Let Halloween begin!

I so love Halloween! It is one of my favorite holidays! But this year I had a hard time getting into it because I had such a wonderful summer with Ayla and I didn't want it to be fall yet. I even waited to put up the Halloween decorations until October 1st.

Well this past week has put me in the Halloween mood! Bring Halloween on!

On Wednesday night I got to go to...

Thriller!
It is a dance concert put on by Odyssey Dance Company. All the dances are Halloween themed. It was awesome!

On our way there we stopped at Baskin Robbins. I love there Ice Cream. I used to work there when I was in high-school. That is were I learned how to decorate cakes.

While we were waiting to go inside Kingsberry Hall, some of the cast were outside spooking people and taking pictures.

I love the way her arms are!

This is who I went with, my sister, Marion on the left of the cast member and Melissa who is to the right of me. Marion's boyfriend, Monty went too. He is taking the picture.

The little girl in this picture is Monty's niece, Alissa. We met up with some of his family there. His other niece was actually in the concert. She was in the "Chucky" dance.

Got one of us in our seats.
Monty is a booger and is trying to stay out of picture.

I tried to get a picture of how close we were to the stage. If you look closely at the picture you can see the curtain in the background. The picture is just too dark. I tried to lighten it up in Photoshop but it kept whiting out Melissa and nothing else. I guess my skills in Photoshop need some work. BTW I love this picture of Melissa!

Thriller was awesome!
Some of my favorite dances were...

*Thriller*

*The Skeleton dance*

*Frankenstein dance*

*Children of the corn dance*

*Lost Boys dance*

*The River Dance*

*The Jason dance*

*The MJ dance*

*The Chucky dance. Monty's niece, Jaydee did a fabulous job at dancing. I was so impressed! It was the first time I had seen her dance.*

I had such a good time! I love dance and Halloween! Put the two of those together and you get a happy Heather!:) Not to mention, putting Micheal Jackson music in there! He was the most amazing performer! I am so sad that he is gone! He is one of my favorites! After going to "Thriller" I am so in the Halloween mood now!!

Thursday evening as I was driving home from my parents I had to stop because a house on my parents street was awesome!

I love it when people get into the Halloween mood and make there yards all creepy and freaky! I don't prefer it in my yard but it is so fun to see it in other's yards! I like cutesy, crafty decor at my house!

This yard was pretty impressive! I had to get out and take pictures.
Notice Jason standing by the porch? Ya, he moves and he moves his mashedy. It looks like he is attacking you. It freaked me out! Almost every thing in this yard was, electronic and censored and would go off. It was awesome! I don't think they will get very many Trick or Treators due to the fact they wont want to go to the door. Not to mention, Trick or Treat is disappearing. It is so sad that the world is so wicked that it is scary to take your kids out Trick or Treating. I so loved it as a kid!

The one that has the red eyes was pretty freaky! It would sit up and move it's head back and forth and make creepy sounds.

I was so happy to see this house because the one I loved last year (scroll down to the bottom of the post to see the house) hasn't put anything out this year. Maybe they might this week, who knows.

On Saturday, I had a costume Halloween party to go to. It was with some of my old coworkers from Air Terminal Gifts. I have mention them before on my blog you can see them here. Not to mention, that was were I met Ann and Monica (who I rode to Bear Lake with) and I also got to know Leah better. We went to high-school together but became best friends from working together. I am so blessed to have worked there, just for the simple fact of how many good friends I have from there.

I have known about this party for about a week and a half. I was told to bring some kind of food to share and to bring a game with a treat for the kids. This was for the kids also. I was so excited!

Alya came down with a cold this week so I waited to see how she would be. She seemed fine on Friday so I decided to make my game and food to bring.

I made a, "pin the nose on the witch game."
I think it turned out cute. I laminated it with tape, so I could use it for future parties with Ayla.

I want to have Halloween parties with Ayla and her friends when gets a little older. I think as time goes by Trick or Treat will become more obsolete. My ward this year isn't even doing a Trunk or Treat. We are having a party though which will be a lot of fun! I just want some kind of event that makes Halloween fun for my kids. I want them to be able to show off their costumes. That is part of the fun of it for kids. I remember how fun it was to dress up and go to school. Now a days, not all of the schools allow costumes.

