Happy Halloween

Today we celebrated Halloween. My mom is gone on her trip and we didn't really have any plans so we decided to trick-or-treat on Main Street here in Spanish Fork. It was way busy but tons of fun.

Ryan fell asleep before we even left to go trick-or-treating :)

Everyone was going to go down to Levan's festivities but then no one ended up going. SO we invited Grandpa to come up since Grandma is gone. He made it worth his time and got a hair cut at Brad's while he was up. Here Ryan is showing Grandpa the Toys R' Us ad. He is so funny and loves looking at all of the toys. He can now recognize and say Elmo :)

Jake ready to go trick-or-treating

Ryan strapped in the stroller and ready to roll.

This is pretty much what our trick-or-treating consisted of...long lines! There are tons of people that show up to trick-or-treat on Main Street. It was a mad house, but it was fun too.

Ryan enjoying a dum dum sucker

I thought this costume was way cute--bulky and got in the way alot but cute. He is a John Deere tractor and the license plate is his name. I don't know who it is but it is such a cute idea. We also saw an ipod and some other cute homemade costumes that were way cute and creative.

Me and Jake on Main Street.

This guy dressed up as Elvis and posed for a pic, too.

There were tons of dogs that were dressed up. This dog is a spider. We also saw a cute tiny dog dressed up as a hot dog--my dad loved it!

Ryan kind of got bored :)

I took another pic of the crowd to show all of the people that came out to trick-or-treat.

Brad, the guy that cuts my dad's hair, didn't participate in the Main Street trick-or-treating. He said he did one year and he ended up giving out around 3500 pieces of candy. Can you imagine?? I believe him after seeing how many people there were...

Grandpa and Jake after we finished up on Main Street

After we took Ryan out of the stroller, he ran like a wild man. He kept trying to escape :)

Jake after his first time trick-or-treating. I took his costume off--it was a little bulky :)

Tons of people came out to trick-or-trick on Main Street in Spanish

One tired bumble bee :)

After we were finished, we went back to our house and made lunch. Jim grilled up some elk steaks we had. I don't eat elk and my mom won't cook it for my dad either so Jim and my dad were happy to eat the wild game. We also tried to make homemade apple cider doughnuts. Holy cow--they are hard to make. The dough isn't hard or getting them ready--it's frying them. As soon as Jim would drop them in the oil and then try to flip them, they would disintegrate. I guess we're not the best doughnut makers. My dad did get one that stayed together and he said it was pretty good. We sent dad home with a plate of food and an extra doughnut, too.

After dad left, Jim went outside and dug up our cannas. I stayed inside and cleaned up our mess of a kitchen. We then ran to JC Penney. They were having a good sale and we need some new sheets and a couple of pillows for our new bed.

We came home and had a few trick-or-treaters. We didn't take our boys out trick-or-treating; they can't eat candy anyway and I don't need any more sweets in the house. Then we got the boys ready for bed and went to bed ourselves. Halloween was pretty uneventful. I think it will be more of a big deal when our kids get older and know what is going on and can eat candy, too. I hope everyone had a Happy and Safe Halloween!

My sister Amy posted how to make these on facebook. You can make one at www.picnik.com and it's free. I had a lot of fun playing around with the different effects :)

Another pic of my family as vampires :)

Grandma's Off...

Nice, France (pronounced niece)

Grandma Mangelson is off to the Italian and French Riviera today. She'll be back next Friday, November 7th. She's been a trippin gal' lately--she's been to Alaska for 17 days, St. George twice, and now Italy and France.

Have fun Grandma!

Random Pictures from Our Day

These are some pictures I took today:

It looks like Jake is ready to go hunting :)

He loves grabbing his toes...

He likes me to bounce him on my legs...look at that drool :)

My mom gave Jake a clown nose in his Halloween treat bag from the Pumpkin Party so I decided to have him try it out. Kind of big, haha.

More toe grabbin...

Ryan checking out the clown nose. He WOULD NOT let me put it on him.

My boys--love Ryan's face in this pic.

Paula also gave us a booster seat (I love her hand-me-downs; they have saved us boat loads of money!) Ryan had to sit in the new chair for dinner.

