Newspapers look like Christmas to me

I sometimes feel that I cannot post, unless I have a picture to help tell the story. Many times I get on to see others' blogs and then I come up with an idea for a post, but I am not at home where I am able to take a picture. On my last post, Amy Jo commented that she would have liked to see a picture. Pictures involve planning. Sometimes that works; most of the time it does not.

I am against the idea of buying wrapping paper. I prefer to use newspaper. I get it for free from the college. I do not want to waste money buying paper that will go immediately in the trash after the present is opened. Jennifer does not agree. She tells me that newspaper was okay in the past, but little kids will know that Santa does not wrap with newspaper. Now I have to buy paper to wrap Seth's presents with. I see the logic, but I still feel that this is a waste of money. We also bought a present for Jennifer's little brother, Zack. His present cannot be wrapped in newspaper either. I am not sure if he still believes in Santa or if Jennifer does not want him to know exactly who gave him the gift (newspaper would be a sure sign that it came from us). Just know that if I give you a gift that has been wrapped in newspaper, this is a sign that I spent the money saved on paper in upgrading the gift to the better version. If you can look past the ugly outside wrapper you will enjoy the gift a little bit more.

If I was to take a picture to put with this post, then it would have been of a few presents wrapped in newspaper. If you are one of those that needs to see a picture with every post, then wrap up some old box in newspaper and take a few minutes to admire it. If you must see a picture, look at my profile picture. I really like it. Seth is looking right at the camera and smiling so cute.

Leaves Everywhere

It has been a while since we have been to Clearfield, so we decided to vistit Jennifer's parents this weekend. Saturday morning we decided to help do a little yard work. They have three giant trees on the west side of their house. Those trees provide a great amount of shade in the summer that helps keep their house cool. The problem is the leaves in the Fall. Leaves carpeted the front lawn. We raked them all up and by the afternoon leaves carpeted the front lawn again. It took 8 large bags to collect all the leaves. We also filled up the garbage can and the two neigbor's cans as well. Only about half of the leaves have fallen from the trees. At least we helped out a little bit. Then we helped put up the Christmas lights. It was good to get them up before it got too cold.

Halloween

We have always painted our pumpkins, ever since we have been married. It is less messy and can be done inside where it is warm. Jennifer also likes to take the pumpkins and make a pie afterward, so carving it would make it all dirty inside.

At Skip's house, we used power tools to carve the pumpkins. We were able to carve a face in about 20 seconds. It was quick and easy, but it was more difficult to make a straight line with the power tool pulling in different directions. If you look closely you can see my pumpkin in the back; the one with the BYU Y on it. It did not turn out as perfect as if I had cut it with an exact-o knife, but you could tell what it was supposed to be.

Here is Seth in his little outfit. He held still, for the most part, as I painted and tickled his face with the paint brush.

I tried to get a picture of him facing the camera, but he was busy looking at something else and then running from me.

I wore this mask around trick-or-treating with the kids. Many of the other little kids were worried when they saw me. I even saw a few grab for their mothers. Mark, Linda, and Erica got to Amy Jo's house later that night. I was watching and waiting for their arrival. I hid behind the wall near the front walkway. When they got close, I jumped out and scared them. It was funny. Linda liked it the most; NOT. Weston and Chace kept asking me, "Were you the monkey?" They were not too scared by the mask. Even though they knew that I was inside the mask, they still kept a close eye on it.