Careful What You Wish For!

My baby sister (who is now going on 19) told me that she really wanted snow just before Thanksgiving. Well...she got what she wished for! We woke up to about 9 inches on Sunday morning. It melted off a little before our "blizzard" last night and now it's supposed to be so cold, I think it's here to stay. Welcome Winter!

Again, the trees still had so many leaves on them that the branches were touching the ground. One pretty good sized branch even broke!

Even though it was Sunday, the kids were soooooooo excited to go out and play in it and make snowmen and build forts. Ah, to be a kid again....I hate being cold now. :)

Blizzard

Last night was supposed to be the biggest storm in 20 years. A huge blizzard was moving in and I must admit, I got caught up in all the warnings too. I ran around stocking up on batteries and making sure we had enough food. I also filled the van with gas, just in case we had to go out and got stuck. I made a big pot of soup, rolls, and cinnamon rolls and then we waited. And waited. It finally blew in just before 6 pm and lasted about 4 hours. We got about 4 inches and it was very windy, but we never had whiteout conditions. We never lost power or heat. It was a fun little storm. The kids were sooo excited!

Jarren, Kendall, and a couple of neighbor boys were out playing in it, while Jenna and Kristen stayed indoors planning their girl sleepover. Kendall and the 2 neighbor boys built a fort out of snow and then added tarps for a roof. They piled sleeping bags and blankets out there, along with hot water bottles and snacks and they hunkered down to SLEEP out there. I was worried we'd wake up and find them all frozen to death or with extreme frostbite. But...they were okay. Around 12:30 or 1, they finally gave up and went indoors. It was a fun experience for them.

Pumpkin Party

Halloween week started out with a trick--a bunch of snow!! We hardly had any leaves down when the snow hit, so that made the branches weigh down. It melted off and we kept the trampoline up for a few more weeks, but luckily got it down before the next big storm.
We had such a busy week during the week leading up to Halloween, that we weren't able to carve pumpkins until about 2 hours before we went trick-or-treating. Kristen was worried about that--we always do it at night, but it was stormy and seemed darker than it really was, so it was all good. I bought one of those pumpkin carving kits last year on clearance, so we used that. Those things are sooo nifty! The pumpkin scooper gets all the goop out so easily and the little knives were handy too. But...they all broke before our pumpkins were carved. I picked up about 6 of them on clearance this year, so hopefully next year will go a little better.

Halloween Part II

Here are the other Halloween pictures....finally!!Kendall dressed up as Justin Bieber for school (he looked like a well-dressed middle schooler), but I didn't get any photos. He tore it off the second he got home--it was levis. So...for Halloween day, he dressed up like a nerd with his friend, Bryce. Pretty funny...We borrowed a dragon costume from my neighbor. Apparently, Jenna thought she had to look up in the photos to make the dragon look more scary. :) It was cute and warm--a good combination for a cool, rainy Halloween night.

Mice

Why is it cartoon mice are so cute? And real mice are so.....creepy? How can such a cute little thing scare me to death? We've caught 4 mice in the last 5 days in our garage. On Saturday, I was taking Kendall and Kristen to get new shoes and Kendall said, "Look! It's a mouse!" I saw a mouse scurrying into a box on the 2nd shelf in the garage. He went and got Jon and Jon tried to catch it, but it ran away. It had been into two boxes (yes, we had to throw some stuff away) and was building a nest under the freezer, next to the motor. We caught one and decided to set the trap again and the bait was gone, but no mouse. So....we knew there was another one. We caught it the next day and tried again and have now caught two babies. I feel awful, but I can't be overrun with mice (dirty, germy, disease-ridden creatures). I just wish they'd go build their house outside of my territory.

Halloween Part I

I think I rant about my camera a little too much, but here I go again. I put newly charged batteries in it (or brand new batteries) and after a few pictures, they're dead. I imagine that camera is sucking all the energy out of those batteries, so it's the camera's fault, not the batteries. That said, I have pictures of half of the Halloween costumes, but the other half will have to wait until the batteries charge so I can get them off the camera.

Kristen decided to be a pirate girl. She wanted her glitter lips (from dance) to go with it and I thought that turned out cute. We got her some new boots for winter (and to go with the costume). She wore them on Friday for the school Halloween parade and party and the zipper ripped out after about 10 minutes. So....we took them back. Of course, they didn't have her size, so she ended up getting some blue boots instead.Jarren decided to be a black rider from Lord of the Rings. I sewed his cape. I made one for Kendall last year, but it was way too big. Then I had to sew two mens larges for our ward play. This one was easy compared to those--a lot less material. Jon made the gloves out of magic gloves and duct tape. Pretty cool....
I usually dress up like either a witch or Princess Leia. This year, I decided to be a hippie. We had Kristen's party and a wedding reception that night (Friday) and I had a headache, so I didn't want to mess with the buns or with dying my hair. I also thought about being a Hawaiian girl, but again, I didn't want to dye my hair. Nice and easy. :) The shirt I'm wearing was actually my mom's from back in the 60s or 70s. It's amazing I still have it...
Stay tuned for pictures of Jenna and Kendall.... And of pumpkin carving....

Party Time

Kristen convinced me (kinda last minute) to let her host a Halloween party on the Friday before Halloween. She invited some girls from school, church, and in the neighborhood. We just did typical party games--something like musical chairs, freeze dance, make your own story, body parts (food that is supposed to be like body parts and they have to guess which food it is), pictionary, ghost stories, decorated cupcakes, and murder in the dark. Did I leave anything out? Probably. But...it seemed like everyone had a fun time and I don't know why I was so hesitant. It really wasn't that bad. :) I only got one picture, since I was so busy helping with the games.