Family Dinner, Halloween Party

This is the oh 8th year I believe that we've done a halloween party. Most years it consists of just our family or our family and some close friends. This year it was just our immediate family and we had a fun time. We were sad that mom couldn't make it, long story short, bartender called in sick, no one to replace. Dad came because we were celebrating his birthday! The kids played a game as soon as everyone got there. They get a paper put on their backs stating a halloween reference. They have to guess who they are by asking yes or no questions and then they get a prize. I think I made them tooo easy this year. Greg and Melinda made Kaluah pork for dinner and it was delicious!! We had Pumpkin pie for dessert! Dad opened his gifts which consisted on cologne and cologne and cologne...lol!! I was going to get him cologne but opted out and got him a gift certificate to applebees, which he and mom frequent often. We played the Mother Hen game, it's a given every year. This year team 2 won by a fair amount!! Everyone had a good time and of course we couldn't end the evening without our annual trick-or-treating around the house. The kids ended up with an awesome amount of candy. Mom and Dad always bring the most and the kids all flock around them to get every last bit of candy!! It was a fun year!! Thanks everyone for making it a great yearly experience!!

Stealin Christmas!

Spencer found a little Christmas stash and emerged wearing these!!! His pajamas for Christmas eve...guess I'l have to find another pair of pajamas to fill in!!! He thought he was the coolest thing ever!!

We had a great time at the zoo!!! It was a beautiful day to go. We packed lunch and ate it in the car on the way out. A lot of the animals weren't in their pens, but we had fun nonetheless. It was the first time we've gone to the zoo as a whole family in years!! The new lion exhibit was cool! The kids spent the most time there! After the zoo we took the kids to see their new cousin and then went and enjoyed a delicious dinner at Chili's!!! Spencer is at the perfect age where all the animals he just loved and couldn't stop talking about them!!

Struggles

For the last couple of years our family has struggled. Struggled with finances, struggled with life, struggled with daily activities. Our most recent struggle has been with our feelings regarding church attendance . We have struggled with getting up, getting out the door, and actually staying there when we did make it. We would go for a few weeks, take 2 or 3 weeks off, go for a week or two, then not go. After a lot of talk we've decided that for our family right now, we are not going to be attending church. I know this is probably going to come as a shock to most of you. Believe me, it is kind of shocking to us too. We never thought that we would be in this situation, but here we are. It isn't just one thing that has effected our decision to not go. We haven't been offended by anyone, we have a great ward! At this time we just feel it's the right move for our family. It feels like a big weight was lifted off our shoulders once we decided to do what WE needed to do. Please do not take offense to our decision. We still like everyone in the ward, and have told the kids that they are more than welcome to go to their activities and even go to church if they would like. So far, I don't think they are interested. It is going to be a change in our family and for right now it feels like a better one! This may be a permanent change and it may not, we'll just see how it plays out! We love each and every one of you that is a part of our family. We love our families and understand that for most of them this is going to be something that is difficult for them to understand! Please just don't harp on us and look down on us! It's what we've decided and it isn't just some rash decision that we've made. We've talked and talked and feel that this is what we need to do at this time in our lives. Thanks and know that we love you all!!

Cute little pumpkins!

My Sister Kari and I have been getting together and crafting as of late. We found this blog which had these very very cute fabric pumpkins that we thought would be perfect for fall decorating. They were super easy to make and not that expensive. We used home decorator fabric that was on sale and on clearance. They whipped together pretty fast and you really can't sew them wrong! We stopped at the dollar tree and bought the flowers and little decorations for them. This picture is of Kari's, once again I'm too lazy to take a pic and upload it to the computer. Mine look so cute nustled up on my shelf in the living room. Thanks for the fun craft days we have been having and will continue to have!! For directions click on the link! I don't know how to make it not all show up so here it is!! http://bloggingwithholly.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-requests-for-pumpkins.html

Girl's Beach Trip

This year a group of us girls decided to rent a beach house in Lincoln City for the weekend. We had a fun time being together and hanging out. The house itself wasn't all that grand, the beds were rock hard and old! But we made due with what we had and had a great time there!! We started the weekend off with a drive to Tillamook Cheese Factory. We went through the little tour because Marie nor Kari had ever been there? What? I know, we go there almost everytime that we make a stop at the beach! Fresh Tillamook cheese and ice cream is the best! I bought lots of cheese curds and enjoyed a tillamint and peppermint candy waffle cone! YUMMY! We got to Lincoln City right when it was time to check in to the house! Great timing!! We got all settled into our rooms and did some talking and then all decided to go to Mazatlan for dinner. It wasn't how I remembered it at all. I wasn't impressed with the food at all. The enchilada sauce tasted like tomato sauce. So, needlesstosay, I ate a lot of chips and salsa. After dinner we went back to the house and just sat around and talked. We were all very tired and turned in relatively early that night knowing that Saturday was going to be a busy day. We started Saturday off with Chorizo and egg burritos cooked by yours truly. YUMMY!! Then Marie, Shaye, Kari and I headed over to the outlets. We found some smokin' deals there!! We found so many good deals in fact, that we ended up going back a 2nd time later in the day for some more! We cut our day trip a little short because we were all getting hungry and wanted to eat lunch. We headed down to Mo's for lunch. The wait wasn't bad and we enjoyed some yummy food and good company. As we were sitting there I was staring out the window and saw something moving on the beach, taking a 2nd gander I noticed there were camels on the beach. We didn't go for a ride because we got distracted by the gay pride rally that was going on next door. We had a good time there...We all got air brush tattoos of stars. Different places, different colors. We watched them do their impersinations on stage and had a good time. After were done there we decided to walk main street Lincoln City into the little shops. It was the first time that I had walked that stretch and we had a good time. Bought some fudge and some sugar rock suckers for the kids!
Saturday night we had spa night after we went to dinner at Gallucci's which was nasty btw and stopped for Cold Stone on the way home! Nothing better than Peanut Butter Perfection in a waffle bowl! And they actually had pb ice cream which was awesome! I gave Kari and Sarah hair cuts and Shaye brought stuff to do facials for those who wanted it. Don't we look HOT!! It really is an awesome facial and leaves your skin feeling silky and soft! Sarah gave us all foot massages, which felt fantastic. We stayed up WAY to late!!! After we decided to go to bed around 2ish we sat and talked in the room(Kari, Shaye, Marie and I) until 5:30 in the morning. We had a great time. It wasn't so awesome when we had to wake up at 8:30 to get the house ready to go!! We got to spend about a 1/2 hour on the beach that day and it was delightful. The weather was perfect which doesn't happen very often at the coast. We all wished we had one more day to just relax and hang out on the beach! Next year!!

Thanks for a wonderful time ladies and friends!!!

Thanks Kari for putting the mosaics together, I'm too lazy to download mine and make them!!

Most amazing site!

Last Saturday as a group of employees were standing outside getting ready to leave we witnessed the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I just happened to turn around and saw the exact same thing as the above pic screaming through the sky. I was amazed. It gave us all the chills. It's the first time that I had ever seen anything like this!! AMAZING!!