Trunk or Treat!

Haley and her friend, Christina
Chad and his friend, Dallin - both as "Jokers" from Batman - Chad's real hair dyed green, Dallin wearing a wig!

Everyone. Notice Reed is about done at this point.

Macy, Reed and I handing out candy. Reed's favorite part was just taking the candy out of my bowl and eating it.

Reed trunk-or-treating. He didn't quite get it, but candy it always good!

Just putting this pic in for our old Sunland Ward family. This is our party... and this is after our ward got split about 3 weeks ago. See all those people? Crazy!

Me and my little monkey.

Our church does this thing called "trunk-or-treating". It's lots of fun. You start off with a big chili cook-off in the building, and then go outside for all of the kids to trick-or-treat out of the back of everyone's cars. Sounds a little strange, but always fun.

Happy Birthday Carrie - almost!

D and I looking totally rad!

Madonna me and Flashdance Susie. We are so AWESOME we can't even stand ourselves! I make a very good Madonna by the way!


So our friend, Carrie, is turning 40 this week! The big 4-0!!! She doesn't look a day over 16 - especially with the braces! Anyways, this weekend we had a surprise party for her, at the roller-skating rink, 80's theme. It was great! We all dressed up and skated, and no major injuries!



Carrie and her husband, Scott. He rented the super cool blue ruffle tuxedo just for the occasion!


Happy Birthday Carrie - we love you!!!

300 posts!

Oh my gosh, I just realized that I've posted 300 times!!! Can you believe that???? So, happy 300 post-day to all!!!

(And look, I figured out how to put a cute background up. Fun, huh?)

Little People, Big World

Luke, Haley, Macy, Chad and friend, Daelin, in front of the Roloff Farms sign

The zip line. Not exactly sure how it works with the bicycle, but it sure did look cool.
There's Matt Roloff in his mule. They were filming while we were there.


The "mens crisis center - no criticizing men in the barn". Gotta love that.
Haley in the wild west town.

Reed LOVED the pumpkins! He thought they were all giant balls.
The kids picked out HUGE pumpkins. We had 7 of them, one for each of us, and they were great!

Last Friday, the kids didn't have school, so we headed to the Roloff Pumpkin Patch. (It's only about an hour from our house.) You know, Little People, Big World, on TLC? It was pretty cool. Neat to see their farm and how they really live. Matt Roloff, the dad, was there and we saw him a few times. We got to see the western town, the pirate ship, and all the other cool stuff that they've put down there. It was very much of a novelty to see where they live, but very different than I expected. Not bigger or smaller, just different. Things were in different places than I thought they should've been based on how they were shown on the show.

Why I have turned into a bad blogger.

Really? Ok, I'm crazy, busy. Who isn't? But besides that... we have very stupid computers in our house. We have 3 laptops, as if 1 isn't enough, and they all have issues. Mine, which is the oldest, works the best, unless you go on the internet. It will go on fine for a while (after convincing it that it really wants to be there) but then after a while, it totally freezes and you have to bring up the task thingy.... yada, yada, yada. Just a pain. And besides that, it doesn't have it's own memory card thing. I have to plug in a little thingy (like all the technical terms here?) and then put my camera memory card into it to get them on the computer. One too many steps if you ask me.

Then there's D's laptop. The laptop we love. Perfect. Great. Until it was left on our bed, and someone little accidentally (get ready for this) pee'd on it, thereby shorting out the monitor. This happened last May, and for some reason the other night it decided to work again, but every so often the screen will just completely black out and stay blacked out (I'm typing on it right now... keep your fingers crossed!). Poor little computer. Note to self: laptops and pee definately don't mix.

Ok, so then there's the third laptop. The one bought to replace the pee'd on one. HP, good, has a memory card thing right in (as does the pee'd on one), bells, whistles, the whole thing. Until after having it about three months it decided to no longer have the middle row on the keyboard work. Seriously. Including the letters A-L, and the "enter" key. You know how many words contain these letters? A whole lot. Now granted, it has a stylus thing that you can write directly on the monitor with, but it takes oh so much longer than just typing it. We've contacted HP, and they are trying to fix it, but so far, no help.

