Halloween

I got a little creative with our food for Halloween this year. That doesn’t usually happen.

We made ghost pancakes for breakfast.

Then we had “worms” for lunch. I just sliced up a hot dog and rubbed it around in ketchup.

So, I’m beyond totally late posting this. Life is really crazy (nothing new there). I haven’t had much free time and honestly just downloaded the pictures off my camera yesterday…

Quickly, here is a picture from our Halloween this year. (Yes, I’m aware that Christmas is in a couple weeks.)

Aaron was Mario, Kaden was Savage Opress, Kyla was a pirate princess, and Sydney was Cleopatra. The kids loved trick-or-treating and would have stayed out all night if it hadn’t been a school night.

Wall Art

Brad really likes to tease me. I’ve been saving toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls to make something like this:

or this:

You get the idea. Just trying to use some creative juices, save money on home décor, and have some fun. A while back Brad helped me out:

Not quite what I had in mind, but at least he made me laugh!

Las Vegas

Last month Brad and I were able to get away for a few days with some of his family. We went to St. George and saw “Little Mermaid” at Tuacahn. If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend it. The special effects there were beyond incredible, not to mention the beautiful surroundings.

Then we headed on to Las Vegas. I was able to go to Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian with Brad’s sister and mom. Wow. Amazing!

We walked around so much I got a hole in my pants! By the last day I could barely move. I really didn’t think I’d get that sore. Guess I should’ve kept up with my exercising instead of taking a few weeks off before the trip.

We didn’t take our camera because neither of us wanted to lug around our big DSLR. Michelle took a bunch of pictures for us though. She made a little slideshow of our trip and our kids love it! The first couple days after we got back that was the only thing they watched! So, the only pictures I have right now are of the “dancing waters” from my cell phone. Another incredible sight.

Random Pictures from my Phone

I took the pictures off my phone last night and decided to share a few that I like. Okay, more than just a few.

These two are from the day Kaden had his leg cast removed. We had a long day swimming and this was the car ride home.

They finally had a little carnival at the Highland Fling this year. Kaden was so happy to be able to go on rides because he finally had his cast removed.

Yay for Grandpa helping us out!

Aaron decided he wanted to go on this. He walked right up there, got his gunny sac, sat down and took off like it was nothing. Halfway down he fell off. He didn’t want to go down it again. But I was shocked he went on it in the first place. That’s him and Sydney at the bottom of the stairs.

Kaden’s legs were still really weak so he rode around in his wheelchair.

One of the many walks we went on over the summer.

Kyla loves sleeping in our bed. I thought it was cute her and her dad were sleeping the same way.

Kyla in her brother’s backpack!

Kaden’s first day of school. We were waiting outside his classroom and decided to take some pictures!

Kyla’s blister. She grabbed my curling iron that uses infra-red heating. Ouch.

Brad brought home yogurt-covered banana chips. Kyla loved them, hence all the white everywhere.

Canning

Fall harvest; what a wonderful time. I’ve been canning peaches, pears, fruit cocktail, and more recently apple pie filling. All the fresh fruit is wonderful!

So, last night I was up pretty late canning some apple pie filling. My counters and table are overrun with everything. I didn’t have much workspace so I was just winging it, doing my best to make things fit. That mindset led to stupidity. I spilled (more like poured) boiling hot pie filling sauce on my hand…

Warning: nasty looking pictures below. If you have a weak stomach you may not want to read this post…

I spent the next 5-10 minutes with my hand under cold water while Brad held ice cubes on the burn. I still had a bunch of apples and sauce to use up. I ended up balancing an ice cube on my hand while slicing, peeling, and coring more apples and pouring sauce into the bottles. I kept it iced for a good two hours. It still burned. I put some Melaleuca oil on it and the pain went away. Amazing! I woke up this morning and my hand just had a red ring with white in the middle.

By the afternoon it started too look like this:

Gross but manageable. Later I had to do the dishes, then we went to see Cars 2. Aaron kept grabbing my hand, leaning on it, etc. This is what it looks like now:

It still burns, but it could be worse. I keep bumping it on all sorts of stuff. The Melaleuca oil helps but it won’t stay on very long. I’m keeping a bandaid on but that doesn’t seem to help either. I’m afraid of popping it because I don’t want it to get infected… Hopefully it goes down soon.

Family Home Evening

I suggested that we go for a drive up the canyon for our family home evening at the end of September. I love to drive up there and look at the beautiful leaves changing colors. Brad always teases me about wanting to go look at the leaves… but we had fun:

Brad and Kaden by the river.

Bridal Veil Falls

Brad was taking pictures of me and the kids

and a nice couple walked by. They promised not to runaway with our camera and took some family pictures for us. It was super nice; we don’t get many pictures of all of us anymore.

I saw this bridge and thought it would make a nice photo backdrop. Too bad we seem so faraway, it was hard to get a good angle…

Kaden likes to climb.

Playing in the water:

Kyla running away. She loved the freedom there. I love the boys in the background.

She loves to fold her arms now too. She kept them folded most of the way home… so cute!

Good times!

Just For Fun

I have a few pictures to share; just the kids playing outside.

I love how some of these turned out! It’s fun playing with natural lighting. It was evening outside and I had tons of fun, even though my kiddos weren’t very willing subjects.