Happy Halloween

Today we had a wonderful Halloween day, especially because the weather was absolutely awesome!!  I love that :)  We started the morning by playing volleyball at the church, then we took the kids to their "Fall Frolic" at their school.  They had lots of fun games, scarecrow races, cupcake walk, "brain eating" and pumpkin tossing and finding gummy worms in whip cream.  The kids had a great time.

Afterwards we took them out to lunch at Outback.  It was awesome because they all ate free.  I love FREE!!!  We went with some friends and had a marvelous time.  Then it was off to houses.  I got to stay at home and hand out candy (I love letting Sam take the kids to the houses).  Here are the kids costumes:

Luke is a dog and Seth a pirate, my two handsome boys :)

Kathryn was a witch and Sarah was Jesse (from Toy Story).

Sam was the "Big Bad Wolf".  I don't have a picture of me but last night was our Ward Halloween Party and I went as Little Red Riding Hood, so hence the wolf.  I was proud of my homemade costume for Sam.  My sister gave me the idea and with a few tweaks from my friend Erica I got it put together.

Everyone ready to go!

The Farm Girl Giveaway

Check out my first ever giveaway on my recipe blog.  I think you'll like it :)

Pumkin Carving

Last night for Family Night we had our annual pumkin carving festival (doesn't that sound cool, it's just really eating dinner with some friends and then carving pumkins after).  This year we did a boy pumpkin and a girl pumpkin.  Too much work for every one to have their own pumpkins.

Luke did not want to help at all.  He just wanted to run around and be crazy, you know his usual self.

Here are the final product.  Seth chose to have a spider, he marked all the lines and Sam and I cut them out.  I think it turned out really well.  The girls pumpkin is on the right.  Sarah drew the face (it's suppose to be a cat face) and I cut it out for her.  We had a great time with friends and the kids loved the pumpkins.  We made Lettuce Wraps for dinner and they were so good.  I will put the recipe up on my blog soon.

I had to throw this in just for kicks.  This is what Kathryn came out wearing this morning.  She has always had an interesting sense of fashion and it's one battle I try not to fight.  This morning even Luke noticed.  It was so funny.  He walked into her room and said: "Kaka (that's what he calls her) what that?" as he is pointing to her pants.  He keeps pointing, and she is just getting madder and what so anything, so then he says, "take off Kaka, take off" again pointing to her pants.  I was trying so hard not to laugh because it does look quite ridiculous.  I asked her why she picked this outfit and she said that she really wanted to wear shorts but it was too cold outside so she put pants underneath.  Okay, anyway...

So so so CUTE!!!!

I don't know if you have ever checked out Jill's site, but she posted a felt playhouse that is absolutely awesome.  You can click here (okay really on her name) or on the button on the side.

What we've been doing lately...

All week we have tried to really go nowhere, especially with all the sickness going around.  The kids had had enough so one night we took them to the Corn Maze.  They had a great time.  The maze isn't too big or difficult so we just let them wander around and choose the paths and they love that.

We also have had lots of fun playing in the leaves.  As soon as we get them cleaned up, a wind storm comes and the yard is covered.  Luke thinks it's awesome to wreck the piles.

I went to the store tonight and when I got back this is what I found downstairs.  They were having a great time watching The Incredibles, it's so good to hear them laughing and enjoying being together.

Coats and Playing

Yesterday, Grandma stopped on her way through for a short visit and brought the girls and surprise.  She made these coats for them and they absolutely love them.  They are so cute and both of them just wanted to go outside immediately and play in the leaves.

Below, Kathryn loves to dress Luke up and have him dance with her.  They put on a CD and make up all sorts of dances, it is so fun to watch, especially because they love playing together.

