Halloween 2012

Some Halloween fun. The boys love the minions from Despicable Me. There is a trailer for the new video that is at the beginning of a few movies they've seen and it makes them laugh so hard. The minions sing "banana" to the Beach Boys "Barbra Ann." It's pretty funny. There are a few other YouTube clips that they love to watch too. Since they were so into it, especially Cole, I decided he should be a minion for Halloween. I made his costume from a yellow shirt, found the perfect goggles online for pretty cheap, and then sprayed them silver. Everything else we had laying around. I did use a bike helmet to make him have a large domed head but he wasn't a fan after the first time, but I think it actually looked better without it. Oops! I thought we could carve our pumpkins into minions but then I had a better idea to use spaghetti squash. Neal and Marcia grew about 60 squash so I stole 4 of them to make my minions. I just painted them like the guys from the banana song video. They were quite the hit. The boys love them and Cole sings the banana song every time he sees them. Kade and Clint didn't want to be minions. They are in the COOL costume stage. It all started back in August when we got a Costume Catalog in the mail. Kade wanted to be Wolverine, and Clint wanted to be a Ninja. They wouldn't let it go. Kade asked me about the costumes all day everyday for a week, so I finally got serious about finding them. I was not going pay what they wanted for their costumes so I found the claws and a ninja costume with nun chucks, daggers, ninja stars, and a sword all for $20. Wahoo! The neighbor had a wolverine costume we borrowed and we were set! We've been prepared since August! Ha Ha!  The ward had a Trunk-or-Treat on the Saturday before Halloween.  It was really nice this year because they had dinner first then the trunks after.  That way the kids went through once and then everyone left.  Trick-or-treating was so grand because the weather was so warm.  Even the breeze was a warm breeze.  It was so perfect!  A lady across the street responded she wanted a trick, when the kids said, "Trick-or-treat!"  Without hesitation Clint said, "Okay!  Watch this."  He did the trick where you hold both fists up with one finger extended on one hand.  You hit your hands together and the extended finger "jumps" to the other fist.  He was so proud.  In fact he and Kade kept doing it all the while the lady is handing out candy to other kids that were coming.  These kids are full of personality I tell you!  Our neighbors, the Selines, always go all out for Halloween. This year they made this gigantic spider climbing on their house. It gave me the heebie-geebeeies but I can appreciate the creativity and work that went into it. :)  This is my cute niece Logan, she looks just like the lady from the 'We Can Do It' posters, Geraldine Hoff Doyle.  Nicely done Logan!

Geraldine Hoff Doyle, R. I. P. Lansing's 'Rosie' dies at age 86. "Her face became the symbol of women's empowerment, and her death is the end of an era. Geraldine Hoff Doyle of Lansing, the woman behind an iconic image of a bandanna-clad, muscle-flexing Rosie the Riveter during WWII, has died. Doyle was 86 upon her death, a lifetime older than the 17-year-old factory worker who was captured in a United Press International photo in a metal-pressing plant near Ann Arbor. Her photo was later used by the U.S. War Production Coordinating Committee in an illustrated poster called, 'We Can Do It!'"

Promptings

Last night one of Darryl's co-workers posted on his Facebook that they were needing volunteers to come and help look for his wife's Grandfather.  He had gone for a walk on Wednesday and never returned.  He is 80 and has dementia.  Darryl felt really strongly that he should go but he was suppose to teach the lesson in Sunday School so he just blew it off.  When he woke up this morning he just really felt like he needed to go.  So he geared up, made arrangements for someone else to teach, and off he went to Salt Lake to join the searching crews.  He was hoping to look in the canyon that they thought he may have hiked into but they only let the Search and Rescue Teams up there.  Darryl was put in a group of people that went door to door asking and looking for the guy.  They didn't find him today but Darryl really feels like there was a reason for him going.  Maybe it was for the family, or maybe it was because of the people he met, there was a reason and I'm glad he followed the prompting.
Side Note:  They did end up finding him a week after he'd gone missing.  He was in canyon adjacent to the one they had been searching.  Unfortunately he didn't survive the ordeal but they didn't say how they suspect he died.

RTC BBQ

Tonight I took the boys to the RTC(Redmond Trading Co.) BBQ.  The Haddock's host it every year and it is always a great night out.  Darryl is typically traveling and this year was no different.  Annette was in charge of games this year and she found some pretty entertaining games.  One is pictured above--warning: it is a VERY messy game.  They put a shower cap on 2 kids, covered their heads with shaving cream, and then let their team throw cheese puffs at them.  The team with the most cheese puffs after a minute wins.  The shaving cream was melting off their heads so it was a very quick minute. ;)  It's hard to see in this phone picture but my boys were laughing hysterically.  The other highlight was the sawdust dig.  They put $100 in coins in a pile of saw dust and let the kids dig through it.  Kade and Clint thought it was so great, but Cole. . . he wouldn't leave the pile.  They did his age group first and then after everyone had gone they let anyone do it.  Cole was there the rest of the night.  Steve, Annette's husband, was so cute and hunted with him.  Cole thought they were best buddies after that.

Trunk-Or-Treat

The ward trunk-or-treat was set up a little different this year.  They had dinner first and then let the little ones go get candy.  It was nice because the kids usually just keep coming back again and again bleeding everyone dry until it's time for dinner.  It's always fun to see what little creatures are going to make and appearance.

