Alyssa is 8!!!

On Friday, October 27, Alyssa turned 8! It was a great party with 8 little witch guests. I was sicker than a dog with Strep Throat, so we Lysol-ed and Chloroxed the house,(everyone pray that I didn't get anyone sick) and my dear mom (and sister) stepped in and did the party for me. She made the cake and everything. I couldn't have made it through last week without her. THANKYOU Mom!!!


All the little witches cast spells on each other and had a riot.


Making mummy-wraps. We had mummy-wraps, bloody fingers, and poison apples for dinner. (AKA hot-dogs wrapped in crescents, french fries with ketchup, and apple slices)


Even Johnny had a party hat. (I think he thought he had his bark collar on, because he didn't bark once at the party. That is a MIRACLE!)








Man has she grown up fast!!! Above is her at 5 months, below is now.

Trick-or-Treat

Cowboys and Indians


Ride-em Cowboy!!



My little Indian. Is she not the cutest! I don't know what her deal was about the binky today, she wouldn't let me take it out.





Halle sat still for an hour while Mimi triple-barrelled her hair. She felt beautiful. (She looked beautiful too.)


We're not in Kansas anymore!
Dorothy, Toto, and Glenda the Good Witch





I don't know how I managed to not get and individual picture of cute little Alyssa as Dorothy.

Carving Pumpkins!

What's Halloween without a few Jack-O-Lanterns?! We had a fun time Monday night with our Halloween-themed family home evening. It all started with a regular dinner of fried chicken which Alyssa turned into a very spooky buffet served out of caldrons. She was so cute, she put the serving bowls into several different plastic caldrons and set them on the table. I think she has a little of her Grandma Anna in her! We then carved pumpkins and followed it all up with rice pudding, we called it Ghost Boogies. Jarom loved the rice pudding in Costa Rica so he brought me home a recipe book and we all tasted it. Who wouldn't love something with an entire can of sweetened condensed milk in it?






Carter didn't enjoy carving as much as the girls. He's in a real whiney stage lately and he kept saying, "What's that stinky smell? I don't want to smell a poopy pumpkin." He's still cute as a bug though and we love him.


Halle chose the traditional friendly pumpkin.


Alyssa opted for a 3-headed/faced monster pumpkin. (You can't see the 3rd face.)

More from Costa Rica

Robyn, Ronna, and Jarom at the Ram Luna. A resturaunt where they all danced the night away. :)


These dancers in beautiful traditional dress performed for the HP crew during dinner.


Dancing with exotic women ??! So this is what Jarom does when I don't go with him!! HA!


Here's the proof that they really do work while they are away! (Phew...we were all starting to wonder. Just kidding!)

Wow! What a week!

Okay, last week was rough. While Jarom was gone, Kate got ear infections, I got strep throat, there were 2 parties to throw, and everything was followed up with a gentle dose of stomach flu. (You know it's bad when you're grateful for the kindness of the stomach flu.) I am thinking I need to burn all the towels and sheets at my house. I am not so sure Jarom was estactic to return to the germ infestation, but we're glad he's back. Anyway, I have fallen behind in my blogging and over the next couple of days am going to attempt to catch up.

Jarom's in Costa Rica

Jarom and two co-workers (as well as my camera) are in Costa Rica right now. Here are a few pictures he's sent for me to see what he's doing. It's fun for me to be able to travel vicariously with him.


A green lake in an active volcano. Jarom says the lake was probaly the size of Rigby lake, which is pretty good sized.


Jarom, Ronna, and Robyn at a national volcano park. These are his traveling HP co-workers.


Ever the history buff, Jarom took this picture of a statue depicting a war with an American filibuster who tried to invade and take over Costa Rica. His name was William Walker. Here's a link if you want to learn more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(soldier)
It's a story I've never heard. Amazing the things you learn when you leave your own country.


The building where the Costa Rican Congress meets.


The National Theatre


A coffee plantation.

Spooky Spooks!

