Happy Birthday Bro! Happy Halloween!

Its Andrew's 28th Birthday today and I wanted to wish him a great day!

When we were growing up, Halloween was always a big old party. Of course you have the trick-or-treating, but with a birthday involved-it just takes it to a higher level. We would have family come over to have some witches brew (dry ice and homemade rootbeer), sloppy joes, candy, and fun. It was always so great! And our neighborhood had the best houses to go to. Not necessarily for the candy, but for the good times. Our Bishop had a talking pumpkin out front and that thing was so smart it knew what you were wearing, who you were, and it even knew what you were saying in a whisper. It was so cool. If I ever figure out how they did that, I'm going to start doing it in my neighborhood.

Another cool house was the Anderson's(?) house. This house was tucked way back in, up a dirt road in a forest like atmosphere. The hike up to their house was sooo scary because they had people hiding in the trees and it was so dark. They also had some pretty intimadating swans that you had to stay clear of, but thats another story. But at the end you were rewarded with delicious homemade doughnuts. Oh, it was great.

Well, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW! We will be thinking of you and hope you get a lot of good candy from the iraqies.

Jack-O-Lanturns

Jeff grew up here and we have been in this area almost 8 years now, and we never knew there was such a thing as a 'Pumpkin Walk'. And who knew it was so popular? We had some friends that told us about this fun activity the city was having and told us we should go. So Saturday at 8 PM (when the kids are tired and not so cooperative) we decided we would run over there. We thought it would be a quick walk around and see a few jack-o-lanterns. OH-NO. We had to stand in line for a half and hour or more just to get in and then it took like another half hour to walk around the park. There were sooo many people, and sooo many pumpkins. Our kids had a great time looking for their favorite characters like the 'Cars' characters and Diego and the Transformers. There were over 1200 carved pumpkins all done by neighborhood groups, youth groups, businesses and other volunteers. It was pretty fun. They had pumpkins carved out like Lightening McQueen and Mater being chased down the hill by a the big bull tractor pumpkin like in the movie. There were even some very detailed ones like these pictures. There were even pumpkins carved out like Joseph Smith and Gordon B. Hinckley, and they were very well done. It turned out to be so fun, even though it was a rocky start. Maybe we'll make a tradition out of this.
By the way, did you know that if you spray the inside of your pumpkin with Lysol it slows down the decaying process? And, if you cover it with petroleum jelly it protects the carving?

And a quick pumpkin cookie recipe...1 box of spice cake mix, 1 15 oz. can of pumpkin and choc chips, mix, bake at 325 for 14 min. and voila- cookie!

Just some fun little facts I learned while standing in line waiting to see the pumpkins!

Where Do They Get This?

From their Dad probably! ***

One day while Max, my 3 year old, was being watched at a friend's house, he and his buddy decided it would be fun to copy their shirts in the copy machine. At first they tried to do it with their shirts on, but soon found that it was too difficult to get a good picture of their shirts. So, they took them off. It worked so well they decided to copy their pants. Any why stop there? Why not copy the underware too! Well, our friend went to check on them and walked in on 2 little naked boys xeroxing their clothes.

These are just some of the copies that they made. And they sure were proud of themselves and their "work".

My question is, since when do 3 year olds know how to use a copy machine? And I think we all know that from now on, we can expect great things from Max.

***I have to apologize to Jeff for assuming that this type of behavior comes from his genes. He was quick to remind me that I'm the one with brothers that ran around outside naked when they were little. Okay, so its true-these are completely Taylor genes.***

Theater Night with the Chinleys

From Left to Right: Harry (aka Jeff), Marvin (aka Boston), Ed (aka Max), Tina (aka April). We are quite attractive, wouldn't you agree?

Disneyland Vacation!!!

Last Sunday we woke the boys up early and told them that we had to drive Dad to the airport. They cooperated because we have done that a lot lately with Jeff traveling. We got to the airport and Jeff said, "I have a great idea! Why don't you guys come with me on my trip?" We didn't get any response for a few seconds and then Max got excited and said "Yeah!". Boston on the other hand is a planner. "Where are we going to put the car?", "I don't have a toothbrush!", "Where will we sleep?". It took about 10 minutes for it to settle in and then as we waited for the shuttle he kept asking, "Are you serious? We are going to California?" "Are you Serious?"

We decided to suprise them because I thought it would be fun to see their reaction, and I didn't want them telling their friends and I didn't want them asking me about it all the time. They were so excited to be on a plane and to be going on a trip. We had a great time, but we tried to push a little too hard. Next time we will take brakes between Disneyland days.

Disney had a Halloween theme going on all over the park. We spent a lot of time with Woody at his Halloween Roundup where the kids could do crafts, decorate cookies, see Woody, and pet goats.




Max was standing under this goat when I took the first picture, but he didn't know there was a goat there. Jeff told him and it scared the heck out of him, but he thought it was funny after and so did we. :)

Our friends the Miles went to Disneyland the same time and we hooked up with them a few times. On the last day, Preslie and Boston really hit it off and were holding hands the whole time. Preslie's Dad went with them on Buzz lightyear and said that Boston snuck and kissed her on the cheek! He's only 5! We have to pull the reigns back in on this one! However, Jeff was impressed with his son's natural ability to turn on the moves!




This Jack Sparrow dude, looked so much like the real one, we had to chase him down and get a picture!

HiYAH!

My budding Karate Boys just completed their first Belt Test and they both did so great! All the kids looked so cute in their Gias and they all did such a great job. Max skipped up two levels and got his yellow and orange belt, and Boston skipped up three and got his yellow, orange, and blue belt!

I am loving having my kids in karate-its so great to have them learn how to follow directions, listen, and be respectful. If they don't listen or if they are messing around they get to do push-ups. Max has even had to do knuckle push-ups outside for play fighting around with another kid. They are pretty serious there, even for the 3 year olds :)

Halloween Party

So, we went with the most UNpopular of all of our options...we went with scary people. Jeff just really wanted to be scary, so there you have it. He dressed up as the guy with the silver mask on the movie "300" (I haven't seen it, but I bet its scary), and I went as a ghost. Jeff was dressed all in black and I was in all white, so Jeff kept telling people this is how we were going to look in the after life-:)He's so funny.
We had good night though. Some of the costumes were, Teletubies, pirates, medevil people, 50's people, hippies, gladiators, batman and catwoman, scary scientists, and some others, I can't remember. We went on a scavenger hunt through the city for various pictures of things. I felt like I was in high school again!