Happy Halloween!!!

Here is the first, of my soon to be many, Halloween Posts.
BEWARE THE WRATH OF TREY....
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....

The boys carved their pumpkins tonight after they got back from Alex's Halloween Festival. Here are some pictures of their work!

Here is Jacob showing off his work. He drew an even smaller face than this one the first time, and Mom had to veto it. We can only carve so small!
This is Alex's pumpkin. I could not post the picture of him with it because he did his carving in his underwear. Note the naked arms and legs...

Here are their works together. You can see Alex's leg in the background as more proof of his indecency.

As a side note, the carnival was pretty lame. Too many kids and not enough to do. Also we had to pay a buck each to get in and pay to enter the raffle. Sigh. Well, I can't complain because we won 4 free games of bowling and 4 books in the raffle! WooHoo!! SCORE!

Gator Jack's Sandwich Shack

My awesome Brother is opening his own restaurant! We are so proud of him and all his hard work. So, for all of you that are in Idaho or are moving there, stop on by! Here is a copy of his menu:


(Sorry, a bit hard to read. Click on the picture for a larger view)

THIS IS ADDICTING!!!: Halloween Hangman

Make sure you turn on your speakers! The boys like it best when they DON'T guess the word. Pretty fun and silly!

http://www.dedge.com/flash/hangman/hangman.swf

Alex's Tooth

Well folks, seems that my baby is growing up. Alex lost his first tooth today during closing exercises in Primary! His tooth came home in a tithing envelope! ha Here he is with his toothless grin. You'll have to excuse poor Jacob's looks. He has a bit of a cold.




Additionally, both the boys participated in the annual Primary Program during Sacrament Meeting. Poor Jacob was a sight, sniffing and looking half dead. But he sang loud and read his part very well. Alex memorized the line he had to give, which was awesome. The funny thing was that when it was time for him to get down from the microphone, he stayed there. Guess he was waiting for some applause! ha Senta had to prompt him off the stage! :) Senta, who is our Primary President, along with her counselors, teachers, chorister and pianist, deserve the real round of applause! Great Job guys! You made our kids look awesome!!

So what are you anyway?

My professor gave me a link to this quiz. Seems I am a centrist leaning towards statist...who knew?!

The World's Smallest Political Quiz

Trunk or Treat

Last night was the Ward's Trunk or Treat night. The boys had a good time. We took Trey along with us to share in the fun. Jake was in his awesome Jedi Knight costume I made, Alex sported his Lion costume from a few years ago since masks weren't allowed. (he is going to be a ghost which is in essence, a huge mask) Trey came as a vampire since he couldn't wear his creepy mask either. There were games and loads of treats. I decorated up the trunk of my Escort with Halloween lights and pumpkins.
Unfortunately Carl wasn't able to go since he had to work. Of course, this meant that the kids had to go one the trunk or treat walk alone. No biggie right? Well, leave it to my boys to make things difficult. All the kids passed by as I was giving out the candy from my trunk. No boys. Then, everyone had so much candy that the kids went through again. Still no boys. Then the kids are all coming though for a third time. By now, I am not so much worried about their safety as I am about what are they doing that is keeping them so occupied. So, I send my awesome friend Francesca after them, and they are soon recovered. Seems that Jacob had to go to the bathroom, so he left his bag with his brother. Alex wanders off, taking the bags and eventually losing them. Jake comes out, looking for his brother and his bag to no avail. So, he trunk or treated with my candy bowl. Alex it seems was running around in the gym without a care in the world. Where was Trey all this time you ask? Getting as much candy as was humanly possible with Jack (Senta's boy). Boys...sigh...they make me tired...

Jacob got his picture taken, and as soon as I get it I will post it on here. I am really proud of this costume. Took me a lot of energy, but it came out super nice. And, since the pattern was for a mens XS he will be able to wear it for a few years.

Gecko omelet anyone?

