Happy Halloween from the Honey House!!

Happy Halloween from our Toy Story Family!

Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy hope you had a great time!

If not, we may have to send Zurg over to straighten you out!
He's pretty scary, don't you think?

(p.s. Isn't this about the best homemade Zurg costume you have ever seen? Thanks! I think so too!)

The Scoop on Pumpkin Carving

Better in Bulk is having an Eat, Drink, and Be Scary Carnival today that I wanted to participate in, along with my regularly scheduled Photostory Friday. But to be honest, I have been so busy with Halloween preparations, that I haven't had time to cook much of anything. So instead I will give you the scoop on pumpkins at the Honey House.

This year Jonah is absolutely dying to carve a pumpkin. I don't think he really knows about all the goop and yuck that is inside, know what I mean?

While I was in college I got into carving pumpkins with a pattern. That way you end up with an awesome, elaborate pumpkin. The only thing is... carving a pumpkin like that is very time consuming! It's all well and good when you are single, but adding kids into the mix makes doing this kind of craft much more difficult... especially when you have more than one!

It seems like I had the time to do crafts like this when I only had Jonah. Here is a picture of Jonah's first Halloween (three years ago!). Can you believe that I carved both of those fake pumpkins next to him (I still have the "trick or treat one")... pretty cool, huh?

I even had the time to make his Halloween costume... without a pattern! I thought he was the cutest gingerbread boy ever. What do you think?

This year I did not make either of my boys' costumes. Instead I made the mistake of making mine and Honey Daddy's. I am still working on it... and sure hope I finish in time!

Tonight we will most likely be spending time in the kitchen carving pumpkins... but not elaborate ones. Just pumpkins with a face, most likely. Though the creative mommy in me still wants to make an elaborate pumpkin, the tired mommy in me wants to get it done as quickly as possible.

Maybe we can compromise?


Hosted by Cecily and Carissa

Trick-or-treat vs. Trunk-or-treat

Today I am participating in Mama Kat's writers workshop:
5.) Describe a favorite Halloween moment you wish you had on video.

Times have changed, haven't they?

Halloween for my boys is an entirely different affair than it was when I was a kid. This year (as in years past) our community is holding a "trunk-or-treat". For those of you who don't know, that means you all meet up at the church/community center and pass out candy to your friends and neighbors from the trunk of your car.

In some ways it's really nice. You get to see all your friends, neighbors and their kids in costume without having to walk around the entire neighborhood. It's kind of like a big costume parade! You finish your trick-or-treating pretty quickly and then go home. It's also safer because you are only getting candy from people you know.

But somehow I can't help but think that my boys are missing out on part of the experience of Halloween. They are missing out on trick-or-treating... you know, the way I experienced it growing up in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming.

I wish I could show you a video of what Halloween was like when I was a kid.

It seems like I always made my own Halloween costumes... and so did my siblings and most of my friends (or their parents!). Then on Halloween night my mom would pile the six of us into the van to go trick-or-treating. Our nearest neighbors lived about a half a mile away, so we had to drive. When we reached a house we would all pile out of the van and probably dash through several inches of snow to get up to the house.

"Trick or Treat!" we would all scream with delight. Then our friends, neighbors, and relatives would fill our pillowcases with yummy treats. I am not just talking about wrapped candy! My aunt Kristy always used to give out the yummiest popcorn balls... which everybody loved! And there were always cookies and there was one house that always handed out homemade donuts... tons of them! Often we would all be invited in for hot chocolate or cider.

Now you don't let your kids eat anything unless it is store-bought and wrapped. Most of the Halloween costumes come from the store too. And someone inviting you in for hot chocolate would probably be considered scary.

I LOVED Halloween when I was a kid. Popcorn balls, cookies, hot chocolate, donuts, candy, and visiting friends and neighbors. Those are the Halloween moments I remember. It seemed to be such a friendly family affair. I don't want Halloween for my kids to be all about the candy, you know?

How about you? What was Halloween like when you were a kid?

Same Costume, Different Boy

Am I the only one whose kids have more than one Halloween costume?

Not on purpose, mind you. Eli has more than one because he can fit in Jonah's old costumes. Jonah has two costumes this year because grandma sent him a costume this year before she was aware that he has been begging to Buzz Lightyear for months.

Actually, having more than one costume is not necessarily a bad thing. They say that you only wear a Halloween costume once, but my kids have been invited to wear their costumes for all our regularly scheduled activities this week. That mean they get to dress up every day this week except for Friday!

For Halloween this year the entire Honey household is dressing up with a Toy Story theme. However I actually managed to convince Jonah to wear his other costume to our Music Makers class yesterday. Then we went and took pictures in the leaves afterward. Isn't he the cutest monkey ever?

