Trunk or Treat

I love Trunk or Treat! It's always fun to see all the kids and families dress up for Halloween and get to socialize a little. Jarad and I were poopers and didn't dress up as Superman and Supergirl with the kids. But here are some pics of our SuperCrew...

Look out SuperCrew! Demon Dad is going to get you!


Supergirls abound at Trunk or Treat - here are Em and Tess with our neighbor McKenna.


Don't they just look thrilled to be dressed up? They were all hams until I got out the camera.

Play Group Halloween Fun!

It was my turn to host a little play group this week, so naturally we had a Halloween party!

We made pumpkin necklaces, spider snacks and went trick-or-treating to all the bedrooms in my house. These little 2 and 3 year old pumpkins ate it all up! They were so much fun!

Spooky Gingerbread House!

For our FHE activity last week we made this spooky haunted gingerbread house. It was one of those pre-assembled kits that you just added water to make the frosting, and I didn't do ANY of it! Except for the spiderwebbed lawn.

Didn't these cuties do a great job?

Markers and Make-up

This is what happens when you put the make-up kit right next to the marker tin.

Emma got these cute little tins for her birthday and all the make-up from the makeovers at the party ended up in one, all the art supplies she got ended up in the other. They both ended up on the counter in our kids' bathroom.

One day last week I thought Tess was napping. Until I heard her say "I so byooootifool Mommy!" I knew exactly where she was and what she'd been in to.

She had made herself up with both make-up and markers from head...





to toe. And everywhere in between. She even used mascara on her eyebrows. Waterproof to boot. That was fun to scrub off.




Isn't she byooootifool indeed.

Emma's Baptism

It's been a week since Emma was baptised and I haven't written because I'm just getting around to downloading and looking at all the pictures we took!

What an amazing day it was to watch my oldest daughter get baptised and confirmed by her dad, and to have my own dad on hand to participate and support. I kind of expected it to be a hectic day, and that I'd be so worried about something going wrong that I wouldn't remember a thing. But can I just say how much I love stake baptisms? We didn't have to worry about a single detail other than showing up, bringing a towel (and dry underwear, thanks Alli!) and having someone to do the ordinance. So I was actually able to enjoy the day with Emma as she took this big step.

Jarad was so great about preparing her. We, of course, had several FHE lessons and other discussions about this day, but that morning after they had changed into their white clothes, he found an empty quiet room where he could go through what was going to happen (ie where to put her hands, how he would dunk her), and then they had a prayer together. I'm so grateful they had that time together, and that Jarad was so thoughtful about his responsibility as her dad.





Her confirmation blessing was so touching. In our ten-plus years together I can count on one hand (OK two fingers) the times I've seen Jarad cry, or even heard his voice catch. But as he confirmed Emma, I could hear the emotion in his voice and feel the love he has for our daughter. He counseled her to pray, to study and love the scriptures, to serve others and to keep the commandments. How simple are those things, but how important too. I'm so grateful for Jarad.




We were so happy to have the many friends and family who took time out of their busy Saturday to come to Emma's baptism. I know how busy Saturdays are, and we loved seeing everyone who was able to come. Thank you for supporting Emma!

I was especially happy that my mom, dad and sister Kristin were able to come down from Utah for a long weekend. It was so great to have them all here. I think Jarad and Dad were about ready to pull their hair out (I won't say ANYTHING else about hair Dad) with all the giggling and whispering we girls did. It was some much needed girl time, to be sure.



Who we did miss on this day, though, were Grandpa and Grandma Curtis who are on their mission in Georgia. I know Grandpa Curtis would have had some wisdom to share with Emma on this special day. We sure did miss you guys, but we're glad you're where you are! Keep up the good work Elder and Sister Curtis!

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this day special for Emma. I know it's a day she'll remember always.

The BEST!

