Duncan's Award

On Tuesday, Duncan was one of a handful of students in his class to get an award for the work they've done in school thus far. Duncan's award was for outstanding effort in math. I think some of the others were for writing, and being a "peace builder", etc.

We came to watch him get his award in front of the student's on his track. The next day was the last day of their track before having winter break, which for their track lasts until January 5, 2009. That's like 6 weeks!

With his award was a coupon for a free kid's meal at Claim Jumper. The girls were picked up for a sleep over at grandma and grandpa McAlister's house that afternoon, so Anna and I took the boys to Claim Jumper for dinner. CJ is not a good place for a kid on the GFCF diet. The only kid's menu item he could have was the two mini hamburgers meal. We asked for no bun. The fries are cooked in oil that is shared with coated onion rings, so they couldn't have fries. We opted for fruit side items instead since the boys like fruit. One side was frozen grapes; not as good as they sound, and apple sauce. Except the apple sauce is coarse, and seasoned with cinnamon. Neither of which the boys liked. So they basically had hamburger patties with ketchup and apple juice for dinner that night. Once we got home, I think Anna gave them each a GFCF cookie, and they were content for the night.

We are very happy for Duncan to receive some recognition for his hard work with math. We hope he continues to do well with all of his school work.

Friday Flashback 11.28

We're flashing back a whole 7 months for this one!

In the spirit of being thankful, here are 4 people I'm very thankful for. As you can see, this was taken April 10th of this year. That wasn't that long ago, but so much has changed since then.

Tegan wasn't walking yet. She wasn't even 1 year old yet either.

Jennan was still in diapers in April. She doesn't wear them anymore. Her hair is a lot longer now. In the picture, she is 2; Now she is 3.

Liam's birthday was right around the corner at that time. He was finishing preschool. Now he is in full day kindergarten.

Duncan was close to finishing Kinder, and now he's a top student in his first grade class.

Fun to look back, even for just 7 months, and think about all the growing that's gone on.

Pasadena Rugby Tournament

Last Saturday I took Liam with me to the Pasadena Rugby Tournament. It was held at Azusa H.S. in Azusa. They had 4 fields, 3 for games, and 1 for warming up. There were about 10 teams that showed up to play. It was a lot of fun to be back in the rugby mix for half a day, even if it was just as a spectator.

Here's Liam (sporting his Pasadena Rugby colors), chilling while I watch a game.


Good times.

Monday Music 11.24

Recently I popped in Blink 182's CD "Take Off Your Pants And Jacket". It always puts me in a good mood.

Here are some of my favorites...

Online Songs



First Date



The Rock Show

To see their video for this song, go HERE.



Roller Coaster (fan video)



Everytime I Look For You (fan video)



Please Take Me Home (audio)




Well, that's almost the whole CD's songs. Lucky for you.

Oh, by the way, they like to swear in their songs, so listen with caution I guess.

I think I listened to some other stuff too, but this is the one that I remember listening to the most.

What have you been listening to?

Friday Flashback 11.21

Duncan and Liam enjoying our piano. This was taken when we were in El Monte, so it's pre-April 2005. I think it's actually from 2004. Liam's up and walking, so it's after May or June of 2004. Anyway, it's from right in there some where.

Duncan's doing a finger walk down the piano keys. This used to crack Liam up, so Duncan was more than happy to make Liam laugh.

One of the reasons I like this picture is because of the shirts they're wearing. Duncan's says, "Rock and Roll Pre-School", and Liam's says, "B is for Bob". We still have those shirts, they're now in Jennan and Tegan's drawers. I think their auntie Kristi gave them those shirts.

Fun stuff.

Great to be 8!

This is a picture of Duncan at "Great to be 8!" on Sunday. Hard to believe that he will be old enough to be baptized next year. That's so crazy. But what a great thing for him to look forward to during the year.

