Halloween

I believe I am the equivialent of BA-Humbug for Halloween. It is by far my least favorite holiday. My dislike for Halloween stems from my Dad I'm sure, as he says its a pagonistic holiday and it shouldn't be celebrated. Since I've had children my tolerance has grown for Halloween. I do like the dressing up and I love sugar, I just can't stand the gory blood and ghosts and the annoying little brats who stick out their bags and grunt. They can't even say Trick or Treat - what a lazy people we have become. And a Thank you - unheard of. With that being said we did have a fun Halloween. Our ward had a fun party in the middle of the week, which the kids loved. Rozannah and I did make some cupcakes for the party which turned out really cute and I even dressed up. I was suppose to be the Big Bad Wolf (the one who ate Grandma - since I'm big enough to look like I ate someone) but not too many people got my costume. I guess I wasn't scary enough or had big enough ears or teeth. Oliver wanted to be a dinosaur - but since I refuse to spend too much money on a holiday I don't even like, and I was too tired and lazy to make a dinosaur costume, he decided a Construction Worker was just as good. Penelepe was a cute little Butterfly, and cousin Enzo was a Mad Scientist.

We went trick-or-treating with our neighbor Stephen and it was cute to watch Penelepe try to keep up with the boys running from house to house. It was a gorgeous night (I was expecting it to snow and be super cold and I was ready to tell my kids to go to the end of the driveway and knock on our door - just as I did a couple of really snowy cold Halloweens growing up in Montana), but it was a perfect night to be out so I couldn't complain. One of the last houses we stopped at was an over the top decorated haunted house. It was covered in spider webs, ghosts and goblins, people with out heads, spiders, graves, a fog machine - you name it they had it. Why anyone would spend so much money on a silly holiday just to decorate their house is beyond me (but if it was decorated for Christmas that would be a completely different story). Anyways a scary goblin came out from the shadows with a weed whacker to scare us all. Way to go Dude you scared a 2 year old in a butterfly costume and tu-tu.

I LOVE This Song

Since being married I have hardly listened to any country music, with a few exceptions. One being my favorite Christmas CD ever that I HAVE to listen to every Christmas (with the exception of my mission). Its by Garth Brooks and I got it for Christmas in 1991, my first CD ever (that CD is older than three of my siblings). Other than that I rarely ever listen to country music, once you stop listening to it and you go back to it - it just sounds so depressing. Just my personal opinion and I'm sure I'm offending lots of people - sorry. Ryan can't stand country music, except for maybe a couple songs, so we just never listen to it.
So the other day (really other week - time goes by way too fast) we were driving somewhere flipping through the radio channels when a country song came on and Penelepe yelled in her most excited sweet voice, "I LOVE THIS SONG!" Both Ryan and Oliver groaned "oh no". Since then its been a battle over what song to listen to, with Oliver and Penelepe saying "you Always get to listen to what You want".

FAST Sunday

I reminded Ryan that tomorrow is Fast Sunday and Oliver overheard me. Before he went to bed he asked what time we were getting out of church tomorrow. I told him the usual time and he said "WHAT - you said it was FAST Sunday!" He sure felt cheated - I guess your suppose to get out of church Fast on Fast Sundays. Duh!

Who wants to go to the Library?

We are so lucky to have the library so close to us. It is only a couple blocks a way and we go weekly to get new books and videos. Since moving to Buffalo we have had no TV and its been great. We only watch our "shows" from the Library now. I do miss TV every once in awhile - like HGTV and Food Network , well and a lot of others - so its been good for our family to have it completely removed from us. Anyways its hard for me as a mother to let my children choose their own books and movies. I don't have to censor anything yet - but there are those books that I just can't stand. For example - The Bernstain Bears- they are so boring!!!! but my kids like them. Usually I will try to talk them out of it and find something else, but I usually let them chose the books so they can't blame me for a boring book.
So this week Oliver brought me his selections. The first two books he gave me at the same time and I just had to laugh and laugh and laugh. I couldn't stop, who knows maybe because I'm pregnant - but I thought it was so funny. He kept saying "What? What? WHAT?" He is so funny. Only a five year old boy could be interested in both Skateboarding and a Winnie the Pooh book at the same time. Or maybe there are some very sensitive Pooh loving skateboarders out there too. You never know. (Don't you love the hearts on the Pooh Book). I Love Oliver.

I LOVE CONFERENCE

So I just have to say I Love conference! I do love it. And my favorite talk was Elder Wirthlin. He never ceases to amaze me! If I was cool I would have a link to his talk, but I couldn't figure it out. Maybe on Thurs. when the talks are in text and not just audio I'll have a link up. So if you missed conference be sure to listen or read his talk. Anyways he is too funny and I loved his theme - Come what may and Love it! Easier said than done, but so true!
Ok so here is the written article of Elder Wirthlin's talk. I still love it. http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-9,00.html

Brown's Berry Patch

Penelepe will ask "Where's Oliver?" when he is at school. She misses him a little but we do have fun with out him too. Don't tell Oliver. The other week we went to Brown's Berry Patch with a few other friends from our play group. It was so delicious! The raspberries were amazing! If it wasn't a little over an hours drive I would be there everyday! I think we ate about as much as we put in the basket. Quality control - and the raspberries passed the inspection. We also picked several large bags of apples. Over 8 dozen Macintosh apples. Oliver could eat 6 a day if I let him. Needless to say we will not be wasting any of the apples (which I was a little afraid of after I saw how many we picked). Anyways it was a great outing. Penelepe had a lot of fun. They also have a large play area for kids and a ton of scarecrows. I don't think the scarecrows are suppose to be scary, but they were creepy to me.
So speaking of Penelepe - I love her - I do - but sometimes she can be quite the two year old. The other day we were at the park and it was time to go home. She did not think it was time to go and threw a major fit and screamed the entire two blocks home! Needless to say she had a major time out in her room when we finally made it home. After she finally calmed down and I went into her room and sat down on the floor with her to have a serious talk. I asked her why she had to have a time out and she replied in her most sweet high pitched innocent little voice, "Because I was crying, and screaming, and yelling mean things at your belly". Oh I hate it when they are suppose to be in trouble and you need to be serious as a parent and they say something funny. I quickly covered my face and pretended I was crying. I even had tears I was laughing so hard. Anyways I LOVE Penelepe. (and hopefully the "mean things at my belly" are not her true feelings toward her baby sister.)