Tartan Trunk or Treat...2011

Yesterday afternoon my boys participated in the their school's annual costume parade/trunk or treat. They were both really excited to do this again for the fact that they got to wear their costumes...finally!

The costume parade was inside the school and the trunk or treat was out on the blacktop. While we waited for the kids to come out and get some candy, Jaedyn played on the playground. She was very happy doing this. She even did a little dancing and singing (there was music playing over some speakers) for me...it was so cute!

Jantzen's class finally came out, he decided to be a ninja this year. It was very windy and that was really bugging him, but he survived.

Here's Jantzen with one of his friends, Davonte...

...and here he is with his teacher, Mrs. Straw-guse...

Jantzen got to go around to several cars and get a lot of candy...he was so happy!

(Top left: Mrs. Braegger-principle, Top right: Mrs. McKoy-counselor; Bottom left: Coach Snow-PE teacher, Bottom right: Mrs. DeBeer-Jaron's teacher from last year)

After Jantzen's class got done trick or treating, they all sat down and were able to enjoy some candy. I love how Jantzen lifted his mask on his head so he could enjoy a sucker. The wind made it a little difficult for him though. It kept blowing his mask over his face, but that didn't stop him from eating his sucker.

I got a quick picture of Jantzen with his whole class before they went back to class...

We had to wait a while before Jaron came out because the 5th graders were last in the parade. Jaron decided this year to be "Ghost Face" from the movie "Scream". When he came out, Jaedyn was super happy to see him. She yelled out, "Honey!". It was cute how she knew which kid Jaron was with his costume on. I tried to get her to pose with him for a picture, but she wouldn't do it, I think his mask freaked her out a little.

Here's Jaron with a couple of his friends, Robert and Ethan...

Jaron chatted with his friends while he waited to get some candy...

Finally Jaron got some candy (from Mrs. Braegger)...

Jaron quickly went around to all the cars and got a lot of candy, just like Jantz did. His class didn't get to sit down and eat some candy because they were the last ones out, they went back to class and that's where I got a picture of all of them. His class is HUGE...can you find Jaron?

The boys had a lot of fun again this year during the costume parade and trunk or treat. Lucky for them, this was the first of three times they were going to get to trick or treat.

"Where's Jaedyn?"...

"Where's Jaedyn? I can't find her!"...

"Wait, I think I see something"...

"There she is!"...

Josh and I went to Target yesterday to find some stuff for our Halloween costumes and Jaedyn decided to have a little fun of her own. She loves to play "hide and seek" in the clothes anytime we're at a store. This time it wasn't just a game of "hide and seek" though, she also used it as a potty break. That's right, she decided to do a stinky in her diaper. Needless to say, we had to hurry and find what we needed so we could leave.

"Spooky Dinner"...Take 4

Yesterday we had our fourth and final week of spooky dinners. On this weeks menu was "Worms on a bun" with blood to dip them in, "dried bats and pumpkin skins" with "goblin guts", "pumpkin puke", and "goblin puke" to dip them in...


...some "spider dip"...


..."candy corn cupcakes" for dessert...


...and some "blood" (Jantzen's request) to wash it all down...


I got a picture of all my kids enjoying their worms. I love this one of Jaron, it looks like the worm was trying to crawl up his nose...


Jantzen added a little bit of blood on his worms before he ate them...


Jaedyn tried sucking her worms up, but found out that it was a little more difficult than she thought...


I think Jantzen drank a little too much "blood", it was all over his mouth...


The "candy corn cupcakes" were a hit with all the kids, they loved them.


I'm not sure what's going on with Jaron's face in this picture. I guess he's just really enjoying this cupcake. I never thought I'd see him eat any kind of cake that wasn't chocolate, but he ate two of these cupcakes!


I asked Jaedyn to smile and say cheese for the camera and this is what I got...a shot of her chewed up candy corn...


It was really cute watching her enjoy her cupcake, she was so dainty about it...


She even tried to give me a frosting kiss...she's too cute!


