2nd Annual Halloween Party

Terri and I decided to have another Halloween Party after a couple of people were asking us about it. We had it this past Friday night and it was a lot of fun! We had some of the same people come and even some new couples that couldn't come last year. We had it at my house again and Terri came up with the game. We played the Newlywed game and it was so funny--we laughed and laughed. You really do learn a lot about people in that game--such funny people! The contestantst were Tim and Tonya Kelley, Myra and Reed Christensen, Garrett and I and Julie and Sheldon Olsen. The snacks and desserts were yummy and the company was great. The costumes were fun this year--it's so fun to see what ideas people come up with. We also had a costume contest for the best male and female costume. Believe it or not, but Garrett and I won this year. And, no it wasn't rigged just because it was at our house; despite what the tooth fairy thinks. :)

Brian--Korean dude and Sydette--Korean field worker

Julie--Wicked Witch and Sheldon--her monkey

Myra--gypsy, I think and Reed--Obi Wan Kenobi

Renita--Spirit of halloween and Dave--his son Kenny on a mission

Randy--jock boyfriend and Beth--80's prom queen

Rockelle and Sean--papparazzi

Tom--vet and Heidi--pregnant kitty

Terri--spa day lady and Aaron--Tooth Fairy

Tonya--Princess and Tim-- and the Pea

Garrett--mullett white trash and Mindy--pregnant white trash

Mike and Kate were there also, I guess I forgot to take their picture. Sorry guys! (They were twin Intel employees.)
Thanks everyone for coming!

Primary Program

I am the secretary in the primary in our ward and I absolutely love it. I think it is one of the best callings I've had. I think it's mostly due to the great ladies that I work with in the presidency. I really enjoy working with them and we all bring different strengths and talents to the table. We really have fun together, too!

Anyways, we've been working on our primary program for awhile now and we finally had it yesterday. We were really stressed about it because for all the practices that we had, a lot of the kids couldn't come because of all the swine flu cases going around. A LOT! We even recently had to switch parts around and the seating chart, too due to the fact that 10 or so kids weren't going to be able to make it to the program. We were also worried that the program wasn't going to be long enough due to all the sick kids. But, one thing I've learned this year (and that I need to remember for next year) is that Heavenly Father blesses us for our hard work and blesses all those little kids who work so hard and that the program always, miraculously turns out WONDERFULLY, just as ours did yesterday. A lot of the kids were able to be there, (some were still sick, sadly) most of them had their parts memorized, and they sang each song beautifully like a choir of angels. As the kids were singing their first song, before any of the parts were spoken...I started tearing up and I felt the spirit so strong. I knew that Heavenly Father would bless these children for all their efforts. I really love being in primary, even though I don't always get to be in with the kids. Just being able to be a part of it is so rewarding.

Funny Bones

For family home evening the other night, Garrett gave a great lesson on Jesus Christ coming to the Americas. He always does such a great job on the lessons, even on short notice. Anyways, it was my turn to come up with an activity, and so I wanted to play this game that we had when we were growing up that we used to play a lot at family reunions and such. I remember it was always really funny! (by the way, this has nothing to do with Garrett's lesson--just wanted to introduce why we were playing this game).

So, the game is called Funny Bones and they don't make it anymore (it was made in 1968), so I went to ebay and actually found a few used copies for sale and bought one. I had wanted to take it to my family reunion in August, but it didn't arrive in time. So we played it for the first time at FHE. My girls weren't too sure about it, but in the end they were all giggling. Here's a description of the game:

Similar to Twister except that instead of a mat, you use labeled oversized cards which "join" partners' elbows, heads, legs, or feet. Partners take turns drawing cards which identify the body parts to join and the partners must do so without causing existing cards to drop. The card must be kept between the two body parts at all times. If a card is allowed to fall, the partners are eliminated.

So, here we are playing Funny Bones:

Good times!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Paige's preschool had a field trip to Lake View Farms last Friday. Since the other girls had school off that day, they came with us. I've never taken all the kids to the pumpkin patch by myself before--Garrett usually comes. But, he had to work. It sure was difficult without him. It was fun, but it was raining half the time we were there, which kind of makes things a little bit harder. Plus, I really do like Lake view farms, but we go there EVERY year and I'm really kind of sick of it. I was hoping to get to a different patch this year, but it just didn't work out.

Lyd and Paige on the boat

So, we took the boat ride out and then started to make our way through the muddy patch and try to find a small enough pumpkins that the girls could carry themselves, since I was already carrying Bella (who did NOT want to get down).

Bella not wanting to be set down, and not wanting her picture taken.

I was really kind of disappointed because MOST of their pumpkins were already rotting and we really had to HUNT to find decent pumpkins. We brought grocery sacks to carry the pumpkins in and Lydia and Maggie were so great to help me carry all the pumpkins. It finally stopped raining and we were able to go and play on the hay piles and go through the maze.

It was so cute--Paige came running over to Bella to hold her hand and walk her over to the hay maze.

Trying to find their way out.

Bella found a short cut!

We rode the train back and Bella liked that. That is until I got out to take a picture and she thought I was leaving her and she started bawling. Poor thing!

All in all, it was a success. We found some pumpkins, and the kids have a great time, no matter what.    

Lydia's new look

So, in order to give Lydia a good head start on growing out her bangs (the third attempt), we decided to chop off her hair, so her bangs don't have so far to grow. Plus, Garrett and I love short hair on her. So, this is her new look...we all think she's adorable!

A Fun Age

Bella's just about to be 1 1/2!! Yay for nursery! :) I really do love this age and not just because of nursery. I love that she understands us more and that she communicates a little more and because she is so playful and interested in learning new things.

Bella's new words are: cheese, horse, no, drink, momma, daddy, bye, up and uh-oh. There may be a couple more that I can't think of right now. And none of these are said perfectly either, just in her cute little way.

Her favorite things right now are baby dolls, horses and dogs and purses. If she's not carrying around a baby doll, then she carries around bags/purses. And not just one bag, it's usually four or five. She puts various toys/items in these bags and carries them around the house and usually waves bye to people. She also loves taking my handtowels out of the kitchen and carrying them around the house, too. Sometimes she wraps her babies up in the towels and kisses their head. She is just so cute. And she is so happy all the time.

Not a very good picture, but she's got a couple of bags on her arm.

Bella and her babies.

Carrying around her baby and some hand towels.

This is just a cute video of Bella getting tickled and her cute giggling.

Lydia's Award

We received a letter in the mail from Lydia's school saying that she won an award in her class for demonstrating the character trait, Responsibility. This is a school wide thing that they do. Each month is a different trait and September's was responsibility. They pick one student from each class. The other traits are respect, safety, honesty, patriotism and some other ones, but Maggie can't remember them all right now.

This morning they had an assembly at school to hand out all the awards. Here's some pictures of Lydia and her award. I was so proud of her for earning this. She really has become more responsible lately, and not just at school. Way to go Lydia!

Garrett's new calling

Garrett got a second calling a couple of weeks ago. He's a team teacher for gospel doctrine and now they called him to work with the cubscouts as the Cubmaster. I think it kind of shocked him. He hasn't been in scouts since he was a scout, so he had to review how it all worked. He jumped right in though and put together his first pack meeting. He made it the theme of race cars and the boys were supposed to make their own cardboard boxes to wear and race. He made some the morning of the pack meeting before he went to work and he came up with a great "truck". I tried to take a few pictures, but it looks better in person. Anyways, I think the boys had fun (Garrett, too). He really wants to get them (and their parents) excited about scouts. I think he's going to do an awesome job. He always puts 110% into everything that he does!