School Halloween Carnival

Tonight was the Elementary School Halloween Carnival. A few months back I crazily said I would be in charge. I really don't know why I do these things to myself, except I feel bad for my friends who are over the PTO. Anyway so I started planning and things were going together well so I wasn't too stressed. So many teachers volunteered to help and some of my friends did aswell so that made it so much easier. We were able to do the spook alley upstairs too this year so that made things was less stressful. I wish I had taken pictures of that, I think it turned out pretty cool.

My friends helped me out sooo much! It's so nice to have such wonderful friends who would help you out with anything so THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU!!! Thanks to all the people that volunteered their time to man a booth, be over the food, be in charge of the mad scientist lab (sorry I suckered you into that Shera), set up, clean up, get the spook alley ready (Susan and Arin were amazing), look after my kids so I could run around like a mad woman, anything that helped the night be so great.

One of my favourite booths was the palm readers. Lovely Trudy and Ginger volunteered their time to do that and they went all out. They looked AMAZING in their costumes and were so great with the kids. I took a bunch of pictures of them because they were just cracking me up so I had to share with everyone else. I love these ladies, they're the BEST!

We called Cameron and Katy last minute to come and help with the spook alley and I'm so glad they said they would because they were amazing. All the kids commented on the scary lady at the door, Katy looked great! All the kids in the spook alley were great and all of them were asked last minute so THANK YOU!

It was a great night but I'm glad it's over. This month has been NUTS so I'm really looking forward to November. I'm hoping it's a lot more stress free and less busy, hoping being the word!

Changes

So this past Sunday I was released from being in the RS presidency. We had known it was coming and in some ways we were excited for the change and the break. I never thought I would ever serve in the RS, I always thought I would be in YW. After serving in RS though I don't think I could ever imagine being in YW now.

Anyway about a week and a half ago I got a call to meet with the Bishop and I knew what was coming. It was an emotional meeting but also something that will be good for me and my family. It didn't take long for them to give me a new calling though, I'm now the ward choir director. When he called me to do that I told him I had no idea how to lead music but that I would learn. It will be good to do something so different and I'll be glad to learn something more about music because I love to sing.

Well it's been almost 2 weeks since I knew we were getting released and I've felt so different. I'd never had a calling where when I got released I felt such a change but I've felt such a difference this time. I truly loved that calling and love the sisters in my ward. I feel so blessed to have been able to serve in RS and be a part of such a wonderful presidency and organisation. I never cared about being in charge so I won't miss that but I will miss the bond with the sisters that my calling gave me.

Even though I'm not in the presidency anymore I still love all the sisters in my ward so much and would do anything for any of them. We have such an amazing ward and I have the greatest friends ever. We have a wonderful unity together and I'm grateful to be a part of a ward where the sisters love each other so much and would do anything for each other. Thanks for all of you that made my calling be the best calling I've ever had. It was fun and I know the new presidency will be GREAT! After going to a couple things already, it's kind of nice not being in charge, it will be nice to have a break and to be able to go to meeting and activities and just enjoy :)

Craft group!

This month for craft group I asked my friend Maggie to be in charge. She's a wood crafter like me so she came up with a cute little turkey and a cute mummy that we found online. It was nice to go and just paint something and not have to cut them out. The turkey is a mini version of the big one I made and the mummy is so cute I think. He's meant to be holding something but I haven't figured out what I want yet. I love making these crafts, plus they're so affordable, way better than spending $20 or more at a craft fair or store. Thanks Maggie, everyone loved it!

This is the big turkey I made!

Cheeky Bandit Crafts

I finally started a new blog! This is something I've wanted to do for such a long time and I finally did so I'm so excited. I'm sure it won't be anything AMAZING but it will be something fun for me to do so I'm excited about it. So here you go, here's my new blog...

http://cheekybanditcrafts.blogspot.com/

I'm finished!

I've been wanting to buy some wood saws for a long time so I can make wood crafts. I got compound/chop saw towards the beginning of the year but last month I finally got a scroll saw so I've been really excited!

The other week I cut out some wood to make some fun crafts and I finally got round to painting them today, well 2 of them. I still have some owls that I need to paint aswell. Anyway I was over at Trudy's house a couple of weeks ago and I saw she had this really cute witch so I got way excited and wanted to make one. I copied the pattern and got all the stuff and ta-daa!

