Halloween!

We sure had an eventful Halloween this year, and the end is still not here. We started up the festivities Friday morning with the Annual Preschool Halloween Party. So many kids where there, plus there was snow on the ground, which made this extra exciting!Here are the "little monsters" before the MONSTER BASH!

I took the chance and put foam rollers in Ady's hair and it turned out quite well!

All Ady wanted to do was play in the rice bin. She sure had fun with it! Of course, Hayden was playing in the snow....

If you look really Closely, you can see the snow ball flying in the air!

What a cute Mario!

Ady and Daddy enjoying the party.

At the Halloween party, there was a pumpkin patch, and we picked snow covered pumpkins.

After the party we took the kids out to lunch to their favorite spot, "McDonalds"

The kids went down for a nap, and I got to work creating the holiday masterpiece.... ha ha ha

Friday night, the town of Baker City, held the downtown trick or treating, where all the businesses hand out candy. They shut down the road to main downtown, and the kids walked around filling their bags. Here is a picture of the kids waiting for our friends to come meet us to go! Being SILLY!

The kids got so much candy! Crazy amounts of candy! After downtown, we headed to our friends house for dinner and a movie. Ate some of the best chili EVER! Thanks Williams!

Of course, we still had to go trick or treating Saturday. Ben's mom and step dad came to town to help us celebrate! After all the festivities were over, we heading to their motel to swim.

As for tomorrow, we are heading to the Harvest Party, and chili Feed. We can hardly wait!

Pictures

Ady's typical expression that day.... not a fan of the camera.

Love it... our typical family!

my 3 FAVORITE people....ever

Pajama's

While I was in the fabric store the other day, with my family, picking out fabric for my nephew's baby shower gift, my kids picked out some fabric as well. I decided I would make them some pj's to wear. We then headed to the dollar store and picked up some "hecka cool" matching shirts, and waLa! You've got pajama's!

Hayden insisted on having his picture taken.

Ady, on the other hand, did not want the camera anywhere near her....

Ady wanted us to take our picture together... while Hayden was at Caravan.

Taco Black Bean Soup - Crock pot Style

I have had a lot of people requesting this recipe, so here ya'll go! For any of you that are interested, a serving is 1 1/4 cups. If you add the 3 toppings to this it is 7 weight watchers Points, if you leave them off, it's only 5 points per serving.

Taco Black Bean Soup

1 lb ground beef, browned.
1 can tomatoes (any kind are fine, I use the petite diced kind)
1 can corn undrained
1 can Black beans, undrained
1 can kidney beans, undrained
1 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
1 envelope dry taco seasonings (I only use half, as I don't like a super strong taco flavor)
1 Small onion

Toppings
tortilla or corn chips
shredded cheese
sour cream

Combine all ingredients, except toppings.

Cover and cook in slow cooker on LOW for 4-6 hours.

Garnish individual servings with chips, cheese, and sour cream.

WOW, a lot of things are on my mind.

What can I say, so busy, time has been flying. Ben and I continue to work at St. Elizabeth's. Right now, the hospital is in discussion with Trinity (who owns St. Al's in Boise) to possibly take over a few hospitals of CHI. Oh, the stress these kind of things cause. Ben works for CHI, the national company, and I work for the Hospital. They say our jobs are safe, but we have not idea about Ben's. He works for the National CHI company, which means, if Trinity takes over, will CHI move Ben to another one of their hospitals. Will Trinity make Ben apply for them, or will Ben be contracted to work for them? It's a huge question, just sitting in the air, cause some much unwanted anxiety.

Ben and I are still working hard at losing weight. We are re-dedicating ourselves to Weight Watchers, and hope to finish our weight loss goal. I am half way there, and Ben has about 20 more pounds to lose. Losing weight is not easy, takes a lot of time, and causes a lot of questioning. It also has some good things too:

I feel sooooo much better, being 36 pounds lighter.
I have more energy for my kids.
We are healthier as a family, and our kids are positively impacted by that.

I have been really trying hard to be thankful for my family, for the things, and blessings in my life. I have been really grumpy lately, stressing out about all the little things that I have no control over, which doesn't make any sense. I know that I am a blessed person, I just need to think about that when I get down.

Can you hardly believe that Christmas is just 6 paychecks away?