Halloween Here We Come

I love Halloween. Not the gory scary side of Halloween. I love the creative, silly, candy, jack-o-lantern carving, costume creating side of Halloween.

This year I decided to give myself a challenge. This year I wanted our costumes to be totally handmade, scrounged or found. And I wanted to spend $25 total for all 5 costumes. I am excited to say that we are going to come in under budget. Tom and I already went to our adult costume party. I wanted to go totally Japanese but Tom is sporting a flaming red beard and was unwilling to get rid of it. So we went as an International odd couple. I was Japanese and Tom was Scottish. I am happy with how they turned out because we literally did not spend one dime on our outfits. Tom totally looked Scottish with his red beard and sheet quilt. And even though he got some votes for scariest costume, I thought he was pretty clever.

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There were some other pretty clever party goers.





The kids costumes will be finished and soon you will get to see Shaggy, Tinkerbell, and a Chinese vampire.

Saturday and Sunday we had two full days of October Cedar Fun.

We watched the sheep dog trials at the Heritage Festival and then the kids got to pet the shire horses and Isaac tried his hands at a little roping.

Later we headed to the SUU homecoming game. We had to leave early due to my migraine and the girls' developing coughs. But woot! woot! SUU won.

Sunday was the primary program and the kids did great. We came home and the kids insisted on getting their pumpkin carving started, Never mind that I told them they would be wrinkly corpses by Halloween, they needed to get their pumpkin carve groove started. Becca carved her very first pumpkin without any help from Dad. It has a few issues but she is pretty proud of her work.
I need better photos so I will post all the Jack-o-lantern creations later in the week. Until then happy haunting and Happy Halloween. Have a great week. We are going to try and get Rebecca well before her baptism on Saturday. She came down with a nasty cough/cold/earache. And the rest of us are fighting off the same stuff the best we can.

It's Fall

I love Fall. And I love Fall in Cedar.

All the decorative grasses on my property get all decked out in their feathery plumes.

This little tree in front of my house is brilliant.


I get the urge to bake on almost a daily basis. My house smells like pumpkin and cinnamon and apples.

Cedar is the land of sunsets. Every night in the Fall we have spectacular sunsets and sometimes they surround us 360 degrees.

We get super crafty. Now I am not a really crafty person. But I start thinking of all the crafts I can make for holiday decorations and my children do things like build fairy boats out of pecan nut shells, marsmallows and flowers.

Yep, I love Fall.

VACAY WEEK AND BECCA' S B-DAY

My kids have been out of school all week and so we have been busy. Except for Friday. Today I took half the day off and read. But the rest of the week was craazzy. Here are a few of the highlights from last to first.

Becca turned 8 on Thursday. We had a pretty easygoing birthday. Earlier in the week Becca got her ears pierced by her Nana and so she has been busy showing everyone her new bling. But on Thursday we got up and had our signature b-day breakfast waffles with strawberry and whip cream. Later we went and got her a pedicure. She has been waiting for a pedicure for a year and this is what she wanted for her birthday. She loved the massage chair
Sometimes the pedicure was a little tickly.
10 little polka dot piggies.

We came home and made her spider cake. I am not sure why she wanted a spider cake but that is what she wanted and she wanted to help decorate it herself. We think it turned out pretty great. Especially, since the night before I totally thrashed and burned the first cake. Thank Heavens for extra boxed cake mixes in the pantry.

After a dinner of pasta carbonara and broccoli, Becca and her cousins, aunt and a couple friends opened gifts and had cake and ice cream. We only do parties every other year but I let Becca have a couple of her oldest friends over for the cake and ice cream and a movie.

Every time anyone asks Becca what she got them for a gift she tells them she got them a big fat noodle. This year Isaac turned the tables and actually made a soggy wet noodle for Becca's b-day present. It was funny but maybe you had to be there. Don't worry he also got her a pretty new scarf (which is also kind of like a big fat noodle)

Becca is, well, a little crazy sometimes and fortunately so are a couple of her oldest friends. Becca has known Kate since birth and Maia has been her friend since before preschool. I love these girls.

I hope Becca had a great day. I love that girl. And the next couple of weeks are going to be all about getting ready for her baptism on Oct 31st.

Reasons I love my 8-year-old.

*She is smart, really really smart. It won't be long before she is smarter than me.

*She has a silly sense of humor that is totally different than her brother or sisters. It is pure silliness.

*She is so domestic. I was never like that at her age. She crochets, she cooks, she crafts.

