Thanksgiving

Mike is doing this face on purpose, of course. Sorry to those who didn't make it in the picture!

Better late than never, right?

This year we had a great Thanksgiving at my brother and sister-in-law's house. Shell did such an awesome job decorating, complete with cornucopias made from ice cream cones and stuffed with candy. All the food was delicious! It was so fun to be with my family, especially my dad, who had been so sick the week of Thanksgiving that he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to come. We are glad everyone made it.

I love this picture of two of my favorite people.

Jared quote

A few days ago, Jared came up to me with a serious face and said, "Mommy, what does alcohol taste like?" I said, "Well, Jared, I don't know what it tastes like because I've never had it. Remember that we aren't supposed to drink alcohol because of the Word of Wisdom?"

Then, Jared got this sly look on his face and said, "It tastes like liquiiiiiid gooooold!!"

We can thank the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox for that one.

Jared's Halloween Program

This year Maggie and I went to Jared's little Halloween parade and program that he did with his preschool. I have recorded a few of the songs he sang below. (He is such a CUTE kid!) I think the best part is that he knows all the words, but he seems to be a little slow to do all the actions. It's hilarious.

Curtis Halloween

We had a totally awesome time at our annual Curtis Halloween party. This party has probably been going on for seven or eight years. This year we had time to play games, eat delicious food, carve our pumpkins, and (my favorite) sing pumpkin carols. Our family has a repertoire of about ten or eleven Halloween songs that we sing every year together. (How many of you can boast such a thing?!!) The list includes the famous "I'm a Mean Old Witch with a Hat," which was written by my dad's sister (not kidding), as well as several songs made up by my maternal grandmother (but not famous outside our family). We also sing songs like "Have You Seen the Ghost of John?" and "There is a Haunted House in Town." See the first video below for a sampling of our singing talents...

Jared and his pumpkin made from stickers

My nephew was an Angry Bird--so funny! Sorry the picture is blurry.

My cute mom and oldest brother

Our pumpkin is the top right. It was a skeleton wearing a top hat with a cat next to him.

Stout Halloween

This year we had our third annual Stout Halloween Party. A lot of work goes into this party. There are neat decorations, delicious food, and well-thought-out costumes, not to mention an awesome Spook Alley put on by Alan's youngest siblings and cousins (who aren't so young anymore, I might add.)

(I must apologize to Mandy for this picture)

We didn't get pictures of everyone (I put Alan in charge of the picture taking...), but here are a few of the brilliant costumes.

I get to take all the credit for the idea of going as polygamists. We have to thank three of Alan's sisters for making our idea more complete. It just wouldn't have been the same without my three sister wives.

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and their Black baby

Mrs. White from Clue

Runner and Mechanic

Mason went as the guy from "Better Off Dead"

Maggie the frog

We anxiously await next year's party!!!

First Wife

Happy Halloween from my family to yours.

Family Pictures Preview

So, I have lots of Halloween pictures to post, but I haven't loaded them on my computer yet. Instead, you get a taste of what our family pictures will look like this year. I had my amazing friend Cindy take them for me. She was sooooooo patient despite the meltdowns that Maggie was having every 10 minutes. Cindy is so sweet. She won't let me pay her since she's not very experienced (not like I can tell--they look wonderful to me!), but I will babysit for her for HOURS to make up for it.

I'll start with some of my favorites (although I haven't cropped or enhanced them at all yet) and then maybe post a few outtakes. Unfortunately, I deleted some of the most hilarious outtakes (they were wretched!) , but you can still get the idea. We did not get a single good picture of just Jared and Maggie together.

Unfortunately, this very well might be the best family picture we got. I guess it's semi-decent.

I'm trying soooooooo hard to learn to not crinkle my nose in pictures...

OUTTAKES:

Not sure what Jared's scowling at...