The Big "3"

I put up a few balloons & streamers.

The Cake

Blowing out the candles.

Helping dad cut the cake.

Colorful cake. Lexi had a lot of fun helping me make this. I got the idea from my friend Tiff.

Enjoying the cake!

Kalin loves it too!

And Ethan!

So excited to open presents!

Playing with her new gifts.

I guess you'd say she's pretty happy about this gift.

She really had this crazy perma smile on her face the whole day!

*pics taken 11/12/09

Rock On!!

In October I went to my first Rock Band party and it was a lot of fun.

I'm kinda embarrassed about this picture, but whatcha gonna do?

Good times. Thanks for the invite Mary! I had a blast.

Let me know when you want to rock on again :)

*pics taken 10/23/09

Christmas Music

Click here to learn more about this awesome CD.

She performed one of her new Christmas songs at the TOFW and it was beautiful!

You can also download one of her songs for free by going here.

She's giving away her CD and I want to win it.

Fun Halloween Decor

Matthew and I had a couples game night the Friday before Halloween and we had a great time. We didn't play Halloween games, but we did play the Newlywed game with other "not so newlywed" couples. It was a lot of fun! These are just a few pictures of the decorations. When ever the party starts I forget to take pictures. Oh well!

*pics taken 10/30/09

Halloween 2009

First we had to have something healthy for dinner :)

Then the kids were off for trick-or-treating.

This was Lexi's first year. Can you tell how excited she is?!


I finally carved my pumpkin.

Our family of pumpkins.
Ethan did not want his carved this year, so it's just sitting there looking like a pumpkin :)

Always loved it when they're all lit up.

Pumpkin Carving Time

This is what we were busy doing Monday night!

There are still some uncarved pumpkins too.

*pics taken 10/26/09

Sit back, relax & watch a movie!

I just thought this was too cute, so I had to share.

I kinda want to watch my next movie sitting like this.

*pics taken 10/26/09

Spookfest 2009

Can you guess what Ethan is dressed up as?

Here's a hint: think weather

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Here's another hint: think swirling

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Stumped? Here's another hint:

This is Glinda the good witch of the South.

And here's Dorothy with her red ruby slippers & Toto.

Can't forget the bad witch and the cowardly lion.

Yup, if you guessed Tornado, you're right!

Lexi and Kalin decided on their costumes and informed me that I would be the bad witch. Lexi kept telling me that I was the bad witch and that I took Toto away.

Being the PTO treasure gives me the opportunity to help with the annual PTO Spookfest & it's always a lot of fun. I got to decorate the school all day and Matthew, being the AWESOMEST dad that he is, took the kids out to get all the finishing touches to their outfits.

He found the perfect ruby slippers, Toto & he made Ethan's costume.

This is Ethan playing a game of throw the spider at the spider web.
He has to be put into his costume from the top because the bottom is too small to fit over him. Matthew did a really good job putting this together last minute.

This is Kalin and Lexi playing limbo.

This year I made Kalin's costume and of course I waited until the last minute too! I had it all cut out at the begining of Oct, but I waited forever to actually sew it.

That's what I do best--procrastinate my projects until they need to be done :)

This is Dorothy trying to pin the nose on Frankenstein.

I love this picture of her trying to reach.

We got to hear from the volunteer college students all night long how cute they thought Dorothy was. We couldn't argue with that one!!

A few decorations in the school.

We had a lot of fun, but I'm always glad when spookfest is over and I get to go home and relax.

It sure is a lot of work and I'm not even in charge (thank goodness for that), but it's always worth it to see happy smiling children.

Isn't that what it's for anyway!

*pics taken 10/24/09

Cookie Overload!

As if the cookies weren't enough the first 3 times--I made more!! This must be some kind of medical condition called cookie overloaditis!

I had sugar cookie dough left in the fridge and I needed treats for our cub scout "scouting for food" extravaganza (not really, we just spent an hour or so with running boys passing out flyers to a million student apartments), so I decided to make these. They were a lot of fun and my kids loved how they looked like candy corns.

I can seriously smell them in my mind as I'm typing this. It really must be a condition! Oh yeah, that's not a condition, it's just the fact that I'm limiting my sweets intake! Bummer deal for trying to exercise and eat right. Good thing I have kids & a hubby to eat all these goodies!

*pics taken 10/20/09

Family Night Fun!

We didn't grow pumpkins this year so we decided to go buy some for FHE.

This is our pumpkin patch--Broulim's grocery store!

They have this little mini straw maze in the front of their store and there are pumpkins through-out. Of course the kids had to check out all the pumpkins before choosing theirs'.

This is Lexi's pumpkin. Of course she's happy to have the "little" one. She requested we find her a little one and Ethan found this one for her.

This is the one Kalin chose, but of course it was too heavy for her to carry.

You can barely see Ethan because it was pretty dark, but he's coming out of the maze.

For dessert we thought it would be fun to make donuts. The recipe I saw on http://www.bhg.com/ and wanted to try was Spiced Pumpkin Doughnuts.

It's okay if they're not so round going in the fryer, 'cause they puff up and then you're good.

Nothing like a little grease to end your day with!

Every thing's better covered in spiced sugar!!

Doesn't this close-up just make you want to lick the screen?

Mountain of temptation!!!

The biggest problem is I started working out and watching what I eat! This plate of donuts is calling my name and will be for the next few days, so I better put them in everyones' lunches!

*pics taken 10/19/09