Happy Halloween!

Spencer as Stitch

Meghann as a pirate

Jordan as a Star Wars Jedi

Courtney as Dorothy

Dorothy and the Scarecrow

All dressed up

I didn't get a good individual picture of Tucker so I'll try again tonight. These are from last night. We went to a party at Jordan's preschool and it was fun to get all dressed up. I think it made the kids extra excited for tonight! I put the finishing touches on Brady's costume Monday night and I'm so glad to be done sewing for Halloween! Let the trick-or-treating begin!

Check out my Slide Show!

Fall Break

The kids were out of school last Thursday and Friday for a little fall break. Brady had to work in Melbourne Thursday night, plus visit an early morning seminary class there Friday morning so we all went with him and stayed the night at a hotel. Oh my...we had so much fun. We stayed in a Doubletree which felt like a 5-star resort compared to the Best Western type hotels we are used to staying in. Brady found a great deal on the room on the internet. We were on the top floor of the hotel in a suite with a balcony that overlooked the ocean. We were RIGHT on the beach. After dinner at Panera, Brady went to train a stake and the kids and I went to the pool and hot tub. We came back and popped popcorn, jumped on beds (well, the kids did that) and watched TV. The next day we attempted to take a family picture for our Christmas card. That was an experience! I'll post a picture to show you how we all really felt! Then we went swimming again before heading home. It was just a perfect little get-away. We were sitting on the balcony enjoying the view one more time before leaving and I said, "It would have been even more perfect if we had seen some dolphins out there in the ocean." I had no longer said that when I spotted one, then two, then three. There were about four or five dolphins that put on a show for us before we left. It was amazing!

Puzzle

We have started a new tradition of having a puzzle out on the coffee table that we can put together whenever anyone is bored. Here is our first puzzle. It took us about a week or so and was a lot of fun to put together.

Lift Off!

Brady was able to go to a shuttle launch last Tuesday with his friend, Kent. He said it was a great launch. I was on a field trip with Spencer to a marionette puppet theater. We saw the "Wizard of Oz" and it was very cute. Here are some pictures of the shuttle launch.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

I went on a field trip with Jordan's preschool last week to the local pumpkin patch. He had a great time and was excited to pick out his own pumpkin. Here's a few pictures.

An Unexpected Visitor

Our good friend from Utah, Mike Norton, called us a few days ago to say he was in town. Brady took the kids to the timeshare condo he was staying at on Saturday and they played in the pool all day long. They had a GREAT time and came home talking all about Mike (they were thrilled because he said they didn't have to call him Brother Norton!) He came to church with us today, then played games and had dinner with us afterwards. It was so good to see him again and visit and catch up! Unfortuately, I deleted a nice picture of Brady, Mike and myself but here's one of Mike with the kids.

Craft Botique

I did a craft botique this weekend - Friday night and Saturday morning. It was okay - things were not super busy but during the last hour of Saturday I had a lady come but $140 worth of stuff, then call me later to order some more things so that made it all worth it! I'm going to do a few more before Christmas so that should give me a little spending money. Yeah!

Know any good tooth fairies?

Spencer lost his first tooth last week! He was so excited about it. It had been loose since about Conference weekend and finally Brady just gave it a good tug and out it came. He wanted to take it to school the next day and show everyone so we put it in a baggie and let him take it. That evening he put it under his pillow, but woke up in tears because the tooth fairy hadn't come. Aargh! I can't tell you how many times that has happened. So...we're looking for a new tooth fairy. Know any good ones?

Early Morning Seminary

Wow! Didn't realize it had been so long since I'd last "blogged." Life has been busy. Brady and I have been subbing an early morning seminary class. I have a new respect for volunteer teachers! It was so hard to prepare for about three hours every time I had to teach. I know it didn't take Brady nearly that long, but it stressed me out that the preparation took so long for me. Gratefully, Brady did every other day so I had two days to prepare. We have to do Monday and Tuesday of this next week and then the regular teacher is back! Yeah! It will feel good to sleep in (at least until 6:00).

Saturday at the Park

We got a newly remodeled park in town and that is where we spent an hour or so on Saturday. The weather has just started to cool off and you sure can tell because people are coming outside again! It is so nice to go out without sweating. The great Florida weather is about to begin.

A Few Finished Projects

I have about 10 unfinished projects, but about three finished ones! Here are some pictures:

A friend is starting an on-line scrapbooking company and this is her company logo. I digitized the logo for her from a clipart design, then made this apron for her to wear to a scrapbooking convention. I also put the logo on two shirts. It all turned out great. Whew! I always get nervous when doing this for someone else.

Here's a Christmas table runner I just finished.

And finally, here are some pictures of the table runner I made a few months ago that I told a few of you I would send pictures of. Better late than never, right? Anyway, here it is with the binding done. I thought I'd better send the pics before it was stained from usage!

Boo!

Here's an easy treat: these ghosts are made from Nutter Butter cookies, dipped in white chocolate (or vanilla) bark, two mini chocolate chips for the eyes. We made them today in between sessions of conference - so quick and easy. The kids wanted to dip the cookies in all that vanilla bark, but I really didn't want to clean them all up afterwards, so they only got to put the eyes on. When they're the parents, they can let their kids dip away...

We are loving conference and loving watching it in our family room. We invited the Shepherds over to watch with us and the 7 kids were very quiet. We're going to eat rice and beans and spare ribs and plantains with them after the next session!