Hey!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Dressing up!

Shawn and I had a little costume party to attend last weekend. I had more fun than I expected. Shawn put me in charge of costumes and I seriously considered just showing up as a pregnant lady. He wasn't too interested in being the milkman or the mailman, so I had to come up with something a little different....

So, after only 10 minutes, Shawn managed to cover himself in black makeup. I was just glad I wasn't in charge of painting his face. Pretty scary, huh? Grant and Nora thought it was pretty great, but Alex was terrified! He took off running for the babysitter crying. We managed to convince him that it was really daddy, so then he kept saying 'Daddy scared me'. Poor kid.

I opted NOT to purchase a costume. (Well, I didn't buy either of them). I figured finding something that would fit around my middle would be pretty costly, and not worth it for a 4 or 5 hour party so I whipped together a maternity shirt and made it a little longer. Not my best work ever, but hey, it saved some moo-lah!

Standards Night

(Jaesi, this one's for you....)

This week we held our annual Standards Night. After 2 fabulous talks on modesty and temple preparation, our girls crafted some amazing wedding dresses out of toilet paper!

I gave each group of girls 4 or 5 rolls of toilet paper (which was more than enough) and 20 minutes. Here was one group's progress after about 14 minutes.....

Now these girls were serious. And they had a little extra help from a pretty excited leader. (This was after only 6 or 7 minutes!)

This was the organized group. Notice the pre-torn strips on the floor just waiting to be perfectly placed on our newest Beehive.

And their finished product. Very modest.

I liked the longer sleeves on this dress and the t.p. flower in her hair. Nice touch, eh?

In case you couldn't tell, she was throwing her bouquet.

Ah, the 3 young brides. Good thing this was just for fun.

The girls LOVED this activity. I always like when things go so well.

By the way, thanks for all your youth activity ideas! Can't wait to try some of the out!

Okay, okay, okay...

Here it is. But do me a favor, and don't pay attention to the baggie-bottom 20-year old BYU sweatpants or the completely wild hair or the mysterious glare at the bottom of the picture. Focus on baby. Supposedly, at 30 weeks gestation, babies weigh 3 lbs....um, right. I don't believe any of my babies weighed 3 lbs yet. Yes, this kid is under my rib cage. No cute basketball belly for this mom!

Nearly There!

I just can't believe how quickly this little pregnancy has flown by. I am at the tail-end of 29 weeks. I realize most people get to 29 or 30 weeks and are thinking "10 more weeks? I can't wait that long, I'm far too miserable." I, on the other hand, haven't thought that since I was pregnant with Grant. Even then, I was surprised when I was holding him only 4 weeks later. Each has come 'late preterm'. Grant at 34, Nora between 37-38 (nice!), and Alex at 36. All I can think right now is how I hope this little dude decides to wait until November 18th to show his face. That's 36 weeks. I can certainly wait longer. The question is, can he?

These three kiddos can't wait another day! They are sooooo excited! I, myself remember how exciting it was to come home from school in the afternoon and see the 'it's a girl' sign my dad had painted on our garage door when the little sibling was born. How fun!!

I need a favor

What were some of your favorite youth activities? It's planning time and I'd like to hear some creative ideas. Please, please, please leave a little note :)

What we've been up to...

We've had a bit of a break from the 'norm' around here. Breaks from the norm are always welcome!

Yeah, it's only September, but since life will be normal around Halloween, we decided to carve a pumpkin early. Alex could not be convinced that the Jack'o'lantern was not a monster.

One Sunday afternoon, we went to a cemetery for a little family stroll (yeah, i know. Kind of strange since we have no relatives buried there. Hey, it's one of the only quiet places around here). The next day, this is what I found in the backyard...