Halloween '06
Jackson is Scooby Doo - Age: 2

Jacee is Daphne - Age: 4 1/2

Montage #2

Last year, Maddie loved her pumpkin costume until...

It was time to wear it to go Trick or Treating - not so into it then. We're hoping for better luck this year.

Jack loved being Buzz Lightyear! He wore his costume so much I was worried it would still be in one piece for Trick or Treating. It's still wearable now, just a little torn in places.

Jacee wanted to be a vampire with fake blood around her mouth. She seems to gravitate to the more scary kind of costumes. When I was explaining the play Wicked to her - she wanted to always be Elphaba over Galinda!

Halloween Costume Montage

Halloween '05 - Hex Girl - age: 3 1/2

Baby Vampire - age: 1

Halloween '07
Dorothy - age: 4 1/2

Pirate - age: 3

Bunny - age: 5 months

Hmmm, That's a Funny Lookin' Piece of Garbage...

It was a beautiful Fall afternoon. John and I decided it was time to get some yard work done before the 1st snow fall. We started to prune bushes, put away patio chairs, and just tidy things up. I had been avoiding our window wells because they are so deep and I just don't like them...but it was time. So I climbed down in two of them, cleared away the weeds and trash and was onto my third. There was a big yogurt box - so I picked that up and tossed it out, and then I went to pick up the next piece of trash. I kid you not - my hand was about 2 inches from this thing before I really looked at it and thought - Hmmm, that's a funny lookin' piece of garbage! My synapses finally started firing and I started yelling for John. And I think I should go as Super Man for Halloween because I flew up and out of the window well in a single bound! We had had a serious cold snap during the previous couple of days so that snake was really sluggish. At first we thought it was dead, but then it started to move very slowly. John is about as squeamish as I am, so we consider ourselves lucky that he actually did pick it up with the shovel and threw it over the fence. No, he did not kill it, so I am always looking for it to come back to it's nice warm bed in our window well. So far so good.

A Halloween Preview

It's always a fun day for us when we break open the Halloween boxes. It's fun to go through the decorations and decide where to put them, look through the old costumes, and just start to get excited for Fall! Luckily we were able to borrow a BatMan costume from the Aspen Hills Petersens - so Jack is good to go! (As you can see he has a mask that can be worn more than one way.)

I have also convinced Maddie she wants to be a witch (Jacee's 2 yo costume). She really wanted to be a lady bug for a while - but I think the brainwashing has been a success - a witch it is!

We did borrow two costumes for Jack to try out to decide what he wanted to be. He was never into the spidey costume - but Maddie was. We sure are excited for Halloween around here!

Pony Rides

Awww, the crisp fall air, the wonderfully vibrant color of pumpkins, and the smell of horse manure! Yep, we went to Gardner Village and the highlight was the pony rides. As you can see, Jack loved it from beginning to end. His pony's name was Daisy and she was a medium pony.

Jacee had the largest pony named Prince. She was excited at first, then once upon the Prince, she wasn't too sure. She did end on a happy note and the best part was the helper carried her to and from the pony so she didn't have to step in the horse poop!

Maddie wanted to ride on the little one named Charlie. She did not even make it half a rotation around the circle. Luckily, hers was a discounted ride because we didn't have enough cash but they let us ride anyway. (Best part of this picture is Jack's huge grin in the back. He didn't stop smiling the entire time!)

Jacee warmed up to it eventually, I think it was more a show for the camera than really being afraid of the ponies. They were tethered and walked in a circle at a very.........slow........pace.

Just one more of Smilin' jack. What a cute guy. He sure loves the outdoors and all that goes with it. Thanks dad for a great day!

Jacee's Talk

Jacee had to speak in church on how following the prophet would help strengthen our family.
She said the prophet has asked us to: say our prayers,

Love one another,


Read our scriptures,

Pay our tithing,

And go to church. Doing all these things will help strengthen our family.

She did a great job!

(Sadly, we were out of ink so we couldn't print the pictures for her talk, so her dad found pictures from the GAK. She still did a great job but was sad she didn't get to use her pictures.)