"Marshmallow Cookies"

One afternoon a couple of months ago, Oliver was taking a nap... Gabe was working on some puzzles and I was talking on the phone...

As I was talking I walked outside to take out the garbage- I lingered out on the back patio- the sunshine felt so nice... not sure how long I was outside, couldn't have been more than 5 minutes, maybe 7...

It was long enough for Gabe to get an idea, make and plan and A MESS...  I walked in the house took one look at the scene and before I even had time to get mad... I glanced at my Gabe, there he sat grinning from ear to ear, proud as can be... as he excitedly told me that he was making marshmallow cookies for US to eat.  He said in a shrill little voice "I learned to make them mom -and I just did it!...
I know how to make like you!"

I couldn't crush his moment and honestly the minute I saw his bright eyes and puffed up chest as he showed off his creation the mad was no where to be found!  I just said "Wow.... how did you make them?" Turns out he found an open brownie mix in the pantry dumped it into a bowl added some water from his cup and sprinkled in some marshmallows, also found in the pantry.  He kept stirring it and tasting it... telling me it was delicious... I decided to take his word for it

and that is when the mischief REALLY started with Gabe... late summer!  Since then, there have been markers on the wall, game cards scattered throughout the house, things broken, scissors used, whole rolls of toilet paper unrolled etc... terrible two's?  no way!! THREE is when the terrible happens for my boys... and Gabe has this adorable way of being terrible!

Trick or Treat...

 Our camera broke on Evan's birthday in September... I dropped it!  Since then we have been trying to decide on what camera to purchase to replace it and really, if we could even make the purchase... things have been rough to say the least with this dwindling economy.  the travel industry was especially hit hard... Glen's pay checks have also dwindled... so you know ...great timing!!  You've heard of the saying when it rains it pours... Well it is ture!  The camera fell to the bottom of about 100 other needs :)  but how do you live without a camera... We tried that and it was really sad to know that we were not capturing precious moments so we are eating ramen noodles for every meal this month but have a new camera!  Just kidding it is not quite that bad... yet!  So we decided to try some camera's out... went through 3 that we disliked for various reasons and we finally settled on one that works and will be fine... Happy early Birhtday to Glen I guess!! Anyway so the camera we used for the Halloween pictures was one that we returned - it was not nice and the pictures are also not  nice but hey we have documentation that we did celebrate and party it up this year, just like the rest!  Here is our proof...

This was the first year the Evan and Eli didn't really care much about what they dressed up as... the fifth grade students at school did a Zombie dance to Micheal Jackson's song Thriller.  Instead of trading costumes for the assembly and dance Evan just decided to be a Zombie- it worked out great.  I didn't  have any old clothes that I wanted to shred so Glen picked up a doctor costume on clearance and we turned Evan into a 

Zombie Doctor... pretty spooky huh?

Eli was in love with the new Karate Kid movie that recently came out... after seeing Evan's face paint he debated about being a Karate Zombie but in the end decided to just go with being Karate Kid... He has the moves down and was chopping, punching and kicking like the real deal... He was one awesome karate kid!

 Gabe was the cutest little Buzz Lightyear EVER thanks to my cute friend Brooke.  She called me a few weeks before Halloween and said she had costumes that I could borrow for both of my littlest boys if I was interested.  Of course I said yes and they were adorable.  Gabe loved dressing up as Buzz and wore the costume to our ward Halloween carnival and to preschool but by the time trick or treating came around and he got a chance to sort through our "Halloween box" he decided that he wanted to be a tiger (Evan's old costume that was a size too small...)  It surprisingly fit for the most part and was warm - I didn't have anymore fight left in me - why is Halloween so stressful- too many places to be, things to do... people to dress etc... So I said yes and he was super cute in both costumes of course! 

 While Oliver had a nap Glen took these three spooks out for some trick or treating...

 Oliver woke up and I got him ready to join in on the fun... 

