My love/hate relationship with Halloween!!!

NEWSFLASH: MY SISTER BECKY HAD A BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL TODAY. 8LBS 2OZ. EMERGENCY C-SECTION AND SHE IS HAVING SOME PROBLEMS, SO PLEASE PRAY FOR HER!! WE LOVE YOU BECKY AND RAELYNN!!! (BORN ON HALLOWEEN!)

I REALLY enjoy this time of the year, when it is supposedly getting cooler (I say supposedly because it was in the 90s yesterday), and Halloween is in the air.

I also REALLY abhor this time of the year because I am CONSTANTLY trying to figure out costumes, Halloween party treats etc. for the kids. Never mind that we have a HUGE dress up box full of old costumes and other such collectibles, it still is NEVER enough....

 Case in point: At the kids' school, they didn't want the kids dressing up in their scary Halloween costumes at school, so instead they had a "Literature Parade". For the Literature Parade, each child in 1st thru 4th grade had to dress as a character from a book they loved AND dress a pumpkin up like that too AND bring the book to school that went with their costume.

 Sarah is Angelina Ballerina and she was REALLY excited about her costume all the way down to her tap shoes. (I love 2nd hand children's stores).

 And here Cassidy is helping Sarah hold all her stuff for the Literature Parade. Since the book was Angelina's Baby sister, she even made a "baby sister" pumpkin!!! Lots of work for a theme parade...I am tired thinkin' about it.

 Here are the kids dressed up for the ward's trunk-or-treat party. Please notice the treat bags! No, really, notice them!!!  I stayed up until midnight on Friday night sewing them. I wanted them to have big bags since it was a three ward activity. And also since Will claimed on Saturday morning, "I am going to get hundred of candy!!!"

 Please notice that Sarah is in ANOTHER costume, not her ballerina one. You should have seen Morgan and I scrambling before the activity trying to get the kids ready because they DIDN'T want to wear the outfits I bought for them..... arrrrrrgggggggg!!!!
 I finally said, "Whatever you are wearing in five minutes is what you will be this year!!" Lund thought he would be a smarty and said, "Fine, then I won't be wearing ANYTHING in five minutes!"
 He thought he had me until I said, "Sure, go for it, I will just say you are the Emperor wearing your "new clothes". Needless to say, he became a Ninja really fast!

 Then on Sunday night we had dinner in a pumpkin at Grandma Wiemer's house. All the cousins were there except new baby Raelynn. My kids weren't dressed up because we decided NOT to trick-or-treat on Sunday. It was a battle of wills and I am still not sure where I stand on it.... especially when Cassidy took off down the street without our knowledge trick-or-treating on the run. The punishment was: She had to give all her candy to her siblings!!! he he he

 Kade, Lund, Cassidy, Candin and Brody, Sarah, Cooper and Will

                                      What a lovely bunch of cousins. I just realized Kayla, my 13-year-old niece was not in the picture because she was hiding behind the camera. Sneaky girl.

 Gotta love this costume: Grandpa threw a Harley hat and a  huge spider on Will.

And oh boy, you gotta love these next two pictures. When are you too old to trick or treat??? Hummmmmmm And even better, they were drinking beer and walking at the same time.. is that legal????

oh, even better... the fat Scottish people are here!! And I am pretty sure the alcohol is part of the costume, but it also made their responses pretty interesting. (Note to self: don't ask the inflatable Scottish people any questions unless you want a really crude answer...)

Friends, family and Mesa High football...

We had a lot of guests this past week and weekend and had a wonderful time. I will now try to catch up on all our happenings. I have been pretty nauseaus this past couple of days and the pads of my feet are killing me (a side effect of the Xeloda chemo medicine), so I feel a bit behind on my blogging...

