hairy cookies and pumpkins

Drake has had poofy hair for quite some time. I've had a dream of letting him grow it out a little bit to have some cute little boy surfer hair, or something like that. Unfortunately his hair has always had a mind of his own and will NOT lay down. So I realized I was "that" mom. We had one a couple wards ago that had a little boy with LONG hair. He was probably two, and it was long enough to put it up in clips...which his mom did! And everyone would ask when she was going to cut it, and she would say that she just couldn't do it because it was so cute. I didn't want to be her, so I buzzed Drake.
The other hard part of cutting his hair is that Drake has nerves and feeling INSIDE his hair! At least that's the only explanation for the HUGE fits he throws every time I try to cut his hair.

Hates it

check out that snot/slobber combo!

mom, how could you do this to me?!

All better thanks to this slow melt popsicle!  (I just now discovered the slow melts-GENIUS!!)

Need directions to the gun show?

Sunday we had the cuzins over for dinner and cookie decorating

She may look stoned here, but Delia's proud of that ghost cookie!

When Ryan saw this picture of Cloe with her frosting stained black teeth, he said that she looks just like what Gavin looked like when he was a kid.  

Gwenny bum loves decorating cookies!

And tonight we carved pumpkins!

When I told Gwen that she had to clean the pumpkin out, 

she made this face and said "eww gross!"

then she got the hang of it

sawing away at her pumpkin

Ta da!  She carved it all by herself!  I'm so proud.

Then Gwen wanted to take a picture of momma with my pumpkin.  

Saturday is a special day...

Ever since the incident , we have been working on upping the security at home. Like getting the porch light to work (turns out it just needed a light bulb - duh), installing a peep hole, and since the kids will unlock and open the door for anyone, we got some latches to install today that are high so the kids won't be able to unlock the door. 

I also was able to find something similar for the sliding doors. It's basically a pin that goes through both doors so when it's in, the door won't slide- again preventing the kids from just unlocking and opening the doors. Installation of the first went off with out a hitch, but the second door, just what Ryan feared happened- his drill bit hit the glass.

So now we have a broken slider.  It seriously was cracking for at least an hour after it was hit.  And we could just see the cracks spreading, and finally the weight of it has made it bow out and small pieces have been falling off.  Does anybody know of a good glass company?????

But we didn't let that spoil our day.  We had our ward's Fall Festival-mucho funo with loads of chili, candy and games, and face painting!  Then went over to Gavin and Emily's ward's trunk or treat.  

So Gwen's kitty painted face (from our previous activity) with her witch costume kind of confused people, but we thought it was cute.

And Drake was a hit!  Everyone kept saying that the ghost was the "classic" costume, but that you never see it anymore.  But honestly, ever since the kids have seen ET, Drake is always putting blankets over his head and pretending to be a ghost, so it was an obvious costume choice.

So it was fun to let the kids have a practice before Halloween next week.  

And also nice to get lots of candy already!  ;)

Next week, we'll join them in costume!!!

pumpkin cookies with my pumpkins

With Ryan at school from first thing in the morning till often after the kids go to bed I'm constantly having to entertain.  One of the things we like to do is cook.  Gwen goes to a Montessori preschool and the Montessori method encourages child participation in the kitchen.  So I cook with the kids now.  They love it, and I like getting them excited about cooking.  The other night we made  these super yummy, healthy whole wheat pumpkin cookies from my new FAVORITE blog.  The only change I made was adding a couple tablespoons of ground flax seed, and I did the butterscotch chips as well.  As chief frugal officer of the home, I'm so stretching the grocery bill by incorporating a lot of our food storage.  It is fun, easy, and way yummy with a lot of her ideas and recipes.  

Gwen and Drake are wearing some of my grandma's old aprons.  They love them!

I used to make dresses for Gwen with some of my old shirts, like the one below

It's been a while, but this morning I decided we weren't going to watch tv today.  So after doing some visiting teaching, going to the park, reading, and cooking I ran out of things to do.  So Gwen and I took a trip to my closet.  This shirt I bought because it was way cute, but after the first wash, it was annoyingly obvious that the fabric was not cut on the grain.  So I stopped wearing it because I didn't like the way it twisted.  So I took in the sleeves, added a couple of tucks and put on a new collar, and voila!  Gwen has a new dress.

Yay, she loves it!

finally uploaded some pics

That's right, Ryan is the mustached man again.  Preparing for a Halloween costume....

This was our family home evening a couple of weeks ago.  If you look closely at Drake's necklace, it says "I am a child of God".

Okay, longer than a couple of weeks ago, because the walls there aren't even painted.

Then I found 

this picture from out old house.  It's just so cute how Ryan's singing to Gwen, and she obviously dressed 

herself.

