BAD MOMMY!!! (Thank you Aunt Amanda for being an awesome guilt-tripper...haha)

Ok.... mommy has been SUPER slack and I am truly sorry to all those who diligently check this blog for updates. I can't imagine how I got so behind on this.... oh, wait.... yes I can....the culprits are either spread out ALL over town or independently (more likely, callaboratively) trashing every inch of the house. :-)

So, with that said... I do solmenly pledge now (with all of you as witnesses) without my fingers crossed (grin) that I will update this blog at least once a week. YEAH!

Cya with an update on Thursday after Seth's hockey team is the "Canes Cup" winner for this season. (ok... my fingers were crossed there...ha ha)

Bye!

Pumpkin Carving..... and Burnt Seeds

We had our annual Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza at the Hoods a little late this year. :-) But, we had a good time and turned out some pretty cut pumpkins this year. Look for the final products on the Halloween post.

Daddy and Eden getting ready to start the "adults" pumpkin. We chose to do a pirate ship.



































Liana and Kaela hard at work....they did a vampire scene... it was COOL!







































Okie dokie, Jen.... :-)















Seth and Jen "carving" theirs. They chose to do the bat. There were pegs that they pounded into the pumpkin and then when the light was put into the inside, the bat lit up. It was cool.... and EASY! (yeah)











































And Mommy burnt the seeds....I think i'm going to hang up trying to cook pumpkin seeds. It seems like every year something goes wrong... Oh, well....















Be sure to check out the pumpkins on our Halloween blog coming next!

Trunk or Treat! And some chili....mmmm

Ok... so I'm still behind... :-) What's new, right?


We had a Trunk or Treat/Chili cook-off at the church on my BD. It wasn't my first choice on where to spend my big day, but we still had a great time. My contributions to the event were the decorations, which all of you know I LOVE to do (for real!), and my children.... enough said on that one. We had a blast... noise, mess, and all... :-)

These were the centerpieces...




















Tables... Brother Johnson, in our ward, works for an event decorating company, so we get all the tablecloths for free.... cool, huh? :-)















Part of the "chili" table..... the white tablecloths were a little brave.

More "chili" table...















Aunt Meg as a "troll".... remember those? :-)




















Jen as a princess...




















Kaela as a "geisha" pre-makeup..















Liana as a water- fairy-something-or another... She just thought the outfit was cool :-)




















Kaela and Liana's friend Brianna as another fairy-something.. again.... cool outfit


































Uncle Jake as "Edward Cullen"... Awesome!


































What was Mommy thinking? Chili... white onesie.... (sigh) :-)















Elder Ross and Elder Dupont.... awesome guys! They helped me cut all the wires for the centerpiece flowers.... I hope their fingers have recovered! :-)















Token guy in the back.... looking at the camera!















And Seth..... :-) So cute..

It was a huge success! It rained, so we had to move it inside, but nobody seemed to mind. They got lots of candy... which, face it, is all that really matters. :-) We had a ton of fun!

Jena starts Gymnastics

Jena started gymnastics at Young's Gymnastics and Cheerleading at the end of October. She is a natural of course. :-) Sorry that the pictures are hazy but I had to take them through the glass. Parents aren't allowed in the gym part because we are a distraction. :-( Oh well... you can get a pretty good idea anyway.

Here we come future Olympics!












































As Jena prepares for the Olympics, Seth continues to jeopordize his brain cells. :-)















And Kaela is reading! Yeah... go Kaela. :-)

Grandparents Visit :-)

We all had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa (Jason's parents) last month. They could only stay for a few days :-(... but we got one good day of "outings" in.

We went to Courtney's for breakfast..... where we had the BEST food. (love that place)

Eden was all smiles while Grandpa was being funny with his camera:






























Daddy had the weird "one red eye" thing going on....















The "folks"....















Jena and Seth made straw swords.... Mommy later clogged the vaccuum cleaner with these...:-)















Eden preferred to sit "under" rather than "at" the table...















We went to Home Depot for Grandpa and Daddy fun time.

Hollywood on....















Hollywood off...















Hollywood on again. :-)















Jena and Seth with paint stirrer swords... are we seeing a pattern here? :-) (notice the token guy who's smiling in the background....

I'm actually going to run a little experiment where I see how many people are smiling in the background of the picture....
















Then, we went to the park for some kiddie fun time.....it was a GORGEOUS day!

Daddy has fun at the park...















Grandma and Grandpa having fun in their own way.. :-)















Seth helping Eden down the slide.... so CUTE!















Jena can't get high enough on the swing..... she won't truly be satisfied until she had wound the swing around the top pole... :-)




















Cheese!















You can do it, Jen!
















Eden has to do the "Tarzan Swing" before each and EVERY slide down the slide..






















Weeee!





















Seth conquers the monkey bars. :-)
















We had a great time... but only wish that it had been longer. Kaela and Liana were tracked in... not being ostracized. :-)



Till next time!

Jena's first day of Kindergarten....WOW!

OK....so I'm a little behind at getting caught up on all the pictures that I have taken over the last few months. :-) Sorry, guys! (especially Amanda... lol)

Anyway... Jena started Kindergarten in July! Isn't she adorable?

Here she is with Seth... who is ALWAYS ready to pose. Doesn't he looked THRILLED to be starting school again....? Ha ha.




















And here's Jen with Daddy, who was very excited for his girl. :-)















One more of Jen before we leave....




















We are arriving and heading in for the first time!















She's needed just a minute before "officially" heading into her classroom..... :-)















Jena is finding her name for the first time.















And finding her cubby....















I probably should have thought about getting a picture with her teacher on the first day, but that would have meant that I would have been organized. HA! Oh well... you can see Mrs. Bivens in the last picture. She is awesome and just LOVES Jena (of course). She is having a blast and doing fantabulous!

Hopefully... see you at a new blog before too long this time. :-)