I love a sweet deal.

So you know those blogs that show sweet deals people get on groceries through coupons and such? They show a picture of all the food bought at the awesome low price of like $17.50 or something. I always think it would be great to start really clipping coupons and getting all into that, but it hasn't happened yet. BUT - as some of you know, I do love a good bargain. Today we went to Walmart and totally scored on their leftover Halloween stuff. All of their Halloween merchandise was NINETY PERCENT OFF. We got $250 worth of costumes and such for about $25. Now THAT is a sweet deal.

Here is all our loot:


We got ten costumes, three wigs, tons of accessories, two candy bowls, a bunch of plastic cups, and two big buckets. Pretty sweet, right?

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween, we decided to be characters from our favorite movies. James went as the little boy from The Polar Express! He looked adorable in his blue bathrobe and slippers, and he carried a bell and a golden Polar Express ticket.


Here he is with his Daddy at Jonathan's work party - we didn't wear our real costumes to his work party, just because we figured most people would probably not get it. But, we did dress up - I wore a witch's hat and Jonathan went for this 70's look. He was actually quite a big hit.


For our real costumes on Halloween, Jonathan and I went as Howard Bannister and Judy Maxwell from the movie What's Up, Doc?. If you haven't seen this movie, you've got to. It was really fun to dress up like this, since we can quote almost the entire movie. My family recognized who we were right away (which is always good) and got a big kick out of it. I think Jonathan pulled off the nerdy music professor look very well. He even carried a tuning fork in his pocket and a bag full of rocks. We got matching plaid bags at Walmart, and we found Jonathan's sweet suit and my awesome hat at DI.

Happy Halloween! I hope it was a great one for everyone. Go check out the Halloween Carnival that my cousin's wife is hosting on her blog. There is even a prize for the winning costume, so head on over there and participate!

Pumpkins & Family Home Morning

James was so excited to get pumpkins this year - just like last year! He has learned a little about pumpkins recently (what with all the pumpkins on people's porches), he knows that they are orange (which is the color we are working on - he's got red down!) and he is pretty good at saying the word "pumpkin" (although it is very similar to the words "pine cone" and "penguin").

Yesterday for our *Family Home Morning activity we bought our pumpkins, and man he was so excited! Here he is, waiting in great anticipation...



This boy loves to go out on our front steps and look at the "beeg" (big) pumpkins. He can tell you which one is his (the smallest one), which one is Mama's (the medium one), and which one is Daddy's (the big one).

What fun it is to have kids around the holidays!



*Because of our family's schedule, we can't have Family Night on Monday nights. So, we decided to have "Family Home Morning" on Monday mornings. It has been so much fun and a real blessing in our lives.

Back before James was born, Jonathan and I were both in school and would get home late on Monday night, eat dinner, do homework and struggle to fit Family Night in because we were so tired and trying to do so many other things. We were in a Sunday School class one Sunday where we were discussing Family Home Evening, and somebody made a comment that totally changed our Family Nights. They said that one thing that had worked for them was to just designate the entire evening as family night, instead of just trying to fit it in and get it done and check it off the list.

We thought this sounded interesting, so we tried it. It turned Family Night from something we had to get done to something we really looked forward to! We decided that from the time we got home from school in the evenings (or from dinner time until we went to bed) it was family night. We didn't do any homework during that time, we just spent time together, until we went to bed. This helped to make it more of a priority, and, frankly, more of a party. It was almost like a second date night to look forward to.

Although it is hard sometimes, we try to do the same thing now. All morning long is family time, and we really look forward to it!

A few random pictures found on my in-laws' camera...

So I found some great pictures on my in-laws' camera and just had to share. These are great.

This picture was taken last October when I was pregnant with James. Look how huge and exhausted I look. Good times.


I am guessing this was on Halloween. Not sure what Anna is supposed to be, but Spencer is that funny Wendy's guy from those Wendy's commercials. I am pretty sure he got this awesome costume idea from my brother-in-law Jeff, so I've gotta give him credit, cuz that is a really funny costume.


Rebecca has the most gorgeous hair, and it looks like they were straightening it. Doesn't she look excited?


Classic Anna face. Getting Anna (and Spencer too, for that matter) to smile naturally for a picture is like pulling teeth.


This is what you get when you grow up on a farm.


The cute Daniel & Bethany Boster family - I love these guys!


Joseph is hard-core.


Funny picture of James, love the eyes.


Jonathan's parents and the huge watermelon they grew in their garden.


The fam weeding the garden. I helped too, I swear - I was just already in the swimming pool when this picture was taken ;)


What makes a farm even more fun on a hot summer day? A swimming pool.


