Halloween is here

So, it is officially close enough to Halloween for me to be willing to dress my kids up.
Our first Halloween celebration this week was another package in the mail. This time it was from Grandma Allred and had some fun stuff inside. We LOVE getting packages in the mail.
{Brandon, getting in to the sugar cookie}
{This picture is for Dad since I realized there are no other pictures of me. This is where I sit while the boys open packages.}
Next was our official pumpkin decorating night. You would think that boys could handle the goey mess from inside the pumpkin, but they kept asking if they could wash there hands and then come back and finish their pumpkins. So, I made a one time hand wash rule. Once your hands are washed no more pumpkin cleaning for you!

The pumpkins turned out great, and the boys are so happy to have them on our front porch.

Last night was the ward Trunk or Treat. Definitely one of our favorite church activities. There always seems to be a chili cook-off competition with these events, and most of you know how much Steve LOVES to cook. Especially for other people who are going to tell him how Dang good it is. So, he made his chili Tuesday night so we would be able to get to the church on time after work Wednesday. About half hour before we left I put the chili on the stove to warm it up. (It was delicious by the way, we had some on Tuesday night.) Well...... after turning the stove to HIGH, I left the kitchen and started getting the boys ready for the evening. Steve was busy cutting a Halloween costume for Nathan. After some time I start smelling something pretty bad. So, I run in the kitchen and immediately start stirring the chili. Big mistake. The bottom was SOOO burned, and I was just stirring the burned pieces in with the rest of the chili. So this huge pot of award winning chili worth at least 20 dollars of ingredients was ruined along with an awful smell in the house. I was very upset that I didn't follow my first thought which was to let it warm up on a more reasonable temperature. I do have to say though, Steve was so nice about it, he of course was disappointed, but just said there is nothing we can do about it, and that was the end of it. This is usually my philosophy on things, but this time he took the laid back approach while I was pretty bothered by it. :-)

Now back to the costumes. The boys all got to choose what they wanted to be this year except for Jacob. He was the right size for my German costume that I had and he was going to be my model whether he liked it or not. Luckily the people at church thought he was adorable, and that was what he wanted. He kept telling me that he wanted to look cute. haha I honestly think this is the best costume any of my kids have ever dressed in. I LOVE IT!
{He gets two pictures for being the cutest}{Steven - Ninja}
Ok, now this is another story. Nathan had been saying all month that he wanted to be a ghost. I looked online and at the stores for a typical white ghost costume and did not find one anywhere. So, Steve willingly said he would cut Nathan a ghost costume out of a white sheet. Well, he got a little scissor happy and cut that thing to shreds! They finally decided Nathan looked more like a mummy than anything. But since Nathan couldn't eat with his hands and mouth covered, the costume didn't last more than 20 minutes. You will probably be seeing him in something different on my Halloween night post. :-){Brandon as a knight}To finish the evening off I was so excited to see Nathan sit down, dump out his candy and separate it in to piles. Do you remember doing this!! What a great Halloween tradition, and he knew just what to do without any suggestions from me. Apparently he was looking for gum and was a little upset when he had No gum pile.

Staying Active

Thanks you guys for your suggestions in my last post. I LOVED THEM! I am trying out different things to see what works for me, but the first thing I did was looked up episodes of the office on the internet to see if I could catch up. I was able to watch the last three from season 14 and then the first 2 from this season. I watched the baby shower one this week, and am now all caught up. The show is hilarious, thanks for the tip.

Life has been fun and somewhat active here, just the right amount of activity in my opinion.
I have only a few pictures for you, but at least they will catch you up.

Last Monday (Christopher Columbus day) Steve had work off so we visited the Statesboro Fair, and had a nice time. It is a very small fair, and was only open for 7 days.

This was our favorite hut because Steve is thinking seriously about getting a beehive and collecting his own honey!! Crazy isn't it. And the man in the hut very much encouraged him.


