Halloween 2009

A Mamma & Her Pirates!

On Friday, the week before Halloween, I took my little pirates to a party at the Columbus Center. It was too crowded and crazy to want to stay long without any assistance, but we had a good time for about an hour. The boys had a great time going through the spook alley. I was going to go through with them with Emma & Isaiah, but I couldn't get them to step into the room. They both froze and refused to move forward, even with me. . .I didn't want to give them nightmares, so we met them on the other side. The boys loved it! The highlight was an excellent Magician. We watched him 3 different times while we were roaming through the building looking at the various activities you could stand in line for. They also had a few different bands that performed. They were disappointed that they didn't get any candy (Halloween expectations), so we decided to stop in on Lou and trick-or-treat. They were pretty excited about that!

Last night was our ward Trunk-or-treat party. It was FREEZING cold, but the kids had fun for about 20 minutes going from trunk to trunk. Then, we went into the warm church building and had homemade soups and breads and mingled with our ward family.

This evening the kids had fun going around our neighborhood with their daddy (I followed in our new van--to post about later). Then, we visited our friends in another neighborhood that had made a spook alley of their basement. The kids--well, the big boys--enjoyed it; scared poor Emma & Isaiah (even though Lou and I were holding them). Then, they had hot chocolate around a fire pit for a few minutes before we made our traditional final stop at the Campbell's where they received more candy, but better yet--books! It's been a fun eventful week and now I'm ready for bed! :)

We Loved Zorra

We wanted to tell Mimi (Grandma) how much we loved our time with her trusted friend, Zorra. Here are some fun memories. . .

Gehrig and Damian were VERY sad to hear that she died today and immediately started writing and drawing about it. They will be sending these to you in the mail Mom, but I thought you'd appreciate their thoughts today.

From Damian. . .

Happy Halloween

My cute children in last year's WalMart clearance Halloween shirts. Love these children!!!! :)

My little monsters!!

Dinner at LaCaille

If you haven't been to LaCaille before, it is an amazing experience! My second cousin and his wife (just met her for the first time at Grandpa's 90th) Wendell & Amberlee invited us to a gala for a great cause they are part of. They are trying to raise awareness about the children in Utah (250 children/year in Salt Lake County alone) that age out of the foster care program without any family--left to take care of themselves without anyone to turn to for guidance, love and support. Lou and I enjoyed an amazing evening in the most beautiful setting (20 acres developed to look like 1700 France with several different beautiful buildings, a vineyard, ponds, fountains, bridge, gazebos, rabbits & peacocks roaming free, etc. . .--absolutely charming!). The food was amazing and the cause is heartbreaking. They had a silent and a live auction to raise money for these children. It's a bit frightening to be in the same room where things are being auctioned off for thousands of dollars (at one point, Lou noticed that I had scratched my face and was afraid that I had bid on an item). I would love to donate to the cause, but my circumstances wouldn't allow that kind of money to come from me! I'm hoping to have Lou's business sponser a table at their function next year.

I feel a bit stupid posting these pictures of myself, but if it were you--I'd want to see you too! Right? Right! We're usually posting pictures of our children, so I thought I'd post one of myself in a suit that I've never had occassion to wear before. When I got all dressed up and came out of my room, Emma took one look at me and said, "BEEEAAAUUUUTTTIFUL. . .," as only she can say. Gehrig told me, "You look nice Mom." And Damian said, "You look skinny." Isn't it great to have kids that compliment?!!

Conference Weekend

I look forward to Conference Weekend every 6 months, almost like it's Christmas. I heard more during this conference than any other previous (since I've had children). They're growing up!! I spent the week trying to think of creative ways to help us have an enjoyable time and still listen. Here's Emma (sporting her new dance costume) putting a puzzle together. . .

Damian and Gehrig had a blast creating these little "guys". . .

And eating sugar cookies (frosted and decorated by themselves).

We copied a couple of ideas from other blogs and Ensign articles to come up with the most effective plan I've had yet. The night before conference, the children and I thought of different topics that we might hear addressed at conference (love, sacrament, scriptures, prophets, family history, etc.). Then, they drew pictures to go with the topics and we taped them all over the room where we were listening. My creative friend, Annette, made up a great game with pictures and stats on the prophet and apostles (which we played several times before conference to become more familiar with them). We used those pictures to paste on the topic pictures the kids drew whenever we heard them speaking about a certain topic. And. . .whenever the children heard key words and yelled them out to me, I threw them a smartie (not a whole package--they'd have been sick). These things helped them listen more than they have ever listened before. A funny side note: the following Sunday in Sacrament Meeting, Emma heard the word "eternity" and called it out to me (expecting a smartie to come flying at her). :) I was so happy to know that they were listening and are still listening!
I let the boys play with their building blocks during one session, but it wasn't the most effective thing we did. . .(it's hard for them not to talk when they're playing).

One of our favorite Conference traditions is Sunday morning breakfast. The microscopic piece of cantaloupe came from our garden (it was the size of a baseball). Can't wait for the next conference to be "fed" again (spiritually)! :)