Happy Halloween!

No pictures today. We had our FUN Halloween dinner with halloweenies, bat wings, bubbly brew and more. I saw a cool new menu item on television that I wanted to try- WORMS. Didn't work out and I was pretty bummed out about it...almost didn't enjoy the rest of the meal. Glad that the sugar fest is now on the downward slide.

I do believe in spooks...

The Pirate' s Booty is a treasure to be proud of!

Great privilege

What a blessing it is to be able to have a say in the way things are run or carried out. I voted EARLY so that there weren't any long lines to wait in.

Safety Kids

This afternoon I attended the Safety Kids program at school. Elijah sat FRONT row in the CENTER, so I had a good view of him. He did a really good job!

Dashing thru the snow...

We awoke to a white blanket of snow covering everything in sight.

"Cheesy" way of saying YES!

I wasn't feeling well when Valesca was asking the boy to the Bingham Ball, so we didn't get any pictures. She got a wallet and filled it with credit cards that each said something on the back like- Dress $50, Tie $20, Going to Bingham Ball- Priceless. On a price tag she put her name. She wrapped it up like a gift and left it on his door.

Last night was his answer: A pizza delivery.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is Sunday. I never get to sleep in on my birthday because my sweet mother always calls early (well, early enough that I can't sleep any more) just to wish her eldest daughter a "happy birthday". My children decided to cook breakfast for me----so hot chocolate, blueberry muffins and a banana to start off the day. Then off to church to be released from my calling with the Webelos and start a new adventure as a Laurel Advisor in the Young Women. Elijah heard them say that they were releasing me from the Webelos and he turned to me and said, with the biggest 7 year old smile, "now they are going to make you MY scout leader". I felt so sad as I told him that I was actually going to be teaching Valesca's class. During the final hour of church I attended the Young Women "goodbye to my most favorite young women's leaders EVER testimony and tear duct production testing meeting". (That means that everyone was crying boatloads of tears.) After church I stayed for choir practice- we are singing in Stake Conference in two weeks. When I finally left the church it was so wet outside that I wondered if I would be seeing Noah in his Ark on the way home. I sat down for a few minutes at home before we left to go have dinner at my mother's home. Thank goodness I didn't have to even prepare one meal for my birthday! My siblings came for dessert and then we were off to arrive home to open the gifts that my kids were DYING to give me. I received some really cool mint/oreo fudge, several packages of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (YUMMMMMMM!!!!!!), perfume, a basket for my bicycle and a note that said that Brad was going to start working on fixing/building a new shower for our bathroom---HOORAY! Then it was time to watch the Amazing Race on CBS. I finally got a chance to get on the computer and had over 40 people who were wishing me a wonderful day. Guess what, it was a good birthday---a wet, busy, wonderful birthday! Now tomorrow we celebrate Brad's birthday.

My first attempt at mini-cupcakes

Well, I did it again... I tried to make something new for the first time when I needed to take it to some sort of event. This time it was for the Elder's Quorum Party that I told them I would bring a dessert for. They turned out SUPER cute and now I have some ideas for future events in our family.

PS. This party was an adult costume party and Brad actually came in some sort of costume. I can't remember that he has EVER done that before. There are no pictures of him because I didn't want to scare him away from ever doing it again. It was a fun evening.

National Honor Society

I accompanied Valesca to her induction ceremony for the National Honor Society. They spelled her name "Velesca" on the program, and on her official certificate spelled her name "Valessa Throctmorton" and misspelled "High School". Apparently they don't have people from the National Honor Society involved with printing the program or writing out the certificates. She will always have this problem, but a SMART place like this was not where we expected the problem to surface so many times.

ARRRRRRGGG!

Our neighbor 3 houses away has set up their entire front yard with a HUGE pirate ship and other pirate garb. Since Elijah is dressing as a pirate for Halloween this year, we took the opportunity to snap some photos. You really should come by and see their yard if you live close to us. Come in the daytime, and then come again at night. They have pirate music playing and cool lighting effects. But be ye keerful Matey ur ya mighten be walken the plank.

Old Spice Grover

This just made me laugh, so I thought I would share it.

Field Trip for grown-ups

Brad had the day off of work, so we decided to PLAY. Would you like to guess what we did? Here are some pictures of places we went on our field trip.

Answers: Yes, we used our GROUPON to go to have a 10 minute massage chair, 10 minute oxygen bar and 1 hour relaxation massage. Then we feasted at Tucanos (same kind of place as Rodizio Grill). For the first time ever, Brad is the one who is sore afterwards.

Pumpkin Innards

Family Home Evening: Last week we watched our traditional "Garfield Halloween Special", this week we carved pumpkins...Yoda, pirate, wild haired guys and x-wings.

Sir, would you like cheese with that?

We have a young man in our home who doesn't always like what his mom fixes for dinner. All of my kids are free to make their own delicious meals if they don't like what I fix. Tonight, Elijah was happy to make his own sandwich...but he didn't want to cut up the last of the cheese, so he put the whole thing on his sandwich- like an inch worth. Gee, do you think he has enough?

Mostly Typical Saturday

Our autumn Saturdays are generally very full. This is what we did today:

We only had ONE soccer game instead of two.
Three of the kids worked at the Farmer's Markets with their grandparents.

We went to the library.

We made treats for a party. (Why do you try something NEW when you have to take the dish somewhere? At least these turned out yummy!)

We went to a neighborhood Halloween party. (Valesca went on a date to Lagoon.)

We had a fun day!

Want to try something new?

http://www.groupon.com/r/uu1379367

Try this out for just $10. (I got a few as gifts...shhhhhhhh!) This will be available for about 3 more days.

Free Cookies

Being "off track" gives us time to do stuff we don't usually have time to do. We had a coupon from the library for these COOL cookies, so we drove across town just to pick them up.

Yellow

We found a yellow wall in our adventures while being "off track", and thought we would stop and take a picture.

May the Force be with You

Saturday night we went to hear and see the West Valley Symphony playing Star Wars music. People dressed up in the audience and on stage. We witnessed light saber duels on stage as well as Darth Vader using his powers and then taking over as the conductor. It was wonderful music and very entertaining. Brad enjoyed going back to Granger High School- his old stomping grounds.

Homecoming Dance

Valesca and Brad heading off to the dance.

We went exploring

Since we are "off track" right now, we have gone exploring. One day we drove out to Tooele, just because, and we probably won't do that again. Yesterday we drove up to Layton. This picture was from our adventures on Monday when we climbed on the roof of the City Library.

This is what I bought

You may remember that a few weeks ago I won a Williams-Sonoma gift card...this is what I used it for. My boys are already so EXCITED to use these cookie cutters and pancake molds that they aren't willing to wait for our STAR WARS days! Glad I could bring some happiness to their lives. ( I could have bought something cool for me, but I felt they would truly enjoy these.)