A few more pictures from tonight

Here's a picture of Kayden and Malia at the Trunk-or-Treat tonight. Kayden is a cereal killer (thanks Debz!) and Malia is a pirate. The lighting in the church isn't the greatest (Malia's scarf on her head is cherry red in real life!)

I'm sure you have all been wondering what happened to Taisha and McKay's school pictures from this year (ya, I know... not really....) I got their pictures back last week, and they are both getting retakes next week. McKay looks like he's saying "What? Pictures? Who me?" And Taisha is smiling like her life depends on it! So we'll try it again.... this time I'll take McKay in the morning and smile coach him.

Halloween 2008

We got around to carving pumpkins last night. Malia carved the scarecrow, Taisha carved the "Help! I've fallen and can't get up!" pumpkin, and Kayden carved the mummy. McKay and Anaya helped get all the pumpkin guts out (McKay did it without touching them though...)

Taisha as Cleopatra this year.

Anaya was a princess again this year. (She loves the dress... but was bummed that she didn't have new princess shoes. All I can say is she better marry rich, because she LOVES shoes, jewelry and having her hair done!) (Whoa... look at The Wiggles rocking it out on the TV!)

And McKay wanted to be Harry Potter again this year. It only took me 9 tries to get his scar the way he wanted.... Here's how it went:
McKay: Mom, draw my scar on.
Me: (Grabs eye liner and draws on a scar.)
McKay: (Runs to mirror, looks, bursts into tears, comes back yelling at me to do it right.)
Me: (Gets wash cloth, scrubs off scar, draws a new scar as per McKay's drawing of how it should look).
McKay: (Runs to mirror, looks, bursts into tears, comes back yelling at me to do it right.)
Me: (Gets wash cloth, scrubs off scar, draws a new scar as per McKay's drawing of how it should look).
McKay: (Runs to mirror, looks, bursts into tears, comes back yelling at me to do it right.)
Me: (Gets wash cloth, scrubs off scar, draws a new scar as per McKay's drawing of how it should look).
This little routine was repeated 8 times. Finally on the 9th time, I clued in that he was looking in the mirror... so I needed to draw a MIRRORED image of his scar drawing. After that all was good. And thank heavens for that (McKay still tells me Rik draws it better than me, but it is ok).

Look at my awesome princess hair do (and yes, I did steal/borrow the neighbor's bow that she left here yesterday.... but look how cute!).


I helped with the party in Taisha's room this time (the elementary schools are out tomorrow for parent/teacher conferences... so Halloween parties were today). After thinking a while about what games I wanted to play (I started working on this last night about 10:30), I thought I would Halloween-ize some old baby shower games. So I put a bunch of Halloween objects in a black garbage bag (vampire teeth, small pumpkin, witch finger, snake, sucker, spider, small tombstone, etc;) and tied a knot in the top and they had to feel the objects through the garbage bag and figure out what was in there. Then they had to guess the weight and circumference of a pumpkin, and then I melted 6 different chocolate bars and they had to guess what kind of chocolate bar was all glopped up on the tray (they could smell, but not touch)...(Rik came home to change into temple clothes to take the youth to do baptisms, and ate the chocolate glops of yuck right off the tray....ew). At the very end I had them turn their paper over, put it on their forehead, and they had to draw a pumpkin, a bat, and a crescent moon.... or scribble... because that's what it looks like when you draw on a paper on your forehead.


The ward Trunk-or-Treat is tonight, and I'll probably get a couple pictures of the other two kids who might dress up as "youth who just got done doing baptisms for the dead."

Trim and doors were dropped off this afternoon, so I'm planning an all-night paint 'til it's done party! Fun! Carpet next week, and I'm moving kids down next weekend. Yippee!!

