Halloween 2008

Monday before Halloween the kids and I carved pumpkins while Joseph studied. We ended up staying up WAY too late, but we had a good time! They drew their own designs, then I cut them out. Then while I helped one kid, the other stole the little pumpkin saws and made minor alterations. :) K's ended up with big puckered lips, earrings and a necklace (looks like she slit her throat, but it'a a necklace), J-boy wanted to keep the saws stuck in his like horns (befitting the three eyed monster he designed). I used the cordless drill to poke holes in a cute little pumpkin for Baby A. Lovin' those power tools! K took most of the pictures to document the occassion. I thought she did really well!

After a grand shuffle of costumes (ballerina turned princess turned fairy and Woody turned Knight turned Ninja), we ended up with a ninja and a tinkerbell. I was a witch (not too much of a stretch some days), and Baby A was my black cat. Joseph was a dentist -- people started sweating when he walked in the room. :) We went to our local Community Center for a bit of indoor fun, then came home and visited the neighbors.

The kids and the Cricut made the little paper bag luminaries. I've always wanted to make those! I think they turned out really cute.

And, last but not least, I've got to do a quick little shout out to picasa3!!! What a fantastic FREE program! I usually use photoshop Elements to make my little collages, but Picasa3 has much better collage options than past versions of picasa -- these took a whoppin' 3 minutes a piece, and adding text is super easy, too. Yay! Download it today if you haven't yet!! :)

Beautiful Baby!

In our church, we give babies a special Baby Blessing - kind of like a christening. Baby A's baby blessing was in October. She wore the same dress that my mom bought for K when she was blessed 6 years ago. Joseph gave her a beautiful blessing -- one of my favorite parts was that she would be 'fast friends with her siblings.' :) I want my kids to be buddies!! She cried through most of the blessing, and I was all over the chapel during Sacrament meeting (at the front playing the organ, in the hall trying to calm the baby, sitting in the pew with the kids, back to the organ, back to the hall, out to the mothers' lounge for a quick snack for A, etc etc), but in spite of all the commotion I felt the Spirit -- I feel so blessed to have this choice daughter of God in my care! God is good. :)

Proverbs 22:6

{Train up a child in the way she should go: and when she is old, she will not depart from it.}