The Magical Week before Halloween......

Our magical Halloween week began on Monday when we (ahem..KARL) carved pumpkins after getting a jack-o-lantern pizza from Papa Murphys...a tradition I am sure that will continue...cutest pizza ever dont you think??? The girls thought it was the coolest thing ever!!

The final masterpieces ended up looking something like this....Karlee's is on the left with many different hearts and faces carved into the entire pumpkin...Emilee's (suprisingly pleasant considering her past carving experience), mine (that Karl carved because I was completely obsessed with finishing the Twilight series fourth book and could not take time to even carve my own pumpkin), Rylee's "teensy tiny pumpkin that is little...like she is", and Natalee's ummm, polar bear...whose ear got poked off shortly after carving and had to be fixed emergently.....tears averted. :)
Lucky for us not one girl is squeamish when it comes to gutting pumpkins....

I found this cute little idea to make witches brooms for goody bags and had the bright idea to make 52 of them for the girls' classes....thank you again to Karlo for helping me put together all 52 goody bags at 11 o'clock Wednesday night :)

Emilee was Irkle from "Family Matters" and stayed in character pretty much the whole night....except for the brief moment when we drove past a little boy on the sidewalk that she apparently knew because she ripped off her glasses and ducked down in her seat faster than I have ever seen her move.....
Natalee was a bunny...deciding to wear the costume that I bought her last year that she threw a fit about and REFUSED to wear...but apparently this year it was PERFECT....and she really was the cutest bunny I have ever seen....
Karlee originally wanted to be a toilet for Halloween....and after aloooooooot of talking decided that maybe she would just be toilet paper......and thankfully decided on a kitty costume that we had already from previous sisters.....and she made a much cuter kitty than a toilet.....THANK GOODNESS!! She was also the child I constantly had to remind to NOT say "stinky feet, smell my feet, give me something good to eat...if you dont i wont care...i'll pull down your underwear!!!
Rylee was a beautiful Sleeping Beauty who threw a fit because her hair did not look like the Sleeping Beauty pendant on her costume but thankfully she got over that pretty quickly after I put sparkly makeup all over her face and she got to wear lipstick...:)
Best Halloween costume picture I have ever gotten of my girls.....notice how Emilee is still "in character"......
Quick drive out to Gresham to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa and two of the cutest butterflies I have ever seen at the Roadhouse...(YUMMY)....and notice Ems is still "in character"...............
Back to St. Helens to meet up with an Irkle twin (Emilee's best buddy Bri), batman, and a very very cute (and nice I was told) spider Ems STILL "in character"....
Natalee got to see one of her best buds Teagan at "grandma Jan's"..... who loves Halloween more than anyone else I know...my kids LOVE her house all decorated and could hardly wait to trick or treat there.....

see, its pretty neat huh??? Its taken a few years for them to actually not freak out about going up to her porch but I think they were over it for the big bowl of candy waiting at the other side :)

I'm thinking that this next house was part of the reason I was up with Rylee all.night.long. because of her nightmares about.......spiders.

and one last shot of the two Irkles....STILL in character...LOL...

It was truly a magical Halloween week with three ballet parties to dress up for, FOUR class parties, and ending with lots and lots and lots of candy that seriously should last us until next Halloween!! We are now snuggled up on the couch watching the movie Twitches on Disney...my favorite way to end the night. Hope yours was just as magical! :)

Overheard..

On the way to preschool today:
Karlee: "Hey Rylee, do you know the name of mommy's phone"

Rylee: "Yeah, its a raspbewwy"

Karlee: "No, its a bluebewwy"

Me: "Actually its a BLACKberry"

Karlee: (pauses) Someone shoulda called it a marionbewwy"

and is this not one of the sweetest things you ever saw??? Yeah, that's what I thought!! :)

Another quote......

'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.' When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better. Concentrate on this sentence... 'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'

The Pumpkin Patch......

We went to the pumpkin patch over the weekend....the weather was too beautiful to pass up and so we headed out to Sauvie's Island after Em's last softball games...The pumpkin patch is one of those things that I force Karl to do every year...just like the state fair...its tradition and also one of my favorite things to do EVER!!....anyway, I think this was the best year we have ever had...no yucky cold muddy weather...it was gorgeous and everyone was able to find the perfect pumpkin....

we set the timer for this photo....I LOVE it...set my camera on a pumpkin and ran to get in the picture....probably one of my favorite pictures of our family this year :)
Rylee held on to her pumpkin for the whole hayride and kept calling the pumpkin stems "pumpkin candles"....was soooo cute......

a very rare sighting....mommy in the picture....I love it though...makes me smile...very very big.

the light was unbelievable....I wish Ems was in this picture so bad....

another year at the pumpkin patch....it was a perfect fall day....stay tuned for the carved masterpieces :)

The Truth

Time passes.
Life happens.
Distance separates.
Children grow up.
Jobs come and go.
Love waxes and wanes.
Men don't do what they're supposed to do.
Hearts break.
Parents die.
Colleagues forget favors.
Careers end.
BUT......
Sisters are there,
no matter how much time and how
many miles are between you.
A girl friend is never farther away
than needing her can reach.
When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you
have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life
will be on the valley's rim, cheering you on,
praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on
your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the
valley's end.
Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk
beside you...Or come in and carry you out.
Girlfriends all bless our life!
The world wouldn't be the same without women, and
neither would I. When we began this adventure called
womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible joys or
sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we
would need each other.
Every day, we need each other still.