I have a few friends from Idaho I keep in contact with. Some, even their parents. Such is the case here. The Macbeth's are a wonderful couple and the parents of one of my good friends from High School and the Ward. Recently they took up residence in the Samoa! Dave works as a counselor at a school for troubled boys. Brenda works there as well, and was sending these photos out to the parents of the kids (some very far from home indeed!) I thought you all would get as much of a kick out of these as I did. Who of us will ever see this in our house?! Here are the photos described in Brenda's own words:

"I have included photos of some gecko eggs we found a couple of days ago. I was pretty amazed when I first saw one, as were most of the boys, although the Samoan staff look as us as if we are rather strange to be so excited about something so common (to them) as gecko eggs. :)
We found one in a filing cabinet and then the very next day found four more. Some of the boys want to keep one in their apartments so they can, hopefully, watch it hatch. That's my wish too!

They are facinating little creatures and voracious insect eaters so they are desirable to have around. They make a very loud sound (day and night) for such small creatures; they sound quite a lot like a bird chirping loudly. For quite some time after we moved here my husband insisted the sound we heard regularly was a bird (at the time, his favorite bird call); I told him I knew it was a gecko because I had watched one as it made the sound! We couldn't come to an
agreement (he simply couldn't believe such a little reptile could make such a big sound) until he finally had personal proof, so whenever we heard the sound we would say, "There's that gecko bird again!!" I love the little creatures and even like them in my house.

I am including a couple of older shots of geckos that you might enjoy looking at if you don't live in an environment where they are found. The first [two] are babies and the last photo is an adult about 3-4 inches long."

Plymouth Apple Orchard

Mandy and Jacki took the boys with them to the Plymouth Apple Orchard this past yesterday. Here are some of the shots they took.

A lesson in death.

Alex's poor teacher! Today she received her new science package, which included a bag of guppies for the class. She was so excited to show the kids, that she just whipped the whole thing open to show them. She pulled out the bag, and of course, all the fish were dead. She told me that they wondered why the fish weren't swimming, so she figured she may as well tell them the truth. So, most of the kids, including my own dear son, left the school this afternoon excited that they had got new class pets, and they were all dead too!!

I really have nothing to say...

I figured that it had been a while since I blogged and I should write something. Hmmmmmm... problem is, that I really have nothing to write...

Things for us are doing as well as can be expected. Our application to Westwick (the place we really want to move in to) is finally complete. Unfortunately we are going to have to just wait now and see what they say. We are really worried about this whole thing, and we will both be happier when it is all over wither way it goes.

Jacob's birthday is coming up and we are trying to figure out plans for it. He wants to take his friends to the theater to see The Bee Movie. We thought that perhaps we might just rent the party room. Seems to me that it would be easier to contain 9+ children, the majority of the Autistic, in the theater itself, the carpooling back to our house for cake and ice cream. We will see.

Jacob also wanted to go see Hairspray, but it seems someone told him that it was a movie for girls. I HATE THAT!! Why is it so horrible about a boy who adores singing and dancing to go see a movie about just that?! I am so tired of society and it's homophobic tendencies! UGH!!! So now, he is unsure if he wants to go see it, even though just a few days ago he was super excited. He seems to have relented to the idea of taking me to see it on a "date", so we'll see.

Everything else seems to be normal. Haven't heard anything about my niece lately, but I am sure that things are working out the best way they can.

