Pre-Halloween '09

Here is Shayden's class singing in the program during the day.

And Jasmine at her little party.

And then later that day, the 3rd grade had a big International Fest at the school. Here they are performing a (dutch?) dance.

This was taken at the Jetblue trunk or treat:

And earlier on Halloween day we went to Sunflower market and they got to run around and do a scavenger hunt.

Carving Pumpkins 2009

We had a fun night full of carving which included a pumpkin mush fight between Jonas and our special guest Sarah.

Here's Jasmine's creation:

And Sarah's:

Shayden got really ambitious and tried to do a "Ben 10" one:

Somehow the beauty I carved never made the cut, probably because the photographer was too busy throwing pumpkin slime to notice. Oooh she got 'em good here.

And since she didn't take a picture of herself that night, I will be forced to publish this one:

Abish; Faith Among the Lamanites

I was given the assignment by a very inspired Young Women President to portray Abish, from the Book of Mormon, who if you recall, was very briefly mentioned and one of the only women mentioned at all. At first I didn't even remember who she was. She has now become one of my favorite heroes from the Book of Mormon.

There is a fictional novel written about her story, that was recommended to me in order to prepare for this role. Wow! What a great book! Pick this one up if you can, it is a great read. I think sometimes you read a particular story in the scriptures and you think, that's kind of cool, but there is so little written that you quickly move on to the next story. It was amazing to me to think about this one little story and one possible scenario of how her life may have gone. It made me realize that there is so much more history behind every little story, and I can't wait to someday sit at the feet of some of these great people and hear the true version of how this all came to pass in their own words.

You can read more about the book, here.

As you can see, there were characters from all of the scriptures and church history at this activity. It was about how just one person could really make a difference in standing for what you believe. We were all in the cultural hall and the youth were to roam around and ask us questions. They were supposed to try and quess who we were. Of course no one knew who I was. Jonas was asked to be himself, isn't that awesome? After that, we all got to tell (in character) who we were and how we had stood for what we believe.

Jonas and Abish

Frightmares

I love when my nieces work at Lagoon because it means we get to get in for really cheap!

This year we went to Frightmares as a date along with my sister's family.


The haunted houses just don't seem to be as scary as when I was younger, but it was still fun. Probably the scariest part was these random people floating around the park, because you didn't expect them. For example walking along and then suddenly there is a girl with no arm limping by you. It was pretty freaky.

Jazz Time

When we went to Cornbelly's I signed up to win Jazz Tickets and I won! It was only 2 tickets but Jonas called them and was able to get us 4 nosebleed tickets in exchange for the two that I won, so that the whole family could go. The kids were super excited.

Jasmine loved the fact that they were named "Jazz" kind of like her.

Even Tayevion had a great time.

Jasmine's Art Party

Jasmine all of a sudden had the idea to have an art party. She loves art, you see. So she made little invitations and she invited 5 friends (because she is five) and they did art and had a treat.

Everyone had a great time!

Becoming an Entrepreneur

I have always wanted to have my own business. Just cuz. But I have never known what to do.

My friend Jandy has been trying to get me to start a Children's Entertainment business for oh, about 8 years now. She had been very successful at it for a really long time. But I have never been the artistic type so I thought I couldn't do it. I even got pretty close a couple of times. So when she started (along with face painting), doing these really cool (temporary) Glitter Tattoos, I thought, hey I could use a stencil right? No artistic ability needed!

So I took a trip to see her and "train" for my new endeavour. I was such a fun girls weekend!

Jandy taught me everything she knows for which I will be forever grateful (I mean how cool it is to have someone who has already paved the way right?) and somewhere in the crazyness, she also convinced me to do the face painting! I am sure that someday I will be able to do crazy cool faces like this:



Yeah right, anyway, for now the extent of my talent is about to here:

I was able to go with her to several gigs, including this festival where I actually got to do glitter tattoos all day on the kids! It was so awesome to see her in action.

The kids sure missed me while I was gone...

And Shayden even learned how to ride a two wheeler that weekend...

I took like a bazillion notes while I was with Jandy and squeezed out as much information from her while I could. And then I geared up to come home and put it all to good use.

