Halloween 2020

We started our Halloween celebrating with a primary trunk or treat in our church parking lot Thursday evening. Since I'm a leader of the activity day boys the primary presidency asked if I would help. They were just having leaders pass out goodies to the kids instead of the whole ward. It was open house style. People would bring their kids around to each car and then they could go home. At first when they asked me to help I was told they were just going to set up tables for each station so I wasn't going to bring anything. I also wasn't feeling like dressing up since I didn't really get to look for a new costume this year. However, at the last minute I decided to wear my old pirate costume and grabbed some decorations just in case. I'm glad I did! It was much more fun and I saw that other leaders dressed up and brought decorations also. The primary had me hand out Halloween pencils and I also brought my own candy. So they got a treat and a pencil at my station. It was fun! Since I was a leader and had to be there the whole time Curtis had to bring the 3 younger kids after they ate dinner. 

With her mask on.

And now without the mask.

Alice wasn't too happy because she had just woken up from a nap. She didn't want to wear her princess crown either. Or maybe it was that she couldn't find it. I don't remember.

Curtis just threw on a wig with his Aussie hat and his sunglasses.

Friday night Nikki had some friends come over for a simple Halloween party. She knew for over a month that she was going to do this but she didn't really plan anything for it until last minute. I had to give her some suggestions for food and activities. She knew they were going to watch a movie but I mentioned the idea of pumpkin carving and she liked that idea. So they started out with pumpkin carving. Then ate some food and watched "I Am Legend". Because they started so early they were done with the party just before 9pm, kind of surprising for a teenager party.

Saturday, the day of Halloween, it was nice to sleep in. We didn't really know what our plans were but Curtis was off helping a guy from work with some plumbing stuff so we couldn't discuss it. My dad called and asked if we could bring the kids over around 2pm to do some grandparent trick or treating and I knew my friends Monica and Seth were going to come over in the evening. We also needed to carve our pumpkins still. Curtis got home around 11:30 and we finally made our plans. We just ate lunch and then relaxed a bit before going over to my dad's. I had texted my grandma earlier to let her know that we were going over so she was there also. That saved us another stop and gave us more time. Tamara was there with her 3 little kids and my step brother Scott and his wife Jill and two youngest kids were there also. The crazy thing is that Garrett and Jill dressed up as the same character, Marty McFly from Back to the Future. We didn't have time to finish finding the jean jacket and vest for Garrett though before Halloween. Honestly, he could also be Steve Irkle from Family Matters if he threw on some glasses, lol. After getting pictures and treats we went to see Curtis's parents.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Minnie Mouse, a princess, a guy with a mustache and knife, Marty McFly and then I said Curtis and I could be muggles (non magic people from Harry Potter). I just didn't feel like dressing up again but I wish I had put my pirate costume on again when I saw Tamara, Scott and Jill dressed up. Oh well, maybe next year.

Trick or treating at Dad's next door neighbors. 

Getting a picture with Gma Vernie and Gpa Tony.

This was at Grandma and Grandpa Butterfield's.

Now it was back home to get Nikki to work and to do our pumpkin carving. We watched movies on the laptop while we carved. Thankfully Nikki had already carved her pumpkin yesterday with her friends so she wasn't missing out.

Charlotte was excited to carve pumpkins and was happy when she could scoop out a bunch of seeds in her little spoon. We save the seeds and bake them with butter, worcestershire sauce and seasoned salt. One of our favorite Fall snacks!

Charlotte actually designed and carved her pumpkin by herself this year. I was really impressed!

Keeping it simple.

She poked her name in the back of the pumpkin and tried to carve it but I finally told her she didn't need to do that. She wanted people to know it was her pumpkin.

Curtis helped Alice with carving. I cleaned it out.

Doing a little trick or treating with the girls after eating taco soup for dinner. We didn't go too far and thankfully they were fine with that. We were gone for maybe half an hour.

It was finally dark enough to light them up. Pumpkins in order left to right - Deedra (mine), Garrett, Alice, Charlotte, Nikki, Curtis. Jack didn't want to carve one this year. We have a couple extra pumpkins we'll just have to save for Thanksgiving decoration. Then cut them open for the seeds.

We weren't sure Monica and Seth were going to show up but just as we were getting ready to start a Harry Potter movie they showed up at the door. The kids were trick or treating to us and I didn't even recognize them at first until Monica came behind them. They hung out for a little bit and then left to go see her brother. I learned tonight that Monica is not a Harry Potter fan and doesn't like dark movies. I have to say I was surprised. We love the Harry Potter series! We got them to watch about 10 min of the beginning of the 6th movie. Then they left to go visit her brother.

Considering the covid situation this year we didn't get as many trick or treaters as usual but we did get some. The boys were in charge of handing out candy this year. And even with covid it was still a fun Halloween!