In the honey hut they sold honey sticks that they added different flavors too like orange or peach. They were interesting.

I had to take a picture of this because it is so Southern. This is how they are picking up the trash. They have a trailer hooked to the back of a tractor and the ladies put the trash barrels in the trailer. Who knows, maybe that is how they do it everywhere, this just struck me as a Southern picture.Brandon had a corndog for dinner and decided to lick the ketchup out of the dish when he was done. It was hilarious to watch him. Two ladies even stopped to watch. hahaThen Tuesday Steve left to Augusta which is about 2 hours away from home for a business trip for two weeks. I was a little concerned because it was also the boys fall break. They got a week off of school. When Steve is out of town and the boys are home all day my days can seem REALLY long, but we kept busy at friends house and going to playgroup and then on Thursday we drove up to Augusta to stay in the hotel with Steve for the weekend. Since the govt was paying for the room we had a fantastic, inexpensive weekend.

I figured out the perfect thing to do at the hotel when you are in for the night and your husband is at work. We played GoFish and the boys loved it.

They also decided to go in the pool even though it was in the low 70s. Nathan didn't last long, but Steven had a great time. Steve and Brandon took a little nap at the room and I got to read my book.The weather has been so nice here, we are just loving being outside, it is great fall weather. In Augusta we found this cool park that had a good ole' tetherball pole at it. It was the perfect size for Brandon, and Steve and I got some use out of it too.


Brandon with some rock candy from a Colonial Times thing we went to.
There was also a fair in Augusta and so the boys got to go on one ride each. Steve took Nathan and Steven on this twisting torture ride, but Jacob wasn't tall enough so he went on the dragon roller coaster and had the time of his life.
We got back Sunday night and got ourselves ready to go back to school. The boys still love school and they both did very well on their report cards. Steven is one of the top 7 students in his class so his teacher is taking those seven students to Applebees on Saturday. Steven is so excited to go and I am very proud of him for how much he is enjoying learning and how well he is doing in school. Nathan is getting the hang of things too, his teacher seems to really like him even if he does get in trouble most days.

Then on Monday we got two FUN packages from Nana and Papa Hughes. They are helping us get ready for Halloween, and sent us some goodies.

suckers
beautiful boxes of cookies. Very yummy
Our only downer this week is that the boys are passing a throw up bug to each other. Brandon had it Monday night, Jacob Tuesday night, and Steven today. I kept he and Nathan out of school today afraid that Nathan would get sick at some point, but he didn't. He just got bored and was driving me crazy so I had us all go out and clean out the garage. A fun chore that was needing to be done and it got us all out of the house and spending time in this beautiful fall weather.

Tell Me

OK people, I know blogs are usually all about who I am and what I am doing, but today I need you to tell me a couple of things. Most of these are pretty lame questions, and some of them need to be asked because I have been in Deutschland for so long. So help me out here and give me your best answers.

1. I need to find a good healthy bread that tastes good. Since we came back to the states I have been looking for a staple bread that I think is good for my family, and tastes good. I have bought about 10 different kinds and don't REALLY like any of them. So tell me what you buy.

2. Emily mentioned on her blog that she is a faithful moisturizer, and I would like to be one. Tell me what face washing soap you use, and moisturizer.

3. Along the same lines, I need a good mousse and or hairspray that works great and deals well with frizz and curls.

4. **Very Important** tell me what TV shows are a "must see" in your weekly line up. I only have one which is the Biggest Loser, but I feel like I am missing out on some shows just because I don't know if they are good.

Thanks for your help!

Just so I don't do another blog without pictures, here are two of baby Brandon.

This sweet boy can't walk and still wakes up at night for a bottle, but his dear old Dad taught him where his nose is, and he finds his (or yours) every time we ask. SmArT KiD!

I like this tag

I love this new tag that I have seen on a couple of blogs, therefore I am doing it. I would like to tag Alicia Buchanan, and Jen Peterson. Actually I would be curious about Jessica, Laura, Mom, Sarah, and Steve too, but I don't want to go overboard. It a very thought provoking activity. Heck, you should ALL do it.

