We never got trick or treaters growing up

So we eat it up now. Just walking around trick or treating is so much more fun than riding in the car and going to a dude's house with a 3 legged dog and crazy eyes. Taylor says she doesn't like trick or treating much anymore. Is she really growing up already? I do not like it.

Tandy is dandy but liquor is quicker

I really don't know anything about liquor. BUT, I do know about a tandy cake. You make a yellow cake, frost it with peanut butter when it gets out of the oven and then place hershey bar pieces on top. Then, after they melt you spread them over the peanut butter and Ta-DA!! OH wait, then you have to chill it so it hardens like a reese's peanut butter cup, and TA-DA! It is delicious. Jeebs didn't want a lot of cake sitting around so I made a small one. It was just enough- wink wink Page.

On my BIRTH day

Jeebs' birthday is tomorrow. We "celebrated" today because Sunday birthdays aren't real fun. And, apparently Jeebs wanted a heart attack for his birthday. He chose donuts for breakfast and a bacon cheeseburger with fries from 5 guys. I am an awesome wife and mother, I know- just send awards directly to me. However, in the tradition of most birthdays, especially Jeebs', there is always a twist. Just as he brought our bag o' grease for us to devour, Ezra pukes all over himself and on the table. He was eating peanuts and I didn't notice he had just bitten the whole dang shell, in true Nicolaysen children form, he gags and upchucks donut chunks all over. I jumped up and tried to catch the last few drops with Mookie dangling on my hip. A lady popped over and immediately offered to hold her for me as we cleaned the yuck. Then after cleaning up our table for the second time (it was dirty when we sat down) we discovered that they had  put mayo, tomatoes and pickles on his burger and left them off of mine.

Our next stop was Best Buy because that's like shoe shopping for me for Jeebs. We roamed around and Jeebs lusted after the tablets- apparently they're small and sexy. Yep, my competition is a 7 inch something something tablet something. I gave in and headed for the car so he could buy happiness. After a few minutes he and Taylor came to the car with pencils for her and a stapler and new movie for me. Happy Birthday Jeebs.

Felt-tastic

Felt is a wonderful fabric. I can do so many things with it and it doesn't have to be hemmed! After this halloween I will have almost every color of the rainbow. I was so happy with Ezra and Mooky's costumes- it is a rare rare thing g for things to turn out exactly like I see them in my head. So, Yay.

The kids were really excited for the trunk or treat- can you tell? My momma made my hat so I had to add that pic of me looking freaky in my black wig. I got it for Taylor but she wouldn't wear it and I take any chance to don a wig. Any hair is better than the feathers I have growing out of my head.

Cagey's costume was way more complicated than I ever imagined, but with Jeebs' super powers he figured it out. He is supposed to be this...

Halloween, I'm gettin' there

Mooks will be a little pig and Ezra a bird. Fitting, right? I just have to make them wearable now- please let me be able to make them wearable! The skeleton cookies turned out ok, Jeebs didn't like the taste, but I did which means I can never make them again.

Ghostbusters!

Last night for family home evening we carved pumpkins and I made apple cider floats for everybody. I love fall, Halloween and all that goes with it, but I am not ready this year. Today is the 25th and I have no costumes made. The 28th is our ward's trunk or treat so I have 3 days to get 'er done. 3 days!!! I feel like I go all day and get nothing accomplished. I get up, make breakfast, workout, shower, do Cagey's school, clean house, make lunch, get kids down for naps (which is pretty much an act of congress), pick up Tates from school, finish Cagey's school or help with homework or both, figure out what to make for dinner, make dinner, clean up dinner, and then collapse on the couch waiting for bedtime. Some how I've got to squeeze in costume making...maybe instead of blogging? Well anyway...

After we carved 3 huge pumpkins, I was bound and determined to roast some dang pumpkin seeds. Soooo while Jeebs blah blah blahed on the phone and the baby screamed I rinsed pumpkin seeds, seasoned them with curry powder and roasted them in the over. Taters and I ate 2 very large helpings-- they are good and I will forever roast my pumpkin seeds. I can't believe I waited so long to do it!

