Puppet Show

For scouts last week Alex made a puppet. Tonight at scouts he made another one and had to put on a puppet show for his den. He made up a story about a "good citizen" because that fulfilled another requirement.
When he got home from scouts, he was really excited for us to see his puppet show. Of course Max had to get in on it too!! Alex is so creative and LOVES doing stuff like this, scouts is alot of work and I am so thankful that Alex has 2 really great leaders!!

P.S. Don't you just love the "fro" on the girl puppet??? Hilarious!!

Church VolleyBall

Tonight was a regional volley ball tournament for the church. I had signed up to play volleyball several months ago and then didn't hear anything for a long time. I missed all the co-ed games but when I heard about the tournament I wanted to play!!
I haven't played in a really long time but I really enjoy it and thought it would be super fun!! I was right, I had a blast and we ended up playing 3 different teams.
We had 7 players so we did a rotation and each got a little break.
We are all waiting for the serve...in the exact same position!!! Funny!
Rich and the boys came to watch and Rich snapped a few shots for me. They aren't the best but I can't complain, at least he was willing to do it!! I wish I knew how to play better but it was way fun and great exercise!!!

It was double elimination and we lost the first team and ended up in the "loser's" bracket. We won the second team and thought we would play tomorrow but we ended up playing a third team right then and lost to them so we are out!! We played from 7:45 to about 10:30pm. My arms are sore and red and I am sure I will have bruises tomorrow!!!

My Funny Four Year Old

For dinner tonight we had garlic herb chicken with rice, corn and rolls. Max can be a very picky eater and I refuse to fight with him everyday so for the most part he survives on cereal and sandwiches and quesadillas. But on Sunday's I make him eat what we are having and he always complains but usually does O.K.
I dished up his plate with NO rice because he always complains about rice for some reason. I gave him some chicken a few kernels of corn and a roll. He jellied up the roll and ate that up. I told him that he should eat the things he doesn't like first and save the best for last but he didn't listen. He would not even try the chicken or corn. He kept asking for more rolls and drink. Rich and I made it perfectly clear that if he didn't eat what was on his plate then he could not have ANYTHING the rest of the night. He stuck his tongue out and licked the chicken a little and said it was TOO GROSS and that was that.
Now, he is only 4 and I don't want to get DCFS called on me for child abuse so I was questioning myself a little. I made very sure that Max understood that if he did not eat what was on his plate that he would not be able to eat anything else at all until breakfast. He understood and even agreed that he could not have a sucker when we went to the Copes for a visit.
When we got to Rich's parents house the first thing he said to Stephanie was that he was grounded from food. I didn't hear him tell her that and when she told me I thought that was SO FUNNY and I guess in his own way he totally understood!!

WORK Hard, PLAY Hard

Today is Saturday...I have a love hate relationship with this day. I love when I have things planned or we are out of town, I hate when I actually have to do chores and other unpleasant things.
Today was a "chore" day and there is always alot to do and I am always really happy about the little projects that get accomplished but it is just the actual doing them that I don't love. I threw in some laundry and Rich got to work on the bathrooms. The kids each have a Saturday chore. Alexa cleans the downstairs bathroom, Alex vacuum's the basement and helps Max with emptying the garbage's. We are going to re-arrange the front room but that involves ALOT of time and work, so instead I headed outside to dig up the tomato plants and cut down all the flowers and bushes. It was great weather for yard work and it may be one of the last few good days for it so I knew this was the day to get it done.
I think I went out around 11am and I got in the shower at 4ish so that was alot of yard work and let me tell you my back was really feeling it! When Rich finished up inside he came out to mow and get the lawn ready for the snow. We got all the Halloween boxes put away and he was hoping to get the Christmas lights up but there was not enough time!
Saturday is our "date night" and we had tickets to a play so we had to get ourselves all cleaned up and ready for a night on the town! We ate dinner at Gloria's and then headed to Hale Center Theater for "The Scarlet Pimpernel." It was a fun show and it was the last one we had with our season tickets. After the play was over and we were in the car I suggested we go to a midnight movie. It is daylight savings so we get to set the clock back 1 hour anyway. I told Rich that when you work hard you should be able to play hard!! We bought tickets for a 12:30 showing of "Takers." The thing is it was only 10:30 when we bought them so we had some time to kill.
We headed to Target and got there 15 minutes before they closed so we hurried and looked around. After that our only other option was Wal-Mart. We browsed the Christmas stuff and they had a little "mock living room" set up with a couch and tables and a fireplace so we sat down and I read "The Christmas Sweater" to Rich. We got stuff for tomorrow's dinner and then it was time for the movie. Rich really wanted popcorn but didn't want to break the Sabbath (even though we had just made a purchase at Wal-Mart). I could tell he was having a personal debate with himself during the previews. Then he leaned over to me and said "it is actually only 11:30 because of daylight savings." So he felt justified and went and got his popcorn. I told him that "technically" you aren't supposed to change your clocks until 2 or 3 am but he didn't think that was important!
We ended up getting home around 2:30am and by the time we actually were able to wind-down and go to bed it was closer to 4am. All in all in was a great Saturday and it is so nice to see the yard all ready for the winter!

