Halloween 2012

After much running around with all the school activities today, we (along with Daddy and Helen) headed to Spanish Fork to meet with the Adams' side of the family.  Rob and Erin were in Utah (from California) so we finally got to see the twins!  I'm not sure how Erin ever had time to make these costumes...

 ...but apparently it runs in the family as her sister, Carly, came up with this clever idea for herself and her new husband :)

As you can imagine, the kids were super excited to go trick or treating but with little ones in the mix we were constantly having to get on to the boys about slowing down.  This was the group that was mostly together, waiting for the younger cousins to catch up.

But the best part of the night was running into some random teenagers along the way!

Oh, to be young and carefree again!

Witch Out

For Brigham's classroom Halloween party today, one of the mom's had a witch from Gardner's Village come out to entertain them.  This is kind of a big deal since people come out it big numbers to Gardner's Village just for the witches. 

I couldn't believe Brigham was bored!

Surprise Elder Bass!

Tonight we met up with the Wilson clan for dinner...

(picture thanks to Morgan stealing my camera and taking random shots!)

 ...and entertainment!

Ok, so really we wanted to do something fun for Elder Bass.  I still can't believe that Rose's youngest son is old enough to be on a mission.  I mean, it is still weird to me that he is even old enough to drive let alone a mission.  I remember holding him as a baby....

So since he is serving his mission in Salt Lake City, we decided to decorate his door while he was out sharing the gospel.

Here are the kids peeking in his window, making sure he isn't home :)

Once we knew we were in the clear we headed to the front door but to our great surprise...

...the door was unlocked!  Bad idea, Elder Bass because now you have a baptism date for an "Eileen Dover."  Yes, I went there Bart Simpson.

Our family just loves the Wilson family so much for its obvious reasons of crazy fun but I love that they always want to serve.  It is so fun thinking of Elder Bass coming home to this.  I can just see his huge smile with those eyes of his crinkling up now :)

Beware of Christians

David and I watched a documentary tonight called, "Beware of Christians."  Four male college students head off to Europe to figure out just how Jesus really wants them to live their lives, as well as get the perspectives from non-Christians.  I REALLY enjoyed this documentary.  There was very little that I didn't completely agree with and those things that I didn't agree with weren't important.  What was so wonderful about this documentary was the realization that we Christians just might be what is driving Non-Christians away from what our Father in heaven wants us all to know and feel.  

"You know you grow up in church and you hear beware of drugs and sex and alcohol and point our fingers at all these different things but maybe we should be pointing the finger back at ourselves.  So maybe it should be BEWARE OF CHRISTIANS.  You know, beware of people who know how to say the right things but we really have a tough time giving our whole lives to God."

That was my favorte quote from the documentary.

Just let that sink in.

Love and Death

In honor of the 25th anniversary of The Princess Bride:

"Death cannot stop true love.  All it can do is delay it for a while." 

No, I am not announcing that my eternal companion has passed on.  I just was reminded of that quote from The Princess Bride earlier today and thought of how sweet and true that statement was and is.  I am truly so blessed to belong to a church that believes in not only life after death, but of eternal marriage and families.  I was so blessed to find a man to spend the rest of this life with as well as the afterlife.  He loves me.  He truly loves me, for who I am and who I have become over the years.  That means so much to me because I have changed so much from that bride he married 10 years ago...and yet he stayed with me through all our heartaches.  He loves to laugh with me and isn't too serious (just like this picture from tonight) when the moment is right.  He is not perfect, yet perfect for the type of personality that is me.  I can't imagine losing him tomorrow yet I take comfort in knowing that death would only mean missing him for the rest of my life.  Not eternity.  Spending eternity with this man sounds like Heaven to me...

Scarecrow Festival

Today was our first try at our Halloween costumes for 2012.

I say that because it seems that my boys have so much more opportunity to celebrate Halloween than I did growing up, thus wearing their costumes a lot.  I remember school parties and the actual trick or treating.  But that was always on the same day so the only other time we wore our costumes was towards the end of my costume years when our church started "trunk or treats."  I'm not complaining.  I had a blast doing it all growing up....I just never thought as a parent that so much more would be offered for my children and that they would want to go to ALL of them!

Brigham is Sonic the Hedgehog, Hyrum is an ant, and Levi is a Fire Dragon Ninja.  Hyrum's costume just melts my heart because of his fascination with ants right now.  I still can't believe he likes them so much.  His personality type is more of the cautious type when it comes to bugs or things that could possibly be scary.  He won't even put his soccer trophy up on his shelf because he thinks it looks like an "eyeball" when he turns off the lights.  Anyways, he gets so excited if he finds an ant in our apartment or outside and insists that we don't kill them.  He then picks them up and lets them crawl all over his hands and arms until he loses track of them.  He prays quite often for an ant farm for Christmas.  When you ask him why he loves ants so much he just says, "Because they are so nice."

 So today we went (with Katie) to the Scarecrow Festival at West Ridge Academy in West Jordan.  It is a school/facility that helps troubled teens.  The festival was free but I made sure that we bought our pumpkins there.  I am a sucker for donating for a good cause and honestly, if I ever finish my bachelors in Social Work, I would really love to work for a place like this. 

