::i see by your outfit that you are a jedi::

"I see by your outfit you are a jedi too....we see by our outfits that we are both jedis, if you get an outfit you can be a jedi too. Duh duh."

Anyway, here are our outfits.
These are pictures from the ward "trunk or treat" on saturday night.
We had loud star wars music and we used our big black car that reminds us all a bit of a spaceship.

Max is very serious with his obnoxious blaster as Luke the x-wing pilot. He still hasn't seen much of Star Wars, so don't grill him on any details. But we're working on that.


The whole family's theme was built around one thing. That Sandy had to be an ewok. I saw the costume online at some point and knew we had to do it.
And it was perfect. He was the most adorable ewok I've ever seen.



If you want to squish him and squeeze him that's ok. I don't know how you could want to do anything else!
He was a pretty good sport about his hood and only started pulling it off at the end of the night when he was pretty cranky. He's just a good sport generally--we're lucky. And he's adorable of course.

So that's us. We have some more halloween fun to report on tomorrow. But HAPPY HALLOWEEN tonight!

::::

Happy Halloween weekend!!!


(What is that face exactly?)

We're busy busy with all the mandatory halloweeny activities. I'll try to report on some of the tomorrow!

::pinata::

In my family, we always broke a pinata on my birthday--that was the only time we ever did it, and let me tell you what, it was awesome. Our friends the Williams always came over and we sometimes made the thing by hand and it was impossible to break. Joel (the oldest kid) always hit it way too hard and broke it off the string or sent something flying somewhere, and since my birthday is in the middle of winter, we were always inside trying not to break something.

Anyway, awesome memories inspired by a recent pinata experience--one more report on when the Wildes visited.

When we were buying the chiles we went into the little latin market there. And there (along with cokes from Mexico) were a bunch of great big pinatas, all different sizes and colors and characters.
So Kris and Blake chose Woody to bring home and beat the heck out of. I guess it was just too fun to resist.


I love the above pictures with the dads preparing the pinata. They look so serious and earnest. The funniest part is that I had to step in and redo all of the packing in the end because they didn't pull all the newspaper out of Woody's insides, so there wasn't a lot of candy getting stuck in there.

So anyway, the kids waited very impatiently.


We BBQ'd some hamburgers too--though I can't remember if it was before or after. Sandy is amazed and perplexed by all the crazy kid action going on all around him.


Of course, as usual we had to use some bizarre thing to hit at the pinata with. This time it was the gross stinky machete that Kris brought back from his dental mission to Nicaragua forever ago. Sheathed of course--it's not very sharp anyway.


Sandy thought it was all very interesting and fun until people started whacking Woody in earnest. Then he didn't like it at all and screamed!

Annie didn't ever make the baby scream though, she's way too gentle!


I took a bunch of fun video and then sadly I deleted it in getting to know my new camera. Don't tell Max, he'll be much too bummed. But anyway, Max sliced off Woody's body and released all the candy and then the dads took turns going at the rest of him.
And that's all the fun for now. We had a blast with the Wildes and the kids had so much fun playing together. Wish they could come every weekend!

::buggy::

Max's class at school was studying insects way back at the beginning of the year. At that point his teacher told the kids to look for bugs and bring cool ones in.

So several weeks ago when Max found a cool bug he and Kris caught it and he insisted on bringing it to school. I told his teacher that he had a bug and she said "Of course he does!! The kids won't stop bringing them!"

So I guess the bug pulled some hijinks in the classroom that day. He escaped from his little jar and crawled and flew around the room and Max and friends got in trouble taking too long capturing him before lunch.

After the bug's second day in his jar I said it was time for him to go free. I forced Max to take his jar outside so he could go free. There were many tears and sad statements made. The bug was his BEST FRIEND! This was the ONLY TIME I've EVER let him keep a bug!! He LOVES THAT BUG!
But finally I convinced Max that buggy needed his freedom. Buggy hung out in his jar for the evening (happily for Max) and then left for the wild.

It's quite the nature story. Nature Max loves nature.

::::

Imagine this face all contorted with glee over Winnie the Pooh's Cottleston Pie poem.

"Cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie,
a fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie.

Cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie,
a fish can't whistle and neither can I.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie.

Cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie,
Why does a chicken? I don't know why.
Ask me a riddle and I reply
cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie."

--A.A. Milne

Pretty good stuff right? I enjoyed listening to Kris read this to Max before bed tonight and him laughing uncontrollably--almost hysterically really--but it was nice.

::is it genetic?::

Is it genetic, or are laundry baskets just the best toy ever? Sandy seems to be as obsessed with them as his older brother is.

He's as cute as can be.


Baby in a boat.

::grandpa's guitars::

At least a few of them.

When we were in UT in Sept for Murphy's wedding Max had a fun sunday afternoon playing some of Grandpa Ken's guitars.
The Gibson Explorer:

This one was relatively new to the collection. We hadn't ever seen it much. It's pretty cool though.

The Fender Telocaster. Kathy got this one for Ken for his birthday one year. It was one of the first nice guitars he had and he loved it. It's one I remember him playing the most. I love Max's pose here.

This next one is an interesting one. It was commissioned from a polygamist guy that builds guitars. Ken picked out the design and it took the guy about nine months to make it. There's even a blog post about it. Max loves the american flag theme too.

The last one I have a picture of right now is a cool Gretsch. Kris and I picked it out for him when we lived in Kansas City. I think it's a very cool looking guitar.

This is only a fraction of the guitar collection that Ken had. It's a fun one. Next time we're there we'll take a few more photos and share.
(and he did make a book--here's a link to see some of it as pdf if you want to!)

::family::

Today I'm in UT for a quick quick little visit.

I thought these pictures turned out great, besides the fact that Kris is missing. It happens a lot so we're resigned to it by now.

Silliness.

::chiles::

On Saturday we took some crazy kids to lunch.
Then Blake wanted some roasted chiles. And since Santa Fe is crazy with the smell of roasted chiles in the fall Kris was easily convinced to find a spot where we could procure some.
So first you go in and pay the big bucks for a bag of Hatch chiles. And the checker, who barely speaks english tells you a bunch of times that only the HOT chiles are left.
Then you go out and give the guy your receipt and he hauls a huge bag over to the roaster.


Then the roaster turns on and the chiles roll around and around the barrel, dumping spicy seeds everywhere.

When you stand and watch, chile ash lands on your clothes and face and it smells so darn good.


Grace and Kris decided to get the baby out of the smoke.
Evie found a red chile. Luckily she didn't taste it or anything.


There were red and green chiles on the ground everywhere.

And there they are:

And if you think that's a LOT of roasted chile you'd be right.

When weighed at home they came out to be about 20 pounds. Yikes.
But to put the finishing touch on buying chiles, you must dig into the bag after you get home and pull out a big red chile. Definitely don't get the seeds out or cut it up, just stick it straight in your mouth and take a huge bite. Then after saying how darn spicy it is, keep taking bites.
Then when the real spiciness hits, cry.
Drink milk, hold ice against your lips and get your just deserts.
I'm glad I'm married to a crazy man that eats straight red chiles, he wouldn't be my man if he didn't do goofy things like that. But he sure is silly.
And roasted chiles sure do smell like fall.

::oktoberfest::

More fun with the Wilde family from this weekend!
Kids playing made up pool games--sometimes getting along, sometimes arguing, but always having fun.



Kris always likes to have a German Oktoberfest celebration at some point in October. There's always one happening in some little town not too far away and then we miss it.  So we have to do our own.

This was a perfect time to do it. Blake and Kris went to the same mission in Germany, so they were very excited to make some delicious german food for us.
They went shopping together in the afternoon and got all the supplies, then put it all together while Brooke and I watched (and watched the kids.)


Sandy watching the process while eating two of his favorite foods, pancakes and cheerios:

Girls also watching and entertaining themselves.

They made sauerkraut, bratwurst and knoedel with gravy.
They also bought some delicious german chocolates to finish off the meal.

It turned out delicious, albeit a trifle heavy. Some of us girls had complaining stomaches after, but don't tell the boys.

It's always fun to hear Kris and Blake remember their old mission stories. Some of them are so outrageous.  The food inspired lots of good stories.

It was a very fun night!