Halloween Party #5: Our House on Halloween

On Halloween Night, Paul and I don our costumes once more and deck out our front yard as much as possible (we add slowly ever year!). In keeping up with past Halloweens, we invited our good friends Amanda & Spencer and Becky & Judd over. I look forward to it so much because it's so fun to get dressed up and be dorks with your friends, try to scare the kiddies, eat some food and play around!!

I made a White Bean Chicken Chili and Paul helped me cut up the chicken. I snapped this picture, proving that even Superheros cook!!:

The three of us being super! The Spirit, The Flash and Super Dog!:

I love this picture of Becky and Judd! They are so cute:

Me and Becky:

And all of us being dorks, as mentioned above!:

Judd is our man for hiding in the leaves and jumping out at the kids. We didn't have that many trick or treaters this year, unfortunately, so there wasn't a whole lot of that going on.


And Amanda and Spencer joined us after they took care of all of their Trick or Treaters! They dressed Quinn up as a cow and the two of them went as Cowboys! Quinn looks so adorable, yeah?:

Amanda and Becky making Quinn smile:

Along with being super, my dog is also a total angel, see?? Now everybody go "Awwwwww!!":

I love this picture because it was really late and Bacardi kept falling asleep while he was laying right here. It reminds me of a little kid trying so hard to stay awake for the excitement but not quite succeeding. His head kept nodding and his eyes would droop more and more and finally close only to open again a minute later and start all over again:

We played mini Air Hockey and mini Pool, a little bit of Guitar Hero, and then we played Taboo and Catch Phrase. My friends are so funny and I always laugh a lot!:

I LOVE Halloween!! It's my favorite and this year was super fun!!

Halloween Party #4: Ashley & Cody's

After our Ward party, Paul and I went over to my friend Ashley's house, for her Halloween Party. Ashley and I have been friends since Jr High, I believe, and we were also in the same 4-H and Rodeo Clubs. We don't see each too often anymore so it's always fun to go and see her and her husband, Cody.

Me and Ashley:

Me getting ready to fight some bad guys:

Cody was Santa Claus and he had a present for everyone in his bag. Here he is digging for Paul's present cuz it's way down in the bottom:

And here it is. Can you tell what it is?:

Paul and I with our presents from Santa:

We had fun catching up with some people that I have seen in years, some of them not since High School, and watching a few rounds of Beer Pong. They are some of the funniest people I know so just being around them is entertainment enough!!

Halloween Party #3: Ward Trick or Treating

Every year, our Ward puts together a neighborhood party. We have soup and rolls and then the kids trick or treat around the building. Paul and I like to sign up to decorate a door and pass out candy. It's really fun to see all the cute kids and see what they dressed up as that year (my favorite is my friend's daughter, Aspen, who they dressed up as Tinkerbell - cutest thing I have ever seen!)

All the adults dress up, too and it's a lot fun to see what people come up with...like our good friend Paul Edmunds. He does a pretty good old dude. I tease him that those days are just around the corner now :):

Paul and I manning our door:

This year, we were all told not to do anything 'scary'. Totally ridiculous since nobody has ever done anything truly scary. But Paul and I stuck with cutesy webs and stars instead of our bones and gauze because Halloween is all about cute, right?? Whatever.

While we were bumming around, Paul showed me the many faces of The Spirit.

This is Non-Chalant Spirti:

Thoughtful Spirit:

Surprised Spirit:

& Angry Spirit:

Afterwards, we stayed to help clean up and Paul, ever the favorite with the kiddies, gave Mitch a ride on the sweeper mop.

From there, we left and went to another party thrown by a friend of mine.

Halloween Party #2: Annual Pumpkin Carving

Every year, a few days before Halloween, my immediate family gets together. It's tradition to dress up in our costumes, have soup in bread bowls and everyone carves their own pumpkin.

When we are all done, we light 'em up and line 'em up and see what everyone did.

My dog's costume arrived just that day. Since I had the costume sent to my parents house anyway, and my dog was already out there for the day, this was his first time wearing it. It was really cute!!!

This all of us that decided to dress up and be dorks:

Dallin Turns 3

Sunday, the 25th, was my nephew Dallin's 3rd birthday. The clan gathered round once again to help him celebrate. This is the first year we didn't combine his birthday celebration with the Pumpkin Carving Party so there won't be any pumpkin goop on the counters this time. But Dallin gets a fun Halloween decorated party every year and he loves it.

