Happy Halloween

Jeff, Maddie, and I dressed up for the Young Men/Young Women Stake Halloween dance.


Maddie was supposed to be an "ugly stepsister" to Cinderella, but we told her she might as well be a princess...


She was too "pretty" to be "ugly"...


Mom was her old standby--a witch. SHE's not too pretty to be ugly! (Love that green lipstick and eye shadow...)


Dad wore an old costume of Amy's and became "Bilbo Baggins."


Maddie, Ally, and I carved pumpkins.


Maddie transformed her painted kitty from last week's Young Women activity...


Into a carved kitty...


Ally worked for an hour to carve a really cool "Edward and Bella" from Twilight. Can you believe I got so busy I didn't get a picture of it??? (Or my cute Mickey Mouse?) Her pumpkin got a LOT of comment during trick-or-treat. Everyone loved it!


We had lots of cute visitors. Ally dressed as Maleficent to go trick-or-treating with Sidney- Sleeping-Beauty.

Doesn't Ally make a cute witch? She doesn't look "ever-il" (another Sydney-ism) either!

Susan, Brian, "G-Eyed Joe," and a "giraffe with big bu** cheeks" came to visit. (That's how she described it every time anyone asked Aubrey what they were going to be for Halloween!)


Our little friend, Macie the dragon came to get a treat.

We made taco soup, root beer floats, and spiced apple cider, handed out lots of treats, got to visit with Grandma D. and her sister, Aunt Arline (more on that later!) and had a good old time. Happy Halloween!

Happy birthday, Amy!

Our sweet daughter Amy is 21 today! Maddie and I decided on the spur of the moment to drive up to Utah and crash her birthday lunch with Grandma S., Abby, Manda, and little Abram. (Thanks, Grandma! It was delish!)


We had Marie Callender Chocolate Satin pie (and spumoni ice cream...groan, SO FULL!) for birthday dessert.

Maddie and I then spent the night at Uncle Dave and Aunt Karen's and had a nice visit with them and Stephen and Jacob.


Stephen dressed for Halloween at BYU.

Found Cat!

Guess who was waiting on our porch last night when we got home from the pumpkin patch with the grandkids??? We didn't see him, but luckily David and Ally stopped by and Ally discovered him! He was gone exactly six days. Who knows what stories he could tell us? He's a little skinnier and really needed a bath, but otherwise he seems to be fine.

Welcome home, Charlie.

The Pumpkin Patch

In all my fall scrapbook magazines there are always cute photos "in the pumpkin patch." Since we live basically, in the city, and literally, in the DESERT, we have to take our photos in the commercial "patch." Boy, did we have fun doing it!


Tyler and Aubrey rode the ponies...


...and the pony lady laughed. There were three cameras outside the pony fence recording the ride. She said Tyler and Aubrey had their own paparazzi!


They petted some goats...


...slid down a LARGE slide...


....rode on some rides...


and sat on some more pumpkins!

It was a perfect activity for them and they begged to go again the rest of the week! What a fun FHE night!

Lost Cat

CHARLIE

LARGE ORANGE TABBY, VERY FRIENDLY.
HE MAY HAVE ADOPTED YOU BUT HE
HAS A FAMILY WHO MISSES HIM!!
LAST SEEN WEARING BLUE AND BROWN
COLLAR WITH PURPLE HEART-SHAPED
NAMETAG AND SILVER RABIES
VACCINATION TAG.

PLEASE CALL *** WITH ANY
INFORMATION

This is the flyer Jeff and Maddie put up all over town today. If you know us and you see him, give us a call. Animal Control, our family members, and Miss Amy are looking too.

Come home, Charlie.

Spoooky...

Ever hear the expression "all moms are clairvoyant?" (If not, talk to my granddaughter, Julie, about the monologue she was learning for Storytelling Festival.)


This morning Maddie came down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Do you know what is a funny book, Mom?" she asked.

"The Princess Bride?" I answered.

"That one, too," she said.

"Fudge-a-mania?" I asked.


