ROUND ONE
DING DING DING DING! THANKS FOR SCORING ALL THAT SWEET CANDY FOR ME KIDDOS! :) ELLA AND LINK GOT HOOKED UP AT GRANDMA'S TRUNK-OR-TREAT. THIS IS ROUND ONE OF FOUR FOR LINCOLN AND ONE OF FIVE FOR ELLA. PHEW! I KNOW HER MAKEUP IS A LITTLE DRAMATIC...I AM SURE IT'LL GET TONED DOWN THE MORE TIMES I DO IT. BY ROUND FOUR SHE'LL PROBABLY HAVE NOTHING ON. ELLA IS A FLAMENCO DANCER (COMPLIMENTS OF MY SISTER RACHEL WHO JUST GOT BACK FROM SPAIN) AND LINCOLN IS A PIRATE....AGAIN. THE COSTUME FITS STILL, HE LOVES IT AND AS THE AGE OLD SAYING GOES, "IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT". I LIKE TO THINK OF THIS DYNAMIC DUO AS THE PIRATE WITH HIS LATIN LOVER. OK, THAT'S WEIRD, BUT DON'T THEY KIND OF GO TOGETHER?



ROUND TWO

The city of Hampton, where the dental office is located always hosts trick-or-treating up an down the street. Of course, we had to go. When a man asked Link the stereotypical question, "Who are you?" Lincoln replied as he ripped off his hat, "It's just me- Lincoln!". So cute.

ROUND THREE

This was at our ward's Halloween get together on Halloween. ANYWAY, BY THE TIME HALLOWEEN ACTUALLY ROLLED AROUND THIS WAS THE 5TH TIME ELLA HAD DRESSED UP. SHE DRESSED UP FOR SCHOOL AS WELL (ROUND FIVE FOR HER). SO WHEN SHE TOLD ME SHE WANTED TO BE A BALLERINA...I WAS THRILLED. THIS INVOLVED NO MAKE-UP! AND LINK SIMPLY WANTED TO PUT ON HIS FIREMAN COAT. THEY GOT NO ARGUMENTS FROM ME. THE PRESSURE TO LOOK CUTE ON HALLOWEEN WAS NON EXISTENT. YEAH! As the Young Men's president Jason was asked that they sponsor a game. He chose the donut game and the kids were thrilled. Ella has some serious donut-eating skills of which she got from me.
ROUND FOUR

YES, I HAVE A DOUBLE CHIN. I AM CHINNING FOR TWO! THAT WAS LAME. SORRY. WE ARE COMPARING STOMACHS HERE. THE KIDS THOUGH IT WAS FUNNY THAT HE HAD A BIG TUMMY, LIKE MOMMY. AND I THOUGHT IT WAS PRETTY HILARIOUS HOW UNCOMFORTABLE JASON THOUGHT THIS WEIGHTLESS STOMACH WAS. HE KEPT COMPLAINING THAT IT INHIBITED HIS MOVEMENT. PLEASE.

PS- ON A SLIGHTLY BITTER SIDE NOTE... I WAS CERTAIN THIS BABY WOULD BE HERE BY HALLOWEEN. AFTER ALL, I HAD LINK TWO WEEKS EARLY. HERE I AM THOUGH WITH LESS THAN TWO WEEKS TO GO. UGH. I HAD EVEN BOUGHT HIM A COSTUME. TIME TO RETURN IT! THE FULL MOON ISN'T DOING IT'S JOB EITHER.

Little Cowgirl

Grandma Jewkes gave Ella a horseback riding gift certificate for her birthday last February. We just now redeemed it. It was quite the drive but well worth it. Ella was decked out in her cowgirl boots and practicing for "clicking" and "giddy-upping" all the way there. She got to do everything from brush the horse, clean out his hooves, saddle him, and then of course ride. After she rode for an hour, she got off solemnly and hugged the horses face for about 5 minutes. Then asked if she could go again. So cute. Thanks Grandma!

This picture says a thousand words.

So much to say, so little time

I love blogging and checking all of your blogs. I just have been struggling to find the time to post. Sorry. So, I have a lot to say but as I am typing I have a searing pain in my ribs (thank you baby) and I cannot wait to go home and lay down. After all, it is almost 9 and my body has reached it's upright limit (it needs to be horizontal). So forget the dialogue....it's not that great anyway. :) As you check out all these pictures, one thing is VERY apparent- the seasons have changed. Thank goodness, I felt like I had been sweating for WAY too long. These events are in the opposite order in which they occurred.


Tonight for FHE (in all my makeup-less splendor) we carved pumps, drank hot chocolate, had a fire, and ate smores. Oh, and it was cold. MMMMM, sounds like fall to me.

Then last weekend we went to our local fair where we paid outrageous prizes for our kids to ride dinky rides. I am so glad that they thought it was the coolest place ever. I was glad to be there and pay my admission solely to eat the korn dawgs. YUMMO!












About these blurry pics...Jason had a little trouble with our camera while in Hilton Head ( a beautiful island on the coast of South Carolina) with Lincoln and Grandpa Allred for a dental conference. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Ella and I stayed home and wallowed in our (YES, OUR) hormones. Lincoln still talks about the hot chocolate and fruit loops, that he got to pour all by himself- a very important detail. Thus, the hot chocolate picture. How cute is this little Euro swimsuit? If you have a body like Lincoln's it is DANG cute. :)

PS- On the baby front (cuz I know you're all dying to know), two weeks ago I was dilated to a one , fifty percent effaced and the baby was in between a station 1 or 2 in my pelvis. YEAH! Bring it on. Is it too much to ask to have him on Nov. 1st? I don't want to miss out on the kids' Halloween stuff, but don't want him kicking my ribs any longer either.

