Halloween 2009

Sigh, my favorite holiday is over... I've already started to take down the decos. At least I have the pics to remember it by. We had a really great Halloween this year. We did a fun Halloweenie roast with the neighbors, we went to school parties, we had family parties, and of course trick or treating.

This year was a lot of work because I decided to make the girls' costumes rather than spend lots of money on nice costumes. It took a lot of time but it was worth it and I had lots of fun doing it (thanks for the help Magi.)

Tabby wanted to be a Sugar Plum Fairy. It's a strange request, I know. She saw a Sugar Plum Fairy costume that she liked in a catalog and I didn't want to pay $50.00 for it so I did my best to make one. It turned out better, I think. And the one in the magazine didn't come with sugar plums I might add.
Rex wanted to be nothing other than Optimus Prime. He wouldn't budge on the subject. I wasn't a big fan of the costume but I have to say he rocked it. Nobody has ever loved a costume more than he loved his Optimus costume. He's slept in it every night since.
Doing some sweet moves:
He's trying to transform:
Ella Rose decided she wanted to be a rock star. I'd say that choice suited her perfectly. Because she is one.
Gunner was an ASU football player. I was kind of embarrassed for him to wear this costume as our team had a disgusting loss earlier in the day. But he didn't seem to mind it.
My sis Magi made her entire family mummy costumes. Mark even wore one but I don't have a pic of it. It happened, I swear.
Here's Mads:
And Max:
She's so dang creative. Check out these leggings and shoes she made for Mads:
Here we all are at my parent's Halloween party:
Seems like we have a pinata at every party we have:
Look at the yummy bat cake Magi made:
Here we all are ready to get our trick or treat on:
My sis in law Shannon does a fun haunted alley in front of her house every year so we always go to her neighborhood. Her street gives out the best candy ever. Not a Bit-O-Honey in sight.
Sweet cousin Miranda:
Little Kinley was the best Dorothy ever. She even said "There's no place like home" and clicked her heels when she got candy.
Kam:
Amelia striking a way rad pose in her kitty costume:
Cannon and Todd:
This is how Gunner rolls:
Papa and Gunner resting after a long night of Trick or Treating:
I take back what I said about getting the best candy ever. Look what I found in one of my kid's bucket when we got home:
I know, right?

It gets worse, It was TAPED SHUT!!!
So ghetto!!! Julie had one in her kiddo's candy bucket too. What, you can't go out and spend $10.00 for some dang candy? Why even bother? I would rather you lock the door and not answer than receive your eight month old shady looking candy!

I know you want to hear all about my daughter's ordeal at the dentist!

Poor little Tabby had quite the adventure at the dentist's office on Wednesday.

It all started about a month ago when I took Tabby in for a check up and was told that Tabby would need two root canals and crowns due to some molars that were badly decayed. After the dentist was done looking at her, the front desk lady gave me the wonderful news that this procedure would cost me over $800.00! And yes, that's with our dental insurance (which is a total joke, BTW.) I kindly told the lady that there was no way that we could afford that and I guess I'll just have to let her teeth rot out of her mouth because there was nothing I could do if it was going to cost that much. I didn't win any of her sympathy with that so I left feeling trapped and ticked off that we pay lots of money for dental insurance every month that won't even come close to covering this crap. SO ANGRY!!! GRRRR! The dentist had even told Tabby during the exam that he was going to fix her "princess teeth" and when she learned that we couldn't do it, she started to cry that her "princess teeth" would turn ugly. Super awesome.

Well some great people (they read this blog, do they want me to say who they are? I'm not sure) heard of my problem and offered to chip in a great deal money to help get this done. Hallelujah! Fixed princess teeth after all!

I called and made the appointment and took her in this past Wednesday. To start things off, they gave her this gnarly "juice" to drink that made her really loopy and sleepy. It was really funny to see that even though she was totally out of it, she still wouldn't stop talking.

Anyway, they took her back and started working on her and a few minutes into it, the dentist called me back and said that the new x ray that he took showed the molars never had very deep roots and that they were very weak teeth and that's why they decayed so badly. I have to say that at this point I felt a bit of relief. I had been feeling like a terrible mom for not taking care of my kiddo's teeth like I thought I was. Turns out, the teeth were doomed from the start. The dentist even told me they would have decayed no matter what. Bad news is the x ray showed that a lot of her teeth were like that so dang it, we might have to do this again.

