Happy Halloween

We had a very busy Halloween this year! As you all know it's my favorite time of year, I put up the usual decor, the potions and lights and this year's addition was Halloween banners. We kicked off the festivities by our school having a Halloween Carnival as room mom I had to decorate a room for a game, I did the monster operation which was a touch and feel, spaghetti for intestines, tomato with the skin off for the heart, aqua gems for the brains, gloves with jello for hands and frozen green olives for the toes. I did a pirate theme, using our canopy with a tarp around it, it made it look like a cave. I heard it was a big hit. Next we had our ward party which is always held in a barn the YM/YW put it on and have games for the kids. As a presidency we decided to dress up as construction workers since our theme for Primary is I am a builder of my eternal family. It was pretty fun. On halloween I did the class party for Jared this year, which meant a haunted house but this year I did it a little differently, there was an extra classroom across from the teacher so I set up our three man tent and covered it with a tarp then used a long table as my tunnel. So much better then the cardboard boxes. Jared's teacher Mr. Lloyd livened it up by shaking the tent when the kids would go in. I felt kind of bad when a couple of them started crying because they were so scared, I turned on the lights to help them overcome their fear.Our two exchange students decided to go to the school dance for Halloween so were in need of costumes. Heike went as Peach and Pompe went as Link, I spent all week working on the costumes, I kept telling them I didn't really know how to sew but Pompe kept telling me he knew I could do it. I think they turned out really well in the end, (with some help from the internet and patterns). Isaac decided to be a nerd, Bennett went as a character from Secret Saturdays, and Jared was Luke Skywalker (instead of Anikin). The best was our haunted house, instead of just doing the haunted porch this year we brought it into our house and garage. I lit tiki torches and dressed as a gypsy, we brought the kids on the porch, I had a mini gumball machine that I would look into to tell their futures. We then went inside the house where we had moved the piano so you could see it, we had recorded organ music playing, I would tell the kids my friend Boris was playing, (there wasn't anyone there) I would ask them if they liked his red hair, the kids would look at me funny and I would continue telling them to please say they see him because I didn't want to feel like I was crazy. The funny part was that Jackson was in back of the piano popping his head up and to the side, but I didn't see him so the kids were looking at me weird because I talked about red hair, but Jackson was wearing a Jack Skeleton had from Disneyland with mouse ears. Later Jackson asked if I saw him but I didn't know what he was talking about until later when I finally saw him popping up. Next we took them to the garage where I had made a little alley with cobwebs, they had to crawl under a table which then opened into my canopy which was decorated. I had an old chest that I put all the candy in so they could choose what candy they wanted. It was a little sad this year, the kids are at the age where they don't really need adult supervision for trick or treating so we sent them off. They have grown up so fast! Here are pictures.

Book Crazy!!


This weekend I asked the boys if they had any homework, Bennett said he had to decorate his journal. I thought we could go get some stickers and do the usual, but Ben had other ideas. He wanted his book to look like the Harry Potter book that tries to attack Harry, this is what we came up with:

Where has the summer gone?
I can't believe I've gone a whole summer without a post. Here are our highlights:

June- We waited for the sun to make it's appearance again, it had such a great start but then fizzled out. I planted flowers and a garden and weeded, and weeded and weeded. They boys played on their bikes and were really into Legos. Bennett turned 10 and Jared went to his first cub scout camp.

July- We had the Watson family reunion over the 4th of July. My entire family caravaned up to Rexburg. (Even Lara and her family from Texas) It's the first time we have all been together in two years. It was a little crowded in my house (23 people) but really fun. We then left to go stay by Yellowstone Park at a place on the Madison River. It was a really fun weekend. (I'll post pictures as soon as I get them) I took the boys to Utah for a few days where it was nice to be back home and hang out with friends and family. Isaac went to his first Boy Scout Camp and had fun learning new songs and passing off 6 merit badges.

August- We had a new addition to our family, our exchange student Pompe from Spain. Thank goodness he is easy going and can handle the noise level. We went to Lagoon and saw Jackson's family. We also went to the Busby's pond to play. We also had our annual boy's fishing trip, where Pappa and grandma spoiled the kids rotten, by taking them fishing and to the local amusement park, where they rode go carts, played minature golf, climbed the climbing wall and so on.