So I know you all think you can claim this (or perhaps you DON'T LOL), but I have the best husband ever. In case you hadn't noticed from my previous posts this week, it hasn't been the most fun to be me for the last few days. On top of all the illnesses, etc. I've also been under deadline on two pretty big work projects, both due today. On Wednesday I started to get a little frantic that there was NO WAY I was going to get these projects done if I still had two kids at home yesterday. With Case being as sick as he was, getting someone to watch him was out of the question. Working at night is an option, but when you aren't sleeping much, brains get mushy and writing requires a non-mushy brain (**unless** it's blog writing, then no holds barred).

So, yesterday Jarad shows up at home earlier than I expected. He took the kids to the park. I finished one project in a quiet home! But I still had the second one to finish... this morning, he scooted out of the house earlier than normal so I didn't get to say goodbye, but then he came BACK at 7:30! He had gotten a sub to take his classes today and came home to take care of the twins so I could work. He spent the morning cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry too.

What a load off! I just finished the second project, and a couple of smaller ones I've had on my plate for too long. And it feels great!

So thanks Jarad. You're my knight in shining armor.

Tagged again!

This time it's a four-way tag. So watch out. If I didn't tag you last time, you're about to get it :).

Four places that I go to over and over
Church
The gym
The crosswalk by the school
The grocery store


Four people who e-mail me (regularly)
Julie
Conny
Sara
Christy

Four of my favorite places to eat
Home (I'm that girl who eats her own food at the potluck)
The Keg (it's not what you think!)
Taco Bell (even though I've gotten sick there twice)
Carraba's (but I like Macaroni Grill's bread better)

Four other places I would rather be right now
Getting a pedicure
The gym (haven't gone in a week due to sick kids!)
On a vacation with Jarad (don't care where!)
In a house with no barf, poop, boogers or bloody noses (all at the same time)

Four TV shows I watch
Curious George
Word World
SuperWhy
The Bachelor/ette (when it's in season!)

Four people I intend to tag
Heytar
Jess B.
Jessica R.
Beth

Okay ladies, now its your turn. Its easy, just 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 things about you. Have fun.

Glaring Truth - It sometimes hurts

So it's no secret that I'm not a huge wearer of make-up. This is especially true since I quit working full-time out of the home. Even then, fully made-up, I never wore eyeliner and only wore mascara on the top lashes. Heavy eye make-up has always bugged me.

But lately I've been feeling like I look a bit too drawn. Sleepy. Plain. I decided today to bust out the seldom-used eyeliner pencil I have, and I lined BOTH LIDS! And I put mascara on TOP AND BOTTOM!!

Jarad wondered if I was either seeing someone on the side or trying to "get some" from him (I also had made a favorite dish for dinner, so the combo really threw him).

Fisher wondered what I did to my eyes (as he made circles around his own eyes with his fingers). I asked him if it looked pretty and, shaking his head, all he said was "witch."

Emma took it a step further and asked if I also put eyeshadow under my eyes. Nope, those are just dark circles due to not sleeping well in days, weeks, months.

I didn't know my wearing make-up would cause such an uproar in our home! If nothing else, I felt noticed LOL.

A Few Things I've Learned Today

1. The house is a lot quieter when one of your kids loses his voice (especially when it's your screamer!)

2. My steam cleaner works really well in getting barf off my couch.

3. I never want to eat cottage cheese again after seeing said barf.

4. Trying to potty train one kid is NOT a good idea when your other kid is barfing. Double the laundry!

5. WalMart employees are very helpful in finding lost children.

6. Employees at the Dillard's Clinique counter don't think it's funny when your kid touches all the cotton balls and Q-tips that customers are supposed to use for sampling the make-up. (this is before he barfed, so I didn't know he was so sick - sorry if you went there after us and got sick!)

Who needs advanced degrees when a stay at home mom can learn so much in one day???

Twilight Heroines -- which one are you??

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

October Break Fun!