Since Jonah wore his monkey costume, I dressed Eli up in the giraffe costume. That way they could be my little animals! Cute, huh? I actually managed to get Eli to sit still long enough for a photo.

The fun thing is that this is the same giraffe costume that Jonah wore two years ago.

So now I guess it is kind of a tradition that my kids all wear the giraffe costume... at least once.

What was Seen Last Halloween

Can you believe that Halloween is less than a week away?

As I was looking through last year's photos, I came across this photo of Jonah in his gorilla costume from last year. I just LOVE this picture, especially since Jonah was going through his "I don't want my picture taken" phase... and he actually has a ghost of a smile in the picture (go ahead, click it... you know you want to!).


The past week or so I have been staying up late working on our Halloween costumes for this year. The boys' costumes are done, mine is nearly finished, and Honey Daddy's is still a work in progress. We are doing a "Toy Story" theme. My boys will be Woody and Buzz, I am going to be Jessie and Honey Daddy will be Zurg. It should be absolutely fabulous... if I get it done on time!

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Get in the mood for Halloween at:

Where's my Baby?

This morning I finally got around to organizing little Eli's clothes. His 12 month shirts have been looking a bit small lately, which is not surprising since he is 19 months old now!

So I packed up his 12 month clothes and got out the 18 and 24 month clothes. As I put his "new" clothes in the drawers, I couldn't help but remember what Jonah looked like in those same clothes. It seems to me that Jonah was wearing them just yesterday, and I can't believe that Eli is big enough to wear them now.

He is getting to be such a big boy! I took a picture of him last week and noticed that he is starting to look more like a boy and less like a baby.

My baby boy no longer sleeps in a crib. He climbs up on everything and is not afraid of anything! My baby boy doesn't walk, he runs!

My baby boy is starting to talk so that we can actually understand what he is saying. He wants to do everything his big brother does and thinks he can do it all by himself!

I guess my baby boy is not a baby after all.
Isn't is amazing the difference a year can make?

Though he may not be a baby anymore,
he will always be my little boy.

Hosted by Cecily and Kelli

The Joy of Kid's Meal Toys

What is up with kid's meal toys nowadays? Do the people who make these toys even have kids?!

We don't eat fast food very often, but in the past few months we have been to fast food places a couple of times. My boys are old enough now that it is actually worth it to buy a kid's meal for them, although if I could buy the meal cheaper without the toy I would totally do it.

Here are some of the "wonderful" toys that we have ended up with:

Next we got two of these lovely Bob balls at Carl's Jr.

Not too bad, right? We haven't seen the movie that goes with the toy, but what little boy doesn't enjoy playing with a ball that looks like a monster?

Last month when we had a busy Saturday we ended up at Arby's. I could not believe the "toy" that came in that kid's meal!

Wow! Justice League Bobbing-Head Heroes! Cool, huh?!

Did I mention that they are made of cardboard?


And guess who gets to assemble this little beauty? That's right... Mommy. I hope your good at origami! Check out these instructions:

Yadda, yadda, yadda... Blobby-blah. Tab A into slot A, Tab B into slot B. Repeat 12 times...
Who thought this would make a good kid's meal toy? It took me 20 minutes to get this sucker put together.

Neat-o, huh? And the head kinda bobbles... ooooh, aaaaaahh!

When I got it together my son said, "Put it here on the table so I can get a good look at it."
"Sure." I replied, "Because that's about all you can do with it."

The darn thing nearly fell apart before I got a picture taken!

Today the boys and I went out for fast food again. I had some free meal coupons from the summer reading program at the library. The toy we ended up with was some kind of magnifying glass with a lovely cardboard scene to look at. I wasn't sure that would be very exciting for my three year old and 1 1/2 year old. So I went to exchange it for another toy.

This time we ended up with a Bob robot that is a voice changer:

So you talk really loud into the slots in the back of the robot and your voice comes out the front... just as loud and somewhat hollow sounding. Looks like another winner, huh?

The Bathroom Ban

It seems we are on a roll at the Honey House. I just hope that we stop rolling before we all get dizzy and fall off!

It all started with toilet trouble. All of the sudden our potty was not flushing like it should. The bowl would fill with water just to the point where you thought it would overflow- and then the water level would s-l-o-w-l-y sink back down.

Needless to say, not everything was going down like it should either... ah-hem. We plungered and plungered... all to no avail. We were starting to get suspicious that the potty may have ingested something it shouldn't have.

So finally Honey Daddy had no other recourse but to take the toilet apart to see what ailed it. Unfortunately in the course of dissasembling the potty, the porcelain cracked. Drat! So then we got to go out and buy a new potty (which flushes like a dream!) and Honey Daddy got the pleasure of installing it in our bathroom.

In case you were wondering, we did find a toy wedged in the potty. We are pretty certain Eli put it in there and flushed it down.

