Our Halloween Party

I have always wanted to have a Halloween Party. I think the kid in me still likes getting dressed up. We invited our friends to a costume party. It was a lot of fun preparing for it and I sure a fun time that evening. We had some great costumes.

Tigger and a Mac. Stormi is my friend that lives in Stormstown. She also has a son named Parker who is also 3, like our Parker. Rick is a computer guy and he dressed up as a Mac. They are one of the closest friends we have from church, about 15 minutes away.

The "Miss Quito" and the guy who had been bitten by the misquito. I thought this was so clever. It took Jim a while to get it. Jami and I have worked together in Relief Society through the Enrichment committee and also Visiting Teaching. John has worked with Jim through the Elder's quorum
The campfire and the camper. Chad was originally going to be the campfire, but was concerned that people might mistake him for the man on fire. The costume was complete with flickering flame. Another unique idea. I know Nikki through Craft night and working with her in Young Women's. She is also a mother of boys about the same ages of my boys.



The peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This is so cute. Jordan and I often found in the hallway class during church because our babies won't still. Matt serves in the Bishopric over Young Women's.

The Proton and neutron. Very fitting for the physics guy! Terri has actually been in State College longer than I have. I was her visiting teacher in the beginning and then she was my visiting teacher for 4 years. They will be relocating soon, as Carl her husband has taken a job in the DC area.
Us, the happy host and hostess. We were supposed to dress up as Dorothy and the scarecrow, but being a busy mom and trying to get ready for the party, I was still sewing at 1 pm on the day of the party. There was too much going on to get my new Dorothy costume finished, so we recycled one from a previous year. The flapper and the gangster as I call it.

The whole group. We played games and ate yummy food and had time to visit. It was so much fun. I made a pumpkin cheesecake. We had the chicken club from Pampered chef and apples and dip along with candy to munch on.

Pumpkin Patch

So Ed and Sue wanted to come and see the grandkids and we wanted to take the boys to a pumpkin patch. It fit into our schedules to meet part way at Vale Wood Farms in Loretto PA, just 15 minutes east of Altoona.

We get our milk delivered to our door and this is the farm that it comes from. I thought this would give us the chance to see the operation and know more about the local dairy that we are supporting. By the way, we are very happy customers. Their milk is so good and the ice cream is delicious!


Parker is quite the chatterbox. Each day begins with "where are we going today?" This question continues through out our day. So the all the way to the farm we are discussing what we are going to do, see where the milk come from and see grandma and grandpa Rayburn. When we get there, some of the older trucks are parked there and I thought it would be cute to get his picture with an old milk truck, but instead........He wanted to pose in front of the dump truck!!! Go figure! He loves dirt and dump trucks. Plus Pappy has one just like it.
This was totally geared with kids in mind. You paid a very reasonable admission price of $1 and all the games and activities were free. Parker spent a considerable amount of time in the giant corn box.
He also enjoyed the maze made out of straw set up in the back yard. They had made this tunnel and it was great fun for him to crawl through.
They gave a hay wagon ride complete with information about the farm. It was very informative. Our milk is a level 4. My Father in law gave us a thumbs up, it is the best you can get.
I don't exactly remember what those levels were about. I had never heard of them before and I grew up on a farm with milk cows.

At the end of the day we all had some ice cream and headed our separate ways. Parker wanted a picture with his Grandma Rayburn.

Christmas in October

So we are on our way home from church today and Jim says to me.
Jim:"I wore my Christmas socks today for the first time. I didn't have any other matches. I had 4 (left) socks, but none of them were matches."
Emily: "Your kidding, your wore your Christmas socks?"
Jim: "Yep the black ones with red and green Ho, Ho, Ho. That is why I don't like Holiday socks, you can only wear them a short time." He says as he raises his leg to show me.
Emily: "That is too funny! I'll have to write about that in our blog."
Jim: "Well I will change before you can get a picture."

So no picture and I guess it could be his word against mine. I love Jim's sense of humor in situations like this. I bought him those socks years ago, but he prefers more plush like socks and so never wore them until he was desperate to have matching socks.

Oh and he always has left socks in his drawer, but never any matches.

Aunt Rebecca's birthday cake!

Some people will do anything for an excuse to eat sweets. Parker loves birthday celebrations. Birthdays used to be big deal in my family, but I think everyone just got busy and we don't make it a big deal anymore. I used to spend hours, (well almost that long) looking for the perfect birthday card to get someone. We would each get the person a card and sometimes a small gift. The family would gather round for cake and ice cream. It was a lot of fun and we made it an excuse to celebrate! I want to do better the next time around.

Anyway, we made a cake and sang happy birthday to Aunt Rebecca. Parker wanted to know when she was coming to our house for her piece of cake. I am still working on that one to explain how far away Utah is.


This is the cake the next morning. Guess what Parker was doing, while Mom was still sleeping. Yep you guessed it, licking the frosting off.

Parker is my wake up call in the mornings. I sleep until he sleeps. Sometimes he gets into mischief life this particular morning. But it gets better. Another morning I awoke to ......
This!! He licked most of it bare. This was after we ate most of the cake.

Just for fun!

So I am out of fresh pictures and new items to blog about right now. I thought it would be fun to find something a little older. This is Parker learning to walk. He is about 17 months in these pictures. Preston is 15 months right now.


Notice the same "grocery cart?"

Learning to Walk

We call this the grocery cart. The kids love to fill it up with cans and walk around with. Preston loves this toy. His eyes light up when he sees it. He will go back and forth several times. And it is helping him get his legs ready for walking. Although the big kids still like to play with, it can be hard to get your own turn!

He is turning around to make sure Mom is still watching. Doesn't he have the cutest legs?

My helper

Parker loves to vacuum and he actually does a pretty good job for a 3 year old. If I don't give in he will throw a fit. Fine with me. Hopefully he will also enjoy doing dishes!

Mom's shoes

So we like to play in our hallway. It is the perfect place to roll balls or cars and they are contained. I took off my shoes to give my feet a break and they were the next best toy to my boys. Preston put a lot of effort into trying on Mom's shoes. Of course we made a big deal out of it and took his picture, so Parker had to take a turn too!