If you don't know what "Great to be 8!" is, it's a small program for all the primary kids that will be turning 8 years old the next calendar year. Anna, as the Primary President, puts together a very cool program. They hear a small talk about the importance of baptism, they go to the font and get a "tour", they tell them about wearing white, they talk about proper priesthood authority, etc. Each child also gets a "goody bag". In it are stickers with church things on them, a small journal to write in, a framed picture of Jesus, I think there's a pencil in there too, I don't recall everything, but they all have a purpose. Duncan is also very much looking forward to becoming a cub scout when he turns 8. Fun Stuff.

Monday Music 11.17

This week I listened to Interpol's CD: Turn on the Bright Lights

Good stuff. These are my favorites...

PDA





Obstacle 1



Untitled (fan video)



NYC



In looking at where these songs are on the CD, it looks like I prefer the first half over the second half.


I also listened to a few songs off of a Love and Rockets CD, but it was my sister's CD, and we were in her car. I don't remember which one it was, but it sounded pretty good.

The End.

Friday Flashback 11.14

This picture has to be from 96 or 97. I'm thinking it's from 96 because my hair is so short. I was growing it out for the wedding (in 95), so it can't be from that year. But it could be from 97 too.

This was taken at an El Monte H.S. football game. Probably a Homecoming game, which would have been in October or November, therefore it's probably 1996.

Look at how young Kelly is.

The Shake Out and Preparedness

I should have blogged about this sooner, but today was"The Great Southern California Shake Out".

A reported 5 million people in California were participating in the worlds largest earthquake drill. It occurred at 10am this morning. I hope that you caught some of the Shake Out on either TV or radio this morning. I'm sure there will be coverage about it on tonight's news as well.

Though you may or may not have been able to participate in the actual Shake Out, it is important to be prepared, especially in California, for a large earthquake. Or if you're not in California, that you're prepared for the disasters that may occur in your area.

It's important to think about what your circumstances may be after the disaster has occurred. There's a good chance you might not be at home, do you have what you need in the car for 72 hours? For everyone? What if you have to leave your car to get home? Can you carry it?

If you are home, and can't stay in your damaged house, do you have what you need to live in your yard? The gas will probably be off; can you still cook food? Do you have enough fuel? What food will you cook? How will you clean it up? "I have to go potty!"

You'll need water. Chances are, that water mains will be busted, and fresh water will not come out of your tap. You do have the water in the tank of your toilet and the water heater (if there's no damage to those), but is it enough? I think it's recommended that you have 3 gallons of water per person per day at the very minimum.

What season is it? What will the overnight temperature be? Can you stay warm? dry? Do you have something for shade?

It's dark at night. What will you use to see what you're cooking? Does it have replacement batteries? How many flashlights do you have? How many batteries do you need? If you have candles, do you have matches?

If you're house is still standing, you'll probably be able to get your clothes, but what if your clothes are under a wall? Do you have clothes put aside for emergencies? What if someone gets hurt? What kind of first aid do you have? Do you know how to use what you have?

Who will you try and contact? How will you do that? If your cell does work, can you charge it? If your cell doesn't work, then what? (Ham radio?)

This is the kind of brainstorming you can do to check your level of preparedness. Try to think of the different times of day, who might be home, who might be gone, what time of year, etc., as I've illustrated here. Can you think of anything else? There's a lot of info at the Shake Out website, and lots of links. That's a good place to look for ideas on getting prepared. There's tons of info online, we just have to use it.

I wish I could say we are fully prepared, but it's an ongoing process. A habit of looking at our preparedness is something we're working on. I think we have enough for 3 days at home, but not in the cars. Three days worth is just a start. Chances are, we'll need weeks worth of provisions. If freeways are blocked or overpasses fallen, it's going to be a while before stores are stocked, or supplies are available. You'll need to sustain yourself and family until then.

I just remembered, you also need to think about entertainment, or distraction for your kids. Having toys and games, crayons and paper, etc. are just as important as the other items on your list. Diapers, wipes, formula, creams, lotions, soaps, all that stuff.