Next up is Gwen at

 her international children's day at school.  She was a Navajo girl.  Awwww, cute!  I cheaped out and didn't make her a traditional outfit, but she's sporting the belt, jewelry and hairdo.

Then our awesome little Drakey boy at the children's day looking like a pimp.  Seriously, his hair looks like that EVERYDAY, there's no taming it.  And don't you just want to rub that little Buddha belly?

And FINALLLLLY something I've been working on (or not working on) for almost five years!  When I found out I was pregnant with Gwen I started making a quilt.  Cutting and piecing was so easy breezy, but hand quilting with out a stand....long and hard!  It seriously drove me crazy everytime I thought about it because I wanted it done, but didn't want to have half machine quilted and half hand quilted.  But I finally realized it's better to have half of it not so nice and let it get some use then to be sitting in a box in my closet forever.  So I broke down and machine quilted the other half (and Grandma's turning in her grave).  Good new is Gwen loves it!  She sleeps with it everynight!  Plus, it's finally a finished project.

guns- yea or nay?

I've always leaned toward yea, Ryan the nay.  My dream was to have (among many other guns) a cute little pistol with a pearl handle that I could wear in a garter.  Silly, maybe, but I still like to go target shooting and think it would add a sense of comfort should danger arise.  I also understand that having a gun can bring danger into your home when you have children, and that's why Ryan leans toward nay.  Of course there are precautions that you can and should take like a gun lock, safe location and teaching your children about them.  But to be honest I don't think having a gun in your house is anymore dangerous than having a pool in your back yard.  You just have to educate your babies and ALWAYS take safety precautions.

Well tonight was a night I really wanted a gun.  I was home alone with the kids because Ryan had gone to Gavin's to watch the BYU football game.  (Go Cougs!!!)  I just finished coloring my hair and came down stairs to make some popcorn (gotta have my late night carbs) when  somebody rang the doorbell.  I wasn't expecting anybody, and since we live far from most our family and friends, people don't just drop by unannounced.  Still it could be a ward member or something, so I got up and since we don't have a peep hole, yelled through the door "who is it?"  But if we had a peep hole, it wouldn't do any good anyway since I can't figure how to turn the porch light on and our front door doesn't face the street but just a long dark walk way since most of the houses around ours are vacant right now.  Anyway, there was no answer, so I just stood there thinking they might not have heard.  The door bell rings again and again I yell "who's there?" - still no answer.  So I made a quick round the house shutting of all the blinds and making sure the doors were locked.  Problem, one of our down stairs sliders doesn't lock and the dowel that we use to make sure the door won't open was missing since Drake likes to use it as a sword.  So I call Ryan, ask if he know where it is-no, tell him what's going on.  Get off the phone and a minute later the door bell rings again.  Call Ryan, tell him somebody's outside, I'm scared, Ryan says he's calling the police and coming home.  I panic, imagining the worst, grab a knife and run upstairs to the kids room.  Right now's when I 'm wanting a gun in my hand because I realize if I have to use this knife to defend myself or the kids, the attacker has to get really close before the knife is effective.  (Oh but I also REALLY want to take knife throwing lessons, then I'd be cool)  So I go into the kids room that's over the front door, although you can't look straight down since there's a balcony in the way.  I have the lights off and go to the blinds.  I see shadows and hear noises-I wasn't sure if it was hopping the fence noises, or trying to open a window noises, PANIC!!! so  I call 911 and tell them someone's trying to break in.  This was all in whispered sobs, I don't know how he understood my address.  But the calm operator dispatched a squad car right away.  Then was ten minutes of agonized waiting for the police, and in the mean time, realized I only had a knife and that wasn't going to do much-dang it, and why did we switch the door knob so the door locks from the other side?  So I pushed the dresser in front of the door.  Still crying, wondering what do I do if someone breaks in and me and my babies are up here?  Finally the police get here, I saw them and their flash lights, and Ryan arrives about the same time.  

The police look around and while we were on the porch talking to them, our neighbor comes out and announces he has his gun loaded and one in the chamber ready to shoot because he's scared.  He also had his door bell rung, had no answer then heard gravel from people climbing around outside looked out his window and saw two dark figures!!!  Holy cow!  So glad I didn't open the door!  I seriously haven't ever been so scared, I couldn't stop the tears from coming for so long.  Now I reeeeeeeeealy want a gun.  

What do you think?

count your blessings

I have been the queen of feeling sorry for myself lately.  

We made the decision to have Ryan go to school full time (he's not allowed to work his first year of law school) and I'm staying home with the kids.  So that means no income.  Student loans and our shrinking savings is how we're living.  

So I'm cutting all possible corners and being Mrs. Frugal.  So when I see cute new clothes, or get an idea for a super cute project that I can't buy the materials for, I feel sorry for myself.  

I won't anymore.  (at least for a long time) Read what happened to my sister.

Sorry Tara.