Halloween '08

Yeah, I posted these pictures last year. But who wants to go looking through my archives to see them again? That's what I thought.

 So. Last Halloween in review. We put Little Boy in an apron, gave him a handful of Sharpies, and let him have at his pumpkin. He took it very seriously, as you can see--he always sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating.
 

 And here's the two of us (Isaac didn't dress up). I was a pirate--argh!--and Little Boy was a clown. You can see a little bit of his costume at the bottom of the photo. No face paint for him--he hates gooey things.


This Halloween will probably be a lot like the last one. Light on candy, heavy on "scary" movies. Y'know, like "Ghostbusters" or "Casper". The really terrifying ones. Oh, and we'll dress up. We have some...different...costumes planned for this year.

Little Boy's First Halloween

Lately I've been noticing the fact that--duh--Little Boy isn't a baby anymore.

So I was being all nostalgic and looking at pictures from when he was a baby, and I found one from his very first Halloween. He was less than two months old. My mom made him a little orange hat with a green stem on it:

 

The little punkin. Of course, he couldn't be bothered to wake up for the picture.

Little Boy's Uniform

Little Boy has two items of clothing that he wears every single day. One is the little hat from his birthday, which I mentioned here. The other is a pair of Lightning McQueen slippers that I got from a clothing swap at our church. I was going to hide them and save them for Christmas, but he saw me walk in the door with them [he was supposed to be in bed by then. Heh.].


He literally wears them from morning 'til night.


And if we accidentally leave them at Grandma's house, well...I'm sure you can imagine what happens then.

Dancing Zombies

In the spirit of the Halloween season:

Ramalama - SYTYCD Wade robson Uploaded by 8chris8. - Watch original web videos.

You Have Not Failed

{source} "Rear your children in love, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Take care of your little ones. Welcome them into your homes, and nurture and love them with all of your hearts. They may do, in the years that come, some things you would not want them to do, but be patient, be patient. You have not failed as long as you have tried.” -President Gordon B. Hinckley

Halloween Recipe: Blood and Guts Potatoes

Doesn't that sound gross? And honestly, I thought this would be a blah recipe--it's just potatoes and mozzarella cheese and ketchup. But I made it anyway, just for the Halloween factor. And man, was I wrong. These potatoes are delicious. Just trust me on this one. From Food Network: Blood and Guts Potatoes

Ingredients

• 4 baking potatoes
• 3 balls fresh mozzarella, diced
• 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup, plus more to decorate

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Prick the potatoes here and there with a fork and put them into the oven, straight on the wire rack, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on their size.

Take the potatoes out of the oven and let them cool down a little before you handle them. Carefully slice each 1 in half and scoop out the fluffy potato flesh into a bowl, reserving the skins.

Put the diced mozzarella into the bowl with the potato and add the 2 tablespoons of ketchup. Mix with a fork and then spoon the filling back into the potato skins.

Sit the loaded potato skins on a lined baking sheet, and dribble over some more ketchup in a gory blood-dripping kind of way. Put back in the oven to cook for 15 minutes, by which time the cheese will have melted and the potatoes be warmed through.

These Little Ones

{source} “Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these His little ones." -Gordon B. Hinckley

Pickin' Punkins

Guess what--these pictures are from yesterday. I know! Usually I'm blogging pictures from at least two weeks ago.

Anyway, Little Boy got to pick out a pumpkin from his grandma's garden yesterday. (Yesterday! Yes!) He had three choices:

 
[But before we pick, we have to stop for a little cheeeeese.]

 
Eenie, meenie, miney...

 
...moe! We have a winner!

 
He picked the one with the cool scars on it. Awesome. This pumpkin will be one scary jack-o-lantern.

Little Boy Quote of the Day

 Little Boy: "I'm gonna purple comb my brown hair!"

Shyness in Candy Land

{source}

[Side note: I remember playing this old-school version of Candy Land at my grandma's house when I was a little girl. Good times.]

Little Boy went to his best friend's [okay, my best friend's daughter's] birthday party today. The party theme: Candy Land. Awesome, right? It was pretty fun. All the kids had a good time.

Little Boy said he had a good time, too, but...he's just so shy. Whenever we're in a social situation, he spends more time with me than with the other kids. I've tried encouraging him to go play; I've tried not encouraging him to go play. I've tried putting him in more social situations, but it hasn't seemed to make a difference.

Here's what really bothers me: the fear that it's my fault. Maybe I'm sheltering him too much, but I don't notice it. Maybe he picks up on my nervousness when I'm around other people [family and best friend's family not included].

And I do get nervous around other people. I can remember being just as shy as Little Boy when I was a little girl. Did I somehow pass that on to him?

I'm definitely better now than when I was a kid, though. That gives me hope.

Yay for General Conference!

I'm loving General Conference so far. More later.

Quote of the Day: Two Quotes for the Price of One!

Kaylyn: "Rrrrggghh! [pause] ...that was my soul talking." Isaac: "Hey, crumb cruncher!" Little Boy*: "I'm not a crumb cruncher! I'm three." *Translated from toddlerese: "I'm nah a tum tunchah! I'm fuh-lee."