We've been on break from school for 11 days (who's counting?). Everyone goes back tomorrow (19.5 hours to be exact, but again, who's counting?), so I thought I'd write a little wrap-up report and post some ever-present pictures of my kids :).

We kicked it off by having a few of Emma's friends over for a little party for her birthday. We made pillows, put on make-up, had a "fashion show" to show off their amazing makeovers, then they played freeze dance. Great fun!



On Monday morning reality hit. I was to have all my kids home full-time for more than a week. That's when I bought the trampoline, hoping it would buy me a little less of the "I'm Bored" comments during the break. It worked! Minus a few bouts of bickering (every day) it's doing exactly the job I hired it for!

Tuesday the kids just jumped on the trampoline and rode bikes with friends. It was gluttonous worry-free kid time with friends. Love it. I pretty much spent Tuesday trying to dig myself out from the Friday and Saturday parties we had here (Saturday night we hosted the family No Boys Allowed party while the guys went to the priesthood session of General Conference).

Wednesday we went to the zoo! Have you seen the new water park they have there? Very cool. We were totally unprepared for how wet the kids would get, but they had fun!

Here is Rochelle's stroller packed with all the "big kids." Who do you think was walking? Yep, the three two-year-olds we had with us. While I pushed an empty stroller. Sorry Rochelle.




Jarad's school was also off on Thursday and Friday, so we spent some fun family time in Payson having pizza at our favorite spot, then hiking down to the Tonto Natural Bridge and on Friday at Superstition Farms. On our hike we saw frogs and lizards in addition to the beautiful natural bridge rock formation. It was like an outdoor cave. It was beautiful! I directed us on a bit of a treacherous hike that we abandoned about 1/4 mile in (tip to parents of 2-year-old twins -- rock hopping in the river bottoms is not recommended). We hiked back up to the parking lot and found a much easier way in to the bridge. Not as adventurous, but easier! And the end result was the same.



This picture makes me laugh - in almost every picture Jarad took, there's me in the background grabbing a kid to make sure they didn't fall. Helicopter Mom? Maybe so. And check out Teslin's face. She doesn't look too sure about this hike!



I love this one because ALL OVER THE PLACE were signs that said "DO NOT THROW ROCKS." Which just is NOT possible for Case. Really? Can you get a 2 year old boy to stop throwing rocks when all there are around him are ... rocks? And water??? I'd say you're either a liar or a miracle worker if you say you could have stopped him.



Superstition Farms is about 10 minutes from our house, and was having a free festival on Friday, so we figured why not? We figured OUT why not when we got there and there was no parking. But we toughed it out, found a spot and made our way through the madness. Actually it was really fun. The kids got to pet rabbits, goats, baby cows, horses, ponies, etc. We took a hayride around the dairy to get a peek at:
a) cows
b) cows
c) more cows
d) cow bath
e) cow milking stations
f) more cows (with empty udders)

And surprisingly enough, the smell didn't make me barf. Oh, but Emma had a priceless comment: Mom, the cows' poop smells like Spaghetti-Os. LOL she's right!! I think my kids have had Spaghetti-Os twice, and maybe this is why.

Here are some farm pics.

Not sure who the random kid is on the end, but here are the kids petting a calf.


Tess with the soft bunnies.


This cow smiled for her close-up!

Today the kids were invited to a cooking class being taught by some of the YW in our ward. So cute! They taught them how to make sugar cookies. I asked Emma what she learned, and she said "You just mix all the stuff together until it starts to smell like Play-Doh." Uh HUH.

Um, what is it about Emma's olfactory nerve?

So tomorrow it's back to some semblance of normal. Here's hoping I can remember what normal is come morning!

Celebrating 50 Years...

Today is the 50th wedding anniversary of two of my favorite people -- Shelby and Ellen Stastny. My mommy and daddy.

What a great example they have been, raising five kids together in the wasteland of Alaska (ha ha), holding fast to the things they believe in and living lives that exemplify their faith in Heavenly Father.