We stayed up to finish watching the movie and didn't get to bed until nearly midnight. I was not looking forward to waking up for 9 am church after staying up that late. Why do we do this to ourselves?! Thankfully when I woke up I saw that my radio clock said it was almost 7:30 but my phone said 6:30 which is what time my alarm was set to go off. Hallelujah!! We got an extra hour of sleep because daylight savings happened to be that night and we didn't know it.

Getting Ready for Halloween and Our New Kitten

Wow, the last two weeks have been busy! There have been lots of fun things going on to help us get ready for Halloween and in the spirit of the kicking off to the holiday season. Lets start with some pumpkin baking!

Last Sunday Nikki and I baked up a newly acquired recipe of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I got the recipe from a friend at church. They turned out good except we decided next time we'll put in less chocolate chips. They were a little over powering.

Nikki and her friend Angie have been needing to dye a jacket for Angie's costume and they were running out of time and chances to do it since both of them have after school jobs. They had to do it last Sunday evening. They started in the garage using my grandma's hot plate but we had several issues with power and then it just wouldn't heat the pot of water up to boiling. Reluctantly we had to move it inside to the kitchen.

I didn't want to get splashes of black on everything so we covered the floor and counters with brown paper bags and black plastic bags.  When they were done boiling the jacket in the dye we got another black bag and cut the other end open so we could poor it through the kitchen drain without splashing dye.

Unfortunately the next day I did discovered some tiny black spots on our microwave. I used acetone to wipe most of it off but I had to be careful because it was taking the white paint of the microwave off also.

Angie's jacket started out white like Nikki's. They wanted it to be black but this was as close as we were going to get. They were a character from a TV show called Phineas and Ferb, Dr. Doofenshmirtz (two different versions of him)

We also went and picked out pumpkins for carving from Walmart. Unfortunately we didn't get around to carving them until the day of Halloween.

My friend Whitney recently discovered some kittens and a mother cat that were living in bad conditions and took it upon herself to find homes for them. Since I knew we are going to be giving Stardust back to my brother Colby in a couple months after he gets married I started to think about maybe taking one of the kittens. Nikki had already told me that she would like to get a kitten after Star leaves. There were two black females, 1 white female and 1 male tabby. The mother was white. These poor cats have been locked in a crate and not getting fed.  I showed Nikki the pictures of the kittens and of course she started begging me to get one. I then told Whitney that I was thinking about taking one and she said I could come look at them. 

We scheduled to go look at them Wednesday afternoon but then right before taking the girls to preschool/PE I got a call from Whitney and she said I better come right away because the gal who owned the cats was going to get rid of them (dump them somewhere). So I dropped the girls off and the older kids and I drove over to Whitney's place to look at the kittens. I originally liked the look of the black kittens when looking at the pictures. Then on the way over the kids and I were thinking we would probably take the white one because Whitney said she liked that one. So we started thinking of names for a white cat. 

The room that these cats were being kept in smelled terrible! Not only did this lady and her daughter keep these cats in a crate but they also had dogs. There was poop on the floor. It was disgusting! We started looking at the cats and Whitney let them out so they could eat the dog food. One of the black kittens seemed a little more interested in us and seemed lovey too as we held her. We decided she was the one for us and got out of there as quick as we could. After getting her home I went to the store and bought some cat shampoo. After what she was living in even though she looked pretty clean there were a few greasy looking spots. I gave her a bath which was actually the first time I've given any of our cats a bath. I think it was a little easier with her being a kitten. She still didn't want to get bathed and I even got a couple scratches from her but she did pretty well for a cat.

We originally named her Poppy because we wanted to pick a food related name to go along with Sage. We didn't like Rosemary or Thyme though (to go with the Simon and Garfunkel song). Even before we went to see the kittens and I was thinking of getting a black one I was looking through the cupboard at our herbs and spices to see what might work as a name. I saw poppy seeds and since they are black I thought that would be a cute name, Poppy. However, after we got her home I wasn't so sure I liked that name for her even though the kids were all calling her that. Then after Curtis got home he said Poppy sounded like poopy. He didn't like the name and since I wasn't totally sold on it either I decided we needed to change the name. So I looked at black cat name possibilities online and Nikki and I decided we liked Cocoa and hey, it goes along with our food names too, lol! We asked everyone in the family if they liked that name and yes they did, even Curtis. So we named her Cocoa. She's about 6 months old and so fun and lovey.

She fits perfectly in the bed that came with Stardust (which Star never uses).

She's so cute and we love her!

She loves to cuddle in our laps. (She's cuddling with me right now as I type this. I'm sitting on the couch.)

As for animals, one day Charlotte got crafty and built herself a saddle for her stuffed horse out of paper. She still really wants a real horse. It gets tiring sometimes but cute at the same time.

