Chip off the old Block

Look who have matching chipped teeth. My two favorite guys.


Claire wanted a picture with dad too!

Savings

I'm not sure I've ever had a receipt tell me I had 101% savings. How is that possible?!? I paid 4 cents and got 10 great things for my food storage. Couponing is TOTALLY worth it!

The Boys

Chris took a few pics of the kids. We had Chris' brother's kids stay the night. The kids had a blast! Jake was so excited about having a big sleep over on the floor in Claire's room with sleeping bags and all. Having four kids at once is a bit crazy, but when you see them all playing together, it's too cute for words! Jake and Claire both had a fit when they had to leave. It's too bad we can't get together more often.

Sweets for my sweets

This was the best Halloween yet! The kids are at such adorable ages right now, they loved everything about Halloween!! We did a couple of carnivals with the ward and our playgroup. Friday night is pizza night and we got a papa murphy's pumpkin pizza (I thought the pizza pic was funny). On Saturday we got dressed up and trick or treated at Grandma and Grandpa's house, then we headed over to ToysRUs for their Halloween parade. We took the kids trick or treating Saturday night. This was our first year of actual trick or treating. Jake absolutely LOVED it!! After every house he would say, "nother house" he knew the more houses, the more candy. It's been interesting trying to keep him away from all the candy.
After we got done, I had to run back to the store to get more candy! We had lots of trick or treaters. On Sunday we (tried) to give Papa Ray a call since it's his birthday and skyped with Nana and Jocelyn and made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies.
I am kind of sad that this Halloween is over, I know I will look back at these photos in 20 years and remember that these are/were the good times. I just want to soak up every bit of Jake's 2-ness, and Claire's 4-ness cause I'll never get it back. I love my babes so much! Happy Halloween..

Halloween Party!

Last night was my Halloween Party. I think it's going to be a yearly tradition. I had a pretty good turn out, about 20 girls came. We played some games, ate some food and had some much needed girl time. I hope everyone had a good time!

I had a little trouble with the self-timer, so after about 5 tries, this is the best I got :)





All the pregnant ladies



Donut eating contest

Jake's Quilt

Got this done for Jake's bedroom this morning. More pictures of his room to follow hopefully soon!

Book List

Just thought I'd post a few books I've been reading lately.



The kind diet is pretty much a vegan cookbook, with the reasoning behind why you should go vegan. She also touches on Macrobiotics, which some of that is kind of cool. So I got a book on Macrobiotics, and it was just plain weird. I really liked the kind diet book, but the way she eats is so far from where my family is, it would take forever to get to that point. I really like the ideology behind veganism, and I try to make more vegan choices in my diet, but it can be pretty challenging, especially because I cook for 3 other people! But she has opened my eyes to a few things like rice syrup - sugar alternative, great!



I'm not sure but I may have mentioned this book before. Eating Animals I think gets stereotyped as a book by a crazy animal lover who tries to get you to go vegetarian. I really don't think this is the case. The book is very honest and quite shocking. I am not an animal lover perse. Never really cared one way or the other, and to tell you the truth, I still don't really after reading this book. BUT, I believe that everyone SHOULD read this book. It will open your eyes. After reading this book I vowed to take a step back and really understand WHAT I was eating. I haven't gone totally veggie, but I have slimmed my family down to 1-2 times per week. I definitely don't eat close to what I was before and I think about where the meat comes from that I do buy. (I've got another blog post about that). Go read this book, and then read it again so you don't forget!!



This was just a plain old guilty pleasure read. I have always been a fan of Oprah. Not quite so much after reading this book. I now realize why there is such a stigma attached to her, but I still like (most of) her shows. I think I'm going to go get a few more Kitty Kelley books.



This was okay, focused more on investments, and it had a lot of stuff he's written in his other book, but still had some good stuff in there.


I haven't read this yet, but I've heard great things and I just got it off the Library waiting list, so it must be pretty interesting.