I encourage you to get prepared. Don't go out and spend a lot of money buying everything you think you might need at once. Though, you might need to spend some money, especially if you plan to purchase water barrels. Those cost money. But start compiling what things you do have, and put them together. If you have an extra bag or accessible storage box, you might keep them in there, and keep them in a place to get to quickly. When you put together your shopping list for groceries, add a couple of extra items that could go into that bag or box. Do the same when planning to go to Walmart or Target. Look for sales of larger items you know you'll need, or look for coupons for those stores that sell them. (This time of year is a good time for that.)

I think you get the picture. A lot of us have heard these principles taught to us for a long time, and we brush it off. Try not to do that. The time will come when you'll be glad you had something prepared. At the very least, we know we'll be blessed for obedience to the principle of preparedness, so do it.

My rant it done.

BTW, if you have any earthquake questions, just contact Anna. She's an earthquake geek (in a good way).

UFC 91 Picks

UFC 91 takes place this Saturday. I know that these post are usually only read by those who share my interest in the sport, so I'll just get right to it.

This might be one of the biggest fights between heavyweights in a long time, but it sure isn't an easy one to try and figure out a winner.

Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar On one side you have Randy who is so experienced, and so smart at coming up with game plans for his fights. Not to mention his cardio is off the charts, and he's strong. Brock is young, athletically gifted, huge, fast, strong, and shows no fear. But we did see that Brock's inexperience and ferociousness cost him his fight against Frank Mir, who was able to capitalize on a mistake, and submit Brock. Randy has been knocked out before, so we know that if he gets caught, it might be game over. They both have strong wrestling backgrounds, so if it stays on the feet, Brock might have a better chance just by sheer strength if he can keep up with Randy. Randy might take it to the ground to test Brock's submission defence. If he can keep Brock on the defencive on the ground, he might be able to catch him in something. Who do I pick?... I'm going with Brock to win by TKO. But who knows? Anything could happen.

I'm going with Kenny Florian over Joe Stevenson. I think Kenny's got better stand up than Joe. If it goes to the ground, I think Kenny will be able to fend off Joe's advances. I do think it will be a war. I'm not sure Kenny's got what it takes to finish Joe, so I'm guessing it goes the distance.

I'm choosing Gabriel Gonzaga over Josh Hendricks by decision. I think they're pretty evenly matched, but I think Gabe my have an advantage in UFC experience. It's Hendricks' UFC debut.

I can't believe I'm choosing Jorge Gurgel over Aaron Riley. Riley is making his UFC return, so he's probably going to have ring rust, so Jorge probably has the advantage there. I don't think Jorge is a finisher, so it will most likely go the distance.

Bocek over Robinson by decision. Pretty evenly matched. Both coming off losses.

Hazelett over McCory. Both also coming off losses, but I think Hazalett is a little higher on the experience meter than McCory.

Demian Maia over Nate Quarry. Nate showed some improvement in his last fight, except in his last fight he had to run down his opponent who ran away from him all night. Maia will take it to the ground and submit Nate. I don't think it will take very long for that to happen either.

Matt Brown over Ryan Thomas via choke.

And I think that does it. I'm not as confident in my picks as I was the last fights. In the last fights, I scored my highest points ever: 220! I had 3 fights that I picked be 100% right, and got bonus points. I still only ranked in the 70s. The top scorer had 100 points more than I did.

So if you have an opinion, put it in the comments.

Happy Birthday Bro!

Today is my brother Kevin's birthday. I thought I would honor him with some choice photos...

Happy Birthday Brother!

Picnic With Auntie Kristi

My sister Kristi was in town (So. Cal.) for a few days, and came and visited us too. She came over monday night, slept over, and hung out for the first half of Tuesday. It was determined that hanging out at home was boring, so we went on a picnic. We went to a picnic area off of highway 38 (that leads to Big Bear). There were other people there too, but we found a spot we could explore. It was too cold to get in the water, so we let them trough rocks in it, and stuff.

