Dear Twix,

I would appreciate it if you'd stop popping up around my house. Especially when I look into my kid's candy bucket from Halloween! Twix, I think only happy thoughts about you, because you are my favorite. I think of your crunchy biscuit and chocolate melting in my mouth and the Carmel that stays for a bit longer to remind me of why I am eating you. Yummy! But this relationship is frankly going to mess up my figure that I have recently worked so hard to get. Please leave my house, but know my thoughts will be with you until next Halloween!
Love, Leslie

:)

Happy Halloween!!

We have had quite the Halloween! It all started the 21st when Beatrice got to wear her sleeping beauty costume with gold cape to preschool! (well loved costume I made Isabel when she was 3. She's now 11.) Then we had a party for the kids that Saturday. But, we could not join 1st and 4th graders with 6TH graders! These girls are practically teenagers!!! We had 2 parties, one right after the other. Addy and Gabe's was 5-7pm and Isabel's was 7-10pm. It actually worked out perfect! I directed the younger kids party with games (apple bobbing, donut eating and trick or treating game to name a few.) and food (candy, corn dogs and juice with dry ice) and just plain fun. For the older girls, we gave Isabel the list of games to do what she wanted with them. It worked out really well. I love throwing parties! I just wish someone would clean my house before them. That is the only reason why I'd stress over a party. Good times.

Isabel with a few of her friends helping with the kids party.

Beatrice in the Sleeping Beauty costume I made forever ago. And Chris waiting on a stool to be wrapped like a mummy for the games. Good sport!

Another reason why I like living in a Christian community. We did our Halloween festivities with Trunk or Treat with our ward AND Trick or Treating in the neighborhood on Saturday, the 30th!! Yeah! This is what our group is this year...

Isabel is a witch. I made her a basic A-line gabardine black dress and we wrapped tulle around her waist to make a overlay to her knees and secured it with a purple hair flower to match her purple witch hat I found for $1. She had her black webkits cat with her at all times too. :) She was happy with it! (And I am excited because we can use the dress for church later too! With a few funky details added, she'll be set!)

Gabe was an old wizard! I thought it turned out SO cute... I mean cool. He saw the beards in a Family Fun magazine and we had to do it!! I found the hat for $1 and I made the cape thing (ha!) and wrapped silver around his waist. Oh, and he used a wand... sometimes a chopstick and sometimes a stick from the yard. He LOVED it!! He's worn the beard and hat almost everywhere. Its funny. I thought he'd be out of that, but he too wants to dress up... even in public still.


Adeline was a witch too. We actually bought this way cute witch costume that was sized for Beatrice for like $4 at Costco and Adeline fell in LOVE with it and she didnt want to take it off. Since it was so short, I had her put a black tutu on from our stock of tutus to lengthen it a bit. She wore some black pants for warmth that night. Once again, I found a black hat for $1. I think her favorite was wearing mascara! :)


Beatrice was several princesses through the weeks and day of Halloween. On the night, its was Barbie, Island Princess dress with the famous gold cape. (It was so cold, so all of us have clothes on under our costumes. Not as cold as it has been though previous years.) I think she had a wonderful time. And yes, she was really excited about real makeup! :)

Charlotte was a ladybug. We found that at Costco too for like $4. AWESOME!! I am telling prices for some weird reason. I am just excited that I found stuff for so cheap and they look soooo cute! :)

Charlotte is a Crawling maniac!

These guys are so fun! :)

This is Gabe's pumpkin that he wants to show ya.

Ok, so if you remember last year.. we were Hazmat people. Nothing better than cooking a baby and adding some radiation too. Chris wore these at the power plants he was in sometimes. yuck. Oh gosh... there was nothing that would fit my huge pregnant belly. It was funny to see people figure out what we were and then realize I was pregnant too.

But, this year I thought, "Hey! I want to dress up and I want to be one of my heros!"

