Trick or Treat! Smell My Feet!

Gimme somthin good to eat! =) We had fun collecting candy from the neighbors this year. Especially Paisley. It's fun that she's old enough to understand what to do and why. At every house, she'd walk up with Amber and Jade yelling, "Candy! Candy!" till someone opened the door - then she wouldn't say anything. lol The girls got a LOT of candy this year. I'm thinking cause there weren't that many kids out so people who bought tons of candy were just trying to get rid of it. We just put out our candy bowl full of leftover candy from last year, Christmas, and Easter. It was empty when we got back, so I guess it was good enough for the kids who came by. And now all our candy is fresh! haha

Some Crafting/Sewing

Here's some recent projects:

These are two of the costumes I sold this year. I was very disappointed with how few I made - I was planning on having the extra $$ for Christmas presents. But I only sold 10. Sad. On a side note, 3 of them were repeat business from last year, so I guess that's good.... 

I was not super thrilled with how the lion costumes turned out. There were two of them and no, it's not supposed to fit Amber. It should be on Jade, but she refused to let me take a picture. Anyways, the costume itself is fine, but I couldn't find fur the right length/color so it frustrated me. I went to 3 different stores! Good grief!

Shyla's baby blanket

Adjustable doll diapers to fit multiple-sized bottoms

These are cute little pouches. The roof flips open like a flap. I'm using one for Paisley's paper and crayons at church. =)

I LOVE this skirt! I used a scrap of fabric for the skirt part and some tulle I had laying around for the fluff. Made the waistband adjustable - just pull the ribbons and tie!

As you can see, Paisley adores her caterpillar jamas. She freaks out every time I pull them out of her drawer to wear!

I haven't sewn anything for Amber and Jade lately, but will be making new dress-ups for both of them for Christmas. Plus Christmas dresses. Besides, they don't grow as quickly anymore or wear stuff out as fast.

Trunk-or-Treat

This year for our ward's Fall Festival, we decided (well, really it was David's idea....) to build a tent for the trunk-or-treat. And since we were all to be dressed as Mario characters, we felt there was really only one option for the theme of our tent: Mario World! lol After hours and hours of work creating different scenes from the game, building the darn tent, finding the right music, and then actually putting it all together in the parking lot, I really think everyone liked it. At least I know I sure did! We even brought Raphael, our tortoise, to be Bowser! haha Here's some pics from our fun night:

Mario was pretty excited about all the sugar!

An "easy" level at the entrance to the tent. Like my koopa? I really do! Jump high to get the Star Coin!

A strawberry plant came out of the tube when David pulled the rope. He even made it so it came forward at the kids!

Watch out for the ghosts!

Bowser! Now the strobe light is on so it's doing funny things to my camera. Paisley Mario was really excited to see Raphael Bowser in the tent!

Uh....the koopa's gonna bite your bottom!

Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Bowser

One Great Day

Today was great. The end.

lol Just kidding. Not the end. =) Today actually started last night with a tough choice for Amber. She had to choose between running in her last cross country meet with the entire Peoria School District, or participate in Peoria Pride - a service project program our stake encouraged us to take part in. After explaining we'd support her decision no matter what it was, and many tears on her end as she wanted to do both, she chose to serve instead of run. Amber has such a big heart! So this morning we got up early, put on some old clothes, and headed to the house our ward was assigned to clean-up. We were given neon green? yellow? mmm....bright t-shirts to wear at "headquarters" then walked down the street to the house. Turned out the house needed to be painted (the outside walls and trim along with the block fence) and landscaped. David started by digging a trench for the border bricks while the girls and I painted. Paisley and I mostly stuck with painting, but Amber and Jade wandered over to the gravel pile and helped shovel it into wheelbarrows. Amber helped David spread the gravel, and Paisley found a dog in the backyard to play with. lol Pretty soon all my girls and the Pratt kids were playing in the backyard with the dog while the grown-ups finished up. Took 4 hours to get everything done, but I didn't hear one complaint from any of my kids the entire time. Kinda a miracle. I was very impressed with how well they all helped out cheerfully despite the hard work.

After lunch, showers, and Paisley's nap, we ran a few errands then headed to Peter Piper Pizza. Amber and Jade both earned free pizza and token coupons for their good grades during the first quarter, plus Dave and I really wanted to reward them for their hard work and cooperation at the house. We then went to our favorite frozen yogurt place and watched "Monte Carlo" at home.