My mom is the kindest person I know. Sure, she has her caustic side, but when it comes right down to it, she is just plain nice. All my life she was in the service of others, whether for her callings in church, supporting my dad in his callings and in work, driving us kids around, helping with homework, lending an ear on the other end of a long-distance phone call. Just plain kind. I hope I have a fraction of her kindness in my heart.

My dad is stalwart. Wise. Never a gray area with him. While this bugged the death out of me in my younger years, I have come to really appreciate this trait about him because now that's how I want to see things. He was known in Alaska as an honest guy. People trusted him to make the right decisions -- business and otherwise. I never doubted my Dad's love for me, and the worst punishment ever was knowing he was disappointed in me.

One thing I've never questioned about my parents is their faith in and dedication to Heavenly Father and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I had never been so proud to have them as my parents as when they were on their mission in San Diego.

They love each other. They support each other. They are friends. And after 50 years they still feel that way.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. I love you more than you know.

I'm It.

OK so I was tagged twice this week by my friend and neighbor Cheryl and my niece Jessica. I'm not ignoring you guys, but honestly I'm having a hard time coming up with stuff folks don't already know! I'm such a blabbermouth I feel like my life is such an open book. But I'll come up with some, however embarrassing they may be. Jess's tag asked for six facts, Cheryl's asked for seven. Here goes...

Seven Little-Known Facts About Katie

1. I wet the bed until I was way too old. I don't even know how old, but like nine. Ha ha saying this made me remember the time my family was on a ski vacation and my sister and I were sharing a bed. I woke in the morning to a wet bed and assumed I'd had an accident. Kristin let everyone else assume it was me. It was years later she admitted it was her and she blamed me! And she's three years older than I am!! What a meanie.

2. I drove a red 1965 Mustang in high school (so did my older brother and sister before me, but I'm the one who wrecked it. Sorry Dad). I also drove a 1978 poop brown and pee yellow Suburban that had more body damage than should be legal. But it was safer to drive up the mountain during the winter.

3. When I lived in New York for a couple of years after college, I met the Duchess of York (she was a client of the PR agency I worked for), I used to see Madonna and Alec Baldwin jogging in Central Park (not together), and I kind of stalked Larry Mullen, Jr. (drummer for U2) up and down Broadway before finally approaching him for an autograph (this was after church on a Sunday and I was carrying my scriptures. He probably thought I was a missionary or something).

4. Speaking of stalking, I was the victim of a real stalker in my early 20s.

5. I once caught a fish that weighed more than me. A 130-pound halibut. This was before I had kids, of course. If I caught that same fish today I wouldn't have quite the same bragging rights.

6. I hate shopping with other people.

7. I'm a shameless fan of The Bachelor/Bachelorette. Never miss an episode (and if I do I catch it on ABC.com).

OK and now I have to tag some of you... You're It!
Wyndi, Emma, Alli, Nicole, Dawn, Carla and Ali. Have fun ladies :)

Craaaaazy Case!

Case had pushed play on Jarad's alarm clock, which currently holds the Queen Greatest Hits CD (yeah, just love waking up to "Fat Bottomed Girls"). So he was getting his groove on to Another One Bites the Dust. At some point the boy learned that in order to dance well, one must make monster faces.






Case is also a huge helper around the house. Really. He's the best at cleaning up after his bath. Puts the toys away every time! He also loves to help set the table for dinner. This is actually Emma's job, but she often gets help from Tess ("I get the 'poons Emma!") and Case. Case has a particular idea about what it means to set the table. In his little world, one must empty all contents of the refrigerator door. This constitutes dinner. While the girls are setting the plates and flatware at each place, Case is loading the table with any condiment you could ever possibly imagine needing. Ketchup, mustard, mayo, lime juice, sesame oil. MMMMMMM! All the while he is happily saying "Dinnertime! Dinnertime!" At least it keeps him occupied during those last harried moments before my gourmet meal hits the table.