For the food part ,I made sugar cookies, my family's recipe.
I have Halloween cookie cutters and I have been wanting to use them this past week and I had an excuse.

Anyway on Saturday, the day of the party, Ayla started coughing, so she wasn't better. I was sad because I was looking forward to the party but I didn't want Ayla to get the other kids sick. I wanted to see my friends from ATG. Not to mention, I didn't want to have to eat all those cookies.

Luckily, Kurt got a lot of his work that he does at home done during the week. He watched Ayla so I could go to the party for a little while.

It was such a cute party! I was sad because Ayla would have loved the party!:(

There was a lot of Halloween food. People were so creative!

My friend, Adora made this dish. She had hand carved the carrots. Cute huh? Adora did a lot of the food. She also made egg rolls, yummy! She made some kind of coconut treat and brought a cake.

Here is what the table looked like. It still didn't have every one's dish yet.

Here are my sugar cookies!

I thought this was an awesome way to do chips and dip!

This is my friend, Patty in her costume. She was the one hosting the party.

This is Adora.
She wanted to wear the sombrero.

I got so many ideas for future parties for my kids from this party. One that I liked was, they had pumpkins for the kids to color.

I love the lanterns on the sides of the Halloween sign.

This is me and my old manager, Karen and her grandson, Aden.
It was so nice to see her! It has been a while!

My friend, Althea showed up and brought some cute ideas. I loved the witch's brew! She is the witch in the center. The one on the left of her, is her daughter, Asia. I can't believe how big Asia has gotten. I haven't seen her since she was around the age of six. Time flies!

Althea made these adorable mummy pizzas! The are just small begals, with pizza sauce, string cheese and olives for the eyes. You set the oven at 350 and bake it for 10 to 15 minutes.

They turned out so cute and yummy!

Some one made the pretzels into fingers. Cute idea!

We ate the food and then started the games. I did my game first because I had to leave. I had to get home to Kurt and Ayla, so Kurt could get more work done.

It was so fun with the little ones! They were all eager to try the game.

They really liked it. I was pleased!

This is Patty's daughter with the nose! What a cute witch!


After the game, I got a few more picture before I left.

Me and Marline.

Me, Adora and Marline.

Patty, Adora, Althea, Marline, Karen and Me.
This was all of us who worked or still works at ATG, minus Arlene.

Here is me and Arlene.

Here is a good picture of the kids in their costumes! Too cute! Ayla would have loved to play with these kids!

They were playing a "toss the bean bag" game when I was leaving.

It was such a fun little party! I so wished Ayla wasn't sick! We both would have been there in our costumes and I would have had more time with my friends. I am just glad I got to go!

Our plans this week are to go to a Trunk or Treat, at my first family ward I was in, on Tuesday. That is the ward my sister-in-law, Krista is in and she is the mother of Morganne and Kurt. Ayla would have so much fun with her cousins Trunk or Treating.

On Friday, is our ward Halloween party that Morganne, Kurt and my nephew, Lane are coming with us to.

On Saturday, we have a Halloween party at the Perry's, a birthday party for my sister, Marion that early evening, then we are going to a Trunk or Treat at my last ward I was in. Then we are going Trick or Treating a little.

I really hope Ayla gets better soon! I am not sure we will make it to the Tuesday Trunk or Treat but maybe the rest of the stuff. I am hoping!

Because...
I am in the Halloween mood!!

Not to mention that I don't like to see my sweet little girl sick!

Blogger meet at Bear Lake!

I know I said I would get 2 more Summer Catch Up posts in but I will have to do that later.

First, I want to blog about what I did this weekend. I went to Bear Lake and met some blogging friends! Yes, you heard me blogging friends! We all rented a cabin together. My friend Cherie from Bakow Babble put it all together. I hitched a ride with 2 friends of mine, Ann and Monica that I have known for years.

Don't you just love the cabin?

A view of the lake from the cabin.

I do have to say it was planned out so fabulously! Cherie had us break up into groups of 2 and take turns making the meals, so we only had to pay for one meal, genius! Not to mention we ate well!

This was the first night we were there. I took this from one side of the table before dinner.
This is all of us that came. I am going to go around the table and tell you who every one is, starting on the left, Tauna, Kimmie, Monica, Ann, Katie, Cherie, Brittany, M-cat and Keely.