I almost forgot- the reason I named this post Ghostbusters! Last night we were listening to Halloween music and Ghostbusters came on. I can't ever hear that song without thinking about the Ghostbusters game we had for our Sega. We got it for one of the Christmases we had to wake up at 3 am because daddy had to go to work and he wanted to see us open our presents before he left. We would get up at 3, open presents and usually go back to bed. It was kind of awesome because you were getting up at 3 on Christmas morning, but not awesome because you were getting up at 3 on Christmas morning. Anyway, one Christmas Glen got the Ghostbusters game we'd been wanting and he immediately put it in and started playing it. My sister and I weren't much for playing, but we liked to watch. We got tired of watching after only a little while and went back to bed. I think we woke up around 7 and he was STILL playing. I couldn't believe he hadn't gone back to sleep, but it was pretty stinkin' fun game. Okay- baby screaming, gotta remember that I'm a homeschooler and get my bum in gear. 

Can't catch it

I promise Meny mooks has the sweetest smile, but as soon as she sees the camera she's a deer in headlights. I snuck up on her while her daddy was making her laugh. Then after 2 more shots she realized I was taking her pictures and her eyes pop wide open in her Cagey stare. And yes, I stick bows on her little bald head using corn syrup. It is the best thing ever and I think bows are so much cuter than headbands, that's just me. I do try to make sure she always has something on her head because she could be in the frilliest dress or all clad in pink and people will still ask, "oh, how old is HE?" It was the same way with Taylor- everywhere, "oh, what a cute little boy!" We tried and tried to teach Taters to say in response, "I'm a girl!" All she would ever say was, "What a Q bee boy!" I should have stuck more bows in that girl's head when I had the chance.

Oh the anger

I could have really jacked someone up today if I were a dishonest person. Dang that honesty business. Not really. But oh oh oh some people make me angry. Taylor got a birthday check in the mail today and wanted to deposit it on the way home from school. I pulled into the ATM and then someone pulled up behind me. I didn't have my wallet out or the check endorsed so I decided to pull over to the side and let the other person go first. Pulled over- got everything in order and pulled back in behind the other people at the ATM. We sat and we sat and we waited and we waited. It was 2 young guys, smoking and laughing and taking Fo-evah. They finally decided to pull their dang big bootied car out of the way and I see them loop back around and come back up behind me. As I pull up to the ATM I see that the screen says "take card or another transaction" I immediately hit the take card and held the card out like here ya go, come get yer stinking card and nothing. They just sit there. I've got about 3 inches of space between the car door and the ATM so I squish my big lumpy butt out the door and walk all the way back to their car before they realize that, oh some strange woman has my ATM card! I got a very lame, thanks, with a tone of DUH yeah thats my card and then I squished myself back between the ATM and my coche. I told Taylor that the next time she wanted to deposit a birthday check on the way home from school the answer was no.

Raining, pouring

My computer died. Just died. I've been using Jeebs' work computer and I didn't know how to get pics on here so there haven't been any posts sans pics that I've wanted to post. But, I finally asked Jeebs to get my pictures onto this computer so I could blog again. I was suffering withdrawals.

First, Mookie got new boots. They are the cutest things ever on her chubby little legs. I think they'll be nice and warm if we have a cold winter.

Then, Cagey and Ezra made Joseph's coat of many colors for Cagey's school. It quickly turned into, "I'm gonna put this brown dot on here that looks like poop." It all comes back to poop. I'm so glad he's learning so much history.

And no post would be complete without a cute pic of the Meny. She is getting chunky and hunky. She has been getting her knees up under her and scooting herself around. She turned 5 months yesterday- the same day I got a new nephew. Little AJ was born yesterday- they will be exactly 5 months apart. Hooray!
This past weekend Jeebs had a campout. I always let my kids sleep in my room on campout nights. They love it and it helps me sleep because if someone broke into the house I'd have all my little chicks in my room. I would just have to quickly close and lock my bedroom door and load the gun; yes, I think about this every time. They make a little pad on the floor because there's not enough room for everybody. Ezra decided the next night that he wanted to sleep in there again and he brought all the pillows and lined them up exactly as it was the night before. I thought it was sweet and made me feel kind of bad because he is the only one now without a roommate.