He says that he can't save the molars and they have to go so she ended up getting them yanked and she'll have to get spacers put in next week.

Needless to say, when she came to, she was shocked to find two of her teeth gone. She said "you mean I'm not getting crowns on my teeth?" I still wonder what her idea of crowns on her teeth was. Did she picture little tiny princess tiaras sitting on top of her teeth? =)

Still in the procedure chair, the assistant said she could take all of the gauze out of her mouth. In all her numbness she grabbed her tongue and started to try to pull it out of her mouth thinking it was the gauze. Funny stuff.

Anyhow, I got her home and laid her on the couch to sleep the meds off. I stepped out of the room for a second and when I came back, this is what I saw:
My little princess clutching her highly prized wand that she earned from the dentist's treasure box. A medal of honor you might say. She woke up long enough to ask me why the couch was rocking and then fell back asleep.

Once again I feel like a terrible mom though because of all the nights to have the tooth fairy come and leave money, she forgot! Poor Tabby woke up so dismayed. I don't blame her, she went through so much! On the way home from the dentist, she told me she thought the tooth fairy should leave her $100 because of how brave she was. Needless to say she was very excited to get to sleep that night. So she wakes up, and nothing! Dale tried to make it better by saying that the tooth fairy had been to a little girl in Germany and couldn't make it back in time but she will for sure come tonight. And she will. I'm going to make it up to her too. Normally the tooth fairy leaves a quarter but tonight, she will leave a $5 bill and a stuffed animal!

She went to school today so excited to show everyone her two new "teeth holes."

Funny little girl.

Naughtiness to the Nth Degree

Here's all the wonderful high jinks my daughter Ella perpetrated while I was working in my office today:

1.) Peed on the bathroom floor. Creative. She's never done that before.
2.) Dumped dirt all over the dog.
3.) Squeezed all of Tabby's glitter lotion onto her bed.
4.) Colored in some tile grout with a permanent marker (anyone know how to get that out?)
5.) Climbed onto the counter and ate all the cookies I was saving for the kids as an after lunch treat. I must have told her 80 trillion times not to touch them. Tabby was way ticked that her cookie was eaten.
6.) Pushed the couch in the loft across the room. What? Why? I think she evokes super human strength when I'm not looking.

As naughty as this all sounds, I know she's not a bad girl because she's pretty well behaved when I'm not working. And she's not a mean little girl at all. She's just looking for a little attention. I just wish she sought it in different ways like maybe vacuuming, taking out the trash, or cleaning the bathrooms. I would for sure lavish the attention on her if she did those things!

So to my darling little Ella Rose, we love you dearly, you are a princess. But please turn the misbehavior down a few notches. Your mom thanks you kindly.

Spooky Tree

I've had the inside of my house decorated for Halloween for almost a month now. I didn't want to do the outside until now because I didn't want people I live by to know that I am crazy. They all probably think that already...

So anyway about the outside.

In this new place that we are in I have something that I've never had before, a porch! Well, if you can call it that. It's more like a tiny slab of cement that barely fits a couple chairs. I was excited to think of a decoration to go on it nonetheless. Being strapped for cash, I tried to come up with something that could cost next to nothing. Here's what ended up on my porch:
Now I kinda cheated as far as saying this is cheap to make because I already had a lot of this stuff on hand. Like a tree. I had a tree in my front yard that needed pruning. My mom had a flower pot she didn't need anymore and I had some leftover spider webbing from last year, and lots of black spray paint in the garage. I had originally bought the paint to refinish my coffee table but that can wait, I guess.
So all in all this cost me $6.00 and a trip to the dollar store. They didn't have black ornaments but they did have a pack of red ones for Christmas which I spray painted black. They also had a ghost sign and some black birds that were in questionable condition. I figured they would go outside and get beat up anyway so I bought them.I removed the leaves from the branches (Rex helped me by whacking them with his dollar store sword) spray painted them black, along with the ornaments and also the flower pot. I filled the pot with dirt and stuck the branches in. Then had the buff hubby carry the pot to the porch where I finished it off with the decos. I thought about buying lights to put on it but decided it looked cute enough with out them and I'd rather save my $$$. I'll have more fun next year thinking of whatever else I can add to it but for now, I dig it.