 He was Nemo

Such a cute costume...he wanted nothing to do with the accompanying hat so I decided to spray his hair to look like a fin... he couldn't rip that off!.  The pictures do not even do justice to how cute he was in that round suit... bad camera, poor lighting and a boy who never stops running are all a bad combination for photo's so I am sad about that because seriously he was edible.  Best part was the back - as he would waddle around  the little tail fin swished back and forth, back and forth...it was so so so cute!

We visited grandma Murray who had her trick or treat candy beautifully arranged on a crystal platter... the boys thought it was very fancy of her!  she always adds the grandma touch to everything, making things memorable and special- I love her so much and can't help but feel a tug on my heart everytime we visit.  there is a tremendous absense without grandpa there  I missed hearing him tell the boys how great they looked in their costumes and watching him give each one a hug!  I miss him every minute and I know 

grandma misses him even more! 

Then we went to see my mom and Dad and they gave out the usual capri sun drinks in a big black witches couldron .. the boys look forward to it every year! 

 It was raining and a bit soggy so I stayed at my parents house with Gabriel and Oliver for awhile.  Glen is the worlds greatest Dad and he offered to drive the boys and some of their friends around until they were ready to call it quits which ended up being around 10:30 PM!  

they got a LOT of candy to say the least and they had a great time too! 

Despite all the places to go and people to dress...Halloween IS one of my favorite holidays!  We celebrated all week long.  I have a few more festivities to write about (not to mention about 100 posts to catch up on!) but for now my time is up... Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Walk

We have been helping create a scene at the pumpkin walk since we moved back to Cache Valley 2 1/2 years ago so this was our third year to be part of it. (Click here and here to find out more about what the pumpkin walk is) We do the pumpkin walk with some of our neighbors.  It is so fun to be together as we brainstorm and plan and set up.  They are all very talented people and most of all FUN!! having a bunch of us pull it together makes it doable!  The theme for the Pumpkin Walk this year was "The Magic of Animation"  All of the scene's were really cute this year!  ...Our scene was Madagascar!  One of the best movies ever made!  I love the characters in that movie so it was a really fun to try to re- create them out of pumpkins and gourds, squash, produce etc...

The week just before the walk opens I get stressed... shhhhhh don't tell Sandy- but it is a lot of work!  She is the one who recruited us and she says no one can do it if they are stressed- it is not suppose to stress anyone out- it is just for FUN etc... well that's nice of her to say and all but I do, get a little stressed and I usually end up saying ... "next year I am only doing ONE thing and all I am going to do is make that ONE thing and deliver it... that's it!  I am not going to worry about how my ONE thing looks and the whole set up- I am just going to do the minimum blah blah blah"... Well every year although I feel stress, I just can't do it- I get started and I can't stop!  There is something so magical about the pumpkin walk.  It is challenging and there is this sense of accomplishment in turning stuff from the garden into animals and people and stories... I LOVE it!  It is such a great creative outlet!  the first year we started helping I remember Sandy holding up gourds and turning them in her hand saying this would make the perfect duck or turtle and she'd find leaves for ears and corn cobs for horns.... cat tails for hair...she could just look at produce and get a vision- I thought she was crazy... but now I am getting the crazy too!... I looked at a squash this year and thought that is the prefect head for Melman the giraffe... and it was!  It is just so addicting and FUN.  I am so glad that we get to be a part of it- Glen came every day after work and rigged stuff up and built crates and painted and painted and painted.... so did the boys - I picked them up after school and we headed over to work on the scene...they love it!  I am so glad that my mom was able to babysit  the littles so that we could help again this year. 

...  here is our Madagascar creation...

One half of the scene was the city... at the zoo and then the other half was in Madagascar.  In the zoo above is Alex the lion, Marty on his treadmill and the penguins (my favorite!)

 Over in Madagascar there was ... the statue of Gloria (that they built on the movie), King Julian and his sidekicks, Melman, the little old MEAN lady with her purse, and the monkeys

 I  signed up to make the monkeys , they were my ONE thing 

but I told you how that goes...

 Pretty cute if you ask me and it was about 100 times better in real life!  It was a lot of work this year, we were sort of short handed... but there is nothing better to do mid October....want to help next year? 
Let us know...We will be there!