Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween 2013!

We have Fix it Felix from Wreck it Ralph, Merida from Brave, a Ladybug and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz

We had our Ward carnival and trunk-or-treat activity last Saturday. My parent's came over for the weekend because there was a UW football game that my Dad and Kyle were going to. They came over on Saturday morning. My Mom and I went shopping after lunch to DSW, Old Navy and the mall. We came back to make pigs in a blanket for the activity. Then we got the kids dressed and left. It's always crazy and chaotic getting everyone in their Halloween costumes and out the door on time. Elder's Quorum was in charge of an activity so Kyle and my Dad left earlier to set up for that. (The young men did the haunted maze and I heard it was amazing! They spent like 18 hrs doing it so kudos to them. Kate loved it. Lindsey cried, but she's little and scared of things a lot.) The pigs in a blanket weren't quite done so we had to bake them longer and come later. The kids don't eat good at ward dinners so I tried feeding them before, but they didn't want to eat. I don't even think they ate when we got there. Sigh. Oh well, they will survive just by eating candy for one night. 

Kyle, my Dad and Marci (she had come up later in the day to hang out) left the activity early and went to the game. Marci didn't have a ticket, but ended up buying one from a girl on the rooter bus down to the stadium for only $20. They had gotten field passes from friends so they were all able to go down onto the field before the game. Huskies won so it was even better and it wasn't that cold. They had a good time. In the meantime, my Mom helped with my kids with the carnival games and then she handed out candy at our trunk so I could walk around with my kids. Oh yeah, I tried decorating the trunk all cute this year from a picture off of Pinterest. It was sharp teeth with a tongue hanging out. No picture. It was cute, but we were backed up to the sidewalk so no one even saw it or noticed it and the teeth on the bottom fell over. Oh well. We came home and my Mom got the kids in bed while I drove to Bellevue to get some things from Penney's and DSW for my Mom and got dinner at Chipotle for us. I got back around 9:30pm and my Mom and I ate our dinner and chilled. My parents went to Church with us the next day, ate diner and then left before the kids went to bed. It was fun to have them come over for longer than a day visit.

Chelsea (16 mo's) the Ladybug. She wouldn't keep the antennae headband on. Bummer because it was cute. Lindsey wore this last year when she was 2.

Lindsey (3) as Dorothy. Kate wore this when she was 3 1/2 yrs old. Melanie's daughter Kathryn wore it and they passed the dress down to us so it's gotten great use. 

Preston (6) as Fix it Felix from the movie Wreck it Ralph. He has this gold hammer in the movie that fixes everything. We wrapped a toy hammer with gold foil that my Mom had brought. I found the hat, shoes and hammer holder for the belt at Goodwill then made tags to put on his shirt and hat. My Mom had made this blue shirt for my nephew Carter for when he was a policeman so we borrowed it. It worked out good.

Kate (8) as Merida from Brave. Kate is legit this year. We got the dress and bow and arrow from Disneyland in February. She didn't really want to be Merida anymore for Halloween, but I told her she didn't have a choice. After spending that much money on the dress she was going to be it! It was perfect for Halloween so why not. I got the wig from Target. Some people at the ward trunk-or-treat didn't recognize her. haha!

We carved pumpkins for family night last week and Kate chose a spider so I found a template online and cut it out. Preston wanted triangle eyes, an octagon nose and a mouth with missing teeth. Kyle carved Preston's and impressed us with the octagon he did. It was pretty darn good. Lindsey got to color on her little pumpkin. Kate also drew some Halloween pictures and decorated our front door with them. 

The Farm

We went to our favorite pumpkin patch, The Farm in Snohomish, again this year a couple weeks ago. It's one of our favorite fall activities to do as a family. We went on a good day because it wasn't raining, but it was super crowded because we went in the afternoon. I had our craft day that morning and it was our turn to clean the Church so I did that and then stayed to do my craft. It's a cute wood block thing that says "Beware of Little Monsters". It's been disappointing to see how few people come out to clean the Church when it's their week. The last couple times have had only like 3-4 adults! And I know it's not just our week either because I've talked to another person in the ward saying the same thing. Anyway, we went to the pumpkin patch once I got home after lunch.

They got a new slide put in for this year. I like this picture because Preston's taking his time going down and yet Lindsey is crying and doesn't want to go down with Kate. Kate's trying to pull her down. Lindsey is the one more scared of things.

It's an "I spy" game for the 3 older kids because there were so many kids! An accident waiting to happen.

I like this picture of Kate trying to help Lindsey not be scared to jump off the bale into the straw. The next few pictures are of each of them jumping off. Cute.

Chelsea hanging on for dear life!

Chelsea liked the corn pit. I'm still finding corn pieces while doing their laundry.

Cow Train

Trying to pick out the "perfectly round pumpkin" according to Kate. Preston picked his out right away. It took a while longer for Kate, but we found one. Then Lindsey got to pick out a little one (she already had gotten another one from the playgroup pumpkin patch). I usually never buy pumpkins from the patch because they are spendy. I always get them on sale at Fred Meyer's or Winco. We were being nice and let them. They ended up only costing $10 for 3 pumpkins, so not too bad. We splurged and got caramel apples too. Those were delish. We devoured them on the way home.