Harvest blocks

I had a few requests for directions on how to make the harvest blocks. They are very easy and very cheap to make. Here goes (sorry if I am too detailed...it's in my nature):
1) Buy a long 2x4. Cut seven pieces with these dimensions: 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 (you need two of these), 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 (you need two of these), and 3 1/2 x 7 1/2 (you need three of these).
2) Sand the edges of the blocks. Paint the blocks with craft paint. I like to see the grain of the wood so I put a very thin layer of born on mine. I even watered it down b/c I didn't want it on thick.
3) Make friends with someone who owns a cricut. This is vital. :) My aunt has a vinyl machine so she did it for us. She does ship if you want to order the letters from her. I can give you her contact info. It might take a a few test runs b/c you need three different sizes of letters (my aunt used two different fonts too). Put the vinyl on your cute fall paper (that you already cut a slight bit smaller than the above dimensions to give a cropped look).
4) Next, put the paper with the letters onto the blocks with mod podge (I used matte finish)using a paint brush. Then put a layer of mod podge over that, making sure to continue past the edges of the paper and onto the block, adhering it to the block. You don't need mod podge on the entire block, just the front side. That's it! Good luck!

Some friends came over and mod podged these adorable "harvest" blocks. Thanks to Jana for the idea and vinyl lettering. My finished product is above with yummy caramel apples made by Lincoln and Ella themselves. See below.

What is a girls' night out without chocolate molten cake. YUMMO!!! If you want this recipe it's on our Jewkes family recipe blog (link on the right). It was super easy and incredibly moist and delicious.

I can hardly resist all the marketing ploys during the fall season. There are a million yummy things to make, lost of things to decorate with, and fun activities to do. What can I say....I am a sucker for anything fall and we start the fall celebrations early at my house (in case you couldn't guess that from the painting pumpkins post). Here are some fun fall things we did this weekend.





We got your first pets this weekend! Well, I guess that's not quite true. We are not pet people but three Christmases ago we caved into the pet craze and bought a bunny for Ella that we named Hamilton. Again we are not pet people. Case in point: I accidentally left the garage open when the bunny was "roaming" (we strive for free-roaming, ethical treatment of all animals) ...needless to say, I am pretty sure it was a tasty treat for a fox or some other wild beast that roams these parts. This weekend though we found the perfect pets. CATERPILLARS! Seriously, how can you go wrong? I guess the fact that I have no idea whether or not they are poisonous and could kill my children is a start. Oh well. They are funny looking green caterpillars that we found on our tomatoes in our garden (yum, I know). They have these weird white things on them. The pictures are very blurry but it's the weirdest caterpillar I have ever seen. The type you see on Baby Einstein videos that are exotic.

Someday my prince will come....

Someday my prince will come. That seems to be Ella's mantra these days. She asks me about "her prince" at least a couple times a week. The other day she asked with a tone of exasperation and exhaustion, "Mom, when am I going to find my prince?". Then tonight she asked Jason the same thing and then said, "I think I am going to be shy about my prince". She is hung up on this prince idea and seems to think Lincoln could be her prince. She even asked me how she's going to find him. This is when I chimed in with the good old-fashioned talk about character and finding someone to take her to the temple. Never to early for that. We are a little concerned that she is totally boy crazy. And I might add, that all the boys in her class are crazy about her.

Lincoln has this wonderful (inherently male) habit of picking his nose whenever he is in the car or idle. So we were on our way to church and I noticed he was at work at his nose. He looked victoriously at his finger...he had definitely retrieved some matter from his nostrils. I handed him a kleenex and asked him to wipe it on there. To which he angrily replied, "No, Mom! I am looking at it!". Gross. Only boys. I have NEVER and I really mean NEVER seen Ella picking her nose.

One other absolutely note-worthy conversation I had with Ella this week. (Keep in mind I am very pregnant and getting bigger by the day.):
Ella: "Mommy, is your tummy gonna break when the baby comes out?"
Me: "No."
Ella: "Ooookay. Are you sure?" (I mean really, how else could it get out of there?)
Me: "Yes."
Ella: (with a tone of sudden enlightenment) "OOOOhhh, is it gonna go way down your toes and then come out?".
Me: (hardly restraining my laughs) "Kind of".


These three absolutely precious pics are pics of pics. Obviously. These are her school pictures that I was sure I would not get sucked into buying. How could I resist? I have no idea which one/s I will pick. They are all adorable.
And this is the picture I took when I dropped her off at school for picture day. I guess I was hoping the school ones would be so ugly that this would do.
Pumpkins were $.64 at Wal-Mart and the yelping and begging that ensued when my kids saw them ceased immediately when I decided to spend the $1.28 and fulfill their Halloween fantasies. So, they painted these with me and then the next night, when I was at a shower, they put hair, eyes, and all other parts on with Jason. They were such cute finished products. Then they were destroyed when Ella took hers to class for show-n-tell.

What's more fun than sharing chocolate chip cookie dough with your brother? Nothing.


Lincoln in need of a high-spin cleaning.
The kids and Cooper at a local animal rehabilitation center.