What do you get when you gobble down treats?

I must say that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love to make the costumes and every year I get a little more crafty. This year Madison decided to be wonder woman. This was one of my funnest costumes yet. Nolan was a cowboy because that's what I told him to be, otherwise he would be batman every year. And, plus it was easy to put together.

We had our Ward Halloween party on Saturday and that is always so much fun. We have it at the neighborhood park so its nice to let the kids run around unsupervised.

It seems every Holiday that has anything to do with candy, we seem to lose Madison. Wait... Madison sneaks off to see what what goodies she's rounded up. During Easter Egg Hunts, she can't even wait until the hunt is over. She pops those eggs open as soon as she gets one and eats all the candy. Or if we are at a party with a pinata she grabs as much candy as she can and hides somewhere to eat it all and then usually feels sick the rest of the night. I tell you my kids are smart! Well last night was no exception. She did her trick or treat rounds and then I realized that I hadn't seen her in a while. I looked under the ramada, and guess what I saw?!?! yes, Madison gobbling up all of her candy. All of the other kids were playing and going for seconds and thirds in the trick or treat line, but there was my kid, hoarding her candy.

So I come to my next favorite thing about Halloween. RECYCLING! When we came home from our party I had the kids pick 15 pieces of candy that they wanted to keep (Judd and I kept some too, just the good stuff) and the rest goes right into the bowl to hand out to trick or treaters on Halloween. I know I will only be able to keep this up for a year or two more, but right now the kids don't seem to mind.

I was excited to get them all sort of looking at me at the same time. Had to show it off
Coulson loved his flannel shirt so much that he tried to eat it. This was one of many attempts to get a good shot.
Judd didn't have a costume so I decided to shave a pumpkin into the back of his head. It was a big hit.These are the cutest cowboy pictures!!! I was so happy!

You gotta love him!

"You have the potential to become anything to which you set your mind. You have a mind and a body and a spirit. With these three working together, you can walk the high road that leads to achievement and happiness. But this will require effort and sacrifice and faith."
-President Gordon B. Hinckley

I am an Awesome Wife!

Judd's birthday is on Tuesday. He's going to be 31! Since he has school on Tuesday nights, I decided I would take him out last night. Let me tell you how cool I am. I planned this whole really cool night out. This is what was supposed to happen...
I was going to borrow my dad's quad and we were going to drive up into the mountains and have a fire and cook dinner and watch the sunset in while it was quiet. I made a special CD to listen to that was semi-romantic. He had no idea about this so I was getting excited. It took some planning. I bought all the yummy food and my dad had it all prepared and strapped up to the quad so we could just drive right up there and go.
Here's where things start going wrong.
The whole day Judd is trying to pry out of me what's going on. I didn't budge. I told him to dress super casual, but wear cologne. He thought I was taking him line dancing. I'm not that lame!!! Anyway, we get all dressed and head up to my parents house to pick up the truck. Its about 5:15 and we are making good time. We drive up to the place we were going and a sign said that the gates are closed from sunset to sunrise, so we were worried that we were going to get locked in. So we decided to drive down there and ask someone if we would be stuck in there. The first people we saw were these guys who looked like they lived down there. They had this old beat up camper and were playing horse shoes and were so drunk they could hardly stand up. Judd gets out of the car to ask them, and of course, like everyone Judd meets, he becomes their instant best friend. They let us know that we would be able to get out because they have 2x12 pieces of wood that they can lay over the tire guards. Thank goodness we didn't need them.
Now we are pressed for time because of all the messing around. We parked the truck and started to unload the quad. We quickly found out that one of the straps for the ramp was broken, so we tried to fix that. So while Judd is swearing and trying to fix the ramp I was watching the sun set over the mountains!! That was supposed to be romantic time!! Finally, its almost dark, we get the quad down and start driving fast to find a spot before we can't see anymore. We almost got ran over twice and I swallowed a bug, but we found a spot. Judd had to hurry and find fire wood and I was trying to get everything ready. I pulled out my radio with my romantic CD only to find I didn't bring enough batteries, dang it! Judd was collecting fire wood and found a scorpion on his arm! Drunk people could be heard shouting in the distance, we missed the romantic sunset. Judd lifted up his chair and got dirt all over my steaks. But you know what?!?!? It was one of the funnest nights ever. Our dinner was sooooo yummy (a little gritty from the dirt, but still yummy). Steaks, corn on the cob, tater tots, garlic toast and pie for dessert. The weather was beautiful, Judd got to shoot his gun. We got to hang out around the fire and talk. It was awesome. See husbands!!! See what a little planning can do?!?!? The disasters only made it more of an adventure. Next time we'll leave a little earlier.

Move Over Twilight....

This book is soooooo crazy. I seriously couldn't put it down, really I contemplated not sleeping just to read it. If you love Twilight you have to read this. Its not a vampire book but it is gooooood! Okay, so maybe not better than Twilight but definitely right up there.

A Tribute to Fashion

I am so glad that I have a girl. I get to dress her in pretty clothes, braid and curl her hair, play dress up and house. Oh wait... I don't just have any girl, I have my Madison. Man, is she as unique as they come. Lately I've been trying to let her be more independent. I let her get her own snacks, go to the bathroom at church by herself and little things like that to make her feel like she is a big girl.

I love to shop for kids clothes. Especially girl clothes. They make the cutest stuff for little girls now days. So before school started I took Madison school shopping to get some new outfits. She's picked up on my love for shopping lately. She goes through the isles picking things out left and right.

"Look at this, can you believe how cute this is???" she says

or "I can't believe it, this is the most fashionable shirt."

So we shopped and found many cute things including Sketchers shoes that she had to have that were $45!!! I don't even spend that much on my own shoes. She was happy.

So now we are almost through the first quarter of the school year and ask me how many of those outfits shes worn. Go ahead. Ummm, about zero. She won't even wear her new shoes. She continues to wear her bratz shoes even though they give her blisters. I have been in many an argument trying to get that girl to wear her new stuff, but only to be in a torturous power struggle.

I've decided that I don't care anymore. Its her outfit and her social funeral. Just kidding, I don't think kindergartners even give two hoots for what each other are wearing, so why should I?? If she feels good about her outfits then that's all that matters. It won't be too many years until she is dragging me through that horrible Hollister store. That horrible store that has no lights so you can't even see the price of the $50 thin as heck t-shirt you're buying, and is like a maze that keeps you locked inside and plays the loudest music that makes you want to have a seizure. Okay, so you know now that I hate that store. Anyway, I know that's where we will be in a few years and I should just enjoy the cheap clothes while I can.

So I've decided to do a little fashion slide show of the outfits she's worn the last couple of days to school. One week she wore the same pants 3 days in a row!!! I'm really bummed that I didn't get a picture of the black purple and blue leopard print dress with a bright yellow shirt underneath. That one is classic. I'm sure she'll wear it again. I'll keep you posted.

Mother Nature's Farm

We took the kiddos to Mother Nature's Farm for our play group last week. It was a really cute place. I think we would have enjoyed it more if the weather was cooler.

Nolan was a little confused on how to feed the animals. He would pick out one little piece of hay and try to poke it at the goats' faces. He figured it out after a while. He didn't get bitten so that counts for something. There were no significant injuries the whole day, and that says a lot for Nolan. He sure did love the tractor ride though.