Next week on Halloween we'll just be having our traditional chili and rolls for dinner, so nothing spooky then. My kids were a little sad that this was the last of our Halloween themed dinners, but they're looking forward to doing this all over next year.

"Make a Difference Day"...2011

Last Saturday morning I woke up and headed downtown for this years "Make a Difference Day". This is a day where people in their communities get together to help serve others in various different ways. Josh worked overnight and didn't get home until 6am and had to be back to work at 2pm, so he went to bed and I went by myself (my kids had a sleepover at their cousins house).

I got involved in this through my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and I thought it was a great opportunity to give back to my community. My ward was assigned to a vacant lot that used to be a trailer park, but is now used by many homeless people as a sleeping area. We had the task of cleaning this lot up. This included digging up weeds and bushes (huge ones), and cleaning up all the trash...and there was a LOT of it! We came across many things, some gross and others even grosser (word/sp?). A couple people were lucky and found money...me, I just found lots of shoes, undies, and some other things I don't want to mention.

I stayed for about three hours and got a lot of the area cleaned up. It wasn't an easy job getting this place clean. Some of the bushes I picked up were as big as me and I ended up leaving with many scratches and a rash on my arms (next time I'll remember to wear long sleeves), but I also left with a good feeling knowing that giving up a part of my weekend was making a part of this city look a little better. Next year I'll bring my kids with me so they can learn how good it feels to serve and know the blessings that come with it.

I was lucky to be able to serve with some of my friends, it made the morning's work fun. I forgot my camera, but luckily Mary remembered hers. Here's some pictures she took for me...

(from left: Taryn, me, Mary)

This is one of Mary's cute little boys. He found this sign while we were cleaning up...his facial expression is too cute! It does make me feel bad though for kids that really have to live this way. I pray that our Heavenly Father will watch over them every day.

In my mind and my heart it felt so good to help out with cleaning up this part of town, but my body wasn't too happy about it the next day. My muscles ached for hours, I felt as though I was an elderly person already...the good feelings make it all worth it though.

Big Kids Halloween Party

On Friday night I went to a Halloween party that was just for adults with some friends from my ward. I was so exited when I got the invitation because I love Halloween and I was bound and determined to convince Josh to go with me...and make him dress up! After begging for a little bit, I actually got him to agree to dress up and go with me. For those of you who know Josh, you know this wasn't an easy thing to do because he hates to dress up for anything, especially Halloween, and he's never dressed up since I've known him. We looked at several costumes and I gave him a lot of ideas, but nothing caught his eye. He finally agreed that if we couldn't come up with a costume that he'd be Ceasar. That's right, not only did I convince him to dress up, he said he'd be Ceasar!

As the party got closer Josh's work schedule started changing. He found out that he was going to have to work that night just a couple days before. Then it changed again...he wasn't working, then he was working, and so on. The final verdict was that he had to work all night, I was super bummed, but I decided to go anyway...by myself...as a dateless loser geek! I did find a date at the last minute though, Lara came with me as a geek too. Don't we look so cute? Wouldn't you want to date us?...I know, I look super scary and the fact that I am wearing scrunchies that I had as a young girl is pretty scary too!


This is me (I'm loving how high I have my skirt hiked) and Lara with Jessica and Nate (he was having a contraction at the same moment that this picture was taken)...


Here's Adam and Sandy with Rikki and Todd...


Here's Michelle and Jason with Kelly and Mary...


Here's Will and Katie with Calie and Cody...


This was our group of gnomes, John and Chelsea with Julie and Brad...


Here's Adam and Natalie with Jenesee and Scott...


When I first got there everyone was eating. I enjoyed a super yummy chicken taco soup, courtesy of Julie. After we all ate, we hung out and chatted for a while. We were given a small piece of paper that was worth 5 points and another piece of paper to keep a record of our points on throughout the night. The paper with the 5 points was for us to give to the person that we thought had the best costume on. I convinced Mary (who was Jane Fonda) to do an exercise pose for me and she was a good sport and did it (top left pic). I gave her my 5 points because she was totally rockin' her costume. Cody and Calie (top right pic) gave me a fun "Danny and Sandy" pose, and Lara took a picture of Todd and Rikki (bottom pic) while we were playing some games.


