Clownin' Around

More Halloween Fun

(you can click on the pictures to see them bigger)

Cassidy and I made Ghost Cookies for Cassidy's playgroup party. I was impressed with Cassidy's steady hand frosting those cookies. For the last couple of weeks she has been practicing with her painting skills and using anything she eats as her paint (Examples for a later post). I'm so excited about Cassidy being the age where we can do more and more together. Anyday is a good day for making cookies!

Then we took on pumpkin carving as a family activity. This was Cassidy's first time experiencing the gooey guts of the insides of a pumpkin. She wasn't quite sure what to think about it, as you see in the picture. But once I jumped in with squishing the pumpkin guts she jumped right in. We were having fun until we both realized our hands were getting itchy and red from the stuff. So daddy happily jumped in and took over with carving our pumpkin. Daddy to the rescue! Who says the girls should have all the fun???

Playgroup Halloween Party

The next morning Cassidy was eager to get to the playgroup party. They had several stations set up for the kids. Pinning the mouth on the jackolantern, Bookmark craft with foam stickers, Halloween Bingo, Decorating caramel apples, and of course eating up all the goodies. I love Cassidy's face as she dove into her plate of goodies.

I thought the best idea from my friend Laurisa was the caramel apples. They were the perfect size for the kids. Here's the link to get the recipe:

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50565


Walmart Trick or Treating

On Halloween morning we joined our friends Camille, Aly, and Brookie at Walmart for the trick or treat activity. It was cute to watch the girls excitement and to continually push them along for each candy station to say, "Trick or Treat!" Sometimes Cassidy would even say "Happy Halloween!" it was so cute. It definitely was good practice for Cassidy since Trunk or Treat was going to be later that night. Camille and I were busy keeping track of our girls and soon realized they were having fun Christmas shopping early. We decided we were in no hurry and let them look at the toys and dream. By the end of the search for candy, the girls were ready to hop into the shopping cart. It was funny because they wanted nothing to do with that thing almost the entire time.

After Walmart we took the girls to the park and let them play since we had to take advantage of the beautiful day and be outside. It's crazy because usually it never fails that we have snow or frigid temperatures by this time of year and for some reason this year we had some good fortune on our side.

Trunk or Treat

Friends Jocelyn & Rachel (A.K.A. Cinderella & Abby Cadabby)

Daddy Clown was teaching his Lil' Clown how to juggle. I think we may have a family business. ;) I was especially proud of Cass for keeping her wig on the entire night. I didn't even have to bribe her.

We had a busy Halloween week and loved every minute of it! We hope you had a wonderful spooky time too.

The beginning of...Halloween

We've been having so much fun with Halloween so far! Natalei and Jason hosted a great party. Everyone looked amazing. We even had John McCain and Sarah Palin stop by.

We had the chance to play Taboo and it was the ladies against the men. Guess who won???? Of course the Ladies! :) Natalei made the best homemade root beer I ever tasted. And of course all the other food was yummy. I'm so glad I had my Prince Charming as my date!

(Thanks Carri for the pictures since I didn't have my camera)

That Great Time of Year Again...

We are so blessed to hear the uplifting messages and counsel from our Prophet and from other remarkable leaders in the church (twice a year). Cassidy of course didn't sit still the entire time (what toddler would?) but she would hop onto the couch and watch general conference with mom and dad for couple of minutes at a time.

Cassidy knows our Prophet. Whenever we say a prayer for our Prophet she always includes his name, President Monson. It's very cute and brings a smile to our face that she knows and recognizes a man of God by face and name.

(Don't mind our messy computer desk!)

One Lovely Afternoon

Cassidy and I decided to take a drive to Auntie Marge and Uncle Bob's house. We look forward to our visit with these special people, we always leave their house with lots of love and some new funny memories.

This particular visit we kept laughing at Uncle Bob because Shimee (their parakeet) would sit on his head while we ate lunch. Another highlight of the afternoon was Uncle Bob introducing the water hose to Cassidy and showing her how much fun she can have with this thing.

He taught her how to spray things and then thought it would be funny to have her point the hose at a target, Auntie Marge and I. Of course she fired away! We were caught by surprise and didn't expect a thing because we were busy talking. Uncle Bob ran behind a tree. We were being under attack. Cassidy sure picked this new job up as a new talent. We both looked like we peed in our pants. It was so much fun, and we couldn't stop laughing. Of course Cassidy had a huge smile on her face the entire time! Then we told Cassidy to get Uncle Bob and she of course obeyed her mother. Let's just say Uncle Bob wasn't completely invisible. She got a piece of him too!

I'm so grateful for moments like this, and will always treasue them. Thanks Uncle Bob and Auntie Marge for a fun afternoon, and of course for a yummy lunch. We love you tons!

Boyd K. Packer Message

The following link is a message given by Boyd K. Packer on October 12. He talks about what is happening in the economy and what it means to us. It is very inspiring and I encourage you all to read it. Then, feel free to leave a comment to discuss.


Click Here

I agree that tough times are coming and that now is the time to prepare ourselves and our families.

If you want a SMILE on your face, click on this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13947426@N07/2418995621/

It's really cute!

(I haven't figured out how to have the video directly seen on my blog yet)

Spotlighting...Someone Special

A Shout of Cheer goes out to my sister-in-law, Sara Johnson!!! She completed her 1st Sprint Triathalon. Through all the sweat, hard work, and committments to all the hard training, we just want to say...We're so proud of you!

The North Pole...A Fun Place!

Another fun thing we did with Grandpa and Grandma Strong was take a day trip to the North Pole. Our cousin Erin and her kids Damien and Lydia were also able to join us. We even had the chance to meet Santa! There were so many fun rides, cute Christmas shops, yummy treats, and shows to watch. We also had the chance to feed the goates and watch the Llamas. I think one of the highlights was going down the Candy Cane slide. We did that at least a dozen times. We flew down that slide super fast, on burlap bags.

Even though they had a food court we decided to pack up some sandwhiches and had a picnic right inside the park. It worked out great! They had a nice picnic area. Then we were on our way to continue our fun.

They even had a Haunted House. All of us girls were chickens to enter the Haunted House, due to the anticipation and the guy that worked there was spooking all of us girls. Finally, Erin and I decided to build our courage and enter in the dark hallways of the Haunted House. We jumped and screamed like little girls (well I did, Erin was very brave). What we didn't know was the guy that worked there entered the Haunted House the back way to try to surprise us and really scare us. Not on purpose Erin and I managed to take a wrong turn and exited the house sooner than we were suppose to. So we met up with my mom and grandma and they tell us what he was planning to do. Too bad for him his plan didn't work. :)

The park had a lot of cute Christmas shops we found out that we are allowed to do some Christmas shopping without having to pay full price for the park. So we'll have to consider doing that between now and Christmas. Any excuse to go shopping... :)

It was easy for us to spend ALL day long at the North Pole. We practically rode every ride at least twice. This was Cassidy's first time to experience all different kinds of rides alone and with all of us. Her face always had a smile. It was just as much fun for Derek and I to be a part of her exploring another world of fun. We can't wait to take her to Disneyland.

Grandpa, Grandma, & Abuelita (Little Grandma) in Colorado

We were blessed to have family stay with us for a couple of weeks. We were able to do many fun things and share many laughs.