I'm Back!

I know I haven't posted forever. We had a slight computer problem that has left us without the internet for two weeks. I thought there was a possibility I would lose my mind, but we are finally back online. It feels great. I have been keeping notes in my planner about things that have been happening so that I can catch up, so hopefully I will be able to remember everything that has happened.

Halloween was interesting. Jeff had volunteered to make homemade root beer for the party at his sister's house, but hadn't gotten anything he needed for it at 5:00 pm. So, we left Damon with his cousins (he was already in his costume, as he had worn it at school for the school parade--not something we are used to having lived outside Utah, but it was a lot of fun), and took the girls to the grocery store for some dry ice and some root beer extract. The dry ice was easy to find, the root beer extract was very difficult. We went to four different stores, none of which had any extract in stock (apparently making root beer on Halloween is very popular here in the greater Springville area), but I did manage to find root beer concentrate. Jeff wasn't convinced that it would work, but we had already spent a good hour looking for it, so he decided to give it a try.

By the time we got back home, Damon was already gone trick-or-treating. Allie had fallen asleep in the car and began having one of her melt downs when I tried to talk her into putting her costume on. She had been planning on being Cinderella for months, and we recently bought a tiara for her to wear with the costume. She refused the tiara completely and also refused to have her hair done (we had put curlers in earlier in the day, but the curls were all gone--Allie had gotten her hair wet to "make it curly"--, so we were basically starting from scratch). She ended up hysterical in her bedroom, ripping the bobby pins out of her hair and screaming that she didn't want to go trick-or-treating because she was scared. Eventually, she calmed down, and we compromised with a ponytail, but I was past the point of caring then.

We did get some pictures later that night at Laurie's house. Damon didn't know what he wanted to be, but when he lost his front teeth, I told him he should be Dracula (who he had never heard of). I found the costume on Craigslist for $5 and that made my mind up. He actually really enjoyed wearing the costume, and looked pretty cute.


Kyla was Pooh Bear, just as Damon and Allie were at that age. Nothing too great, but I didn't have to spend any money.


I found these awesome tattoo sleeves, which made for an easy costume. We didn't get any pics until after the night's festivities and my black hair and dark eye makeup had worn off a lot.


It was a fun night, but Allie complained that she didn't get enough candy. I gently reminded her that she had spent so much time crying in her room that she didn't get to go to as many houses as Damon went to. Maybe next year she'll feel more cooperative, although I'm not counting on it just yet.