So now you see the real reason why blogging has become such an issue for me. I will try to do better... but no promises. You'd have to get them from the laptops, and I just don't think their willing right now.

I challenge you.

Last week, a scrapbooker who I "follow", put a challenge out there. So today I am giving myself the 'gift of the present time' as so wisely suggested by Stacy Julian. The idea is to snap 10-12 photos that represent your life, right now. Keep the tiny collection in your purse, tote or diaper bag, look through them frequently and then -- early next October '09 -- document your thoughts on the experience. It's an exercise in appreciation of life through photos. Love that!

So really, super easy. The little "scrapbook" is only like 2 12" big, and my pictures 2"x2". Totally tiny. So easy to do and to keep in my purse. Gotta love that. So, I now challenge you, to somehow document your life. Right now. What's important. What matters. What makes you happy or sad. Whatever. Just do it... and see how it changes, or doesn't, by next year at this time.

The big day.

Macy and Derrick before her baptism
Macy and some of her friends - Sierra, Alina, Julia and Elley
Macy and Grandma and Grandpa Huckvale
Petrowskys, Grandma and Grandpa, us and Bob/Susie Huckvales

(about 1/3 of the Huckvale clan)

us - our little family - Reed, D, me, Luke, Chad, Macy and Haley

When you turn 8 in our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, aka "Mormon"), you get the choice to be baptized. Since Macy turned 8 earlier in September, she got the chance to get baptized last weekend. It was really nice. Grandma and Grandpa came from L.A. for it, as well as the Bob/Susie Huckvale family, Heidi/Duane Petrowsky, and many, many friends. D baptized her, I cried (of course!), cousin Robby and Grandma Huckvale spoke, and Jenny Huckvale sang. Chad and Luke gave prayers, and Aunt Susie led the music. It was so nice, and I'm so glad that Macy chose to be baptized and that she is the sweet spirit that was loaned to us for her time on Earth. We love her so much and are so thankful for her. Wish all of you could have been here with us for this special day!

So thankful.

Remember a couple of months ago, how I was bugged that I didn't get put on the parent board at Haley's preschool? Well, let me tell you now how very thankful I am. A good friend of mine was serving as the vice-president, and she was having such an awful time with the president that she secretly enrolled her daughter in a new school, walked into their board meeting this morning and told them that her daughter was no longer enrolled in the school, so she could no longer serve as the vp. Really stinks that it took pulling her daughter out, but she was worried that if she just resigned and left her daughter there that there might be repercussions. What happens when you give some parents a little power.

I love living in a "small town".

Here it is. Only the 3rd of October... and we've already been "BOOed". The boys went to Uncle Bob's house to watch the BYU game (go COUGS!!! not Washington Cougs, BYU COUGS!!!), so the girls and I decided to go out and get some food. When we got back, not even an hour later, there was a goodie bag on our porch. Candy and treats inside, with a note saying that we had been "BOOed". I love it! Totally something I would do. So now, forget this whole blog "tagging" thing, I challenge all of you to go and BOO people. It's really fun and then everyone can pretend that they live in a small town.

Here's what ya do... write a note: Happy Halloween... and BOO to you! You have officially been BOOed, and now it is your spirited responsibility to BOO again! Choose 4 of your neighbors within the next 48 hours, tiptoe to their door, ring and run! Don't let them see you! Deliver your BOOrific package to their door so that they may BOO some more. Let's see how many doors get BOOed. Make sure you hang your BOOed sign in your window so we can tell who has been BOOed and who has not. Let's BOO the entire neighborhood before Halloween!

So, you leave this note, with a copy of a ghost that says "I've been BOOed" to be hung in the next person's window, and some treats. Do it to 4 different families... and totally make their days! I dare ya!

Happy BOOing!!!