 This past weekend, Morgan planted winter grass and Lund and his buddy from across the street Jeremey, decided to help water the new grass. They are such goofballs! Only in Arizona can you play in the hose in late October. Also, right before this picture was taken Lund was trying his hand (pardon the pun), and sign language with Jeremy. Jeremy is deaf, but has an earpiece that helps him to hear along with reading lips. But... it can't get wet, so signing is the only way when playing in the water.

                                           .............those crazy boys!!................

 On Friday night, we decided to hit the Mesa High Homecoming football game. I don't think I have been back to my alma mater in about 15 years. It was fun to see a few people we knew. And the crazy thing was... when they announced the Homecoming Royalty, one of the girls was the baby that lived next door that I used to babysit. I guess she grew up eventually!!

 We also had a great visit with Morgan's sister, Juliet, who was here in town for her 20th reunion for Mesa High.  After church, Will climbed up onto her lap and she became quite the "baby whisperer". He conked out and slept for about six hours. Thanks Juliet, come anytime!!

 We had a family BBQ Sunday night to celbrate Juliet's visit and to just hang out. It was super yummy and we REALLY enjoyed the company!! In attendance: Warren Johnson, Buck and Judi Shumway, and Raychelle. The Garino's and John, Juliet, and our Johnson clan...oh, and the Court family.  Yummy pollo loco chicken was had by all and Judi made an amazing chocolate cake circa Sam's Club.

                                     ........hanging out outside. Gotta love our dead mint plant.

                          The Court family: Chase, Lindsi, Ellie, and Danny

                                            Judi and Raychelle... such pretty ladies!!!!
                                                    I just LOVE family gatherings!

Other happenings last week: Sarah had a bad ear infection, Becky and Canyon Brimhall stayed in our guest room. The Hulse family came down and stayed at our house too. And then Juliet on Sunday. We sure had a lot of fun with guests... thanks for coming! Also, I am on a one week break this week from my chemo meds... yea!!!!!

"How did you do that?!!" And other Magic Pumpkin inquiries....

It's that time of year again....Magic Pumpkin time!!! We have had our tradition of Halloween festivities such as Magic Pumpkins and Sucker Ghosts for as long as the kids can remember. These traditions have been handed down from Morgan's family and we enjoy indulging in them each year.

We love to invite different people over each year as we host our traditions and this year was no different. For FHE tonight we had our Magic Pumpkin celebration and invited over one of our neighbor families. It was extra fun because they are hosting a girl "Sara" (her real name is WAY more complicated than that!) from Thialand who had NEVER stuck her hand in a pumpkin before!!!

 She wasn't quite sure about all the goo and slime, but she thought the "magic" part was pretty fun...

 I love the expression on Bro. Smith's face as he too tries to figure out what on earth was going on. For the record, he is the first adult to figure out the "magic" all by himself..... way to go!!!!!!

So we tried to "switch it up a bit" and Morgan took some pictures and I helped gut the pumpkins for a bit. Lots of fun!!!

Here is a picture of Cassidy's pile of loot!! Yumm!!! I am not a fan of the gooey, pumpkin coated candy, but the kids seem to LOVE it!! ewwwww

p.s. this year we heard many neat suggestions such as, "Mom, I figured it out! You order the pumpkins on the Internet!" (Lund). The adorable neighbor boy thought that I slowly put the candy and money into the pumpkin one by one, and then the small hole I used healed up in time for the "magic".  And I even heard the best one yet...from an adult, no less. She said, "you probably use a syringe and put some sort of chemical into the pumpkin that later turns into candy." I told her that the dimes would be interesting and that we might get arrested for "making money".... tons of fun responses this year!!!

Candy corn wreath...

Here is what I made the other day. It was pretty fun, but it sure took a lot of candy corn. The kids were definitley willing to eat the broken ones that didn't make "the cut".

Catching up on some pictures...

I just wanted to catch up on some of the trip memories.... Bear with me, it's for posterity sake!

                      Sarah loved holding Kason, but he doesn't quite look comfortable with the idea.

                                         ...........yup, he is looking awefully nervous!

