A very different Halloween

It was definitely a bitter-sweet Halloween this year. Halloween night found me alone with Adam (which I love), kids gone, watching Adam eat pizza and watching the Science Channel (not a big fan) and periodically answering the door to trick or treaters. Can it get any worse? OK it wasn't that bad but it was just weird for us to be both home passing out candy, with no kids around and it was also kind of nice. Matthew had gone to a Halloween party at his seminary teachers house and Zack was trick-or-treating with his friend, James and hangin' out at his house...both of them were having a great time! I have a feeling that this is how our Halloweens will be for now on. We are off the hook of taking our kids out trick-or-treating....like I said, it is bittersweet!
I was thinking that we so should of had a Halloween party since Halloween landed on a Friday night for parents such as us with no kids at home or even parents with children and they could trick-or-treat around our neighborhood together. I think that it would be so much fun! Oh well there is always next year - Halloween will be on a Saturday night. I will start planning it now:)

But a funny thing did happen last night and as always I am such a dork! I went to pick up Matthew from his party and when I took him to the party I had followed someone there so I really wasn't sure how to get there. But as I was driving there at almost 11pm, I believed I had remembered the street that their house was on so I didn't even look at the street sign to make sure. I knew the address of the house was 511 so I found the house number and went to the front door and knocked. I did not get a good look at the house earlier that evening when I had dropped him off but the house seemed a little different but I didn't think anything of it because it was the right address, 511. The house was dark, which surprised me, but there were some lights upstairs on so I thought they must be up there watching a movie and they could not hear me knocking. So I continued to knock louder and louder. I start to really bang on the door. No answer. By this time I am looking in the front windows, ringing the doorbell and getting very frustrated...I was practically calling out Matthews name. I went back to my car, pulled the stake directory out, looked up their phone number and gave the house a call. They answered and I asked them to send Matthew out front because I was waiting for him in the car. So there I sat, waiting for him to come out, but still no Matthew was coming. I am a bit irritated by now. I double check the address, yep it is the right house number but I decide to check the street name so I drive to the corner and what do you know, oops, it is the wrong street. I felt like such a fool and those peoples door that I was banging on were probably in the process of calling the police to let them know there was a crazy lady outside their house, harassing them. Oops! I preceded to drive to the next street and lo and behold there is Matthew waiting on the curb with a look saying where were you? I am such a dork! I am just so glad that those people did not open their door, I would have really felt like a fool! To say the least, we had a great laugh over it!!

Halloween Fun

I have got to admit I use to love Halloween so much more because I had control over my boys costumes.....now they do their own thing. Whatever! These are some of my favorites from Halloween pasts---

Matthew as my little caveman

My 70's flower children
Matthew as a pirate


Recycled costume - Zack as a pirate
Count Matthew
Frankenstein Zack (He's playing the donut game)

Matthew a pirate again/Zack as my little skunk (love it!)

Too cute!!

OK so we recycled that pirate costume alot but everytime we used some different variations. I am not one for buying a costume, I like to make costumes from things we have at home or something we can find at Goodwill. But now the kids have their own ideas of what they want to be and I have got to admit they are usually very creative. Zack so wanted to be a banana this year..what's that? I could not believe it and I fought it the whole way but we did buy the costume but fortunately after all my complaining he decided he did not want to be that so we were still able to return the costume. Yeah! So here is what they ended up being this year-

Matthew and friend Trevor/Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy
Zack ended up filling in as Barnacle Boy because Trevor was not at the Ward Party. I think that Zack will probably end up being Gilligan or something for actual Halloween night.

The Young Adults had a "Super Hero" themed Halloween party so this is what we came up with because I just can't see me in a Wonder Woman costume. Yuck!! Adam and I as Lois Lane and her Superman, Clark Kent. The boys hate this picture of us, they say it looks dorky but come on it is Lois looking lovingly at her Superman.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Less than 2 weeks

We are 13 days away from Election Day and to tell you the truth I cannot wait 'till it is over. I am so tired of all the fighting, debating, commercials, etc. It is driving me crazy! The news is so slanted that I absolutely hate it but then again I am addicted to it. It is a scary election and one that I might not like the outcome of but it will be a happy day when it is finally over. Not that I will be happy with the results but that I will be happy to have the campaigning over. It feels like it has been the longest campaigning effort ever!
It is also scary with this Proposition 8 on the line. The effort made by so many has been amazing and hopefully it pays off. I found that I did not like making the phone calls, taking polls of how people were voting and I didn't like the idea of walking door-to-door but I have found something that I do like.......standing on the street corner waving a "Vote YES on Prop 8" sign. Now I don't know what that says about me but I actually had a great time. We are actively involved in doing this now and the other night we had 40+ people show up to stand on the corner! It was amazing! Over all the response was positive and I just had fun counting how many big-rig trucks we could get to blow their horn. (BTW - we got 6 to do it) It felt good to stand up for something I believe in. Now we did put up our yard sign finally and today I came home from the gym to find that it is gone. It must have been the wind because we are having Santa Ana's today, I don't think anyone would have taken it down. Right? Oh well I will just have to put another one up-
Looking forward to November 5th.........Election Day will be over!!!! Yeah!!

