Halloween Costumes

Today was the annual Halloween costume parade at the school and class parties.
Here's our little Christmas present

And here's our Oscar the Grouch.  He/she said that we were playing with irony today as we had a sweet little Christmas angel (the present), and then Oscar the Grouch.  

And yes - I know you really want to know...that is her real hair!

I suppose she may have been right...as always they were adorable.  

Even Easier Little Lemon guys

I know I'm a nerd, but I love how cute these little guys turn out. This year I found and even better (and tastier, and quicker) way to make these.

Here's a link to the new and improved Little Blue (or Yellow, or Lemony) guys/monsters. Just in time for Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

The latest news and gossip from our family

Okay...unfortunately, I really know no gossip.  It sounded good though.

Really - I'm still here.  Just been very busy.
Our youngest daughter once again (yes within a month) has strep again.  Grrrrrr..

We've just been busy trying to stay on top of life.  I played for a big wedding last weekend that seemed to take the whole day...this week besides strep, I've been finishing up my kids' Christmas presents.  I started a bedspread quilt top for each of them over 2 years ago.  My youngest daughter asked for me to make her a blanket for her birthday and I figured I could do it for Christmas - even better.  Needless to say, I've been doing a lot of sewing.  Just dropped everything off yesterday to be quilted and can't WAIT to see how they turn out.  I've done identical patterns for each block, but used completely different colors for each of them.  It is AMAZING to me how different they look, even though they are so similarly made!  

I wish I had something really profound to say - but I don't.  I must be getting old, because I've actually been getting (and needing) 8+ hours of sleep each night...so odd for me.

I had an interesting experience on Tuesday though.  I was headed to a town about 30 minutes away to look at some faux fur at the fabric store.  My daughter is going to be oscar the grouch for Halloween.  Anyways, as I drove down, I drove through a dangerous, narrow canyon which is sometimes prone to rockslides.  As I passed through, I thought - wow - it would really stink to get stuck in a rockslide here today.  There's no cell service right here, and what would I do?  My kids are getting home from schoool, and I have students whose private lessons I would need to somehow cancel.  

I did my errands and headed back home.  I walked in the door and checked my e-mail.  I saw a notice from our local emergency email, that just minutes after I had passed through a certain spot in the canyon, there indeed had been a rockslide which stopped traffic for several hours.  I know that God hears and answers our prayers.  Each morning we pray together as a family for safety and for safe returns...I'm glad our prayer was answered this week.

Today and tomorrow I am frantically putting together Halloween costumes etc.  Making treats for the kids' classes...the little blue guys of course.  The kids requested them again - for the third or fourth year in a row.

A friend's father passed away this week, I will be playing my cello at the services, so I've been working on music for this during the week.  We've got a dinner date with friends this weekend, as well as the funeral service, hopefully a temple trip, a church Halloween party and chili cookoff, and then the missionaries for dinner on Sunday.  I'm hoping I can get everything done.

Our oldest will be Oscar the Grouch for Halloween (I've just got to finish her garbage can), and our youngest is a Christmas present.  I've built the box, and now just have to wrap it and find a good bow for her hair.  I love that my kids want to be original and creative with their costumes...sometimes I end up with the brunt of the work though.  Just trying to slow it down and enjoy it all while they are still little and want to hang out and interact with us.

Gotta go finish some costumes.  I'll post some pics once we've got them!  

Right now

Right now:
The tomatoes that I bottled this morning are processing on the stove.  Only 18 quarts this year, but better than nada.
I am happy to be sitting down after standing all morning in the kitchen peeling tomatoes.
My front room is clean.  The kitchen was - until I started. 
I rehung all of our wall candy that was taken down when we painted this summer.  My daughter just did a gymnastics move and knocked a picture off of the wall.  Not so happy about that.
My daughter is home from school.  She came home sick.  Funny how the tummy ache disappeared as soon as she ate lunch.  Now she can't be pried away from the t.v. - she thinks she's on vacation.

Its Friday.
I'm happy about that.
It's 2:29 in the afternoon and I still need to shower.
Before I have to start shuttling kids around for their after school activities.

Strep hit our home last week, de-railing all of my scouring the rest of the house projects.
Strep is now gone.  It is not our friend.  3 of us got tests.  Luckily, only one of us had a positive result.

Lots of time spent last week not doing much, then trying to play catch up.  And here we are.
My daughter came home from school sad today.  She left her bike at school (okay - for a couple of weeks...she was sick - come on!) and went to ride it home today, only to find that it has been re-located/lost/stolen.  We aren't quite sure which.  What a bummer!

We really enjoyed watching General Conference from our own home again.  We had a few minor difficulties with the reception (like for a while we only got sound if it was music...we had to find the radio station on line and listen to it until they figured out those technical difficulties)...but it was great.  The kids watched all 8 hours of it with us (while playing conference word bingo and eating candy - but it worked!)  It was just great to be at home watching it on the computer - not camped out at someone else's home.  I loved the Saturday morning session the best.  While all of the talks were very moving, I found myself completely riveted as I listened to Elder Holland (and bawling), and then President Uchtdorf's talks.  

I think I mentioned that we pulled out my guitar several weeks ago.  Last week I found some music and put together an arrangement of La Musica Notturna - that last scene from Master and Commander where they begin to play a duet together.  Well, my husband has been playing one part on the guitar and I have been playing on my cello, and it has been really fun!  We've never made music together and we've both perfected Edelweiss on the guitar, and the Master and Commander song.  So cool.

During conference I picked back up a needlework project that I started a couple of years ago and then got discouraged and set back down.  I'm so close to finishing it - I just can't wait.  Our youngest daughter asked for a quilt that I made for her birthday, so I'm actually frantically working on some blocks for both of them, hoping to get two quilts done and quilted before Christmas.  If you need me - I'll most likely be at home crazily piecing material together.  I finished two blocks today, and am in fact on my way there right now.

Summertime fun

Here are a few photos I cam across from some of our summertime activities:
Spending time at the children's museum with our cousins - the dress ups are ALWAYS a hit!

Theme park with a friend. I love my little daughter's head poking up there in the back with the pink hat!

The girls attended two different gymnastics camps this summer. Here they got stuck in the foam pit. I think you sort of have to swim to actually get back out of it. Unfortunately, these were taken with my phone camera, and this one came out a little fuzzy, since it is through a glass plate window.