I'm so proud of the choice Amber made. It makes me feel good knowing she'd choose to serve others over herself. AND do it cheerfully. She didn't even mention her meet she missed the entire day. Not once. She DID mention how much fun she had making someone's house beautiful again though. Love you, Amber Smamberkins!

Paisley's Imagination

For a two-yr old, I think Paisley has a great imagination! This morning I was in my room getting dressed while she was in the family room using washclothes as blankets for her baby and a unicorn. All the sudden, she's running into my room yelling about a dragon outside. She hides behind my legs, and keeps saying, "Dragon outside, Mommy! Outside! Dragon! Oooo, scary dragon outside! Hurry! Hide, Mommy!" hahahaha So I play along. Then she whispers, "What was that? Hear that, Mommy? Shhh....hear that? Is dragon gone? Go away, dragon!" She takes my hand and pulls me out into the hallway, stops and listens for a minute, then starts cheering cause the dragon was gone. We get about halfway down the hall when she stops and says, "Oh, no! Baby dragon outside! Baby dragon coming! Hide, Mommy! Baby dragon! Oh, no! Blanket! No, dragon! Paisley's blanket!" And she ran into the family room to save her blanket from the baby dragon. What a silly girl!

Another Week Done

I've gotta say....I love how quickly the weeks are passing. We're getting so close to meeting Shyla I can't hardly wait! =) This week we had fun playing outside - despite the rise in temp:

We said good-bye to our cousins who moved to New Mexico:

And we started a super secret family project that will NOT be revealed until the day I reveal it. lol

I LOVE that Amber's using her spyglass backwards! haha

Happy Birthday....Someone!

Long Overdue

A couple excuses reasons why I've neglected my blog lately:

1. Until recently, I had no camera. Thus, no cute pictures to post.

2. We are really boring and everyday is basically the same as the last.

3. I've been lazy. And busy. At the same time. Make sense? You know it does...

4. My computer is sooooo super duper retarded. There's some major issues with it.

K - so these are my legitimate reasons. But they don't all apply anymore, so I guess I'd better get caught up. Last weekend, David was so sweet and bought me a new camera! I wasn't planning on getting one for a couple more weeks, but he insisted and in truth, didn't really have to twist my arm too much. =) So after a morning of yardwork and organizing the carport and shed, he had the idea to go miniature golfing at Castles n' Coasters. I mentioned how I wished I had a camera, and ta-dah! We stopped at Sears and picked one out. I got a Nikon CoolPix S4100. It's plum. And it was $50 off. Yay! After golfing we got frozen yogurt for dinner and picked up a pizza for dessert. Amber and Jade thought it was pretty silly. So that was our fun family Saturday.

On Monday, Amber and Jade were home from school for Columbus Day so we cleaned up the backyard and fixed their bikes (they both needed some grease in the chain). After scrubbing and scrubbing turtle poop/pee off the porch, I expressed my frustration to David about how the dumb turtle always comes and does his business on the porch and makes it too gross for the girls to play outside. And being the sweet guy he is, David built a turtle barrier around the porch! He used the boards we bought for my garden that we never were able to fill with dirt so it didn't even cost anything. The boards are a foot tall so Raphael can't climb over them. The most he can do is pace back and forth and stare longingly into the porch. lol I also told David that since we're taking away his shade, we should build him some kind of shelter. So he used the broken tiki torches and an old cardboard box to build Raph a house - which is used every afternoon and night! Success!

Next up - costumes. So I was looking at my blog from this time last year and realized I did the most sewing at the end of September/beginning of October. This year I've been pretty dissapointed with the lack of orders. As of today, I've only had 6. Last year at this point, I'd had like 30ish. I guess the economy is hurting more people this year than last. Thankfully, we've done all right this year and aren't super struggling like we were last year. I don't have any new costume pics to post as I didn't have a camera till Saturday and I haven't completed any costumes between then and now. But I will shortly. I'm 90% done with my own girls' costumes. And on Monday I'll start working on a lion and Little Red Riding Hood.

K - now here's just some random pics that don't really have stories with them. Other than I have cute kids...

Sleeper blankets and hats for Shyla

And some cute shoes

My cute 2yr old licking the beater

David and Jade helping Amber stretch for her cross country meet

While I cook dinner, Paisley enjoys playing in the sink

Amber has been learning more about cooking lately. She's great about helping cut veggies!