Sage is not too happy with having a new kitten around. She has been spending more time outside because of it. Stardust hasn't really been around long enough to know what she thinks of the kitten. We did show the kitten to her once and the kitten was the one who growled and hissed. Star and Sage were the same way when Star first came to us but now they are friends. Star will be out all day hunting and bring back mice for Sage, sometimes dead, sometimes alive. If she brings a dead one home I usually throw it away as quick as I can but sometimes I don't know about it and she gets to it first and eats it. Yuck! Any time she eats a mouse and I know about it she then gets to stay outside for a few hours to make sure she doesn't puke it out later, since it happened once (thankfully outside).  

While Sage was playing with the mouse that Star brought back Star was kicking back relaxing and watching Sage. I think she feels proud about helping Sage.

Kittens definitely have more energy and are a lot more fun. The kids were getting Cocoa to jump up on the cat scratcher by chasing a toy.

Last year we had to go through the process of keeping Stardust and Sage separated until they got used to each other, starting with getting used to their scent. Now we have to do the same thing with the new kitten. It gets a little tricky sometimes with having 3 cats but Star is gone most of the time anyway. We had to force Sage to have specific meal times again instead of free feeding. When we feed the cats it's usually Sage and Cocoa. I close our family room door and put one on each side, their food bowls about 3 feet from the door. Then slowly we'll move them closer. It's a slow process introducing cats but it will be worth it. After all, Sage and Star eventually became friends.

Linder Farms 2020

We weren't sure we were going to make it out to Linder Farms this year but we still wanted to do it, especially since this is their final year. Thankfully our friends, The Flamms, contacted us a couple times about going together again this year and we made our plans. The last several years we have gone with them and it became kind of a tradition so it was fun to go with them again. We finally made plans and went yesterday evening. It was kind of bad timing just because we had lots of wind and it got COLD. I warned the kids that it was probably going to be cold that night so I made each of them pack stuff in their own bag to help them stay warm, like extra jackets and gloves. I wasn't prepared for it to be that windy though! 

So even though it was the last year we didn't end up doing as much. We started with the big hay slide. Then when the Flamms met up with us we headed to the maze so we could do it with daylight. We all split up into our own groups. Nikki went with Eden. The older Flamm girls went with their friends that came. The boys decided to do the bigger maze. Candee with her little girl and me with my two little girls did the small maze. The girls led us all over the place. We ended up coming out the entrance but hey, at least we got out! 😆

We got out long before the older kids so the girls went through the straw bale maze and then back over to the big hay slide. My girls and I were heading over to do the cornbox while Candee chased down her little girl. We were sorely disappointed (but for me not unexpected) that the cornbox was empty thanks to Covid. I had already gotten some tokens so I headed over to get the girls on the swings. Candee didn't have any tokens yet so we split up from there so she could go get some. I didn't see her again until awhile later. Meanwhile, I took my girls to do the swings, the barrel train ride and then to pet and feed the animals. There were goats, a sheep, two donkeys, a pony and two mini yaks. 

Charlotte is on the right with the purple gloves.

Alice is in the pink jacket also with purple gloves.

Nikki then tracked me down to get some tokens so she could go on a ride with her friend Eden. We decided to follow so we could watch. It was right next to the hay slide so of course Charlotte wanted to go again. This time she took Alice up with her and Alice finally rode down the slide, which I kind of missed because Curtis showed up and we were talking about what was going on. Thankfully, Alice did it again and I was able to see her this time. Charlotte and Alice rode down together. It was so cute to see them come out the tunnel slide together. Next thing I know I was taking Alice and the boys to go get food while Curtis watched Charlotte on the slide and then watched Nikki go on the ride. I missed it! I had given the boys some tokens to go do a ride or something. They decided to use their tokens on food instead, lol! Garrett ordered chicken nuggets and a soda while Jack ordered a corn dog and soda. I went ahead and got some fries and of course the mini donuts! I can't go to Linder Farms without getting the donuts!

After freezing our tails off while eating the food we were trying to decide who wanted to go on the hay ride since we hadn't done that yet. The boys ended up going to wait in the van with Curtis while Alice, Charlotte and I went on the hay ride by ourselves. Nikki was still in line getting her own food with Eden. It was a cold ride but it was still fun!

We didn't get a family picture on the haystack like I was hoping to because of the cold windy conditions but that's okay. We still all had a fun time! Sad to see Linder Farms won't be around next year but maybe we'll try The Farmstead or something else.

Meeting my future sister in law!

Wednesday night I was reading my book and about ready to go to sleep when my phone started vibrating and I saw that it was my brother Colby calling me. I knew he was coming this weekend with Cindy so that we can meet her so I figured it was something to do with that. Well, Colby instantly got on and said he wanted to introduce me to his fiance, Cindy.  She then got on the phone with him. I knew they would be getting married eventually but it did catch me by surprise getting the phone call already. However, it was perfect timing for them since they were getting ready to come meet us and all of Colby's family.  The had made it official just that evening. Unfortunately it was getting late so he wasn't able to call everyone that night but they made more calls the next day.

