Halloween

We finished our Halloween early this year!  We went to two trunk or treats and it's a good thing we did - we now have two feet of snow outside!  Here are some of the highlights:

Jack Sparrow  

Do you think Landon was excited to be a pirate??

Donald Duck

The doughnut hang - not quite as good as the Berkeley Ward Krispy Kremes, but still a hit!

Checking out the candy

Pumpkin carving!  The boys decided to make a "happy" monster this year and each of them helped me carve.  They loved holding the little knife!

They painted these other two pumpkins at the pumpkin patch:

End result:

Halloween cookies!  My Mom used to make these witch finger cookies for my school class each Halloween - I loved it!  I thought it was time my kids learned the tradition.  You can see what they enjoyed the most: snitching the dough!

The end result - the fingers were more bloody than usual :)

Then off to our last event with both our pirates:

And the final picture of the night:

Oh yeah....that's going up on his wedding day :)

Clubhouse Conversations

Landon and Parker recently acquired a really cool (cheap!) clubhouse that they LOVE.  We have it set up in our living room right now and they have been in that thing non-stop.  They call it the "Cool House" - maybe they heard me wrong? - and they have the cutest conversations in there.  For example:

#1

L: Hey Parker, we have to do this because it's an emergency!

P: Ok!

L: No, not like that.  Only emergency noises.  Then we can jump like this.

P: Ok!

L: Good job Parker!

#2

L: Hey Parker, do you want your socks off?  Here, your feet are warm.  I'll take your socks off and then put them back on when your feet are cold.

P: Ok!

L: I always look out for my brother.  But sometimes I don't.

#3

L: Hey Parker, come sleep in the tent!  I cleaned out all the toys so we can sleep.

P: Ok!  (goes inside)

L: No, Parker, you need your blankie to sleep.  Go get it!

P: Ok! (goes and gets it, goes back inside)

.......quiet.......

L: Sweet dreams....

P: Sweet dreams Lannon!

Those are just a few - so cute.  I try to listen as much as possible because they just crack me up!  I'm sure you noticed that pattern with Parker...he says "ok!" to just about anything his brother suggests.  Landon loves having him in there with him.  If Parker ever leaves, I hear Landon yelling "Parker!  Come back in the cool house!".  I hope this lasts all winter :)

"S" is for....

Landon has been very excited lately about what letters say and what words they spell.  I hear "S says ssssss like SALSA!" all day with all of the letters of the alphabet.  Well, most of them - I don't think he's figured out what Q says yet.  In honor of this, I made an "S" meatloaf.  Landon loved it, Scott laughed when I took it out of the oven (which, let's be honest, was the whole goal), but I must say that it was a HUGE meatloaf.  Next time we'll have to do a "little S".  

A few weeks ago my friend Rachel and I put my canning equipment to good use!  Apples were abundant and on sale, so we made some delicious apple sauce!  I swear, this stuff could be used as pie filling it's so good (with no sugar added!).  The apples were just amazing this year.  

Landon and Brandon (Rachel's son) had a blast peeling a few of the extra apples.  Thank you Williams & Sonoma for this wonderful contraption!

Implants

I have my appointment and am taking the plunge!  I am talking about a TOOTH implant, by the way :).  It's pretty funny to see people's faces when I say I'm having implant surgery, though!  I'm REALLY excited to have a tooth instead of a gap in my smile and I'm even more excited to be able to chew on both sides of my mouth again!!  I am, however, slightly nervous about the actual surgery.  I've never had anything "implanted" in my body - only things taken out (tonsils, teeth, etc.).  I know it's not a big deal, but I am a little bit worried.  What if something goes terribly wrong and I end up with no tooth and a huge infection!?  I really trust the dentist I'm going with and I know there's an extremely slim chance of anything strange happening, but still.  Anyway, my appointment is in a week - wish me luck!!

Rocky Mountain National Park

Last weekend we went up to Rocky Mountain National Park with some good friends.  They were our official tour guides since it was our first time up there!  We saw this just outside of town on our drive:

And this as soon as we drove into the town of Estes Park (it reminded me of Banff in some ways!).

Then this as we parked and walked up the trail:

Landon, Parker and Everett loved playing on all those rocks!

And hiding of course!

Parker just wanted to follow the big boys everywhere they went - he would get so frustrated when he couldn't keep up!

Family picture:

Parker found a puddle in one of the rocks:

Checking out the waterfall:

Me and Ashley posing for a picture:

We decided to get everyone up on this huge boulder for a picture - the kids thought it was pretty funny!

Our whole group:

The trees on the opposite slope were amazing!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day.  The waterfall was gorgeous - and freezing cold. There was ice all along the edge of the stream!

We went into Estes Park for hamburgers (at Penelope's - sooooo good!) and then got some ice cream at one of the little shops....ok, and some caramel popcorn.  It was so much fun getting out and exploring another part of this beautiful area we live in!  Thanks Ashley and Brian for showing us around :)

Did I mention we love Colorado??

This is what I get to look out at every day - gorgeous!!  I love the fall colors and the crisp air!

We have met some great friends already and have had so much fun exploring the community together.  Last week we went out to Golden, CO with Rachel and Brandon to play at the park. Rachel moved to the States from England awhile ago and just moved to Colorado.  We have so much in common, it's not even funny!  Golden is a beautiful little town - very old-timey - and the kids had so much fun getting to know eachother.  I think Brandon and Landon were meant to be friends.  They get along so well!

The boys loved that I made cupcakes for Primary last week...

And I just had to include these pictures of the boys.  They are really growing up lately - faster than usual, it seems.  Parker is talking in full sentences!

This is what I get when I ask Landon to smile (look familiar Brandon P.??).  He is very into the "what's" and "why's" of the world.  I love it and it drives me nuts all at the same time :)

Family Visit

We were so lucky to have my family come and visit again last week!  The kids were so excited to see Grandma, Grandpa AND of course Bryson, who we hardly get to see since he's still in school.  From the pictures below, you can see that Grandpa was pretty much a jungle gym the whole time!

Parker kept begging to fly again and again...

Bryson bought a plasma ball and the boys were very impressed.  Parker thought putting his face to it was a great idea:

Reading with Grandma was also another favorite.

We love having family in town!

Finances and Healthcare

I just heard of something that I had NO clue existed: IDA accounts.  For those of you who are still students or low income, this is amazing!!  It's a matching program where you open an account and every dollar you spend is matched by $1-$2 over a certain time period.  For more information, go here.  

Also, the "Stuff You Should Know" website is putting out a 4-part series on healthcare reform.  The first three are already out - to hear them all, go here.  It gave me a lot to think about!  There were a few things that concerned me that I didn't realize were a part of the plan and a few things that I thought were great....What do you think?