Halloween Tricks and Treats!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Halloween is definitely one of the funner holidays. You get to dress up...

...eat candy, and make all sorts of crazy/spooky concoctions to eat. This year, I went all out. I made our cute Flintstones costumes and we had a week of Halloween dinners and treats.
Sunday the 24th, we had Eye Ball Soup! This was butternut squash soup with gnocchi pasta and we can't forget the spooky cat and pumpkin Parmesan toasts. Russell and I really liked the soup but Emily thought it was the worst food in the whole world! We basically had to make her eat it. It's a good thing she didn't have to chew anything or we would still be sitting at the table today trying to get her to eat. (If she doesn't like something, she will just hold it in her mouth forever and never chews it. There have been times that we have looked in her mouth hours later and she still has that last bite of dinner in her mouth.)

The next night, Monday the 25th, we had Jack-O-Lantern Ham and Cheese melts. These were really good too (Emily even ate hers!). We also had some left over Eye Ball Soup so I warmed it up too. When Emily saw it on the table, she started bawling "NO SOUP, NO SOUP!" The funniest part though was when she was saying the dinner prayer. She said "Bless food, not soup!" She wanted everything else blessed but not the yucky soup! Russell and I couldn't help laughing during the prayer and all through the meal. Needless to say I didn't give Emily any of the soup. Tuesday the 26th, we had Mummy Pizzas. Another good choice. These mini pizzas are made on English Muffins and the cheese is actually String Cheese so it has that wrapped look. Very Good!

Wednesday, the 27th, I made Monster Meatball soup with spooky Parmesan toasts. I even put Halloween shaped pasta in it for an added effect. This had to be our favorite Halloween dish. We all had seconds. The soup was also super easy to make so it is definitely one to have again anytime of the year.
And you can't forget the pumpkin! We had Pumpkin Ginger Waffles Saturday morning. They were very good too! I had never made waffles from scratch before, I usually just use the boxed pancake mix, but this was very easy and good. Definitely one to have again.

Then you have to have Pumpkin Ice Cream this time of year! It is so good. The only bad thing about Pumpkin ice cream is it is really rich so you can only have one scoop or so before you have had enough!

I have wanted to try to make Dinner in a Pumpkin for about a year. I searched the Internet for a good recipe and I was surprised at how many came up. I chose a recipe that had simple ingredients and tried it out. It turned out really good; actually better than I thought it would be! The picture makes it kind of look like someone puked in the pumpkin but it really was good. I think I am going to make this dish a tradition for Halloween for the years to come.

I made these cute Spooky Skeleton cupcakes on Thursday. They turned out pretty cute I think. I took they to work on Friday and everyone raved about them. They said they were too cute to eat but they ate them anyway! Emily loved eating them too. The picture above is what she looked like after she ate one. Very sticky! We gave a few to my dad for his birthday too.

Friday the 29th, our ward had a Trunk or Treat at our church building. Emily was a little timid on the whole concept of Trick or Treating. She wasn't sure if it was okay to take the candy from the people. Russell kept telling her it was all right. The Trunk or Treat was also a fundraiser for our Young Women so they cooked a "Spook"getti dinner for us. Russell and I had an opportunity to serve by helping with the dinner. Russell helped set up the tables and chairs and I cooked up 10 lbs of spaghetti noodles. The Young Women leader in charge of this just had her gall bladder taken out so she couldn't do much so it was good to help her out. The leader is also our bishop's wife and later at the Trunk or Treat, he came up to us and thanked us so much for helping her. We figured it was the least we could do to thank our great ward for these last two years! During the dinner, the costume contest was judged. We won the "Cutest Costume" award for our Flintstones costumes! It was really fun. We will definitely miss this ward. I am sad to leave.

On our way home from the Trunk or Treat, we were passed by this vehicle...

That's right, The OSCAR MAYER WEINERMOBILE!!!!

