I am a little slow on posting this but oh well.....Halloween Party

As you know by now Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Each year as it comes into sight I ask the kids "do you want to have a Halloween party?" This year Natalie and her kids were going to be in town so I went for it. We had a party.
Everyone dressed up and looked great. We ate dinner,
decorated witches hats (made of cookies and ice cream cones) with frosting and sprinkles.



We bobbed for apples (it got a little out of control :))




And we roasted marshmallows out in the fire pit.
Everyone had a great time.

Happy Friday. The weekends have a whole new meaning now that I work all week. Actually I have to be honest the boys' and I had school off today. I could get used to that :). We cleaned out both of their closets and moved out all the clothes that didn't fit and brought in the long sleeve shirts, sweaters and jackets. It's fall! Although we would not know it. We have been so lucky to have great weather. We were in the 70's all week. Last night I took Whitney to soccer practice at 6:30. It was pitch dark and had been dark for about an hour (daylight saving was this last Sunday) but my car said it was 71 degrees it was Nov. 5Th! It's fantastic isn't it? I could live like this.
Mike, Whitney and Grandpa Laurie are on their way to St. George. Mike and his brother Jim are running a half marathon tomorrow. Landon has a big game tomorrow so we had to stay home. His team made it to the championships. Go Hawks!
So it is just me and the boys. We ran by red box, picked us up some movies then ran by Chick-fil-la to pick up some dinner. We got home and while we were getting out of the car I said "This bag seems pretty little to have all of our dinner in it." That was because it didn't! 2 chicken sandwiches missing. It is to far to drive back but the good thing, they gave me a 12 piece nugget instead of a 8 so we all shared my chicken nuggets and fries. We roll with things around here. OK, Teegan cried for a minute but who can blame him, he was hungry.
The boys' started their movie so my movie time is tickin'. I hope The Women is worth watching.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!
The day is finally here. I am hanging out at home giving out candy to the kiddo's and decided to squeeze a post in between the door bell. I am afraid I am going to run out of candy. I am not sure what I will do then. I would start giving my kids candy away but no one is home yet :).
I always opt to be the one who stays home. I don't know why in fact I don't know if I have ever taken the kids out? You know me I will always choose the warm house over the cold night. Actually we have great weather today. Not sure where it came from it snowed the beginning of the week and has been super cold but tonight is perfect trick or treating weather (just FYI it was also great weather for the football game today. Landon scored a great touchdown). I will never forget the year it snowed like crazy. Big huge flakes. Landon was a big furry dog that year and came home with a foot of snow on his head I swear. I am actually enjoying my time home alone. I have put away all the Halloween decorations, mopped the floor and moved the furniture around, (I seem to do that when the house is picked up, the family is away and I have decorating shows on. I start looking around the house thinking hum what can I change around).
We have partied big time this year. If we had to put our costumes on one more time I don't know if I could take it. It started last Saturday at Grandma Sue's Halloween party, then Sunday we had our own little party (pictures coming soon), Wednesday Trunk or Treat Ward party, Thursday kids school parade and parties plus I dressed up for Bonco that night, Friday Mike's work party and finally tonight. The crazy thing, everyone was something different for each party. Am I the only one who has kids that change costumes like they change clothes? Maybe I am too nice and I just let them but I have to say it gets old. Teegan was dead set on being a motocross rider. Of course I thought that was way to boring but finally gave in, then he changed to a football player, back to motor cross and threw in a vampire about 20 minutes before he went out tonight. Landon was a cheerleader, football player, cheerleader, caveman, football player. Whitney was a football player, caveman and ended up being a 80's workout girl with her friends. I guess as long as they are having fun.
Well, the kids should be coming in to dump out the candy and start shorting out all the good stuff.
Good news I have not run out of candy. Yet.
And I still say Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.

Last weekend we drove up the canyon to collect some fall leaves. It was a gorgeous day and we ended up staying awhile while we explored around. We could not have asked for better weather.



It was so pretty up there. I have never seen such big rocks in my life. The kids had a great time playing on them.



