Halloween part 2!

Here is the second installment of Halloween pictures. Hope you enjoy them!

Me in my Egyptian Hottie costume! (to bad I can't look adorable when I pose like my daughter can!)

Here is one from the pumpkin patch I missed yesterday! It is probably my favorite one! I was trying to get them to smile and Braden kept squeezing his eyes shut. Amalyssa was helping me tell him to keep his eyes open!

The lovely Great Great Great Great Aunt Jemima! Isn't she a looker!

My dear 'ol dad. He was so smitten with Aunt Jemima that he could hardly talk

The kids trying to copy mom's pose.

A somewhat decent picture of me (don't you just hate seeing yourself in pictures!)

I got to help out with Amalyssa's class party. They asked the children to dress as their favorite book character. I decided to follow suit and dress as a book character also (plus I couldn't bear the eye makeup one more time) So I chose to be the mother of Fancy Nancy. I tried to convince Amalyssa to be Fancy Nancy but she insisted that Cinderella was a better choice for her.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! (Now if only I can get the vacation blogged about before Thanksgiving!)

I just can't get cought up!

I can't quite seem to get time enough to blog all the fun that is happening in our lives right now. There are so many stories I wish I could tell, but alas... there are children to feed, dishes to do, and general mayhem to keep at bay. So I guess you will just have to enjoy pictures and quick blurb descriptions for the time being.

Our pumpkin picks from the pumpkin patch! (The biggest one is Braden's. I just couldn't tell him 'no' after watching him use all his might to roll it over to the wheel barrow.)

Braden practicing for his drivers license. Good thing this tractor was stationary!

Amanda and her hubby Jack. Amanda was my co-hort in a great Halloween party this year. Sorry none of you got invited.... I sort of forgot to invite my half of the party!

Scott's grandma at the party drinking soup through a straw! (LOL... I just couldn't resist a picture!)

My pick for best costume award at the party goes to Aunt Jean! She made a HAUNTINGLY convincing Michael. It was actually REALLY CREEPY! The picture really ruins the effect.

Braden as a FIERCE Pirate!

Amalyssa loved her '50's girl' costume... even though she had no idea what a '50's girl' was. Still... it came with lots of sequins so she was happy!
In all I only spent $2.20 on the kids costumes this year! GO SALVATION ARMY! I decided to use all the money I had saved and make the costume I have been dreaming of for a few years now!

Introducing
Tina as:
Egyptian Hottie!
(though I really think I look horrid in all the pictures... oh well)

Well.........Ok... this is all you get to see for now! LOL. My pictures aren't where I thought they were and I am to tired to go find and re-size them now.... so this is the sneak peak.

Check back soon for more fun halloween costumes including
Tina as: Fancy Nancy's Mom
Janna as: great great great great Aunt Gemima
John as: Biker man
and Scott as: HAHA YEAH RIGHT... he dosn't dress up.

You got a TATTOO!???? Day 4: 09-27-09

So this day is a fairly easy one for me to blog. We kinda gave ourselves the day off!! At least my little family did. We actually made port in Boston Mass. this day. We hadn't pre paid for any shore excursions like everyone else had. We were a bit tired and worn out so we decided to be bums and just stay on the ship. Looking back I am a little sad. I did a whole report on Massachusetts when I was in grade school and I still remember being so fascinated with the state. Unfortunately I was pretty tired this day and so I didn't feel adventurous enough to leave the ship by myself. We had a great day hanging around on the ship though.

Scott and the kids participated in a mini golf tournament and all won metals. Hmm... mini golf in the rain on a ship... interesting activity wouldn't you say!?


Amalyssa was excited when Rebekah came back from their shore excursion and they got to go to the Kid's camp for the first time! They spent every spare minute they could there! At times I wondered if I had even brought my daughter on the trip with us! She was sad when I told her we had to wash off her face paint. For future reference - take the picture of the face paint BEFORE you tell them it has to disappear!



And Scott!? Well he decided to be a rebel and get a Tattoo.... a BIG Tattoo!

They had an air brush artist on the ship. He would air brush these temporary tattoos for you. Of course it cost a good chunk of change to have it done. But Scott was thrilled that he could have a dragon on his arm. He was sweet enough to ask my permission and thoughts before having it done. I figured.... Eh.... what the heck.... It isn't a chance you get every day and it will be gone before we get off the ship.

I think my dads reaction to the tattoo was the best though. Scott met him out in the hall and had slung a jacket over his arm so it was covering the tattoo. (not purposely... he just was carrying a jacket). Dad saw just a tiny bit of the tattoo and started to laugh in a shocked way. He never would have expected a tattoo on Scott.... then Scott pulled the jacket back to unveil the full ferocious beast. I thought we might lose my dad right there. He was laughing and coughing and sputtering like he had just had the biggest shock of his life... then again.....

Scott said dad's reaction made it worth every penny. Plus he thought he was hot stuff with a giant dragon on his arm all week! lol. So that was day 4 of the trip. Now for a little break in the trip blogs. I have a bit of Halloween blogging to do so that post will show up next. Then we will be on our way to day 5 -Portland Maine!

