Aaaargh!

I couldn't pick my favorite picture of Matthew in his pirate costume. I don't have pictures of the other kids yet (it's not favoritism--he's the one that didn't get the first day of school picture, remember?). I am pretty smitten with him though.

He keeps me pretty entertained.
A couple conversations with Matthew this week:
After passing the school and explaining that next year, when he was 5, he would be in kindergarten and not preschool anymore. He said, "well, I just want to be 4 forever" I explained that he had to turn 5 when his next birthday came. His solution to avoiding that, "well, I just won't eat any cake then."

I was getting him prepped for his dentist cleaning and check up today (he's been twice before & won't open his mouth), when I told him if he cooperated might be able to get some gloves from the Dentist (Dr. Mark, his uncle)--he thinks they are cool like Willy Wonka's & an LGM ("Little Green Men" figure from Toy Story) he became really excited to be brave telling me all about it for an hour or so. Right before we went in he tells me "actually Mom, I changed my mind I'm not going to be brave today."
Thankfully, he changed his mind back after watching Logan and Courtney & did great thanks to a friendly hygienist and patient uncle.

Pumpkin Carving (By Ashley)

Ashley takes the microphone! Anyway, we finally carved our jack-o-lanterns for Halloween

First of all, this one is Courtney's. She carved a bat, moon, and a star. Pretty cool if you ask me. She was obsessed with cleaning out the inside! She scraped at least a pound of goop from that pumpkin until it was so thin that Mom had to stop her before her pumpkin collapsed!

Now, here's Logan's. I'm not quite sure what it is, but he's very... possesive of it, carving his initials into it to drive in the point.




















Here's "Matthew's" pumpkin. Mom practically did the entire thing except for Matthew "helped" by pulling the seeds from the inside of the pumpkin and then dropping them back in.





















Now, the best for last... Drumroll please! Mine! This is the "Gaping Black Hole of Death Pumpkin." I didn't know what I was going to do for mine, so I drew a palm tree on it. It didn't turn out very well. Then I tried to make a swirl. It didn't work out either. So I started carving a peace sign. It broke, so I turned it into a circle. Then I expanded on that by making lots of holes.

Another favorite Halloween Tradition

Another thing we love about Halloween is the party Tom's sister Kristin throws every year. She is a great party hostess--great with decorating, food, games, cute invitations & everything else. She keeps it moving along and keeps her energy going high. It's amazing. It's really fun to see what everyone dresses up as. They come up with some great costumes--lots of creativity! I'm kind of the poor sport about dressing up. Once I get all the kids ready I'm done with costumes--I know it's a bad excuse. Here's some photos from past years. (I hope no one minds me putting up their pictures-let me know if you do & I'll take them out)

Courtney, Logan, Ben, Madison, & Eli (cousins)

Tom's Aunt Vicki and his Mom (They always have awesome, matching costumes)

Kristin (Tom's sister, the hostess) and Josh

Kristin & Jim (Tom's brother)

(I'd share more but it seems like if I do more than 4 photos in a post it takes WAY too long and they don't show up & I get confused easily besides :)

Halloween Cookie Tradition

We started making these pumpkin cookies at our "annual family home evening Halloween Party" when I was in Jr. High. I think my mom found the recipe in a magazine. They are some of my favorite cookies. I think I've made them every year since. The picture of Tom above is 1994--the first Halloween we were married, living in our Provo apartment. He was a good sport to put up with my cookie tradition. :)

Ashley 2000

Courtney 2000

Here's the recipe. We make 'em big and then frost them with buttercream & add candy decorations so one is kind of a meal.
(It does included your vegatable & grain servings :)

Pumpkin Cookies

4 cups flour
2 cups uncooked quick oats
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 (16 oz.) can solid pack pumpkin
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and add sugars beating until light and fluggy. Add egg and vanilla. Alternate adding dry ingredients and pumpkin mixing well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop 1/4 c. dough on greased cookie sheet-spread out. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350 until cookies are firm. Makes about 32 large cookies. Cool, frost with buttercream icing and decorage to look like pumpkins.
(We use candy corn, m&m's, chocolate chips & any small halloweenish candy)

Buttercream Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter flavor crisco
1/2 cup butter
pinch of salt
3-4 Tbsp. milk
1-2 tsp. vanilla

Place powdered sugar in large mixing bowl. Add shortening, salt flavoring and milk beginning with 2-3 Tbsp. milk at first and add more later if necessary. Tint orange with yellow & red food coloring. Blend about 5-10 minutes at medium to high speed until fluffy.

