A BIG thank you!

Gavin: "Thank you Mamaw and Papdaddy and Tessa for the lollipop and card. It tasted like a little bit of bubble gum and thank you!

Asher: "Dear Mamaw and Papdaddy and Tessa, thanks for everything even the card was nice. I like the sucker. It tasted like bubble gum. Thank you for the card. I like doing the dot to dot. That was fun. I hope you send a another letter some day."

Corbin: "Thank you Mamaw and Papdaddy and Tessa and thank you for the card and the lollipop. Thank you. It tasted like bubble gum."

They were SOOOO excited after school when I pulled that from the mailbox. Asher said, "Man I gotta do something nice for Mamaw!"

Thanks guys. It's the unexpected surprises that are the most fun.
Love ya.

Broken Heater Update

Larry just came. I was in the house and he YELLS from the garage for me.
I am booking it downstairs, burst through the garage and he says,

"See that lightswitch on the wall? When you threw your coat on the table it turned it off. It has to be on for the heater to work."

Me: "Oh."

Larry: "Damned good thing I wasn't here at midnight! You girls."

Me: "Sorry."

Broken Heater

Our Heater broke last night. I am blogging and my fingers are so cold I am having trouble typing. It's warmest by the computer because the screen is emmitting heat. Driving onto base this morning the sign said it was 25 degrees. Some guy named Larry should be here any moment to fix it. At least I'm not crossing the plains in this winter weather.

Family Home Evening Pumpkin Carving

I splurged and bought the $6 pumpkin carving kit at Wal-Mart and let me tell you it's worth every penny. :o) It's so much easier to carve a pumpkin with one of those little knifes in the kit than any kitchen tool I could come up with.

Corbin and Gavin chose the cat.


Jared chose the skeleton.


Asher chose a bat.


And of course here's me and Jared's gentleman pumpkin from our Halloween party.

We roasted pumpkin seeds which Jared said was a lousy Family Home Evening treat. Maybe I should have doused them with sugar.

The BEST Halloween Party EVER

So here we are arriving at the Reeders' First Annual Halloween Party. Notice the groovy smoke emmitting from the stairs! Jared is truly a terrifying sight. He shaved and BICed his head just for the occassion.



Here are the cute Bacons.


And Blackleys.


And Chiariellos.


And Thomass'


And Kendra whose husband was away on business. Arrrh Matey!


And of course our hosts, the Reeders'.


With their little dog Buckwheat who was dressed as Mr. T. My picture doesn't show all of his bling bling.


We started off with a pumpkin carving contest. First place went to the Bacons' peace sign pumpkin and the Chiariellos' spider pumpkin.

Here is our gentleman pumpkin with his little eyeglass.



Next was musical chairs which I did not get a picture of. Mrs. Bacon won that one.

One of my favorite games was pin the wart on the witch. We all chewed a piece of gum and were blindfolded and spun unmercifully. Then we had to stick our gum closest to the wart on the witch's nose. I e-mailed Asher's first grade teacher and asked her if we could play this game at the Fall Harvest party next week at school. She said gum, children, and carpet don't mix. True. But I was still dissappointed.
Jared won this event and the witch board is proudly displayed on our mantle.



Donut eating contest was a blast. I was kicking bootie in this event and was on my way to a first place medal when my donut fell off the string and I was disqualified. Sniff, sniff. Maybe next year.




Jared won limbo too. I couldn't seem to get a picture of him under the bar. Oh well.


The last event was my other favorite. I LOVE a pinata! I got a coupon for $1.98 bag of potatoes at Fred Meyer and a coupon for my husband to do the dishes whenever I wanted, and yes I could inspect. Jared got a coupon for a hug for Mr. T in which he wouldn't call him a fool. And of course we got candy. Lovely glorious candy. Oh! And I also got a coupon for shrimp which I gave to Kendra. I mean come on, seafood in the Speaks' household!? It's unheard of.


And last but not least, here's me eating my mega carmel apple. Another favorite moment for me. That apple is a thing of beauty!



Stephanie Bacon leaned over to me during the party and said, "Their (meaning the Reeders') kids are going to have the most awesome birthday parties!"

Rock on Reeders'!!!!!

Bed Head

All of us have permanent bed head in Alaska because we are always wearing stocking caps. Here's a sample of our beauty!

Chubby Bunny

It was my idea to play chubby bunnies for Family Home Evening. It was so disgusting. I was totally grossed out.

Dad won of course with like ten marshmellows or something.

Gavin got four or five.

Corbin I think got three or four.

Asher got four or five.

Here's Corbin upchucking his chubby bunny.


The kids asked to play again the other day. I said no.

7:30 a.m. October 20, 2008

Asher just got done saying his prayer.

Asher: "Mom, I feel weird."
Mom: "You do! Tell me about it."
Asher: I think I know what it is. In Missouri I used to always sing in the bathroom and now I don't."
Mom: "Well, that's easily fixed. Just start singing in the bathroom again."
Asher: "I get embarassed when people talk about it."
Mom: "Oh."

Random Sampler

Corbin isn't a big "toy" guy. He likes puzzels and playdough and well....keep reading.

Corb likes to make random stuff out of random stuff. This is his scarecrow. The pasta drainer is the head. The marbles are his eyes with the little blue lid for a hat. The banana is his mouth with of course syrup for arms and wooden spoons for legs.

Here's the man himself, proud of his creation. It took him 45 minutes to accomplish this piece of abstract art.

Oh and I helped.

Jared traded his X-Box in for an i-pod. So here is the family playing video games on the big screen.

Corbin was trying his hand at taking pictures. Most were of the floor or half of what was intended to be captured. This one was of me and it came out!

Peas

Gavin: My art teacher's name is Mrs. Murphy
Mom: That's a nice name
Gavin: Her husband doesn't like peas. They can only eat peas when he's gone.
Mom, laughing: That's funny Gav.
Gavin, very serious: That's not funny Mom.
Mom: Why?
Gavin: Because it means they don't get to have peas very often!

I had no idea Gavin felt so strongly about peas. I will be fixing them more often from now on.