                  Will loved wrestling with KC, even though Will couldn't seem to remember his name, just that he liked to wrestle with him.

  This was our favorite thing during the trip--to gather as a family and just talk!! here we are in the family room, gathering and talking.

                                                         Except, this family member who didn't contribute much to the conversation, except to sit on the back of the couch and warm your shoulders.  Thanks Juan!

                                 Will enjoyed playing with water and making quite a mess on Grandma's table. Finally, Papa Lund suggested a towel.......hummmm...... great idea!!

                     Morgan shot a candid photo of me when we were in St. George...

  On the drive home, stopped near Provo to take my little brother out for lunch at Cracker Barrel.

                                 Too bad you can't take those rockers home....oh wait, you can, if you buy them... Uncle Ryan is right in the middle, my how he has grown! I can't believe that he is 10-years younger than me!!!

 And truly, this picture couldn't portray the truth more. Will was being a little devil and he also was wearing these pretend horns....how fitting!

   And this little adorable boy is Joe Jackman who let us stay at his house in St. George on the way home. Alright, his parents were there too...

Cassidy and Lund really enoyed the waffle breakfast on Sunday morning. Thanks Annie and Travis for hosting us!

 Adorable 1st graders, Sarah and Marissa Jackman.

 And the troublemakers--- Will and Mason Jackman.

And our wonderful hosts!!!!! Hopefully we can repay the favor someday!!! ......we have a golf course Travis!.........(thought maybe that would get him since he is such an avid golfer)...

My daily blessings for October 20th...

I have just had an overwhelming feeling today of gratitude!!! I just feel blessed, blessed, blessed! So, I decided to share a few of todays blessings with you.... Look around, I bet you are pretty blessed too..... (Count your many blessings, name them one by one...)
1. I so feel blessed because this was the view I saw this morning from my kitchen table over french toast and strawberries... How beautiful is the rain, and especially, how amazing is a rainbow??!!

2. I have had the windows in the house open ALL day long today, because the weather has been THAT beautiful!! Blessing!!!

3. I have my great pal here visiting from Bagdad with her son... blessing!

4. I am feeling wonderful today!! Blessing!

5. I was on my eliptical machine today for 11 minutes instead of 10 like yesterday...improvement!!! Blessing!!!

6. I took a bubble bath today in my HUGE tub! Blessing!!!! (And yes, I AM bragging!! 13-years in a small tub made me brag!)

7. Sarah is feeling better today...(she has a really bad ear infection)...Blessing!!!

8. Barbie made a new movie so Sarah is watching that so I can be on the computer blogging with you!!! Blessing... Thanks Barbie Fashion Fairytale!!!

9. My house is clean right now.....HUGE blessing!!!

10. I baked two loaves of chocolate chip pumpkin bread...yummy and a blessing!!!

Pictures, pictures, and oh yeah... more pictures

Ladies and Gentleman, here are this year's pictures. We had a great oportunity to have Morgan's sister come to Pocatello, Idaho while we were there. It just happens that her boyfriend is a photographer-in-training. We were soooo happy to have him take our family picture. And he is sure a great picture taker!!!! So, enjoy all the pictures.. (and thank you Jason Nantske!) you will see a fluctuation of emotions throughout the pictures.... that is how picture taking goes with kids.....

.......see the range of emotions.......... And KC, or (Mr. Moustachio), came to watch the picture taking...

.......Sarah can also make this really awesome face!!

...............Will is a tough one to pose.............

Here is Sarah showing off her "shark teeth". She has a tooth growing behind her teeth. She needs the others to fall out, but we Johnson girls hold on to our baby teeth!

Doesn't he look like an ad for Land's End???? ---LOVE HIM!

............the eldest and the youngest............

.........and Will LOVES to dictate how to do EVERYTHING.......

She can't be this old............she just CANT BE!!!

.............um, Dr. Evil?.............

..........the roommates.....................

................the other roommates.........

............I love this picture of the kids..............

...........oh, and I love this one too!......