Goth-o-Rama-Mama

For halloween Lu and I were both "goth". Pretty funny huh. I'm not 100% up on the goth scene so I did the best I could. Actually Chad was goth too but I don't have a picture darn it! I wish you could see him in his tight net shirt. Truly a sight to behold!


It seems like every year I'm rushing to get the pumpkins carved in time for Halloween. This year is no exception! The kids got to bed late halloween eve. I thought they cleaned up their mess but about midnight I noticed a billion pumpkin seeds scattered about my porch and all over the grass. Guts slung across the door and stucco... an early nightmare I tell you.

Kassidy was Cleopatra... which she was last year as well, but in my defense it was HER idea to wear the same costume not mine!!

I loved this picture of her. She posed herself there with her little stuffed dog...I thought it looked like a Cleopatra pose, animal and all!


I can't post this without mentioning what happened earlier in the week. You know Kassidy is home schooled right? Well Wednesday she had an assignment. It was to write a goal she wanted to get done by Friday, and a small paragraph with the steps it would take to accomplish that goal. Her goal was to make her stuffed animal "Lyla" an angel costume.

My plan was to not mention this to her until the next week when I would say something to the effect of, "Did you get your goal done last week?"

"No?"

"Ok lets write another goal and what do you think we have to do to actually accomplish our goal?"

HA! Jokes on me! She totally finished her goal (its hard to see the costume in the picture) Shame on me for expecting her to fail!! I was even telling my dad about my sneaky little plan on the way to the fair wednesday night.

Natalie was a witch! She was easy to please, got her a hat tights and a broom and she was happy!





Lovin the splits Nats!

Got so many good pictures of Lucy. I think I love striped tights!


Poor Lu couldn't understand why I kept making her hold a rose... eventually she just started eating it... i should have posted some of those pictures.





She looks possessed in this one. Thats what I like about it!

A few of me and Lulu together...







I seriously can't get enough of those striped tights! They are cuteski!! She couldn't quite grasp the arm warmers... she kept pushing them up her arm as far out of the way as possible!

I lit up all my candles... I love candles, but I always forget to light them. Halloween is the perfect opportunity for that kind of stuff!


View of my porch! Hi Lori!!


Let me add that my kids didn't even do very much trick-or-treating! I couldn't believe it! When I was a kid we lived for halloween! We ran from house to house. Apparently my kids get enough candy on a daily basis or something geez! I'm not complaining though, this way I don't have to secretly eat all their candy to save them from a future diabetes and obesity like I usually do.

Actually my good neighbors had a little cookout on their driveway... and a haunted porch that was so so fun my kids stayed ALL night.

State Fair!

First ride of the night! An all time favorite, the euroslide...


Poor Lu was a little too short for most of the rides. She would give me the saddest little look every time Kass and Nats took off for another ride she couldn't go on. There was an area for the little kids but Lu is a daredevil and she wanted to go on ALL the rides!


San Tan Indian Fry Bread is THE place to go for fry bread. Sure there's many other fry bread places at the fair... but none as yummy as San Tan!


I didn't want to bring my nice camera to the fair so I dug up my old "point and shoot"... yeah... these aren't the best pictures. I forgot how to use that thing. I was like, hmmm how do you see what you're taking a picture of?? I could only find a card that would hold 16 pictures so I didn't get a whole lot.

Finally a ride Lucy could go on that the other girls were too heavy for!


Lucy was dying to ride a pony. You had to be 60 pounds or less to ride. She loved it. I had to walk with her incase she bailed or something... yeah right, more like I had to tear her off with every ounce of strength I had when the ride was over!

(I love how they hung that western scene in the background lit with a fluorescent light... nice touch!)

Ok so you know the fair has everything you can imagine deep fried right? We saw deep fried macaroni, snickers, cheesecake, but check this out... deep fried burrito?

Hello!... Chimichanga! I think they went al little overboard with the deep fried thing.

We checked out the animals... the girls got to pet some rabbits they had out. Lu was loving that!


Lucy and Savannah took time out to play ring-around-the-rosies! They are so stinkin cute!


Kassidy was so sweet to take Lucy on this ride. For some reason no one wanted to go on this particular baby ride...but she agreed to it. (with a little persuasion)


This last picture is a ride I went on with my dad. See my feet way up there?? Didn't think so!


They called this one Tango... I called it crotch buster! Man we got on there and it was like a really hard seat that was like a bicycle seat but you had to hang there while they finished loading all the other yay-hoos up. OUCH! I was trying to stand on my tippy toes and lift my legs up... bottom line this ride was a really wild crotch busting ride! It was fun in a vomitty sort of way. Seriously though... it was fun... painfully fun.

Love the fair!

Sorry you couldn't make it Chad... Stace... and Mom!

The Very Reason For October

I am so excited for tonight! We have a little tradition in our family called The State Fair! I know more than a couple people who won't go to the fair because of the rough crowd it draws, but let me tell you they are missing out! Where else are you going to get a taste of the best indian fry bread anywhere to be found?? Right?

Things I'm looking foward to at the fair tonight-

• Riding the zipper

• Looking at all the prize winning animals

• Watching my kids feed the stinky petting zoo animals

• Eating a wide conglomeration of food including but not limited to... Indian fry bread, cotton candy, fudge, corn-on-the-cob, onion rings, a gigantic pickle and fresh squoze lemonade... ah yeah!