I am addicted to chocolate. I don’t get headaches or anything if I don’t eat it, I just don’t think life would be as good if I couldn’t have some every day.

I miss Steve. He is out of town for the second week in a row, and I always act like it is no big deal when he is gone because I don’t want to be weak. But I miss him and am ready for him to come home.

I think the media does a great job of putting unnecessary fear in people. I think we should all use common sense and be careful, but the things they show on TV make people worry so much about EVERY little thing.

I know that my family loves me.

I want to cook healthier. Not only because it would be nice to lose weight, but I would also like my family to eat better. I am working on this one, but am a little uneducated as to food that will taste good, be filling, and is considered healthy.

I have all the ingredients bought so that Steve can make a fabulous breakfast on Conference Sunday morning.

I search for a binky every night when Brandon wakes up for a bottle so he will have it when the bottle is gone. Yes the boy is 1yr and 2mo old and still waking up at night. I don’t know what the deal is with that.

I wish I could live closer to my sisters. I have made a good step in moving back to the states so I can at least call them now. But how fun to live by them!!

I hate when my children misbehave in public. They usually do very good, but every once in a while they don’t and it really bothers me. I can handle it fine at home, but not in public.

I am scared of the difficult lessons in life my children are bound to face. I think it is going to be so hard to watch my children make choices that I know they shouldn’t make.

I fear decorating my house. I am so afraid to put 10 nail holes in the wall to discover that my room looks horrible. So, I just don’t hang pictures at all. Good solution aye?

I always kiss the boys before they go to bed. So on those days when there was no other physical touch between me and them, they will always get it at night.

I love to watch a good show and cross stitch. A hobby I picked up in High School, I should have given it up years ago because I never have time to do it, but I still try.

I feel sad when I think about good people who are making bad choices.

I hear the things Steven (second grade) is learning from school everyday when he comes home, and I am excited that he has reached this learning stage of his life. He is thoroughly enjoying it, and I love to see how much he knows.

I don't remember how to sleep in! Every so often Steve is willing to wake up with the kids and let me sleep in and it is a struggle to stay asleep until 9:00am.

I wonder how much my ebay auction is going to sell for.

I care a lot about how much sleep my kids get. I HATE to miss their naps, or having to wake them up from naps. As a result, they are all fantastic sleepers. (Brandon will sleep through the night soon, I am sure of it.)

I regret not listening to good advice or counsel when hearing it the first time, or the first 100 times.

I am not good at keeping my house picked up and it drives me crazy. But not crazy enough to spend hours doing it. haha

I believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; I also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

I dance only for my children. It is an attention getting thing. Steve allows me to see him dance, but he will not have that favor returned.

I sing all the time. I love to listen to my kids and my husband sing too.

I write lists all the time. The problem is that I write 3 things on one paper, and 10 things on another, so that when it is time to check off the list I have to go to more than one place to check it off.

I win zuma every time I play. It used to be such a challenging game, but now I rule it. Now if I could just beat Steve’s fastest times.

I dream of the day when we have enough money to get things we want just for the fun of it.

I lose lots of things in this house for some reason. This past two weeks I have been looking for things constantly and have no idea where they could be. A couple of examples are…I lost 2 cookie sheets that are nowhere to be found, I cannot find any of Jacobs shorts(he had like 6 pair when we moved here, now I can only locate 2 pair), I lost a bottle of vanilla that I know I bought but has vanished.

I never want to live where there is not a Walmart close by. I honestly tried shopping at another store, and I felt like I was throwing my money away. I will brave the crowds to save myself the money.

I listen to music (country usually) whenever I can.

I read in stages. I will go a year without reading anything (except scriptures) and then I will go on a reading binge, and read 10 books in a couple months.

I am happy with the way my life has gone. There are many directions my life could have gone, and I am happy with the way it is turning out.