A Really Cute Halloween Treat!

My friend and I got together the other day and made up some goodies for the kids teachers. They were so easy and I thought they turned out really cute.

Here's Emma headed off to preschool with her teacher treat.

Hope you all have a great Halloween!

Who Knew??

Our kids always beg to make those teeny tiny baby pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns.

We always say "no, they are too small."

This year, the kids didn't really ask, they just grabbed a few carving tools and began working away while dad was busy working on the family pumpkin.

Who knew? They discovered that those teeny tiny pumpkins still have guts and teeny tiny seeds. Those cheep pumpkin carving tools that don't really hold up when you are carving a normal sized pumpkin work great for these minatures. Hunter had the idea to make a hole in the back side so a birthday candle could be stuck in his jack-o-lantern. Brilliant!

Emma felt that she needed to use a baby spoon.

It totally worked!

and here's the scary family pumpkin.

Austin didn't contribute much to the pumpkin carving, but I thought this picture was cute anyway. He's getting so big.

Now, we are officially ready for Halloween. Come on over!

Rain, Rain, Rain!

This weekend it rained... lots!

I don't mind the rain. Living in Seattle, you get used to it. When I first moved here, someone told me that you should always keep an umbrella with you because if it's not raining when you leave, it will be by the time you come home.

This weekend was definitely one where you wouldn't want to be caught without an umbrella.

I volunteered to be a chaperon for Hunter's class field trip on Friday. Waking up to gray clouds and rain wasn't ideal for me, but the kids sure thought it was great!

What kid doesn't like mud? I felt really bad for the kids who didn't have rain boots.

This farm was really cute. The kids learned about apples and got to make apple cider,

dig for worms,

dig for potatoes,

bale hay,

feed chickens and search for eggs (they weren't real),

and make butter.

Saturday Linsey and Hunter had soccer games. We invited Grandma and Grandpa to come and watch. I warned them to bring their umbrellas, but we were all a bit surprised by the downpour.

You can see how muddy the field was. There was standing water and lightening so they ended up having to cancel Hunter's game halfway through.

We waited around to see if Linsey would play, but after a half hour of continual hard rain, they called her game off as well.

It was quite adventurous but we were glad to come home to a warm house where we could relax, eat good food, and watch a BYU football game.

The rain has gone away, but I'm sure it will come again some other day.

Out of Commission

Jared loves to play football. His favorite way to start a Saturday morning is to meet up with a group of guys down at the park to play football. I love it too because he comes home so happy, he really does love it.

Soccer season creates a few conflicts with Jared's preferred Saturday morning activity, but he does pretty good not to complain and helps me run the kids to and from their games, many of which are at the same time.

Every Saturday morning in September was spent at soccer games, so you can imagine Jared's excitement when he realized that this Saturday, both of the kids games were in the afternoon. When he looked at the calendar and realized his good fortune, he let out a Woo Hooo!

Usually when he races out the door, my last words are don't get hurt. Today I let it go, thinking it probably gets rather annoying for him to always hear me say that.

I packed all the kids up to go down to the park for Linsey's soccer pictures. They were a little bit behind and it took a lot longer than I expected. Hunter had his pictures an hour later at the same park. I was wishing I had come better prepared so we could stay realizing we wouldn't have a whole lot of time to go home before we had to be back for his pictures. Then I realized we would have to leave straight from his soccer pictures to our 2 afternoon games. And why didn't I bring the stroller... my arm was killing me. Someone told me soccer pictures only take 5 minutes. The morning wasn't off to a great start.

We were in a mad rush leaving from getting Hunter's soccer pictures taken to get clear across town in time for his game when Jared called. He tells me that he sprained his ankle and is feeling pretty miserable. He wasn't going anywhere. I knew he felt bad, and honestly, I felt bad for him, but I was also really not looking forward to managing the rest of our soccer Saturday on my own. It's lots of chaos... fun chaos ... but definitely more fun when he's with us. Darn. I wished him well and headed off for the rest of the day, didn't get home til 4:00. Jared was laid out on the couch. His friend had brought him over some crutches so he was able to hobble around and get some food and change his ice packs occasionally. Definitely out of commission. Poor guy.

After a bit of relaxing, I fixed the family some dinner and was busily trying to clean up while barking orders to the kids to shower and get ready for bed. Jared, being the amazing dad that he is, tried to think of ways he could help me even in his wounded state. His ankle was swollen and he was in a lot of pain, but he offered to bathe Austin and get him ready for bed if I would bring him up the stairs. I hesitated, not sure if he could really do it, but he assured me that he could sit on his knees and lean over the tub, then sit on the floor and get him dressed. Feeling exhausted and grateful for the help, I brought Austin up and got Jared a diaper and pajamas for him and then headed back to finish cleaning up dinner.

After a while I could hear that it was quiet, I was surprised to come upstairs and see that Austin was in his crib and asleep already. I was waiting for Jared to holler that he was done getting him ready for bed so that I could come and get him. I wondered how he had gotten Austin from our bathroom all the way down the hall and up into his crib. He snickered a little when I questioned him and finally admitted that he crawled down the hallway while dragging Austin on a towel and then picked him up by his jammies and hoisted him into his crib. Really...

I wish I could have walked up the stairs in time to catch a quick picture of that.

This will have to do.

Jared is such a great dad. He is always so helpful with the kids, even when he has an excuse to lay on the couch and do nothing, he finds a way to help out. My kids are so lucky, and I am even luckier. Hopefully that sprain will heal quickly and he can get back to playing football.