Here's what it looked like...

just after arrival

Kristi and Tegan doing some bonding

Jennan and Kristi were sliding down this rock

"cheese" (Duncan took this picture)

Silly pose

time for a break

lunch time/photo op

We had a fun time at the stream. The kids liked having Kristi around. She gives them a lot of attention. Not a bad way to enjoy the freedom of the outdoors provided by the veterans that have served our country. A big thank you to all the veterans out there.

Monday Music

I apparently didn't listen to much music this week. The only thing I listened to was "Absolution" from the band Muse.

I like "Time is Running Out"...



I also like "Hysteria"



The rest is ok, they just don't quite measure up to these two. At least to me.

I've noticed I've been trying to select music to match my mood lately, and that's hard to do, especially when I can't find what I'm looking for, and nothing else seems to fit. I think that's how I ended up putting Muse in. I think I want to see if I can choose music to change my mood, and if it helps or just annoys. We'll see.


Well, that's it for this post.

What have you been listening to?

Friday Flashback, 11/7

Anna!

I'm not sure what that look is for, maybe she didn't want her picture taken? This was taken probably in 1996. Maybe 1997, but I think it was 96. Anna is probably 20 years old here. Not a teenager anymore.

This was taken in our tiny apartment in Altadena. Anna is sitting at our dining table, which was in the front room.

This also happens to be one of my favorite pictures of Anna. *Raaawwr*

Anna's Newspaper Article

Anna is featured in a local newspaper today.

Here's the link: Award-winnig North High School teacher shows classes that geology rocks.

Caught On Tape

The kids have been watching some educational DVDs that Liam's teacher gave us. They've watched them so much that even Tegan can "sing" along. I was able to get some recorded before she spotted me...

Note to self...

Note to self... Election day is a good day to go to Disneyland!


I needed to pick up some tshirts for some printing jobs I've committed to (in Fullerton), so we decided to go to Disneyland too. I got out of attending mutual that night (it was a combined activity, my presence was less important), so we could go.


It rained earlier in the day, and that usually thins out Disneyland a little, plus, with most people staying home to watch election results, we figured it would be even that much more empty. We guessed right. Not a whole lot of people were in the magic kingdom. With stops for dinner (yes Josh, at In-N-Out), and the wholesaler, we didn't get in the parking lot till 6pm. That only gives us 2 hours in the park, but it's enough to make us happy.


Duncan requested the "Jack Skellington" ride, so we headed that direction first. We hit up Pirates first though (walked right on), and then the mansion (walked right on). We then made our way to Peter Pan since that line is always long. We figured this would be a night for a short line. Only half true. It was a shorter line, but not by much. It was still 15-20 minutes. But that's better than the 40 or so most other days. After Peter Pan, we went on Dumbo. We only had to wait one cycle (how ever long that it), then it was over to the Storybook Land ride (about 10 or so minute wait). It's not as good at night as in the day in my opinion, but the kids liked it. By the time we got off the Storybook ride, it was after 8pm. Time to head home.


We may not have hit up the number of rides we thought we would with so few people there, but it was sure nice not having all the stroller and pedestrian traffic.


Oh, and if you're wondering... yes, we voted before we went.

Duncan saw some people taking a picture here and wanted one too.

Trash-o-lanterns

The jack-o-lanterns were trashed yesterday. They needed to be put out of their misery.

first day

last day

Our First Stitches, Sort Of...

Sunday evening, dinner was almost done, I was making some lemon bars for the primary's "Priesthood Preview", Anna was finishing up the program and getting dressed to go. Liam and Duncan? or Jennan? were play some kind of chase game in the kitchen where they're running in a circle in the middle of the floor. I had asked them to stop since I was in there cooking and mixing and needing to walk through there. They didn't listen and kept right on going. A moment later, I turned from one counter to head over to the fridge, and as I pivot, Liam's foot catches on mine and sends him head first into the corner of the handle for the broiler door of the oven. He hit pretty hard, and from the angle of the hit, I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. In that instant I hoped it would just be a huge bump, but as I turned Liam over to look at his face/head, sure enough, there's a gash right at his hairline over his right eye, about half and inch long, and it's not just a scratch. I could open it. Oddly enough, it didn't gush any blood. Only a trickle started coming out, but I still rushed him to the bathroom to get a washcloth and some pressure on it. After cleaning it off a bit, it looked deeper than I initially thought, and yelled to Anna that it was going to need stitches. She cam over to see it, and agreed. This is all happening about 15 minutes before Anna's meeting. She calls the bishop, luckily catching him at home before he left to go to the meeting, and told him our situation. He said he would cover for Anna. Right after that, one of Anna's counselors called for something, and we told her what just happened and she also jumped right in to cover for Anna at the meeting. Anna changed her clothes, I packed a quick snack for Liam, and they were out the door.



