Halloween Week

Halloween has turned into a week-long holiday. With parties here and festivals there, by the time Halloween actually rolled around, I was spent.

Monday was our Ward Halloween party. We had a chili cook-off and trunk-or-treating. Ruth was so excited for this event (and so were the rest of us). Of course we didn't take very many pictures but we got a couple good ones.

Thursday was Ruth's Fall Festival at her school. Gareth and I went and helped out with some of the games. The kids had a great time. Ruth's really pretty popular. Right when we walked into the classroom there were a dozen students surrounding her showing her their costumes. The part that made me most nervous was when Ruth said to me: "Mom, this is Noah. Noah, meet my mom." Just the way she said it gave me a glimpse into her teenagehood when she brings her first boyfriend home. Not looking forward to that.

Ruth insisted on having jewels in between her eyes and on her chin...can't argue with a fairy princess.

We had to take a dozen of these shots. There was so much going on around them they couldn't keep their eyes on the camera. Can you see Ruth's deep concentration on the camera in this picture? She's trying so hard not to move her eyes.

Gareth was dressed as Darth Vader. He had a cool helmet-type thing but he kept taking it off. The only pictures I got of him wearing the thing were blurry. This kid won't sit still.
Here is our Fairy Princess
Back view.

Another successful Halloween. It's time to get started on next year's costumes! If you want to be reminded of last year's costumes just click here.

Sunday Best

We had a few extra minutes one Sunday morning before church so we decided to do a photo shoot. The kids were very hyper so I couldn't get them to stay still, hence the blurry extremities.

Oh, and they were eating cheese during the photo shoot too. We don't want them to be hungry at church!

Pumpkin festivities...

We were invited to our neighbor's annual pumpkin carving party on Saturday night. We had lots of fun! The pumpkin empanadas (is that how you spell it?) and the pumpkin seeds were the best part, along with the pumpkin fudge (which tasted amazingly not like pumpkin, but peanut butter...). Jones was very excited (as you've already seen in a former post) about his pumpkin design.

Kristina's pumpkin is awesome. She fell in love with it immediately.

Here is Jonesy's pumpkin of doom

Since she was the host, Kristina spent most of the evening slaving away in the kitchen.

Men at work, women yapping.

Daddy is finally normal again!

Jonesy has had to work every single day this month (including weekends) up until this past Saturday. We decided to celebrate by getting out of Lubbock. We couldn't go too far though (gas prices and all) so we went geocaching and exploring. Hooray!

Here is Ruth finding a hidden cache

Opening up the small treasure

A very strange house we found in Ransom Canyon (about 10 miles from our house)

Jonesy hiking up a hill full of cactus and other pricklies to find a cache...

Ruth feeling very sad that she can't go hiking up the pokey hill with Daddy

Ruth realizing she's getting her picture taken and kicking the sadness up a notch...

We are fans of wind power. I think those wind turbines are beautiful (I'm not kidding, I really do)

This is Gareth as he see's the wind turbines from the car. "Wow!!" he says.

My Pumpkin

Marvel at my cleverness.

Happy Anniversary!

It was exactly 6 years ago that Jonesy and I went on our first date. We were working at a 'haunted forest' (it's kindof like a haunted house, but outside...in the forest) in Logan, Utah. I was the assistant to the director, Jones was a 'spook'. I remember the first time I saw him. He was wearing a black stocking cap and huge black headphones around his neck. My first thoughts were 'woah, he's tall!' He asked me what he can do to help and I asked him to come help me with the sound system (which was located out in the middle of the woods). On the way to the sound system, he tripped over a log and I laughed at him. It was then he knew he had to ask me out.

We went out on October 23, 2002 after work. Work didn't get over until late at night so there wasn't much to do. We went and ate at Village Inn (a restaurant similar to Denny's, famous for their pies). After a yummy dinner of steak (for Jones) and a BLT (for me, yummy!) we had nothing else to do but drive around. After the date ended (around 2AM) I got Jonesy's number. I called the next day and we've been together ever since.