"So You Think You Can Dance"

I got tickets to the "So You Think You Can Dance" tour for Alexa's birthday and today is the day!! We were both so excited to see performance and we love watching the show on TV. Alexa is determined to get on this show someday and I hope that happens for her!!

We left shortly after school and stopped at Forever 21 to do a little bit of shopping. I let Alexa decide where she wanted to eat dinner and she picked In-N-Out.
She got her fries "animal style" and they looked really disgusting, cheese, onions and the special sauce. She LOVES onions and liked the fries but said it would have been better without the cheese. We ate and then it was time to get to the Maverick Center for the show.

I did not remember that you have to pay $10 to park and I didn't think I had any cash, luckily I had a $5 and the guy was nice enough to let us in.
We both loved the show and it made me really want to dance again. Maybe I will have to wait til I'm in my 60's and join the Golden Girls!!!

4.0

What a way to start off the 9th grade!!
Way to go ALEXA!!!

Halloween Party #2

Tonight my whole family (except Dave) came to our house for a party!!! Mel usually hosts this party and she is a great hostess so I felt alot of pressure!! I made pumpkin cookies, seven layer dip, mummy dogs, jello jigglers and bought some pumpkin pizza's from Papa Murphy's. Annette and Mandi came too but we missed Ry and his family and Brandon and the Baldwin's.

I told everyone 5:00pm thinking that everyone would be late...they weren't and I was in the shower when everyone arrived (it took alot longer to get everything ready than I had planned).
After taking a bunch of crap from his family for the way he acted at the first party, he decided to get into the spirit of the party and asked McKell if he could borrow her costume. Everyone thought it was such a great costume and I am glad he was able to relax and have some fun this time!!
Harrison and Parker missed the first party so they decided to stay at our house while the rest of their family went to Jeff's parents house. We are always glad to have them!!


We ate upstairs and we all got really full, so full that no one really even touched the yummy desserts.
Annette made these cute peanut butter/white chocolate ghosts, my mom made a texas cake graveyard and I made the pumpkin cookies with maple frosting.

We took the party downstairs and played witch hat ring toss in the dark with glow sticks. The kids had fun doing that. We had a group picture that my neighbor took (I didn't get one on my camera so hopefully I can steal one from one of my sisters). Then we had a "costume fashion show."

 

 

We all stood in two rows facing each other and everyone took a turn walking down the cat walk. Well I don't think Brinlie did but everyone else did!! It was a great idea, everyone loved it!!

Then some of the kids wanted to go Trick-or-Treating so they left and did that for a while, some of us went on a drink run and others played Just Dance 2 on the Wii. Melissa was taking pictures of this and hopefully she will post them soon...my mom and Annette had a blast dancing, so did Harrison (I missed it and so he is going to have to do it again for me sometime). It is a great time and really fun for parties!! The two former Hi-Lo's faced off (me and Melissa) and I kicked her trash!!! I have had more practice so it wasn't completely fair, we will have to have a re-match one of these days!!
Here is Max with all his treats! He had a really fun time going around to all the houses saying Trick-or-Treat.

No one stayed overnight with us. They all left around 11pm to head for home, maybe it was later than that. We had a great night and I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves.


P.S.
This is what happens when you leave your camera unattended in my family...

 

sorry guys, but if you are gonna do stuff like this it is gonna get posted!!!

Highway to Hale 10k

W.O.W. terrible pictures below...
Pre-race shot, Rich and I participated in this race so that Rich could win us season tickets again for Hale Center Theater. We have really enjoyed going to all the productions this year.
Post-race shot...man, my face is red and I am keeping my mouth shut about whatever it is Rich is doing! I haven't been running since our last race (at the first of September) geez, what is wrong with me, I am getting lazy!!
Rich came in 10th overall and 4th in his age (it is a small race so the age categories are 10 yrs instead of the usual 5). No season tickets for us, good thing he has one more chance in January.
I am happy to report that even with the lack of training I finished in 1 hour 3 minutes, and there were lots of hills. I totally impressed myself.

