Off on Halloween Night

Victoria was invited to a Halloween Party so I ran her over there after she ate some chili. She was brave and had a great time!

And it turns out that Justice & Glory were invited to go Trick-or-Treating with the Fifes. So Brett and I were kid-less on Halloween night. Weird!!! With only 5 houses on our street we don't get many trick-or-treaters. Man! We have a lot of candy to consume now! LOL
I did take this picture of the kids before school on Friday! So... here's our Halloween documentation! ;)

A Snickers Bar- perfect for the Chocolate lover

Arrrrg! It's Glor--Y the Pirate! "Gimme ye Bootie!"

El Guapo- Conquistador

Trunk-or-Treat & Chili Cookoff

This year our Ward joined the 1st Ward for their Trunk-or-Treat and Chili Cookoff. It's fun to see everyone in one place and get candy while you're at it!

Dinner was good! Brett got a prize for his Chili. Way to go, Capt!

A Fairytale Halloween

Liberty and her friends are obsessed lately with this show called Fairytail Anime Show. That's all they Instagram about! Literally. Everything is about that! {Teenagers!!! } So naturally that's what she wanted to be for Halloween. A Fairytail Character. She even timed her haircut perfectly to fit with her costume. It turned out pretty cool! She was so happy!



Liberty all dressed up or its it Natsu??? Which one is which? LOL

A bunch of her friends came over early on Halloween day to eat, visit watch scary movies and throw flour at each other. Yes! You read that right!!!! Throw flour at each other! Silly girls!

They got all dressed up and we took them to the Trunk-or-Treat & Chili Cook off at the Church. Then they headed out on their own for some Trick-or-Treating through a couple neighborhoods. Crazy that they are old enough to just go out on their own!
Here they are as:
Liberty was Natsu Dragneel
Shannon was Lucy Heartfilia
Jada was Gray Fullbuster
Marz was Sam Winchester from Supernatural
Katelynn was an Ninja Assassin

 Happy Halloween to our Fairytail Friends!

Ewok Sampson's Halloween Party

Our friends, the Seedalls threw an amazing Halloween Party tonight. It was amazing and there were tons of people!!! She fed us all! She knows how to make everything look like Martha Stewart. She's the bomb!

All the kids got to decorate a bag and then the whole basement was setup with Carnival Games. They broke into teams and went to 4 different stations. They popped a Pumpkin balloon with darts for prizes. They spun a wheel and did funny, spooky tricks. They did a Pumpkin Toss. And got their picture taken at the Spider Photo Booth. Hailey went all out! It was a amazing! They even did a Pinata at the end of the night!

Some more Spider Photo Booth pictures:

In one room, Hailey had set up a "Dead Man Walking" Game. It was hilarious! This is Brian Payne participating. Well... at least what is left of him. LOL

Here's some the Guests. What a fun night! Thanks Princess Leia for a fabulous night!

Carving Pumpkins

We carved our pumpkins that we got from the Farmer in the Dell. One rotted and we used one for our cute stick-in witch so Liberty & I opted to let the others carve away. Great job everyone! 

Liberty chose to paint her nails so they'd look awesome for her costume on Saturday.

Teenage Layers

Liberty got her hair cut and she is soooo happy! Everyone says she looks way older. It's not helpful that she is also now taller than me. What is happening around here? How are my children growing so fast?

Justice's Ropes Course

For School, Justice got to spend the day in Missoula doing a Ropes Course. He is actually pretty scared of heights so I was super surprised when he came home with a whole slew of pictures of him high in the air! 1st- Heights freak him out! 2nd- He came home with pictures!!! I'm so proud of him! (For both)
Climbing Wall

The Rings

The Bridge

Way to overcome your fears, kiddo! 

Proud of you!

Monster Mash 2015

Brett & Justice went out Elk Hunting today and didn't make it back in time. And Liberty did some babysitting so I took Victoria & Glory to the school for the annual Monster Mash. It was crazy and fun as usual!

We got there in time for the Trick-or-Treat Alley:

They found friends and did games for prizes. And they went through the Haunted Obstacle Course:

They even got Cotton Candy before we went home:

Happy Monster Mash!!

Food Storage Room

When we moved into our new home, we made a decision that we didn't want the basement to be unfinished for years. So, we recently bought a few supplies to be able to work on it this Winter. We started with our Food Storage room. Can I say.... I'm sooooooo excited!!!?
Our Church has always encouraged us to be self-reliant.
"We encourage members worldwide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings. We ask that you be wise, and do not go to extremes. With careful planning, you can, over time, establish a home storage supply and a financial reserve."

So...since before Y2K, our family has tried hard to have some kind of food & water supply. We have gone from a zillion #10 cans & big water barrels to rolling shelves and pop bottles full of a 2 week water supply for each family member. We have learned a lot of what we really use and what would be good just for emergencies. We have learned what we like and what we don't!!! ;) And most relevant to this post is that as we built this home- we planned a place to store it all.
The last week or so, our family dragged everything out of the little room, finished it up with flooring and drywall and then put everything back. It looks amazing!!
I realize that I didn't take a picture of what it looked like with everything in it before. Lame!!! But...
We went from this to this...