Here is one from the other end of the table after dinner.

It was Cherie's birthday the day we got there and I made her a cake.

And yes, we did candles!

She did fabulous, blowing the candles out!

See the yellow candle in the upper right hand corner of the cake? It had melted to almost nothing. It took us a while to light all the candles because they kept going out and we had to relight them.

She then got gifts!
I got her the crown that is on top of her head because she is the queen of ideas! She did plan this get together! Keely made her 4 of these darling towels.

Cherie is a member of the big lip club! So she got us all lips! Too fun!

M-cat and Brittany with the lips!
M-cat was quite the hoot! She had us all laughing! Sad to say but M-cat had to leave the next morning!:(

So we took some fun pictures with her.

I had to get one with M-cat!
She was my cooking partner. We cooked breakfast together. I got this picture the night before she left. We all were sad to see her go!

After we all said good-bye to M-cat, we decided to all get ready and go down to the lake.

Kimmie taking a picture of Tauna.
See all the white gravel looking things all over the sand?

They were little shells.
I had to laugh when I heard Tauna say, "Oh, that isn't gravel, they are Carcases"

One of all of us, minus Ann. She was taking the picture.

This is picture is why I had to do this post today. We had these 5 fabulous ladies jump in the air and tried to get a picture. It was hilarious! My camera was the one that captured the moment! I needed to get it here on my blog so that my fellow bloggers could take it from my blog. I loaded this picture in it's original size, so the bloggers can have the original.

BTW, I took a lot of these pictures from Cherie's blog.

Then I cropped it! Feel free to take this one if you like!

I love the high V's most of them were making and I love how Keely tucked her feet! The looks on all their faces are the best!

We saw a lighthouse and I had to get a picture of Cherie with it because Cherie likes lighthouses.
You can kind of see her in the door way. I guess I should have lighten up the picture before sharing it! Oh well, nothing I can do about it now!

After we got back to the cabin, we spent the day...

playing games...

talking and crafting! ;)

Saturday morning, Katie and Keely made us a Continental Breakfast.

It looked just like a hotel Continental Breakfast!

They even made these awesome signs!

Love it!!

The Continental Breakfast was perfect for the morning of us leaving! Not only was it the perfect breakfast to be on the go but it was perfect because it showed Katie's and Keely's personalities!

After breakfast we took some last minute pictures.

Kimmie and Cherie.

I never knew Kimmie before this trip and I just love her now!!
I really didn't know most of these women until now and I just love them!

Kimmie, Ann and Tauna. And the paper cut outs were Wendy and Gigi. They couldn't be with us physically so we had some cut outs. They did everything with us! Some of the pictures people took with the cut outs were hilarious!

One of all of us minus M-cat. And no M-cat is not taking the picture. Cherie and Keely were talented enough to set there cameras on a timer and run up with us all to take the picture. We had to try it a few times. It was quite the hysterical event! Though believe it or not, the picture above was the first one they took! Good job girls, you can't even tell that you were running at one point! Also, don't you love how Wendy and Gigi joined us?

Us Utah girls minus M-cat.

Everyone else was from Idaho except Keely.
She came all the way from Washington! She definitely gets the prize for the one that traveled the farthest! Notice the the pink tiara on Keely's head? It was her birthday on Saturday, the day we left.
Brittany and Katie are the other girls in the picture, they are Cherie's girls! Brittany and Katie are super close. It was fun to see them together. It reminded me of me and my sister. Me and my sister are super close!!

One last picture of Cherie with Wendy and Gigi for the ride home!

I had such a great time! These women are truly amazing! It was so fun to hang out with them and get to know them! We would stay up until 2 a.m. We didn't want to go to bed. We had such a good time talking together. It was a very uplifting time! I love that we all share the same faith. I love that there was no gossip and I felt so comfortable around them. I didn't feel like I was being judged at all! I really love these women!!!

And each person shared something with us all.

My friend Monica made these adorable BOO signs!

Look at all the love they shared with everyone. I made bank!!

I had such a wonderful time!! I am so glad I went!!!!

Got this picture of the Logan Temple on the way home!! I love temples!!!

I can't wait to see everyone else's pictures, so that I can add to my collection!!!

I am so grateful for blogging! I have made some really good friends through it! Not to mention that it has strengthened the friendships I already had!