When we drove passed it, it was even playing the song out loud speakers! I made Russell flip around and follow it so we could get a picture of it. The Weinermobile stopped in front of a house on Del Mar in Bloomington. I guess the people there had reserved it from LA for a birthday party. We decided to stop and kind of crash the party so we could get a picture with the Weinermobile too! The people didn't seem to care, they even told us to come look inside but we didn't want to crash the party any more so took our pictures and left. It was so COOL! Emily called it the hot dog car. Definitely a good treat for Halloween!

Saturday the 30th, we went to Russell's parents' Trunk or Treat. Emily did a lot better at this Trunk or Treat. She walked from car to car basically on her own and would yell Trick or Treat to each person handing out candy. She would nicely pick out one piece of candy (either a sucker or M&M's) and put it in her little bag and walk to the next car saying "Come on Mama, trick or treat!" One guy gave Emily a Tootsie Roll. Emily took it and then turned to me and said,"This Ucky cangy mom!" We were right in front of the guy that gave it to her so I had to keep a straight face as I told her, "No it's yummy put it in your bag!" As we walked away, I couldn't help but laugh so hard inside! It is definitely true that kids say the darnedest things!

After the Trunk or Treat, we went over to my parent's house for more Trick or Treating. Emily loved Trick or Treating, she especially loved all the CANDY. She probably ate more candy in the last few days than she has her whole life! When she woke up this morning, I asked her what she wanted for breakfast and she ran to her Trick or Treat bag and brought it to me and said she wanted "Trick or Treat for brefas." I told her couldn't have candy for breakfast and she was kind of mad!

Here is our scary pumpkin! We carved it Saturday morning and Emily wanted nothing to do with touching the guts. The funniest thing is that last year, she dug right in and even tried to eat the guts but this year she wouldn't even put her hand in the pumpkin. What a sissy! As you can see from the picture she tried to hide every time we tried to get here to touch the pumpkin. It was so funny!

We had a great time celebrating Halloween this year. Now we are looking forward to gaining a million pounds and rotting our teeth from eating all of our candy.

Primary Program DONE!

Our Primary Program was on October 24 this year. The kids did really well and I got a lot of complements afterward from the members of the ward. Many of them said it was the best program they had ever seen, others asked me how I got them to sing so well, and everyone said the Primary Program was their favorite Sacrament Meeting of the year. In reply, I just smiled and said "They did a great job today, I am really proud of them." I have figured out after two years that it doesn't matter how much you practice and how much you stress over this Program, the kids always pull it off better than you can imagine! During the practice on Saturday, the kids would not sing at all no matter what I did but I knew that once they were in front of their parents and the other ward members, they would shine and they did. During the song "I Know My Savior Loves Me" I almost teared up because they were singing so strongly and you could feel the Spirit in the message of that song. Our Primary President was crying during the song and I couldn't look at her or I would have started crying too. In all the Program was a huge success!

Here are all of my Primary kids! After the Program, we all went outside and had cookies and took pictures for next year. These kids really are great kids and I am going to miss them. We just moved into a new place so we will no longer be in this ward. This has been a great ward and we will miss everyone in it especially the great friends we have made. I have really enjoyed my calling as the Primary Music Leader and am kind of sad to leave. I really dreaded this calling when I was first called but I have come to love it as well as the kids. The new ward we are moving into is actually the St. George 4th ward, the one we moved out of when we moved to Bloomington. We are excited to be coming back to this ward but sad to leave the ward we are in. There are a lot of familiar faces though as well as some new people. There is actually 2 nurseries in this new ward which will be a lot different than the 2 kids in our current ward's nursery! It will be interesting to see where we will fit into our new ward and what callings we will get. I'll keep you updated.

Meet the Flintstones!

This year for Halloween I made costumes for all three of us. We are the Flintstones! Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles.

I think the costumes turned out pretty cute. My Wilma costume looks kind of funny but it works. I have wanted to make these costumes for Halloween ever since Emily was born but I never did get around to it. I figured if I don't do it this year I can't ever do it because next year we will have another baby so the theme won't work. Our ward is giving out awards for the best costumes this year at our Trunk or Treat so I am hoping we will win something. We will have to see on Friday.