• cruising the exhibit hall. love that!

• Buying some hunk of junk at the above listed

• testing out the porch swings

• Hanging out with my lil sister

• Riding the scary mouse rollercoaster that makes you think its going to fall off the track at any moment... probably is one of these days!

• Watching my kids con my dad out of all kinds of $ for rides and various doodads... (I used to hate that one, but now it's like tradition..gotta love tradition right?)

• And what would the fair be without all those smells I can't get enough of! So I'm taking a deep breath and breathing it ALL in. (except in the restrooms, they can be pretty bad in there)

I can't wait, but...

I am going to miss Chad this year. He always goes and this year he can't... I really really am going to miss him.

And what does all this have to do with those cute pictures of Lulu??

Nothing...

Crazy Teeth

Crazy teeth before...


I have been waiting for this day for so long. Natty's teeth drive me insane! Such a pretty little girl with teeth going every which way...

The truth is she gets it from me. I am to blame, my teeth were a bit crazy as well. I remember these days all too well...


My Orthodontist didn't have a movie theater in the lobby though! Times have really changed! My orthodontist did have one thing that was a bit strange...

It was his restroom... there was a toilet, (of course) and the flusher was hanging from a chain out of a box high above the toilet... it was really odd.

Anyway I think she's cute with her braces.


I just have to mention this one little embarrassing moment because we don't want to forget embarrassing moments at all! When we first arrived we were looking at the board they have of all the kids who got braces that week. We noticed Natalie's name wasn't on there so the receptionist came over to write her name on the board, meanwhile Lucy had pulled this gigantic spider decoration off a nearby counter that I was already avoiding getting too close to because of my great fear of spiders (yes, even fake ones!) When I turned around, there was that spider right by my feet! (we're talking huge disgusting spider in pouncing position!) I totally screamed and I have to say, I think the receptionist thought I was a nut case!

Many Sites To See

My dad and his big plans! This was the morning after the broken back incident... He had planned this big hike for us. He said it was so easy and everyone could go including Lucy. Ok I thought, sounds awesome! So we went... he had names for all the different sites we would happen upon (due to his disappearance the previous morning, scoping it out) The first was "Big Hump". As we embark upon our journey we easily scaled the steep wall of big hump, well all except for Lucy. Chad had to carry her up it. He's tough though he can manage!












Next you will see Chad's feeble attempts at making fun of my gleeful bounding about atop "Big Hump". Much to his dismay I found it spontaneous and joyful... I knew he could feel free spirited if he would just let loose and feel the moment sweep him away.


Shortly after Chad's awakening we came to a shoe print...

My dad claims it as his shoe print... I didn't see it happen so I can't say for sure how it got there but it did look about the right size.

Next stop was "The Mysterious Black Hole"

I find that holes in the rock are pretty mysterious... I mean really, how DID that get there??? That's just the kind of thing that could really put a damper in my whole "lets bring a toboggan to Lake Powell" plan.

Even Lulu braved the Mysterious Black Hole!

Almost immediately after that we came to our next stop "Big Tadpole Pond". Boy oh boy did the kids love that! Someone should of told Natalie to hang on tight to her camera...


That's too bad. Does it still work you ask?? Uh no. Ok it seems like it would work but we cant get the lens cover to open. Yes, Natalie is very sad.

But no time to dwell. Off to the "Prickly Pear Forest". It was sandy. With prickly pears all about. Not my favorite part but if we skipped that then how would we ever make it to...


"Blue Camp"


As we rounded the corner of a nearby wash we were greeted with a "welcome to blue camp" (in unison of course) and a smile... that was nice.

Apparenty this one gets it's name from all the blue trash the last guests left behind...

Just past blue camp we came to "No Way Point". This is because there was a cliff dead ahead and there was no way we were jumping off that! Nor were we going to roll down it, or even make a human ladder and lower ourselves down... that would be weird.


But it wasn't completely a dead end, I mean there is always "Have Fun Slide" or "Half Fun Slide" as some referred to it. It was very steep but luckily once you get the sand going under your bum it's a pretty smooth ride! Kassidy cried the whole way down (she's my little chicken) I was a little worried about Chad sliding down with Lucy on his lap...


Yeah that was iffy.

But we were rewarded with "The Narrows"!

Serious fun for the whole family.

I failed to get a picture of the next place on the list, "Lone Paddle Draw". I wasn't paying attention I guess. I don't even remember seeing a lone paddle... but I do remember hearing others excitement as they pointed it out... Sorry no photo but I'm sure it was cool...

But I did get a picture of window rock... Ya dont' see that everyday!


Last but not least "The Be Careful Ledge". I was way behind at this point and when I got up there to see my little girls walking across this ledge so close to a steep drop, well my heart skipped a beat or two!

At some point I said to my dad, "You were going to bring mom on this hike?" and he admitted it might not have been his best plan (of course you know she couldn't make it because of her injury the day before) She would not have appreciated that hike too much! I think the "Have Fun Slide" would've been the "You're gonna get it when I get down there slide"!


This was Lu at the end of it. She was a tired little lady.


My dad is so cool. I love how he's always thinkin up fun adventures for us. Dad if you're reading this... You're the best! We loved the hike!