Halloween Festivities

Happy Halloween!

Here's some of our lovely Halloween decor.
My kids loved it when I read "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" to them.

We invited Grandma Hallstrom to join us for Brian's school Halloween parade.

One of Tyler's best buddies, Jack, was dressed up as a greaser.

Brian gave me the cutest smile and surprised look on his face when he saw us.

Brian didn't know that we would be at the parade.

I wish I would have captured that look on camera/in a video.  

I did get him parading around with his class though.

MVI 1086 from Lisa Ward on Vimeo.

Here's Tyler after his preschool's Halloween party.  (Teacher Kareen is behind him).  

The class came out to show off their costumes and sing songs for us.
Tyler was D.O.N.E. for the day and wanted nothing to do with singing.
He wouldn't even stand up there with his classmates.
That Tyler has a mind of his own.
The songs were cute though.

Katie dressed up as an adorable little dancer!
Her new thing, when prompted at the right moment, is to twirl around in circles.
Music is optional.  So is her willingness to twirl.  She has to be in the right mood.

Katie waiting patiently for the trick-or-treaters to show up.

Every Halloween afternoon around 4pm, there is trick-or-treating at Sam's work for the all the kids/grandkids of the employees.  My kids' Halloween baskets were overflowing after spending a half hour there.  On the 10 minute drive home, the kids fast and furiously shoved candy in their mouths.

Despite all the candy eating, we managed to polish off
this pumpkin shaped pizza when Daddy got home.

The weather was just perfect for trick-or-treating this year.
Sam and I had fun taking our kids trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.
Our neighborhood is great and some people go all out with their decorations.
Maybe next year I won't feel so exhausted by the end of the day and I'll take some fun pictures of the actual trick-or-treating process.

 October sunset view from our front porch

Anyway, Brian was cute in the way he asked every single candy-giving person, "Can I get a candy for my baby?"  He sure knows how to take care of Katie.  Katie enjoyed the evening from her stroller.
And Tyler was great at telling all the candy-givers, "Thank you!  Happy Halloween!"

Full moon in our backyard!

Card Club

Here's the cards I've received the past couple of months:

 And here are the cards that I've made for all the ladies recently:

I'm going to miss being in Card Club.  I joined the club in July 2009 soon after moving to the neighborhood.  The ladies in the group are VERY talented in their card making skills.  Plus, they are so fun to be around.

This Year's Family Newsletter

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." -- Burton Hillis

Besides having family around on Christmas, I also like to read over all of the Christmas cards we've received from family and friends.  Here's what our Christmas card looked like this year:

Dazzle And Shine Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shop Shutterfly for elegant custom Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

And here's what I typed up for the inside of the card:

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope the that you had a wonderful year and that you enjoy this holiday season.  Our family has had a great year and we'd like to share the highlights.

In April, we made some major changes in preparation for our growing family.  We hired a guy to build a wood fence for our backyard.  It's so nice to send the boys out to the fenced backyard to play.  Also in April, we bought a 2006 Chrysler Town & Country minivan which has two built in car seats.  We love it.  On May 26, we welcomed our baby girl into our family.  Katie Jane Ward weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long and had plenty of thick brown hair.  Katie is 6 months now and is learning how to sit up.  Brian and Tyler can't get enough of their baby sister.  Brian is 5 1/2 and loves kindergarten.  He's already learning how to read and enjoys doing his homework.  Tyler will turn 3 this month.  He loves to line up his toy cars and play with them.  My friend and I started up a small preschool.  That friend and I along with three other women, take turns teaching preschool in our homes.  It has worked out nicely and the kids just love it.  In October, I was privileged to be a wedding photographer for my sister, Amy and her husband, Nate at the Salt Lake Temple.  It was fun to photograph all the details of their day.  I serve on the Relief Society planning committee.  Sam serves as a counselor in the Sunday School Presidency.  Sam has worked with the same company for 2 1/2 years.  He enjoys his job as an Electronic Repair Technician repairing rugged handheld computers.  On Thanksgiving Day, Sam ran his first 10K race.  Sam is a wonderful father and husband.

Our hearts are full at this time of year.  Sam and I feel so blessed to have a home of our own filled with our three beautiful children.  We appreciate our family and friends and the love and support they give us.  We hope your holidays are full of love and happiness.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

Sam, Lisa, Brian, Tyler, and Katie

Shutterfly's 50 Free Holiday Card Promotion

Bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards by clicking here and following the directions.

I come from a large family.  Sam comes from a large family.  After ordering enough holiday cards for both of our families, we have to pick and choose a few lucky friends to send our holiday cards to.  This year, we will have plenty of Christmas cards to send to our family AND friends. 

Here are a few of my favorite cards from Shutterfly's 2010 Holiday Card Collection:

I like this one because it looks fancy with the paisley design on top.  I also love the variation in the fonts they used.  But what I don't like is that there aren't enough photo slots for my family's photos.

This one is nice because the snowflakes add some pizazz to the card.  The font is fun too.  But again this card doesn't have enough photo slots for my family's photos.

This one is nice.  I love the way the red, black and white look together.  There are too many family photo slots on this one though.

What I like about this one is how it looks like a scrapbook collage layout.  But with the different sized photo slots, it would be too hard for me to decide which of my family's photos were more important than the other ones. 

But this one is my top pick for my family's holiday card.  It has everything I want in a card.  Plus the red, white, and brown looks nice together.  I could see a photo of Sam and I in the large slot and individual portrait shots of my kids on the right side.  It's nice that I can list their name and age too.  So don't be surprised if I just customize this card for the holidays.

Who knows?  Maybe I'll even create and order a family calendar too.  OH, and they have graduation announcements as well.  Shutterfly is can take of all of your photo needs.

Card Club

 Don't I have such talented card-making friends?  I love seeing what card designs the ladies come up with each month.  Here's the card that I made for everyone:

Card Club

Here are the cards from July's card club meeting:

And here is the card that I made:

Card Club

Here are some cards that I made for the past few months of Card Club. The last picture is of all the cards from June's card exchange. We sure have alot of talented women in our group!

Card Club

Here are the cards that I received from the last couple months of Card Club:

Here are the cards that I made for the last couple months of Card Club:

And here are the cards that I made at a Stampin' Up Party:

I'm working hard to complete the rest of this year's cards before the baby comes.  Each person in Card Club makes 15 cards each month, brings them to our meeting, and goes home with 15 new cards, one made by each member in the club.  It's so fun. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! 

This morning, my boys woke up to this on the back of their bedroom door: 

They were so excited that they got a "heart attack" from their Mommy and Daddy.  Then as they got to the kitchen, they were greeted with this scene: 

I had some extra cards that I made for Card Club and wrote out a nice love note to each of my boys.  Don't I have three good lookin' Valentines?!

Brian, Tyler, and I made french toast and orange juice for breakfast.  After breakfast, the boys went on a search for numbered hearts (Brian's learning his numbers) and they found some candy at the end of the search.  I made homemade chocolate chip truffles and these tasty pretzels: 

I promised Sam that I would make our traditional Valentine's treat, no bake cherry cheesecake.  My little boys insisted on helping.  The cheesecake didn't look beautiful but it made with love.  We had one of my favorite meals for dinner, balsamic pork and pasta along with some homemade bread. 

We hope all of you had a fun Valentine's Day too!  Isn't this the sweetest preschool project ever?!  In case you can't read it, the heart says, "I love you THIS much!"