 There was so much for them to do there.  They made rockets and shot them up in the air.  There were bounce houses, kiddy trains, climbing, prizes, games...

...and more games...

 ...and these huge balls that they could get inside and roll around in.

 I think I heard the most giggles out of these bungee rope things attached to this blow up thing.  They ran as fast as they could, to get their bean bag the farthest before being pulled back.

 And of courses there were the photo opportunities.

I hope their costumes last long enough for all the other festivities :)

Giant Giga Ball

Floating Baseball

Foot or Feet?

Probably about a week ago, I heard Helen teach Hyrum that foot means 1 foot and feet means 2.  Every once in a while since then, I have heard him ask her about it here and there.  

After our dinner prayer tonight, I ran to get a piece of paper to write his prayer down so I wouldn't forget.  Man he is so cute! 
As I have said in the past, I am not picky about prayers.  Hyrum's prayers are never the typical prayer.  He never blesses the food when it is his turn to say the prayer at the dinner table and I don't mind it one bit.  To me, it is just as important to bless the food we eat as it is to pray for other people, ask for things we need, or just plain talk to our Father in heaven.  In fact, I think the later is more important and that is why I absolutely love Hyrum's prayers.

So tonight he says, "Heavenly Father, Please bless my foot or feet.  I don't know which one is two.  I'm going to say foot.  Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Just as a side note, he has cracks on the bottom of his feet that are pretty deep....a wonderful family trait he inherited from Uncle Bubba and Poppy :{

"30 sucks!"

Christine turns 30 on the 15th so today was a call for some celebration!  I took her to an Italian restaurant in Taylorsville, called Siragusa's.  She loves Italian and I really wanted her to laugh....just in case turning 30 was  hard for her.  She seemed to be just fine with it and was a good sport as I made it known that someone special was turning 30.

Christine was the one who got me to get on Pinterest (it is an internet sight that has you "pin" things that you like.  You put it in categories so you can reference to it later when you have a project in mind.  There are other things you can use it for but that is my favorite part about it.).  So, I thought it was perfect to make a project from this site, for her.  "30 sucks!" was fun to make and no one deserves it more! 

Little Blessings Here And There

I have discovered a few things about myself in the last week or so.

As they often do, I didn't realize them until a few trials came my way.

We are in the process of buying a house.  We are so very excited to finally put down some roots.  A source of concern in my life has been money, lately.  This house is going to help tremendously with that.  We will save over $200 a month with the difference in what we are paying in rent right now, plus David will have a much quicker commute, thus saving us lots in gas (15 minutes one way as opposed to an hour and 10 minutes one way from this apartment).  Stress has come with a need to sell our lease here however, thus losing sight of our amazing blessing of this house.  I have to often remind myself to see the big picture.  

My Mother-In-Law, Helen, has been living with us also.  She is the kindest lady.  She really truly is and wants to serve all the time.  But no matter how nice someone is, when you have someone in your house at all times (she feels she is sick all the time so she doesn't leave the house...and most of time, doesn't leave Hyrum's bed) that is not your immediate family, it can get hard.  But this leads to another blessing.  With her living here she helps us with rent.  I am reminded again that the Lord brings blessings to our family here and there.  It is up to me whether I see them as blessings or not.

A few weeks ago, I was approached about a babysitting job.  I took it because we needed the money.  My blessing?  A super cute and happy baby to watch.  She couldn't be any more sweeter.  I truly love her.

But unfortunately, the other day I lost sight of those "blessings."  I was highly stressed and the toll payed on my back.  I was in pain and asked David to work on it a bit.  He did but I still felt so tight so I used this electronic stimulation massage thing that I have.  It manipulates your muscles into contracting without you doing the work.  I have used these when at chiropractors and it always seems to help me get ready before an adjustment.  But I wasn't smart and I over did it.  I hadn't used it in over a year but I still used it for way too long and at the highest setting.  That night, I couldn't get out of bed without crying.  I have been blessed with a high pain tolerance, thus putting up with my back pain for years but because of that pain tolerance I often over do things because I think I can handle it.  I felt like such a wimp that night as I cried.... once again, losing sight of the great blessing the Lord has given me of pain tolerance on normal days.
I woke up yesterday morning, crying almost immediately.  I didn't know how I was going to take the 5 kids that I take to school each morning as well as pick up Amalee and put her in the van.  I was stuck.  I could have called everyone and told them I just wasn't up to all of this, but I'm too wimpy to do that.  I can't stand disappointing people.  But from then on, the blessings started flowing.  One of the mom's of the kids that I take to school came over and insisted on picking up Amalee and putting her in the van for me.  She also waited for me to come back and got Amalee out of the van for me.  Later, that same Mom would pick up Hyrum from school and take him to a play date.  I then called Tricia to take me to an urgent care center because I needed someone to carry the baby for me.  She, in her wisdom, would end up saving me tons of money by coming over later with lunch, pain medicine, and strong hands to work on my back.  Helen heard me crying on the phone with Tricia and from that time on, was there to help me with the baby so I wouldn't have to carry her, feed her, or even change a diaper.
So my greatest realization yesterday was that I am very blessed with wonderful people who are willing to help....if I would just ask.