Halloween pumpkin carving

We carved our Halloween pumpkins! 4 pumpkins this year! Am I crazy? It was a lot of fun. They boys even dug in and cleaned out the pumpkins. This was a first. They don't like to stick their hands into the disgusting mess. But this year they did.Jacob was the most grossed out. But he really tried his best. He knew I wouldn't carve it for him if he didn't do some of the work!

Tyler just jumped right in. He said he wanted to dig it all out with his hands. That was until he saw how sticky it was. He was a trooper. Aaron lives for messes! We carved his first so he would be happy.

Jared was not interested in the pumpkins once he saw the goop coming out of them. He spent his time trying to wash the dishes.

The final product!

Not bad, if I say so myself. This was the first time we tried to make them look "professional". I can honestly say that those carving tools and kits are worth the money. It made it fun and easy. Hopefully they will win something at the ward Trunk or Treat. The boys were soooo happy with my carving skills. Mom is the hero of Halloween!

Preschool Halloween

We had a Halloween party at preschool this week. All the kids wore their costumes. Here is Aaron dressed as Bumblbee from Transformers.This is my niece Tatum. She was the cutest Snow White EVER!

Here Aaron is working on stickers. Every day they do an opening activity. For the party it was Halloween stickers. All the kids love putting stickers on a page.

This picture was too cute not to put on here.

And let the head shaving begin...

This past weekend Joe's school had their Carnival. At the Carnival, students bought raffle tickets for a chance to give the Principal a haircut. Today they had a special assembly to fulfill that opportunity. 5 students all took turns shaving off Joe's hair. Here is the before picture. He is in the chair and ready to go. With the first cut, the students began to cheer..."Shave him bald!" It became the chant throughout the entire process.
We call this his "Chargers helmet". He had matching stripes down both sides of his head.

Then they started back up the middle!

I love this haircut! I told the office staff that they should have stopped here and left it like that for his 4:00 meeting at the District. But they continued on.

Almost there!

Now he looks like an old man with male pattern baldness!

Don't worry...it gets worse before it gets better. The students chanting go louder and louder as more hair came off.

Just about done.

And the final product! The good thing is his hair grows really fast.

So Cute! The things my hubby will do for his school.

One last Ode to day camp

This is my friend Jenni. She looooovvves day camp...can't you tell. I told you Jenni....that I would put this on my blog! You should never let me take your picture. It was fun seeing you at Day Camp.

Cub Scout Day Camp

Boulder Creek Stake Day Camp Oct 2009 This is Jacob's last year to attend Day Camp. This year they had a ropes course to cross. The boys loved it.

I can't believe Jacob is in Webelos! He had a lot of fun at Day Camp.

Jacob's 1st square knot.

It was decided that a picture of me was necessary. Thank you Sherry Fish for taking my picture. This is at the end of the day. I hope we don't look as tired as we are. We were just trying to stay in the shade.

Jacob, Adam & Hunter. Enjoying otter pops in the shade.

Jacob learned how to check the oil and remove a tire. He really enjoyed working on the cars.

These are our awesome leaders! From left to right...Ginger Grubbs, Sherry Fish, Heidi Postma, Kristin Edgeworth & Andrea Powell. Thank you Ladies for all your hard work!

Here are all our boys in Pack 238. We had 20 boys show up for Day Camp. They were great. I think they had a really good time. We love Cub Scouts!

2 year old vocabulary

De-shoe (dee-shoo) To remove one's shoe. verb

Example: "Ma! De-shoe!"

A normal conversation with Jared these days. Everything starts with !Ma! He lifted his foot and said, de-shoe. Which I was to interpret as, "please remove my shoes."

A day in the life of Jared.

October Break is over...

I cannot express how glad I am that October break is over. Although it was fun to have the boys around all week...my house cannot handle having them here all the time. I spent the entire week trying to figure out where the sticky was coming from. It was on the floor, so I'd wipe it up. Then it would show up on the table, so I'd wipe it up. It didn't matter where I went, the sticky was there.

Well, today I got rid of the sticky and the best part is it didn't come back! I know it will return, as the sticky always does. But it was nice to have a sticky free afternoon. Tomorrow I must attack the dust...or it may start attacking me!

Our Hot Air Balloon Adventure Begins!

Our adventure began at 4:30am. Thanks to Jessica for coming over so early. We met up with the Adventures Out West Balloon company at the corner of Cave Creek and Tatum Blvd in the Safeway parking lot. This is the van they took us around in. Our group consisted of Joe and Me, another couple from the Chandler area, our Captain John & 2 crewmen. It was fun to watch them lay the balloons out and unroll them. They worked quickly at it too.

First they inflate the balloon with a large fan. Once the balloon is inflated they will turn on the burners to add the hot air that will lift the balloon up.

One crew member held the bottom open to let the air flow in, while the other straightened the cords and ropes as the balloon filled up.

I thought this would take a while, but it was only about 15 mins before they were ready to go.

Hot Air Balloon Ride

Waiting for our balloon to be inflated. It was exciting to watch them fill them up.

There wer 2 other balloons going up at the same time we went. It was fun to watch their balloons fill and rise. So colorful. The other balloons were larger and had larger baskets. They put a lot of people in those balloons. Our ride was much more intimate.
I just love the colors on this other balloon. You can see how the hot air pulls the balloon up.

They are getting ready to turn on the burners and add hot air

I love this picture. The yellow balloon in the foreground is almost upright, while the colorful balloon is getting ready to load it's passengers.

Hot Air Balloon Ride

The balloon is inflated and they begin to add hot air to make it rise. Up, Up it goes!

Almost there. As soon as he got it upright, we were told to hop in. Easy said than done.

Watching the other balloons ready to take off was cool.

The crew had us tethered to the van. Once we reached a certain height, they unhooked us and off we sailed.

Hot Air Balloon Ride

As we were taking off I took this picture of the van and crew. See you later guys! It was quite the sight to see. You can see our balloon's shadow on the ground.

This was a cactus we floated past. It has a huge hawks nest in it.

Just as we were taking off I snapped this picture of the other hot air balloon. This was as close as we ever got to them. They floated further north toward Lake Pleasant.

I very carefully held the camera out over the side and took this picture of me and Joe. Our adventure had finally begun.