Happy Halloween!

Before our ward's trunk-or-treat tonight, I made my girls pose for a few photos. For once I had willing subjects because they thought the looked so great in their costumes. I know we're looking a little home-made this year, but hey...if they're happy that's all that matters right?!?

Sydney as...Princess Leia.







And Kallie as....a leprechaun witch. Never heard of such a thing? Well, now you have!



poem by Kallie Norris:
On Halloween night
a light shown bright.
By the moon that shown bright,
and flew like a kite.
Then I saw a mummy
that stood by a light.
That was a sight to see,
it shown like a firefly light.
That shown in the mist goooood night!
said the ghost.
A A A A h , Bye, Bye- run!


May all of your chocolate-filled-Halloween-bucket dreams come true!
(ps- I lied about photoshop, I'm using it)

Must See This!

A huge thank you to ONE of my favorite friends {jamey} for letting me know about this blog. I'm lovin' it! If you have little girls CHECK IT OUT!

An artistic bunch...

Have I mentioned that I'm a lame-o mother? Well I am...and this is proof!

The problem is we moved into a little townhouse that has VERY LITTLE storage, no garage, no nothin'! So to say we have limited space is an understatement. So Halloween comes around, and my kids are so excited to go get some decorations to make our house spooky! But when we get to the store everything I see I think in my head..."where am I going to put that when Halloween is over?" And the answer is- nowhere! So I tell my girls we can get some of those spider webs, but other than that we are going to have to make our own decorations.

And here is the finished product...just say it! (white trash) I know the truth hurts, but at least I don't have to find storage for any decorations :) Don't be embarrassed for me...I feel fine about myself even if people who drive by feel sorry for the poor family who lives in #252.



Cute, little Sydney is just learning how to write and spell. She was SOOOO proud of herself for drawing this picture without any help! What she meant to say was "Boo, Boo.....AAAHHHH!" But what she actually wrote (thanks to the Rideout girls for pointing this out to us) was "Boob-oo...AAAHHH!" I wonder who's boobs she was being frightened by :)



Also, we are very proud of Kallie for winning 3rd place on her reflections picture! Yay Kallie! Dan asked her what she did when they called her name and Kallie said, "I put a smile on my face and I was big and proud!" (hee, hee)



She was beside herself with joy that they gave her this beautiful medal...



Her visual art painting titled "Fairs are Fun"...complete with TONS of glitter for a little bling!

Punkins...&more

It IS Halloween after all...you gotta do it!


First year we've used the "kits"...next year we try POWER TOOLS (thanks Kara)!




soooo spooky...


yes I'm the lame-o mother who made Kallie's cat's tail fall off...nothin a few tooth picks can't fix:)


can I tell you how much I love the smell of a candle burning inside a freshly carved pumpkin...it takes me right back to my days of trick-or-treating!





And (on a side note) I forget to include these with my Zions pictures. We stopped at a 'Blondie's' for lunch & behind the restaurant they have elk and bison along with bags of food you can buy to feed them. Very fun & VERY slobbery!



You can always count on Grandpa Charlie for a little adventure!



It took Syd a little while to get this brave!





but get this...they had elk & bison on their menu. no joke!

Fall...St. George Style!

My parents decided to head down south to see all the beautiful fall colors in Zions. We thought it was a brilliant idea so we drove up to meet them for part of the day...

But what did we find when we got there??? A canyon full of SMOKE! Apparently they were doing some "prescribed" burnings (which we knew about, but called the day before and they said it was all CLEAR). And guess what...it WASN'T all clear! But since we had driven that far we decided to take the bus around the loop before we went home.

We got out at the River Walk and snapped a few (that's a relative term by the way) photos! The smoke actually made a cool effect in some of the pictures.

(Also...after having discussion with a few friends regarding over-processed photos, I've decided that ALL pictures I post are going to be SOOC (straight out of the camera...meaning no Photoshop) unless I note otherwise. Except a little sharpening which doesn't really count...)













If there is mud...she will find it!







I love you Mom & Dad...I don't say that enough (xoxo).





I love the layered mountain look in the back thanks to all the gaggy smoke.

Last but not least...

It's sad but true but this is my last post of our weekend get-a-way! Whether you're sad or glad this is it!

Our last day in California we headed off to Sea World. I LOVE Sea World...pure entertainment for young and old alike (with educational stuff slipped in there w/o you even realizing it).

Here are Kallie & Syd holding the star fish. I remember doing this when I first went to Sea World back in 7th grade.





Not sure what it is about jelly fish...I could stare at them for hours. How can something w/o a brain and w/ 4 stomachs be so hypnotizing to watch?!?





Yes, we paid $6 for a tray of little sardine things to feed the manta rays, unfortunately many of them were lost to the sea gulls (dumb sea gulls...who would pay $6 to feed sea gulls...who am I kidding, who pays $6 to feed manta rays :).



Anxiously awaiting the fabulous Shamu show (does Syd's face crack anyone else up?).


Too Cool!



And a quick stop at the 'Sesame Street Live 4-D Show' was a must...complete with raindrops falling from the ceiling and all.



I know this is a little digital looking but the moment was too good to pass up! Please notice my little girlies lounging by the pool slowly sipping their ice-water and enjoying a burger. They said, "This is the best vacation ever!"





View from our 9th floor hotel room.







Sunday morning...time to head home :(

Legoland USA, Carlsbad, CA

All I have to say is that if you don't think this place is cool (a)there is something wrong with you and (b)you've never played with Legos.

Kallie took this picture of a pot of flowers in our hotel lobby...I'd almost rather have these than the real thing (at least they don't die)!



Kallie wanted to ride in the boat by herself so I got booted :(



It's official, my girls are wimps! If you see two year olds on the ride...that is the ride Kallie and Syd will want to go on over & over. Like this horse ride that they thought was the greatest, the horses rocked back and forth a little and went around a track...yee haw! I did make them go on one little roller coaster (The Dragon) Kallie was wimpering the whole time & Sydney kept saying, "this is NOT fun mom, NOT fun!"



Happy Halloween (almost).



I'm telling this story just to let you know what a bad mother I am...They have two little tracks for cars one is for 2-5 yr olds, we started out in this line and I said, "Uh oh, you guys are too big for this ride but there's one around the corner for bigger kids." So we get in line for the cars for bigger kids...and we wait & wait. As we get closer to the front I notice the sign that says for 6-12 yr old. Oh crap! Sydney is 5 1/2 but she is NOT going to be happy if I make her get in the "baby" line again. So I said (mostly joking, I didn't think they'd really ask), "If anybody asks you, tell them you're 6." Sure enough, the teenage Legoland worker comes by and asks everyone how old they are, and Syd (without even hesitating) says "6"! What have I done? I TOLD her to lie and she did without even thinking twice about it. True she has friends that ARE 6 that look younger than her, and true she was fully capable of driving the car (except that little U-turn she tried that didn't work out so well), but it was still a lie! Once again I win the terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad mother of the year award! Yay me...



Yes there were 2 year olds on this little train that went around the track...but if SHE'S happy I'm happy too :)



Syd enjoying her $5 slice of pizza...







Dan took this picture w/o me even knowing...yay Dan! I think that's a first (and maybe a last).





Beautiful ending to another fun day!