Halloween Preview

We are getting all ready for Halloween this week! Tonight was our ward Halloween party.
Here is how we dressed up:

Can you tell what we are? Troy's the magician and I'm the bunny coming out of the hat! (Of course, I'm surprised what people think when they see bunny costumes lately, and it is NOT good! I had some interesting comments.)

Here is scary Micah:

He was kind of creepy.

Then there is Caleb:

Pikachu!!!

And Cinderella Princess Jewelia:

Once she had the costume on she kept telling us, "Remember, my name isn't Jewelia, it's Cinderella!!!"

And of course little Piglet Macey:

Munching away on her chips. She loves treats!

I've got to dress up for work next Friday and Saturday, but I'm thinking I look kind of dumb as the bunny in the hat when I don't have a magician standing next to me. Maybe I'll have to be something else for work. Hmmmm.......

A Trip to the Hundred Acre Woods

As fun tradition goes.....we had to get everyone dressed up in the Winnie the Pooh outfits for Halloween. Micah has grown so big and tall this year that he had to be Christopher Robin. Could you tell? Maybe I should have brought a different color umbrella so it didn't blend so much into the background.

I say, I'm not as impressed with Kiddie Kandids as I used to be. And plus, what happened to make their pictures so expensive all of the sudden? I think it was like $19 a sheet!!! I think I will have to find a new studio.

Becca's studio isn't so bad:

As a look back, here's the picture we did back in 2006 when Jewelia was a little piglet:

I guess this is our last Winnie the Pooh year. So sad to see it end, but it was fun!
(Oh, and these aren't there real Halloween costumes except maybe for Macey, so stay tuned for more fun costume pictures at Halloween!)

Painting Pumpkins!

Oh, yes, look at our creative pumpkins.

They are having us paint pumpkins for work to donate to a local school, so this is what we came up with.

Caleb quite approved of my Pikachu pumpkin, but Jewelia didn't think my Cinderella was very good. When I asked her if she liked it she said, "It doesn't look very good because Cinderella's face is too fat and her smile isn't like that."

Gee, thanks Jewelia! I thought I did pretty decent considering I'm not an artist! Maybe it can be Cinderella's cousin or something.

I'm a Writer!

Yep, here I am.

I can now officially and legitimately say that I am a writer.

Sure, I've written little funky things here and there. I think I am famous for writing little rhyming poems or rhyming songs at work, and I remember winning some writing awards at school long ago, but I've never really pursued it until now.

I love to write, and I've always thought I have a way with words, so a while ago I started a couple of other blogs. I maintain a parenting blog on what we do for our gifted kids, and then another blog based on our experiences with Asperger's Syndrome.

I didn't think much of them. Some people would look at our gifted child blog and comment every now and then. I think it is more of a journal for me to see what we did wrong later! Well, hopefully we don't make too many mistakes. However, the Asperger blog I made to help share our experiences with others struggling with the same issues. I've been surprised that I've gotten so much feedback on it and have 11 followers, most of which I do not know and have never met.

It's been tough at work lately, and I'm struggling with the ways things have changed. I feel as if I'm not really making a difference there at work like I used to. I do like my job, but I'm just doing different things there now that don't allow me to give such a personal touch as I would like to. So, in that, I've felt the need to reach out and do something more on my own.

I looked into any writing jobs out there and came across a couple of online jobs that were looking for freelance writers. After writing several sample articles and going through a pretty long application process, I was excited to become a real life freelance writer.

An online news site called the Examiner.com asked me to be one of their journalists specific to Salt Lake City Asperger's and Parenting with which I write 3 articles a week. Another online magazine based out of Canada called Suite101.com has allowed me to be a contributing writer to various different topics.

So far, I think I'm doing pretty well with the local Salt Lake City examiner job. Two of my articles have been featured as the main article on the home page at separate times. I hope that I can help others and make some difference to people out there who are looking for information pertaining to Asperger's. The Suite 101 job is interesting, and I'm not sure how it will go, but I do have one article online right now under Health and Wellness under Autism/Asperger's.

