Happy Halloween

 Today was the children's Primary program.  They did great!  Howie and Erin had their parts memorized and Howie even sang along to the songs.  He usually never does.  Erin always does.  I wish I could have taken pictures in the chapel,  Jack was just too adorable!  I love Sunbeams, they're the cutest!

Erin posing in her Halloween dress I made for her.  

The neck ended up being a little wide for her, so I'll pay more attention to that next time I sew a dress for her.  

I LOVE her boots.  She originally was going to be a pirate for Halloween, so I bought her some nice boots to go along with the costume we already had.  I love the boots so much,  I've ended up buying her, like 4 outfits, just to match the boots!

Trick-or-Treat...Smell My Feet...

On Saturday night we went trick-or-treating as a family in our neighborhood.  About an hour before we left, our whole neighborhood lost power.  That was fine, until it got dark.  Luckily I had a super powerful military flashlight of Howard's that I was able to use.  Probably the last 15 minutes of being out the power finally came on (by that I mean street lights!)  We were so glad because we had a Charlie Brown show we intended on watching when we got home.

I made Howie's Grim Reaper costume (super easy, and only 99 cents a yard).

Erin's was recycled from last year (her wishes).

Jack was a dinosaur (surprise surprise).

Luke was Jack's Batman costume from 2 years ago that he never wore because Jack had issues with dressing up when he was 2.

He was so serious the whole night, I don't know what his problem was. And yes, I know he's in desperate need of a hair cut!

Jackasaurus walked the whole time, I'm so proud of him.

Erin got to wear some makeup tonight!  I love it when I have an excuse to put makeup on her.  Her eye lashes are to die for when she wears mascara!

Howie became very annoying with his scythe!  I eventually had to take it away from him; it was driving me nuts!

The Mommy

 I'm feeling a bit vein today and thought I'd post a picture of myself.  I do of the kids all the time, why not me?  Howie was my photographer, he's doing pretty well!

Our Beautiful Sweet Pea

Per Howard's request, here is a little sampling of Erin's many faces. She loves the camera! How did I get so lucky to have such a beautiful daughter?

Happy Birthday Jackasaurus

My dino- child is now 4! He's a crack up and we're so thankful he's in our family! There's never a dull moment when Jack's around. In case you didn't know, he loves anything and everything dinosaur related!

I know this is blurry, but I LOVE his expression in this photo. It's Jack's personality shining through! Later in the day he received a birthday card from my mom in the mail and took all the stickers out that she send and put it on his new scooter. He LOVED the stickers!

Jack also LOVES puzzles, especially dinosaur puzzles. He got started right away. His were small and simple, the large 1000 piece puzzle is what the older kids and I are currently working on. Hopefully it will be done and put away before Howard gets home.

Like his Lego T-Rex? I had to put it together for him. He took it apart later in the evening...an hour of my time crumbled to pieces in a matter of seconds!

He tried to blow his candle out about 4 times, but for some reason he just couldn't do it. Erin eventually did it for him. He's been super sick the past few days and he slept most of his birthday. I felt so bad for him. He posed for the pictures and that's about it. I think he only took one bite of his cake.

Wet Weekend

Autumn is HERE!

Excited for Halloween because it's that much closer to Howard coming home.

Beautiful colors in our yard...

Let's get to the point of what this post is all about...

This is what happened when...

The kids had no school on Friday,

We wore our pajama's ALL day,

It rained on Friday & Saturday,

Jack was sick (he still is!),

and I spent the whole time sewing (or tending to the kids).

Using their imagination with Tupperware...oh what a mess!

My temporary sewing corner and disastrous room.

It's NOT normally like this, only when I do projects or am laid up in bed for a week from surgery.

The kids sure had a fun time building "cushion forts" as they like to call it.

I know, it's pathetic.

BUT, on the bright side, my house has once again been restored to order (mostly), but I didn't take pictures of that. You can look at older posts if you forgot what it looks like clean.

Now to the finished products...TA-DA!

Erin's dress for Sunday, the 31st.

She has some super cute black shiny boots she will be wearing with it. I love it! Also, my sewing skillz have greatly improved because I didn't care for the sleeves that came with the pattern, so I made my own cap sleeves to go with it and they turned out great!