It was really a great summer of making memories and enjoying our time here in Rexburg. The project continues to move forward and is amazing to watch as it gets closer and closer to being finished.

Goodbye Summer! I can't wait to put my Halloween stuff up!

And the race is on.....

So it's that time of year again. Time to head for the track. There are some great benefits to having a husband that's an architect. One of them is being able to go out to the Larry Miller sportspark and watch the races. Because Jackson was the project architect on the buildings at the race track, when his firm gets event tickets, Jackson is usually invited to attend. This year the Larry Miller corporation is celebrating 30 years and to honor Larry Miller they have decided to celebrate at the track (which is what his favorite project was at least that's what his son says). Jackson was invited to attend having worked with both Larry and Greg on the project and of course there was no question who his guest would be. (I did grow up in a family that loves racing.) There is such an energy when you hear the sound of a racing car (or motorcycle for that matter) I love the build up of excitement. This race will be the LeMans series which is really fun to watch because there are all types of cars racing, they all don't look the same. It will also be nice to be with Jackson, it seems we haven't had as much time to do things together lately. I'll post pictures later.

Jared's Big Day!

I've spent the last couple of weeks adjusting to being a stay at home mom. I figured I would start by spring cleaning my house in preparation for family coming for Jared's baptism. It's been so nice to be able to slow down and concentrate on things that really matter. I can already see a difference in our family. I hear more laughter and talking, it really is true, "if mama ain't happy, nobody's happy." It's not that I don't think I was happy before, but I was always rushing around, trying to get things done. Now I'm still trying to get things done, but it's not quite such a race. On Saturday Jared will be getting baptized, I've spent the last week going through his pictures and realizing how grateful I am for him. He is our comic relief as well as our button pusher, boundary jumper, freedom fighter, activities coordinator, dreamer, and artist. I couldn't imagine our family without him!

Reading Parade Float

So the PTO (PTA) decided that all of the teachers should make a float advertising what their classes favorite book was. The teachers were given a month to work on it and told to use their room mothers to help. Being a room mom myself, I got the great task to make a float for the book, "Sideways stories, from Wayside school" it's about a school that was originally supposed to be 1 story tall with 30 classrooms but was built sideways so it is now 30 stories tall. The book is about the children on the 30th floor. Each chapter tells the story of one of the kids in the class. Jared was "Todd" who talks too much (as much as the other kids, but unfortuantely gets caught) so is sent home everyday on the kindergarten bus. Along with the float theme I used a moving box and tissued papered it for each floor then used bigger boxes for the 30th floor, then I had the kids color a picture of their student, and then on the day of the parade they dressed up. It turned out really good and the kids had fun, even though we didn't win anything. Some of the other classrooms did some fun things too.

Secret Garden




Jared's float
Bennett's class float

Charlottes Web

Last Day and Facebook........

So last Friday was my last day of work. People kept asking me if I felt some type of relief, but honestly I didn't. I'm sure the feeling will come this week when I don't have to commute down. But, on that day all I could feel was sadness and a sense of loss. I was one of lucky few (I guess) who really like their jobs. Sure there were days that if I had one more person complain to me about the charge for their bags (not that I don't blame them) I felt like I would lose it. But I loved how busy the airport is, I enjoyed trying to solve problems, and I loved the people I worked with. Not to mention the great benefits. (which I still have except no longer free,( yea I know poor me) The other part I've had to work through is that when we moved I really didn't have to deal too much with leaving, since I knew I would be back every week, so I'm starting to go through a little of the home sickness. I was staying with my sister and her husband when I went down every week and now I have to deal with the loss of not seeing them every week. On the up side I am looking forward to spending time with my family. I think a lot of times I would save fun Libby for work and seeing friends, and my family got left with tired, grumpy Libby. So now the challenge for myself is to make sure my family gets more of the fun, easy going, me. A friend gave me a picture that reads "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" from Dr. Suess. I really like that saying, it's helped me to realize that as this chapter of my life closes a new one is just waiting to begin and I hope that when this new chapter is done I'll be just as sad to see it go because it was just as amazing if not better. By the way I joined Facebook in hopes of staying connected to the Adult World. Come be my friend!