I know I'm not a professional or doctor or counselor, but I hope that what I can share by my knowledge and personal experiences can possibly give hope to other people.

And no, I'm not rolling in the dough with these jobs, but hey---I hope to get out there and get some experience and exposure so that someday I can write something more or maybe get a book published.

If you are interested in reading any of my boring stuff (hopefully not too boring!), you can go to the Examiner.com (Salt Lake City division), or Suite101.com. Thanks for caring!

Beautiful Jewelia

Here's my cute Jewelia.
She's getting so big. Her hair is getting so long. Here we straightened it for preschool. When I blow dry it and use the flat iron it reaches all the way down to her bum! I'm glad we decided to keep her bangs. I've been thinning them out and keeping them shorter now. I think it's good.

Things are busy busy here right now. We've got dance, piano, and Nutcracker rehearsals all week every week, plus cub scouts, school, work, and random other activities. Sometimes it's so crazy. I think it is funny whenever someone calls me from work I am on the freeway driving one place or another. The kids are having fun though. We make it work.

Halloween is coming up and we are excited for fun activities. Check back for when we get our fun Halloween Winnie the Pooh picture taken at the picture place!

Happy 7th?!!! Birthday Caleb

Ahhhh! Can it be? My little Caleb is 7 years old?!
How did this happen?

Seriously, I've been dreading him turning 7. It just seems so old. 6 was still little, but 7 takes away the cuteness, or does it?

Anyway, we celebrated Caleb's birthday over the weekend.
I made him a "world globe" cake:

We had a good time deciding which continent or body of water to eat.

On Saturday night the boys and Jewelia went to Nicklemania to play video games for Caleb's birthday fun since his birthday was on Sunday. They had a lot of fun!

Then Sunday we celebrated at home. Caleb was soooo happy that so many people came to his party. He got so many fun things and had a wonderful time.

Everyone had a good time, although Macey was a little sad for a while not being the center of attention. She got happier later though.

Thank you everyone who sent cards, messages, or came to help celebrate Caleb's big 7th birthday.

I will try not to be depressed now.

Becca's First Real Homemade Halloween Costume Reveal!!!

Ok, so I am really proud of this first ever homemade Halloween costume that I just finished for Caleb. This is Pikachu. He is a Pokemon. And if you don't know what in the world that is, well, I guess you aren't missing out on too much. Well, not unless you are a 7 year old boy.

Anyway, Caleb wanted to be Pikachu, and while I could find a cheap hat on ebay and I came across another hat for 50 cents at the D.I., there was no way I was going to pay $40 for a Pikachu costume online or at the store. Or even $30. No way! Especially for the wimpy felt material that they use anyway.

So, after bidding on several on ebay and losing because they were going up to millions of dollars, I had an idea to make my own.

Now if you don't already know, I have no sewing skills whatsoever! I can't hardly even sew on a button. If you have seen Micah's cub scout uniform you will surely see.

But, I decided to go for it. I went to the fabric store and bought some yellow fleece, brown fleece, a yard of elastic, some batting, a roll of yellow thread and brown thread, and some needles. Then I went to work.

I had no pattern. I don't know how to use patterns. I had no sewing machine. Don't know how to use those either. But I just cut and sewed and guessed and then fit it all together. I am pretty impressed with myself for my first costume. It didn't even come out that bad, and Caleb loves it!

Only problem now is the hats I first came across don't exactly match the costume. Does it matter? Caleb likes the more mushroom type hat we got online, but the color is a darker orange-ish yellow. The cheap D.I. hat matches a lot better, but it fits kind of weird and I have to bobby pin it to Caleb's head to stay on and not slip over his eyes.

So what do you think? Do you like the 1st or second hat?

Oh, and I've got to find him some yellow pants to go under it, but I think we're good for Halloween!