Happy Halloween! Enter If You Dare!

The parade.

The parade

Cayden wearing his teacher's Goofy hat.

5th Grade Fear Factor


Donut game!

Thursday and Friday were fun-filled action packed days. The kids had Friday off from school because it was Nevada Day so their class parties were on Thursday. First, the classes all lined up for the annual Halloween Costume Parade around the school yard. They played scary music and the kids got to march along so all their parents could take pictures. Then they all went to their classes for their parties. I was the room mom for Caleb's class so I was in charge of the party. Thankfully there are 2 other mom's who will be in charge for Christmas and then Valentine's. I volunteered for Halloween because I think it is the funnest party to do. We played Fear Factor with the 5th grade. Don and I spent 2 days thinking up really gross names for stuff that the kids had to eat. I had them pick a paper out of a cauldron and then what ever # it had on it is the item that they had to eat. I had jellyfish guts-cherry jello, swamp mud-chocolate pudding, mummy skin-dried apples, witches warts-dried cranberries, goblin ears-dried apricots, mashed brains and eyeballs-red macaroni and gummy eyeballs, rat bones-pretzels, bat wings with cat liver-cracker with cheese. Most of the girls were pretty squeamish but the boys thought it was great-most of them anyway. The kids played another game with another mom where they had to eat the donut off the string without hands and they decorated cookies with another mom. After the games they got to eat tons of food. There was so much food brought in it was ridiculous. I'm glad that the Trunk or Treat was on Friday and not Thursday night. Don was there to help me set up and then to help ensure that any puking was done in the garbage bag-luckily no one decided to get sick. He also was the photog and went to Cayden's class to get a few pics too.

This part gets a little bit grosser so here is your fair warning. Read on if you dare other wise skip ahead.
Friday we spent getting ready for Trunk or Treat. Don and I decided that we wanted to do Fear Factor at our trunk so we spent the day making more gross stuff and getting ready. I called Dena and told her my idea and she said that she would do Extreme Fear Factor at her trunk next to us and that she would go to the oriental food place and buy some really icky stuff. She bought smoked eel-troll's tongue, pigs feet, dried anchovies-dragon scales, sardines in tomatoe paste-fish guts, quail eggs-goblin tonsils, dried squid-seamonster tail and then I made wheat cereal-maggot stew, canned peas-eye of newt and bloody fingernails-onions in tomatoe paste. It was pretty disgusting. We had kids bringing over their friends and adults just coming over to see what we had come up with. Some of the kids were braver than the adults. One little boy told his mom that he did not want to go the "witches trunk" because all they had was "witches food". We still gave out candy too! The Trunk or Treat was a 3 ward combined activity. There was not a great turnout for trunks and they ran out of candy but the kids get to go around the parking lot at least 3-4 times and everyone gives out more than one piece of candy so it's not like any one missed out. There was also chili, hotdogs, face painting, a fish pond and a cake walk. Connor was the only one of us to win a cake-darn it! I really wanted 3 more cakes to throw away tomorrow!


Connor's German Chocolate cake that he won from the cake walk.

Cayden is a pumpkin.

Cody is a smartie pants or smart ***.

Connor is a football player, Caleb is a pirate, Cody is a smart*** and Cayden is a pumpkin.

Cody and his friend Jordan. AARRRGGGHH!

Me and Dena-we usually have the same idea for costumes even though we don't even talk about it. We even have the same idea for next year!

Don and Jen

Mom, Cody and Cayden

The Trunk!

The table.
Cody has a party tonight here with some friends. I tried all week to find Watcher in the Woods for them to watch but I can't find it. Curse you Netflix! Cody also went to a party last night after the Trunk or Treat. He is starting to do that now-oh no!
So can I put away all the Halloween stuff and start playing Christmas music?

Photo Recap

Hunters R Us October 16-19 2008
thankfully no dead Bambi
mostly side of the road photos since they spent so much time there!



