Halloween 08

Had a fun night just trick or treating in our hood.

We had one Indiana Jones (don't even think about calling him a cowboy!), one Spiderman,one horse, and two Hawaiian tourists!

I think we've worn these shirts on Halloween every year since we've been married.

Then, we went back home, had a fire, roasted mallows and read spooky stories around the campfire. ("Franklin's Halloween Party" is about as spooky as we get around here.)

CARVIN' TIME!

Here's us carving our pumpkins.

Thanks to my friend Hayley for taking these pictures. I'm actually in one!

p.s. she sells cute handmade stuff @ www.poppytalkhandmade.com

The Finished Product!

Shake it up!

Eli and I made a yummie chocolate shake treat today.

Cheers! Kanpai!

Mom is Cheap! ...and cool?

"Halloween decorations from the store are cooler!" That's what Caleb told me as I got out the construction paper and glue from the closet. I think these turned out pretty cool though...

SUPER MOM!

Tonight I am giving myself the "Super Mom" award! Mom's generally don't get recognition for their achievements, so I have decided to award myself. I'm thinking a bowl of Dryer's French Silk ice cream. O.K. I actually have that almost every night, but this one will be extra enormous!
5:24am Eli woke me up because his "bed got all wet!" Hmm, wonder how that happened!
Shower
Put chicken in crock pot for dinner
Breakfast, brush teeth, change Marcus' blown out diaper...
8:00am Left to drop Caleb off at school
Picked up Eli's friend and took them both to preschool
9:15am SuperWalmart (sidenote: a Walmart worker who thought Marcus was cute, touched his head and said, "Uh Oh! He feels warm! Yes, very warm! He probably has a fever!" I never realized that Walmart employed RNs to restock the shelves!)
11:00am Organized binder for new church assignment as the Relief Society's Education Counselor
Shoveled down some lunch
11:45am Picked up Caleb & carpool kids from school (early release), dropped off carpool kids and picked up Eli (sidenote: Eli had an accident, so I threw the underware away and he was a free bird for the next few hours as I didn't have time to go home for a new pair)
12:45pm Drove to Ryan's office for a photographer to take a picture of Caleb & Ryan together (Caleb won a Central Arizona Project safety poster contest)
2:30pm Arrived back home to do some laundry, sort mail, answer emails, feed Marcus...
4:00pm Dropped the boys off with a friend
4:30pm Parent/Teacher Conference for Caleb
5:30pm Quick dinner (thank you crock pot)
6:00pm Picked up babysitter (Ryan & I both had meetings tonight & he has finals to prepare for next week)
6:30pm Left for Stake Relief Society meeting
7:00pm Meeting
9:00pm Home
You may be wondering... "If she has so much to do, why is she spending time writing on her blog?" It must be because my ability to think logically has been diminished due to too many days like this one!
Good thing most days are a little slower, my Super Mom powers don't have that kind of capacity!
p.s. the award was not based on actually completing these task, but that I did it all without once yelling at my children! We all scream for ice cream!!!

COUSINS

We had a fun visit from our cousins who are now living in New York.Teaching each other to eat dirt.

Uncle Buddy's new dog Brutus.

We just can't seem to get CA out of our system. The weather, the waves, the beach, the surfing, the friends...
Here are some pics of a recent visit we made back to CA.
We started out in Oceanside.
Here are the wives catching up & watching kids while our husband's surf. Aren't we nice?

Here's 'Cus just chillin' with a cold one!
We had a little pool time,

and played a little Guitar Hero.
Then, we went north a bit to stay with some friends (the Velasco family who we became friends w/ in Japan) at the San Onofre beach cottages on Camp Pendleton. Here are Marlon, Noe & the boys.
La made me a custom car seat cover for Marcus! Turned out really cool with a turtle, Hawaiian print.
Buddies on the beach.
Enjoying the sunset. Love those sweet cheeks!
Ryan enjoying a little nap on the beach!
Nothing like an Arizona sunset to make coming home a little easier!

My 3 Sons

Had fun taking this picture in my little homemade studio a few months ago. I need to look at a picture like this sometimes, to remind me how great it is to be a mother! Ryan says that kids are cute as their "defense mechanism". I mean, how can you get angry at faces like this!