There were a few games we played. The first one was a dart game where we had to pop balloons with points inside them. I really sucked at this game...I didn't hit a single balloon. Will took pitty on me and just gave me some points. Another game we played was a Halloween "Scene It" where we watched clips from different Halloween themed movies and then we had to answer questions after. It was fun and I didn't do too bad, but I didn't win...:(

Another game we played was "Halloween Family Feud". Again, I had fun. We added up our points and the person with the two highest amounts won a prize...it wasn't me...:(

(Here's Brad and Julie being our lovely hosts for the family feud game)...


After the games were over, we chatted for a while and took some group pictures. Here's all the girls together...


...and here's all the guys together...


Before I left, I caught gnome Brad sitting down with a plate of caramel brownies resting on his tummy. It was funny watching him eat these because he was having a hard time sticking them in his mouth with his beard, but he got one in.


I had a really fun night despite the fact that Josh wasn't there with me. He told me he owes me now and I've already decided what he's going to do. Next year I told him that we're dressing up as Raggedy Ann and Andy and I told him that he has a year to ponder it...he didn't seem too excited!

"Red Ribbon Week" Dress Code...

This week was "Red Ribbon Week" at the boys' school. Each day they got to dress differently to pledge to be DRUG FREE. On Monday they got to wear a sports team shirt, Jaron wore his Kevin Windham shirt (he's a Supercross racer for those of you who have no idea who he is) and Jantzen wore his primary t-ball shirt (yeah, it's the one he fell down on the street in during the rain and stained it...I didn't realize that until we were halfway to school). On Tuesday it was wear red day, they both wore a red shirt. I didn't get any pictures of the boys on those two days because I didn't think they were anything super special. The other days were a different story...

On Wednesday it was "Wear a Silly Hat" day. Jantzen was all excited about this day, he chose to wear his Mickey ears he got from Disneyland. Jaron was a little bit of a party pooper on this one, he refused to wear his Mickey ears. Instead, he wore his Ricky Carmichael hat with his matching shirt (Yes, he's another Supercross racer). Don't you love the punk smile Jaron's giving in this picture?...He's so much like his dad!

Thursday was "Crazy Hair" day. I really tried to convince my boys to let me spray some color in their hair, but they both refused. Instead, we made their hair look as messy as we could. It was a little harder on Jantzen's hair because his hair is so thick and curly, but we managed to get it up a little with a lot of gel and hairspray. Jaron's hair kind of already looks like this when he wakes up in the morning. I just added some pomade, gel, hairspray, a little teasing, and a blow dryer to help it out a little. He wasn't too happy that I made it high and he kept trying to flatten it. I thought they both looked cute though. Next time I'll just add color without their permission.

Friday was "Pajama" day. This is their favorite day because they get to just wake up in the morning and go. Jantzen was excited to wear his "Star Wars" pj's. I tried to get Jaron to wear his "Phineas and Ferb" pj's, but again, he was being a bit of a party pooper and wouldn't do it. He likes to sleep in shorts and a t-shirt.

I like that the school lets the kids have fun during these special weeks, they really enjoy it. Both Jaron and Jantzen have pledged to be DRUG FREE their whole lives...they're such good boys!!

"Spooky Dinner"...Take 3

Yesterday was the third week of our "spooky" dinners. On this weeks menu was "monster fingers" (chicken dipped in Shake'n Bake with pepperoni fingernails), "baby goblin toes" (green beans with sliced almonds for fingernails), and "maggots" (rice)...


...for dessert we had "Oreo spiders"...


...and this week we washed it all down with some "swamp juice" (lime sherbet and Sprite)...


The kids all loved dinner, but I think they loved the dessert the best. They all even had a little fun with their spiders...




Jaedyn just examined hers a little bit, then she decided to bite it's head off (she's not as dramatic as her brothers are).




It was another successful "spooky dinner". The kids ate everything, especially the spiders, there were none left! I don't know what the kids are going to do when we're all done having dinners like this every week. I'm going to have to come up with something else fun to do.