Luke

Man I love this little boy, but he sure does try my patience. Last week was one of those weeks and I'm sure glad that it is over.  Luke loves to get into things especially if he knows I am doing something else.  Water running, blinds pulled out of windows, water all over the kitchen, cereal spilled, trying to get outside to run away, unrolling all the wrapping paper (you know the Costco size) and to cap off the week, a very naughty thing.  Last Friday, the very long, long day well to cap the long evening off we had already promised to watch our friends 2 kids and our neighbors ended up coming over for dinner (Sam was an absolute saint, he made dinner for all 12 of us and even cleaned it because I was tired all I did was sit on the couch).  Anyway, Luke, Abby and Gage go downstairs.  Up until this point they had been really good, Gage and Luke get very destructive when they are together.  I hear a toilet lid go up and figure they are up to no good.  As I head downstairs I hear jars breaking.  I was absolutely LIVID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I don't think Sam has even heard me so angry.  Abby and Luke were taking my canned pears off the shelf and throwing them on the cement floor.  I lost it and spanked both of them, put them in the family room, all the time saying "NO, NO, NO!! "  Of course after the yelling Sam and Abby's mom came rushing down the stairs to see what the heck was going on.  I promptly took Luke to his room and locked him in.  One of those times that to be a good mom he had to go to his room for awhile.  We got everything cleaned up and then I went and talked to him.  He knew he had done a bad thing and told me he would never throw mommy's jars again.  By that time I had had enough and thanks to Sam again, he put all the kids to bed and I read my book the rest of the night.  Thank heavens that I love this little boy so much because otheriwse he would be up for sale!!!!!

Yummy!

I have been searching for grapes for a long time.  I finally found a friend's mom who didn't want hers, then when we checked them out someone or something had eaten all of them.  So sad :(!  Then last Wednesday another friend called and said that she had too many grapes and wanted to know if I wanted them so I made this.  Grape juice is Sam's favorite so now we have 30 quarts.

P.S.  I am so tired of canning.  I love how it looks on my shelf but after doing 106 quarts today of applesauce (no they are not all for me, I helped three other friends so we did it all together today).  We started at 8 this morning I finally got to sit down at 4:58pm!!!  Needless to say, I called Sam and told him if anyone wanted dinner at our house I wasn't going to make it!!!!!!!!  I plan to sit on the couch and not get up for the rest of the night :)

Snow in October

This showed up at our house on last Sunday.  The kids thought it was great, but I am not ready for fall to be over with yet.  Thank heavens it melted by the next day :)

Pumpkin Picking

Enjoy some pictures from our pumpkin foray.  We had a great time!

Soccer Season

Seth and Sarah played soccer this year.  Sam got to be Seth's coach and had a lot of fun doing that.  They are both pretty non-aggressive and didn't really go after the ball at first, but by the end of the season they were both doing much better.  I think it is so funny that we spend most of their childhood telling them not to take things away from other people and yet here we are in soccer telling them to take the ball away.   Oh well!  Above are some pictures of Seth, sorry they are so far away, I took them with my camera and the bottome ones are taken with a friend's camera (I wonder whose is more superior), anyway...Seth's favorite posotion was goalie.  There is also a picture of him with his friend Logan, they would do this most of the game if they ever played the same position. 

Sarah just loved playing and being with her friends.  She is of course the smallest one out there, but she did great and it was fun to watch her.

Recipe Blog

I have started a recipe blog and am trying to fill it with lots of recipes (still in the works) but feel free to check it out and pass it on to friends.  If there is a certain recipe I have and you want it on there, let me know :)  Hope you enjoy it. 

P.S.  The link will be on the sidebar.

Harvest Party

Every year my parents do a Harvest Party for all the grandkids.  We spent five days up there and had a great time.  We started off by me, the kids and my dad picking apples at the church orchard for apple juicing on Thursday, man were we tired after that.  We picked half a truckload.  That night we had the kids birthday party.  The next morning we spent at my aunt's house making apple juice.  She has a press and none of us had ever done it before so we thought it was pretty fun (my sister took pictures but I don't have them yet so when I do I will post those pictures later).  We ended up doing just over 100 quarts and I will have to say that it is very, very, very good.  Friday afternoon we headed to a field of pumpkins and picked up 50 pumpkins for our party.  That night we had the actual Harvest Party.  It started with lots of fun games at my brother's house.

Wheelbarrow races, bobbing for apples, doughnut eating,

swinging (okay that wasn't a game, but the kids loved it), dress up races,

and pumpkin bowling.  They had a blast.  Luke did his own thing...jumping all over Uncle Ben and trying to keep his pants up.  Afterwards, everyone headed back to Nana and Punkins for dinner, a soup bar with cornbread, and then we decorated pumpkins with candy.

Of course we had to have caramel apples too.  What Harvest Party is complete without caramel apples.  Yum!

Saturday and Sunday we spent the day hanging out with family, taking naps, eating snacks and lots and lots of playing.   Saturday night the girls had a party while the men headed off to the priesthood session and dinner.  We made lettuce wraps from PF Changs and they were so good!!

The grandkids (well everyone but Seth) had their annual bath in Nana's tub.  Afterwards they got to wear their new pajamas that she made them.  They all loved them.

Thanks for the all the fun and great food!!