After we ate, Dallin wanted to go straight to the presents - as most kids do. And of course, as most kids do, he would rip open one right after the other without really caring what was in it. He got lots of fun little toys, and a fun 4-wheeler from Kevin and his kids. He was really excited about that one :):

Dallin wanted to play a game and so at the last minute, I whipped up a clown face on posterboard and we played "Pin the Nose.":

Even the adults got in on the action:

And we can't forget the cake and ice cream. Dallin had a monster cake this year and the kids loved picking off the eyeballs!:

Halloween Party #1 - Wayne & Heather's

We always look forward to Halloween. Decorating and dressing up and having a reason to party is a lot of fun for us!

Saturday night, after a busy day of running errands, tending, and finishing our final touches on our costumes, we dressed up to save the world and headed over to Wayne & Heather's!!

Paul is The Spirit and I am The Flash!!:

This was Paul's idea, but it's pretty kick-A if I do say so myself!:

The Spirit doesn't even have to try to be cool - he just is:
What's that?? Don't worry, we'll save the day!!:

Yeah we're nerds and we're okay with that.

This is Wayne & Heather. She looked so adorable and Wayne (celebrating his birthday as well) made a terrific Frankenstein. He even made shoes with ginormous wooden stilts on the bottom!!

Jesse and his wife - she was the cutest witch and Jesse, obviously, was a pirate. Besides the wig and facial hair, all he did was pin his son's costume to his own clothes and there you go!:

Taking a break from being super awesome:

Can't wait til next week! Dressing up is so fun!!

Well...That Blows

Paul and I went on a little adventure last night. First, we trekked out to Lehi to make a purchase after Paul's football game. Since we had to drive separately to the game, he parked his truck in an abandoned parking lot right off of 90th and I-15 so we could just hop off and grab it on the way home and be back on the freeway in no time.

Following the wonderful directions we were given, we back-tracked and U-turned about fifty times - that's enough to put me in a really bad mood. I stayed in my happy place though and soon enough we were on our way back to pick up Paul's truck. We pull up...and like a really good magic trick, Paul's truck has disappeared. Wow. Can someone bring it back now?? That's not funny.

My first thought was that it was stolen. I was surprisingly calm but felt sick about it. I kept going through my head of things that Paul might have in his truck that were valuable and praying that it was jack squat. But then Paul looked up and saw that he parked in a towing zone. Phew!! That's a little better. How did he not see the sign?? Especially since he parked right in front of it?? To give him credit, I didn't notice it either. It's smaller than a bloody street sign. Strangely I wanted to laugh but I kept that in check because Paul obviously did not share my same feelings.

Paul was on the phone right away to figure out where it was taken and what to do. My giggles disappeared faster than the truck did when I learned that it would take $206 to get it out and would increase fifty dollars by the morning. MOTHER TRUCKER!!! Is Paul's truck even worth that much?? @$#%^&*&%$#@@#&!!!!!!

And off we went to get a money order and find the yard that held our truck prisoner making several more U-turns, in turn putting me in an even more foul mood. We came upon the yard, freed the truck and finally went home much later than we had hoped.

New Moon Predictions

I am fairly certain that while New Moon will definately be a couple of gigantic steps up from the crap that was Twilight, I believe that it is still going to blow some chunkage. My brother showed me the extended footage to the New Moon trailer, and while the special effects look cool, the actors are still so blegch. It's no secret that I think Kristen Stewart SUCKS, and Robert Pattinson's acting SUCKS, and Taylor what's-his-name-is MEDIOCRE. But I am predicting that Ashley Greene is going to be the WORST actor in New Moon. From what I have seen of the previews, it's unfortunate that she has more than two lines in this movie. When I finally watch this movie, I predict that I will be rewarding Ashley with an imaginary trophy for being the SUCKIEST OF THE SUCKERS. Congratulations.

Brand New Eyes

I good friend of mine tipped me off on a super awesome good deal on Amazon - Paramore's new album Brand New Eyes for under $4 bucks!!! Yeah baby!!

I bloody love Paramore. Their new album is bloody fanstastic!! I can't bloody stop listening to it. I'm a big fan of Hayley William's voice - I wish I sounded like her. And a very big fan of her red hair. It looks so much better on her than that pukey medley of blonde, yellow and orange. She looked like she should have been the spokes person for Capri Sun.

My favorites are All I Wanted, Brick By Boring Brick & Playing God. But seriously, all the songs are so very good - you just can't go wrong.

Where The Green Grass Grows

I'm so flippin' excited to be seeing my own little sea of green outside. It's been a long time since we started on our backyard and we planted seed about three weeks ago now...I think. I can't wait to have a green yard next year!!!