And I did. I have sure made a bunch of hideous faces, but good thing my kids are good sports (or victims) right? Shayden was so excited and tells me all the time that he is so glad that I am an "artist". Actually it was a good chance for me to explain to him that I wasn't very good now, but that I knew that if I practiced a lot and worked hard, that I would get better. Gotta fit those life lessons in anywhere you can.

It's kind of funny because I have had no business ideas for like 10 years and then suddenly I have a bunch! Everyone says no matter what only start with one thing first, but nope, I didn't listen and started doing 3 things at once! After I got home, I totally revamped My Kids' Eye View, started My Kids' Entertainment, plus created an Etsy store for the glimmer kits that I decided to sell. Crazy, I know. It took me on a whirlwind this fall, that resulted in my blog getting months and months behind, among other things; but it has been really rewarding too.

I started promoting my business and did a couple of lame festivals that luckily where not a huge money investment. But they did teach me quite a bit, so it was good that I did them. Then I kind of hit the jackpot in a small way because I was able to get into the Twilight event for New Moon put on by the Twilight moms and Events by Alice. It was this huge 2 day event for all of the die hard fans out there, and there are many!

The event was already closed for sellers and I didn't even have someone who could make me the stencils that I needed, but somehow it all worked out. One day Jonas' and I were talking and decided to look online and found a video clip of a girl on Studio 5, advertising for the event. Well I said to Jonas' "I know her! Here kids go to the same school as ours!" It popped up with her name on the screen, we "yahooed" it, and called the first number that came up. This was pretty gutsy of me, I mean, I normally wouldn't just call some random person, but it was her number and she answered! Even better, she told me that there actually were a few spaces and that I should email the girl again (I already emailed her weeks before with no answer) and tell her I had talked to her. Even better than that, she told me that there might even be someone who I could share the booth with in order to lower the cost (the cost was A LOT even split in half!).

I emailed the girl again, and voila! Funny how she emailed me right back this time. She told me that YES there was someone who would share with me! It was a tough decision, because it was a big investment, but it definately was worth it in the end! So I started running around and luckily I was able to find someone who would do these great Twilight themed stencils for me. Keep in mind, there was no where online that you could find these stencils, I mean I was literally treading new water here. The Twilight stencils turned out so cute, here are a couple of examples:

The fans went crazy for them! My way awesome friend Chandelle came and helped me for several hours and we were running, literally on the first night. Not only that, but they spotlighted my company on 3 local tv networks! Which although have not helped a great deal with business, still was a HUGE opportunity for such a new company.

The cool thing is that these Glimmer Tattoos, although they are popular back east, haven't been here in Utah at all. So when people see them, they are usually pretty pleasantly surprised. It is so fun to play around with different designs, and you can guess that my kids (oh and the neighborhood kids) all love it too.

Then I started selling these little glimmer kits that have all of the stuff in them to do-it-yourself.

I sold one to my co-workers sister and she gave my card to a beauty school in the area who called me to come in and do a class. For them I had a custom "shears" stencil made. It was awesome and they LOVED it too! Which means I will be calling all of the other schools in the area...and beauty salons, and tanning salons...ah! I have so much to do!

It's funny how my "children's entertainment" business has really only made money with adults. I guess adults are just big kids :)

So I've got lot's of fun things planned for the future, and it is super exciting. I'll be doing some really big festivals this summer and of course the Eclipse Event in June! Can't wait for that! I'm hoping to start doing some children's birthday parties in the new year too. Thanks to all of my friends who have been sooooo supportive of me! This is definately a learning curve, but I am loving it. And if you know anyone who might be interested, please send them my way~

I kissed a pig!!!

I kissed a pig at Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. I think next year we are going to have to find a way to go to this again, it is like the ultimate fall festival! Except next year I won't kiss a pig.

They had tons of great slides. Jasmine was terrified of this one but she overcame it. It was like it was bugging her until she finally just did it. Then she seriously went down this slide like 30 times in a row.

We also got to ride these fun little dune buggies.

Now on to the kissing part. So we sat down to watch the "pig races" and of course the guy picked me to volunteer and come up. I think Jonas might of had something to do with it.

And so I kissed it. A hairy, squealing, unwilling PIG! And I have a picture to prove it.

They buried themselves in corn...

Look at this adorable guy at the Pumpkin Patch...

And then we got lost in the maze...

And then they had these cute little dress ups, oh the cute little knights!

I decided I want one of these in my backyard...they are these humongous jumping pillows!