A fun photo shoot they did with Rebecca. She is so cute, I love these pictures!

Jonathan's alter-ego costume

My mild-mannered husband couldn't decide what to be for Halloween - here was the runner-up costume.

Trick or Treat!

James' first Halloween was quite the exciting day. He got to dress up in two different costumes and go trick-or-treating for the very first time! By next year he'll be a pro!

Here is our little Superman all ready to go! He got to go to Aunt Annie's work and go trick-or-treating! He just loves his plastic pumpkin bucket and loves to carry it around and put things in it.


Here is our little guy with his cute Aunt Annie at her work. He wasn't quite sure what to think about all the trick-or-treating, but he sure enjoyed holding the candy.


James met a little friend who was dressed up as a kangaroo. Being the stuffed animal-lover that he is, he tried to take her baby kangaroo from her pouch!


Next stop was Grandpa's work, where we changed him into a Spiderman costume (which we got at DI for $3, what an awesome deal!) so he would match Grandpa, who borrowed Jonathan's Spiderman costume. Look at these handsome Spidermen!




Dad's court clerks all dressed as prisoners, it was such a cute idea.


Later we had some yummy homemade chili at my parents' house and had a fun evening with my family.


James was all tuckered out from the long day, but of course he had to go through his loot and see what he got! His very favorite was a round silver chocolate coin, he loved holding it and looking at it. Too bad he couldn't eat it!


Our sweet little Halloween boy -

A Super-Fun Halloween Party

On Tuesday our ward had its annual Chili Cook-Off/Halloween Party. We decided we ought to wear our costumes since we don't really have any plans for Halloween night - and we wanted to show them off somewhere! So, here you have it - Superman, Superman, and Supergirl. We had a lot of fun making these costumes and they turned out so fun. Everyone was impressed by how much Jonathan actually looked like Superman/Clark Kent with his hair gelled and with the little curl in front.

James' buddy Spencer was a cowboy!

James and his Grandpa

Our sweet little sleepy Superman

Halloween, Halloween, lots of fun on Halloween...

Does anyone know that song? I think I learned it in 2nd grade for our Halloween program, back in the days when everyone dressed up for school and we paraded around the entire school for all the kids and parents, and then we had a class party with all sorts of games and treats. Those were the days, weren't they? Not to mention trick-or-treating, now that was fun. We love Halloween at our house and are so excited for when James is old enough to go trick-or-treating!

Since Halloween is coming up, I thought I'd post a few pictures of our past-Halloween costumes for your viewing pleasure. Some of them are just random, from playing dress-up with my parents' costume boxes (they have accumulated quite a collection over the years, and we are currently working on ours! I think we almost have a boxful already!), and some of them were our actual Halloween costumes. Hope you enjoy!

This was when Jonathan and I were engaged, 3 years ago. Abby had a Halloween concert at school that night; it was about an hour before she had to be there, and she had no costume! So Jonathan and I went to work and dressed her up; it was quite fun. We thought we should get dressed up with her. Here are the amazing results...

Notice the sign on Abby's shirt

what a cute couple...

I believe this was a different night at my parents' house, a few days before Halloween. Josh decided to get in on the fun this time...

And now, our *AWESOME* actual Halloween costumes that we wore on Halloween. We watched The Incredibles on our very first date (and on a few dates after that) and we just love that movie, so we thought it would be fitting to go as the Incredibles. I think we were a big hit at our ward party that night!

Here we are in 2006, again playing around with my parents' costumes. I just had to put these in, mainly for Abby in the first picture, and Josh in the second.



And, our actual costumes of 2006. Jonathan actually won the costume contest at work (good old Zonder) that year! This was when we lived on good old Stubbs Avenue in Provo - right between the railroad tracks and the freeway, across the street from the "knife-thrower," on the street which was frequented by the "drug truck" and fancy cars with huge stereo systems blaring Mexican polka music all night long. Aw, those were the days. No seriously, I actually really miss our apartment there, we loved it!



Halloween 2007: We had just moved into my Grandma's house, I was great with child and consequently pretty exhausted, so we didn't put too much thought into our costumes this year. They still turned out pretty cool, though - well, at least Jonathan's did. We found an awesome wig at K-Mart or Shop-Ko that looked like a cross between Mr. Miagi, Moses, and Gandalf. My parents had a walking stick and a long white toga to donate to the cause, and this is how it all turned out:


He had a great time sitting on a chair on our front porch scaring the poor trick-or-treaters. It was amazing how many kids actually fell for it and thought he wasn't real.

Now, here I am with my big belly and my random angel/devil costume I threw together.


Now, aren't you curious what we're being this year?