That's my boy! Creative and Crazy. This year Zack really wanted to be a tissue box. Not too spooky, but funny and cute. We even made a little candy basket out of an empty tissue box... too bad the costume doesn't have any arm holes, I guess that means no candy for him. We are going to try to make Sofie and tissue box costume too. Maybe if it works we can get her to carry the candy basket.

I hope you all have a Happy Halloween.

The party house is now open

WOW!!!! WHAT A WEEKEND WE HAD!!!

The girls (MiKayla, BreiAnna and KeeAra) got to spend the weekend in Salt Lake City with Grammy and Papa at a motel. We had so much fun. We jumped on the beds, and ate popcorn in bed. We watched movies until 11:00 and slept in. We swam in the pools until it got late and we were water-logged. But, that was only the start. Aunt Debbie and Jason wanted to treat the girls to "Build A Bear" at the Gateway Mall. The pictures show them with Aunt Debbie and also at the fountains at the mall. We had fun with Aunt Denise making cookies with the cousins and playing outside and at the school. When we got bored with that we went to the movies and ate more popcorn. We went to the Spaghetti Factory, IHOP, and The Training Table to eat. We also went to a wedding Luau. I'm sure I've missed some things, but all in all we just had lots of fun and the girls spent lots of time with their cousins, Zacky, Emmalee, Ethan and Tylar. They were really good about sharing the back seat of the car with Tessie. We can't wait to do it again.

TESSIE AND THE PUMKIN PATCH

MiKayla, BrieAnna, KeeAra and Donavin, had lots of fun trying to keep Tessie inside their ring of pumkins. She didn't mind the attention, so she posed for the photo shoot. The kids all got to take a pumkin home to put on the porch.

THE NEW OFFICE

You've all heard about it, and now you can see it. You guessed it. It is our new office. A photo just doesn't do it justice. It really does have lots of room, especially compared to the old one. But, I think you can get the idea.

HANGIN WITH THE COUSIN'S!!

So what a fun, full, weekend we've had! Mikayla, Brieanna, and KeeAra came to visit with Grandma and Grandpa and we had ton's of fun! Swimming at the motel, decorating Halloween cookies, Build-a-Bear workshop and just plain hangin out and playing! (Thank heavens the weather held!)

We were glad to have time with everyone and missed those who were not here. It occured to me as I downloaded the pictures that it's not in the to distant future that they will all be grown up and sitting around looking at the pictures of all the many family activities we've done together over the years and laughing at themselves and talkin about "remember when".

So here are a few of the highlights we thought we'd share!

Love ya'all!!

This year I have had some pretty scary experiences with prehistoric spider-pedes and a Hobo spider infestation at Jason's house, but this one might top them all.

We spent the afternoon at Jason's family house in Pleasant Grove. As we were leaving I noticed something crawling in the middle of the road as we stopped at a stop sign.

(if you zoom in you can see it right in the middle of the road)



It was a big, ugly, creepy, hairy TARANTULA!!! Talk about arachnophobia!

Apparently, tarantulas are common in Pleasant Grove.

Giant spiders just walking down the street!?! It reminded me of the stories mom use to tell us about living in Texas....I wondered if I smashed it with a shovel if it would squeal.

Sadly, there was no spider smashing today, partially because I was too afraid to even get that close to it and because Zack really wanted to take it to school.

Jason caught the spider for us, which involved a lot of "girly" screaming from all of us. Then we had to drive 45 minutes home holding it. We considered putting it in the trunk but the thought of getting home, opening the trunk and finding an empty Tupperware bowl was even more terrifying than staring at its hairy fangs for the entire drive.

So now the spider is hanging out in a Tupperware bowl in Jason's kitchen until school tomorrow morning. It left me wondering how tarantulas find each other to mate, perhaps it gives off ferramones or a silent squeal to attract more of its kind...Luckily I don't have to sleep there tonight.

AWESOME DAY OFF TRACK!

Before the kids went back on track we spent a beautiful day at Liberty Park picnicing and playing in the water. It's one or our favorite things to do when they are off track. It occured to me, however, that this is probably the last year that the three of us will be able do this together since Ethan will be in Junior High next year and he'll be on a traditional schedule. These are some of my most favorite times with the kids. Tylar and I will have to press on in the tradition!

Just a little FYI for everyone: Tylar's bird Snowflake passed away earlier this week. It was a very difficult thing for her and she was very sad. (so was the mom!) She was brave though and we have since gotten a new bird whose name is Candy.

So this week Ethan ran for Class President! He had to write a speech and everything! We even put big words in it like "facilitate" and "integrity"! We also made handout's that were "SMILES" fruit snacks with a note attached that said "Vote for Ethan....he'll make you smile!" We thought this was pretty clever since he's somewhat known in his class for always smiling! Anyway, in the end one of the girls in his class won but picked him to be her Vice President. He is pretty excited about it!

HAIL TO THE CHIEF CUZ HE'S THE CHIEF AND HE NEEDS HAILING!!