A Joe the Plumber Moment.

Tonight as I (Rick not Julie) took the kids Trick O' Treating I gave the kids a lesson in Politics. As many of you know, Florida is a swing state in this years election and many of the homes here have either a McCain/Palin sign in their front yard or a obama/biden sign.

As Sydney and Spencer went to each house many had bowls of candy on their porch since they were out with their kids collecting candy. I told Sydney and Spencer if the house was for McCain only take what was told on the sign near the bowl. If there was an Obama sign I wanted to give the homeowners and those kids still out Trick O' Treating a lesson in what redistribution of wealth felt like, so I said "go ahead and take whatever you want...You deserve it!"

Halloween in Florida - Go Time

Princess Vampire

Sydney took this without my knowledge.

Ninja Boy

Spencer had to take a self-portrait too.

Battle of Battles

Found them like this in living room and told them to freeze while I grabbed my camera.

Pics on the Porch


When I got outside they were doing this and Sydney was singing, "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet." It made me laugh because it didn't exactly fit the moment.

The Three Musketeers off to Trick or Treat.

Sydney came in and was a bit irritated that Dad got more comments on his costume than Spencer or she did.

Joe the Plumber Moment belongs in this spot. :)

The Loot



Afterwards they got cleaned up and ready for bed. For tradition's sake, we snuggled and finished the night by watching, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Halloween in Florida - Jim's Chili

I don't know exactly when it happened, but fixing chili using my father in-law's recipe on Halloween has become a yearly tradition.

Jim's Secret Recipe

Years ago Rick shadowed Jim in the kitchen writing down all the ingredients as he fixed it. (Can't let you see). :) Seriously, we use this recipe a lot!

The kids walked in the door from school and Spencer saw the chili on the stove and exclaimed, "Thanks for making chili for dinner!"

Yum!!! BTW this is my favorite pot I have ever owned!

Chili Accessories

Notice the Parkay and saltines.
Well... my in-laws (Rick too) all have to butter their saltines before they scoop chili on them. Does anyone else out there do this? It kind of reminds me of how Robert on Everybody Loves Raymond had to touch each bite of food to his chin before he could eat it. hee hee :)

Completely candid picture.

Knowing the pic and topic were blog-bound, he laughed after I snapped this photo.

Much to my chagrin, Sydney and Spencer gave it a try and now think they need to do it too...not that my deep fried Fritos Scoops are any healthier. :)

Halloween in Florida - School Parade

Halloween day began with Nana and I rushing to the school to see the kids march in a school parade. All the children dressed as characters from books.

Sydney's Class



Sydney's class did individual biographies. She was assigned to dress up as and do a report on Faith Hill. (Not my first choice, but it made the costume really easy).

Spencer's Turn



Spencer's entire class dressed up as "Cow" from the book Duck for President. The teachers dressed up as Farmer Brown.

The parade was perfect - short and sweet.

Halloween in Florida - Pumpkins

Noticing the pumpkins weren't holding up well yesterday, I brought them to the darkest room of the house and took pics of them with lit candles in them. They were completely filled with a white web mold, a "pretty-sure-I'm going-to-die-from-it" black mold, and were turning to goo.

After the photo shoot I carefully set them on the porch. When I set the lid gently back on Spencer's it surprised me by falling right in. The kids got home from school and were upset that not only had the lid collapsed, but that Sydney's bat had fallen in too. It did comfort them when they found out I did get a picture of them glowing even though they never saw it.
Pumpkins!


Scary Pumpkins!
(You can see the white fuzz mold at the top of Sydney's bat).


Really Scary Pumpkins!


The Scariest Pumpkins EVER!!!

Note to self: Carve pumpkins the day before Halloween in Florida.

Happy Birthday Jen! The big three oh!

It's my awesome SIL's 30th birthday today! YAY!!! 

Ten Reasons why I love Jen:

1. She loves and values her family.
2. She is an awesome Mom! 
3. She is soooo funny!  I know it may seem impossible, but she is WAY funnier than even me.  She is definitely THE MASTER of quick wit.
4. She stayed up all night helping me print programs for Sydney & Spencer's baptism as well as played the piano at them with zero notice. BTW she plays by ear.
   