Cage The Elephant

One of my not-so-new favorites is Cage The Elephant. These guys are an American band that moved to England. Their song "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked" is by far the best on the album, followed by "In One Ear". I like these guys a lot, they have catchy tunes and are catchy themselves. The only thing about this album is that it's kind of hard to listen to - there are only a three or four songs that stand out and the rest just sound the same. Sometimes I don't realize when one song ends and another begins. Other than that, they can cage my elephant any time they want ;).

*Has small amount of language for anyone who might actually buy it on my recommendation and then curse me to hell because I didn't warn them and think I'm a sinner for listening to it.

A Little R&R

Our family celebrated Amber's birthday on the 27th of September, but her actual birthday is October 3rd.

Well, Amber's boyfriend had a business trip in D.C. that weekend and couldn't be there. So, being a very sneaky man, he arranged for me to take her to the Sanctuary Spa!! Bonus. And he paid for the both of us!! Double Bonus.

I made a date with Amber to meet at the mall at 12:30 to 'go shopping' and eat lunch. All was on schedule until 12:00 when Amber called me to tell me she was running late and could we move our 'shopping trip' back to 1:00?? Ummmmm noooooooo. I told her she had to hurry hurry hurry!! But she didn't see why it was such a big deal since we were only shopping. So by 12:45 I was freaking out and waiting for her to arrive. Once we met up, I started speed walking her to our destination and she asked "What are you in such a hurry to shop for?"

That's when I grabbed her arm and snapped a picture of us in front of the Spa (never mind me. I am fully aware that I look like a retard):

And then I turned her around and walked her into the spa. The whole time she was looking at me like I was a crazy person and couldn't figure out my strange behavior until I said "Happy Birthday!! This is from Kevin!" And the staff told her Happy Birthday and we were led back to the dressing room.

She was so surprised and completely baffled. She had never guessed that her boyfriend would arrange for something like this. It put a huge smile on her face!!

Sanctuary Spa at the South Towne Mall is FRIGGIN' AWESOME. It's the nicest spa either of us had ever been in. It would take me forever to go into detail about it but just take my word for it. First up was our massages. We had it done together, she had a Hot Rock Massage and I just had a Relaxation Massage (cuz they can't do two Hot Rocks in the same room, which was what Kevin arranged). The massages were awesome. And when your on your back, the ceiling is dark with hundreds of tiny lights to look like the night sky and it's so cool.

Afterwards we went in the steam room and sipped our ice water while we waited for our pedicurists. Our pedicures were totally freaking awesome and my feet were oh-so-happy!! We both did the same awesome color, which I have being shipped to me as we speak!

The I treated her to Paradise Bakery and we had super nummy food. It was really fun and, hello, who wouldn't love a free day at the Spa?? I am actually really glad to have spent the day with her since she didn't have anything going on that day. Good sisterly bonding time.

My New Love Affair

I have been on the prowl for a purse to meet my growing list of demands. I am very picky about purses because I have had many. I would love not to carry around a purse. In fact, I haven't used one in six months and all I carried on me was my phone, keys and this tiny little thing for my i.d. and cards:

But purses are useful and I need them when I am working because I carry a lot more stuff with me - like my ipod, my notebook, my notary stamp, and usually the book I am currently reading.

With all the purses I have used, my demands are these:

cell phone pocket

several pockets with at least one zippered

pockets outside the purse

two compartments inside the purse

sturdy outside walls - none of those crappy purses that collapse in on itself when you are trying to rummage around.

It's extremely difficult to find all of that in a purse. I almost thought about becoming a purse maker myself so that I could take everything I find wrong with purses and build awesome ones and have my own business.

But then I found Kathy Van Zeeland (insert angelic chorus here).

Her purses are extremely hot and offer lots of places to hide stuff. And there are so many great choices that I had such a hard time choosing. I wanted the orange one because orange is freaking awesome, but it was too small. I wanted purple because purple is just plain hot, and there were so many of different sizes. And I really wanted this red one - because it's superbly fantastic and daring and it has attitude. Helllllooooooo - it belongs with me, right? And it has super soft leather. I could pet it all day.

But then I found this:

I was torn at first. The red one is just so awesome. But I went there determined to get a purple one. But the red one was just sooo awesome. But this one had zebra stripes.

Zebra emerged the winner because, well, I rock this purse. But it also has four compartments, two pockets on the outside, cell phone pocket, zippered middle compartment and zippered inside pocket, with two slotted pockets AND key chain. SOLD.

But I still might have to become the owner of my red beauty in the near future.