About an hour or so later, Anna called to say they were headed home. There wasn't a line at urgent care, so they got right in. The gash was cut pretty cleanly so the doctor opted to glue it shut instead of stitched. Anna said Liam was a trooper. He didn't panic or complain. He did what they told him. Anna did say his lip quivered a couple times, and he kept saying sorry. Once they were home, Liam and Anna had some dinner, and it was almost bed time. What a crazy ending to a pretty non eventful day, but a busy weekend.

before

after

Tuesday Tunes

Looks like I forgot to make my "Monday Music" post, but really I didn't forget; I just ran out of time to put one together.

With that being said, I don't really have much time today either, so I better get to it!

I actually listened to a lot of music last week. I was in many different moods and looked for something to match it.

Here's some of what I was listening to.

The Verve, "Urban Hymns"
A pretty solid listen. I think I skipped forward a couple times, but I still liked it.

Here's the main single off the CD... Bitter Sweet Symphony



Here's another song off this CD. It's in a lot of movies... "Lucky Man"





The Stills, "Logic Will Break Your Heart"
The Still are a little known band, but this CD is great. A real solid listen. This is the main single off the CD, and probably my favorite song too... "Still in Love Song"


This one's called "Lola Stars and Stripes"




deftones (they don't capitalize it), "deftones"
This CD was a let down. I believe it came out after "White Pony" which is really good, and I liked the single from this CD so I got it. But the rest of the CD isn't as good. Here's the single and the one song I like..."Minerva"




Run-D.M.C., "King of Rock"
Classic old school rap. Made me want to break dance, and I would have if I was any good at it.
King of Rock (embedding is disabled, so you'll have to go there to see/hear it)



The Walkmen, "Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone"
A pretty good CD. Here are a couple of the ones I like best.
"Wake Up" (I'm really surprised there isn't an official video for this song, so this is a fan video [kind of dumb, but that's all there is])


"We've Been Had"



Well, that's what I've been listening to the past week. Kind of all over the place, but so am I.

Not Since High School/First Time

Anna and I went to Knott's Scary Farm Saturday night. We went with another couple we're friends with in our ward. They won tickets to go from a radio station, and invited us to go with them. I think they said they hadn't been in about 15 years. I went once in High School, and Anna had never been, so we knew it was going to be an interesting night.

Luckily my mom had an open schedule, and a willingness to come and babysit our kids so we could go. Thank you Mom!!

Our friends, Richard and Melissa Bocanegra, picked us up around 5:45pm. We stopped at the Sonic in Fullerton for dinner. Neither Anna nor myself had ever eaten there, so the Bocanegras were happy to expose us to it. I had a double cheese burger, Anna had a regular cheeseburger, and we both had tator tots. I had a diet soda and she had a cherry limeade. Pretty good stuff.

After that, we headed on over to Knott's.

I don't know if it was considered crowded, but there were a lot of people there. It wasn't so crowded you had to walk around anyone to get from one place to the other. We just started walking. Next thing I know, we're in line to go through a maze! Here we go. It was very well done, and the people inside were very good at popping out at just the right time. They startled us many times. We came to the end, and were relieved to be done, but then realise we're being led right into another maze right away! Oh geez, here we go again! More of the same; Good costumes, perfect timing, we were getting scared left and right without feeling scarred for life.

