Halloween Party- Part 1

We had a good time this weekend. On Saturday we had a little Halloween party and here are some pics of getting everything ready and the decorations.

Dusty making homemade root beer. He is amazing. Is there nothing that he can't do?
The Food: We did a potato bar. It turned out great.

My Spider Cupcakes. So cute!

The Desserts- Cupcakes, Cookies, and loads of good stuff!

We had awards for the best costumes. Shayla did a great job on the awards!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Hope everyone has a fabulous Halloween and has lots of fun!!!

Gardner Village and a Graduation

Yesterday, I got a rare day off from work and took full advantage! Dusty was such a sweetheart and went to Gardner Village with me. I love it during Halloween (honestly what don't I love during Halloween?). They have all the witch displays and the shops are filled with fun Halloween everything. It was great. Earlier that day we went to Trenton's, Dusty's brother, graduation from the police academy. He is currently a firefighter but went trough post so that he could be on the SWAT team. Intense! Congrats Trenton! Anway, yesterday was great, and it was so much fun being able to hang out with Dusty and have nothing to do on a weekday.

Me with the witches stirring up a potion
Dusty and the Outhouse Witch. This was the only pic that he would let me take

Mom- here is a pic for you so that you can see what Gardner Village looks like during Halloween

Dusty and Trenton (do you think that they look alike?- I don't)

Trenton receiving his certificate

Dusty and I at the graduation

Thriller!!!!

Last night I went to Thriller with my friend Kitani. We had so much fun, and the dancing was awesome. It will definetely become a Halloween tradition!

We also went to dinner at the Pie with our husbands first and while we were at Thriller they went to the Skybox to watch Monday Night Football. What a great compromise!

Kitani and I before the show started
Dusty and I at the Pie
Jeff and Kitani

Thanks guys for a fun night!

Picture Tag!

The tag: go to your fourth picture file, and post the fourth picture in that file... then tell the story.

So Dusty and I had gone to Vegas to meet up with Chandi and after watching the BYU baseball game against UNLV we went to, of course The Cheesecake Factory. It is a tradition. We didn't get any food, just an amazing piece of Snickers Cheesecake!!!! The best cheesecake in the world, and I don't really even like cheesecake. This pic is of me and Dusty showing Chandi and Nate how amazing it is. I think that now I really want a piece.

I tag Karly, Leah and Nicole

Google It!

Go to Google Images and type in your own answers for the topics below. Pick your favorite image on the first 3 pages of results and post it!

First Name: Ali

Middle Name: C

Last Name: Batty

Age: 22 (that is an F-22)

Where I want to go: Belize Favorite Place: Boston
Where I grew up: Blackfoot, ID
Pet's Name: Harley
Grandma's Name: Karen

Nickname of friend: Shay First Job: Dance Teacher
What I'm doing right now: Working
Bad Habit: Being way too Emotional!
Favorite Food: Milk Duds (does that count as a food?)

I tag Tia, Amy, and Karly and whoever else!

Who Am I like?

I saw this on Kara's blog and thought that I would try it out!

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

I also had Dusty take the quiz.

Weekend Fun

This weekend Tia and the kids stayed with us while Matt went to a manager retreat. We had a lot of fun. The kids are so crazy and we love having them around. On Friday night we went to Red Robin. I really love that place. So good!

Kira would not look or smile for the camera at all! Every time I pulled it out she would start making these weird faces. We were all laughing hysterically.
I love this pic of Tia and Trae. They are both cheesers!
This is Shayla asleep on the way home. She sleeps with her eyes partyly open. It kind of freaks me out, but I loved the pic.

Another Domestic Accomplishment

This last week I was just driving to work when I saw a local farmer stand with some raspberries. I was pumped!!! I thought that I was going to have to wait until next season to do some raspberry jam. So I went to the stand and bought all the raspberries that they had. It was about a flat and a half. I won't tell you how much I paid for them though. (Dusty about died) I took a few days to get it done. The first day, I washed and got them packaged. Then this weekend with the help of my sister and the support of Dusty, I finished it up.

The fresh raspberries. They smelled so good!
Washing them
Letting them dry
Packaging them up
Mixing it all together. I love the bright color
Filling the jars
The finished product! It made much more, but some of it is already in the freezer.
Dusty made some bread and we have been eating it with the raspberry jam.
It turned out great, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.
I just am feeling more domestic every day. hahaha

Homemade Apple Pie

On Sunday Shayla decided that she wanted to make dinner for some people and I told her that I would make dessert. I was just going to make easy apple crisp, but Dusty had gotten some apples from his parents' house and suggested that I make apple pie with the fresh apples. I am thinking to myself "I did this in high school, I can totally do it again." But at the same time I was really nervous because Shayla's sister Sharlyn (who is going to culinary school) was coming for dinner and that is like having a chef critique your work. Scary! So I got up Sunday morning and while watching conference I started the pie. I made the pie crust first and it wasn't too bad. Dusty helped me by peeling the apples and I made apple pie from scratch! And that night after dinner we tried it, and everyone liked it! I was relieved! This is the only pic that I took. I forgot to get one of the finished project. But this made me decide that I am going to try to be a little more domestic, and I will keep you posted how that goes. Thanks honey for the great suggestion and helping me out. You are awesome!

Jumping Jacks

So last night Dusty and I along with Tia and the kids went to Jumping Jacks. We had a blast. Dust wasn't able to play with us because he hurt his ankle pretty bad last week playing basketball but he was a great photographer and watching the kids. We all had so much fun!

All four of us going down one of the slides
Dusty and Kira. Kira is always smiling, but as soon as the camera comes out she always looks away and won't look at your until you put the camera down.
But she loves her Uncle Dusty and has been his bud while they have been here.

Trae was getting really brave, and was going down slides by himself. He did all of them but the biggest one. What a stud!!!
This is Kira just hanging out. While we would wait for Trae and Tia to come down a slide so would just sprawl out and roll around.

Go Tia!!! She was doing crazy things as she would go down!

Classic Kira!

Trying to get into mom's bag and find anything that she can get her hands on!

Tia and Trae going down the biggest slide! Trae would just laugh the whole way down

Tia and the kids. They were jumping and attacking her

We had a great time and Trae wanted to go back as soon as he got up this morning. We will just have to see what we can do about that! We have had so much fun with Tia and the kids and we are so glad that they came and stayed with us. Love you guys!