Halloween Fun!!

Halloween is over and now comes the time to show off cute pictures of my kids. Living in a town with lots of family makes holidays very long and packed full. We had a lot of fun. Here they are before the festivities took place.

Aliya decided she wanted to be a zombie princess. For any of you who have older girls and are forced to watch Hannah Montana, she wanted to look like Hannah did in the Zombie Slayer episode. I think we did pretty good.

Landon wanted to be a pirate. Again. He was a pirate last year. I am glad cause this year we found a cute pirate costume. This is the face he thinks pirates make. He makes me laugh.

Grant wanted to be superman. I talked him into this adorable lion costume instead. Just one more year of cute costumes. I told him he was king of the jungle. He liked that idea. He wanted me to call him lion all day.

I love this picture. Landon and Caydence are in the same preschool class. They had a little party today with fun and games. Cute cousins.

TRICK OR TREAT!!

Just one of our many stops throughout the night. Grandma and Grandpa Campbell love to see the kids all dressed up.


Aiden and Landon are not only cousins, but best friends.

We stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Cazier's. Neal's Mom dressed up as a nerd for work today. I love it.

We had a great night. We all came home and crashed. Except me cause I decided to get this post done for my Mom and Dad to see pictures of the kids. I hope all of you had a great Halloween.

Music to my ears.

I decided to add a music player. I don't know about any of you, but I do everything to music. Clean, read, drive and now when I am writing. Some of the songs are ones I am very attached to. Songs that remind me of family, friends, and different times in my life. Music can be very powerful and whenever I hear certain songs I am brought back to certain moments where I remember exactly where I was and exactly how I felt. Other songs are just songs I love. Let me know some of the songs you love and I will add them, so when you are reading about my life, you will have something good to listen to.

Maybe just a little too much information.....

Have you ever had one of those nights where you just can't sleep??? It usually takes me a little while to go to sleep, but last night I was wide awake with millions of thoughts going through my head. I tried watching TV for a bit. I tried reading. I tried closing my eyes for a very long time, hoping that I would trick my brain into thinking I was tired. Got up, got a drink and still nothing worked.
I was thinking about the book I am reading. The couple in the book lost a child in a car accident. I think I would take to the sea also. I wondered if I should let Aliya go to a fellow classmates birthday party even though I don't know the parents at all. I wondered if Neal would actually dress up as a vampire on Halloween and let me call him Edward all day. Random thoughts of random people from my past. I hope they are happy. Shoot, I forgot to get Neal Oreo's at the store. I hope Neal is happy. He works so hard. I hope Misty got all her crafts done for her Halloween Party. I miss her. Sometimes I feel like I can't function until I have talked to her. I realized how emotionally dependent I am on people. An email from a friend. Neal's morning kiss. Seeing my Mom. Hugs from my kids. I wish I could do something to help a friend. She is such a great Mom. She is going through an almost impossible life right now and still she has time and energy to make my family banana bread. I wish I could help, but I know that all I can do is listen when she needs someone to. I hope my kids go to college. Will it really work if I keep telling them that's just what you do after high school? College is the time to prove you can make good decisions without your parents guidance. Actually prove you can be an adult. Why don't my kids ever complain about going to church? Why do I? Would it make Neal feel bad if I dressed him up as a vampire and went around calling him Edward all day?? All those poor people in California. I hope all of our family in California stay safe. MMMM In N Out sounds good right now. If I had a cheeseburger from In N Out
I would for sure be able to go to sleep.
Grant woke up. I was thankful for the distraction. Then Neal's fire pager went off. I listened to that for a little while . Finally about three oclock a.m. I fell asleep. The random chatter in my head stopped. I had a lot of other thoughts going through my mind, but they are a little too personal to write in a blog. Those stay in my head. Thoughts for me myself and I to figure out.

"It's like we're taking the guts out of the pumpkin."

We carved our pumpkins tonight!! Aliya dove right in. Not afraid of the gooey mess at all!!

Grant did not want to get his hands all "icky".
This coming from a kid who will roll around
in a mud puddle with his Sunday clothes on.



Neal was not afraid to get his hands in there either. Can you tell where Landon gets all his funny faces from??? Goofy Daddy!!



It's hard work carving pumpkins.

All in all it was a successful evening. Daddy was there and that is always the best part.

Can a seven year old be a vegetarian???

Aliya has decided today is the day she is going to become a vegetarian. This decision of hers comes very suddenly and with the only reason being "I don't want to eat meat anymore cause meat comes from animals" I told her it is her choice, but I wanted to list all of the things she loves that is meat. For example... Turkey! She vowed to only eat Turkey on Thanksgiving and she would say a prayer for the Turkey. She also loves Bologna. I am not sure what kind of meat Bologna is, but I am pretty sure it is meat. Tonight I asked if she wanted cheese on her hamburger ( when I say hamburger I mean a bun with ketchup on it. No Meat). She said no cause it comes from a cow. I had to explain to her it is okay to milk a cow. It doesn't hurt them. It's what it was meant for. After careful consideration she decided cheese was safe. We will see how long it lasts. I have no idea where she even got the idea. I might have to make some bacon and sausage in the morning and see if she can resist. hehehe :) Oh the crazy stages a seven year old goes through.