Spooky Dinner

Greg, Heather, and Alex came to visit us for a few days. Darryl and Greg went prospecting on Friday and Saturday while the rest of us were at home doing various things. Saturday night we did the spooky dinner tradition of spaghetti dinner, pumpkin shaped sugar cookies, and carving pumpkins. We had huge pumpkins from Grandma Brown this year so it was great to have Greg there to help. Cole's favorite part was the sprinkles, Clint loved eating by candle light, and Kade loved carving his pumpkin with dad's drill. He wanted blood dripping from his vampire teeth so we used the drill to make the dots of blood. So much fun!

Prospecting

This is Darryl and his friend Dean. Dean enjoys prospecting for gold and so he's got Darryl into it. They went one Saturday down in Marysville and Redmond, but this weekend they went with Greg to American Fork canyon and then somewhere around Daniels. He says it's just fun hiking more than anything. :)

Friday Frenzie

Today was the Relief Society Friday Frenzie. I wasn't going to do a project because Darryl was suppose to be out of town, I didn't really need any of the projects and I knew that day was going to be insane. I hadn't signed up . . . until 3 days ago. About a week ago I was working on the computer and noticed Kade playing by the wall near the bathroom door. He had been there for a while and was mumbling to himself like he was trying to figure something out. I stopped what I was doing and asked, "What are you doing buddy?" I figured it out pretty quickly as I came around the corner. He was writing on the wall with a sharpie! My 7 year old! I have never had a kid really write on the wall and now my 7 year old is?!. He quickly explained that I need to keep track of how tall my kids are and that we mark it on the wall. He was making lines of how tall he thought he was when he was 3, 4 . . . etc. "They do it at Abby's house," he told me. I knew what he was talking about. Abby's family has a board on their wall that looks like a ruler and they mark the kids height on it. I quickly explained that it was a board they were marking not the wall and began scrubbing the marker off the wall. SO what does this have to do with Friday Frenzie? One of the projects is a ruler board, a Measure Me board. For the next 2-3 days Kade kept asking, "Can we could make a Measure Me board today?" I would usually say no not today, so he would ask the next day. I finally just decided to do one with the Relief Society so I made some calls and after a little work we have our own board. I marked the boys height from what we had written down and what the doctors office visits had said. I don't really trust the doctor office measurements we had just because the weren't taken with them standing up. It has been fun though to see the general comparison of the boys heights. Kade supposedly was the longest when born but the shortest at each year mark. I doubt that really was the case though especially because he was so premature. I think from here on out they will be more accurate; made me wish I had made a board a long time ago.

Primary Program Practice

Today was a crazy day.  The music director had made a deal with the kids that for every song they passed off they would earn a mini-cupcake.  In the end she had about 800 cupcakes we had to decorate.  It went very smoothly and in the end they were so adorable.  I was nervous about how they were going to carry that many cupcakes home but she had little containers for each kid and we had them prepackaged so we handed them out and the kids went on their merry way.  The kids felt like they'd just won a million dollars.  The program practice after school was insane.  I was trying to deal with a terrible 2 Cole, and the sunbeams.  It didn't go so well. Thankfully it was over in about 1 hour. Here's a picture of the cupcake treasure the kids each got.

Escape the Rope

It was so fun watching the boys tonight. Darryl plays this little game with the boys where he ties them up and then they escape the rope. They boys played it with Cole tonight. They were all having so much fun. It's fun to see them do the things with Cole that we did with them. They're awesome brothers.

Primary?

So the 2nd counselor in our ward's Primary presidency was called to a Stake calling so there was a hole.  Today I filled that hole.  I feel so uneasy about it.  I've never been in a primary presidency and I feel like I really don't know much about Primary.  I've been in the nursery for a while now and that was pretty low key.  This is a much bigger commitment. :/  It will be nice to be in there with Kade and Clint though.

Fall Break Staycation: Rainy Day

We thought we'd hike all day today but it poured rain all day instead.  We just played around at Grandma and Grandpa's house then headed to the Gunnison pool to swim.  It was so great.  There were only a couple people there so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.  They have a little kids pool that has a basketball net and so the kids enjoyed playing ball in the water again.  As a special treat we let them each get a treat from the vending machine.  They thought it was so cool how the wires twisted making the candy fall out.  Simple joys. :)

Fall Break Staycation: Zoo, & Temple Square

This morning we got up and went to the zoo. We hadn't been since they created the new section with the seals, sea lions, otters, and the polar bear. The boys thought it was so great. The polar bear kept swimming the same loop over and over which included him gliding on his back. He looked so happy. The boys just giggled and giggled. It was especially a great trip to the zoo because the animals were so lively. The monkeys kept coming right next to the glass and staring at us. Then they would swing around from branch to branch and then come stare at us again. They were so fun to watch. There was a huge tiger that was trying to get the other 2 riled up so they would play but they weren't interested. They just kept hissing, saying "go away!" It eventually went and played in the water right next to the glass with a big plastic ball. It would bang the glass and it was exciting but a little scary. They are so strong. It was such a great show. After the zoo we had lunch and then went to temple square. The boys have only been there during the winter nights to see the Christmas lights. It was fun to just take them, walk around and talk about different things about our religion. They had a good time at the Children's Museum in the Church History Museum. After that we didn't have plans. We didn't know if we were going to stay at another hotel or go down and hike around Redmond. We thought we'd just play it by ear. Well we decided to just head to Redmond.