Halloween Cookie Tradition (continued)

Matthew 2007

Ashley & Courtney 2007

Ashley 2008

Logan 2008

Tagged again

This one is all about 8's I guess.


8 favorite TV shows:


1. The Office


2. American Idol


3. Next Food Network Star (at least Ashley, Courtney & I had fun cheering for Kelsey last season)


4. I liked the first 3 seasons of 24 (watched them on DVD). Haven't wanted to invest the time past that.


5. I don't have 8 shows that I watch . . .


8 things I did yesterday: (actually Thursday-it's taken awhile to finish this)


1. Took Ashley & Courtney to piano lessons


2. Filled several bags for the DI


3. Spent quite a bit of time cleaning out the "craft" room


4. Started inventorying our food storage--realized that 3 out of five indoor closets in the house are more than 50% used for food storage. The other 2 bedrooms have their share too. Also the entertainment center holds it, hmmm... where else--downstairs bathroom cupboard under the sink. It's crazy. No wonder we put so much other stuff in the garage.


5. Walked to Coldstone with Tom--had to--our coupon was about to expire.


6. Made dinner & listened to complaints about how asparagus makes one of my children want to throw up if they are even near it. :)

7. Helped kids with homework.

8. Enjoyed the fall weather in Las Vegas.



8 things to look forward to:



1. Date night with Tom.

2. Spending time with extended family.

3. Saturday runs with Tom.

4. The Great Santa Run (It's Dec. 6th if you want to come!)

5. Breakfast, lunch & dinner

6. Our good friends are moving down the street from us this month!

7. Doing family stuff on Saturdays

8. Sunday naps

Eight favorite restaurants:

1. Cafe Rio

2. Cheesecake Factory

3. Zabbas

4. Macayos

5. Red Robin

6. Olive Garden

7. Pizza Factory (St. George) or Brick Oven (in Provo)

8. BYU Creamery (for milkshakes)

8 things on my wish list:

1. To take the kids on some fun family vacations.

2. A good pocket size camera (I had one but it got dropped :(

3. To have my Christmas decorations magically put themselves up and put themselves away. (I like having them up, but dread the task.)

4. Do a sprint triathalon (one day)

5. Do a challenging hike every summer, get Tom to come with me

6. Serve a mission with Tom

7. Have my kids turn out OK

8. Be caught up on laundry, ironing, mending, organzing, cleaning, home repairs, yard maintenance etc. all at the same time :)


I'm supposed to tag 8 people, but I don't think I can come up with 8 that haven't already been tagged, so you are off the hook!

Weekend in Utah

We went to Utah last weekend for General Conference. It was fun to stay with my parents and see Carrie & Sean & their girls and have Alison come up for the weekend too.

We drove through the canyon near Grandma & Grandpa Larsen's house to see the fall leaves. This would have been a nightmare for Courtney (who gets carsick easily) except a friend told us about Dramamine (I had no idea!) It worked like magic for her except she fought to stay awake.

A highlight was taking the kids to Thanksgiving Point to the Corn Maze. It's shaped like David Archuletta this year. And they play his music the whole time so you can learn every song :) Along with the corn maze they had a huge area with activities. If you are in Utah during Oct. it is a great place to go. Once you pay admission practically everything is included. The kids stayed for 4 hours and they were not ready to leave.

Logan shooting ears of corn with the corn-blaster

This was one of our favorites! A whole room full of dried corn kernels. We never knew corn could be so much fun (and dirty--we were covered in corn powder and were still finding kernels when we unpacked)

Ever been burried in corn? Definately something to add to your bucket list. . .

The maze. I think we made it through in about 45 minutes. (That was for 1/2 of the maze) We were a bit slow. . . and a bit overwhelmed. I've got a strategy figured out for next time though :)






Matthew and Ashley:

The hayride:

Tried to sit in the cow-train-car
with my name on it. It was personalized properly but definately not a custom fit. I may have been able to shimmy in but the jaws of life would have had to get me out.








Carrie, Alison, Ashlynn, & Reagan on the cow train.

General Conference was great! This was the first time Ashley, Courtney & I have been in person. We went to the Sunday morning session. It was raining hard in the morning, but gorgeous when we left. The best part was when President Monson walked in and everyone stood. All 20,000 or so people were completely silent. I'm glad the girls got to experience it.