happy halloween

Our morning started off with Carter receiving an award @ school. Each month, there is a character trait that they focus on. This months theme was trust worthiness. Carter was one of the three children in his class to receive this award. This is what his teacher had to say about him: "This student is trustworthy and I can always count on him to do his best work. He is honest and always chooses to do the right thing. He is a great friend, a very hard worker and a wonderful student". Awesome job Carter.

Garrett enjoyed a fun party @ preschool this morning. They played Halloween Bingo, decorated little cakes, & made haunted houses out of sticker. He loved every minute of it. Here are a few pictures of Garrett & his preschool pals. Thanks for the photos Steph!

Then we headed back to the school in the afternoon. Tanner received an award too! He received the Coyote of the month award. This is what Tanner's teacher had to say:"Tanner is an excellent role model in our classroom. he has excellent attendance, behavior, and grades. He also knows how to treat others with respect. Tanner works hard in the classroom and strives to do his best".

We are so proud of Tanner & Carter. They love school & really do try to do their best everyday. We hope they keep up the good work.
Here are our traditional front door Halloween shots. It was so hard to get Brody to sit still, let alone smile.









We hit the streets around 6:15 pm tonight.

We went Trick or Treating with our friends, The Solano's.

It was fun to roam the neighborhood with them. They have four boys too! The boys were so excited, they ran from door to door. We were barely able to keep up with them :).
I could not believe how many people were out Trick or treating this year. It was insane. There were more people than I have seen in years... everyone was out. It started to rain a few times while we were out there. The rain did not damper our fun! A few umbrellas & boys who could care less that it was raining, the fun continued.

The boys hit the mother load in the candy department. I think the candy fairy will have to make a visit tomorrow night & leave a small present in return for their candy.

I am going to leave you with a few parting shots of our cute monkey. I gave him a real banana for the photo shoot. Brody Loves bananas so it was most appropriate that he was a monkey.





We hope you all enjoyed a fun & safe halloween!

Trunk or Treat

It's done!
It's over!
I am exhausted!
I am very thankful to all of those who helped!
I think everyone had a great time.
I know my boys did.



I am in charge of throwing the annual Trunk or Treat party for everyone at church. We figured we had about 250 people attend this year. A ton of time & effort went into pulling it off. Couldn't have done it w/out my helpful committee and great friends who know when to jump in & help. A huge thank you to Lisa P. for watching Brody & to Lisa H.

for doing a ton of everything last night. Love you girls. We had hot dogs, homemade chili & cornbread for dinner. The children enjoyed carnival stations that included face painting, a cake walk, cotton candy, fishing for prizes. a bean bag toss, pin the nose on the pumpkin, a spook alley & the doughnut eating contest. Due to the rain, we didn't trunk or treat from car to car or enjoy hay rides. We did everything but the hay rides inside. From what i could tell, it sounded like the kids had a great time. I know my older boys had fun & played hard. I think I saw them once the entire night. They all went out like lights as soon as their heads hit their pillows.
I'll leave you with a few of my favorite photos & costumes from last night!
Happy trunk or Treat!

Something I strongly believe in! I feel that as a parent, it is my right to teach my children the values & morals that i believe in! I don't want to the state dictating & mandating what my children should learn & think is right.

I love living in America! i love that our family can put a YES on Prop 8 sign up in our yard & that my neighbors across the street can put their no on prop 8 sign in their yard. Do you know what?? We still like & respect each other. Our family returned home from our Trunk or Treat party to find our YES on 8 sign totally ripped & ruined this evening. The only reason they weren't able to take the whole sign is becasue i had greased the edges with Crisco-LOL! Nobody is going to steal my sign :).



Our neighbor across the street caught two girls, on their bikes going from house to house, taking signs. When my neighbor confronted them, they looked @ him & told him it was none of his business. He told them that it was his business because they were infringing on our rights & were ruining something that was not theirs... but ours. The 14 year old girls looked at my neighbor & told him again to mind his own business. Our neighbor said he could not believe the disrespect he received from these young girls. This is why we live in America...we enjoy the freedom to choose for ourselves. We have the right to choose for ourselves just as our neighbor chooses for him/herself. It just makes me upset that others can't be tolerant of others beliefs & choices. Tolerance is a TWO way street.

A destroyed sign or not, I proudly say YES on PROP 8.
Don't forget to vote on Tuesday!
p.s. my new YES on PROP 8 sign is already up in my yard.

long time no post. It has been a busy week. I have been running around getting ready for our annual trunk or treat party. There is nothing like throwing a party for 200 (plus) of your closest friends-lol. Talk about overwhelming.Lots of running around today trying to tie up some loose ends. I took the boys to the pumpkin patch yesterday after school. We were pleasantly surprised to see that there were still pumpkins left. We have never gone this late in the month.









Needless to say, we had an awesome time. We fed the farm animals, jumped in the hay bounce,

mined for marbles,

went down the HUGE bumpy slide, smiled for Carter has he took @ least 100 photos (where do you think he learned that?),

picked pumpkins,



& had hot dogs for dinner. We had a great time. We all woke up with a few mosquito bites-uughhh! carter has one smack dab in the middle of his forehead. i keep telling him not to scratch it...we have a family photo shoot for our Christmas card photos this Saturday!That is all we need for the perfect photo, one huge scab in the middle of that boys forehead. Pray for no scratching.
We carved our pumpkins after making it home from the patch.





The boys did an awesome job designing their own faces. Dad helped them cut them out.


They turned out pretty cute. Brody kept trying to eat the pumpkins. Or maybe he was trying to kiss them...who knows??? It was funny.




Stayed tuned for trunk or treat photos tomorrow night.

who done it?

I walked into my bathroom this morning only to find this...


Garrett's question was, "who done it"?
I will give you four guesses even though you probably only need one.






This little stinker unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper. He then proceeded to try and shove it all in the toilet. Boy was he sure proud of himself. We think he is pretty darn cute, stinker and all!

Scrap Pink

Every year in October, Green Tangerines holds a Scrap Pink event. Scrap Pink is a weekend filled with crops, fun give aways, & the opportunity to raise awareness for breast cancer, as well as other forms of cancer. Proceeds from this event are donated to the Susan G. Komen foundation. Green Tangerines is hosting our Scrap Pink, Scrap-a- licious event this weekend.

I was able to do the make n take with our croppers last night. I had so much fun!Meredith created this darling cupcake album that each attendee was able to create.

She even printed off a few yummy recipes for different kinds of cupcakes that fit inside the album. This girl is SO talented & SUPER sweet. Her mini album was a hit. Way to go Mer!
Meredith also created exclusive t-shirts with our scrap-a-licious logo on them. They turned out really cute, pink & all. After dinner, the ladies were treated to a cupcake bar for dessert. Everyone got to decorate their own treat. Talk about FUN!


While last night was very fun, it also served as a good reminder to help fight the fight when it comes to cancer. Today is my Mother in Laws birthday! She died 11 years ago. She found out, in (late)April of 2007 that she had Ovarian cancer & died 5short weeks later on June 1st 2007. With October being Breast cancer awareness month, I encourage each of you to do your monthly exams & go see your Dr. if something isn't right. Make this month, the month to focus on yourself. Make it the month to take care of YOU. We really are our own best advocates.I have an Aunt & a cousin (mother/daughter)who are breast cancer survivors. I am so glad they fought the fight & are still here today! Aunt Pam is one of those survivors and today is her birthday! I would like to wish her a very special Happy birthday!

We love you!
Have a pink-a-licious day!