HELP!

How do I fix this? My Halloween post is remembering something from an autosave once upon a time and I have a huge space in my post! Keep going when you look at the post. There is MORE (sorry, lots to catch up on) below.

Halloween...FINALLY!

OK, so I know that I am the last person on earth to post pictures of Halloween. Most of us are already moving on to the more favorite holidays, but I MUST show off our 5th child...in costume speak, that is. Not that I had any intentions of showing up my children in their costumes...I just wanted to add to their costumes in some miraculous way of keeping two young children happy and contained for 2 nights of lots of walking (Trunk or Treat, and trick or treating).

I got the idea of the train in the middle of the night one night. I was planning on Deegan being an engineer...playing on his obsession for trains, and HATE of Halloween dress-up. (The kid hates putting costumes on...every year!) I thought if I did something he liked, then he would cooperate. The problem was that I had no costume for him. I got so lucky! I stopped at the 1st children's consignment store on my list and found Deegan's Osh Kosh overalls, NEW...WITH TAGS, but for only $7! I had already bought his bandanna the night before and was bummed that I could only find a two-pack...Blessing in disguise...So, as I was doing the happy dance all the way to the register I saw a little dress peeking at me from a rack. Lo and behold, ASHLYN'S SIZE!!! "Match made in heaven!", I thought to myself-OK, really I said, "NO WAY!", out loud! "Seriously, Tommy Hilfiger for only $5.50?", the conversation in my head went on..."Totally my new favorite store!" How could this place not totally make the top of my list when it totally saved the day?

So, this all took place the day before the trunk or treat. I had my mind set on the wagon-turned-train idea before, but now...game on! I ended up using foam board, like you find next to the poster board. Those weren't big enough, so I headed to Michael's thinking that they would just give me a box. Nothing in life is free people...but I could buy their wonderfully over sized foam board that they use to back their framings with! Sold! I started at 9pm and next thing I knew, it was 2am! I wasn't even tired, but I knew I would pay for it the next couple days if I didn't head to bed. The next day I MADLY taped, painted...even spray painted Ryan's wonderful PVC frame that held the thing up (better for the outcome of pictures, I was certain! Certifiably insane, I know! I totally got carried away with this project...I even made a smoke stack that smokes with dry ice. Those are the things that it takes to wrangle Deegan and Ashlyn all night!) Needless to say, it all payed off. Neither Deegan or Ashlyn complained once either night. Deegan rode proudly blowing his whistle, of course! Now, I may need my children to offer rides for a quarter around the neighborhood to recoup some cost!

Some more cute pictures...*Deegan had a Halloween party at school. The first two are from that. *3*Carson, on Halloween night (Kaeleigh trick or treated with a friend, so we have no pictures of her (sad!) *4* We didn't carve pumpkins this year...very overlooked with the whole train thing, so luckily I found these tattoo things at the last minute. *5*Ashlyn doing traditional Vehar stunt work, and last *6* and my highlight of Halloween...(deserves it's own paragraph...)

I admit I was ready to BLOW and at the end of my rope trying to get kiddos ready, when the door bell rang! My first reaction was more anger as I was beside myself that the neighbors thought it would be ok to start trick or treating already! I went to the door and found a delivery guy with these cute flowers from a best friend, Angie Ashton...all the way from Utah! She always catches me somehow when I am about to fall. Thankfully to my kiddos benefit, it was perfect timing as Mommy was able to find a smile for the rest of the night! Thanks Angie! Told you they were cute!!!

Wrap up on the T-Ball season

So this is a couple weeks behind, but that will be the case for the next couple posts seeing as I just figured out the pictures deal. First up...T-Ball. Now that it is over, we look back and think we enjoyed it. What a commitment! Who knew that Tball had practices twice a week, plus games on Saturdays...then, Ryan was asked to be an assistant coach on top of that. All in all, what a great first experience for Carson. The coach asked Ryan if Carson could come up to the next level with his son...he had NO IDEA that Carson was only 5! Carson is not technically old enough to play in the next level. What a complement to Carson. He really played well, and we are very proud of him!

New look...

I haven't been blogging for a while...seems I am the last one to find a new background for the new season. Since I am the last one to Fall, I figure I will get a head start on Christmas. It is my favorite...I have been listening to Christmas music since before Halloween, so I may as well set my background too before all the good ones are taken.

Carson's first field trip

Carson's class had a field trip to the Stuffington Bear Factory (like Build-a-Bear) to finish their unit on bears. I wasn't able to go, but my girlfriend was and so I was able to post some pictures from my email...thanks Julie!

Carson waiting to stuff his bear.
(Notice he chose a BLUE bear.
This boy does everything for his
Cougars!!)

Stuffing and Fluffing

This is Carson and his friend
with their matching bears.



Carson's class

Figuring out the RIGHT traditions...

So my great friend, Sommer, posted a "fun" recipe on her blog about making Dinner in a pumpkin. It wasn't even photo-worthy by the time I got done with it. (That is if my pictures would magically show up here anyway!) It smelled and tasted good...the only problem was that even after 1 and a half hours, my rice never softened? Is this a normal problem, because I have another recipe using uncooked rice and it bakes in the oven...but my rice never softens. People, there is something really wrong with crunchy rice!!! By the time I gave up, my pumpkin was falling apart and half the original size and my house smelt like squash! So I have decided that this recipe will not be a Halloween tradition. I am liking an idea of Costco Pizza that my other good friend Trea told me about! Seriously, with all the "getting ready" to trick or treat...who has time to make, let alone EAT dinner anyway? (I would just like to say that I am looking forward to next Halloween being on a Saturday so that Ryan will have...I mean, GET to help me dress four fabulous "whatevers". I now know why my mom hated Halloween. It is a tough gig on us moms!)

What did we do that worked as a great tradition? We toasted our pumpkin seeds and had pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and made THE BEST CIDER IN THE WORLD! We got to stay up late and play ZARAHEMLA with our buddies the Hochhalters. If you're planning on eating, you better have help! Right? Thanks for the fun, "Hokey Pokies" ! (...as my kids like to call you!)

Try these cookies....easy, and mmm! Great especially for kiddos with egg allergies! Finally they can eat raw cookie dough!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies:
1 small can (soup can size) Libby's pumpkin
1 spice cake mix
milk chocolate chips (I use about 3/4 of the bag)

Bake @ 375 for 10 minutes.

Hot Cran-apple cider:
2 qt. apple cider
1 1/2 qt. cranberry juice
1/4 C. brown sugar
4 3 inch sticks cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. whole cloves
1 tsp. whole allspice
1 lemon, thinly sliced

Heat all ingredients together. Let simmer 15 minutes until flavors are blended. Remove spices and lemon slices. Serve. ***The newer crock pots have a "warm" on the settings. I set it in there on warm, and it is just the perfect temperature when you want to finally serve it.)

(***Play with this recipe!!!)
~I love to use an orange instead of a lemon.
~Apple juice works if you don't have cider.
~Last night, I didn't have Cranberry juice, so I opened the freezer and pulled out a frozen concentrate of Apple-Raspberry juice. I used half the can, (that's all that was in there left over from smoothies!) and filled it with water 1 1/2x and used a lemon.