My body lies over the ocean! Day 3 : 09-26-09

Boy it is going to take a while to get through this trip if I am only on day 3 so far!!!! Actually I have made a decision, hard as it may be. It is taking so long to blog about the trip because of these silly slide shows! It takes me FOREVER to re-size, upload, organize, title, and put one of these on my blog! It isn't to bad once in a while but facing 10 or so of them is a bit daunting! SO..... as much as I want to share ALL my favorite pictures from the trip I am going to limit myself. I will only share a few in future cruise posts along with a short itinerary of the day. At least that is the plan! I am falling behind in my blogging journal! Anywho.. this slide show was already mostly done when I made this decision so you get this last one. Enjoy it! After this one you will just have to ask to look at my scrapbook when you come visit my house!

Day 3 was the day we got to set sail! First though we had a fun morning of sight seeing in NYC. Most of our group went to see 'The Statue of Liberty' but Marie and Jer went to Times Square. We took their girls with us.... wasn't that nice of us!!!

After a fun morning seeing the amazing lady in green we got to board our ship. After finding our cabins to be quite roomy and nice Marie needed to find some milk for dear Piper. She asked me to help her track some down with my 'vast' cruise ship knowledge. So we spent a while going up and down elevators and back and forth on the ship to try and find milk! Scott H. Joined us for this little endeavor! We didn't manage to find milk... but we did find the soft serve machine!!!! GO US! I think our family alone could account for one third of the ships soft serve intake for the week!

We had a delicious dinner at our prime seating table (right next to the windows at the back of the ship so we could watch the ocean rise and fall while we tried to keep down our food.) Braden was excited to have fries AND pizza at the same time and decided to make his own creation (pictured in the slide show). Apparently he liked it because he ate the same meal every night of the week almost.

After dinner we spent some more time wandering our new floating hotel. They of course had photo stations set up all over so you would buy their photos for an arm and a leg. They had an old fashion booth set up and I just couldn't resist. I got in trouble (or rather mom did... but that is another story) for snapping personal photos of the kids getting ready... but hey... I bought a few at their outrageous price so I don't feel too bad!

Oh and if you are wondering why there isn't a picture of Scott with the pirate it is because he made me promise not to put the picture on my blog unless I photoshoped out the food stain that was on his shirt and (in his words) "stupid expression" He gave me permission to replace his head with the celebrity of my choice. Like I was going to pass THAT offer up! Wow what a hottie I am married to!


Make sure to come back later in the week to find out what I have in common with Brittany Spears! (not much I assure you)

An Affair to Remember. Day 2: 9-25-09

A family affair at least. The second day of our trip was no less than absolutely AMAZING.

You may think that we just randomly decided to take a family trip and thought a cruise would be fun! Well you would be wrong. The whole thing started because my mother saw a need. She saw two grown girls who had never met their grandmother. She saw a grown man who had not seen his mom in 15 years. She saw a need.... and acted. I suppose I am unique in that not many people can say they lived almost their whole life in the same home as one grandmother, while never knowing anything more than the name of her other grandmother. We didn't even have a picture of this beautiful part of our family tree.

My grandmother Smith lives in New Jersey. This is quite a ways to the East.... like ALL THE WAY East.... And we live "Out in the West!" (Yee haw!) There was only one way to get this clan together.... ROAD TRIP. Oh wait.... we had four little children going with us. And quite frankly NOBODY wanted to drive that far! Gratefully for us we have the modern convenience of AIRPLANES! So we were all going to New Jersey.... but what then!? Several options were discussed.... and then the cruise flier came in the mail!!! Hmm.... a cruise that leaves from New York??? Coincidence.... or Fate!??? So that is how the adventure began. We fly this giant bunch on three separate planes out to NY, drive to Jersey to have the family reunion of a life time, then hop on a ship for 7 days! SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!!!! There you have it.... a quick background of how this trip came to be. I make it sound like a group effort... but really it was all my wonderful mother. Thank you Mom... You are incredible!

So the second day of our trip we got to meet my 'other' grandmother, Grandma Smith. I could attempt to put this experience in words.... but quite frankly... It would fall short of how incredible this really was! And by the end I would be bawling and gibbering.... so lets just say that it was.... Amazing.... I can think of no other English words to express the love, comfort, forgiveness, joy, connections, and memories that were made that day. After a wonderful day we had to say our goodbyes. They were very hard goodbyes to say. I am grateful that it was 'Goodbye for now - until we meet again'

After our goodbyes we drove back to NY where we witnessed a MIRACLE (as if one in a day isn't enough) We got 2 parking spaces on the edge of Central Park... TOGETHER!!!! We spent a beautiful fall evening walking through the park, after which we drove our two rental vans through Times Square. Yes... you heard it right... DROVE through Times Square... WOW... now there are some NY memories! GO MOM!!!!..... Jer... you drove good too..... And Dad was a pretty awesome photographer hanging most of the way out of the van window. Yeah... the cabies were swearing at mom and waving at dad..... nice.

Anyway... enough boring rambling. Enjoy the selection of photos I chose for you. There are MANY MANY more... but I had to contain myself!