Monday, November 17, 2008

CAMPAIGNING 2008 (Funny Story)

Alright, so my blog is a little blah.  This "blogging thing" is really a challenge for me because:
a) it's a struggle for me to try and remember to take pictures of events, such as b-days, raking leaves, visiting Hee-Haws, carving pumpkins, losing teeth, pictures of (little hands) that are BIG & PUFFY from bee stings, cute play-doh creations, my 4 year old boy setting the dinner table in the most adorable fashion (actually, I do have a picture of that), new haircuts, clean bedrooms etc... etc and
b) I lack in the area of consistently journaling the blessings and happenings of each day that I enjoy, so that I can blog about them.  Kudo's to each of my friends.  You all have the funnest, most interesting blogs and I SOOO enjoy reading them!  I definitely have a deeper appreciation for your well thought out posts and clever captions.
Although a lot has happened, I haven't journaled or captured any pictures, and I CAN'T for the life of me remember the details of each event. Dang.  Hence the reason to keep a journal AHA! But here's a funny little story about my cute Hubby (Staunch Republican) and his friend's, Austin and Brad (Democrats) and the "friendly banter" between them.
On Halloween night while we were out trick-or-treating with our kids, we stopped in at our friend's Emily & Austin's house and enjoyed yummy soup and hot chocolate.  The kids loved exchanging their candy with the other kids there, and loading their plates up with even MORE treats, while the adults enjoyed visiting with each other.  During our brief visit, Austin and Brad decided to sneak away and go "trick-or-treating" with their kids, or so we thought.... 
When we came home, we bathed the kids, sorted through all their candy, and then got everyone snugly and warm and watched movies until late.  When I woke up early the next morning, I opened my bedroom blinds and saw an OBAMA '08 sign tightly screwed into the branch of our walnut tree, perfectly placed at eye level.  I laughed my head off when I saw it, because I knew Shaun would NOT be over-joyed to see it hanging there AND because I knew he HADN'T seen it before he left.  He, Travis & Logan had to be at BYU early in the a.m. for the merit badge pow wow, and the blinds were still closed.  I couldn't wait for him to come home, so I could see his reaction when he saw the sign.  I threatened the kids not to say anything to Daddy that would make him look up in the tree.  I WANTED him to find it on his own!  I busied myself and the other kids with raking leaves and cleaning up the yard.  A few people came by and noticed the sign, including the 2 men that had put it there! (hehehe) They (Brad & Austin) had a good laugh when I told them it was placed perfectly at eye level.  They Had NOT done that on purpose. Which made it funnier.
Finally they got home from the pow wow, and came out to the front yard where we were finishing up with raking, and Logan (Who was not aware of the threat I made to the other kids) looks up in the tree and blurts out, "Why is there a OBAMA'08 sign in our tree"? and Shaun said, "WHAT!!???" and looked up and saw it.  We all busted up laughing at the look of disgust on Shaun's face.  We found out later that Travis had come home for a minute to grab something to go with his costume, and caught them red-handed while they were drilling it into the tree. They made him promise not to say anything to Shaun about it.  Goll, where are your loyalties Trav?? (hahaha) Anyways, these are a couple of shots I happened to snag just in the nick of time.  If I had been one minute sooner, I could've got a picture of Shaun unsuccessfully trying to "jump" up into the tree, but I was too late.......








This is what I saw when I opened my blinds. :D














I love that he "tried" to scale the tree, but to no avail... he surrenders and fetches the ladder....












Shaun and Carston had fun de-facing the sign to read, "NOBAMA '08 and later that night staked it into Austin's front yard.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Halloween 2008

We had so much fun.  It was the best weather we've EVER had on a Halloween in my whole life! We didn't even wear jackets.  Shaun and I went trick-or-treating with the kids.  We've gone every year with them.  I've never outgrown it!  I seriously wouldn't mind taking my kids all over the county if their little legs wouldn't give out on them.  When I was younger, I remember loving Halloween WAY more than any of my friends did.  My Mom would never let me trick-or-treat alone, and since none of my friends could never go anywhere past our culdesac, I would drag my cute little brother Larry all over the neighborhood, out to our whole ward, and clear around our stake boundaries.  There was some sick and twisted enjoyment I got out of knocking on people's doors with my hands outstretched, waiting anxiously to see what they'd drop into my bag.  Of course I always relished the "cool" candy that could be found at the "richer" homes.  I would dash home at the end of the night and the sorting ritual would begin.  Suckers in one pile, smarties and sweetarts in another pile, bubble gum, taffy, pixie stix, each in their own piles, cool wax lips, licorice, chic o sticks, then the "pile of Gold" would be my candy bars/anything chocolate.  I would savor these pieces and only eat them sparingly.  Of course I would throw away all the YUCKY candy which consisted of boxed raisins (are you kidding me?), those gross round assorted hard peppermint candy that you find in a grandma's purse, now and laters, also the horrid tasting peanut butter kisses in the black and orange wrappers (does anyone like those?) Way back then, I would store my candy stash away for months!!  Not the case now.  Anyways, enough about that.  The kids dressed up in diff't costumes for the Halloween parade, than they did for trick-or-treating.  More work for Mom, Yeah!!  I'm sad I didn't get ANY pictures of Gage in his cute Fireman outfit.  He wouldn't keep it on long enough, and the only picture I got of Kaymin is with her crammed in the backseat.  She was a nurse.  Even Carston and Travis joined in the fun.  Carston looks like Bon Jovi and Travis was the chainsaw killer.  And of course our "punk rocker kitty, Calli".  I'm also sad I didn't get pictures of our pumpkins being carved nor did I capture the completed masterpieces.  But, oh well there's always next year.

Halloween 2008




Our "punk rocker kitty, CALLIE" such a good sport










CARSTON
My soon to be missionary.  :)
























TRAVIS "repressed anger"




Nurse KAYMIN


MALLORY (I wish the camera could capture her long, fake eyelashes, but hers are already so long that you can hardly tell she has them glued on)

    JENTZEN (I'm marveling at that fantastic square knot, somebody tied)  Travis wore this costume when he was this young.

LOGAN  (I'm pretty sure he is a vampire EVERY year)

 MALLORY  (Hope it's many moons away before you're really a bride)


JENTZEN  (Wow, he's really got the facial expression going on)