week 44

Hey guys, blogger is giving me problems...I am having trouble posting...hopefully I can figure it out and post more about our Seaside trip and other stuff later :)

week 43

Week 43 is up! I am so sad to say goodbye to October! It is my favorite month of the year for sure!

Halloween in Levi Landing is quite an experience. We had over 400 kids come to our door. People park all along Thurston road just to trick or treat in our neighborhood. I think it's because all the houses here do it up big. There are inflatables, lights, and in our case, a movie playing in the window with full sound! We had such a crowd outside our house all night! We even put out chairs for people to sit on and watch the movie while their kids trick or treated! I took this video before it got dark but you get the idea of how it looked!

Trunk -R- Treat

Hello all! We had such a crazy weekend! It all started off with our ward's Trunk-r-treat activity on Friday night. There were sooo many people there! We had a ton of fun walking through the spook alley, doing the cupcake walk, playing some other games and eating hot dogs. Then, we went outside (into the pouring rain) and trunk-r-treated our way through the parking lot. It was really fun! I put up a few pictures of the event.

The Young Men decorated the stage as a creepy walk-through spook alley. I think Allison and Lydia went through it about 20 times. They loved it!

Believe it or not, that's Grandma Walburger. She puts this giant witch's nose on her face and no one could tell who she was.

Jillian, Joel, Lydia and a friend hung out for part of the night together. Jillian won and consumed 4 cupcakes!! Ick!

The young women were assiged the face painting booth. Charlotte took her 30 minute shift at the beginning of the night. She was nervous at first but quickly got the hang of it.

These two were hilarious! Maggie was Hermione and cousin Drew was Draco Malfoy. They cast spells at each other all night.

The rest of our weekend was spent in Klamath falls with these two:

How is it that little Mackenzie is married???? She is Casey's brother's daughter. It seems like just yesterday she was this tiny little person. Casey DJ'ed their rocking reception. We did almost every line dance and group dance out there. It was so fun! Did you know there is a line dance to "Thriller?" I didn't.

Finally, I finished the scrapbook page for Maggie's birthday.

a-maze-ing weekend!

We really did have a great weekend! First of all, we got the Booren boys for 4 days. I know that that sounds like more of a burden than a blessing but we just LOVE having them live with us! They are so much fun and everyone gets along so great! We took them to the school carnival, we sat in the hot tub at night, we played video games, had Maggie's birthday dinner and went to church together. I was honestly sad when their parents got back from Idaho Sunday night and picked them up.

Second, my debut as the sacrament meeting pianist went great! I ended up just playing the piano, not the organ but I still felt so good about it! It was fun to sit up on the stand the whole time and I had practiced those songs so many times, that I didn't make a single mistake! Wahoo! Next time I'm asked to do it, it should be even easier! (and maybe I'll brave the organ).

Lastly, for Family night last night we went to the corn maze at Lone Pine Farms. We went out there right after school because they close at 5:00. It was a blast! The maze out there is immense and they have fun clues along the way that help you not get too lost!

On the weekends, they have a "Fright Night" where the maze is haunted. Thankfully, we didn't go when it was haunted.


At Lone Pine, they have lots of picture cut-outs for posing. This was our favorite!

It's Maggie's 10th birthday today and she thought that this was quite a treat!

I'll post more about Maggie's birthday tomorrow, but for now, here's week 42!

emotions and the organ

I had preschool at my house this week. Yesterday, we talked about emotions and feelings. I had each of the kids give me their scared, silly, angry, happy and shy face. I then interview each of them and asked them what things gave them those emotions. Some of the answers were hilarious! I will only post Lydia's out of respect for the other kids' privacy...but her answers made me smile. (as did her faces.)

This is my new hobby. (this is not the organ at the church...just a random pic I found on line...our organ is a bit more simple.) When I decided at age 32 that it was time for me to start learning the piano, I had no idea that it would eventually lead to me learning the organ. I have a great teacher (Sheryl Marchant) who doesn't let me take any shortcuts and expects playing perfection. She also pushes me to go way outside of my comfort zone (playing in the solitude of my house) and play in front of others. Gasp@! I started by playing the piano in Primary which was terrifying but got easier. The kids do not care if you make a mistake. A few months ago, I started playing the piano while Sheryl played the organ for prelude music in sacrament meeting. Do you know what I discovered? No one really listens to prelude music. (which was okay by me). Just a few weeks ago, I started playing the opening and closing hymn on the piano while Sheryl played the organ. Again, because the organ was so loud, no one could really hear me mess up. Finally, last sunday, I played the opening song on the piano with no organ to back me up. It went well. This sunday? I'm on my own... EEEK! Sheryl is out of town so it's all on me! I am so nervous! I am hoping to take one more big step and play the organ for prelude. I have learned 5 songs on it and will just play them really slowly. Anyway, cross your fingers for me...and maybe say a prayer or two. This is so FAR outside of my comfort zone but there's no going back now!

week 41

Primary program #5 is in the books! We had our program yesterday in Sacrament meeting and it went so well! Songs that we thought were going to be weak turned out so much stronger than we imagined! All 45 of our primary kids sang their little hearts out. I say #5 because this is my fifth (and most likely last) program that I have had to write. It has been such a joy to put these programs on every October and I've love doing every one of them. I can't imagine that they will keep me in this calling for much longer. It will be six years in March. That's a long time to be in a church calling. We shall see...the chances that I get to write a 6th program are farely slim I think. Anyway, it went really really great. I also got to play the opening song for Sacrament meeting yesterday...my first time on my own. It went well and I didn't mess up too badly :)

here is our last week...fevering kids and all

Shutterfly

I am getting ready for my annual enormous purchase from Shutterfly. There is a very small window when they offer up to 40 percent off their albums and it is usually around this time of year. It occurred to me that I haven't touched my scrapbooking for quite some time (other than project 365) and if I wanted to get these books ordered for Christmas, I needed to finish them up :)

I still have a bit more of the Millar Reunion to go, but I finished these two last night.

Happily, I finished our California Get-A-Way book (the one Casey and I took in Feb.) last night too. I had it all finished except for the opening page. Here it is! It feels so good to at least get one book done. As soon as I see the special come out, I'll order it for Casey's Christmas.