Trafalga Fun

Alex made flyers for his spook alley and passed them out at school yesterday. The kids didn't have school today. From 12-2pm kids from all over the neigborhood came to the spook alley. I told Alex that I wanted everyone gone by 2pm. When I came home from work he was cleaning it all up. I thought he was going to leave it for our party tomorrow with my family but I guess he thought I wanted him to clean it up today. He did a pretty good job of getting things cleaned up but I did have to help him. It was alot of work and I hope that he had a great time because I don't think we will be doing it again next year!

Alexa had plans and was gone most of the day and I wanted to do something fun with the boys so I took them to Trafalga in Lehi. Rich met us after work but decided to just go home.
They are doing some renovations on the place and hopefully it will be funner when they are done. The Rush Coaster was not working (that was the whole reason we drove all the way to Lehi) but, what do you do??
You just make the best of it...the boys went on some of the rides inside and they went on the bumper boats and got soaked. It was a chilly night but they still wanted to play miniature golf so we did. Max was having a blast!!
We had a fun time and ended the night with some frozen yogurt from Golden Spoon. Well, me and Alex did, Max fell asleep in the car!

Halloween Party #1

Tonight we had most of Rich's family here for a Halloween Party and Spook Alley. We ate soup and rolls and jello jigglers and "mummy dogs" and had a great time. We missed everyone that couldn't come or should I say that everyone that couldn't come MISSED OUT on a FUN night. Even though Rich was totally uptight and grumpy (he ate his soup hunched over the counter with his back to everyone) we all managed to have a good time, ok except for Rich.
Kynli the Ladybug, Adelie the Witch and Whytli the Hippie
I was a mouse
And no party is complete without a Mrs. Potts. This costume was the hit of the night!!

I didn't get very many photos but McKell and I were the only adults dressed up so I don't feel too bad. Oh yes everyone had their excuses but I for one did not buy any of them!!

Alex has been talking about doing a haunted house or spook alley for the last few years. I gave him the OK but I told him that I wasn't helping him at all, that means he has to set it up and take it down all by himself. I know that sounds really mean but I thought that would make him change his mind because it sounded like a nightmare to me. He of course said fine and he started setting up the spook alley in the garage. He had alot of help from friends I have never seen.
After we ate the kids were all anxious to go through the spook alley.
But first, they had to read the rules!!! I thought this was pretty funny!
The spook alley was a big hit and I am very impressed with Alex and his determination. It was alot of hard work for him and I know that I will have to help him with the cleanup but it was worth it!
Alexa stayed for a while and then she had a party to go to.
I am so grateful for family and creating memories. I hope Rich can warm up to the idea that this is what is important, not worrying about if something gets spilled or broken and having a messy house for a few hours! I love you so much Rich but you have to relax and remember what is most important!!!

Pumpkin Pancakes

This is the second time in a week we have had these babies, they are D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!!! I made them last week for the first time and they were a hit. There were some leftovers so I ate them cold for breakfast the next day and it was so yummy!!! I was craving them again and thought they would be even better with whipped cream and caramel sauce. Now I know what you are thinking, that sounds more like dessert than dinner but hey I like to live on the edge a little!!!
Alexa had a bunch of friends over and they gobbled most of them up so I only had a few left over for my breakfast (I used the left over whipped cream and just dipped them in it...SO GOOD)!! I might have to whip up another batch!
If I were you I would try them for dinner, or heck why not, breakfast ASAP!!

Here is the recipe, I have no idea what site I got it off. I would double it so you have some leftover!!!

Pumpkin Pancakes
Combine the following ingredients in a bowl and sift together:
1 1/4 cup Flour
2T Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves

In a separate bowl mix together:
1 cup Milk
2T melted butter
1 Egg
1/3 cup Canned Pumpkin Puree

Fold wet mixture into dry ingredients. Makes 8-10 pancakes

Jack-O-Lanterns

Tonight for FHE we carved pumpkins. I was planning on taking the kids to a pumpkin patch this year because we have never been but we lost our chance because the weather was terrible today!! The kids and I rushed to Macey's after dinner to get some and they only had a few bad ones so the only other place in town was Fresh Market and the selection wasn't the best there either but at least it was a fast process because there wasn't many to choose from!

Rich and I cut off tops for the kids and then told them to scrape out all the guts.

 

 

 

Max was not having it, he thought it was too gross and would barely put his hand in it. I was surprised because he is ALL boy and I thought he would love it. Alex and I are the only ones who really enjoyed getting down and dirty with the slimy pumpkin guts.


After alot of hard work, ok not really, here is the finished product:








After all the pictures, we placed our pumpkins out on the front porch and called it a night!!! I think they all turned out really cute even if Max was totally rude to me and said I wasn't good at making "scary" pumpkin faces!