Jim was a good sport and put the clown nose on for a pic, too :)

Check-up Appointment

We took Ryan and Jake to their follow-up appointments with the pediatrician today. Both boys look good and no longer have any infections to speak of. Now let's just hope we can keep it that way. The bad thing is, now I'm starting to feel like I'm getting a sore throat, ugh. I hate to run to the doctor for every little thing, but if it gets any worse I'll probably go and get an antibiotic if I can. I don't want my boys to just get feeling better and then have me pass the gungboo back to them--vicious cycle, isn't it.

Ryan weighed in at 28 lbs. and Jake was 16.8 lbs. They did weigh Jake with his blanket on, but holy moly he is getting to be a chunk :)

Family Pictures {Preview}

We had our pictures taken on Saturday October 17th by Jenny Wheeler. She did an amazing job! I highly recommend her; she is very easy going and great to work with. She posted a preview on her website (click on BLOG t0 see me and Paula's pictures. She also has other sessions posted there, too.)...here are the pics she posted. I can't wait to see the rest :)

Ryan was such a stinker, especially when it came time to get a pic in his Halloween costume. I'm surprised any of them turned out :) I'm glad they did though.

Isn't Jake the cutest bee!?!

I Won!

I won this turkey decoration from Tada's Kooky Kitchen. It's a recipe blog that Donna Bawden Mangelson and her sister run. I entered the giveaway, but I never thought I would win. It's always funr to win :) I have the turkey sitting on my buffet in my front entry way. Ryan loves it! Every time he goes by it, he makes a turkey "gobble" sound. He's funny.

Check out their blog. They have a lot of good recipes, and if you're like me you always need a new good recipe to try :)

Gold's

SO, I joined Gold's Gym here in Spanish Fork a week ago today. I used to a have a membership with 24 Hour Fitness--I could probably count the number of times I made use of my membership on my hands (okay,maybe my toes, too). I just didn't go--I am the queen of making excuses to talk myself out of things. But now, it's an excuse to get out of the house without my kids. I've actually done pretty good at going to workout my first week. I've found I'm not as tired, in a better mood, and overall more pleasant to be around when I workout. I feel better, too--no so "bump on a log-ish" :)

My cousin Jamie is also a member of Gold's. She always posts on Facebook about how she had the best workout tonight, etc. When I told her I got a membership, she told me I needed to try the "Pump" class with her. It's a class that works with weights--it's a total body workout. I went tonight. I was so nervous--I'm way out of shape and I have no endurance at all. The class was actually fun, and it worked out pretty much my whole bod. Even though I can't do it all just like the instructor or even other class members now, I'm not going to give up. I want to keep going so I can get to the point where I can do the whole routine--even the lunges and squats, which I totally have always sucked at. But man am I already sore. My thighs BURN when I go up and down my stairs or when I try and stand up--YoWZa!! They were already some what sore from my free sessions with a personal trainer last night so working out tonight just added to my burning, sore thighs.

The only problem was when I got home Jake was bawling and had bawled the entire time I was gone. His throat had to be killing him because his cry was raspy :( Hopefully Jim will forget how frustrated he was and continue to let me have my out and go to the gym, haha. I'm hoping as Jake gets older, he'll get better. I'm keeping my fingers crossed anyway.

SO, here marks my journey on getting fit, healthy, and more tone--physically and mentally. I'm hoping if I make my New Years Resolutions before New Years, then I'll have a better chance of sticking with it, haha (I'm doing really well with my other goal of flossing daily--gross, I know. I've just never been a flosser. Now I have this awesome flossing tool that my dentist gave me so now I'm a flossing fool). OH, and shedding some pounds wouldn't hurt either :)

Snow

I can't believe it snowed today. I'm not ready for it to snow. I know the snow isn't here to stay just yet, but still I'm not ready for it, ugh.

Look at those big flakes coming down.

The view outside of my front door looking south. It was too cold for me to go out and get a pic of my house :)

Looking west out my front door.

Jim is the nail clipper in our family. I tried to clip Ryan's finger nails once when he was way little and I made him bawl. SO, I'm terrified to do it now. Jim does a really good job at trimming the boys' nails. Jake isn't to fond of having his nails trimmed though. He looks like it is sheer torture :)

Another pic of the torturous nail trimming.

