Crofts Beware!!!

The following is a re-enactment of text messaging between Cody and I:

Teri - Our front window looking out

Cody: What is that?

Teri - Around 200 Croft family Christmas cards from last year

Cody- Holy crap they started a fire they are not going to be able to fight

Teri- I know! So excited, can't wait to get them back!!

Cody- They have no idea!

Dear Crofts: 

Consider this your warning!!! Bwahahahaha

Sincerely,

The Fry's : )

Trunk-or-Treat

Mason the Lion

Chloe the Gnome

Gavin the Vampire Ninja

Madisen the witch

Braving the snow to attend our annual Trunk-or-Treat

Taylor-jailbird, Teri-crazy cat lady, Megan-ghost, Faith-baby, Mason-Lion, Madisen-witch, Gavin-vampire ninja, Chloe-gnome

Waiting in the warm van for the Trunk or Treat to start

The cutest little gnome on the face of this planet ever!!

ROOAAARRR!!

The Goodell's

Chelsea's kiddos-Jackson, Thatcher and Isabelle

Jackson had absolutely no interest in looking at the camera for me. It's like he was subliminally telling me "eat my tail lady!!" ; ) 

Liz & I

Megan "mysteriously" ended up with two super sticky suckers

We skipped the potluck because frankly:

 7 kids in costumes + bowls of chili + only 2 adults= 

not very much fun at all for me

So instead we headed home, ordered Pizza Hut and rented Madagascar 3

First Snowman

We woke up Thursday morning to a blanket of snow. It came on the 25th, just two months too soon. Gavin was super excited and couldn't believe it. As soon as he got home from school he went straight to the backyard and built a snowman all by himself then he came and got me, the grapes and a carrot to complete the face.

My little vampire and his creation

 His first Gavin made snowman

Gavin's "must have's" for the past few days: his green vampire teeth and his spider ring

Pumpkins and Parties

This year we I decided we were going to paint our pumpkins instead of carving. Gavin is grossed out by the guts and Mason & Chloe are too little to carve so we were ALL going to paint our own pumpkins this year. My idea ended up backfiring. Gavin wanted a bat, but not just any bat, the bat below. He asked me to paint it for him, then I ended up doing Mason's, Chloe's and mine. So much for getting everyone involved!

 

 Gavin picked out the colors and I painted it

 Gavin picked out Frankenstein for Mason and a cat for Chloe

 Cody did paint his own and when shooting it with his bb gun (above) and didn't get quite the effect he wanted he decided to drive an arrow through it (below)

 Cody's goblin

 My spider

 

 Gavin's bat

 Mason's Frankenstein

(he kept calling it a witch)

Chloe's Cat

 We had a Halloween themed Birthday party to go to so I got the kids dressed and then we Trick-or-Treated daddy since he isn't going to be home on Halloween

Cody and a freaky vampire

 Sadie as Effie Trinket from Hunger Games

 Taiya the birthday girl

 Savannah and Eric

(not even lying Eric's costume freaked me out!!)

Treysen as Frankenstein

Everyone dressed up and there were so many good costumes. There was spiderman, ninja's, pirates, Glenda the good witch, and lot's more. I should've taken more pictures. They even made their basement into a spook alley.

Awesomest Day!

I had an awesome day and want to remember every detail so here it goes:

First of all I got to wake up next to my hubby which is always wonderful and doesn't happen nearly enough. He let me go back to sleep a little bit longer while he got Gavin up and ready for school and then we all ate breakfast together.

While Gavin was at school we went shopping for our new front door which may sound boring, but it feels so good to do "normal" things with my hubby, so it rocked!

Then I watched/sort of helped him install the new door while I occassionally interupted him with hugs and kisses. Then I worked side by side with him trimming all the trees and loading branches in the back of the truck. There is nothing like some good hard work to make you feel good and I love the results when you are done.

That night we headed to the Wild Adventure Corn Maze by Blackfoot. We took the exit and there was a man there adjusting the sign. We turned right (the way the arrow was pointing) and drove and drove and drove. We were almost to Firth when we decided to turn around. We got back to the sign and the man had taped another arrow over the previous arrow but now it was pointing left!! We drove followed the new arrow and found the corn maze only 1/2 mile from the exit! Nothing like going 20 miles out of the way. All we could do at that point was laugh about it.

 Finally at the Corn Maze!

