A Hogwarts Halloween

After practically living at the sewing machine for two weeks, I finally finished everybody's costume. (I sewed the last button on Arthur's just a few hours before the Halloween festivities were to begin.) Hopefully it's obvious what we all are, but in case you aren't familiar with Harry Potter, we are Harry Potter (Dallin), Hermione Granger (Daphne), Ron Weasley (Sean), Professor Trelawney (Sharee), and Professor Snape (Arthur). Technically, I didn't sew my costume. I found most of it at Good Will.

We went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat for Halloween which is great, because our neighborhood isn't a very big trick-or-treat neighborhood. Not a lot of porch lights on, and not a lot of kids to be disappointed by the lack thereof. We've had to outsource our trick-or-treating to other neighborhoods the last few years anyway.

So the trunk-or-treat was fun, but the gusty cold winds that came out just for the evening kind of put a damper on the party. Our dry ice potion blew away too quickly, and wind always makes people a little less keen on hanging around. Oh well. At least our costumes were awesome. Here are a plethora of pictures to satiate your burning desire to see them in all their glory.

Getting dressed takes almost as much time as we spent at the Trunk-or-Treat. If you look closely at the trash can on the counter, you'll see the rest of Arthur's wig. We had to alter it significantly since it was originally a long black "Elvira" wig with strands of gray in it.

We gave Arthur's wig a haircut and then added a bunch of pomade for that nice greasy look that Snape has. And we used a toothbrush to apply Sean's red hair color, without which, how could he possibly be Ron Weasley?

Two "Harry Potter" families. The Andersons were Cederic Diggory, Tonks, and a couple of Hogwarts owls.

An unlikely romance has developed between Snape and Trelawney.

Sean never holds still, especially for pictures, so here's a candid shot of what he does best. Run.

Harry and Hermione

After we got home, I tried once more to get just one shot of the three kids by themselves. At this point, they've had a little too much sugar, Dallin's glasses got sat on, I think, and Sean is trying to drink Dallin's glow stick. Nice.

And finally, the "de-Weasley-fication" process.

Jack-O-Lanterns!

We carved pumpkins for Family Night this week.

Here's Dallin scooping out the guts.

Sean wasn't very interested in gutting or carving the pumpkins. In fact, we ended up putting him to bed after he scribbled on his pumpkin and then ran off somewhere--probably to break some more DVDs.

But Daphne and Dallin enjoyed it.
Daphne requested a "cute happy face," which Arthur helped her with.
Very cute and very happy, don't you think?

Dallin designed his very own angry face, which came out great. And those straight lines make for some speedy carving action. It's the blasted curves that take forever!

I ended up carving a face Daphne drew since Sean's design was impossible to carve.
Halloween just brings out the creative genius in us all. Happy Haunting!

2007 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

This is one of my favorite things about Albuquerque. Every year at the beginning of October they put on the annual Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, the biggest ballooning event in the world. It is so much fun, and I think I like it more than the kids. We woke up this morning at 5:15 and headed out to Balloon Fiesta Park. It's normally a 15-20 minute drive, but with all the traffic for the fiesta, we arrived there a little after 7 a.m. The cool thing about Balloon Fiesta is that you can walk around the field and actually watch the whole inflation process from rolling it out to take off.


There are a lot of "special shape" balloons, but I think wind forecasts may have scared some off this morning. The one shape in particular that we all wanted to see was the new Darth Vader balloon from Belgium. But he must have left early because we didn't see him there today, much to Dallin's disappointment. (Mine too, I admit.) But we found a picture of it to show you all because it really is an impressive balloon. Hopefully he'll come back next year.


We did get to see a lot of other cool ones; Clarabelle the cow, The two bees who take off holding hands, give each other a kiss, and then fly separate directions, a scarecrow, a haunted house, and of course the traditional tear-drop balloons are fun too.




After the balloons have all taken off (there are hundreds of them on a good wind day--it's really spectacular) we share breakfast burritos (with lots of green chili) and fresh squeezed orange juice. Mmm-Mmm good! After such a fun morning, we will all enjoy a good nap this afternoon.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mike and Amber!

