Happy Halloween

My kids wore the same costumes trick or treating so I didn't take any more pictures of them dressed up. This is when we got home and Ryan started checking out his candy situation. I told him to eat whatever he wanted because in the morning I was going to throw it all away. He picked a Scooby Doo sucker first. Here is how he started out. Notice the Halloween shirt (from Jana's boys) and that he has 3 open suckers that he is working on at the same time.

Now he has 5 that he's eating all at the same time.

By the end of the night, he had 11 suckers all opened and licked, but none even close to finished. Actually, I think he finished one of them. I think the only other candy he ate was a small box of nerds and m&m's. I may be wrong.

Katie tried to get in on the action, but to no avail. Her efforts were thwarted by myself.

Trunk or Treat

There isn't much to say except that Ryan's costume got many comments and Katie fell asleep pretty soon after we got there. I put her down for 12 seconds to take her picture and she got instantly filthy as you can see. Oh well. And she's supposed to be Pegasus (thank you freecycle). It's the frilliest, foo foo costume, but it fit.

F.H.E. at the Pumpkin Patch (a.k.a. parking lot covered in hay and pumkins)

This pumpkin patch was pretty fun because they had plenty of things that entertained Ryan without costing anything. They had face painting, a little pumpkin graveyard, a blow-up bouncing machine, tons of little quarter rides, a petting farm, pony rides (those cost money), a hay tunnel, and of course, pumpkins. We originally went planning on buying one to carve, but when we realized that the one that Ryan is holding in the above picture would have cost us about $13, we decided to get a similar one at the grocery store for $4.

Ryan spent a large amout of time just loading these pumpkins up and pulling them around in the wagon.

Katie slept the whole time except woke up at the end just in time for a picture with the pumpkins. As you can tell, this was an unplanned thing since she is wearing Ryan's old sweats in the picture. If I had planned it she would've been wearing something a little more picture-worthy.

We've gone back once since, and may stop there again this weekend because the kids seem to really enjoy it.

Tonight is our stake "trunk-or-treat". I've got no idea what to decorate our car with, but at least my kids have costumes.

A little feedback please

The question is whether the window box looks better with or without the divider. Please do not focus on small details like the cleanliness of the window or surrounding areas, but you are invited to comment and give suggestions on what should actually be in the window. If you don't like the jars with colored water in them, or think the yellow just looks like urine, or feel like I need something in the glass bowls, or should get rid of them altogether and just add more plants, etc. That is the sort of feedback I would appreciate here.

"Dinosaurs in the Mist" or "Dinosaur From the Black Lagoon"
(Play scary music here)

Lurking outside our small and presumably safe dwelling was this fierce and elusive beast. We were fortunate enough to capture a few pictures as we are sure that only a minute number of people are ever able to catch a glimpse of this magnificent creature - much less get proof of it's existence. You are about to see actual, unadulterated, original photos of (gasp) the Wuerhosaurus! (woo-er-a-Sore-us) Don't worry, he's a plant eater.

Even though he is no carnivore, he is still wild and dangerous - see this terrifying ROAR!

(These pictures may not be copied or sold to any tabloid - we get first dibs on the big money they offer.)

Just think prepositions...

among, beside, around, between, above, at, beyond, in, across, by, into, behind, down, against, below, along, beneath, off, over, underneath, past, toward, within, under, up, through, upon,

You get the point! This girl gets around.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JODIE

And it came to pass...

I overheard Ryan talking to himself and looked over to see him flipping through my scriptures. I realized that he was saying, "came to pass" over and over again. This was amusing to me because I remember when Jodie was little and it was her turn to read during scripture time and she would say, "And it came to pass that the Lorderly" and that's about it. Maybe that was Jimmy, but I think it was Jodie. I just liked seeing things come full circle, know what I mean?

It makes me grouchy when the font size gets all weirdo on me.

More house tour

Here's Katie, enjoying our new couch.

Living room shot, the pictures are stratigically placed to avoid getting a picture of my flash in the mirror. They will eventually be placed above the couch on the left. I'm still not sure if I'm keeping the bookshelf there. The red and yellow in the front right corner is a "kid corner" with a toybox (rubbermaid tote) and pillows, etc.

This one is from further back. I'm now in my dining room/hallway to show you the entryway step that Ryan took a header onto. A few small changes, no pictures on top of the fireplace and a small table is in front of my couch. It's not staying there either.

Here's a bathroom shot. Looks just like Jana's bathroom. Except, notice the CARPET in the bathroom. Feels fabulous when you get out of the shower, but what in the world will I do if my toilet ever overflows? And how can I possibly potty train my 2 year old in a carpeted bathroom? Who was the einstein who decided on that one anyway?

You can look forward to my kitchen, bedroom, and dinning room later. I'll probably also include a garage shot, but I have to do a little fine tuning before I get to those rooms. It will give me something to blog about over the next few weeks.

Ryan's Room

Here's a shot looking straight into Ryan's new room. Grandma and Grandpa Bayles brought him bunkbeds and a dresser. At the time these pictures were taken, we only had one mattress, but have since picked one up off of freecycle so the bedroom is complete.

This is a shot standing in front of the mirror back toward the closet. The top of his closet is all of the things that he isn't supposed to be touching. We have 2 desks full of empty drawers because we can't put anything in them that Ryan shouldn't be messing with.

Here are the bunk beds (ladder laying across the top bed).

Changing table and dresser.

And here, Ryan is showing you the ladder outside his bedroom door that leads up to the attic. Yes, I let him climb it whenever the heck he wants to. Are you surprised that it was just WALKING that caused him to gash his head open when he's doing things like climbing ladders and going down staircases on his bike all day long?

Amazingly, Ryan has had NO trouble transitioning to sleeping in his own room at night. I thought we'd take a good year to get him comfortable with it, but he acts like it's what we've been doing every day of his life. Whew!