Getting Ready for Tricks or Treats...

I love this time of year. Maybe its the smell of decaying leaves or could it be the thrill of watching, "its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." I really think its because Halloween is Gracie's favorite holiday EVER. I never used to like Halloween. But now I am almost as excited as Gracie for the day to come.

This year Gracie wanted to be Tinkerbell. Well at first she wanted to be a dead fairy but then Tinkerbell was more appealing thank heavens. So since I showed the costume I made for Lilly, I think it only fair to show you Gracie as Tinkerbell.

I think she plays the part perfectly.

This week at Gracie's school, they are doing Say no to drugs week. So everyday is something different. Monday was Crazy hair day. Tuesday was wear red day. Today was School Picture day and tomorrow is Wear your Jammies to School. Here is Gracie's Crazy hair. She thought of it herself.

She even won a prize for her class as the weirdest girls hair.

The girls and I decided to try our hand at a Haunted Gingerbread house for our little after school craft.

It was really fun and in a kit so everything was included.

Gracie was pretty happy about how it turned out. I think it turned out cute as well.

Not bad for a bunch of girls and a discount Gingerbread house kit. I am really excited for Tricks or Treats. We are going to do Trunk or Treat tomorrow at the Ward then Friday we are going to head to Grandma and Papas neighborhood and trick or treat there. Should be a fun week. Then Ute party on Saturday night. Go Utes!!

Our Busy Weekend...

This last weekend we were pretty busy. Its was UEA weekend so Gracie was home from school an extra two days. Since our funds are pretty low, we decided to stay cheap but still have fun. First off, we headed down to Lehi to walk through the Scarecrow Festival they have every year to support the West Ridge Academy. Its really fun. We have gone a few times before and have had a load of fun.

SCARECROW FESTIVAL

(Thursday) The girls got their faces painted right off. Emily got an ElmoGracie was a skeleton (of course..anything spooky and dead that girl)

And Lilly got a Butterfly. All so predictable. I love it.

And here they are.

So cute.

Next at the festival they had these huge jumping toys and slides. The girls love the jumping stuff but Lilly was a little scared to try the slides. She did it but was scared at first.Lilly hiking up the first slide. She was pretty scared. Once she got to the top she wouldn't go down. So I sent Gracie up there to push her. Okay let me tell you something about Lilly (some of you might already know this) She has the fear of the unknown. So, sometimes I have to force her to do things because I know she really wants to do them but doesn't know the outcome. Like her riding a horse for the first time. She was scared at first but couldn't get her off once she got on. Same with the slide thing. So...

Gracie pushed her. And once she got to the bottom she was ready to do it again. Gracie was in and out of the toys like crazy. If it wasn't for her face paint I would have lost her.She was the perfect age to play in these.Then there is the ever fearless Emily. She followed Gracie on everything. I think she was the smallest kid going down these slides.And downAnd down. I love that she has no fear. She is so trusting that she will be okay.We played Free Games and watched free dance concerts. It was a lot of fun. Worth the trip.

Can you hear me now???

(Friday)

Friday we spend the day cleaning and doing laundry. On my way out to take some garbage to the can I spied a crime scene...As I walked next to my WHITE minivan i noticed some blue circles drawn on my car with...SHARPIELaying on my dirty garage floor was the culprit. A blue Sharpie. Man was I ticked off. AND it was Blue..now if it was red...(go utes). But it was blue. I Jumped into fast action and grabbed my cheap hairspray and started to spray...and...Walla...gone. Martha Stewart eat your heart out. And who was the artist you might ask???

Kunka!!!

We decided the adults needed a little date so we got a babysitter and went to change our phones to Verizon (since Qwest was changing to Verizon anyway.) So we are now in the network. Can you hear me now?? And then went to dinner.On our way home, pulling into the drive way we could smell something burning. We quickly parked and ran inside to find that the babysitter had nearly set the microwave on fire with popcorn.The culprit..a charcoal bag of burnt popcorn.
The result. Our microwave will never be the same. I tried everything to get the stain out..and the smell...oh my.

U-T-A-H Fight Fight Fight!

(Saturday)

After getting back from Weight Watchers ( i didn't lose, I stayed the same) I got Gracie and Emily ready and we headed to Trax and up to the Utah vs. Colorado State game. It was really fun and the weather couldn't have been better.Here is Emily. She had a little bump the night before on her eye (fell off my bed)WE really had a lot of fun. I love taking the girls. They are great fans. Go Utes (we won 49 to 16)Later that day we also took the girls to pick out their pumpkins at Winder Dairy. We are pretty tight for money so they got a .99 cent pumpkin.Sisters...I love it.
Lilly, Gracie and Emily's pumpkins. Perfect size for Kunka. The Watkins Girls Girls with Pumpkins. I am glad that we have this little tradition.

The Sabbath day is a day of Rest

The girls and I took advantage of Stake conference and spent the day playing outside and getting laundry done. (is there ever a break from laundry??) It was a nice day.

Pirates, Skeletons and Cats..oh my.

(Monday)

For family home evening we decided to decorate our newly acquired pumpkins. We carved them last year (that was a mess with little kids) so we decided to use craft foam. It turned out really cool.

Blake making his Pirate pumpkin

Of course we made Gracie a skeleton, a cat for Lillian and a Jack-O-Lantern for Emily.

See totally cute.

Here they are out side with their creators.

Cute huh???

Here is a random pic of Gracie on Backward day at school. She thought she was pretty funny. So did I.I finally finished Lilly's mermaid costume. I think it turned out cute. I'll have more pictures with all the girls later. But I just had to show off my beautiful mermaid.I love the fall. I really miss the east coast at this time of year. My mission memories come flooding back to me always in the fall..I was in Quarryville, Pa the first fall I spent in the mission. There were beautiful fall leaves, cooking, Amish laundry on the line and Amish buggy's on the streets in the early morning going to market."the clip clop of the horses hoofs as they..." I miss the East.

Happy Fall Ya'll!