Halloween festivities

Halloween artwork by the girls and cards from Aunt Missy and Nana. (Oh and a picture of President Hinckley that Aleah insisted on putting up.)

Patiently playing while Mommy cuts the top of the pumpkin off.



Mad Crazy knife skills. Yikes!

Dig In!

The girls both enjoyed this. Aleah did a really good job of getting the guts out and Nani sort of pretended like she helped by putting her empty spoon in and taking her empty spoon out. She was more occupied with trying to eat the seeds.

Aleah said she wanted a spider, so there's our finished spider.

Aleah also painted a pumpkin at a friend's pumpkin carving get together, I'll have to take a picture of it and then post that later.

Goldie Locks and her 3 bears

There we are at the church fall festival.

Goldie Locks and Baby bear after checking themselves out in the mirror.

There's her real bear face. Angry Baby bear!

Papa Bear and Goldie Locks.

We had a good time. Sometimes I think we really need to do our own Halloween party so we can get some more use out of the costumes. I always say, maybe next year.

We'll post more pics of the girls trick-or-treating on Halloween.

Have a Happy Spooky Halloween!

Goldie Locks is on her way...

Tomorrow we get to dress up for the church Halloween party, or fall festival I guess. I know you can hardly wait to see pictures. Me too! I think I finally finished our costumes 5 minutes ago. So I can't wait to see all my hard work displayed for one night of fun! Okay, 2 nights, I guess we have to take Aleah trick-or-treating on the actual night of Halloween. We, being Matthew and I, haven't dressed up in a little while, but I always say we're going to. So this year we're following through for our last Halloween in Philly.

Preview of Family fall pix

Check out our photos by Zobbie Photography A friend did our family fall pictures and they turned out great! Thanks Michelle!

The family,

my little pumpkin,

my little model,
the Mr. and Mrs.

and one lucky daddy!

Sleep...overated? I think not!

A week ago I was having a conversation with a couple friends and discovered that it may not be entirely normally for it to take an hour to 2 hours to fall asleep every night. When Matthew goes to bed, he hits the pillow and he's out. Me, it takes at least an hour, sometimes 2, and there are several wakings throughout the night. I'm not sure why. I have theories. Anyways, I just have to say, last night was the best sleep I have had in awhile! So for those of you who may be reading this, I am going to ask if you would just make a quick comment, even if you never comment on any blogs, please humor me. Just comment and say on average, what time you go to sleep, how long it takes you to fall asleep and how long you sleep.

(Thank you for participating in my experiment.)

Time Out For Women!

Here are a couple of us who went with Hilary Weeks in the Middle. It was a good time and Hilary Weeks has some great inspiring music!

This is Jane Clayson Johnson. I read an article about her in the BYU alumni Magazine awhile ago and it was a feel good to be a mom article. I love those! (She was signing some one's book and I stole a picture of her before I had to sit down.)

So that was time out for women and I can't wait until the next time I can go!

TOFW

I'm not going to blog about this right now, but I just have to say, I went to Time Out For Women today and it was a blast! Really uplifting and now I'm the perfect wife and mother.

A little from Priesthood

Here's a little from Matthew's report: Learn what you should learn, Do what you should do and Be what you should be! (He gave a much more thorough report, but that's all I got for now.)

I totally forgot to post conference in the Perry home....

so today is 2 in one. Yesterday when I was listening to a couple conference talks, I didn't know what to focus on for the day because there were too many good things, that's why I gotta just listen to one talk. The thing I remember most from those few talks were the story of the little girl who was born deaf and "I know enough".

You know children are honest and they say what they see and I've had a few experiences with Aleah just being honest in public. I did my best to try to teach her sometimes we don't say those kind of things because it can hurt people's feelings. The story shared was very insightful and I think I'm going to try to teach her that way. That Heavenly Father makes us all different and that's why were special.

And the other, "I know enough", well how many of us have felt like we don't know enough?! I know I feel that way a lot when it comes to, well, pretty much everything, like marriage, parenting, talking or teaching in church, etc. So just remember, if you know who you are, where you come from, and have faith in the Lord, you can do all things with the Lord's help. We do know enough.

Hats!!!!

My mom made these little hats for the girls and they LOVED them. They look so cute in them! Thanks Mom/Nana. ( The Socks, well those were sent to me, but little Aleah saw them and couldn't stand not to wear them. So she's wearing some festive Halloween socks.)

Well, these aren't really hats, they're more like do-rags, or wanna be do-rags. We were making little ghosts for fun and I didn't have any white fabric, so I used an old white T-shirt. I had cut off the sleeves and Matthew put them on the girls. And here you have it, my little wanna be thugs.

