Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love to dress up and trick or treat. I remember Trevor's first Halloween and we trick or treated with some friends of ours in their neighborhood. Trevor couldnt even walk. We or should I say I carried him to every house and up to every door. The amount of candy that he had was ridiculous. Steve thought I was crazy. But for me that was something that I never had growing up. We didnt live in a neighborhood. In fact my parents took me to their friends houses and my grandparents to trick or treat. My aunt had halloween parties at her house for my cousins and I, but I dont remember her having those after we were about 7. Those were always TONS of fun. They were your typical halloween party with bobbing for apples and scary music. It is always in the back of my head though and I guess that is why I insist on taking the kids to every house and sometimes we fill our buckets up 2 or 3 times and put them into a Walmart bag. I always say that I live thru my children because if I didnt have something growing up, they definitely will, within reason of course. So tonight when you are trick or treating, fill your buckets once for me! Have a Splendid Halloween!

Happy Halloween-
The Joy Family

Last night Trevor and I went to the St Cloud Library where they were having a Twilight Party. This was a party advertised for teens, but we LOVE Twilight and I figured that it wouldnt be anything inappropriate for Trevor and if it was, I was planning to leave. So we get there at 7:30 pm when it started. There was a costume contest, trivia games(which I won round one :)), Howling contest (Trevor was great at this one), Button making, Duct tape rose craft, pinning the shirt on Jacob, and bobbing for apples. It was packed full of fun things to do.




We had been there for close to 2 and a half hours and Trevor was getting tired. Just as I was getting ready to leave, I see out of the corner of my eye who I thought was Edward. At that exact moment my heart fell to my stomach and I felt like a silly school girl. One for thinking that I actually saw him and two for getting all googly eyed like that anyways.

Come to find out he was the lead singer for the band called the Twilighters and right behind him was a Bella impersonator. Why does she always have to ruin it???!!!!
We had a lot of fun though and I am really glad that I decided to take Trevor. I questioned if it was a good idea with the party being geared at teens. On the way out I told Trevor thanks for coming with me and he said "no, mom thanks for bringing me". When we got home and Trevor was filling Steve in on our fun he told Steve that it was the funniest time that he had had in a long time! That right there told me that I had definitely made the right choice!

Jack- O- Lantern

It has been a family tradition to carve pumpkins for Steve and I. Even before we had the kids we used to carve pumpkins. The excitement starts at the pumpkin patch when you are looking for the BEST pumpkin. I used to be pretty anal about finding the perfect pumpkin, but have come to realize that we are just going to carve it and then in a couple days it will be in the trash so who cares if it has some dings.

So....last night we invited Mary over and carved our pumpkins. We had 2 and Trevor picked his design. We cheat and have pumpkin carving stencils. Trevor's was a moderate werewolf. Steve usually carves the pumpkin. Well he does Trevor's. I carve my own. Anyways...Trevor got right to cutting the top off and cleaning out the guts. Our pumpkins were small this year so it didnt take long at all. I decided to just draw on my pumpkin. I am not an artist by any means, but I made an oogglyy googgly face. Mine came out nice and then across the table I hear Steve say "oh crap". He messed up the werewolf. You can imagine Trevor's disappointment. So I tried to make it better by freehanding one on the pumpkin. It looked great, but then I couldnt figure out how to carve it out. Needless to say Steve just drew a face on it and carved it out. I think T was really disappointed, but he was good about the whole thing. Before we were even done he was watching some Michael Jackson movie that is a whole other blog in its self. Emelyn was good. We started the carving past her bed time, but she was good. We even let her put her hand in the pumpkin. She loved it! Every once in a while she would sneak a pumpkin seed in her mouth. All in all it was a great pumpkin carving night.

First Boyscout Badge

We are so proud of Trevor. He earned his first boy scout badge which is the Bobcat badge. He had to learn the scout promise, handshake and sign. He was given his badge at the pack meeting on Tuesday in front of the whole council. I was so proud of him and he was really proud of himself. Sometimes that is more important than Steve and I being proud of him. Or at least I think.

So we are going on month 2 of being a Tiger Scout. Every Tuesday night Steve or I take him to the hour long meeting. They participate in many activities thru out the month. There are food drives, car washes, camp outs and much more. At these activities Trevor has more chances to earn badges. We will be going to the Fun With Son campout the first weekend in December. It will be a lot of fun since we will be doing "real" camping out in a tent. Eme will stay with Grandma. We havent had time just me, Trevor and Steve in a while so that campout will be nice.

Thats all for now. Way to go Trevor! You did it!

Ever been asked "What did you do all day?"

A good one to think about if you had the luxury of a fulltime at-home parent growing up.....I am glad I did!

What Do You Do All Day? A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house.And there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing.

In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping overtoys and more piles of clothes looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels,scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls.

As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled,and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?" She again smiled and answered, "You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world I do all day?"
"Yes," was his incredulous reply.
She answered, "Well, today I didn't do it."

Pumpkin Patch

So we went on Sunday to the pumpkin patch. It was suppose to be an all day thing. We were going to go out to Long and Scott Farms in Zellwood which is about 30 miles northwest of Orlando. This is a working farm where they have a huge corn maze, 60' slide, farmers market, small kiddie mazes and hay rides. We asked my mother inlaw Mary if she would like to join us. Sunday morning we left around 11:45am since the farm opened at 1pm. We figured we had plenty of time to get there. About 15 minutes into the trip I asked Steve if he knew where we were going and he said that he thought that I had the directions. Mary had her map and had got mapquest directions to Zellwood. About 2 hours later, asking 4 people and calling my mom for directions we finally made it. We pulled up and the place was packed. The guys leading people into the parking said that they were at capacity and we could go to the pumpkin patch, but there wasnt room in the maze.

We were a little disappointed and I was frustrated with myself for not getting the directions. I am usually so organized, but I guess after the family being sick all week, i just wasnt all that prepared. Well......I also went that morning to get my nails done while Eme took her nap. I left at 10am thinking I had plenty of time. Wrong! The nail tech took forever. So I had Steve calling my phone like a crazy person wondering where I was at 11:30am. I had left my phone in the car and freaked out when I got out and saw the time. Thankgoodness he dressed the kids, packed the diaper bag and the car. So all I had to do when I got home was get myself dressed. So that could of been why the directions werent printed out. But we will just say it was cause the family was sick the week before! ;)

We ended up staying at the farm for about 2 hours just looking at the pumpkins and eating corn. Zellwood is known for its sweet corn. Emelyn loved the corn right off the cob. I took pics of the kids with the pumpkins. I had made tye dyed pumpkin shirts for the kids and I. We all looked so cute. I was pleasantly surprised that Trevor actually wore his shirt. He is at that age where he wants to look cool. It was really hot, but there was a nice breeze. So for the most part it was a great day. Even if we got lost on the way there.

The funniest part of all was that we were going to the Corn Maze, but got lost getting there. How did we ever think we would actually be able to make it thru a maze when we cant even make it TO the maze.

To Blog or Not to Blog

Well, I guess you can say I have figured out the answer to the question..... To Blog Or Not To Blog??? I have tossed around the idea of doing a family blog. Something so that we could document our lives for family and maybe one day the kids will like to look back and see how we lived our every day to day lives. I am not the best speller or nor am I good at punctuation. So please dont count all the mistakes----You may be here all day! No really!

I have had my myspace for close to five years now and really feel that I have outgrown it. I am new to facebook and am really enjoying that mainly because a lot of my family is on there and some family that I havent talked to in years, but would love to reconnect with.

So lets see how this goes and if I cant actually be interesting enough for people to follow me! HA!