We found a great spot that had little streams that the kids put their feet in (yes it was freezing water but we let them anyway). We usually go up the canyon in the summer when the water is high and we have to stay away from it but this spot might be perfect in the summer. We can't wait to go back once it warms up. Mike says that when he was younger they came up to this spot to swim.




When we were leaving Mike said "it is crazy this place is only 15 minutes from our house and we never come up here"

It was a good day.

October gave a party;

The leaves by hundreds came–

The Chestnuts, Oaks and Maples,

And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet,

And everything was grand,

Miss Weather led the dancing,

Professor Wind the band.

– George Cooper

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go into Landon's class and "brag" about him. Of course it was not hard for me to come up with a long list of great things about him. It is always fun to take some time out to collect pictures and think about what makes them special.
I started by telling them that if I had to choose only a few words to describe him I would have to say throwing, kicking, shooting, catching or bouncing a ball. He is a sports nut! and he usually has a ball in his hands. Sports has been something that has always interested him. Although I would not say he is real aggressive I would say he is competitive. He likes to be good. The hard part is choosing what sport to play. Sports are so intense now that he can't seem to find the time to do it all (plus who can afford it:)? ) Just the other day he was saying that once football is over he would like to go back and play indoor soccer but it is also basketball season so he wants to do both. Then he asks can I take golf lessons????
His favorite food is Orange Chicken. His least favorite, spaghetti.
When he grows up he wants to be a professional sports player. (surprise)
His favorite colors are blue and white.
His favorite vacation is Disneyland. (I voted for the Disney cruise)
His favorite subject in school is math.
I told the kids about his birthday 2 years ago when all he asked for was a cake to be thrown in his face. So we had all the family over and right after they sang happy birthday Mike came around behind him with a small cake and smashed it right in his face. He was so surprised and so was everyone else in the room. No one knew what to do. But Landon is such a good sport he started laughing. It was as much fun as he thought it would be. So this year after we sang to him I had Whitney and Teegan go over next to him for a picture and Whitney reached up and pushed his face in the cake. I think it is our new tradition.

The crazy part was when the kids started asking me questions about him. One girl asked "I would like to know about his crushes. Could you tell us in the past years who he has had a crush on and who he currently has a crush on?" Whoa. This girls means business. I can't tell them that, the list is to long. No, I am kidding. I didn't think we needed to embarrass him that much. But that is all they seemed to want to do. The next question "when was the last time he was scared and came into your bedroom crying at night?" "What is his most embarrassing moment?" "What does he do when your fix spaghetti for dinner?" They were cute kids but they asked some tough questions.
We fixed a cute poster with lots of fun pictures. Indoor skydiving, motorcycle riding, baby pictures, family pictures, it turned out cute.
Landon is a great kid and I am so lucky to have him as my son.

Last Saturday night Sue had her annual Halloween party. She went all out we had Chili, bone bread sticks, mummy hot dogs, grave yard pudding and lots more. The house was decked out and we had a great time.

Am I the only person alive that likes Halloween??? All I hear is grumble,grumble I have to dress up grumble,grumble what will the kids be? If I hear one more person say "I hate Halloween" I might scream. Why is this holiday still around if everyone hates it??? As I just told Whitney the key to it is to not care what you look like and have fun with it. The crazier the better. The more you get into it the funner you will have. Let loose and have fun. It is the one day of the year that you get to go crazy, look silly and get all dressed up. Just give in and have fun.





Now there is someone who knows how to dress up. I guess after 15 years of living with me he figures he doesn't have a choice.

Last Saturday Landon made his first TOUCHDOWN!!!! Then he ran another one and another one. Yes 3 touchdowns in one game! Give that boy the ball. It was so much fun.
I can't say they were perfect, the first hand off he dropped the ball and it bounced back up into his hands and then he ran it in. The last touchdown was a punt return that went over his head, he went back picked it up and made a long run for a touchdown.
It was his game. He also made an interception and had about 8 great kickoffs.
I happened to get this great picture of him running in his second touchdown.