"Aliya, that pumpkin is bigger than you. Put it back."

While Misty and Lorelai were here we went to the pumpkin patch. The kids get to pick out their own perfect pumpkin. The only rule is they have to be able to carry it themselves. We learned this lesson the hard way the first year we went. We ended up trying to get five very large pumpkins off of the hay ride with no help from the kids. Fun times!!!

The petting zoo was a lot of fun.

The sheep wanted a little kiss from Lo!!

Lo loved it. She mostly liked to play in the dirt.

Nana decided it would be a good idea to go down this very steep slide with Landon and land in a bed of corn. This is why Landon loves his Nana so much.


Aliya and I waiting for the cow pie ride. I wore a sweater and it was about 85 degrees outside. I sure was smart.


I am pretty sure the kid driving this ride was drunk. Or maybe his erratic driving could be because he was only 14.




Misty and Lorelai left on Tuesday. It was great having Misty here. Someone there all the time to tell all my random thoughts to. We got to do everything we wanted. We did walk Aliya to school one time. That counts as exercise right? We even made hair bows and Misty talked me into taking on a major project which will appear in a future post. I am sad they are gone. I was glad to get back to a normal schedule. Landon is sad cause he wanted to give Lo one more hug. I am sure Lo was relieved Landon did not give her that last hug :)

The day the kids almost died! (according to them)

My dad has always taken the kids on these adventures. Typically on a Sunday afternoon when the Mom needs a break from all the days events. At my parents old house Papa took them down to a stream full of tad poles and lots of mud. They would walk back with Grant in the rear and we would hose them off. Great fun!! When my parents moved, the kids were worried their adventures would be no more. They were wrong. When we went to visit with Misty and Lo, Papa decided to find a new adventure place. On the way to this new adventure place they ventured into an opening in the trees. There lied a dead rotting carcass of some large animal. They all looked at my Dad and burst into tears. They ALL started screaming "We're going to die." They made it to their desired adventure place without dieing . My dad lead them home safely and they were all very tired. When the boys were retelling the story, they said Aliya couldn't come next time cause she was too scared and she was a cry baby. Hehehe. I love it!

This is how the Hesch family gets crazy!

Now this is a bit ridiculous don't you think? I think my family has a sickness. :) We are heading home tomorrow and I am really going to miss little moments like this with them. :(

Part one of Misty and Lorelai's visit!!

Well, it has been almost a week since Misty and Lo got here. It has been a lot of fun. The kids are thrilled to have Lo around. Well, except for Grant that is. Every time he walks by her he gives her a little nudge with his hand or his hip. I have a feeling he feels as though she is intruding. He did hit her in the head with a book and said sorry and kissed her without me forcing him to. Landon is loving her to death and I do mean that in the literal sense. He hugs her so hard I am afraid he is going to break her. His affection is very sweet though. A little rough, but very sweet. Aliya, of course is the fun girl cousin that makes all kinds of weird noises, which Lorelai finds very amusing.
We are in Lehi now visiting my Mom and Dad. We traveled up North to the cold and wet. We left our eighty five degree perfect weather for the freezing rainy weather. It wasn't a big deal for Misty cause it is what she is used to. The drive was good. Surprisingly, the kids did awesome . No major breakdowns. Today we went to Thanksgiving Point which is just down the street from my Mom and Dad's. They have an amazing dinosaur museum with all kinds of hands on activity's. They had a blast.
There was an area where they could play in the sand and build islands for the dinosaurs. That was fun till Grant started flicking wet sand at all the proud parents standing around watching their kids.


Of course we all had to climb in the cave.
This Prehistoric Shark was amazing.
We are going back home on Monday and Misty and lo will still have a week before they go home. It has been a fun trip so far. I am sure I will have more pictures and more stories in a few days.

I have never been so excited for Tuesday!

I am so excited for my sister to come tomorrow. She is my best friend and so when she comes it is crazy. We go shopping, watch movies till two oclock in the morning. We exercise. Well, at least we say we are going to. We eat like crap. For some reason we both end up not gaining any weight. I think it must be all the walking we do while we shop or all the talking about exercising. I love it when she comes. Neal on the other hand, not so much. He feels ignored and neglected. He doesn't complain about it anymore, so I think he is getting used to it. Poor baby. I will have to make an effort to call him more or get to bed at an earlier time.

I am equally excited, if not more, to see my niece, Lorelai. When I saw her last she was a baby. She is now a toddler walking around and starting to talk. The kids are going to love to see her. The good thing is she is very immune to their somewhat crazy behavior when they get excited. She actually loves it. Two whole weeks with them. Wow!