weigh off for the state of Utah. My pumpkin taped at 357 lbs. as of this morning, so when they weighed her and the scale read 407 lbs. I was thrilled!

The (what in the He** are we doing up so early on a Saturday) lifting crew, is made up of my hubby, my nephew, and my 3 brothers. This is the one day a year when having no sisters and three brothers, really comes in handy. They all reported that it felt HEAVY as they were carrying it to the trailer.


Loaded up and ready to go!


My little brother Brent and his 2 Giants


Me and my baby


Brent's Pumpkin weighed in at 264 lbs., which was amazing considering he got a late start in pollinating.


Someone had donated some girly stuff for a giveaway, so since I am the only female Giant Pumpkin grower in Utah this year, they had all the girls 8-12, try to guess how much my pumpkin weighed. This cute girl won with a guess of 420 lbs.


"You know you're a REDNECK, if you have a picture of yourself with a prize winning Vegetable" (I'm an official REDNECK, and proud to be one)


People are always asking me what you win for a Giant Pumpkin. Well I was lucky to win a bottle of fish guts, which is what we feed them all summer long.

It's not about the prizes people.

It's all about bragging rights, and the season long joy of watching them grow. Oh and the kids love them as well. But just an FYI, here is what the top 6 won this year.

1st- $700
2nd- $600
3rd- $500
4th- $400
5th- $300
6th- $200

and so on, down to me with the fish guts. Fish guts is kind of like winning the "major award" in the movie "The Christmas Story". No one really appreciates it except for the "major award" winner. I was thrilled to place 20th in the State and win my fish guts.

Fieldtrip

Today Alex's 2nd grade class came to our house for a Giant pumpkin fieldtrip. It was so fun!! I taught them all about growing Giant pumpkins, and they came prepared with a ton of questions.



When I lifted the blanket off the pumpkin, there was a collective Wooooaaahhh, from the class. They were very impressed with the size of my pumpkin.

(See Bruce, my pumpkin is cool!)


I was surprised by how excited they were. (It's always nice to get validation for your nerdy hobby by a bunch of 8 year olds.)

We snacked on chocolate chip pumpkin cookies and juice


I remember when I was in elementary school always wanting to be the cool kid. I never was........but today I got to watch my son be the cool kid in his class, as he helped me with the fieldtrip. It was fabulous!



Alex proudly leading his class back to school.


Tonight Alex said to me "Mom you did a really great job today. You're the best mom, thanks for the happy day".

Anything for you my love....................

FHE in the FALL

This afternoon we decided to head up the canyon for FHE to see the beautiful Fall leaves, and to teach the kids about being Thankful for the world our Heavenly Father has created for us.



We had so much fun, even though it was freezing once we got there. There was snow on the ground in places, and we were a little underdressed for the weather. But the leaves were beautiful, and nature definitely delivered a spectacular show of colors.





I love to be outside and playing in the dirt. I hope that my kids gain a huge appreciation for the beauty of this world, and are thankful for the many blessings we have. Utah is such a beautiful place! I think it is Heaven on Earth. I don't know why anyone would want to live anywhere else, when THIS IS (so obviously) THE PLACE!

Can you tell we are FREEZING?


We finished off our outing with dinner at Rocky Mountain Pizza, where we were very uncivilized, made a huge mess under our table, and rumor has it, that Bear actually took a bite out of a strange kid in the play area. Gotta love that!

I love this BUNCH!

BUSY weekend

We had a great weekend, but it was very busy!!!

We started off on Friday by watching Kate Leigh while her mom went scrapbooking. Bear and Kate are only 3 weeks apart in age, they are both adopted, and both adorable, and I'm sure that one day they will be good friends.

Bear & Kate


But right now, Bear is not having any of that friendship stuff. She is going through a definite MEAN phase. She likes to pinch, scratch, & bite! Luckily Kate steered clear of her most of the time, but Joshua, he is not so smart. He is constantly falling prey to her cuteness, and gets just close enough for her to attempt to rip his eyeballs out. So far they are still intact, but he has lost a few lashes, and has gained several scratches. Heaven help the Nursery kids, as this Sunday will be Bears first day. I HATE having the mean kid!!!! Let's hope her mean phase is shorter lived than her sisters was.

Friday afternoon I went scrapbooking with some good friends of mine, and actually enjoyed myself. I love these friends, but hate to scrapbook, so I usually pay my bills, read a book, and just chat when we go. But this time I came prepared with my laptop and lots of pictures to sort through. So, I still didn't get any scrapbooking done, but I was entertained the whole time, and because of my laptop, I sorta looked like I was scrapbooking, instead of like some clueless person who just walked in off the street. Had a great time, thanks GALS!! (that one's for you Cindy:)

Saturday we actually made a real effort, (for the first time ever), to watch both sessions of conference. We usually just read the Saturday sessions afterwards. We even made the kids watch it with us, and they were pretty good. That evening Bruce went off with some friends to the Priesthood session at the Conference center, and out to dinner.

I wasn't about to be left home with my kids, alone, on a Saturday night. So I got a sitter, and went for MNO with a bunch of my friends. We had dinner at Fratelli's, followed by Ice cream, where we closed down the shop, and still didn't want to go home, so we did a midnight romp through Walmart. My friend Diana and I bought some cute trench style coats, and I told them that Bruce would take one look at it and say I should wear it with nothing on under it. Today I wore it for the first time, and Bruce said, "Wow you need to be naked under that coat". What a PERV!!! Anyway, I had a really fun time with the girls.

Sunday we watched all of Conference again with the kids, and I loved it! The talks were wonderful, and I love that through most of them, I could sit back and be able to guage how our family is doing, and know, that while we are not even near perfect, we are doing pretty good as a family to keep the Gospel working in our home.

When Thomas S. Monson was called as the current Prophet, I had to dig out my old picture, of lunch with him, when I was in High school, to show the kids. I'm not sure what will surprise people more, that I was on Seminary Council, or that they will let just anybody near a future Prophet. I have always loved Thomas S. Monson, from my first encounter lunch with him, to all the chance meetings, when I was working at LDS hospital, and he would come to visit the patients. He has always been so nice and taken the time to say hello to everyone. And he always has a smile on his face and a good joke to tell. I love him, and I am so glad that he is the Prophet during this time in my life. I'll follow him all the way to Heaven.

West High Seminary Council 1988