Halloween Party

I know it's been a month since Halloween, but I'm just getting around to putting these pictures on. After a long day of looking for Bert and Ernie costumes, we settled with John McCain and Sarah Palin. It turned out pretty well, except that Barrett's face didn't fill out the mask. We threw a party on Halloween with a few of our couple friends. We forgot to take pictures during the party so we didn't get pictures of everyone. But here they are!

Barrett did a great job decorating with the spider webs!

Logan and Deborah Riley: Cowboy and Indian

Nate and Julie Broschinsky: If you have seen Karate Kid you'll know a shower when you see one.

"Waitin' on the World to Change"

I'm just sitting here by myself on a Friday night and thought I would share some thoughts. As a result of my job, I now know more about what is going on the world and how bad the world is getting. It is overwhelming looking at the bare statistics of how drugs, immorality, and violence has increased in the last 20 years. That's only my lifetime. From one of my youth (whose brother acually just died on Tuesday from a drug overdose) I learned that you can walk into any high school (literally any) you have never been to before and know where to buy drugs within a few minutes. I know I am naive, but wow, did you know more people die from overdoses on pills now than illegal drugs? (Just watch the movie Happy Valley and you'll see what I mean... well maybe you don't want to watch it) We have heard it over and over again, and of course, we read about it in the scriptures, but it has become a new reality to me. I got nervous and stressed the other day wondering how I can help people in the world and how I can raise my kids keeping them from all the bad choices that are out there. Heavenly Father answered my prayers as usual and I know that in the end all the sadness in this world will be overshadowed by the joy we feel in the next. It is possible to be in the world but not of the world as long as we keep our eyes open and our families close to the Gospel. But I thought the new song I added by John Mayer was interesting. Will we all be "waitin on the world to change" as we continue on in our life, or will we fight against the odds and still stand for what we believe? I actually really like the song, but take it for what it's worth. I know I'll be doing what I can to help the world to change.

Carving Pumpkins

Life has been busy and I just had a few minutes to add these pictures. I'll try and add pictures from our Halloween party soon.

This was the Sunday before Halloween when we carved pumpkins with Barrett's family. I was brought into the world of carving pumpkins without stencils. I'm not artsy or creative in the least sense and was overwhelmed by the thought of carving with no stencil, ha ha! So I got on the internet and printed out a stencil and copied it the best I could. As for Barrett's pumpkin... he could have use a stencil :) Sorry babe! You'll see it in a few pictures.

From left to right: Sophie's pumpkin, Isaac's pumpkin, and my pumpkin

The famous Yates hole pumpkin, Morgan's pumpkin, Porter's pumpkin, and Barrett's pumpkin. Now you can see, just a bunch of lines. Of course, it is very creative! I don't think anyone else has seen one like it.

Jeff's annual, winking pumpkin man is shown completely below and his head is above.

We tried to make faces that looked like our pumpkins...

That's what a face with lines looks like apparently :)

China Cabinet 2

We filled our china cabinet! The picture kind of makes it look like McDonald's... but it doesn't look this bright in our living room. It was fun to play around with the shapes and colors!