Pumpkin Night

For Family Home Evening tonight we carved our pumpkins. We're quite proud of them! From left to right: Spencer, James, Natalie and Doug's.

Luxurious Long Beach!

Natalie likes to say that we live on the corner of "nice" and "gross" in the LBC. Obviously, this is a shot looking toward the "nice" side. We love living near the water and being close to the Aquarium of the Pacific, Disneyland and the beach, just to name a few. We had a great day at Shoreline Village, Rainbow Harbor and the "Scarium" of the Pacific, where the kids made Halloween crafts while watching the fish.

May the Force (and the best Chili Recipe) be with You

Tonight was our ward's annual trunk-or-treat Halloween party. It was a night of contests with the chili cook off, best desserts, costumes and trunk. I didn't win the best chili, but if you want to see my winning dessert go to my recipe blog. For those of you who can't tell, I am Princess Leia, Doug is Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi, James is a Jedi Knight and Spencer is Jango Fett.

Boys Night Out (plus Mom)

I was alone with the boys tonight since Doug wanted to work late, so what did we do? Went to Disneyland. That seems to be the answer for all of my mothering woes. We love the decorations at California Adventure. We also went to the Discovery Science Center. They love the plastic pins they can push their bodies through and all the little experiments. A fun night!

Pumpkin Patch

Tonight we took the kids to Pa's Pumpkin Patch. It is really just an empty parking lot that they covered with straw, hay bales, cheap carnival rides that cost a fortune, and of course pumpkins. It is the closest thing we could find to Cox Farms, though. We really miss Virginia in the fall and especially Cox Farms. I guess Pa's will have to do in a place where it's pretty hard to find the real thing.

A Little Bit Pasa Doble, A little Bit Vienese Waltz

For Doug's birthday, he took the day off work and we went to the taping of Dancing with the Stars on Monday. We had so much fun even if we didn't get on TV, although Doug swears he can hear himself clapping. Of course we cheered loudest for Marie Osmond and got her to look over and wave at us. We would definitely go again!

Self Portrait

When asked to make a self portrait at school, this is Spencer's masterpiece. Should I be worried? The painting next to it that looks like fire is James' latest painting from preschool.

That's What Little Boys are Made of

There is nothing greater for a little boy than a big pile of sand at the beach!

Hamster Time

While I was at the Relief Society Broadcast on Sept. 29th, I came home to find the boys had convinced their dad to buy them a hamster--two to be exact. I am not a lover of small rodents in my home, but the boys love having a pet. I guess one good thing about having hamsters is they watch a little less TV because the hamsters are running around in those hamster balls entertaining them. Let's just hope they don't get loose like my brother Danny's hamster always did.