After that, we walked around some more. There were plenty of scary people in the park, and they were very good too. Many of their costumes were great.

We got in line to go on a themed ride (ghostrider?), but the wait was an hour and thirty minutes. We decided we would rather see and do more stuff, so we hopped out of line. We were looking for a headless horseman character that Melissa's sister said she saw a few years back, so that was our motivation for exploring. In the mean time, we went through more mazes; One about dolls, a slaughter house, an insane asylum, a cornfield, aliens, etc. Even one for the new movie Quarantine.

We went on the log ride which had been "themed", meaning it was a scarier version of it's self. It was really well done, and the people inside were very good at spooking us.

We also went to a show. It was called "Fangs" and was about vampires. It was a mix of comedy, with singing and dancing. There was no age limit for the show, but it was borderline "adult".

Some of the mazes had a "3-D" effect if you had the special glasses that cost a dollar, so we got them. They worked, but I almost thought it was more distracting that anything else.

We all went on Montezuma's revenge which was operating, but not themed. Anna and Melissa went on a spinning swing ride that Rich and I opted out of.

The first half of the night seemed to crawl, but then the second half of the night shot by, and before we knew it, it was really late. Later than we were originally going to stay. We got in one last line for the mine cart/spider themed ride. I was not too thrilled to go on, but I went anyway. I survived.

I guess the biggest story that came from our evening is about Anna. We had gotten in line for a maze based on Las Vegas, but it was one that recommended the 3D glasses. We didn't have them yet, so we jumped out of line. We passed by the opening a couple other times as well. At the beginning of the line was a scarily dressed mannequin, no big deal, and the line monitor who was slightly made up. After some time in the park, we realised we weren't taking any pictures. We had our 3D glasses and remembered we needed to go through the Las Vegas maze, so we did. After coming out, we wanted to take our picture with the mannequin at the entrance, so Anna handed off our camera to Melissa to take out picture. In the mean time, Melissa is saying, "I think it's a real person.", Anna says it's not, it's been there all night in the same spot (I was thinking the same), and they go back and forth about it briefly as we are readying to get in place for our picture. Mind you this is all happening about seven feet in front of the mannequin. Anna hands the camera off, turns and steps toward the mannequin, and the mannequin TAKES A BIG STEP TOWARD ANNA AND GROWLS!! Anna lets out her biggest scream of the night as she freezes in her tracks. I caught it all in my peripheral as I too was positioning for a picture. That guy was so still and patient. Kudos to you our scary friend! From that time on, Anna was ten times jumpier.

Fun stuff. We had a great time. I don't think we'd mind going again in the future, so if any of you win tickets next year, let us know.

We only took a couple pictures. Here they are...

Trike-athon 2.0

Liam's kindergarten class held their Trike-athon last Saturday, Nov. 1st.

Luckily it wasn't scheduled too early in the morning so we could sleep in a little from our Halloween festivities the night before. We were assigned to bring a fruit tray to the trike-athon, so Anna went to the store that morning and got some melons to cut up.

Friday I made sure there was air in the tires of the bike he would be riding, and also oiled up the axles, chain, and other moving parts. The bike was good to go. Liam on the other hand, needed some work. Anna had a moment to get Liam on the bike and help him practice riding, but our little bit of cement isn't that big to begin with, plus we've got stuff all over it, and that makes for a lot of turns and slow pedaling.

Anna had to get back to something inside, and Liam was done trying. I finished up mowing our front yard, and took Liam out to practice some more. Liam wasn't feeling it, but got on the bike anyway. Then I told him to follow me, and headed for the gate. He was pretty confused until he figured out we were going to the street, and he perked up a bit. Once we were at the street, I was able to put his helmet on him without much protest, and we headed down the street.

It's slightly down hill going away from our house, so pedaling was quite easy. I had to show Liam how to stop because he was getting a little scared that he kept going faster and faster. He seemed to pick up on that right away, and we made a U turn to head back home. Now it's lightly up hill to our house. A bit harder to pedal. Liam struggled to maintain forward motion, so I helped push him along by the seat, so he would think he was doing good by himself. Now he was excited to go.