Below are some pictures to give an idea of how young we looked back then. These were a bunch of pictures we took for our wedding announcements. Can you guess which one we ended up using for the announcement? (If you already know, you can guess but you can't say that you know so you don't alter the votes of the others.)

Another Day in Lubbock

Flagstaff had about 5 parks. Only 2 of them were frequented by us. Lubbock, on the other hand has over 75 parks. The great thing about this (aside from the variety) is that the parks are pretty much never crowded. Whenever we go there is usually one kid for Ruth to play with and freedom from getting trampled for Gareth. Oh, and I guess it's also noteworthy to mention that it's almost the end of October and we were able to enjoy a nice mid-70's sunny afternoon while playing at the park today.

When we were getting in the car to head home, a friendly little furry caterpillar came to visit. He yelled as loud as he could "Hey! Pick me up, let me crawl all over your arm and then drop me!" We kindly obliged. Thanks for the fun Mr. Caterpillar. We hope you turn into a beautiful butterfly!

Ruth--embarassing questions

Ruth is growing up too fast. Tonight as I was putting her in bed, she asked me some questions that I didn't think she was old enough to even think up. It all started when she asked me how babies get food from nipples (she must have been remembering waaaaaaay back when Gareth was new and breastfeeding). When I told her that when a woman has a baby her breasts start producing milk she wanted to know how the baby got the milk out of the nipple. When I told her the answer to that question she said: "Ow! That must hurt a lot!" Then she proceeded to ask me when milk will come out of her nipples. I told her it will happen after she gets married and has a baby. She said "I don't think I want to do that. It would hurt!" (She's right by the way...) Anyway, the conversation ended on a very cute note. Ruth got this dreamy look in her eyes and said: "I wonder what man I'm going to marry." It's a little strange that she's already thinking about it, but I assured her that he will be a very nice man.

So I don't mind talking to Ruth about all these things. In fact, I was happy to talk about it with her. I would rather her learn it from me than from her friends or teachers. I just didn't realize I would have to start answering questions so early. It took me by surprise, but I'm ready now. Tomorrow night: birds and bees.

Gareth

Gareth is learning to talk. We were starting to become a bit worried a couple weeks ago when we realized that Ruth's vocabulary at his age consisted of over 200 words (we wrote a list on her 18 month birthday) and Gareth's was only two or three.

But don't worry! Over the past two weeks Gareth's vocabulary has bloomed! His pronunciation still needs some work, and I don't think anybody but Jonesy and I can understand him, but he's doing very well. Here are all the words he can say now:

Yeah (whenever anybody asks him a question, no matter what the question is, he'll nod his head and say "yeah")
Mommy
Daddy
Ruthie ("Ruie" is how he says it... he used to say shssshss)
Pumpkin ("Buppy")
Shoes
More
Food
Water ("Wawer")

Let's Go!
Outside
Bye
Hi
Ball
Hat
Book
Cheese ("eeeese with a hand sign")
Please ("eeeese")
Moo
Meow ("mow")
Doggy
Sippy (for sippy cup)
Thank You ("dan doo")
Off
On
Juliet (Gareth's girlfriend)
I Love You ("I yuh oo")


Anyway.. I'm sure there are more. I'll add them as I think of them since this is mostly for my own records.

Corn Maze Pumpkin Pillow Girl

Ruth had a class field trip to the corn maze/pumpkin patch yesterday. She was nice enough to invite Gareth and I along. It was a bit cold but we had lots of fun. We started with a hay ride around the pumpkin patch where Ruth was proud to point out the "male flowers and the female flowers" on the growing pumpkin vines (she learned about how pumpkins grow from the female flowers by being pollinated from the male flowers just recently from a book we read). The trip through the corn maze was fun...they cheated though by following a trail of popcorn left behind by the cheating corn maze workers. I guess they don't want to lose any preschoolers. After lunch, Ruth got to pick out a pumpkin and she also got to pretend to BE a pumpkin. Too much fun for one day.


This morning when I woke up, I came out to the living room and found a little pillow girl watching TV. She was so cute. Until we turned off the tv...