Cody at a performance 10-4-08

Cody with his Encore group getting ready to sing the National Anthem at the Homecoming Game 10-10-08


Homecoming 10-10 2008








Cody and friends at Les Mis 10-17-08

The Greatest Halloween Invention EVER!

For FHE last night we planted our winter garden-corn, radishes, spinach, carrots, snow peas and lettuce. We also decorated our pumpkins with the greatest Halloween invention ever-Mr. Potato Head type face pieces. This took less than five minutes and saved one of the family member's hand or fingers and a trip to the ER. The past few years Don has gotten out the power saw and used it to carve the pumpkins and I have been scared to death that someone was going to lose a finger-he has not let the younger boys do it themselves but has always helped them but Cody got to do his own. So to avoid the potential for disaster I found these face pieces at Walmart. It was quick, easy, no mess and no one lost a finger. We put them out on our retaining wall. We also put up those cute and cheap scarecrows that you can get almost anywhere for less than $5 (you could not make those for less than $5) and a few other decorations. I go in waves-I used to have all sorts of Halloween decorations that I put up for years but then I got sick of them and tossed them all. 2 years ago I got back in the spirit of decorating because we had to decorate our trunk for Trunk or Treat and I did not have anthing. Since then I have bought a few more things. By the end of the day most things end up in Cayden's room so his room can be Halloween-remember the post about him making Christmas trees in his room with various flower arrangements and hangers? Well now he decorates for Halloween. I am so glad that there are 3 straight months of holidays to decorate for!

Recap

We have been super busy as usual the last 2 weeks. I am trying to remember what exactly we have been doing but I know it's alot. Cody got to go to Les Mis at Tuacahn in St. George with his Encore class last Saturday. He loved it! Cody has sang with the Encore choir 3 times. Twice in performances and once at the Homecoming football game. For the game they sang the National Anthem. That is probably one of the very few times Cody has actually gone to a football game here. By the end of the week he is so exhausted that he would rather stay home. He had to go to this game though and sing but he left pretty quick after half time because he was dragging. That is what we do most Friday nights here in Logandale. The MHS pirates are quite popular and as the entertainment around here seems to be lacking we see lots of people there of the same opinion. The band plays the Pirates of the Caribbean song and there are Tshirts and always food to buy so it is a fun Friday activity. It is by no means cheap though-with the cost of getting in, food, T-shirts, pirate flags, donations to the Booster club, and tickets for the various raffles that we never win we can't get out of there for under $100. It's quite ridiculous but what are you gonna do. Football season is almost over. The team that Don has been coaching had their last game this past Saturday. Thank goodness! We did not have to go though because Don took Connor and Caleb deer hunting with his dad and his brother, Dave. They got a small buck on Friday and had fun riding the 4-wheeler and Rhino and hiking all over. They did have a flat tire on the trailer on the way up and on the way back which put a damper on the festivities but only for a bit. Don and Caleb had some serious quality time on the side of the road while they waited for Connor and grandpa to go to Ely and get another tire and come back. They had the same problem on the way home with the other tire but this time both Connor and Caleb stayed with dad on side of the road. Connor spent an hour setting up camp while they waited. What usually is a 7 hour round trip took them 15 hours. A little frustrating! The good thing is that they did not run out of gas on top of that! After the 2nd tire blew and grandpa went to Alamo to get it fixed, they started off again and then both Don and grandpa had the same thought at the same time that they needed to get gas. Good thing they listened to the spirit! Don was kind enough to not take pictures of the deceased Bambi for my benefit although it would have been nice for the boys. The boys had a great time and Cody and Cayden and I did nothing all weekend-ok mostly nothing. Cody was supposed to go to a Forensics tourny but he woke up Friday morning with a fever and it hung out with him until Saturday afternoon. He was pretty bummed that he could not go because he stayed up all night on Wednesday night getting his boards done for his presentation. The boy literally stayed up all night-he said that he went to bed at 4:30 and slept for 30 minutes before he got up at 5 to go to school. That is probably why he got sick because he was so exhausted. No worries though there is another tourny this weekend. I worked on some sewing and watched all of season 3 of NCIS plus a little bit of season 1-yes out of order but that was how they came from the library. I had my procedure on Wednesday and was told to take it easy for a few days so it was a perfect excuse to not do anything. Don and the kids even cleaned the house Thursday morning before they left so that I would not have to. I have been to a few doctors the past 2 weeks determining if and when to do this procedure. I finally decided that it needed to be done because nothing else is working and this is really getting old. Unfortunately, the procedure did not work. I went to a surgery center Wednesday morning, waited an hour and a half for them to knock me out for 10 minutes and stick a really long needle into my neck to shoot cortizone next to the herniated disk all to no avail. I was pretty loopy most of Wednesday and then waited all weekend to decide that it did not work. I had a screaming headache all day Sunday-yes we sluffed church and then the same pain in the neck that I have had is still there as of today. AAARRRGGGHHH! Don was in Dallas the week before last and gone hunting last week and now this week he is going to South Dakota. It is hard having him gone so much but when he is home-he is home. The past 2 Mondays we have gone to Mesquite for lunch and for the weekly Walmart workout and wallet washing. That is one of the perks of him being gone so much-afternoon jaunts to Mesquite or to the few eating establishments locally. Connor is doing really well with homeschool. His math tutor just raves about him and says that he is doing so good. This kid really does need one on one attention because he learns so much better. The kids are having a good time with karate and staying busy with scouts and lots of homework. Even Cayden has homework-one of my pet peeves but oh well-gotta pick your battles. We do what we can when we can and then just send in our apologies via a note to the teacher on the nights that we can't get to it all. I have been trying to upload pics of the many events since I started this post but we seem to be having technical difficulties so I will try again tomorrow.