Then one day later I was on the back porch cutting Honey Daddy's hair. Jonah walks up to us and says, "Daddy, look what I found buried in the sandbox!" It was Daddy's contact lens case, covered with sand... inside and out. Boy, was a certain little boy in trouble!

Needless to say, now the bathroom door stays shut, and little Eli's bathroom privileges have been revoked... for now. Good thing he's still in diapers, huh?

It's also a good thing that these two trouble makers are so stinking cute!

(p.s. Didn't Grandma send the boys the best pajamas ever?)

Squaw Peak and Bridal Veil Falls

I love to go on outings with my kids. I especially enjoy it when we get to go with friends!

Last week we went on a drive with one of my friends and her kids. Luckily for us she has a nice "mom van" that we can all fit into. We decided to take a drive up the canyon and see some fabulous fall foliage. We were definitely not disappointed!

The mountains were a riot of color. Red, green, orange, yellow, brown and grey. It was gorgeous!

We drove up the canyon far enough to see Bridal Veil Falls. I think it is particularly lovely this time of year.

It was a little chilly, so the kids only got to get out once to see the waterfall. I don't think they really minded that much. They were having a great time in the back of the van (with their lollipops).

My friend and I were having a great time just talking and enjoying the scenery. We went up Squaw Peak, which was gorgeous. We got to see so many pretty trees and the view up there was spectacular!

I had never seen Utah Country from so high up, and we didn't even make it to the top before we had to turn around! Even though we didn't get to the top, it still kind of felt like we were nearing the top of the world.

Isn't Mount Timpanogos pretty from up here?


Hosted by Cecily and Carissa

Adventures in Parenting- the Big Boy Bed

So last week after our crib climbing incident we knew we had to get a big boy bed for little Eli. Instead of getting a toddler bed, we move right up into the big leagues and get our kids a twin bed. I figure they might as well get used to it now, and it saves me money in the end, right?

We already had a bed frame, since we bought a bunk bed frame when Jonah got his big boy bed. So all we had to do was go get a mattress and get everything put together.

Getting the mattress was an adventure, since we don't own a pickup truck. Good thing Honey Daddy is good with ropes! Yep... that was us you saw driving down the street with a mattress tied to the roof of our car!

(and No, Eli didn't ride home on the top of the car!)

Honey Daddy spent the better part of an entire evening getting the beds all put together. He actually took apart Jonah's bed and put it in Eli's room, since that is the top bunk frame and it already has a railing. Then he put the bottom bunk frame together in Jonah's room.

I'm glad Honey Daddy's thinking ahead because when the boys share a room later on, all we will have to do is move Eli's bed and put it on top of Jonah's bed. Of course then they will end up switching beds again... but whatever!

Eli thought his new bed was pretty cool! He loved the ladder that Daddy made him.

He actually adapted to his big boy bed beautifully. I guess even though 19 months old seems a bit young to me, Eli was ready for it. I don't know if I was really ready for it though... he still looks so little when he is sleeping on that big bed.

They grow up too fast, don't they?

Sometimes You Feel like a Nut...

I have always thought it would be nice to have a nut tree. Just think... all the nuts you could eat! I am a big fan of almonds, but they are SO expensive. Honey Daddy and I have entertained thoughts of taking out one of our other trees and putting in a tree that will give us shade AND earn it's keep... by giving us yummy nuts.

Then as I was walking around my neighborhood with the boys I had second thoughts about that idea... as I crunched across the sidewalk.

Acorns can be beautiful... or at least I think so.

But I don't necessarily want to spend all that time picking them up off my lawn. Hmmm... so maybe no almond trees for us after all. Then again, maybe they aren't quite as messy as acorns?

Another kind of tree that lives in my neighborhood (but not in my yard) makes walking on the sidewalk somewhat squishy. Maybe I don't want this type of plum tree either.

Our yard and garden is home to several fruit trees (including peach and apricot), but the fruit is larger and not quite this abundant. I guess for now maybe we will stick to the trees that just have these:

The leaves are getting more and more beautiful around here, and I LOVE it. It's not even too much of a pain for us to clean up the ones in our yard.... Honey Daddy just sucks them up and bags them in the lawn mower!

My Lawn Mower Men- Summer Adventures Mulching Mower Review

A few weeks ago I hosted my first giveaway ever, which was sponsored by All Children's Furniture. I had so much fun with the giveaway and was über-excited that they also wanted me to review a product from their website!

The hardest part was deciding which item I wanted to review because this site has EVERYTHING! They sell everything from toddler beds to toys. All Children's Furniture is basically one stop shopping anything you could need for your child. I think this year I might have to do some of my Christmas shopping online because it is so convenient! They have a great selection of products, the prices are reasonable and many items that I saw were on sale.

