9:00pm on Halloween Night

The kids have all been put to bed, despite the fact that their blood sugar is somewhere around the level of maple syrup and none of them can stop vibrating. It's hard to believe that, given the horrid weather we tolerated this week from the "storm of the century," we almost were able to trick-or-treat without jackets. I think we're all exhausted, which makes the fact that the clocks get to be dialed back tonight even better.

Had a job this morning to video a military funeral, something I've never seen in person before. The deceased was a WWII veteran who was given full military honors by the Naval chaplain from Riverton as well as the local VFW honor guard. Very neat, even if the wind and cold were almost unbearable. It's going to take some tricky post-production to clean out the wind noise from my mics.

Maggie's parents finally made it this morning from Colorado Springs after 27 hours of travel. The roads are still not great on the other side of the state, but they're open anyway.

How about a "Fun Free Halloween"?

I LoVe Dave Barry! And although he has retired from his column, I like to go to his website and read it. Justin has a desk calendar that is quotes from Dave and he brings them home periodically as they apply to us. So here is an excerpt from one of his old columns about how to provide your children with a "Fun-Free" Halloween:

1. Never allow your children outside on Halloween night.

2. Or in the daytime, either.

3. Your children should spend Halloween locked inside a windowless room, sedated and wrapped from head to toe in reflective tape.

4. If, God forbid, some neighbor, somehow, manages to actually give one of your children a treat, you must immediately snatch it away and destroy it with a flamethrower.

5. Never use a flamethrower while sleeping.

Honestly, don't we all wish we could actually do some of these things!?! Some years, by the time October 31st finally arrives, I am so Halloweened-out! From parties, to strolls, school events and the like (not to mention worrying about keeping them safe for the actual event), it's just a lot. Ahhh, the things we do for our children.

We are Suckers...

So you can see from Sophie's post that we added another furry animal to the family, and not another daughter. Finn (Really "Phineas" like from the kids' show "Phineas and Ferb") was in the paper Saturday as a dog that needed a home, we went and saw him this morning at the RS Animal Control office. He is a Cairn Terrier mix, which means he's similar to MacGregor except without the long jaws and snout.

So far, he's adjusting fairly well to the shock of being adopted into a family that already has four screaming-loud girls, three jealous doggy brothers, and very little chance to sneak off for a quick nap. Right now he's perched up on the couch watching football with me and snoozing.

I think he's going to fit in well, and at this point, can anything make our family more over-the-top? I don't think so.

Meet Finn...

Today after school, my parents told me that they had a big surprise. My sisters and I guessed cell phones and guinea pigs. Then my dad came home and we looked in the truck's windshield and saw a puppy. I screamed like there was no tomorrow. Then a fuzzy face hopped out of the truck. I grabbed the leash and walked in quickly. My mom gave me a hint earlier and said it started with phhhhh. So his name was Finn. My mom told me we rescued him from the pound. When my sister got home from gymnastics Finn was outside as soon as we told her she ran outside quickly and gave him a great scare. He sniffed her hand a while and he finally got used to her. Right now he's getting used to my poodle, Harry, my Scottie, MacGreger and my Boston Terrier, Frasier. He has been growling at our poodle. So that is my story for now bye!

A work in progress

I am new to blogging. Who knew you could add so much to your blog? Bear with me while I figure it all out. It's actually kind of addicting and already taking way too much of my time!

Hannah and the wrist incident.

Last week didn't go so well because I broke my wrist when I fell off the monkey bars at school. It didn't hurt as much as you'd think it would. How it happened was I was standing by my friend Parker by the monkey bars and they were very slippery and I said ''that looks like fun''. So I went over to the monkey bars and got in line. I thought that whenever I play freeze tag I always get frozen on the monkey bars and whoever is it always makes me hang by one hand. So, I thought I would just hang by one hand like I always do, but after I took one hand off, I slipped off! So, the monkey bars didn't end up being so fun after all.

The last lawn-mowing

We all went outside this afternoon and raked leaves (and doggy poop) and generally cleaned up the front and back yard - I even mowed the lawn. It's always kind of sad to know that this is the last time the lawn mower will be out until sometime in April; I don't mind working in the yard, and during the winter it's tough to be stuck inside not getting any sun or fresh air.

The nice thing is, the lawn looks good for the rest of the Fall now. We actually had some leaves this year thanks to all the trees we've planted over the past two years, so there was more to rake up.

One more week until Halloween, and daylight savings time ends next weekend, too. It's going to be another busy week of parties and meetings and whatever tends to come up. We were just invited to another party on Friday (that makes three we need to make), and the girls have two. I have a video job to work on Saturday in addition to the normal Halloween activities. Thank God I don't have to attend the AB meeting in SLC on Tuesday - that would have been too much.

How it started...

I recently read an article on the value and benefits of family blogging. We thought this might be a great way to share current events in our lives and allow the girls to document things that are of importance to them. So, here we go. Our goal is for every family member to post at least once a week. We'll see......