And this to this....

And after putting together my new AWESOME shelf (all by myself btw), we look like we are open for business! I have a few more things to get and a lot more stocking up to do BUT I Love it! It makes me so happy!

Senior Scones

Brett is teaching the Senior class this year in Seminary. We had them over tonight for Scones. They are a pretty awesome group of kids. They cracked me up with slow-mo selfies pictures and their group basketball game in the dark. Funny kids!

Youth Deer Hunt

Here in Montana, they have a Youth Hunt the weekend before Deer Hunting Season opens. It gives the youth a chance to get out there and shoot something before the craziness begins. And it's also designed to get the younger generation excited to keep up the sport.
Justice and Brett went out with our home teacher, Bro Caldwell & a bunch of other boys & their fathers. Within a couple hours- Justice had shot his 1st deer. Clean shot and everything!! He is so super excited!!!!!
 Justice & Brett

Justice & Brother Caldwell, aka Doc

 Justice & some friends

 Justice with the Kid group & the biggest buck of the day

Brett & Justice gutted it out there and brought it home with the help of Brother Caldwell They hung it in the garage for several days. They skinned it. They cut it up. And we've even ate it a couple times. He is one happy kid! What an awesome Dad he has to help him out.

P.S. Bishop Staley took Brett & Justice out Elk hunting a couple times this year. They didn't get anything but it was super nice of him to teach them the tricks of the trade!

Thailand Trek VBS

Our friends, the Gengers (and their Church family) threw another V.B.S. (Vacation Bible School) this year during the kids break from school. Victoria and Glory attended again. They had a fabulous time and came home singing all kinds of praise songs! I love it!

P.S. I was able to help Jenny out a little in the prep work and our family went over to help them set up. I love getting our family involved in positive community things. Awesome!

Brett's Another Year Perfect

We celebrated Brett's birthday this week!!!

The day before his actual birthday- he had the day off. We went on a date to Cielos- this cute little Mexican Restaurant. We had Shrimp Tacos and Chicken Tortilla Soup. Deliciouso!

On his birthday- we made him a yummy Rib dinner! It's his favorite!

We tried a new dessert- a pumpkin cake thing with yummy icing!

We sang and then he High-Ya-d his candles out! LOL

While we cleaned up, we let Brett go shoot some hoops in our backyard. It turns out he got to play with a bunch of wildlife. For some reason they didn't even budge while he played. Can you see the 4 deer behind him???

We opened presents as well. The kids blew him up some balloons, made certificates and gave him cereal, a superhero jacket and some mula for a rifle thing.

We're really grateful for Brett in our lives. Here's to all your wishes coming true!!!

"P" Scones

We had the Piersons and the Paynes over for Scones tonight. We love having people over!

Mama Rave REMIX

My friend Mishel headed up planning our Mama Rave this time. Thanks lady for planning something! Love being with you all.
A bunch of us went to dinner first. It's always a hoot to get us all together. Mishel loves Jade Garden. The only time I've ever been there is with her! ;) But I have become very fond of their lettuce wraps! Yum! And I love fortune cookies so bring those on (between the sheets! LOL)

A few of us kept the party going with a stop to the beauty supply store and Target before heading to the Gateway Center for some dancing! Always fun to shop with friends!

Ladies over 21, come celebrate our 11th event with a recap of the best things "mama rave"! If you have not been to one of our events, come see what you are missing! Drinks,Water, dancing, door prizes are what we are ALL ABOUT. We are Helena's ( and quite possibly MONTANA's) exclusive girls night out!
Over $1600!!!! in door prizes await you! 
Come check out our photo booth and CUSTOM Big Dipper Ice Cream Flavor...and more surprises!!
Ticket sales will begin September 10th at Spruce Finer Consignor, Sole Sisters and at Holdmyticket.com.

We had a blast at the Mama Rave! I LOVE the Photo Booth! Are you surprised??? And they had Pixie Sticks!!!! I was soooo excited! Can you tell from the pictures?  I brought my good friend Fay this time. She's got some moves, baby! Love that she was brave enough to come only knowing a couple people. But all the ladies adored her! She definitively will have to come next time. They even made a deal that she has to do everyone's hair beforehand. And of course, I have a picture with Kris from every Mama Rave so that is a MUST! Love these ladies!

It's seriously such a fun group of ladies to hang out with. I'm not a great dancer but I love getting out of my comfort zone and being with these girls. We have a blast together! We ALL crawled/crammed in the photo booth together (bottom left) and had a blast with Mishel's Selfie stick. We even did a human pyramid. Cuz we are AWESOME like that! What beautiful women I know!