Old Videos

I was looking through all our files on the computer and I found a couple old videos. This first one was filmed in our old apartment in Flagstaff, Arizona. I think it was around January this year (2008). This little girl cracks me up.

Word Girl Strikes Again

Gareth: "eeeeeeeeeeeese" (his way of saying please..he was reaching for some french fries)

Ruth: "Nope, sorry Gareth. Me and Mommy devoured the french fries. Devoured means to gobble up food."

Mom speak

There are some things I get to say as a mom that I don't think I'd get to say otherwise. Like this (said this evening):

"Ruth you need to let your brother play in your secret laboratory with you."

My Little Brother

My little brother, Dustin has just spilled the beans. He's getting married! I'm very excited! Dustin is an awesome guy and I think he'll make a great husband. To celebrate I'm going to write a few things about my bro.

1. My first memory of Dustin is when we picked my mom and him up from the hospital. I was sitting in the backseat of the car behind the drivers seat. I looked out the window and saw my mom getting wheeled out in a wheelchair holding a little bundle. My first thoughts: "Why is Mom in a wheelchair!?" (I was barely 2...not capable of anything deeper than that)

2. I always considered Dustin a birthday present for me. He was born just 5 days after my 2nd birthday. We always shared birthday parties.

3. Dustin got me through high school. He was one of my best friends in high school and he wasn't too ashamed to let me hang out with him. All my friends (who were seniors) had crushes on my sophomore brother.

4. Dustin has always been very easy to talk to. He's very empathetic and always has something to offer to the conversation. He's lots of fun for 'girl talk' because he get's right in on it (don't tell him I told you.. i think he'd be embarrassed).

5. Dustin is a 'manly-man'. He has a cool job. He's in the Coast Guard and when he's not escorting Nuclear Subs to harbor he's doing weapons training for troops on their way to Iraq. (er something like that).

Movie Stars!

My kids are movie stars!

It's a Miracle!!

Microsoft has really pulled through for us. They told us it would take up to 6 weeks for them to get the xbox fixed and shipped back but today we were greeted with a pleasant surprise in the arms of a smiling UPS delivery lady.

As you can see Jonesy is no longer in mourning. The xbox has been resurrected! We also got a whole month of xbox live for free!! (too bad we've already paid for a year...)

So now I say: Hello xbox; Goodbye husband. Life is almost back to normal.

Things I learned yesterday....

1. You should always kill the flies that are in your kitchen before you start making dinner. There is a slight possibility that one will fly into the skillet as your are browning the hamburger.

2. Never let your 19 month-old son play in the kitchen while you are cooking dinner. He might get a hold of a very large 10-pound can of juice (okay more like 5 pounds..) and drop it on your toes.

3. Giving ice cream to a 4 year-old right before bed will cause her to stay up 3 hours past bed time.

4. Putting two kids to bed in the same room at the same time all by yourself does not work.

5. I rely on my sweet husband in the evenings a lot more that I thought I did.

6. It will be a blessed day when Texas Tech's production of The Full Monty opens. I will have my husband back.

My husband is in mourning...

This is what Jonesy saw three days ago when he turned his xbox on. It's called "The Red Ring of Death." See that green light in the middle? That's what color the outer lights are supposed to be. But alas; his beloved xbox has died of internal bleeding.

My husband has been moping around the house ever since. He'll occasionaly burst out in fits of unconsoleable weeping. He's wearing all black (which really isn't new). He has lost all contact with his best friends (the ones on xbox live). He's not eating. He's losing weight. And the worse part: I miss it too.

Microsoft felt so sorry for him that they promised him that they would replace it. All we have to do is wait for 6 weeks. So if you see my husband with red eyes, just know that he is very, very sad (and lonely).

Maybe our wii will actually get some play time now.

Chicken Rabbit and a Photo Shoot

Gareth has decided he loves chicken nuggets for two reasons.
1. They are great at transporting ketchup from plate to mouth.
2. They work well as rabbit teeth.
As you might have noticed, neither of those reasons were because they taste good. He wouldn't know; he's never taken a bite.


We found some pretty grass today so we decided to do a quick photo shoot.


Ruth loves to pose...

...and hide in the bushes.