The hay ride...I see you Chelsea!

Time Out For Me!

Time Out for Women 2013 Higher

Think Higher--Believe Higher--Live Higher

It was a fun girls' weekend with my Mom, Marci and Jeni. We stayed at Marci's house since the event was in Tacoma. I got a break from everyday duties and was uplifted by the talks and music I heard. On Friday we heard from Heidi Swinton (wrote Thomas S. Monson's biography), James Ferrell (author of Peacegiver and others), and singers Justin Cash and Calee Reed. The main musical performer on Saturday was Hilary Weeks. She is a popular LDS musical artist. My favorite song of hers is "I Will". I first heard this song at Girl's Camp a few years ago and so it's been a favorite since. The speakers on Saturday were Mary Ellen Edmunds, D. Kelly Ogden, Emily Watts, Richie Norton and Kris Belcher. Kris was a favorite speaker of mine. She has dealt with her trials in a remarkable way with humor and insight. She lost her vision and has 2 little boys. I can't imagine not being able to see! She was funny though. I don't like taking notes because I never go back to read them so I really only wrote down a few things on my phone or took some pictures of the slides they showed. I liked what Kelly Ogden said, "Every true strength is gained in a struggle. No matter what happens keep the faith and keep climbing higher."

Hilary Weeks (singer) and Kris Belcher (speaker)

My Mom with James Ferrell. So his Dad sealed Jeni and Kevin in the Seattle Temple because his Dad and my G&G Sabin were friends. Jim grew up in the Seattle area. My Mom went up to introduce herself to him and he remembers his Dad threatening him to be good or he'll take him over to Ellensburg to work on the farm with Paul Sabin (my gpa). Hahaha! 

They had a fun photo shooting area with fake mustaches and frames. We took advantage of it. 

One of Hilary's songs was dancing in the rain and it was appropriate for us Seattle crowd. People opened up their umbrellas and danced around. My Mom put hers up too. :)

Richie Norton talked about his son that passed away as a baby and I liked this "Live to Start, Start to Live".

It's A Circus Out There

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus came to Everett this month and we wanted to take the kids to it. I've never been to a Circus and so I was excited to go. The tickets were only like $13 on opening night so they were cheap. It was a fun night. They had lots of juggling, a few animals (dogs, camels, horses and elephants), motorcycles, a high wire act, acrobats and trampoline. I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting. The kids did really well. Even Chelsea didn't do too bad. I was worried about her because she is awful at Church, she just wants to go go go. There was an aunt and mom sitting behind us with 2 kids and they even commented on how good they were. I told them I was surprised too. Ha! My trick was to bring lots of snacks and candy.

The favorite act was the elephants. I've never seen elephants move so much or so fast! At the zoo they are slow and boring. Lindsey liked it when the little pony ran underneath the camels. It was pretty cute and funny. Then the tiniest dog ran underneath the little pony. Why are little things so cute?

The 2 motorcyclists rode around in this ball. They would go around and around super fast. Then one time they turned out the lights and the motorcycles were lit up. It was pretty cool.

Mud Stompin' Fun

We went to a pumpkin patch for playgroup one morning. We walked around and saw some animals and looked at the pumpkins. Chelsea found the mud puddles and thought those were the best. At first she was just stepping in them. Then she was stomping in them and eventually fell down in one. I just let her keep playing in them because she was having so much fun. I was kind of dying about how dirty she was getting and was hoping her clothes and shoes would come clean! I had to strip her down naked and then I dunked her in the trough full of water they use to clean pumpkins. I hurried and got most of the mud off and ran her to the car to get a diaper on her and put her in her carseat. She fell asleep on the way home. Her clothes came clean. The shoes took a while to clean and dry and the socks were thrown away. It was worth it though. She had so much fun!

Joyce Wright Christensen

My Grandma Joyce's funeral was so good. The talks were heartfelt, the musical numbers were amazing and the memories shared were so good. It was bittersweet to say goodbye. She had a good life and did many wonderful things in her life and saw many wonderful things. She had to endure to the end though the last few years as she dealt with Parkinson's. It was sad to see her body slowly shutdown over the years, but she kept fighting and kept trying to be involved in things. She was a fighter. I'm grateful for the memories I have of her and I'm so glad she was my Grandma. I know she is in a better place with her own Mom and Dad and 2 brothers who already have passed on. I hope my Grandpa can feel of our love for him and is comforted through this huge loss for him. 

 My Grandpa and his kids...my Mom, John, Tom and Jim

This table had a lot of the things my Grandma had made throughout her life. Seeing the car rug again brought back a lot of memories from when we played on it with all her cars. 

The pallbearers- Brady, Steve, Brandon, Jeff, Austin and Bryan.

My Grandpa Bill giving a few comments and thoughts

My Grandpa with his sister Catherine

Kyle and I

Watching the casket get lowered into the ground. They threw rose petals on top of her casket. 'Til we Meet Again Grandma!

The Relief Society from their ward put on a dinner after the graveside services at the Church building, which was really good. Then we all came back to my parent's house for dinner that night and a family get together. About 100 people came. It was fun to see everyone. Daneen, my Mom's cousin, brought food for everyone which was SO very nice of her to do that.