We Thank Thee Oh God For A Prophet-and The Apostles

I was reading in Alma 4 today and thought this was particularly appropriate with Conference just happening. Alma 4:19 Stir them up in remembrance of their duty. "The gospel is preached and testimony is borne to the Saints in order to stir the memory, refocus the heart on covenants and commitments, and rededicate the mind to a life of service and obedience. The Spirit- conveyed through the inspired servants of the Lord brings things to remembrance (John 14:26), particularly things of lasting worth, things that matter." Robert J Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon I Love Conference!!

Good Night, Sleep Tight

Don is in Houston this week and last night he had a rude awakening. He said that about 4am he woke up to this horrific screaming from somewhere close by. He sat up and listened and heard it again. It was a woman's voice screaming really loudly. He called the front desk and told them what he heard and they sent up hotel security. While he waited he heard thumping and more screaming. When security arrived to his floor they could not hear anything so they told Don that they were going up to the next floor. Don went back to his room and heard the woman screaming "you beat me up" so he called security back and said that it was in the room right next to him. While they were returning he not so discreetly beat on the wall so that they would know that he knew something was going was on. Security came and escorted a couple who were having a fling in the next room out of the hotel until the police came. The hotel profusely apologized and assured my husband who assured me that the hotel was a nice one and that they had never had that kind of problem before. Needless to say Don was unable to go back to sleep because of all the excitement and I will be unable to sleep tonight thinking about wife/girlfriend beaters in the next room.

Cody Can Can-Can

Cody has had 2 performances so far in the last 2 weeks with his Encore group. This is the singing gr,oup that he auditioned for back in May. They have learned 4 or 5 songs but they have only sung one song-Can Can. Last Thursday was a Back to School Open House at the high school and they performed at the beginning and then this week there was a community performance at the high school that featured numerous acts from the town. There is a group out here that is called the Moapa Valley Arts Council that puts together performances from the community and also brings in other groups like the BYU singers and Shakspeare plays. This one on Monday was the first of the season. This was our FHE. We had to pay to for a Tux for Cody and the group wore them Monday night. I am extremely technically challenged and can't for the life of me figure out how to upload the videos from my handy dandy newish Camcorder onto my computer. If I can figure it out I will post the video so you can all see our talented son.