carter halloween party

yesterday, my morning started with breakfast made by amelia.  two pieces of cinnamon-sugar toast and a chocolate creme-filled doughnut.  i know you're all jealous of my carb and sugar overload!

then it was off to church and back home to prepare for the annual carter halloween party.  ever year nathan's decorations get more elaborate and this year was no exception.  he did a great job.  we had a yummy dinner of soups, rolls and salad.

an overview of our backyard (without the strobe lights and fogger going):

nathan built this gallows to hang our pinatas from.  he did a great job!

recognize the big creepy spider in the last picture?  this might ring a bell...

the kids decorated sugar cookies...

then we retired to the backyard where some pinata bashing commenced.  this is the only picture i got and it's blurry... bummer!

 all the kiddos:

new kids school pics 2012-2013

pictures of pictures :)

11 years old

9 years old

almost 7 years old

2 years old

the last couple of days

beautiful teeth with no cavities!!  that's right.... no cavities.  we all (minus dad) visited the dentist yesterday and i am happy to report that there is not a cavity among us.  we commemorated the event with a post-dental photo in the car.

then we went home and enjoyed dinner followed by an excellent fhe lesson given by jared.  the lesson was about how heavenly father and jesus christ love each of us.  he does the lesson about once a month from the nursery manual, "behold your little ones".  i got the idea for this here.  it has taken him a couple few lessons but he is finally getting the hang of how to teach a lesson.  isaac has been asking for a turn to teach as well.

this past sunday while eating dinner, apparently clara decided she had had enough of us and with mouth full of food plugged her ears and started humming.  that girl is gonna be the death of me.

and just in case you need a reason to be grateful today, at least this isn't your car.  now that would ruin your day!

date night

so because nathan and i live such exclusive and fabulous lives, we have amazing dates. 

doesn't this look like a man who is up for some fun?

we went to kneaders for some yummy food before we headed off to the main event of our date..... grocery shopping! i spared you a picture of that.

and because we lead such exciting lives, sometimes we (meaning nathan) buy gigantic, hairy, nasty battery operated spiders while we are grocery shopping.  then when we get home to our nice quiet house where all of the children are asleep in their beds, we get the spider out of the box.

creep into our children's dark rooms and scar them for life.

so what do you do for fun?

fhe at girl's camp

last night we drove up the canyon above heber to the land where our stake holds girl's camp.  nathan's friend rob, helps take care of the property and has he been building a shed up there.  we went up to help him finish the roof.  and when i say we, i mean nathan helped.  i watched and the kids played.

kent, another of nathan's friends, was also there helping but he opted to assist his buddies from the ground.

we took the kiddos as well.  they had fun exploring around and finally seeing where mom goes every year for a week.  after the big boys were done with the shed, we roasted some hot dogs before heading home.

clara had a hard time waiting to eat so i gave her some goldfish to tide her over.  well as soon as sha (rob's wife) broke out some cheetos, that was all clara wanted.  sha told her she had to eat her goldfish first because both of her hands were full.  she promptly shoved both handfuls into her mouth and held out her hands for some cheetos!

she also got stung by a bee for the first time in her life.  the little bugger stung her right in the neck below her right ear.  he was still stuck there when i got to her.  nathan helped me to pull the stinger out and sha had some lavender oil that we put on it to soothe the pain.  hopefully, she will not relate the traumatic experience to girl's camp... lol.

even though it got pretty chilly once the sun went down, we had a great night.

carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns

yesterday we carved pumpkins!

nate's dad bought pumpkins for everyone on friday, so after dinner yesterday we gathered around their kitchen table and let the pumpkin guts fly!

once the pumpkins were all cleaned out, everyone decided what they were going to do with their pumpkins.  amelia decided to free hand her pumpkin and drew it herself.  then nathan helped her cut it out.

jared and isaac decided to use patterns to carve their pumpkins.

once amelia's pumpkin was completed, she helped daddy clean out his pumpkin.

during all the crazy pumpkin carving, there were a few breaks for ice cream.  isaac was the first to succumb...

 and clara soon followed, leaving pa to finish carving her pumpkin.

the finished products!

isaac, clara, amelia, jared, nathan

spooky!

jared with his grim greetings

nathan's freeky frank

amelia's original traditional jack o lantern

isaac's scary welcome

clara's witchy witch

and all lit up

so wait, where's mine?

i helped everyone else and cleaned up so mine is still a regular ole pumpkin for now.