Who am I always trying to be? You got it... Superwoman! And Chris needs to be my Superman! Complete with the curl just like Christopher Reeve! Oh dreamy Christopher Reeve!

comparing chests

Who's stronger?

I know I am a DORK! Trying not to laugh

One of the Trunk or Treaters said, "Mom, look! A chubby Superman!"
I thought that was super funny because I didnt think he looked chubby at all. But, Chris did say that he wished I had not picked out a Medium Tshirt for him. He's lucky I didnt pick out tights and lycra underware for us to wear too! HA!!!

My Hero! Faster than a speeding bullet!

Duff Star Wars

Here it is... like I promised. :) The Duff Family dressed in fun Star Wars garb. I had to document some of my homework. :) Queen Amidalla didnt want to wear her hair and crown for the picture. But, that is ok. It was so fun to help these guys.

Queen Amidala

Queen Amidalla never looked so good! And yes, I like to try on as many creations as I can. :) The crown and hair is my personal creation. Well, actually all of it is. I have too much fun making costumes. I am making all this for a family in our ward. This is for a 5 year old. :) I made some Star Wars capes and stuff that I'll post later... hopefully ON the Duff Family! :)

Beatrice and I went to the pumpkin patch with the preschool group. It was SO COLD that morning and had just rained so the tracktor could not take us out to the patch. We had fun anyway for a few mins.

She has this hat on over her huge flower in her hair. HA! Why do we make the kids where these huge flowers? not sure, but they are darn cute! :)

Apples!

What did you do yesterday? Well, I made and canned applesauce! Love this stuff! I should do more with this big group that lives here. A few friends came over and we did their stuff too. It was a great party. I am positive I didnt get the mother of the year award...but today is a new day! :)

A Book?

Chris has teased me for years. One thing he has teased me about is me writing a book. I dont have a desire to, but he reads a lot and he's read some things I've written lately and says I'm a good writer. That was a real compliment! wow! He's serious! haha! He thinks I should write a book. Humm. SO, what kind of book should I write? you know, in my spare time. lol! (you can tell I'm a dreamer, cant ya. there are only a few of us left in the world, and I happen to be one of them.)

Its Autum Time!

The colors of my backyard are so beautiful. It was a rainy day and the light was SO beautiful on everything! I was doing dishes and kept looking outside and just had to get out there to take some shots. Next time it rains, check out the colors of the world around you. Its pretty darn cool.

Yep, you see a punching bag in the tree and a fort built with odd sheet in the tree house. I know there are better backyards than mine, but I might have to argue with that notion because I usually have the best sounding backyard. The sounds of kids playing and laughing might be the best sound on earth. :)

Where is Bea???

She stole Charlotte's binki and hid behind the couch.... was so relaxed that she fell asleep!!

Sing it from the roof tops!

Brian the Dishwasher Guy almost got a photoshoot with us due to fixing our DISHWASHER for us after months and months of some other repair man sending us many empty promises. :) But, I wasnt really sure he'd know what to do with all the attention. Brian was a gruff, Idaho cowboy, smoke smelling man of few words. I am pretty sure I scared him with my giggles of excitment! Dishwasher works better than ever and now I get to fix my hardwood floor from the dishwasher totally messing it up. yay. This was definatly blog worthy!! No more washing everything by hand! I feel ok not buy paper plates now. :)

I think dishwashers are one of the best inventions on this earth. When I create my own world, I am pretty sure I will just include a dishwasher and washer growing from the ground like weeds. :) yep, you heard it here first! :)

See ya Facebook!

Wow, I did it! I am sure the shaking will stop soon, but I really quit Facebook! Ah the bitter sweet Facebook! I may go back someday, but until then... I live.

One thing that you might have to watch out for is... you can only post a little bit on FB at a time. My blog... yes, I could go on and on for hours. I know I talk too much. I just might have to get my own blog just for me.

But! Now you have to comment on my blog! :) Please!