Gearing Up for Halloween

The kids and I had a great time decorating the living room. Among one of the decorations was this werewolf mask and gloves. At first McKenna was really affraid of the wolf, especially if someone was wearing it. She grew to love that wolf and ended up praying for it every morning at breakfast. She even prayed for both of his paws.

Some say the Power Rangers are no more... but I have seen them!

Hunter was adamant about not getting the power ranger suit with muscles this year.

What a confident kid!

We went to a Toy Factory and McKenna became a kitten.

RJ and I always have a halloween party for adults. This year we decided to go out for dinner and to a haunted house in Beaverton. I don't know why I thought I would enjoy a haunted house. I hate it when RJ pops out and scares me. In fact, I made him enter a verbal agreement many years ago not to scare me anymore. Well, I think he got his monies worth. Before we even got into the haunted house, I had been targeted. The zombies kept lurking around me, staring. Then out of no where, shrieking and breathing in my ear. When it was our turn to go through, I hid behind RJ squeezing his hands. He says that I pushed him through the whole thing. He wanted to take his sweet time enjoying the decorations!

Halloween!

Boy do I love Halloween! I think I have the sweetest tooth of all the teeth out there. RJ and I always require a heavy tax at the hands of Hunter and McKenna.

McKenna had a cough and suffy nose so I went to Target to get her medicine. At the checkout, I had to not only show my ID but pull it all the way out of it's too tight pocket. I shook my head and said, "she's just sick, I promise." Little did I know how addictive grape "drink" can be!

After much laboring to get McKenna to take a nap, she was quiet and all was well...until RJ went into the bathroom and found the bottle of medicine empty! Exactly how much she drank, we don't know. Thankfully, there was some spilled on the counter and floor. RJ called poison control and after talking for a while, they said she should be fine. Two of the medicines might make her tired. The third might make her wired. We knew, with our luck, which one McKenna would draw- wired! They also warned that she might get glossy eyes and trip or stagger. Thanks to a blessing from RJ, she was spared the danger of her "inquisitive nature." It truly was a scary Halloween.

We had some friends over for a potluck then got ready for the good stuff.

Chuck and Theresa stuck around for the eveing. They have a tradition of wearing wigs when they take the girls trick-or-treating.

Kistena was a horse (a costume made by her mom and dad). Hunter was the blue power ranger (of course). McKenna was a carebear because it was the warmest thing that would fit her at the consignment shop. It's nice when I can still choose what they are going to be. Kayla was a black cat.

Kaleigh (Hunter's friend and a girl I babysit) has been converted to power ranger-ism. I felt bad for her parents, they had to order her suit!

Ironically, Olivia (Kaleigh's little sister) was also a carebear!

After trick-or-treating, we put the kids down and Chuck and Theresa made caramel, chocolate covered apples.

What a mess!

They were good though. We watched a scary movie after that.

A proud day in the Reeve household

RJ told me that he signed up to bring chili for the chili cook-off at the ward fall festival.
I racked my brain trying to think of a chili recipe that would lead him to victory. "I'm going to make Santa Fe Soup," he said. I told him that because it wasn't chili it probably wouldn't even be in entered into the contest. "It's better than chili and it's going to win." He replied in total confidence.

There were probably ten different chili pots there. They announced second place and gave a prize for something else then continued, "and the best chili overall was..." I watched a sister walk toward our crockpot, "number 3." "RJ, that's you" I had to repeat 2-3 times. "Oh" he says as he stands up to accept his prize- a bowl with pinto beans spray painted gold!

One of the judges came up to me and said there was some good and some really bad chili but there was just something different about RJ's.

Some people asked me for the recipe. Many people asked me if I helped him make it. I wanted to say, "Yeah, I got all the cans out and browned the hamburger. He opened them."