5. She makes sure that holidays and birthdays are special for her loved ones.
6. She throws lots of showers for her friends and family.  (I am a terrible organizer/party planner, so I know this is truly a gift)!
7. She is extremely generous.. almost to a fault.  :)
8. She introduced me to Mamarazzi and SuperCoolHotMom.
9. She is wicked smart!  Seriously, she's like genius smart!
10. She is extremely loyal.  More loyal than Sony.. hee hee
11. She introduced me to the time squandering world of blogging!  :)  (Okay I lied, there are at least 11 things I love about her).  

Happy Birthday Jen!!!  I hope today rocks as much as you!

I hope it's not contagious!

Last night from the back of the car I hear, "Hey Mom! I have the stamp pox!" I answer, "The what pox?" I turn around to see this.....

We got home late last night and he woke up too late this morning to have a bath, so yes he went to school with "stamp pox."

Trunk or Treat

Not our truck "trunk", but it's really cute.

An unusual cold snap came in just as we arrived at the church. You can see the look of cold in Sydney's eyes. :)

Sydney decided to be a Vampire cheerleader princess for Trunk or Treat. (Spencer spent most of the time running around with his friends eluding me or I'd have a pic of him too).

Time to eat.

No smile from Dason because I took this pic when he had a mouth full of food.

The Haas's are the "Ken and Barbie" in our ward and are always dressed to the nines. They looked hysterical and this pic just doesn't do their costumes justice!

This is the one of the winning trunks. When it got dark it looked AWESOME!

Dason helped the YM run a paintball booth and I was in charge of the RS bowling booth. We all had a really nice time and hopefully Rick will be in town for it next year. :)

Why does every post with Spencer have the words: I looked and saw this

Because we didn't squeeze enough in the day with visiting the aquarium and pumpkin carving with the scouts, we decided Spencer needed a haircut before bed.

Usually he squirms and complains while I cut his hair. As I was getting close to finishing using the razor I thought to myself how nice and still he'd been. At that moment I looked down and saw this:

Wondering where the heck all the orange stuff came from I looked down to see Spencer with the mini razor in the middle of giving a haircut to this:


He was pulling up string after string and was shaving them off one by one. No wonder he sat so still... he was busy. (His fingers were still black from scout camp day.. he had a shower right after this).


In case you don't know what this was to begin with, here is a before picture of one in another color (the strings are shorter than the orange one).

Go Miss Florida USA!

While Spencer was at his first stake scouting activity, we decided to check out the early grand opening of the much awaited mall near us.

On our way out of Dillards, Sydney saw a friend from school who was excited to show her the autographed pic she'd just gotten from Miss Florida. Sydney decided to get in line for one too.

Miss Florida was really sweet and let us take this picture. When she stood up we were surprised at how tall she is. We hope she does well at the Miss USA pageant!

Cub Scout Day Camp & Pumpkin Guts

After the aquarium we rushed to the church for Spencer to attend his first stake scout activity. Later that night we joined him to help him carve a pumpkin. When we got there we found Spencer and a couple other boys staking claim to their favorite pumpkins. The leaders kept trying to shoo them away.

Knowing Spencer would be devastated if he didn't get the one he'd picked, Rick made a quick run to Target. This killed three birds with one stone: Spencer gets a large pumpkin, Sydney gets to carve one, and the best part.. we get out of doing it at home

Glad to see Dad and his new pumpkin!

Sydney can hardly lift hers.

Gutting a gourd is slimy work!

Trying to get entrails off her hand. :)

Spencer helping dad secure the pattern.

Yeck!

Sydney got hers started and then asked for Dad to take over.

The Works of Art

Sydney's Bat

Spencer's Pirate Ship

I love the look on his face..

He had just said, "Mom, I'm going to run around now."

Didn't take long to find others to join in the "running around."

Rick sharing one of his many talents.

He became really popular with the scouts when picked up a blade of grass and made it squeal.

Look at Spencer's cheeks. He is blowing so hard! You can hear it in the video.

The boys begged to learn how he did it.

Spencer giving me an impromptu hug.

While eating dinner we noticed how much dirt he was covered in. Ahhh! He's putting those fingers in his mouth!

A perfect day of fun for Spencer. :)

Spencer had a great day scouting doing arts and crafts, learning camping etiquette, playing games, and having a cookout. Sydney and Rick enjoyed carving pumpkins and the time they spent with Spencer and the scouts.