Strap on your seat belt...

Here's October in a nutshell:
1. Pumpkin patch with Smacky's preschool (we were in charge of snack. I thought orange popcorn balls would be so cool. Not so cool to kids with teeny tiny mouths who couldn't even bite the stinkin' things!! ugh.) Ella did NOT like the petting zoo...not one bit. Her cousin Lucy loved it - how is that Lucy knows she comes from a pig-raising family and Ella knows that she comes from a non-animal family?? Mac loved hangin' with all of his little buddies (Taffy, BenTen, Parkito). Ella loved attacking Lucy and Bridger. If you catch the "cow picture" just know that it's one of my all-time faves...thank you BenTen :)

2. Went to Henderson (the nice way of saying Vegas) to visit family. My uber-cool brother-in-law Ray has 3D tv (but th glasses are so expensive only 2 people get to watch at a time!! ha!)

3. Halloween FHE - awesome. My favorite game was "put the skeleton together" - Debra won. Indy won the donut eating and got to take a picture with Sister "beauty" (bewley).

4. Hot chocolate anyone?? From street-urchin-looking children dressed in tutus and tanktops. That makes perfect sense right? We need some advertising/marketing 101. They did rake in a few quarters from some oldies who took pity on them (not that they had a whole lot left after drinking most of it - and we only had plastic cups...hot chocolate in plastic cups doesn't work too well - just in case you were thinking of trying it).

5. $40 Mac 'n cheese (okay not $40 but not cheap either - thank you to Martha Stewart - after much researching it was determined that she had the best recipe out there.)

6. Crazy Hair Day - I now have the hair to match the kids. Ella's was au naturale...

7. Hezzie, Ray and I took Leah (neice) and Indy to the Prescott Fine Arts "Musicians in the Making". It was wonderful to see all the young talented musicians and Indy's eyes were opened to the big wide world of music (and I had butterflies for the kids up there remembering my days in the piano guilds of AWC.)

It had been a long long day by this point...and really windy (sheri - you could've helped the hair out!! :)

Phew!! That's all folks!

Calming the nerves.

Matt & I are leaving on a plane for Boston today. Indy freaks out whenever a parent takes off, so to calm his nerves (as he was hysterically crying the night before last - I told him that we would take a picture before we all left. This is us before we hopped in the car to get everyone to school.) One picture - camera balanced on porch - every person looking - not bad eh? I need to use my timer more often. I'm printing a picture to put in their suitcases so they'll remember how much I love each and every one of them - rascal and all.

(This is noteworthy since I don't often get sentimental - but I'm feeling guilty this time of year and have already concocted my New Year's goal - it came to me last night when I slipped into bed at midnight...)

Tia/Sheri - make the kids kiss me good night!! ha!

My Perfect Periwinkle Pixie

Thought I would keep with the theme of "nieces" and present the newest addition to the Holdsworth Family (via Matt's younger sister Kate). I've already told you I love her hair, but to add to the love we had some soft "periwinkle" hanging around that was screaming to get in the picture with the perfect pixie. Isn't she just the sweetest teeny-tiny!!?? (And although it's almost a shame to cover that hair up, it would be a shame not to use my new little hat!)

Halloween 2010 - How I "C" it.

Every year. Every stinkin' year I get slammed with this holiday. A pagan holiday (ok - so most of them are - totally beside the point.) As luck would have it, it fell on a Sunday - so no Mt. Vernon just 20 minutes the night before at a Trunk or Treat (I've timed this perfectly to skip the insane chili dinner for 200 at the church and just show up when it's time to hit the trunks). This didn't seem to simplify anything. As with every year my kids had already worn their costumes 4 times before the BIG DAY to various events/parties/school so when it came time for the actual BIG DAY it was very anti-climatic. Since none of their costumes on the BIG DAY measured up to my high expectations they didn't get individual pictures. Ella was the only one who complied - hence the special picture with me (you see how I work?) (Also, note how I photoshopped her costume on one picture and forgot the other one :)