And one more because I love Jake's face :)

Bed Swap

We traded beds with my sister Paula today. She had a king size bed in her spare bedroom, and she wanted a queen or smaller since the king was taking up too much room. Jim and I have been wanting a bigger bed, but haven't been willing to spend the money on one. Paula posted on her blog that she wanted to trade so I jumped on the offer--I was more than happy to give up my queen for a king :)

I don't take many pictures of my bed :) This picture is from August 2009. The bed isn't made because it was a sheet washing day. But you get the idea of what the bed looked like.

The way the bed looked with the bedspread, etc.

Our new king size bed! It's a lot lower than our queen was, but it is comfortable and that's all that matters. Maybe one day we'll be able to get a new head board and foot board, but we're just happy with the bed for now.

In the queen, I used to crowd Jim big time--he pretty much slept on the edge of his side of the bed. I don't even think we touch in the night anymore, haha.

Paula is getting ready to put the twins in twin size beds so she gave us her crib, too. Jake is ready to move from the bassinet; he is as long as the bassinet now :) We just need to get the crib moved up to our spare bedroom and we'll move him out of our room. That means we'll get to put the bassinet away, too. Wahoo!

Thanks for swapping beds with us sis! And thanks for the crib, too :)

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

Two cute boys in the tub :)

And a pic of my smiling Jakey in the tub, too. Both my boys LOVE getting in the tubby!

4th Annual Pumpkin Party

We had our annual family pumpkin party today. It was tons of fun, as usual.

Jake in the tubby before the party. He loves the baby tub :)

He loves eating his fingers, too!

Ryan in the tub before the party doing his new face :)

We stopped at Maverick in Santaquin on the way down to get some gas. I went inside and got us a drink and some Cheetos. Ryan was loving the Cheetos!

Look at his orange face and hands...

Is that the cheesiest hand you've ever seen?!?

We made it to the party and Ryan found a preying mantis. He was infatuated with it and kept making his all purpose bug word, buzz.

Jim and I were in charge of making homemade root beer. Here's Jim adding dry ice to the beverage.

We also brought the appetizer for the party. We brought cream cheese and homemade chili sauce with Frito chips to dip with. It was really good--the homemade chili sauce made it that much better, too.

The dry ice made the root beer bubble out of control. It was splashing everywhere.

Grandpa with Cade and Hayden before the party officially started.

We headed out to the garden to pick pumpkins. Ryan wasn't too interested in finding the perfect pumpkin. He was more interested in climbing on the rocks Grandpa has out by the granary.

He finally wandered into the patch, but he never did pick a pumpkin. He just kicked dirt around.

Everyone helps gather the pumpkin and bring them in. Here are Grandpa, Jason, and Keaton picking some pumpkins.

Keaton found his pumpkin and even carried it in himself :)

Madeline and Max found a pumpkin.

We loaded all of the pumpkins into Jim's truck to haul them to the garage. Ethan is in the back of the truck with all of the pumpkins.

My sister Amy called this the Pumpkin Playpen, haha.

More pumpkin harvesting...

Emilee carrying in a pumpkin.

Charlie helping his little one, Max, pick a pumpkin.

Chuck found a pumpkin that didn't need to be carved. It grew it's own little face :)

A close up of the pumpkin that didn't need to be carved.

Ryan still playing in the pumpkin play pen.

Hayden and Ryan

Ryan and Sophie in the back of the truck.

Sophie, Cade, Hayden holding Ryan, Madeline, Jackson, and Zach in the back of the truck.

All of the grand kids that were at the party (minus Keaton, cause he didn't want to be in the pic, and Jake cause I was feeding him) with Grandpa. Ethan wasn't happy about life. I love his face in the picture, haha.

Loaded up and ready to head to the garage to carve.

We pulled around to the garage and everyone picked their pumpkins so they could start carving or painting their pumpkins.

Joseph carving his pumpkins.

Max and Madeline with their pumpkins.

Chuck carving his pumpkin.

Cade busy at work carving.

Zach deep in thought deciding what to carve.

Jim was so kind and got the guts out of my pumpkin for me.

I saw this on Martha Stewarts website. I've never carved a pumpkin before so I gave it a shot. I had to use a template though.

Jake wok e up in the middle of carving so Jim had to take over.

The finished product. It's called trick-or-eat, and you're supposed to put your Halloween candy inside of the pumpkin for people to get it out of.

Later, I had Jim carve another pumpkin. This is the finished product. I love our carved pumpkins--they turned out awesome.

Paula made Witches Brew for the kids.