After much deliberation I chose the Little Tikes Summer Adventures Mulching Mower because I was pretty sure the boys would LOVE it. Once I told Jonah it was coming, he asked me about it every single day, "Mommy, did my very own lawnmower come today?"

I was actually amazed at how quickly the mower arrived. In less than one week from the time it was ordered, the mower showed up on our doorstep (good thing too--I had some excited boys waiting impatiently!). The first thing I loved was the packaging. Can you believe there were no twist ties or screws? Hallelujah!

The minute it was out of the box my boys were squealing with delight and pushing it all around the house. They loved how the little "mulch beads" popped up as they pushed the mower around. Since Honey Daddy needed to mow the lawn that night we took the mulching mower outside.

The boys loved the mower so much that they starting fighting over who got to use the it first! I had to supervise so that both my boys could get fair turns. I wasn't sure if little Eli would be able to push it, but at 18 months old he had no problem with it.


I thought it was hilarious how they had to investigate all the parts of the mower. They had to open the gas cap, turn the key, and put it in gear. I even caught them turning the mower over to check out the underside!

Jonah LOVES his mower. He followed Daddy around the yard and was excited to be "helping" mow the grass. I liked it because this way they could help Daddy without getting too close to the actual mower! You can tell from this photo just how fast Jonah was zipping around the yard with his mulching mower:

If you need a gift for Daddy's little helpers, this is a great toy idea! It has kept my boys happily playing in the yard for hours.

Thank you to All Children's Furniture for providing my boys with this item for review. They will be enjoying it for years to come!

Adventures in Parenting- Escape from the Crib

My second son Eli has been physically adept from the moment he was born. It seemed like he reached all the physical milestones way too early! Perhaps it is because he is trying to keep up with his older brother. Whatever the case, Eli started walking when he was ten months old and he has been running, climbing, and keeping me on my toes ever since!


In our latest adventure, Eli somehow figured out how to climb out of his crib late last week. This is NOT good because this is the kid that has been opening doors for a few months. I was sure we were in for trouble, but then he didn't do it again....

until Wednesday night. You knew it had to happen eventually, right?

When we put Eli to bed that night he climbed out of bed and opened his bedroom door after a few minutes. So Honey Daddy put him back in bed and told him "No, No!". After a few minutes he was at it again. This time I went and put him back in bed and told him it was time to go "Night-night" and he needed to stay in bed.

This went on for the next half hour or so. Finally Eli gave up and had cried so much that he fell asleep. I figured that he would learn to stay in bed when we put him down and then he would just sleep through the night and our problem would be solved.

Not so! At about 4:30 a.m. we woke up to the sound of little feet on the kitchen floor. Eli climbed out of his crib in the middle of the night, opened his door, and was walking around upstairs. How scary is that?

So Honey Daddy closed the flip latch on the back door and put Eli back to bed. Then I spent the next half hour or so putting him back in bed until he eventually gave up and went back to sleep. I spent the next hour or so listening for the little monkey to make sure he stayed in bed.

Needless to say, I didn't get tons of sleep that night... and neither did Eli, which made for a long day. I got to go shopping for door knob covers in hopes of keeping Eli stuck in his room, if not actually in his bed.


By nap time that day Eli was so exhausted that he went to sleep without any problems. Then when Honey Daddy got home he took the front railing off the crib temporarily so that Eli can actually get back into bed when he gets out.

Eli seemed delighted to be able to get into and out of his bed this evening. He wasn't so thrilled when we put him to bed and he discovered that he could not get out of his bedroom.

It looks like this weekend Honey Daddy will work on getting the other bunk bed frame set up in Eli's room. Then we will be off to buy a mattress. I guess Eli has decided that at 18 months old he is done with the crib and wants a big boy bed!



Hosted by Cecily and Angie

Flirting with Fall

Fall is starting to creep into my valley in the mountains. The weather has all of the sudden gotten crisp and cool and the leaves are starting to change in the mountains behind my home.

Can you see the first hints of red up there? (click to make it BIG) Also did you notice the SNOW? I said it had gotten a bit chilly around here, didn't I?!

Soon all the green spots on the mountain will turn to shades of gold, orange and red. Most of the leaves on the trees here in the valley are still green. But a few of the early bloomers are starting their metamorphosis already.

I caught this tree in front of the mountains in mid change. It seems determined to go first and show the rest of the trees how to do this Fall thing right!

I have also spotted some changing leaves not to far from my home. I love it when the trees start to shift from green to gold, orange and red. Isn't it gorgeous?!

Now you can see why Fall is my favorite time of year!

I have been meaning to take a drive up the canyon to take pictures of the Fall leaves there, but I just haven't made it yet! Hopefully we will go this evening and I can show off Fall in it's glory in my neck of the woods in a future post!