Senior Trick-or-Treat

Well tonight was our annual Senior Trick-or-Treat activity at a local nursing home. We make cardboard box creations and set up a little "Halloween Town" for the Seniors to come trick-or-treating through. I seriously look forward to this activity every year because it's so fun and it makes these people so happy too. I've never been in charge of it before, so I was a little nervous how things would turn out, but it was AMAZING! Here's some posts from past years...here and here...and here's a few pictures from tonight...

Real life "American Gothic" - SO clever!

The Princess Castle by the Activity Day Girls...Tanner wanted to be a princess by the end of the night too! ;) Who wouldn't with a castle like that!? He settled for being the "dragon" in his dinosaur costume.

Mom and Janna all decked out

The Nelson Fam with our vending machine creation

Dean's idea and most of his work, but I painted and put the final touches on. We make a pretty great team!

Tanner handing out treats to an elderly man. Dean would put a treat through the back and Tanner would get it out of the machine and hand it to the people.

Pretty Princesses

The Young Men and Young Women made a tree and a hunny pot from Winnie the Pooh. These are some of the cute Young Women "Bees"

The bishop's wife and their clever Snowman!

The Blazers put together this jail...complete with inmate costumes and all!

Tanner and Landon were both AMAZING! It was seriously a tender mercy from Heavenly Father that Landon was so sweet and happy even in other people's arms. His smiles lit up the old people's faces and lots of them asked if they could keep him! Tanner was SO good and handed out all the treats with a smile and a "Happy Halloween!" One woman came through who was deaf and she signed "thank you". Tanner knows that sign and I told him to sign back "you're welcome". Instead he signed "I love you" and you could see her heart melt. It was so sweet! It was such a great night and one that I hope I never forget.

Pumpkin Carving

Monday night we went over to Dean's parents to carve pumpkins with them and Janna. We had lots of fun and pulled off some pretty good looking pumpkins too!

Dean's the master pumpkin cleaner-outer....I made him help with mine and Tanner's too! Ha! Thanks babe!

Tanner helped separate all the seeds so we can roast them. Yum!

Carving my pumpkin.

Landon's trying out his new teeth on Grandma's finger! ;)

Janna's checking out the pumpkins

Left to right: Dean's batman pumpkin, Janna's scary face pumpkin, Tanner's dinosaur(in honor of his costume this year), and Andrea's Jack Skelington pumpkin

Tag you're it!

My cousin Jessica tagged me on her blog the other day. I'm supposed to answer a few of her questions. So here it goes!

1. What's your favorite food to eat? Favorite to prepare? Same or different and why?
Hmmm....I'd probably have to go with Sweet and Sour Chicken. I'm a big Chinese food fan. Although it's got to be the good stuff...not all Chinese food is created equal! To prepare?! I really don't enjoy cooking that much to be honest, but that all seems to change in the fall. For some reason fall just brings the cook out in me. I probably like making goodies and treats most because I have one serious sweet tooth.

2. If you could have one talent that was truly outstanding, what would it be?
I don't really know...I always wished I was a better soccer player when I was younger, but those days are long gone. I guess I wish I would have stuck to my piano lessons (I know, I know Mom and Dad...you told me so!) and was a better piano player.

3. What is your favorite thing about being married?
Well it's definitely nice to no longer have any more awkward dates. For those of you who know me well I was pretty good at throwing up on dates and it made for some serious awkward moments! Ha! Glad that's all in the past! Now I just get to enjoy dates with my super hot hubby! ;) Although few and far between...the joys of parenthood!

4. Best childhood Christmas gift?
Well off the top of my head I really remember when I got my stuffed puppy dog that actually had little puppies in her stomach that would come out so you had a mommy puppy and baby puppies. And when I got my water baby. Did any of you have one of those?? It was a doll filled with water so it felt more life like.

5. Favorite thing to do in the Autumn?
I LOVE Halloween! I love carving pumpkins and dressing up and of course the CANDY! ;) But I also love the crisp air and pulling out the sweaters again!

6. Most awkward moment with someone you didn't know.
A few months back, the missionaries were giving us a little lesson. We didn't know they were coming to do this and Landon was just a newborn and he was HUNGRY. I didn't really feel like breastfeeding in the middle of their lesson. Tanner had no interest in listening AT ALL and I was stressed about trying to get him to behave on top of dealing with Landon's hungry cries. Anyway, my point is...I was a BIT distracted. One of the missionaries asked me what I would do if I had been pulled over by an ice cream man and given a ticket. I really hadn't heard anything he had been talking about and I was completely confused. I said I'd pay it and the poor missionary looked at me like I was a MORON and I had just messed up his whole lesson. The point being that an ice cream man doesn't have the authority to give a ticket...just like in the Church, we need the proper authority to baptize, etc. Anyway, I quickly apologized for not knowing what they were even talking about and felt like a huge IDIOT! I was secretly glad when they got transferred because I felt stupid every time I saw them after that!

7. If you had a grocery store, what would it be named and why?
Well the common thing would be to name it NELSON'S....like Smith's, Bowman's, etc. So I'd probably avoid that route. Hmmm... truthfully I can't think of anything cute or witty at the moment so I'm gonna be boring and pass on this one. Sorry! Dean says I should just name it Andrea's cause I'm narcissistic. Thanks babe!

8. Wooden pencils v. mechanical pencils - give the pros and cons.
I think they both have their place, but I probably lean towards mechanical. The whole sharpening business is just too much for me. Although when I'm crafting or something I sometimes appreciate the softer tip of a wooden pencil. Mechanical is just too pokey sometimes. Does that even make sense to anyone else?? Oh and definitely a wooden pencil for Tanner....I can't tell you how annoying it is when he pulls all the lead out of the mechanical pencil and breaks it all up into little pieces. I'm always pulling out a pencil only to find that it's empty because of him!