Anaya 2008

Here's Anaya's school picture for this year. Last Thursday I took her with me to run some errands. First we went to the car wash (mostly so it wouldn't be so embarrassing for the next errand). She loves the car wash. Then we went to Jiffy Lube to get the oil changed. They had free popcorn and a gumball machine. We got done at Jiffy Lube and were driving to McKay's school to help out and Anaya told me this was the best day ever! So I've decided to cancel the Disneyland trip next year, get some new furniture and then take the family to the car wash and Jiffy Lube! I might even splurge and let them all have a quarter for the gumball machine!

The basement is coming along. I'm almost done with the painting. I need to track down some doors and trim today. It is starting to look like real living spaces.... which is exciting! I'll try and get some pictures sometime.

Hmmm....What's that word?

The other morning (yellow day at preschool) Anaya was feeling hmmm... what's the word I'm looking for? I guess Anaya said it best herself: "Mom, dad is going to tell me I look CUTIELICIOUS!" Which he did, 'cause he's cool like that.




We did get some snow Saturday and Sunday. And true to my word, I'm not even going complain about the freezing cold icky stuff that has no right falling before all the leaves have fallen off the trees. In fact, I'm going to think positive (cause that's just how I am)... while my kids were outside breaking the Sabbath Day playing in the snow, I got one of the best naps I have ever had... so bring on the snow (just kidding... I really only want it to snow for the two weeks around Christmas, then I want summer back.) Oh, and did you see how fashionable that snowman was? I smell a Project Runway episode in the making (love that show...which is weird, cause I'm not all that into fashion. I'm doing good to get my clothes on the right way). Awww I'm going to miss PR after the season finale tomorrow night.

I know everyone is riveted with the basement progress so I'll give you a little update (holy smokes I'm so excited...) The texture is getting sprayed on tomorrow, and we should be able to get a coat of primer on after it dries. The carpet man came and measured for the carpet (which amazingly Rik and I both agree on!), we started shopping for doors and trim (all needs to be painted), and we went shopping for light fixtures (which we kind of mostly agree on...or not...) We have worked out what colors are going in all the rooms except for Kayden's room. I need to spend some time online looking at teen boys rooms. We have some ideas, but don't have anything really concrete decided, especially when it comes to paint. Any ideas? I'll try and get some pictures after we get some primer up (because I know how exciting that is for everyone!)

Kayden 2008

The school found Kayden's pictures (naturally, last week I took the time to call the school, the local photography office, and then the national office to track down his pictures, and they decided to send me some new pictures.... and NOW they find his pictures....)

All the sheet rock is up, and the sheet rock man is coming back tomorrow to start mudding the place! I had to use all my self-control so I wouldn't keep running downstairs to see how much was done every five minutes while he was working today. I'm pretty sure I would have driven him crazy squealing with joy every few minutes... so I had to leave the house most of the afternoon. That was ok too, except that when I left the house it was kind of warm (like capris and t-shirt weather), and when I came home it was long pants and sweater weather. It got cold and windy just all of a sudden.... might even be snow by the end of the week (but I won't even care because I might be PAINTING!!) (Well maybe I'll complain just a little bit...)

Free Tomatoes For Sale!!

Oh good grief.... what am I going to do with all these tomatoes?! Please come get some, like 20. Thank you.


Malia brought home her volleyball pictures today (she is still really missing VB, and can hardly wait for club ball to start up.)

Conference weekend was nice! Here in Idaho you can find Conference on several TV channels, and one channel was like 2 seconds ahead of the other channel, so the kids decided they better go with that one, so it would be over sooner.... nice.

I can hardly sit still, I'm so excited! The sheet rock man is coming tomorrow, and in about a week, I should be ready for paint!! Did you hear me?! I said PAINT!! Then it's carpet and a few odds and ends (if I'm patient....) and then I am moving kids around. I have butterflies in my stomach I'm so excited!! Rik worked all weekend getting it ready for sheet rock. He's been so swamped these days, so we decided we better hire someone to get us a little closer to being finished (that and I think Rik likes me better sane....good call). I'll keep you posted!

A Few Good Men

Just a quick picture post. No school here Thursday or Friday! Yippee!