This year my mom held her annual Halloween party on Saturday October 23. There were a lot of fun games, cool and scary costumes, candy, and yummy food.

Terral and her girls were '50s poodle skirt girls. Justin and Drew didn't come to the party until later because they were deer hunting with Chad and my dad. It is Justin's first time hunting and he was the only one that drew out this year.

The Hughes' had really cute costumes this year. Lacie worked hard all night to make the awesome Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head costumes for Jacee and Becca. I think they turned out really good. Tyrel and Taylor were also Toy Story characters Woody and Jessie. Baby Tyler was a Doctor in Training and Lacie was a doctor too.

The scariest costume of all was Jared in his zombie costume. He scared all of the little kids so bad that Tyrel and Emily wouldn't even stay in the house let alone the same room as him. We made him take off his costume during the party. Jacob was a cool pirate this year. I don't know where Jess and Josh were in this picture.

The Morwood's also had fun costumes. Chelsie was an '80s girl, Cassie was a devil angel, Braden was Indiana Jones and Jason was Darth Vader.

After pictures, the games began. Russell and I did our game first. We called it Trick or Treat. The kids had to do certain tricks in order to get treats. Jess had the best trick. She had to do her best impression of Michael Jackson singing "Thriller." We laughed and laughed as she did her dance.

We also played Halloween Pictionary that the boys won. Then we had a Halloween cake walk that Emily won! Emily's favorite game was throwing the pumpkins in the cauldron. She wanted to do it all by herself and she actually made a few in the cauldron.

Emily especially liked decorating Halloween cookies. Okay mostly she liked eating the frosting! Needless to say, none of the kids were too hungry for dinner after eating all of the treats and cookies. The party was really fun and we love being with family. Emily was especially looking forward to the party all day because she wanted to see her cousins. She loves her cousins! Thanks for the great party!

Staheli Corn Maze

Thursday, October 21 we went to the Staheli Family Farm to get lost in their Corn Maze. It was a lot of fun. We originally planned to go on Wednesday but when we got to the farm, the sky was completely full of black rain clouds. Then lightening was striking all around us so we decided this was not the best night to go to the Corn Maze. That same night, Tyler, Russell's brother, was going to the Corn Maze with his Young Men's group. The group had already bought tickets so they went ahead and went to the Maze. We told Tyler to have fun in the rain! and then we left. By the time we got out of Washington Fields (not less than 10 minutes) it started raining and I mean pouring! We were glad we didn't stay. When we got home, Russell called his dad to see if Tyler had gotten rained out and his dad said they were only out there for like 20 minutes before it started pouring. Luckily the ward was able to get a refund so they can go back another time. Needless to say we were glad we left. Thursday was much better with not a cloud in the sky, but there was a lot of mud!

We got tickets to the Corn Maze as well as all of the activities at the Farmville. Emily loved the mini maze for kids. She running around the maze saying "This way mom, this way!" Finally we found the exit and she was off to more activities. Next we came to the "Redneck Trampoline." We had to take a picture by it because it was so funny. The trampolines were just old mattresses. Unfortunately they were soaking wet from the rain so we didn't jump on them.

Next we came to the tether ball stands. Emily liked to hit the ball to us and then have us hit it back to her. Russell was a real cowboy for the day. Here he is practising his roping skills. He actually did pretty good. He was able to rope the "cow" each time he tried. Yeehaw!

After roping, we raced our ducks down the gutter. Emily and I won I think, but if not I am saying we did! Emily liked this a lot mostly because she loves playing in water. She was mad at me because I wouldn't let her play in the yucky, cold water.

We also had fun playing on the playground. Emily thought she was really big by climbing up the steps to the corn slide all by herself but when she got to the top, she didn't know how to go down the slide because it was bigger that the ones at the park. We kept telling her to go down but she couldn't finally Russell went up to help her. She flew down the slide a little too fast for her liking, I guess, because she didn't want to go down it again which is really strange for her because she loves slides. Instead of going back down the steps, Russell decided to be a kid too and went down the big slide. He said it was really fun! She also liked the titter-totter and sang the titter-totter song the whole time we were on it.

