A Boy And His Pumpkin.

Ever since Noah was old enough to carve a pumpkin he has taken enormous pride and joy in doing so. As he gets older carving becomes more intricate and serious for him! Jon will help him at times but is learning to do it on his own.  He carefully draws the design he wants to carve on paper and then grabs a pencil to draw on the pumpkin. He's a little too meticulous when it comes to carving that perfect pumpkin and wants to makes sure it looks "cool." Which is why he wants to hang on to this one a little bit longer. 

Trunk Or Treat & A Pumpkin Carving Weekend!

This past weekend we had our church trunk or treat, and my family finally carved their pumpkins. This month seems to be passing us way too quickly, and because of that every outing, and activity we've had slips through my life like dust, and just like that it's over! I begin to feel melancholy because I really want this time of year to drag more slowly!

The Carving Of The Pumpkins.

As each new week begins one of the things that I look forward to is our family home evening. The older the kids gets, and the older I get I feel that it is even more crucial to keep up family home evening. Granted Jon and I didn't have our own family home evenings as a couple when we were newlyweds, nor for the first five years of our marriage! It wasn't until I got sealed in the temple with Jon and our girls is when we seriously committed to have FHE every week no matter what. No matter how older the girls got, and no matter how big our family gets we will have always continued to have FHE. There have been days in the past when we'd have it on Sunday rather than monday only because Jon worked Monday nights, but hey...at least we still prepared for it! 

This past week has been so crazy! Heck the whole month of October has been crazy. Crazy in a sense of juggling life as a mother, wife, friend, neighbor, daughter, daughter-in-law, and sister in the church can make someone nuts!! Nonetheless amidst all the many hats I wear I've managed to contain my composure in not worrying about the little things, and to strive to have faith in not worrying too much about the big things!! Luckily we have three kids still left at home who reassure me that life is good, that each day is new, and that every Monday brings a new week to do better regardless of any circumstance. It's the week of Halloween for crying out loud, and shouldn't we be having fun instead of sweating the small stuff, in trying to forget the bad stuff for just that one day, and have fun!  

Well...this week we did just that! 

We picked pumpkins this past weekend, and for our FHE this past Monday we finally carved them!! Finally! Better late in October than never right? The last time we carved pumpkins was like three years ago!! We did paint pumpkins last year, but it had been a while since we carved any, and so I'm glad we got to do that this year! 

You'd think the girls would be the ones to not want to get their hands dirty, but instead it was this little guy. Such a goof. I hope that as he gets older he'll want to get his hands dirty! Papa helped him...for now! 

This was also Noah's first time carving a pumpkin, and all he did was carve. Carve, carve, carve. He carved, and drew the face of how he wanted his pumpkin to look like with the help of papa.

As usual Chelsea went to town with her little 'kin gutting and scraping him to the core!

We also made popcorn balls for our trunk or treat we had our church this past week. Another tradition that we have kept up for the past eight years! Noah and Chelsea made them this year, and they had too much fun! 

^^^ Don't worry trunk or treaters...their hands are clean! ^^^ 

This year for the first time instead of throwing away the pumpkin seeds we decided to roast them. We baked them and seasoned them with chili, garlic powder, cumin, seasoning salt, sugar and cinnamon! It was delish! 

Reason why you don't see Lexie in any of these pictures is because she was doing homework. I know...this was our time spent as a family, but at least she helped dad as to what she wanted carved on her pumpkin that best described her. Even though this was our FHE for the week it was more of a "fun night" than an actual "spiritual" night. Our lesson was on building traditions, and continuing to keep them in hopes on passing them on down to our posterity. 

The end result of the carving of the pumpkins...

Ta-da! Can you tell whose is whose? The one with the music notes & tennis ball is Lexie's, and the smallest one is Noah's. And the one with the very sharp teeth...is Chelsea! I think they all did a good job with carving their pumpkins! 

***It's the day before Halloween...have you carved your pumpkins yet?

Pumpkin carving & caramel popcorn balls

 Another year of pumpkin carving.

 Last night the girls brought their pumpkins in from outside, and were anxious to begin carving them. They always look forward to this. Chelsea loves making messes with the pumpkins seeds, and letting all the pumpkin slime slide down her hand. Gross!!! I never carved a pumpkin when I was their age, and I'm happy that they don't mind the messy slimy stuff. I probably would have!

Sierra wanted to help carve Noah's pumpkin, but due to studying, and doing homework for HSPA testing, she fell asleep at her desk (sorry no photo included!) It was okay, because Noah wasn't too fond of all the pumpkin slime. He was just standing on the chair observing his two sisters hacking into these poor pumpkins...including his. I'm sure next year he'll have the desire to carve his own pumpkin since he'll be older. 

All he wanted to do was color on the newspapers! 

 Lexie worked hard on carving, and pushing out all the carved parts of her, Chelsea, and Noah's pumpkins. Her hands and fingers were so sore by the end of the night!  

When all was done with the pumpkin carving my better half, and I made 100 caramel popcorn balls for our church's trunk or treat. This is a tradition we love, and we make them every Halloween. The kids love them! These are not your normal popcorn balls. They are unique because it's my mother in laws recipe, and it is an excellent caramel one. 

To make these soft & chewy popcorn balls here is the recipe. It's so easy! 

1 lb. brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white corn syrup

Bring these three to a boil and add: 

15 oz. condensed milk. Cook to soft balls stage & then add 1 tsp. vanilla.

  ENJOY!