Now - here's where I'd like to stand on the proverbial "SUE" box and paint a lovely picture: We see the bags of candy at the store. We buy the big bag of candy at the store. We go trick or treating (or trunk or treating). We come home and let our kids pig out. I tell 'em knock yourself out - binge away - here...would you like some more? Oh you screeching little 16 month old let me put some more candy in your mouth - Rascal, you know that will make you sick right? Oh you're stomach hurts eh? TOO BAD! Try not stuffing your face with candy!! (I'm of course included in the candy binge too :) Then I calmly take the bowl of candy and dump it all in the trash the next night. Gone. Bye. Bye. None of this "candy fairy" crap (sorry I'm just channeling here...) I'm not buying anything back from my rascals (what genius KID came up with that one??) The goal is to make them puke on candy and curl up in a tight little ball begging me to make it go away. This way, they have no problems when I tell them its gone.
What sort of sick perverse world do we live in - filling our little baskets with loads of candy only to dump it all in the trash the next day?? Yeah, yeah, yeah - I'm sure there are some people out there like my aunt Marsha who can keep the little bowl of candy ALL YEAR LONG (who does that? Even with my raiding of the metal bowl on the second shelf of the dish cupboard EVERY TIME I WOULD GO TO HER HOUSE - she still seemed to have candy left!) Time to break the cycle people.
Next year - I'll "accidentally" forget the baskets - or perhaps "accidentally" throw them out the car window and then run my little tires back and forth over them as my children watch them crushed to tiny little pieces- then tell the rascals to go fill their pockets and be happy with it. Better yet - I think we're gonna skip this week next year altogether. Time to take the most PSYCHO week of the year off the calendar.
And that's how a I "C" it.

*See I can say all these things and still have a smile on my face. (Note to self: next year have Matt's costume ready - get the brown wig, sweater vest and tie all laid out so he can join the photoshoot).

Sara - Arizona Senior Portraits

This is my beautiful niece Sara. Sara is a swimmer - loves to swim - BUT I think it might be safe to say that although Sara loves to swim she loves to soak in the glory that is the San Fransisco peaks. Lucky for her - she lives right smack dab at the base of them. We frolicked in the fall foliage of Flagstaff and froze our fannies off - smiling all the while.

Happy Halloween Birthday

It's my father's birthday today. Halloween.
I have to be honest - this would have to be the hardest day EVER to be born on. (It's also my aunt Alisa's and our friend Alexis and a few others I'm forgetting - because that's what happens to birthday that fall on THE most insane day of the year for mother's!)
But I didn't forget my father's birthday. I bought his birthday card 2 months ago. Sure - it's still sitting here next to me waiting to be mailed, but its the thought...
I love the image with he and Mac and thought it was fitting to use it since one is born on Halloween and the other is born on 6-6-(0)6 - feel free to draw any conclusions. Throughout the craziness of the week I did reflect on the wonderful things about my father. First of all, you have to know how to speak his "language" (Matt still hasn't figured it out). If you aren't well-versed in music then you have a strike against you...know your movies? then you may have gained a few steps...theater? even better. I figured out young that the answer to most of his "question games" were: Beatles, Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Harry Chapin, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Simon & Garfunkel, and the Beatles. Some of my fondest memories are cruising around in the BATMOBILE (a nissan 280 Zx - a 2 seater car for a man with 5 kids - this did not cause him to even pause, because the specific memory is of all 5 of us kids smashed like sardines in the back while he shut the back door - I'm sure Jace didn't have any shoes on.)
I can remember him taking all 5 of us kids on a Saturday to the old Yuma Plaza theater (so my mother could catch her breath). He would get 2 huge buckets of popcorn and dump hot tamales in them and then smack your hand if he caught you digging around for the candy :) Occasionally he would fall asleep during the movie :) (So many of these memories remind me of my own little family - weird). I loved when he would get an apple and go sit down in the living room with a knife and cut off chunks - we would all swarm around him like little beggars (my own children do this now) and he would cut off pieces and feed us. As I got older, he would take me to early morning seminary - he usually was awake around 4am. Occasionally we would "skip" seminary and head on over to Ray's Chat 'n Chew and eat biscuits and gravy with all the oldies/truckers. I was in heaven.
Then he was called to be a seminary teacher and he ended up with a class that was massive (we had at least 4 kids who weren't even members showing up regularly - and it wasn't even for the Friday morning spread - which was pretty impressive consisting of Mostly Muffins, yogurt, fruit, juice & donuts - slightly over the top :) During all this time he participated actively in scouting and truly has a love for scouting that compels him to serve above and beyond what is asked. His ability to "go the extra mile" can be quite astounding. He will drive 8 hrs to watch his grandchildren play 2-30 second piano pieces or to see them play a soccer game or pitch 2 innings. He would call Indy when he was younger and talk to him on the phone "just to make sure he could practice talking" and would send Laina boxes of Twinkies because he thought her mother was evil "holding out on her".
He loves to send the kids little packages in the mail - and had address labels made up with their pictures on them so they knew which packet was theirs - the kids of course go crazy for these.
I'm thankful for a wonderful father who works hard and works hard at being a grandfather. Since my birthday gift is still waiting to be mailed - I'll post this little "gem" of a Halloween image. Happy Birthday Dad/Grandpa Wade!

**Yes my kids found Easter baskets to trick or treat with. No - I do not have any idea what Laina is NOR will I be buying her a Halloween costume next year since she had 2 and isn't wearing either one of them. Yes, Mac dug out an old hand-me-down costume and decided to wear that - no I don't know where he got the green clogs - and yes he ended up barefoot at the trunk or treat.**