Happy Halloween!

I know, I know, you are shocked by my posting again in two days! I just thought I would scare you for Halloween, ha ha. Anyway, since I have been such a slacker where Halloween is concerned (we did not put up any decorations aside from the pumpkins on the front steps and the leaf bag jack-o-lantern, which by the way was given to us already filled up by my mother-in-law) I thought we should go all out yesterday. We started off by going to the Halloween parade at the elmentary school.

We enjoyed especially spooky weather yesterday, it was cloudy, foggy, misty, damp- perfect for Halloween.

Rex made the first snowball of the season.

Katie Grace and Owen were spooky vampires.

Then we carved our pumpkins that we grew in our garden.

The kids all came up with their own designs, did most of the scraping of the guts and

Katie Grace even carved her whole pumpkin all by herself.

Notice her pumpkin is eating it's young, how morbid!

I had to take the picture quick 'cause Owen could barely hold his.

Then we enjoyed Ghost Casserole for dinner.

We got the pumpkin seeds ready for roasting.

Then we had Halloween brownies for dessert!

Hers is a ghost covered with powdered sugar so you can't see the shape very well.

Bat brownie for the little Bat himself.

Owen and Matthew enjoyed black cat brownies

(because those cookie cutters made the biggest brownies).

Kris was awesome and made some orange jack-o-lantern pancakes for breakfast this morning.

And Katie Grace made a pumpkin seed necklace for her puppy.

I think we have redeemed ourselves as far as Halloween goes

and to think we have a night full of festivites to attend to this evening

we are just havin' one rockin' Halloween! Hope you all are too!

(P.S. the idea for the casserole came from People magazine and the pumpkin eating it's young came from Family Fun magazine, the pancakes were our idea but generally I am not that creative all on my own (although Gracie is!)

Moving On

Our new (old) house

It's definitely fall here (well really almost winter since we are freezing our butts off!)

Happy Fall Y'all!

This summer Kris' grandparents asked us if we wanted to buy their house. I don't think they really thought we'd take them up on their offer but we felt like the timing was right. We needed more space (read: bathrooms) and they could no longer handle the stairs so we decided to go for it. I have always loved this house and been drawn to it's history. An old home has a way of telling a story and this one is no exception. It was blessed by an apostle who stayed here once. It survived the flood (Kris actually remembers it), and as such contains much groovy 70s remodeling. The move was especially difficult for our grandparents since this is the home where they raised their family. They lived here for over fifty years and the home has been in the family since being built in 1901. I was apprehensive about the whole situation since everyone knows this as their grandparents/parents home and I knew it would be difficult to move on and let it go. I worried that we would never feel like it was "our" home, but as they moved more and more of their things out it became easier for us to envision ourselves living here. I love it here. There are tons of changes I would like to make (and hope to someday) but for now the things I thought would drive me crazy aren't really bothering me. For instance: the kitchen/dining room is smaller than our other one; the curtains are all straight from the 70s; there are eight (yes, eight) different kinds of carpet throughout the house, including in two bathrooms and yes, I have four little boys whose aim is not always spot on, so- ick! (Although, I have decided that vacuuming a bathroom floor is easier than sweeping and mopping.) AND- the first floor carpet is a light pink which is just perfect for grandparents but for a bunch of kids, not so much. Honestly, I am just learning to deal with these things and not complain and it hasn't been bad at all. We are loving our ward, Matthew finally has boys his own age, we love the school, and we are enjoying the extra space and living in the country. And we have a pretty awesome view out our back window! (Don't you think?)

And for a little Halloween fun I thought I would treat you to a poem by our little miss Katie Grace. In her own words (and spelling):

Once there were some vampires who didn't like blood.

They said it tasted like mud.

They drink strawberry smoothies instead.

It's blood they dread.

They opened a strawberry smoothie shop.

It's on top.

I go there sometimes.

I hope this rymes.

Goodbye.

Don't die.

(I saw this poem hanging on the wall outside her classroom while I was waiting for her parent/teacher conference today and just couldn't resist sharing. Luckily, she remembered the whole thing. I wonder what her teacher thought when she read it!?! P.S. She's going to be a vampire for Halloween.)

And, who can resist Halloween underwear? Not me, that's for sure!