I also added the rick-rack, because I love it so much and had extra from my apron.

This dress was an "easy" 1 hour pattern, but it took me longer than that, since I'm still a beginner.

Here's my skirt I'll be wearing that Sunday. I have a simple black t-shirt that will go well with it! My fabric is the same as Erin's, except the webs are obviously colored in.

Detail of the pleats and pattern.

I also sewed Howie's Grim Reaper costume, but it's just a boring black hooded cape, sorry no pictures.

Sew Cute!

I've been wanting a new apron for many years. It has been on my Christmas list every year, but Santa never brings it. :( I've been using Howard's grocery store apron (when he worked there when he was 21) since I met him. I finally broke down and made one! I worked REALLY hard (sewing is in my family's blood, but I personally don't enjoy it.) I am so proud of myself and I love how it turned out. There are definitely imperfections, but I'm not about to point them out.

After many, many attempts at a self portrait, I finally agreed to let the boys in the shot. They kept running into the frame and messing it up.

The front side

The back side

Oh how I love rick-rack!

Ponies, Pigs, and Kids!

Last Friday we went to the Orr Family Farm. It's only 1 mile north of our home and a no brainer to go there for fall activities. It's got everything! Including the BEST kettle Corn EVER! We bought 2 large bags and it was all gone in less than 2 days. YUM!

Aside from being so unbelievably close to our house (if there were sidewalks we would have walked!), it's also owned by our Bishop's father. The Bishop's daughters work there (they're also our babysitters). It was fun running into so many ward members since that doesn't happen very often here living in the "Bible Belt".

Luke's first pony ride.

Don't worry, I held onto him the whole time (except when I took the photo).

We love little piglets!

Luke loved all the animals so much!

My personal favorite, the milking cow.

Howie loved this.

He played on one in Wisconsin too. I love the view behind him.

Howie is the BEST big brother!

Everyone enjoyed the jumping pillows!

I think Erin enjoyed it the most.

I didn't have any quarters, so Howie and Erin decided to take turns pulling it around for each other. Luke didn't even know the difference and the ride lasted a lot longer than a quarter would!

Howie is not dripping sweat, he poured water on his head to cool himself off.

A special phone call from Daddy while we were there. :)

Some Great Pictures!

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Whatcha lookin' at?

He gets his nose from his father's side.

Could you imagine a belch coming out of that mouth?

When I went in for my leg surgery I also asked for a nose job...you like?

Third Time's the Charm!

In between General Conference sessions (and my nap) Erin was playing on the couch and rolled off onto her elbow. She hit it really hard! She woke me up in tears and after 30 minutes of Motrin and ice she was still bawling. I decided to end our pajama day and take her to the E.R. She thought it was broken and since we've been through this before (#1 & #2), I trusted her. The x-ray didn't show a fracture, but because of her symptoms and pain level the doc said that we need to treat it as such. Especially since small fractures don't always show up right away in small children, it may take a few days for it to show up on the x-ray. We have to go in for a follow up on base in a few days to see if it's really broken or not.

(I just noticed when I was looking at last year's picture of her broken arm,

she is wearing the EXACT same pajamas! How funny!)

On a positive note, today was the first time I left the house since my surgery. I feel remarkably better than even yesterday and today was also the first day that I didn't take my Tylenol-3, which meant that I could drive. Also, the E.R. was EMPTY! We were the only one's there, so that meant we were in and out fast! What a good day.

On a sad note, my sister's good friend lost her 2 day old baby, Eli, today.

Please pray for Eli's family!

He was born with some medical problems that were not diagnosed during pregnancy, so this comes as a complete shock to their little family.

General Conference

It's General Conference weekend, and with Howard gone and myself still recovering from surgery we're staying home and camping out in front of the computer. For those of you who don't know what it is, you can click here to find out more info.

Yes, I drug my children to get through Conference...

I drug them with candy. It keeps them really quiet!

We also enjoyed a pajama day (until we had to take the trip to to E.R.).

I was very impressed with Howie. He wasn't just quiet, he actually listened to most of the talks. We even talked about some of them! It's finally sinking in, yeah!