I've been sketching a bunch more things too and this was one of them. There are tons of other Halloween things I wanted to make aswell but it's already too far into October so I'll have to save them for next year. YAY for my new saws, I'm so excited!!!

Goofy pictures!

After being away all weekend it was so good to see my kids again. I loved the break but I missed my cute little monkeys. The other night Spencer got a hold of the camera and wanted to take lots of pictures so here are some of the ones we took, he's so funny!

Our weekend in Utah

This past weekend Steve and I took a trip to Utah for my early birthday present. Steve's Mom looked after our kids so we were able to spend a few days together doing some really fun things. I took my camera but of course didn't take very many pictures and am now regretting that. We left on Thursday afternoon and as soon as we got to Salt Lake we took our things to our hotel and then met up with Rod and Mollie. We got something to eat and then we went to the Jazz game. It was a preseason game against the Nuggets and it was lots of fun! We were pretty high up but it was just fun to be there and it was nice to spend time with Rod and Mollie. It was a late night so I was falling asleep in the car on the way to the hotel.

The next day we got up early to go to the Salt Lake Temple. We had never been there before so we were pretty excited to go. The Temple itself is so beautiful but it was even better to go inside and have that experience. It was a pretty rushed day so as soon as we were finished in the Temple we went over to the Gateway to have lunch with our good friends Allan and Kristy at Tacano's. It was delicious but I ate way too much so I was sooo full! After that we set off for Provo but we made a couple of stops at Tai Pan and Ikea, I love those stores! Then it was off to the BYU football game and I fell asleep on the way there aswell! We got there early so we played a bunch of games and won some t-shirts and some basketball tickets. I really wanted to go to the Brick Oven but I was way to full from lunch which I was sad about. The game was lots of fun and even more fun because we won! We got back even later that night so I was shattered and once again I fell asleep in the car. I'm just too wimpy now, I can't handle late nights!

Finally on Saturday I was somewhat able to sleep in which was nice! We started getting ready and watched most of conference but then listened to the rest on the way to Temple square. We had lunch at the gateway which was really quiet until everyone from the first conference session came down there. While they were all coming down we walked up to Temple Square. We went into the museum for a minute and got a few things from the store there and then we went over to the conference center. Of course there was lots of people protesting outside but there were also some kids with signs saying, "I love Mormons" so that was pretty funny. It took a while to get inside the conference center but we finally did and then out of the thousands of people there we ended up sitting next to one of the counselors from our Stake Presidency. It was a lovely experience, I had been to conference before but Steve hadn't so it was so nice.

At the end of conference we went to try and find some of my friends that were also at conference. These friends just lost their son this past week, he passed away after an exercise induced heart attack. He was only 17 and was the loveliest boy, he was in my primary class back in the day. Anyway I love the Gillen family so when we finally found them it was so nice to just give Debbie a hug. We talked for a while and just caught up and talked about some of our old memories together. It's so great to see old friends, it never matters how long it's been since you've seen someone like that, it just seems like you've never been apart. I really have been blessed in my life to have grown up in a ward with so many amazing people who I know would do anything for me and I would do anything for any of them.

Well, that was the end of our fun filled weekend, well apart from getting some yummy dinner at Cafe Rio on the way home. It was during the Priesthood session so it was packed with women, poor Steve! We had a amazing time together and it was so great to spend some time with just Steve. He really is the most amazing husband ever. He puts up with lots of grumpiness from me and he's so patient! I really appreciate his Mom (and other family members who helped) for looking after the kids. We really are blessed to have so many great people in our lives, we have amazing families and friends that I am truly grateful for.

Cheeky Monkey

Hadley is getting so big and so cheeky. She's getting into more and more things. This was her latest trick, she's gone from taking the things out of the drawer to now climbing in it! It's hard to get mad at her because she's so cute. The bad part is that Spencer watches her do these things and then he thinks it's ok for him to do them aswell. Hence we now have a drawer that is hard to close!

Sleeping

The other day I was up late and I came upstairs to find everyone fast asleep in the strangest places, it was so cute I had to take a few pictures!