 The kids in the inflatable toys

 My wonderful family

 Mommy and her kiddos

 Filling in the animal track on the kids sheet

They got a piece of candy for filling it up

 They had fun "slides" there that we all (minus Chloe) went down. Gavin and I were racing each other.

 Mason wasn't sure what to think about all the bumps

 Cody even had fun doing it

 Getting ready to go on a train ride to the pumpkin patch

Decisions, decisions

 Gavin picked out a "blue" one

(It's white with a blue tone to it)

 Chloe with her "bumpkin" she picked out

She insisted on carrying it to the van

 Eating cookies to hold them over until dinner

(something Grandma B. is infamous for!)

We got in the van and were getting ready to leave when Gavin realized he forgot his gloves. I took him back to get his gloves and was reminding him that he needed to keep track of his things better when I looked over and saw MY umbrella stroller over by the train stop. Then Gavin was repeating to me what I had just told him!

Once in the van we cranked the heater and talk about our favorite parts of the night. We were there a lot longer than we were expecting to be but it was a lot more fun than we expected too.

We put on some Eric Church (something about the outdoors and fields makes me crave Eric Church music) and we headed to Rupe's for a very yummy, very late dinner.

On the drive home the kids fell asleep so we were able to have a long adult conversation with no interruptions and to finalize our plans of paying off our remaining debt. It feels so good to have an end in sight and then the possibilities are endless!

We got the kids to bed and I had help so it was fast!! (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE having my husband home?) I could hear Chloe giggling hysterically as Cody put her to bed and it made me smile.

Then we snuggled on the couch and watched a movie together : )

Wasn't that the most awesomest (a real word) day?"

Appy Sue eee

Appysueee? Chloe started saying this a few weeks ago and then Mason joined in with her. They would just randomly say it. I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought at first it was apple sauce or apple juice but she can say all of those words nice and clear. I just quit worrying about it and laughed and/or said it back to them when they would say it. Chloe would say it in her voice and then right after say it in a deep monstery (it's a word believe me look it up in "Teri's Dictionary of made-up words) voice. It was so funny!

Cody got home and it was driving him crazy that he didn't know what it was and he spent the entire week trying to figure it out too. It wasn't until the night before he left that he figured out that it meant "Happy Birthday". The mystery is finally figured out, but it was almost more fun not knowing. So Appysuee to anyone having a birthday today!

 We went to the Fire Department open house. Gavin, Luke and I crawled through the "smoky house", the kids got to see the fire trucks, climb in the ambulance, eat cookies, got coloring books and even got their very own fireman hats and badges.

 Chloe looks so BIG and grown up all of the sudden! I can't believe she is going to be 2 in just a few short months.

 Gavin loves to eat hot dog buns with ketchup and no hotdog. I have one word for that: NASTY!!

 Gavin trying to teach Chloe how to play his Leap pad

 Daddy spoiled the kids and make them CHOCOLATE pancakes with CHOCOLATE CHIPS!! Nothing like starting off the day with a huge sugar high!

 Chloe chilling with dad at the computer

 Giving daddy hugs

Mason and Chloe are always wearing everyone else's shoes, but are always taking their own off every chance they get! This time they got into Gavin's shoes.

Other Happenings:

We have needed a new front door for a while. When Cody was home last time our doorknob started acting up and you would have to sometimes jiggle it a little to get it open. He didn't have a chance to get a new one put in before he had to leave again.
After he left it got worse and worse. It took a lot of jiggling and pushing on the door to get it open and a few days before he got home it quit all together. I could not get the doorknob to budge, at all!! We couldn't even use the front door so anytime anyone would come over I would either have to talk to them through the front window (super rude and embarrassing) or meet them at the garage door and let them see my super big mess I have going on in there (embarrassing). Good thing it was mostly just friends and family that came by those few days.
I am happy to report that we now have a new door complete with a fully functional door knob! Who knew going out your front door could be so exciting!! We just need to finish up a little trim work on the outside of the door and we are done. : )

On a sad note our ward got split on Sunday. Everyone on the other side of the canal went to one ward and a few families just around the corner from us ended up into another ward. It was a sad day with lots of tears. Half of our Bishopric is gone, most of our Young Women's leaders and presidency, our awesome Primary Chorister and both of our amazing Sunday school teachers. It's going to be weird at church for quite a while until we get use to it. Good for the other wards, sad for us.