Monday was Taylor's birthday and the day we decided that Cagey should see a doctor about his wrist. He hurt it late Saturday afternoon and we thought for sure it was a bad sprain. But, better safe than sorry, Jeebs took him for an x-ray. Yep, both bones were broken. Awesome. He had to see an orthopedist to have it cast. I picked Taylor up from school early so we could make it to his appointment. I somehow made a chocolate cheesecake in all of that and tried to have some semblance of a celebration for Taylor's birthday.

I got her a skateboard so please pray we don't have any more broken bones!
That is our week in review...until next time.

Mumfest and rumblegut

After five years of living in New Bern we finally made it to the mumfest. I was determined to go before we truck it back out west. These are the only pictures we took. I thought we should have proof that we paid $3 to go down a slide. (or maybe we shouldn't) We walked around the whole thing, rode 2 rides and then got some greasy, nasty goodness.


Carnival food always smells much better than it tastes. You walk around smelling the grease and think to yourself, "I really want some of that," really you don't want any of that. Yuck. I had 2 bites of the funnel cake and 2 bites of the ribbon fries and had rumblegut for the next 24 hours.

Still don't have pumpkins

We went downtown to get a pumpkin because this is the most picturesque place in all of downtown New Bern. There's an old church, a graveyard, a playground and now a pumpkin patch all together in one nice package. We got there at 6:30 and everyone had gone- they close at 5:30. Soooo we still have no pumpkin, but we have lots of mosquito bites to remind us of our trip downtown. I thought we'd get a pic of the crew before going home because it is the perfect Halloween backdrop. But, it was either too dark or too light or whatever- just didn't work. I thought I'd post them all because Cagey is incapable of looking like a human boy.

Finally a picture outside...

As I sat outside this morning watching the boys scooter up and down the drive way I smelled Utah. I was walking home from campus up the side of a mountain, past all the old homes with old landscaping but fragrant flowers. Again I was charging up the steep hills just wanting to get to my apartment. I didn't appreciate it then, but smelling it again today made me appreciate it today. My sister was there in that apartment, my family was whole and I didn't know the sadness that life could bring...I didn't know the joy either. That was this morning...as I sat just a few feet from this...
This was this evening. Taylor burst into the house proclaiming there was a snake in the yard. A snake! She gave me the, I may or may not be telling a lie smirk, but I followed Jeebs out to see the action. I watched from the (top of) picnic table as he clamped the snake's head in my loppers. Want a closer look?
I believe that's a copperhead folks. I'm sure I'll be corrected if it is not. I'm wondering if this (or one of it's siblings) is what bit Percy. I brought Percy in last week in the morning after being outside, tied to a chair, for 5 hours. He held one leg up and hobbled 3-legged into the kitchen. His front leg was swollen all the way to his paw. We called the vet and told them the situation and told us it was up to us whether or not to bring him in. I gave him my cure all, vitamin C. It works wonders on little dogs. Jeebs gave him benadryl and in 3 days he was back to normal. Yes, I know, we are awesome pet owners.

Another successful FHE

(Meny mooks in one of her new outfits, with a little coin slot in the back)
FHE last night was not about resurrection. FHE was about Shadrach, Meeshach and Abednego. But, after it was all said and done Cagey came and sat next to me. He said quietly, "Mommy, I'm afraid of getting resurrected." I don't know where that came from, but apparently he's been thinking about it. I tried to explain that he has a lot of living and things to do before he's resurrected and by the time the time comes, he will be ready to see his body again. Cagey is that kid that spins on his head and makes funny noises with his lips while you're trying to tell him something and then he surprises you with picking up the concept of resurrection.

Spit bubbles and brother

Mookie loves making spit bubbles and smiling at Cagey...

This last picture is courtesy of Ezra. He's getting better at aiming the camera. Right after taking this he threw the camera.