There are a million recipes out there and many different things you can add. But, here is the recipe Paula uses:

Witches Brew

{Make in front of the children explaining items as you put them in the pot.
Change the labels on the following ingredients to make them look spooky and authentic}

Start out with a block of dry ice in a caldron (or Halloween bowl of some sort).

Add the following:

Swampy Bog water (2 liter bottle of Squirt)
Water from the Fountain of Youth (1 gallon of water)
Dried bat blood (1 package of red Kool-Aid)
Ground dragon bones (1 cup sugar)
Gizzard of lizard (1 can pineapple tidbits w/green food coloring)
Eye of newt (Whoppers candy)

Mix together and serve.

Note: You can add any type of candy, etc. that you would like such as gummy worms, candy eyeballs, etc.

When Paula was adding the "Swampy Bog Water," Zach said he knew it wasn't really swampy bog water because he was at the store when his mom bought the Squirt. I thought that was so funny.

Madeline loved blowing the dry ice "smoke."

Jackson carving his pumpkin.

Ethan playing with the shopping cart.

This year my mom made Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and homemade rolls, yum. My dad has been wanting some homemade onion rings for I don't know how long. Emilee said she had a good recipe for the batter so she made yummy onion rings. Amy helped by cutting all of the onions that were from my dad's garden. She said her hands wreeked of onion for days after the party :)

Emilee dipped the onions in the batter.

And Grandpa fried the onions out of the Camp Chef in a dutch oven.

Grandpa showing off his work :)

Yum--the onion rings were delicious. I know they were really time consuming so thanks Emilee, Amy, and Dad for making them. They were delish!

Grandpa broght the onion rings around to everyone while we carved pumpkins.

We played a few games. The one the kids are playing in this pic is called "Don't Eat Pete." A person leaves the room and then the rest of the players pick a "Pete". When the person who left returns, that person starts eating as many candies as they can. If they eat the candy that is on the "Pete", the players yell, "Don't eat Pete!" The object is to eat as many candies as you can before eating the candy that is on the "Pete" section.

We played a little pumpkin bowling, too.

Strike!

The grim reaper that my mom has hanging in her house. The kids either love him, or they are scared to death of him :)

Jake slept during the first part of the party, but he woke up for the best part...

The Hobo! Keaton was terrified of the Hobo last year so he ran right in the house :)

All the kids are scared to death of the Hobo :) I wonder why, haha.

The Hobo got Jackson...

Ryan was outside minding his p's and q's just pushing the shopping cart around when the Hobo showed up. He came in the garage bawling his eyes out. It was so sad but hilarious at the same time. He was terrified! I hwas holding Jake so I couldn't pick him up right away. I had to wait until someone could pick him up and hand him to me :)

The Hobo got Casey, too.

And terrorized the twins.

He even gave Grandma a kiss!

He sat on the Harley...

Picked up a basketball...

and threw it.

Me holding my boys. Jake had no idea what was going on, but Ryan was scared to death :)

Max was scared to death, too. He was so scared he whacked Chuck with the baseball bat :)

All of the kids stayed really close to their parents :) We always threaten our kids with the Hobo when they won't mind, haha.

The Hobo was so nice though and brought dum-dum suckers for all of the kids. Ryan was fine when he got a dum-dum. When Keaton found out the Hobo gave out candy, he decided that he was a good guy :) Paula had told Keaton that the Hobo comes to our pumpkin party because he doesn't have a family so Keaton kept telling everyone that it was ok because the Hobo didn't have a family. It was hilarious. Isn't that terrible that we love to scare our kids so bad :)

Max and Ryan enjoying their dum-dum's after being scared to death.

After the Hobo left, we played some more games out on the lawn.

Private Maddie playing in my dad's old army hat.

Amy made these cute pumpkin shaped rice krispy treats. They were so cute and sooo yummy, too. They were all different shapes and sizes so it looked like a pumpkin patch of rice krispies :)

Ethan enjoyed the pumpkin cupcakes that Paula brought.

Keaton did, too.

K, I thought Sophie's little "skinny" jeans were soo cute. And the pockets on her pants were fancy so I had to get a picture of them :)

Everyone wears festive shirts to the party (except me...mine had glitter on it and whenever I would hold Jake it would get all over his face so I didn't wear mine).

The pumpkin party is always such fun! My dad decided to have a pumpkin party 4 years ago and it is such a fun tradition.