We were lucky to have Mike and Amber (Arthur's brother and his wife) come visit the last weekend in September. We visited the zoo on Friday while Dallin was in school, and then Saturday, we went to the BYU/UNM Football game. BYU won 31 to 24. GO COUGARS! We just wish Mike and Amber could have stayed longer! We love you guys!

Daphne is feeling a little nervous about that cougar. It was pacing because feeding time was approaching.

Sean and Uncle Mikey

The BYU football team doing the Haka! (a Maori war dance)

BYU FANS!

Big little events

Well, this past month or so, we've had lots of little exciting things happening. At the very end of August, Daphne turned four years old. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she just said, "PINK!" Four days later, at the beginning of September, Sean turned two years old. Sadly, we forgot to take our camera up to Angelfire (where we celebrated his birthday) so I don't have any birthday pictures of him. But he had a Lightning McQueen birthday. He got lots of the little cars from the movie, Lightning McQueen pajamas and Lightning McQueen shoes that actually light up. The great thing about those is that I never have to ask him twice to get in his PJ's or put his shoes on. Daphne had her first day of preschool September 4th. She was a little shy the first day, but now she loves it and enjoys going a couple of times each week. Additionally, Dallin lost his first and second tooth this month, so we've just had big moments for everyone. My big moment this month is that we once again have hi-speed internet (at least for the next six months) which makes me very happy! Hurray!

Daphne and her pink cake

Sean in his special Lightning McQueen shoes

Daphne's 1st day of Preschool

Dallin's first lost tooth

Sean and my Dr. appointment

With my sweet little Sean, there is never a dull moment. To illustrate, here's a description of my most recent Dr. appointment. Dallin was at school, and Daphne at preschool, so instead of getting someone to watch Sean, I brought him along, like it was just another errand.

First off, he insists on bringing in this Lightning McQueen car that is almost as big as he is. So because I'm running late, I don't fight the issue, and he carries it in. Well once we're inside, he got upset about something? and throws that huge car on the floor and starts rolling around on the ground. He made a bit of a scene, but I'm thinking: at least he's not screaming. Thank goodness, that office tends to be very prompt, and I wasn't even waiting two minutes before they called me back. The checkups always start with a routine urine sample. So I'm in the bathroom getting my urine sample (hope this isn't too graphic for you) and Sean decides he's seen enough of the bathroom, and opens the door. (It has one of those handles that you just have to pull down on to unlock, and open.) The bathroom is pretty spacious, so I have to leap off the toilet to close the door before some unsuspecting patient comes around the corner and sees me in all my glory. And of course, once is never enough with Sean, so he does it again, just to keep me on my toes. It was just brilliant.

That, I admit, was the point at which I decided that Sean isn't coming to any more Dr. appointments with me. And of course it didn't help that once we were in the exam room, he occupied himself not with his Lightning McQueen car, but with turning the lights off and on while the Dr. was trying to fill out my charts, and climbing up on the chair and then jumping off over and over, and pressing buttons on the examination table. My doctor was very patient, but I know she had to be thinking, "And you're having another one because . . . ?" She had to be thinking that because I confess, that thought has flitted across my mind occasionally. But then I remember I'm having another one because they're worth it. And I love being a mom. Even when it keeps me on my toes. I can't wait to see what kind of personality this next one will add to the mix.

Anyway, the appointment was short and sweet, thankfully! Even so, when it was over, I felt like I'd been doing aerobics trying to corrale that little boy. I ended up carrying that huge two year old kid, and his almost-as-huge Lightning McQueen car, and the diaper bag out to the car, and was out of breath by the time I'd buckled him in his carseat. I had a doctor once ask me what I did for exercise. I laughed, "Well, I run around after my kids." She didn't even bother to humor me, but dryly replied, "That doesn't count." Oh yeah? Why don't you watch mine for a day, and see if you revise your answer.