ANOTHER TIP FROM HAL

Ok, I had to post this real quick. I am a big fan of Hal Runkel and have posted some of his advise before. Well, today I got a great email "Tip of the Day" from him. I'm just going to copy and past it in. It's so true!!!

Quote of the Day: "It is amazing how quickly the kids learn to drive a car, yet are unable to understand the lawnmower, snow-blower, or vacuum cleaner." — Ben Bergor, U.S. magician (1894-1981)

Hal's Take: Can I get an Amen? Isn't it amazing that kids can create power point presentations about their Christmas lists and figure out how to fix your ipod without even blinking, yet they will spend a full 15 minutes complaining about how hard it is to vacuum the living room? It is natural, though, I suppose. I would much rather spend time reorganizing my "guilty pleasures disco hits" selection than clean a toilet, but, life stinks that way (pun completely intended). My good friend John Alan Turner once said that there should be a sliding scale of freedom and responsibility when it comes to kids. As they grow, they should be given more of each, in proportion to one another. If they are given too much freedom without responsibility, they become spoiled. If given too much responsibility without freedom, they are rebels waiting to happen.

Hal Runkel, LMFT, author of ScreamFree Parenting:Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool

NKOTB

Well, I'm taking a quick break from the Thanksgiving theme to do a little dedication to the awesome NKOTB! We just went to the concert last night! Me and my friends... Dawn, Tammy, and Chelsea. It was great! Dawn got us some really great floor seats! Thanks Dawn! New Kids on the Block were on a reunion tour, and we had a reunion of our own. We grew up together liking these guys. Anyway, the concert was really good. They were great performers, especially considering they are all mid 30's or pushing 40. They can still dance. So, here's some pics from the concert. I went a little overboard on snapping pics. This isn't even half of them!

Natasha Bedingfield opened for them.

David Archuletta was there and sitting only feet away from us!

Here they are!!

Yes, you can be my boyfriend! :o)

Halfway though the show, they came out right in the center of the floor seats area. They were on this round platform that rose up. We were SOOO close to them! It was way cool, and I got some great pics!

Jordan

Jon

Danny

Joey

Donnie

Proof that i was there!

He kept putting his hands in the way so I couldn't get a clear shot of his t-shirt. But it says

"I LOVE MORMON GIRLS"

Too funny!

You can kind of see it here. Well, you can when it's not on the poor web quality picture.

Can you tell who my favorite one is?

This is us, all danced and screamed out.

This was a great concert. They performed for over 2 hours. And it was a lot of fun getting together with my girls!

The Pumpkin Patch

Ok, I know Halloween is over.... but I never blogged about our trip to the pumpkin patch. Well, I guess pumpkins are very Thanksgivingy... so it's fine. We went to the pumpkin patch a few weeks before Halloween with Sara, Greg, and Miles. BJ also brought along his friend Aaron. {When they hit that teenage stage, there's just no getting them away from their friends. I'm just very glad that BJ has such good friends. And I guess he's not really a teenager yet, but in about a month and a half he will be. Wow, I'm getting old!!} Anyway, this pumpkin patch was way cool. Rows and rows of pumpkins with wheelbarrows to use as your "shopping cart", straw bails, tractors for the kids to sit on, and a little corn maze for the kiddies. They even had a port-a-potty (thank goodness, because of course, Zeke had to use it). Zeke even tells me now how cool the potty at the pumpkin patch was. Oh dang, I didn't get a picture of the potty. Oh well, enjoy the pics...

BJ and Aaron picked the heaviest pumpkins they could find

Inside the corn maze

All the boyz

The fam

Too tired to walk back to the car

Read my blog, IF YOU DARE...

Ok, ok, so I may have gone a bit overboard on all the widgets, bling, and doo-dads, but I was having fun! Give me a break!
Happy Halloween everyone!

SPOOK ALLEY!

Happy Halloween everyone!!! Tonight we had our ward Halloween party. It was lots of fun! We had trick-or-treating for the kids in the rooms of the church. People decorated doors/rooms and handed out candy to the kids. Then in the basement (our church has 3 levels) we had a spook alley for those brave enough to go through. Brother Sorenson (one of the members of our bishopric), my dad and son (BJ), and others worked really hard and did a great job. The theme was "haunted toys." I, of course, had to go through it snapping pictures of everyone. It was kinda crazy cause it was dark, but my flash lit up the pictures really good. So, it may not look so scary in the pics, but imagine it in the dark with strobe lights and fog machines. The boys had a great time scaring people. Zeke refused to even go through it, even though he knew the people in it. So, don't get scared looking at the pictures.

*Notice that we had the support of McCain and Palin at our spook alley! :o)

enter if you dare...

(above) BJ - the clown walking on his hands

dancing freaky clown and zombie

freaky Elmo (none of the kids will ask for Elmo for Christmas now)

bloody skeleton dude to jump out at you

Dad as Dumbledore

where they got their candy, if they made it that far!

freaky Elmo with spooky fog

Sarah Palin helping control the floating haunted toys

John McCain leading the kids through the spook alley

will Dumbledore give you some candy?

watch out, he'll jump out at you!

some more scary clowns

another Sarah, helping control the dropping spiders

a scary creepy lookin' dude