Happy Halloween!!!

Don't get too wild with the candy!!!!

Guess Who???

I told you all Chad was an amazing pumpkin carver :)

Now it's mom and dads turn!!!

I am so impatient, when it comes to things like, poking holes through a pumpkin carving stencil after I just gutted and scraped the insides out and then have to carve the dang thing after the stenciling...ya right!!! So not for me!!! I will leave that to Chad...BUT it definitely shows in the results :) I freehanded my spider and he took the time to make an amazing creation!!! We couldn't quite keep the kids busy enough...Alyssa kept sneaking over for a stab at the pumpkins!!!

love this picture...you can see Austin looking at the pumpkins. SO cute!!!

Chad's pumpkin pic coming soon!!!

Pumpkin guts...eeewwww!!!

Halloween wouldn't be complete for our family without some pumpkin carving!!! Chad is an amazing pumpkin carver and is still at work so he won't start his tonight, and I will make my meek attempt at pretending I know what I am doing and still end up with the triangle eyes and nose and 3 tooth mouth...it's a classic!

I wanted to carve the kids pumpkins before their after dinner grumpiness set in, and I am glad that I did. They are older now and thought they should be able to do the actual carving themselves, so I let them draw the faces and let them dig out the inside, the best they could, and let Austin do a little sawing and I let Alyssa have her hand on top of mine while I did the carving :) They were so curious about the pumpkin guts!!! Asking all about it, and wondering why it smelled funny, and if we can eat the seeds etc... so cute!! They were thrilled when they were able to see their pumpkins all lit up!!!

Pumpkin face!!!

pumpkin head!!!

so proud!!

Haylie's pumpkin

Abby's Pumpkin

Austin's pumpkin I carved this using his drawing as the pattern

Alyssa's Pumpkin

Happy Halloween

What kid (or adult) DOESN'T like this....

We have the biggest tree in our backyard that has more leaves than any other tree in the whole wide world...at least that is how it feels when your the one raking them up!!! Luckily, because of all the leaves we can make an awesome leaf pile, perfect for jumping!!!

Wait where is Alyssa?

there she is!!! Daddy just buried her under the leaves!!!

the four musketeers!!! just relaxing in the leaves on a nice fall day ;)

Austin

Alyssa

Haylie

Abby

Spooky Dance Party

Alyssa has been looking forward to this day all month!!!! Her Halloween party at her dance class!! She got to bring a little treat for everyone in her class, we made Ghost suckers that looked a little like this...

But her favorite part was being able to wear her costume to class!!! Her little cousin Haylie is in her class too so they were very excited to be in costume !!! Here is our very cute witch with her black cat :)

First day of snow...xplain

7:02 am I went into Austin's room to get him up for school. He sleeps on the top bunk of the bunk beds. He sits up in bed if he hears me come in, and when he hasn't gotten enough sleep he will sit up and then scoot the furthest away from the edge of the bed making it hard for me to get him! Well this morning was one of those days but then I whispered "Austin, it's snowing" he popped right up and went to look out the window, he was so excited!!! When the time to pick Austin up from school the snow had all melted and there wasn't any snow on the ground. I knew he would be upset...luckily on our way home there was a little mini blizzard and there were a few inches on the ground...Alyssa was just as excited and wanted to go play too!!! They quickly ate their lunch and headed outside!!! They made snow angels and at some snow too!!! "but not the dirty kind" Alyssa said....I of course was the one that made them come inside, they love it out there!!! Now the snow is starting to melt once again...they act like I am making it happen...Alyssa is in her room crying about it right now, I know she is just tired, but why do I feel bad about something I can't control??? Austin was okay with it once I explained to him that it's a good thing that it's melting now, so he can show off his costume on Halloween...wish me luck I am going to try to explain it to Alyssa....

Here I am...

You know when you decide okay, today is the day that I am going to start writing in my journal and I am going to write every night and nothing is going to stop me, and then your next entries are saying "sorry it's been so long" or " from now on I am writing every night" and then this vicious cycle keeps going round and round? Well I am not going to make apologies or make empty promises that I don't know if I can keep, all I will say is I will try to do better at keeping this blog afloat!

My kids are getting so excited for Halloween! Austin mostly. He has a strange confidence that comes with dressing up, especially since this year he has a mask! He is going as a glow in the dark Skeleton, and Alyssa is going as a witch, a cute witch! We got BOO'd the other night. Not the bad kind where people shout BOOOO! BOOOO! at you, but the kind where a secret person comes to your home and leaves a little treat on your porch, with a cute little poem, that goes something like this:

BOO

The air is cool, the season full

soon Halloween will come to us all

The spooks are after things to do

in fact, a spook brought this to you

"BOO" is the shield, from spooking hour

just hang it up and watch it's power

on your front door is where it works

it wards off spooks and scary jerks

the treats that came with crypted note

are yours to keep enjoy them both

The power comes when friends like you

will copy this note and make it two

then others here along our street

will say howdy do to all they meet

we'll all have a smile upon our face

no one will know who "BOO'ed" whose place

just one short day to work your spell

or a big zap will strike your fail

and don't forget a nifty treat

like something cute or something sweet

please join the fun lets really hear it

spread some "BOO's" and Halloween Spirit!

So we got our BOO and Austin was so excited to go, since we went last year, but this time he wanted to wear his costume and hide at the door and scare the people!!! I told him you weren't supposed to be seen and that you were supposed to run away and he was set on staying at the door to scare the people. Anyone that knows Austin knows that he would NEVER do this, he is reserved and doesn't like to be center of attention. So we knocked on the door with the kids in their costumes and we ran, and Austin stood there ready to scare his unsuspecting victims, but when the rest of us ran he went from their porch to hiding behind their lamp post, to running away with us...he was so grumpy that we didn't stay and let him scare our neighbors!! I told him he will have to wait until Halloween... BUT he can't wait so, here and there throughout October he would put his costume on and hide around the house and jump out and scare us!!! He gets a kick out of it!!!!

Don't be scared, here he is!!!!!........

He is such a teaser like his daddy and is going to scare someone!!!!

ringing the doorbell....
waiting.....
RAAAAARRRR!!!! Judging by the look on dad's face I think he scared him!!!!!

Alyssa wanted to show off her costume too! Her face is red and blotchy from the tantrum she was throwing, I don't even remeber why...I got her to stop by saying I would take her picture in her costume...she is becoming quite the HAM!!! Thank goodness, I have been deprived of taking my kids pictures (cooperatively) for about a year!!!!

8 years ago today...

My husband proposed to me on this very bench...
My sentimental husband came up with the great idea to have our family pictures taken here this year...it didn't go just as had planned, BUT they will be special to us!!! (pictures to come)