*She is a perfectionist. Well, some of you know her Dad. Because that is not my personality but I am eternally grateful for it. If I want something organized I just ask Becca and she gleefully agrees to do it. (Weird)

*She is extremely girly. She loves to shop for new clothes or do her hair or be beautiful. Every Mom wants a girl that loves to shop with her.

*She is beautiful. Yes, I know I am her mother. But I really do think she has a beautiful aura around her most days. I don't enjoy her mean moments.

*She is a helper and a teacher. I often see or hear of her soothing or helping friends or family even when she doesn't realize people are watching her.

I love my Becca and sometimes in my prayers I thank my Heavenly Father that he sent me someone like Becca.

Wow this is going to be a long post.

On Wednesday we had another crazy day. I started my new calling as achievement day leader and 12 girls, ages 8 and 9 descended on my house where we decorated pumpkins. Most of them decided to do the kitten design. So I frantically cut out cat ears and whiskers. It was fun, but honestly, I was exhausted afterwards.

Wed night we went to our final soccer game of the year. I love soccer. But I am ready to be done. Isaac had a fantastic coach this year. His team was completely undefeated until the championship game. They lost by one point but only after they had gone into overtime and then they lost the penalty kick shoot-off. The boys were sad, although they played their little hearts out. Isaac played awesome. A couple of times he totally came from out of nowhere, running faster than I have ever seen him run, to get the ball away from the other team. He almost made a goal once, but the other team had a great goalie. Rebecca also had a great year. She made a lot of goals for her team.

Tuesday we mad a trip to the big pumpkin patch in Paragonah. Isaac was trying to be cool and said he would rather go pick them out at the grocery store. But you should have seen the funny little smile he got on his face when he got out in that field of pumpkins. He of course picked the biggest pumpkin in the patch. And I am pretty sure we were good comic relief for any neighbors as we tried to haul that pumpkin out of the patch together. Lia picked dainty little pumpkins, but then she is pretty dainty. Becca picked round medium sized pumpkins. It was actually a really fun experience, not to mention cheap.

Here's a pic of half of our haul and our homemade ghost and bat tree. O

It was a great week!

Funny Friday - A Muddy Tumble

Ok it is not officially Friday yet. In fact it is 11:21 p.m. on Thursday. But tomorrow I am going to be spending the day making a bunch of apple pies that I have decided to sell at the Apple Festival in New Harmony on Saturday. One of the apple orchard guys asked me to sell some at his booth. I need birthday money for Becca so I said Yes. I was going to go no matter what but now I have a real excuse for the excursion. Tomorrow night I will post some of my apple pie recipes on my food blog.

OK on to the funny story.
I so wish I had a picture of this because it was darn funny to me. Today after Isaac's first soccer playoff game I decided to try and get the ball away from Isaac on our walk back to the car. Instead I jammed my toe into the back of his heel, slipped and fell on top of him on my slow motion fall to the ground where I hit my knees into the muddy marshy field and then fell backward into the muddy field where I felt mud definitely gush onto my back. I laid there for a minute laughing. You see in my former life I was known as a complete clutz or a spaz, whichever you prefer. I like to think I have come a long way since I fell into an old lady's grocery basket head first in college or the time I ran my arm through a window when I was 4. Everyone has a Rachelle clutz story. I don't fall quite as often, although I have two totally accident prone daughters who remind me daily of my spazzed out days. But today at least 50 or more people now have a Rachelle clutz story of their own. You can't miss a grown woman sliding to her muddy demise on a soccer field.

Tom really was trying not to laugh too hard. But if it had been him that had fallen I would have been hysterical. Good man. My favorite part: When Isaac told me this.
"It must not have hurt you when you fell because I was trying to keep you from falling. But imagine how I felt. Because you fell on me. It hurt. How much do you weigh Mom?"

My response: "You don't want to know Isaac. You don't want to know."

Bad Mom Confession

Ok I have to confess, sometimes I just lose my cool, completely. Tom and I went to the temple this afternoon and I had a wonderful time. I picked my kids up afterwards in a good mood. Tom is off to watch football somewhere but I am thinking all goes well.