Or perhaps he thinks we need all those condiments to mask the taste of my cooking...

Happy Campers

I was uploading pics from Emma's birthday party (stay tuned for those) and found these pictures from our Ward Campout a couple of weekends ago. My lens kept fogging up, so I didn't get many great photos, but these two just look so cute and happy eating their doughnuts in the morning!

Just Peachy

So while I was making peach jam a couple of weeks back, Case and Tess thought it was real fun to make a castle out of the peaches that were still in the box (time to buy them some blocks maybe?). They were just enamored with these darn peaches.

At one point I hear Case say "sorry Mommy, I clean it up!" and ran into the kitchen to get a towel. I noticed this on his bum...



Apparently he wondered what would happen if he were to sit on a peach. This is what happened...



Fast forward to yesterday. More peaches. Tess this time, though. In her bedroom. On the carpet. And I discovered that the kids really like to eat "squishy oranges." Even after they've been sat upon.

A Horrifying Realization

So today is the first day of October break. No school for ten days. Woo hoo? Mmm, not so much. I have been contemplating for a few weeks buying the kids a trampoline. I wanted to do this earlier in the season, not waiting for Christmas, so they could enjoy it for these beautiful months. Not to mention that it would be something so fun and great to do outside while they're home for the break. And hey, a break for me too, right? So I bought one this morning and, with the help of all the kids, got it put together in about 45 minutes. I was totally looking forward to a somewhat easy afternoon getting things done around the house while the kids are entertaining themselves outside.

Ummmm, again, not so much. I feel so bad for my poor neighbors listening to my kids constantly bicker and scream at each other outside! I think each one has come inside screaming AT LEAST once. I finally told them if they aren't bleeding I better not hear screaming. So far so good. It's been at least five minutes.

Uh oh, the door is opening... here they come.

Cute bags, cheaply.

Love it. Looks like this new site will launch 10/15, and we all have a chance (or more, now that I'm posting this link on my blog!) to win a free one.

Check it out!

www.handbagplanet.com

My Baby's Growin' Up!

I haven't had a ton of time lately to sit and ruminate on life (ie blog). But today I would feel awfully ungrateful if I didn't take a minute to ... no I'm not going to bear my testimony (tee hee) ... say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my awesome Emma. She turns Great 8 today! So in honor of the Great 8, here are (DRUMROLL PLEASE)

EIGHT THINGS I LOVE ABOUT EMMA

1. Her silliness. Granted, when it's ill timed, it can be awfully annoying. But most of the time I love that she doesn't take things too seriously, least of all herself!

2. Her chameleon personality. Emma makes new best friends everywhere she goes. She'd be BFF with Bigfoot (or El Chupacabra if you're a fan of Scooby Doo and the Monster of Mexico) if she met him at the park. I think everyone thinks they are Emma's best friend. And in all honesty, they probably are! And she thinks she's everyone else's best friend too.

3. She's a great big sis and has a "mother heart."

4. I love her Angel Kisses (freckles) and dimples. There's something about Emma's looks that compels complete strangers to approach her and tell her she looks just like Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. Yikes. I hope she doesn't follow their tracks too closely, but if there was just SOME way to capitalize on it...

5. She wants to be good. She really does WANT to. And most of the time it happens, but I love the desire in her to be a good person.

6. She likes to shake her boo-tay, and is always up for a dance off (she even likes ABBA and (much of) my 80s music!).

7. She appreciates her family -- I'm not talking about Jarad and I and the kids. I'm talking about her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Ever since she was little, she has felt a close connection to them. Even those who live far away!

8. She has a strong will and is totally sure of herself (ie a know it all like her mama). I know that, while these might be trying personality traits when she's young, if I can help nudge them in a good direction she will be a strong force for good.

So Happy Birthday Little. I love you tons.