This is the season for the "Halloween Spirit" to come knocking on the door. We got "booed" with a treat plate last night, so tonight we passed it on. The girls were SOOO excited to do it. I watched secretly through the bathroom window as they snuck over to our neighbor's,the Martinsons, house, left the treat plate, rang the doorbell, and RAN! They high-tailed it to another neighbor's and hid behind a bush. The Martinsons came out and looked everywhere but the girls stayed hidden. So the Martinsons then PRETENDED to go back in the house, but hid out on their front porch. I thought for sure the girls would come out of hiding, but MUCH to my surprise they stayed in their secret hiding place. This went on for a good 2-3 minutes. After the Martinsons finally gave up and went in, the girls came creeping out and again to my surprise, snuck in through our garage instead of heading straight through the front door. Man they are smart!! It gave me a GREAT laugh. What fun!

This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.

Here are the kids' new Halloween shirts for the year. New shirts for this month is a tradition for us, just like new shirts for the Fourth of July. What a great excuse to buy new clothes! (And yes, we are out to eat AGAIN!) Alyssa was in school so we didn't get a picture of her new shirt. It's black with little dogs dressed up like a devil and an angel.




Is this not the CUTEST little skull and cross bones you've ever seen!! I just couldn't resist buying it when I saw it. Kate actually has another Halloween shirt, but this one just couldn't be passed up.


Not as cute of a picture of Kate, but shows her shirt a little better.



Halle's pumpkin shirt. She went on her first field trip today to the pumpkin patch, where she "picked the perfect pumpkin", so she says.


Carter wearing his "spooky shirt" as he puts it.

Kate found the paper shredder...

Kate now knows how to open the paper shredder drawer and empty it in about 1 minute flat. As you can see it's pure heaven to her.

Our big weekend! Beginning with Hogle Zoo.

We had a great time this weekend. The kids were out of school on Thursday and Friday so we drove to Utah and spent our time doing lots of fun things. It started with a sleepover in Logan at Katie's, then on to Hogle Zoo, The Mayan, sleepover in American Fork at Missy's, BYU football, a drive to Provo to see Natty's place, and ended in Gardner's village. WHEW!! Lots of driving, but fun memories. We did a similar outing like this last year when I was 9 months pregnant with Kate and I went home in tears. I have to say it's MUCH better "un-pregnant". Sorry Melissa, hope you enjoyed yourself!!!!



Carter and Jamis. Carter has so much fun when we get together with Melissa. He loves to have boys to play with!


Carter and the elephants.


I love this picture of Anna and Melissa who is due in 7 weeks and hardly looks pregnant. I think it's just a cute shot of mother and daughter.


Halle, Alyssa and Sami standing next to the biggest snake I think I have ever seen in real life. I think it could have swallowed a person no problem. YIKES!




Carter was HILARIOUS when he saw the giraffe. He had been looking at the map and hadn't noticed the giraffe. When I told him to look, he stopped dead in his tracks, dropped his map and said, "Woah! It's big!"


Between Payson, Megan, and Aunt Emmy I never had to worry about pushing Kate. It was so nice.


Grandpa with Gabby.


All aboard the choo-choo train!!

Lunch at the Mayan

We decided to get brave and take all the kids to eat at the Mayan. They had a good time watching the divers and the waterfall, but the real fun began when the balloon man got there. The poor sucker. He made 10 balloon characters, one for each of the kids, and one for Natalie. :) He was a great sport though, and the kids LOVED it. We had everything from Spiderman to Cinderella with everything in between.

Game time!

All the boys, except Justin, went to the BYU football game. They sat in 3 different areas, some with better views than others...Blake..., but they had a great time regardless. I think even Gregg enjoyed himself.


Sami, Chris's guest, and Alyssa enjoying cousin bonding in the stadium. (I don't know why this picture is so small.)


Alyssa got to be the lucky guest to join Jarom this past Saturday at the BYU game. BYU won BIG TIME beating San Diego State by about 30 points. (As you can tell, I really don't pay attention to the details. If they win or lose is the important fact to me.)