Pumpkin Time!!!

Our Family!!!

We decided Grayson might be a little too small to handle a sharp object, so we bought a couple packs of stickers from the dollar tree and let him go at it. He had a blast!

The Finished product

My Geeky Husband carved the symbol from "Zelda" haha! No one except my little brother (who is also a big geek) has recognized the symbol! But if you knew the symbol, you'd think he did a great job!

I carved Scooby Doo... Imagine that. It looks better in person but I'm happy with it!

TRUNK OR TREAT!

Wednesday night was our combined wards' Trunk-or-Treat Haloween party. Barry and I have been planning this day forever. Back in March or so, we decided that we were going to do a family theme. Originally we decided to be Chewbacca, Princess Leah and Hans Solo but we decided to stick with something a little cheaper. This year we were a Knight, Princess, and Dragon. It took me an hour to do my hair... but it was fun because it felt like prom all over again. And Grayson got his growl down pat, but he missed his afternoon nap so by the time the party rolled around, he was exhausted. He spent the whole party staring off into space with glazed over eyes. I chased him around the whole party just trying to get one good picture... I think we got a few decent ones. We are going to be getting professional pictures done in our costumes... haha! I can't wait! Anyway, even with a cranky tired Grayson, we still had a blast! The funniest part was when people still asked us what we were supposed to be. And several people thought Gray was T-Rex!!! Seriously people... a knight, princess, and T-Rex??? THat doesn't even make sense!!! But I thought the best costumes of the night were The Sullivans. There is a couple in our ward who has seven boys so she dressed up like Snow White, her husband was prince charming, and all the boys wore white beards and names of which of the seven dwarves they were! haha! I love Haloween!!! Barry and I have already started planning for next year's costumes!

Getting closer!

Haloween is one of those Holidays that I ABSOLUTELY love!!! If I had more money, I would replace all the decorations in my house with Haloween junk, but alas all we have is a vampire doormat from the dollar store, and a witch's hat I made for Relief Society. But, the best part about the holiday (Nope, it's not the candy!) is carving pumpkins! This year Grayson got to pick out his own pumpkin so we took him to "The Pumpkin Patch". A local church in town sells the nicest pumpkins, but at Highway Robbery prices. A normal-sized pumpkin is about $10 bucks. So we let Grayson wander around for about an hour while we snapped pictures and then left without buying anything. Thank goodness for Walmart! We got our pumpkins for $3.50. Anyway, we will be carving our pumpkins tonight after the ward party... YEAH FOR TRUNK-or-TREATING!!! I am so excited! So here are just a few pictures of Grayson at the pumpkin Patch.

Oh, P.S. If you are wondering why there is grass in Grayson's hair... It's because he was more interested in pulling up grass and throwing it, than he was the pumpkins.

Games

Barry and I have a very interesting marital quirk. We are extremely competitive at very stupid things. This goes far beyond the rock, paper, scissors game we instigate every poopy diaper or bed time. While we were dating, Barry and I would often compete in a little thing called "The Straw Game". The rules are this: Insert a straw in your mouth. Be the first one to get the opposite end in your nose. No hands allowed. It sounds outrageous and disgusting but we have introduced the game to hundreds of people and Barry usually comes off conqueror. Another competition would be what we call, "Block-etball". Grayson has a tub full of blocks which occassionally get dumped and left on our living room floor. For Block-etball we divide the blocks into two seperate and equal piles. The blocks tub gets placed across the room from where we are sitting, and then we both take turns launching the blocks into the tub, as if we are shooting a basket. Whoever makes the most shots, wins. But we usually end up dumping the tub back out and repeat the game. Barry usually wins this one too.

The other night, we were both clapping for some cute thing that Grayson did and it turned into "The Last Clap" game. We clapped and clapped, trying to be the last one to clap. After about ten minutes of this game, Grayson started joining in; staring at us bewildered and clapping. Finally, we agreed to let Grayson have the last clap so both of us would lose together. It was a hard forfeit, but Grayson won.

Two nights ago I raised my eyebrows up and down and Barry did it back to me. Then I did it again. He did it again. And then it morphed into who could raise their eyebrows up and down the longest. That game didn't last too long because we both burst out laughing.

There's also the "Bed Dance". I promise it's not as bad as it sounds. I get a little loopy if I stay up too late, and this loopyness produces the Bed Dance. It usually ends up with us about to fall asleep, and I call out, "Bed Dance" and we both start flopping around like fish. And of course, it turns into a competition to see who can flop around the longest. This game is highly efficient though, because it often leads to a quick shut eye.

And of course there are the regular games. We play Scrabble, Boggle, Yahtzee, Skipbo, and Phase Ten ALL the time! When we play one on one... we play for blood. And recently, I've finally achieved Barry status at Guitar Hero so it's actually challenging for him to play me. And sometimes I actually win!

What I'm trying to say, us Ricks are very strange people. Most of you non-families members, don't see this side of us, but it is there. We are extremely competitive... and it is what makes our marriage so great!

It's official.

Alright. Here is the news you have all been waiting for. Barry and I are BUYING A HOUSE!!! I apologize for those of you who have heard the story already but:

A few weeks ago, we got a letter stating that our apartment rent was being raised by $100 bucks. They have been updating all the empty apartments to these BEAUTIFUL tiled places, and our retro orange shag carpet, straight out of the seventies apartment rent would only be 20 dollars cheaper than the nice apartments, and they wouldn't even update ours. We, well I was extremely upset, so Barry, trying to cheer me up, took me to get hamburgers and icecream. We were driving around eating (and venting) when we drove past this cute little house on this cute little street.

One of the ladies in the musical I'm directing is a realtor, so we called her and she said she would meet us over at the house. She came right over, let us in, and we fell in love with the house. It's just two bedrooms but it has a lot of storage space and a HUGE back yard! We also found out that it is EXTREMELY Cheap, and with taxes, the mortgage payment is CHEAPER than our new rent. We prayed about it, went to the bank just to see if we could even qualify for a loan, and got approved for just the right amount! We both feel REALLY good about this decision, so we made an offer, got a counter-offer, re-counter offered, and the seller accepted our bid! AND, we are getting a new Stove out of it! haha! So, we are VERY VERY excited! The best part is my Extremely Worrying mother, said for some reason she also felt really good about our decision! That's a BIG DEAL! Sooooo... We signed the paperwork and now are in the process of closing.

The only bad part is that we have to wait until December 8 to move in!!! Fortunately, "winter" doesn't even start here until February, and ends in March! haha! So, BRING ON THE STRESS! We are MOVING to our FIRST home! YEAH!

And eat it too!

I've recently discovered that I really enjoy baking and decorating cakes. I've never taken a class so I can't do any of that amazing fancy stuff but I still enjoy experimenting with the frosting kit I just bought at my own yard sale! (We joined with three other families).

So here are my newest cakes:

And for the record, that pirate cake did not come from my imagination. That would be amazing! I got it from Familyfun.com... one of my favorite websites and magazines in the whole world! But I did make up the strawberry, german chocolate, caramel cake. Anyway, it's kind of nice that I can use this developing talent as a sort of service. I've been able to do a cake for a baby shower and two birthday parties. It's helped realize that there really are THOUSANDS of different ways we can serve others. I can't complain anymore that there aren't any opportunities for little ol' me to do service in little ol' Carlsbad. I just have to be creative!!!