And here are the finished ghosts. There's a daddy, mommy and 2 little baby ghosts, of course, just like our family.

And this picture, well Aleah did her own hair today. She sprayed it with water, combed it and then put 2 headbands in it. She walked out like she knew what she was doing, and apparently she does. (Maybe "Hats" wasn't the best title, hm....started with hats, then to wanna be do-rags, finished with headbands, oh and ghosts were in there.....maybe....scary head fixtures...no,no.....maybe....head accessories. BOO! There you go, that's it. We'll just make it the ending instead of the title.)

Head Accessories. BOO!

Stresses of everyday life

Elder L. Tom Perry in his talk in the first session on conference said that we're not suppose to let the stresses of everyday life get to us. When I was listening to that again, I had to do a double take with my ears to make sure that's what he really said. I replayed that part over and over. I know that this probably sounds crazy, but it never dawned on me before that I'm not supposed to let all the things going on and all my responsibilities stress me out. I always kind of thought that if I had a lot to deal with or lot that I had to get done, that it was okay to be stressed. But Elder Perry says that we are to remain optimistic and hope. ( My husband is such a great example to me.) I didn't realize when I get stressed out, I'm being neither optimistic or hopeful. So there's an eye opener for me and I tried to remember it all day. And since this post is at the end of the day, I'll say I did a pretty good job, but then again, tomorrow is another day. Everyday we have to make our choices and sometimes we don't realize that we are even making choices and we're just acting. So here's to stopping and thinking before I act.

Enjoy the Journey

What more can be said about that. Enjoy the journey. You've heard it a million times, your kids aren't going to be little forever. I can't remember at the moment who during confrenece shared the story of his dad taking him and his brother to the circus. It was all planned and his dad got a phone call in which he discovered he was needed in town. His boys were set to hear the disappointing news, but to the their surprise, their dad said

"No, it's going to have to wait."

He went into the other room where his wife said,

"The circus will be back"

and he replied,

"But childhood won't."

So there you have it, not word for word and without the greatness of the rest of the talk leading up to it, but point made.

Enjoy your munchkins and remember to give them some extra loving, because they won't always be munchkins.

( I know this quote covers much more than this, but you say what you can.)

A little conference everyday this month.

Since we love conference so much, we're going to make it conference everyday this month in the Perry 'home'.

Of course, I know most of you heard...Greater Kansas City area Temple---right on. (For those of you who don't know, we're moving to Kansas. Although, I'm not quite sure if this will be closer than the one currently in the district.) And a Philly temple, I know we're moving, but still, you just feel so excited for all those who you personally know will benefit!

And last be not least, for today's conference quote: "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved."

--Chelsea's application to everyday life, "Never let the things that I have to get done (problems), become more important than my children to be loved."

I struggle with this everyday. When my dear little girls need some love and attention, sometimes just a hug, I'm often telling them, "Hold on" or "Just a Minute".

I'm often thinking about the things that I need to get done, i.e. bills, clean house, laundry, my primary calling, errands to run, people to call, etc.

So this morning, as I try to apply conference, Kanani was pulling at my legs while I tried to read, I thought just a few more verses, but then I remembered my little girl obviously needs my attention. So I picked her up and asked her what she wanted. Then she just snuggled up next to me and laid there for quite some time. I never knew that Kanani was that snugly in the morning. All she wanted was mommy to hold her and love her. Hey, I can do that. I mean who doesn't want to hold there little baby girl?! The only time it gets hard is when I start thinking again about what I have to get done. It's easier to see my accomplishments for the day when it's house cleaning or grocery shopping, when it's so visible and tactile. But sometimes, I fail to remember the long term, more important accomplishments, that aren't so easily seen, like my children feeling they are important to me and loved by me. I know that when their days get a little tougher, with school, peer pressure and everything that they see going on around them, if they know that they are important to me, that they can trust me, and most importantly that I love them, then they will be able to come to me with their struggles and they will value my council and guidance. But it's one of those things that I have to show by actions and not just say.

I feel like when I prepare for conference, there are so many answers to be received. I feel that so many of the things that are shared are just for me. I love it and feel renewed, so let's go on our horses.

Conference Oct 2008

Our Conference Opener included breakfast at IHOP! It was good and a fun way to start off our conference day!

A few shots from breakfast.

Nani ate like a champ, well, we all did.

Oh, I was there too.

Here are a few more shots from our confrence day.
Kanani enjoying dinner. I know, it's a gross picture, but I had to put it. She had some lasagna for dinner and she insists on feeding herself. Then Aleah thought she'd come play peek-a-boo with her.

The girls watching Fantasia after dinner and a bath.