Happy Treating

It's always a gamble with the weather here on Halloween. Fortunately we got some nice weather this year and we were able to enjoy Trick-or-Treating with the Allison's.

Hudson was HILARIOUS last night. He would sing Trick or treat, smell my feet . . . at lots of doors. At one house they gave him candy and he said "Thank you. Bye! Love you!!!" At another house he said "Thanks Grandma!" and went running off. There was a house with a big 'ole dog and he leans against the side of the house with one hand and then crossed his foot over the other and says "Soooo, what's the dog's name?" The lady was dying over him and thought he was the funniest kid ever. When he left he called out "Thanks Eddie!" Then down the street we saw the same family walking their kids around and he walked right up and said "Oh. . . hey Eddie!" He gives me lots of happy thoughts.

My shweetie! Doesn't he look cute with his hair all greased back?

I was able to whip up their T-birds jackets Sat. afternoon and they turned out cute (if you don't look too close).

Tanner's new girlfriend

Two long stories made short:

I used to have long beautiful perfect blonde hair. Then I had kids and, like the rest of my body, my hair got all jacked. First it went darker, then it went curly/kinky, darker again, frizzy, etc. It's been 2 years since I chopped it off and now its gonna be dark for a little while.

My kids and my husband like it, although we're still not used to it. Brynn says I look like her step-mom('kay?) Bryson looks right past me everyday at pick-up until I start waving and jumping up and down, and every time Hudson wakes up he looks at me like "who the heck ARE you?"

Story #2: 3 years ago I applied for my Associates degree but got a letter back saying I needed 1 more class. I was burnt out -- pregnant with Hud and watching a friends newborn 3 days a week -- and I was too pissed to go back up to the school and fight with them. So I did nothing. When we decided to move back to Cali I thought I'd better figure it out b/c I was NOT going to lose all those credits. Turns out I didn't have to do anything (somehow they didn't have all my UNR credits) and now I finally have a DIPLOMA. Doesn't really change the fact that I've claimed an Associate's degree for 3 years already.

FUH-REEZING!!!!

We met Amy and Jared at Wright's Lake this weekend for our last (and only 2nd) camping trip this year.

We started off here. . .

. . . and went way up there.

Last time I did this hike was with Dad, Mike and Jeff when I was like 15. We didn't make it all the way to Twin Lakes but I am pretty impressed with my stud little girl who did almost the whole thing on her own.
When we used to hike up here in the summer growing up we'd take our clothes off and slide down these granite rocks like slides. You could do things like that back then.

Desolation Wilderness in the background

What little boy doesn't love camping and hiking and sticks?

I love the way backpacks contour the body in such a grotesque way

Saturday was awesome. After the hike we had delicious hot tortilla soup and headed to the lake for some fishing. Then it got cold. I mean REALLY REALLY COLD. Like, pure misery cold. We, all 9 of us, were in Dad's 50 yr old army tent that now lacks any ability to hold in heat. Started off the night with Hudson in between Tanner and I, Bryson, Brynn, and Tavin on the ground. Bryson was having a total fit b/c Tristin was crying. Just after we fell asleep Brynn woke up with leg cramps. Then Tavin tried to climb out of his sleeping bag and stepped on her face and she had a cow. Then her mattress lost all its air. Then Bryson was freezing so I unzipped the bottom of my sleeping bag to put him by my feet. Then I heard Brynn's teeth chattering so she came in between me and Hudson and Tanner. Then I had to pee. Then Tristin woke up, and blah, blah blah. At one point Amy said "Is this the longest night in the world?" Yes. It was. I don't think I slept 15 min. the whole night. It was below 30 degrees with a thick layer of frozen dew over everything.
Fortunately we had some really good wood that burned super hot. As long as you stayed right next to the fire it was tolerable.

A little too close maybe.

This is his happy face. I can't express to you how miserable this child was. It makes me laugh because I just don't know what to do with him sometimes. I literally had to drag him kicking and screaming out of the tent b/c he wouldn't come sit by the fire to warm up. He was convinced there was no warmth to be found.

Isn't that pretty though, despite how freakin' cold it was?

The perfect camping spot, complete with open meadow and a plethora of fallen trees . . .

and large boulders to climb on.

Next time we just need to be a little more prepared. But even still I think we would have been cold. Even with 15 layers on it took me 2 hours in the car before I was completely thawed. When I asked the kids if they had fun they all said "YEAH!!! I LOVE CAMPING!" Good. No harm done then.

Me so Proud!!

My little Huddy gets to be my shadow for a few hours every day. Its just him and I until noon and I don't know who likes that more right now. He gets to watch whatever movie he wants (usually he starts one in the family room, then puts on another in my room, then we switch them both after about 20 min. Super fun.) He doesn't really take naps anymore so he's not so fun come 4 o'clock. In fact I call him my very own WMD. I think if he doesn't destroy something it'll just about kill him. But at 8 o'clock (when he's asleep) he becomes my favorite again. He loves learning all the songs Brynn teaches him and pretends to do his homework too. His favorite song right now is "Somebody call 911". We were in a store and someone got on the speaker and said "Sharon, Line 1". Hudson busts out singing "Somebody call 911, shorty fire burning on the dance floor, whah-oh-oh!" I had to laugh.