The other really fun thing on the playground was the merry-go-round. We put Emily on this thinking they would just walk around in a circle but no, the kid pushing it ran around making the merry-go-round go really fast! I was so glad that Emily held on tight and didn't fall off! She had fun on it even though I was having a nervous breakdown hoping she wouldn't fall off.

After playing on the playground for a while, we walked through the farm and saw all of the animals. We saw chickens, turkeys, rabbits, pigs, goats, sheep, a donkey, llama, horses, and cows. Emily saw a bull near the fence so she ran up to it, just then the bull mooed at her and she stopped dead in her tracks because it startled to so much. I don't know what was going on with this bull but he kept mooing at us like he was telling us to go away or something. It was pretty funny actually. We also watched the pig races which was definitely fun.

Then we were off to the Maze...

We piled on to the hay wagon with all of the other visitors and got trucked to the Maze to get lost. Which we did...for about two hours! The Corn Maze this year was actually four mazes in one. It consisted of a tractor, a spider web, a corn cob, and a pumpkin. We went through the tractor maze first. This is the one we got lost in. We just kept going round in circles forever and we couldn't find our way out! Finally we got really annoyed at ourselves because we could see the exit but we couldn't get there so we cut our own little path through the corn to get on the right road to the exit (I know it is cheating but don't tell!) Next we when through the Spider Web maze. This one was much easier because we used our map and there were not as many circular trails! We were in and out of this one pretty quickly. Next we went through the Corn Cob maze. By this time we had learned how to use our map and could mark off where we had been so we were able to finish this maze too. We were going to go through the pumpkin maze next but it was starting to get late so we decided to head home.

Emily really liked the Corn Maze. She was really cute too, she had her own little flashlight and ran around the corn lighting the way for us. Then she got tired of walking so Russell had to carry her but she still had to have her flashlight on lighting the way. The Corn Maze was really fun this year but it was also really muddy from the rain. Our shoes and pants were covered in mud by the time we were done.

After going through the Maze, we rode back to the Farm and Emily rode on the little tractor while we got popcorn and churros for a snack. We had a lot of fun at the Corn Maze and we really enjoyed being together as a family!

Justin's Birthday and Ordination

October 17 was our nephew, Justin's, 14th birthday. I can't believe he is getting that old! I remember when he was born and I used to babysit him almost everyday during the summers. Sunday he was ordained to the office of a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. It was nice to see this ordination and see him progress in the church.

Above are pictures of Justin and all of the preisthood members in my family (and his bishop), and all of the cousins. It is exciting to see all of these kids grow up.

After the ordination, we all headed over to Justin's house for a birthday party dinner. We had dinner, cake & ice cream and Justin opened presents. His favorite gift was his first cell phone! Happy Birthday Justin and Congratulations on your advancement in the priesthood!

It's a BOY!!!

That's right Emily is going to have a little brother to play with soon. I always knew it was a boy so I wasn't really surprised but it is nice to have the confirmation from the doctor. Russell is really happy. He is walking around every where showing off his SON! I wonder what he will be like when the baby is actually here. Okay to be honest he did the same thing with Emily. We are all really excited. We took Emily to the ultrasound with us so she could see her Baby Apple too. She was really good but was kind of scared for me when Russell told her I was going to see the doctor. I think she thought I was going to get a shot or something. She is not a big fan of doctors. I love ultrasounds because they make the pregnancy so much more real because you can see the baby. The doctor said everything looked perfect and I am measuring right on. During the ultrasound, my doctor was called out to deliver a baby so we had to wait a little while. When he came back he said the baby was a 9 lb 5oz boy! So when he said we were having a boy, I said I hope he's not going to be 9 lbs! The doctor just laughed and said we'll see. So far the baby weighs 11 oz according to his measurements.

Here's my big belly at 20 weeks... Once again I want to say we are way excited but now we have to come up with some cute boy names which may be really hard because we cannot agree on any. Does anyone have any suggestions?