Somehow there was some confusion as to when we thought it started because when we got to the park for the trike-athon, it was in full swing. We unloaded and got Liam going. I walked along the bike path a little behind Liam just in case. The other kids were happy to see Liam there, and were a good influence on him to keep going, even if he was slow. Liam did great! There was only one time I needed to help him along on a slight incline. But with each incline, there's usually a decline.

As Liam approached the starting area where he would complete his first lap, the slight decline increased a bit, and Liam totally forgot how to break. He plowed right into another kid from his class who was riding a scooter, and they both ate it. His classmate, Kyle, was just fine. He got back up and kept going. Liam on the other hand, scraped up both knees. They had a first aid kit, and washed out his knees, put a bandage on the worse of the two scrapes and Liam said he wanted to keep going. He was pretty sad about his knees, and went even slower the first quarter of the second lap. As his classmates were on the path and passing him, they were very encouraging, and he felt better, and he picked up his pace. As he approached the end of the second lap, and was on the decline, Anna intercepted him before he got too out of control, but by this time, the riding part was done. Liam only got to ride about 10 of the 30 minutes allotted. He completed two laps.

Once the riding part was over, it was just hang out time. There were plenty of snacks and drinks for everyone. All of the kids got to play on the playground, and there was some picture taking. Then it was time to head home.

A fun trike-athon. Too bad we were a bit late. But still good.

Here are some pictures of the event...

**I titled this post "Trike-athon 2.0" because Duncan did it last year.**

All Hallow's Eve Night

We had a happy Halloween. After Duncan, Liam, and Anna got home from school and work, we packed up and headed out to Pasadena to trick-or-treat in Anna's parents' neighborhood. It's the street Anna grew up on.

I think this was the third year (or more) that we've done that. Each of those years we've met up with Anna's sister Sara and her family for the evening. This year was no different.

The kids got a ton of candy this year. It seemed to me that it was the most they've gotten in a couple years. After trick-or-treating grandma and grandpa's street, the younger kids stayed with the moms, and the dads took the older kids to do another street. After one side of the street though, almost all the kids were ready to be done. We still hit up the houses on the other side of the street as we walked back.

Anyhow, here are the pictures of our night...

Jennan was not a big fan of the tiara.

Ahoy, it's the dread pirate, Duncan!

Liam the muscly police man.

That's our motley crew.

Here's our whole group.

Trick or treat!

We were pretty happy with the costumes this year. Tegan's fairy stuff we bought last year for cheap, and it's what Jennan wore last year. Jennan's stuff came from the 99 cent store. Liam's costume is the same one Duncan wore last year. I think we paid $10 for it, but over two years, that's only $5 each. Duncan's costume was pieced together from a few different places. The pants were bought at a thrift store, the long sleeve shirt from the 99cent store, the vest was from some old cub scout activity, the head wrap and sash were cut from an old tshirt, the gun was probably the most expensive thing for the costume at $2.50. I wore my charlie brown shirt (again), and Anna wore an orange shirt that I printed "This IS my costume!". At our ward "Fall Festival" (Halloween party), she wore an old "Where's Waldo" Waldo costume she put together in High School.

If you're wondering, about the boys' diet and the candy, here's what we did. We knew they would be getting candy they can't eat (anything with wheat or dairy), so I went and bought some things to trade for their candy. I went to the party store and went through their Halloween party favor isle and picked up a handful of little things like pencils, wind-up toys, stickers, themed pens, and I had some hot wheels cars too. So after going through their candy (with them), I pulled out the goodies I got to trade, and let them pick what they wanted of each thing. They were very happy about that. And they still had plenty of candy they could eat.

Hope you had as good a time as we did.

Jack-o-lantern Watch 2008

The jack-o-lanterns are still withering quite nicely.

This picture was taken Sat. Nov. 1st.

Monday, Nov. 3rd

If I remember, I'll take one last picture tomorrow, but then they're going in the trash.