"Brynnie-pooh" is absolutely thriving in Kindergarten. I don't know how much I like her teacher but I love the other mom's in the class. She has a great group of kids and all the mom's seem really cool, unlike Bryson's class last year where the majority were pretty sketchy. I'm pretty sure one of the mom's is a crack-head, or at least she acts like it. Brynn loves to tell me all about school, all about her class-mates, and she loves homework. I love to hear all the kids yelling goodbye to each other every day. I don't know how she's doing with the curriculum but the social thing is ALL her!
First grade ROCKS!!! This kid came home last week and says "Did you know Van Gogh suffered from mental problems? He cut off his ear cuz his friend left and later he killed himself." Yep, I knew that, but not in 1st grade. What's your favorite van Gogh painting? "I loovvve Starry Night but my second favorite is Sunflowers." (gasp/choke/tears in my eyes) My kids' a freakin' Genius! His dad's never even heard of Vincent van Gogh and Bryson already has a favorite Impressionist artist. I love it!!! There's a special needs kid in his class named Jacob and Bryson's teacher often puts him in charge of helping. I've never heard him complain about it, even when Jacob ended up peeing his pants in the hallway when Bryson was trying to get him to NOT go in the girls' bathroom. That makes me even more proud. He lost his 5th tooth last night after much ado about nothing and was excited to look under his pillow this morning. The last time he lost a tooth our lame tooth fairy had a heck of a time remembering and we just about fired her :)

Busy me

So apparently I have a mean restless streak or something because just when I think I'm done making a bunch of projects I get the urge to do some more. I wanted to spice up the house a bunch because I've already packed all the pictures and wall decor and I hate looking at emptiness (I mean, once you look past the millions of toys Hud dumps all over the house). I also didn't want to buy anything that I would have to pack up. So here comes Martha Stewart. She has all kinds of stuff you can download, including these bats.

I'm in LOVE with Cinderella pumpkins. These are orange, green, and white and I put a faux metallic glaze on them like I saw on another blog. Didn't turn out as good as the other girls' but I like em.

Manzanita branch meets black spray paint. I picked up the apples on our walk last week but they were pretty tiny and they've shrunk even more since this pic was taken.

This is actually hot glue. Get a silicone glue mat and trace a web pattern and then stick it to your window. Clever, huh? My good friend Martha came up with that one.
Another craft I saw on someone's blog. Just get old canning jars and decoupage with tissue paper. NOTE: if you do this with your kids beware. I now have dried Mod Podge all over my kitchen table.
So cute! Chocolate bowls made by dipping the end of a balloon in melted chocolate chips. I filled them with strawberries for my kids dessert one night.
This retard keeps climbing under my fence every morning and spends the WHOLE day with Max while her friend barks at her from behind they're fence.

Yogurt pretzel pumpkins

More onesies I made for a friends new baby. These were pretty cute I thought

Funny Man

The Sacramento YESCO office is remodeling and expanding. Tanner's boss Bill thinks he is SOOOOOO funny. This is the second time he has had his peeps transform Tanner's office. The first time he had everything in the office transferred to the closet, therefore making it a "cloffice". This time he paid 2 people overtime to come in all weekend and paint and wallpaper the office to make it look like a nursery, complete with diapers, wipes, a baby mobile, and a big Elmo.

Anyone need some stuff for your baby?

My Fave: the "desk"

Oh the things I could do if I had Bill's time/energy and endless funds.

Ode to Isaac

Last Saturday our awesome friend Isaac was hiking/walking on the trails above Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe with his friend and roommate Sal. Isaac ran ahead a little for Sal to get a picture of him, stepped on a slick rock and slipped off the side of the cliff over 60 ft. He hit a lot of rocks and stuff on the way down and landed face down in a shallow pool of water. Sal is not sure how he did it but he got down to Isaac and had to pull/carry/drag him back up to the path. There was hardly anyone on the trail and the cell phone got ruined so it took almost an hour to get the Care Flight Helicopter there. We found out Saturday night and were devastated for him.

Isaac suffered a shattered ankle and now has this crazy contraption with all kinds of screws and steel rods coming from his leg. He also has a 4-5 in. gash across the side of his head with about 25 staples in it (along with a new KILLER hairdo:) He fractured his C1 and C2 vertebrae and now has to wear this Halo for at least 4 weeks. But despite all this Isaac is still awesome, in such good spirits and still constantly concerned for others more than himself. He is arguably the most thoughtful person in the world. Seriously though. He sends us cards for just about everything, he takes care of all the elderly single ladies, he has about a million friends and at least 2 million more praying and fasting for him. We wish him all the love and hope he gets better soon. We plan on spending a lot more time in the hospital in the next couple weeks to be with him. Along with the rest of Reno. (according to the nurses there have been hordes of visitors over the last week. That's what happens when someone like Isaac get hurts.)