Oh, ok, here is one more thing, and then I am totally out. Last month was the Relief Society Broadcast for our church. I drove along with my buds Senta, Missy and Lisa. Well, earlier in the day, I had brought up a HUGE load of clean clothes that I had been ignoring for a long time to get them out of the back room. I had worn myself out doing all kinds of other cleaning chores during the day, and had decided to go up for quick rest before the broadcast. But then, I saw the pile, no mountain, of laundry on my bed. No nap for me. So grumpily, I sat with aching back folding it all. Carl comes in, notices what I am doing, and tells me that if I will give it a rest, he will have it all done for me when I get home from the broadcast. Now, you all have to realize that of all the things in the world, chore wise, Carl abhors folding laundry!! He even pretends he doesn't know where it all goes so that I won't make him put it away too! So, looking at him with scepticism, I relent. Jump forward to about 10:30 PM as we are pulling up in the drive. We have never replaced out curtains from the ones that came with the house. (horrible, I know but I liked them and they were free in a sense) They are lace and are not the best at keeping out peepers. So, as we are pulling up, I can see Carl frantically (he still denies this as being so, saying he started WAY before we got home) running from the bed to the direction of the bathroom. "Look! Carl is hiding the laundry," I tell them. "He doesn't want to get in trouble!" Of course this in fact was what he was doing. I didn't give him too hard of a time, as he had done some of it. Good to know he loves me enough to hide his shame! :)

Happy Belated Birthday to my 5 year old!

Fun was had by all at Alex's birthday party last night. Carl's parents Jacki and Carl, his sister Mandy, Franchot, their kids Lauren and Trey, and the Hills Jack, Nolan and Lucas (poor Zoey had dance and missed out on the fun) were all in attendance. Of course all of this fun came in addition to the party he had at school. Believe me, neither of them got to sleep very easily after all the sugar! Here is a small sampling of the fun.

We got Alex a "piranha" for his party. This is what he said he wanted. Only after a few seconds of his explaining that you hit the piranha with a stick did we get what he was talking about. WE were able to get everyone a turn before it died, but poor Lauren only got one hit after her brother maimed it.
The Birthday Boy and Grandma
The Pinata King
Alex and Aunt Mandy
The kids scrounging for the good candy. Poor Lucas wasn't happy that there were chocolate balls that looked like eyeballs. Mandy put one in his bag and he flung it out horrified!
(From left to right: Jack, Alex, Lauren, Lucas, Nolan, Jake, Trey)
This is our awesome creation. Carl and I worked on this one for quite a while. Of course, the sugar, on top of frosting, on top of cake was a little much for the adults present, but the kids digged it! ha ha
What party is complete without Pin the Tail on the Donkey?! We ALL played, all 13 of us, adults included. Few of use were able to get it on target, let alone anywhere close to the butt!
It was a really nice night, so luckily the kids were all able to play outside for a while. The younger boys all played on the swing set and with their punch balls while the older kids and I played soccer.
The birthday boy getting his gifts. Everyone was really generous. Here he is opening the one from Gram and Papa. It is a set of 3 Pokemon action figures. all in all, he got 2 of those, a magnetic dart set, a stuffed animal, Spyro video game, TMNT the movie, a batman utility belt, an RC jeep and a laptop interactive computer. (thanks for that one Aunt Jenny! He loves it!!)
Everyone posing with their loot with Gramps. Except Jacob...who knows where he went!!

A note about the car in the last post.

I couldn't not post about this awesome car!! If memory serves me, (and Dad, feel free to comment about this), my Father pimped this awesome ride by himself! He did the paint job, the body work, and refitted it with new door handles. Ok, they weren't really handles. If you can tell from the picture, there aren't any handles at all! There was a button on the bottom of the door that you could push with your foot that would release the door for you. Isn't that sweet?! My Dad has hundreds of stories of working on cars like this, even one's owned by the elite of Hollywood when his Dad owned a shop in California.

Also, I believe this was the car that would get jammed on the passenger door, making it downright impossible to open from the inside. You can see how having a passenger door that wouldn't open, and a smoking hot girl like my Mom inside could cause quite a bit of ruffled feathers! ha ha

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

48 years today, my parents decided that they couldn't live without each other! Boy, am I glad they couldn't!! Congratulations!!

They found her!!

Ashley, my niece has been found! One of the boys that she had been running around with over the past few weeks finally ratted her out. She was living with some guy in Blackfoot. The guy wasn't home at the time, but I am sure that they will be going back for him later. So, she is back safely at the 5-C (juvenile hall). Thank you all for you prayers and concern.