Halloween Night

Quinn is pumped to go trick-or-treating!! Kind of a spooky face, for a spooky night!

The doggies on the trail....they were always a few steps (quite a few) behind the dog bone, so I'm sure that some folks thought we had one random child dressed as some sort of skeleton bone and a few scraggly puppy babies.

This picture shows their natures: Max, a little mischievous (who can I poke with this long blade of grass I've just picked?), and Mae, sweet and kind (here you can use my jack-o-lantern, Max!).

We made some awesome vanilla cookies for our neighbor kids. We forgot to photograph the other Halloween edible we created; white jell-o ghosts. You know that super tasty middle layer of the three tiered jell-o that consists of cream cheese, sugar and evaporated milk? Imagine eating that smooth layer all by itself.

The whole gang. Ryan was working, but Lindsay, Kamrie and Tyler came for dindin and some trick-or-treating. We consider these guys family. Lookin' forward to the next holiday we get to spend together---Thanksgiving!

One tired bone.

The kids and I playing our Halloween penny toss. Try for the haunted house!!!

Let's get started on the candy already!!!

We had such a fun Friday Halloween night. I would re-live that day over and over again if I could. The kids were just so cute. Extra cute.

Tired? Maybe just a bit......

It was 4:15pm. Max & Mae had refused the afternoon nap I offered them. Baby Einstein was downstairs whistling a happy Mozart-y tune to entertain them while I finished dinner. I walked down the stairs and found the twins like this. How awesome is this picture??!

New stuffed animals!!

I felt like the kids needed new animals. Most of our stash are Quinn's, so he is the only one that can hold favorite playmates such as Snoopy, Neigh and Mr. Monkey. Max has shed many tears over this.

We went to Barnes & Noble and watched the kids pull every stuffed animal off the shelf. After just a few moments, Quinn made his choice. A cute, simple black and white puppy. He could not be swayed. OK, one down, 2 to go.


Mae was holding a very rigid Minnie Mouse (you know the stuffed animals that aren't soft?!) when Daddy spotted the sparkly clown fish. "Memo!" she cried. It was decided.
Mae + "Memo" = BFF.


Now, Max. It wasn't love at first sight. He held many, many animals before seeming to settle on two; a tan guinea pig and a gray wolf. He wanted them both. One for each hand! As we neared the check out counter, it was clear that a crying fit was about to happen when one of the animals was returned to the shelf. Mike decided to take him back to the area full of animals and managed to help him pick a whole new animal. So, with a panda bear under his arm, we got into line. Quinn had just thrown his dog onto the check-out counter, when we realized that Quinn's dog and Max's panda were the same colors. That simply would not do! Daddy and Max headed back to the stuffed animals to search one last time for the perfectly colored, perfectly shaped, perfectly perfect new animal. Could they do it? I was biting my nails. When father and son came into view, a darling red fox with black tipped ears was riding in Max's arms. Yes, that was it. The One. It was magic. And so finally, three smiling children and two beaming parents scanned our B & N gift-card and headed to the van.
Ahhhh, to buy the children new toys! That morning, I felt like an A+ Mama.

Good Morning

Ever wonder what it feels like to sit in the cafe portion of Barnes & Noble, order a tall double chocolate chip beverage, lazily pick at your $4.75 piece of pumpkin cheesecake and your tasty apple purse while gabbing with your best friend about nothing?? I wanted to find out......

Ahhhhh, bliss!

My friend (thank you Jean!!) volunteered to watch my children and Mike happened to be off work that morning! He's been in the ER this month, so every day is a different shift. We enjoyed two hours of sitting and sipping, reading and relaxing. A fun, different date. We've got an awesome date planned for November......WICKED! Only a week and a half until the coach bus escorts us to the theatre in The Cities. I love time away from real life. :)

Trick or Treat!

2 Doggies and a Dog Bone!

We had our church "Trunk or Treat" this past Saturday. Everybody and their van drove to the church parking lot and passed out Halloween treats to the kiddies. It was at 2pm, right during nap time, so I feared that Max would spent the entire time moaning and clinging to Mike's shoulder, but once he figured out that candy was dropped into his jack-o-lantern every time he got close to an adult, he got into the spirit of things. :)


I'll take some better pics of Quinn, Max & Mae in their costumes as it gets closer to Halloween. I was only able to snap a few at the Trunk or Treat.

Happy Halloween!!!

p.s. We had amazing weather for the Trunk or Treat yesterday. Breezy, but 60 degrees! I am thrilled that the ward had the party early this year, because today, just one day later, it's 32 and snowing!! Brrrrrr!

Sunday, October 5th

GENERAL CONFERENCE SUNDAY! I love this weekend when the general authorities of the church are broadcast to the world and we stay home and soak in all that goodness on our computer via the internet. Here in Minnesota the sessions were at 11am and 3pm, so Mike had time to catch a little nap before conference began on Sunday.

I had been battling a nasty cold all week, so when the kids got our attention around 7am, Mike was good enough to go on solo duty. When I got up a while later, Quinn and Mae were running around doin' their thang, and Max was curled up by Daddy. Wide awake, just laying there. He never does that. Sits still I mean. What child does?? It was priceless. I kept going into the living room to see if he was still lying there. So cute.



This year we really tried to get the kids to pay some attention to the computer screen while our prophet was speaking to us, so we pulled out crayons, markers and best of all....scissors. With Mike and I directing them quietly, they were creative at the table for almost all the morning session. Pretty good for two 18-month olds and a 3.5-er. You can see the well-loved picture of President Monson taped to the wall by the computer (that pic stays on our frige and we try to notice it a lot)? Quinn got so excited every time Pres. Monson got up to speak in conference, "Look Ma! It's him! The same as our picture!".

Here are some outdoor shots of our walks in-between and after the sessions of conference. Quinn loves to go fast on his Big Wheel. There's a spot on the bike path where he starts building some speed and then hits a tight curve and he's on 2 of those three wheels! He always stops after he's just done his death-defying trick and we look at each other and start laughing. You know that no-way-that's-too-cool-I-can't-believe-you-just-did-that kindof laugh? That's what you hear comin' out of the boy and his Ma.

Check out the great fall colors on our street! I like to dress the twins in the same color. I figure, hey they're twins, let's do something about it!

Creepy, crawly things.....

Quinn and I made some "creepy mice" for our windows during naptime on October 1st. I was planning on cutting out some black cats or bats or a witch or some other familiar Halloween character, but Martha Stewart keeps me cutting edge with her website and Halloween templates.
It's all about mice this year. :)

I found this cute jack-o-lantern at Tuesday Morning for $5. YES! One of the eyes had fallen off, but please! I knew that would be nothing for handy-man Mike.

We were out raking leaves with our neighbors last Sat (10-11) when I snapped these pictures. We had amazing weather in Rochester last weekend. High 70s. I was thinkin' how great it would be if it could be that warm on Halloween. Wishful thinking, wishful thinking. Last Halloween Quinn was a carrot (cutest costume ever-- my sister, Jess, made it). Quinn stood there shivering, not even gathering candy at our church party, until Mike whispered to me, "I think we should get his coat out.". I was thinkin' Quinn could make it another 1/2 hour, 45 minutes (it really was the CUTEST costume), but yeah, it was just too cold. We'll see what this year brings.

After all that talk, I went into our archives and found this pic of Quinn, Halloween 2007. See what I'm talkin' about, cute costume!!! I'm going to be hard-pressed to beat the carrot this year. The twins were peas. Peas & Carrots. Thank you, thank you.