Beware of Zack

Zack loves to scare us! He creeps around the house hiding from us just so that he can jump out when we walk by and scare the pants off of us. He thinks it is so funny, and the more of a scared reaction he gets out of us the better. He has been found hiding in the pantry (for who knows how long) so that when one of us finally opens the door, he pops out and freaks us out. He seems to be lurking around every corner, hiding behind furniture, hiding in closets waiting for just the right moment to jump out. I swear I am going to have a heart attack and I tell him this but he keeps doing it to me. Nice kid. The sad thing is - is that he always gets me (and Matthew), you think we would have learned by now. So be careful when you are at our house, if you think you see the boogeyman it is probably just Zack lurking in the shadows.


BEWARE!

Firstborn is Fifteen

Today Matthew turns 15 years old...I cannot believe it! 15 years ago today our lives were changed forever as we entered this new adventure called parenthood and what a great adventure it has been so far! Matthew was such a good baby and has been a joy to have in our little family. He is such a good kid with such a good heart and I feel so blessed to be able to call him my son. We are so proud of him and all that he has and will accomplish.

Happy Birthday Matthew! We love you!

My Sugarlump (Grandma's nickname for him)

Matthew turns 1

He is a GREAT brotherKindergarten

7th grade

Teenager

Weekend in Utah

This last weekend we took off to St George to spend some time with my parents. We were able to help my parents out by cleaning their cars, cleaning out their garage, doing some yard work and taking some stuff to DI (Deseret Industries). It was nice to spend some time with them and also to be able to help them out at this time. My Dad is doing fine, just continuing his radiation and looking into other treatment. He seemed more hopeful this time and his strength is coming back so it was nice to see him improving for now.

We were able to go to the Tuacahn Theatre to see the play "Big River" Friday night. My nephew was able to get us in for free because he plays the bass in the orchestra and it was amazing! It is a play about Huck Finn but the coolest thing was that they covered the stage with water (it is outside) for the parts with them on the raft. Very fun!! On Saturday my brother and his family came up from San Diego to visit so the cousins had a good time together. They all went to a water park and enjoyed themselves while I got to stay home and spend some time with my Dad. Loved every minute! All in all it was a nice quick trip and the drive wasn't too bad. It is always fun visiting family and I am looking forward to Thanksgiving when we will all be together. Cherished memories!

The boys really enjoyed looking around DI, they felt like Napoleon. These are some of their great finds, Zack even found a wig like Pedro's. We did not buy anything but they did have fun looking. I was hoping that I got one of the polygamist that were there in the picture but I didn't:( Only in St George!





Zack sharing his coin collection with PaTa (Grandpa). My Dad has a great coin collection and Zack has really picked up on the hobby of collecting coins, he even has a cool safe to keep it in. He always drags the big safe up there so he can show PaTa his new coins. :)

Panera & Ping-Pong?!

Thursday morning, because Matthew starts school late, is the day that I take the boys out to breakfast before school. Well so far this year they have wanted to go to Panera every Thursday so now it has come to be known as "Panera Thursdays" and they look forward to it. We have added another item to our morning routine on Thursdays. After we drop off Zack at school, Matthew and I return home to play a vicious game of ping-pong. We are hooked! And when I mean vicious, just look at the picture below of Matthew slamming it on me. Our neighbors must love hearing us play at 8am?!? After looking at the picture I realized we really should dust off the table.....sorry I forget to dust outside. haha



The competition is close because we are both at the same skill level but for the last many weeks I have come out the winner. Yeah!! (Not to boast or anything) Our matches always go to 3 games and this morning Matthew took the first game easily, the score was 21-8. He killed me so I was pretty nervous. But I took the next game only winning by a few points but then I knew I had him. The third game was a breeze as I again played to a victory and I took Matthew to school, walking with his head down, defeated. OK just kidding on the last part but there is always next week Matthew. The battle continues!

Ping Pong Champion!

(of the Walden household at least)