Wordless Wednesday

Jack O' Lanterns

Carving pumpkins was a week long process for us. Last Monday, Payton and Eryn gutted their pumpkins and finally on Saturday, I carved them. (I'm a little behind)

I love this picture of Eryn, she is such a poser!!

Pumpkin Patch

A couple of Saturdays I took the kids to a pumpkin patch to pick out their pumpkins. The kids had a ball, they had a corn maze with questions at the forks and Eryn says, "I love this it is fun and you get to learn things". (That is how much of a nerd Eryn is)

7 Random Facts

Crystal tagged me. It has taken a long time to think up 7 facts, I am a boring person, here it goes:
1. I love rainy days - I like to sit in bed with my window open, a good book in hand and listen to the rain as I am reading.

2. I miss Iron Chef, the Japan version, it was on the Food Network at 9:00 every night, I barely missed an episode. Iron Chef Sakai is my hero.

3. I like pencils, not mechanical ones just the regular wooeden ones. I like office max pencils because they don't smear.

4. I am not proud but I do have road rage. It is pretty bad when Payton and Eryn start yelling at slow drivers.

5. I think hygiene is a waste of my time. I want to be able to get dressed like George Jetson.

6. I think talking on the phone is annoying.

7. I have "nana piles" all over my house.

WOE IS ME!!

Saturday night we had our 3rd annual Halloween late night party. I had 18 six and seven year olds at my house, making their own mini pizzas, making crafts and the finale of watching the Haunted Mansion. I have popcorn scattered in every crack and corner of the house. My camera out ready to take some pictures so I could show you how insane I was, but they never got taken. I am blaming this on my sister who slept till 1 in the afternoon, didn't check her phone messages and never came to my rescue.

Then, you would think that I would have all Sunday to recover from my idiocy but noooo, Young Women in Excellence was last night, which I had to be there at 4:30 it started late and ended late, which made me miss my favorite show, The Next Iron Chef.

So, now I have to wait until Thursday to see the rerun. Yes, my life is T-U-F-F, TUFF!!

Halloween Traditions

The other day I was listening to the radio and the DJ was talking about Halloween traditions. He was going on about what his favorite traditions were and on of their favorite family traditions every year was to go to ARCTIC CIRCLE and get a SQUARE PUMPKIN. I thought that was hilarious having some connection to Arctic Circle.

So, last Saturday I took the kids to Arctic Circle and we purchased SQUARE PUMPKINS. This was lots of fun and I am going to add this to the list of my favorite Halloween traditions.

One of my favorite Halloween traditions is our annual Halloween Chili night. I make a big pot of chili and some other soup and some desserts and all my family and anyone else who stops by, if we like them, we ask them to join us for a little Halloween dinner. I think I have done this for about 4 or 5 years and it is one of my favorite traditions.

Charlie Brown's Halloween Special: I got a rock.

It is almost Halloween and I love "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". Unfortunately this is the only clip I could find that wasn't completly damaged by filth. So here it is...

Payton...Oops! I mean Rodney

A couple of weeks ago, Payton (whom I still call Payton) has informed me that at school he hates being called Payton because there are two Paytons in his class and he gets confused. So, he informed me that he is now going to be called Rodney, his first name. He went to school and asked his teacher, Mrs. Moses, if she would call him Rodney from now on, she told him "no" that she would have to talk to me first. For the week prior to parent teacher conferences he reminded me to talk to his teacher and tell her to start calling him, Rodney. So I did. The name tags were changed and all the second graders were informed that at school he is to be called Rodney.
Now, all these people are coming up to me and telling me, "my kid told me that Payton has changed his name", even the crossing guard asked me about it when he informed her that he is to be called Rodney.
It cracks me up that a 7 year old would even care about something like that, but Rodney Payton has always been very curious about Michael's dad, when did he die, where is he, how did he die, I don't know how many times we have explained the circumstances around his death. I think it is cool that he has some connection with his grandpa who passed away two and a half years before he came to live with us. Payton is named after great people, Rodney J. Parrish his grandfather, Rodney Michael his father and his great-great grandmother Paton (Nana's mother's maiden name). He is very proud of his heritage and especially proud of his grandpa Parrish.

Eryn's Library

Welcome to Eryn's Library...

Several months ago she decided that she wanted to play "library". She takes out books and covers every available surface in our living room with them. She then gives us library cards with numbers on them and we are able to check out books.

So, this weedend, she pulled out the books and started her library. I love it when she plays library. She even has story time and she will get all her stuffed animals and read to them. She is getting quite good at reading, she even does voices. How cute is that, I love it.

Eryn and mom's Field Trip

Eryn and her science notebook.

Eryn and I have been studying the solar system at home after school, yes she just can't get enough learning at school, she has a science notebook and we get pictures off the Internet, books from the library and we have been learning about each planet. Anyway, last Friday Eryn and I took a field trip to the planetarium in Salt Lake at the Gateway. It was a lot of fun.

She was able to walk on Mars and the Moon.

The planetarium had a weather station

We had a couple of hours before we went to the movie, The Ultimate Universe, so right across the street we went the Gateway Discovery Center, which is a hands-on Children's Museum. They had an exhibit about the movie Robots.

Eryn rode the subway system in the Robots movie, she made a robot out of colored pasta, played on the farm, delivered mail, and built a robot out of gadgets. She had a blast.

Survey

Can life get any more HECTIC?? I hate being sick or laid up it puts me way behind schedule. My house is a mess, laundry is piled to the ceiling, it gets pretty bad when Eryn has to ask, "When are you going to do laundry?" is that pathetic or what?, church callings, homework, and PTA are just put on hold until everything is back to normal, or at least my normal. It feels like I will never get there.

** There is a survey to the right of this message. I am writing a paper for school and would love it everyone would vote. So tell all your friends to visit and vote.**

The First Snowfall

"Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things,but just look what they do when they stick together"~~By Verna M Kelly, (American writer).~~

I love winter!! I was so excited when it started to snow on Saturday. It was so beautiful.

Eryn immediately went outside to play in the snow. I couldn't believe there was enough snow to build a snowman.