Check out how cute this stuff is

I saw this in Martha Stewart this month

and think it is so cute. They used it in place

of ribbon when wrapping packages.

www.happytape.com

Scariest Halloween image

I have to say that I saw quite a few

freaky and disturbing things this past

Halloween. When I saw this, it took

the cake. I don't think it needs any

explanation. Although, if you do

want a close up of the "beads" please

enlarge the photo.

Charlotte's Halloween party

I went and helped out at Charlotte's Halloween

party. It all seemed pretty normal, including

Henry playing with the drinking fountain and flooding

the room(he really did, had to find a mop)

Until I came across 2 disturbing costumes.

Remember these are 6 year old kids.

Freddy Krueger? Why is this happening? Please

tell me he hasn't seen the movie. Where did

he get the idea to be a psycho killer? You

need to enlarge the photo to see.

This kid? I know, his costume

looks like street clothes and innocent.

Then he pulled out a pen was pretending

he was shooting people and informed

me that he was a sniper. I have

no words.

Simon's quilt and bed

Two days ago I finally finished Simon's quilt.

I had painted his new bed and was looking all

over for bedding and decided to make a pieced

quilt instead. I love nothing more than to buy

fabric. This quilt took me a month to put together

and then I took it to a lady who did the machine

quilting on it. I did the binding this week and it

took almost 5 hours of hand sewing. It was horrible.

Simon has told me thank you a million times, so

it makes it worth it.

Nappy time

I put Henry down for a nap and

when I walked downstairs this is

what I found. That is his favorite

blanket from when he was a baby.

We named it Frank, but he calls

it Franky.

I asked him what he was doing and

he said he was tired so he was

going to take a nap. He had turned out

the lights and everything.

Tonga Trip - Last day

Our last night in Tonga we went to a viewing

of a woman that some of my parents friends knew

quite well. She had a disease since birth where her

right leg kept growing and it was enormous. It

got where she was unable to walk for the last

year of her life. She was still young and had

a 1 year old and 3 year old. She also had her

first born child die very young from a heart defect.

On her last c-section she wasn't allowed any

medication, including an epidural or anything

else to numb her. She had to endure it all. I

will not complain again about getting c-sections.

These 2 women wore the full outfit because

they knew the woman well and were honored guests.

They even laid out palm leaves and tapa cloth

to sit on. They were all sitting "indian style"

and singing songs. It was beautiful to hear

them all singing.

This is the kings palace. It is like the parliament

where work is done. He lives in a separate palace.

This building was built in the 1800's.

The hospital OR

The waiting room

Random wires hanging down

This is a main hallway.

We then went to the Tongan cultural center.

It was really neat. The museum had mostly artifacts

from Captain cook. He gave the king a tortoise

as a gift on his last voyage and it lived until the

1970's. They have it preserved here.

He is holding up what the bark of the tree

looks like before and after when made into

the Tapa cloth.

They still make the tapa cloth by hand. The

women make it all. They bang it with the large

wooden mallet until it is a certain width. You can

hear the banging around the villages all day long.

Some newly planted banana trees

Weaving a mat

Showing us how to cut open a coconut.

Shaving the coconut, it was so yummy

Of course some singing and dancing.

Enjoying our refreshments afterwards. A fruit

plate with some coconut water.

Here are some random shots around town.

The minced meat sold at every little store. They

love it.

A little store by my parents house. The students

go to the Liahona school across from my parents.

More shots of the stores

This is the mission office and you can see the

temple in the distance. It is just across the street.

On the left is the mission office and the white

car is in front of my parents house.

My parents house. They have an avocado tree

in their front yard.

For my small handful of readers, I hope you

enjoyed seeing about our trip to Tonga. We had

a great time and I am glad David insisted we go.

Oops!

I will post our last day in Tonga tomorrow.

Had a little accident today, will blame it on

pregnancy. I was running errands and parked

the car at the end of the driveway and ran in the

house to grab Charlotte for dance. About 2 minutes

after I got into the house Dave and I heard a crash.

I apparently left the car in Drive and it slowly drove

itself the whole length our our VERY narrow driveway

without hitting one thing and ran straight into the garage.

His new car has no damage, but, we definitely will need

a new garage door. My car was trapped for awhile while

David crawled inside the garage and got the dents straightened

out. I feel beyond lucky because it could have been so much

worse.