That is until you expect my kids to do anything for someone else. I am in the bathroom (sorry) and I realize I have run out of toilet paper. I yell for someone to get me some toilet paper but they are too busy yelling at each other to hear me. This goes on for several minutes. Finally, they hear me yelling and next thing I know they are fighting about going to get me toilet paper. Nobody wants to do it. So for the next five minutes I hear them fighting with each other about who should go get it. I am beyond livid. How long am I going to have to hang out in the bathroom before someone realizes how ridiculously selfish they are being. I am pretty irate and threatening all kinds of doom and loss of privileges if I don't get some toilet paper soon. Finally, Isaac realizes I have reached irrational, steaming hot, head sare going to roll mad and decides to go get the toilet paper (He is, after all, the 11 year old not-afraid-of -the-basement child) he should be the bigger one, I think.

He can't find the toilet paper and well how we solved that problem doesn't need to be detailed. But when I finally emerge from the bathroom I am calling my children all kinds of names of selfish. I have taken Isaac's privilege away to watch a movie that night and I am pretty much in temper tantrum stage.

Well, we all calmed down. My kids finally told me they were sorry after I pointed out that I would never do that to them. I also pointed out that I also never say things to them like "I am tired of taking you to your practices or making you dinner, do it yourself." I also never let them stand in the shower for 10 minutes, while I fight with their Dad about who is going to get them a towel. Isaac literally asks for a towel every day. Where are all his towels? Nobody knows.

Anyway we worked it out but now I am feeling bad. I overreacted and I said some mean things. I am really mad I let all that contention get control of our family right after I came home from the temple. But I am not perfect and like I always say, At least I get to wake up tomorrow and start all over again.

Tuesday 5K Update

I am dreading this report more than I can say. But I promised I would do an update on the last Tuesday of the month on my prep for the 5K next year. Let's just say I barely exercised this month. I got sidelined by two bouts of sickness, a seized up back and neck, a couple of migraines and a completely psycho schedule.

That said. I realize a lot of the problem was the fact that I got off my schedule of working out. Now that it is darker later in the morning, I really don't want to wake up too early. By the time I have a few minutes to work out it is too late in the morning (I have things to do) or too late at night, when my crazy schedule and exhaustion set in. But I am determined I will find a schedule that works for me and I will get my back in shape again.

I did exercise this morning. Well more of a stretch and strengthen session. But at least I am motivated again.

I lost a total of 2 pounds this month and I am not sure that even counts. I am eating a lot better at breakfast and lunch but I am also baking up a storm and I can't seem to keep my fingers out of all the tasty doughs. I am really trying to eat more veggie friendly meals and I feel a lot better when I am consciously eating well thought out meals rather than unconsciously snacking as I wander through the house from one task to the next.

Hopefully next month I will have better news to report. I am really nervous because I know I have a busy month ahead of me. Becca is getting baptized on the 31st. Her birthday is on the 15th. I am working on a really big writing project. I still have a lot of preserving to do and Halloween is coming. Somehow I will make this a priority.

Two Fun Fests

I do realize I have fallen off the blogging wagon just a bit. But you know school comes, sickness comes, soccer arrives, and gymnastics and canning and gardening and work. So please excuse me. I do however have a few fun pics.

Saturday should have been spent getting my Son's ever lengthening locks cut and canning salsa but we just got to busy playing. In the morning we went to the Sky Fest. Tom's company is one of the sponsors and we like to make a visit in the morning. Usually they have fun stuff for the kids to do and that was seriously lacking this year but next year it will be my turn to wake up bright and early for one of the balloon rides. We came home and did some light cleaning and then headed off to the OctoberFest in Brian Head. Tom was a little excited to go.

Tom had to wear his German stuff and I promise you he was the only one wearing it besides the cooks and musicians. But did he care? Tom really cares very little what other people think of him most of the time. It is one of the reasons I love him. The OctoberFest was pretty low key but they had some real authentic German food that was extremely tasty and definitely too heavy for lunchtime. The kids liked the pretzels, brats and apple strudel. I loved it all and ate it all. Sorry Trudi for the pic of you with your mouth full.

We then listened to some good old fashioned German music. Isaac dared Tom and I to get out on the dance floor and although I totally offered to do a Polka with Tom he said he had no idea how to do it. Instead, we watched the kids dance. Lia has way too many boyfriends. Here is one of her friends/beaus twirling her across the dance floor.

After the kids had danced off all our calories we loaded up and headed up to the highest peak on the mountains for a short walk. We anxiously kept our kids from the edges while we gushed over the amazing view.


We came home tidied up some more as we got ready for the football game and more friends for dinner. It was more tasty food and I gained, at least, the entire two pounds back I lost last week. Aah Well, the outdoors, family, food and friends and Tom in a silly hat. Who could ask for more.

I lost today to migraines but I have every intention of getting that Salsa done tomorrow.