Friday evening we met them and some other family at Thailand Express, a Thai food restaurant that is right down the road from our house and located right next to Del Taco, where Nikki works. We dropped Nikki off at work and then waited in the parking lot for my parents, grandma, Colby and Cindy to show up. Melissa met us there also. Later, Stillman and Nathan showed up as we were waiting. Colby and Cindy seem very happy together and it was great to finally meet her! After dinner Nathan went to the store to get some ice cream and head over to grandma's for dessert. We decided to go get churros for everyone from Del Taco. Nikki wasn't thrilled with how many we ordered since she was working. ha ha Not long after we got to grandma's Nikki called to let us know she was done working. Curtis picked her up and brought her over to grandma's. Then we all visited.

Saturday morning we did some stuff around the house and I made up a big batch of frog eye salad because that's what we signed up to bring to our meet and greet dinner at grandma's house at 4:00 that day. Laverne took some pictures of each family that was there. There was my sister Melissa and her family (minus Blake who's on a mission); Tamara and her family (minus Katie who was at a friend's Halloween party); Stillman and his family; my step brother Scott and most of his family; Dad and Laverne; my great Aunt Joyce; and of course my grandma Norton. We were missing Nikki since she was stuck working until 8pm that day. I also wanted to get a picture with Colby and Cindy.

We visited at grandma's for awhile and then some of us headed over to our house. That included Colby and Cindy and Stillman's family. Colby wanted to come see his cat that we are taking care of, Stardust. It was perfect timing because she had been outside all day (as usual) and a couple minutes after we got home she showed up to eat some dinner, just in time for Colby to see her and Cindy to meet her. They will be taking her back some time after they get married. We hardly see Stardust since she's outside most of the time and so it won't be too hard to give her back but it has been fun to have her for this last year.

Anyway, we visited some more and then the adults played a new card game called Slide 5 that Garrett got for his birthday from Grandma Butterfield. We all had a good time. They all left around 10pm because we had 9 am church the next morning. On Wednesday evening Curtis and I had been called into the stake center to meet with one of the stake presidency counselors. We were both nervous about who was going to get what calling. It ended up being for Curtis. He was called to be the 2nd counselor in our ward's bishopric. The current counselor was moving out of our ward. We were both a bit surprised but I think Curtis had an idea something like this was coming. His previous calling was deacons advisor. He'll still be overseeing the deacons as 2nd counselor in the bishopric.

Since Curtis would be sustained and set apart on Sunday he invited both of our dad's and his oldest brother Casey to come. Casey came with his wife and daughter Ambrey. And since grandma usually goes to church with my dad and Colby and Cindy were staying with grandma, they also came to our ward.  So we filled up two whole long benches at church since they all came for the whole Sacrament meeting. 

I have to admit I was feeling unsure about Curtis getting this calling ever since Wednesday but after the stake president (Keith Stucki) did the sustaining, Bishop Lyman got up and said a few words, thanking me for letting them borrow Curtis. I felt the spirit tell me then that it was right. Immediately following the meeting we all went down to the Relief Society Room where Curtis's dad advanced him to a high priest and then the stake president set him apart for the calling. It was great to have more family there than I would have expected to be a part of it.

I also wanted to share a few fun pictures of Alice from last week. On Thursday while the 4 older kids were at school, Alice and I drove around doing some shopping. We had a few miscellaneous items to get a Walmart. Then we went to Saver's, Goodwill and Idaho Youth Ranch trying to find Alice a pink princess dress because that's what she wanted to wear for Halloween. We didn't see anything at Saver's. Goodwill had a pink dress but I didn't really like it because it looked short and like she would be cold in it. However, we did find her a crown there. Luckily, we found a dress next door at Id Youth Ranch. We paid about $6 for it. I told her that she could be Sleeping Beauty since that's the only princess I could think of that has a pink dress, even though this particular dress wasn't an official Sleeping Beauty dress. After that we went and bought groceries at Winco. When we got home I told her she could watch Sleeping Beauty, she's never seen it before. Well, she was excited to watch it but then she fell into her character.....and fell asleep while watching.

After we bought the crown.

Now she gets to wear the dress with the crown! We might have to get her a shirt to wear under since the front is kind of low cut.

Asleep while watching Sleeping Beauty.

Saturday morning after I had made our frog eye salad we had some down time so I told Alice to get a game to play. She came back with a bunch of puzzles instead. Honestly, I love doing puzzles so it was a win win. She's gotten to where she can do the simple puzzles by herself that only have about 4-6 big pieces. I get her started on the more difficult ones and then she likes to finish them off when there's about 4 or 5 pieces left. She helps with other pieces as well.