If any of you are still reading this....count yourself tagged! Just answer the same questions on your blog and leave me a comment so I can read your responses too!

Trunk-or-Treat 2010

Well I was nervous if anyone was even going to show up, but it turned out to be a smashing success! It was so well attended and everyone had a lot of fun! Here's a few pictures from our night...

A giraffe, a dinosaur, a mechanic and a nurse...and of course our trusty scarecrow!

Tanner and Breanne

Tanner, Liam and Savannah

Tanner and Brooke

Tanner and Paige

Around here Tanner's kind of a ladies man! Ha! All the kids his age are girls...I'm sure down the road he won't complain. ;)

Things are getting SPOOKY around here...

Tonight is our annual Ward Trunk-or-Treat Activity. Last year we looked like this....

Ahhh...the good old days when I wasn't Activities Committee Chair! ;)

Hopefully tomorrow you'll see pictures of this year's Trunk-or-Treat! But in preparation we've been working on a few things...

(Inspiration from Skip to my Lou)

Note to self: Next time you get the bright idea to hand make 4 dozen Halloween cookies instead of just picking up a bag of candy at the store...DON'T DO IT!

We are all supposed to decorate our trunks for the occasion as well, so Tanner and I whipped up this guy today...

Thanks to Grandma Furin we had the perfect head for our scarecrow!

Now we're patiently waiting for Dad to get home, and for it to be time for the activity! Some of us are more patient than others! ;)

Sneak Peek

Starting tomorrow we'll be heading out in these...




Can you guess what we're going to be for Halloween???? Some of us are getting pretty excited!!

Minute to Win It

So this past weekend Dean was in charge of the Stake Youth Activity themed "Minute to Win It." I don't know how many of you have actually seen the show. We have a few times. Mostly it's super fun to try the games yourself. All the challenges they have on the show require regular household items, so a lot of them you can do with things you already have around the house. You can actually find the "Blueprints" for each game on their website if any of you are interested. We spent last Friday night trying out all the games to make sure they worked before the big activity on Saturday. Even Tanner got in on the action and it was a TON of fun! We did 10 different games, but this is one of my favorites and I had video of all three of us trying it...(sorry for the background noise. I'm not sure what the deal was.)

Buddies

Getting a little brother was a BIT of an adjustment for Tanner. Landon, however, has always ADORED his big brother. Now that Landon's getting bigger and more mobile and interactive, Tanner's really starting to like having him around. The other day he even asked if Landon could sleep in his bed with him! Ha! NO, but thanks for asking! ;) Here's a few cute pictures of them in their matching outfits(Tanner was thrilled to match with Landon! Too cute!), reading a book together. Love these two!

EVERYONE's getting BIG around here...

So after that post yesterday we found out that Landon has his FIRST TOOTH!! Yikes! Life it just flying by WAY too fast. It's kind of funny thinking back to when Tanner was this age and we were so excited for all the new milestones he'd reach, but this time around I just want it to SLOW DOWN, because I realize how fast it goes. We're trying to savor every little moment. Here's a video clip of the little guy just after we found his new tooth....

My not so LITTLE boy...

Lately Tanner has seemed so BIG to me. We were watching home videos the other night and I just couldn't believe how much bigger, smarter, and more capable he's getting. He's still just 2, but he is so, stinking, smart! This weekend we bought him a little booster seat so he can sit up at the "BIG" table with Dean and I now. We figured Landon will be moving into the high chair in the not-so-distant future, so it's a good time for Tanner to move on. He's done SO good at eating carefully and nicely now that he's not in his highchair anymore. He has his moments, but he truly is such a good helper and is getting really good at doing so many things by himself. Now we just need to convince him that it really is a good idea to go to the bathroom on the potty!

Eating at the BIG table

"Seriously Mom!? Stop with the pictures of me eating my breakfast!"

What a goof!

Halloween Crafting

I'd seen this idea here and a few other places too, but now that I have my Silhouette Craft Cutter, I figured I could whip one up for myself. I bought a white plate for $3 at Walmart and added the vinyl lettering that I re-created...similar to what I have seen from other people. I LOVE how it turned out. Plus, lately it's been EXTRA true. My "little Monsters" keep me up all night, which I'm afraid makes me a bit of a "Wicked Witch" in the morning! ;)

Evening at the Park

Last Thursday(Oct. 7th) we finally had a let up in the cold, rainy weather so we decided to head on over to the park for dinner and to feed the ducks and play on the playground. I LOVE our local park...it's such a great mix of nature and fun for the kids...they even have a boccie court we need to try out. Anyway, we packed up a picnic dinner and took off as soon as Dean got home. Tanner had a BLAST and begs to go to the park every day now. Here's a BUNCH of pictures...

I'm so lucky! I have such cute boys!

Feeding the ducks.

They all came swimming over the second we got there....they must have known what was coming! ;)

They even got out of the water and came right over to us...no fear!

Dad and Landon (he looks a little groggy/sick in this picture but I think it's just cause he doesn't have his usual bug-eyes!)

They ate right out of Dean's hand.

Dean convinced me to be brave enough to let them eat out of mine...Tanner didn't dare try.

The boys on the playground.

Jumpin' with Mom on the bridge.

Swingin' with Dad and Landon.

Slippery Slide!

Swinging with Mom.

The leaves are changing!! Gotta love fall in PA!