She started laughing. "Yes." she said, "That is EXACTLY the book I was thinking of!!"

We couldn't stop laughing.

Spoooooky...

Okay, Pity me!

I know it's tough. But I've got to go. It's only for a short trip. I don't even really want to go. (Ha!) But. It must be done. Gotta help my friend Vicki celebrate her birthday tomorrow.

Try not to pity me.

A Bad Mother

Tyler and Aubrey were at our house Monday evening and I gave them a “Scripture Stories” page to color while we read from the Book of Mormon. Amy looked at the pages and said, (paraphrased, as I remember it) “Ah, I remember these. One time you gave me one of these to color and I colored all the pictures the same color. I started out pretty neatly, but realized that it was going to take me forever, so I kind of scribbled the rest. When I was done, you told me you were disappointed in me, because you thought I would do a better job. I was so sad and shocked, because I had always thought no matter what I did you would think it was wonderful.”


Jeff and I had just been talking earlier in the day about “at what point little children had to learn the world was a cold, cruel place and that their parents were not perfect.” The realization that I would not always think everything she did was wonderful was apparently Amy’s “Aha! moment.” I felt so terrible when she told me. I had never known that for all these years. The funny part about it was that when I was getting the Scripture Stories out for Tyler and Aubrey, there were a few in the folder that were colored.

I pulled this one out, showed it to Amy and smiled. She said, “THAT was it! That was the ONE!” Too funny. But kind of sad, too. It made me feel like a “bad mother.”

Happy Birthdays

Time flies by so fast. Jeff and I celebrated my, his, and his mom's birthdays over the past two weeks. Can you guess what we did???


Bet you didn't guess this one! Jeff and I went to see our friends' daughter Rhiannon in the Broadway touring production of "Legally Blonde" at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, California. It was SO MUCH FUN to watch. So entertaining. Not entirely appropriate for all ages, but SO much fun! Rhiannon got our tickets for us and we were in the fourth row, dead center. Perfect seats! We went to the stage door afterward and talked to Rhiannon. She is such a cutie. She's signed on for another year and obviously loves what she is doing.


Then of course there was that 20 mile bike ride at the beach the next day. We could not have asked for a more perfect day. It was sunny, warm, clear, and beautiful. The water was cool, but fine after the initial dunking. The waves were fun; there were surfers there all day, which is actually fairly unusual. It was a great day.


The next week, Jeff, his mom, and his sister went to Anaheim to take advantage of "Disneyland Free on your Birthday!" Jeff's day was Thursday, his mom's was Saturday, so it worked out great.


Jeff worked on Maddie and me and she agreed to miss a day of school and another of dance. So we joined them for the beach on Friday.


It would have been too much to hope for another perfect day, but it was fun nonetheless. It was FOGGY all day, which is also unusual since the fog has generally burned off by 10 or 11 am. But, Jeff, Maddie, and I went in the water anyway and Maddie went out farther than she ever has before. She even boogie-boarded a little. She and I actually got out a little far. Good thing Jeff saw us and Maddie had a board. I was a little worried about swimming back in that far, as I didn't seem to be making progress equal to the effort I was putting in. But, I finally found the bottom and all was well!


Saturday we hit Disneyland again and had a great time. I never want to go on Saturday because of the crowds, but summer is over and we ARE in a recession, so it really was pretty good. Jeff's sister, Joy, is the "Fastpass Master" ("Mistress?") so we literally never waited on a ride more than ten minutes. At the most! It was a lot of fun.


California Adventure was all decorated for Halloween as well, (See Maddie under the Golden Gate Bridge?) and we had a great time there too. It took Maddie and me three days to recover from the "fast-walking" pace of Mom, Jeff, and Joy...but IT WAS WORTH IT. What a fun, fun two weekends.



Now we are back to real life. No work, no money, no insurance, no bonding. I'm even applying for a job! But hey, if you're going to go down, I say, you might as well go down in a blaze of glory first!


(Actually we have had several calls with job leads and I'm hoping this means things are starting to pick up a little...)