Happy Halloween from the Whipple Family!

I absolutely love Halloween! There is nothing more fun than getting to dress up and be somebody else for one night. I especially love seeing all of the trick or treaters and their super cute costumes. I hope your Halloween has been super fun!

I've got to brag for a second, I have the best mom ever! Last Sunday she hosted an awesome Halloween party for her friends. She made a bunch of party favors and a wonderful dinner.

 Party Favors.

She handmade all the tags, stamp and everything.

These are the candies we made. I was pretty excited about how well they turned out.

Tiny  gifts for all the women who came. It had a cute little Halloween sign with a cute Halloween towel.

The welcome table

Dinner Menu.

A fun game to win a very special bottle of Witch's Potion!

Dinner! The Snake Sandwiches didn't ended up looking like snakes, but they were delicious.

The dessert was by far the best part of the night! With an oreo crust, creamcheese filling, orange jello, and whipped cream how could it not be good!

My mom put hours into this party and it was so much fun! I really appreciate all the hard work she puts into things like this. I love her passion for every holiday, especially Halloween.

But, the best part of Halloween is dressing up my animals! All I had for Clover was collar with bells on it. She does not appreciate it. Every time I put it on her she runs around the house like a maniac trying to ninja it off. I laugh so hard I cry. 

She eventually gives up and falls asleep.

Nathan and I were a nerdy tourist and a hula girl. So of course Addi had to be a hula girl too!

She is such a good and patient dog! She wore that hula skirt all night. The best thing about this costume is when I make her dance, she looks like a hula dancer. I'll have to post a video of it soon, it's so funny! Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky to have such a fun dog!

Last laugh: My mom bought Addi a tutu for Halloween and I took it to her house for the Halloween party. I couldn't resist dressing her two grownup boy kitties in it! I laughed so hard!

They are probably two of the sexiest cats you will ever see.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Sometimes Life Sucks... But it Always Gets Better

I do realize that it's been forever sense my last post, but life has really gotten in the way the past three weeks. 

First of all, Nathan and I caught an absolutely awful cold. We were sick for over two weeks with a cough, fatigue, and sinus issues. It was lovely.

Second, Nathan didn't start his new job at O'Reilly's until last Thursday. It's been really tight financially at our house, but we've worked through it. A close friend of mine told me that he heard a talk about being a struggling newlywed from somebody in the church (an apostle or something, I don't remember the exact details). In the talk he said (I'm paraphrasing here) at this time in your life when you are a young family struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table, THIS is when you will grow as a couple the most. I can't explain enough how right that speaker was. This experience has helped Nathan and I so much. I know it sounds crazy because I'm saying I'm thankful for this hard time, but I really am. Nathan and I have really learned what's important and what's not, what we really can live off of, and how to budget. It's truly been an invaluable lesson.

Lastly, this one is a little more sad. We had a tragic accident happen to our family and we now only have one cat. Clover is an only child now. It was really awful and sad, we loved that little black furball.

The great thing about life is that it will suck for awhile, but it always gets better. Nathan finally started back at O'Reilly's, school has been going well, and it's almost Halloween! Fall is still beautiful here in Cache Valley, but it did snow last night. Everyone has been complaining about it, but I love winter and snow! So I took some pictures!

This was the look from out my window this morning.  I was so excited!

Then I went out to the car and found this. The tree had so much snow it that it was bowed down far enough to be on the car.







I, of course, had to take more pictures of the snow and fall leaves...

When I got on campus I saw the most beautiful bush and I had to take picture of it too...

The leaves are so pink!

Last two thoughts: 

1) It was a year ago tomorrow that Nathan and I got engaged. I can't believe that was a year ago! I loved my wedding and I don't regret anything, but I am so glad that I don't have to do that again. Weddings are a lot of hard work. 

2) Here's a picture of our Clover-cat, she's gotten so big! She loves Nathan very much.

 

Fall at the Family Farm and Shaming Addi

Today I went on a drive up the mountain with my mom and grandpa. I absolutely love Idaho in the fall! I love it even more up on my great-grandpa's farm. His land borders National Forest and it is absolutely beautiful. So I took lots of pictures of the mountain today!

So there's this website called Dog Shaming. It basically consists of pictures of dogs with an explanation of something bad they did below them. I absolutely love it! It makes me appreciate the good dog I have. I submitted a picture to the website and I hope it makes it on!

 

Start of Somethings New

First of all, YAY IT'S FINALLY OCTOBER! October is my favorite month of the year. I love everything about it! I mostly love that it's still warm enough to ride my horse and chilly enough for a sweater. I love that it's full of anticipation for the holidays, yet it's before the craziness begins. But, my favorite part is the last day, HALLOWEEN! Halloween is my most favorite holiday of the year. I don't like creepy-gorey-gross-Halloween. I like fun and cutesy, carved pumpkins, trick-or-treaters, hot apple cider, black cats, jump-into-a-giant-pile-of-leaves-Halloween. And who doesn't love to dress up and pretend to be someone/something else for a night? Nathan hates Halloween, but he'll come around, he always does :)
Funny side note: Nathan laughs at me because, up here in the frozen tundra, all Halloween costumes have to be modified so that the children don't freeze. I guess in Hiko, NV there's no such thing as "freezing."

Foward and onward with news!

Nathan and I have had a crazy past couple of weeks. So here's an update for the fam.

Big changes came to our home the past week. On Friday, Nathan quit his job at Valley Implement. We just weren't making enough money with him working there. His boss also wasn't the nicest guy ever, so it wasn't too heartbreaking for him to quit. Not to worry, Nathan wouldn't quit without having a backup plan. He starts back at O'Reilly's tomorrow or Friday. He's excited to have a more reliable, better paying job. 

On Saturday, instead of going to that killer USU game, we were at the Ag. Days BBQ. It was really quite fantastic, we got free dinner, free corn, and free Gossners milk! Who doesn't love Gossners milk?!

One day I saw this funny thing on the internet and I decided to do it to Addi.

EYEBROWS!

 

 Then I added a mustache, it's so funny, I'm still laughing! For Halloween I'm going to make her a cape and then she can be the evil villain "Browser the Cat Food Stealer"

Also, I this past week made apricot leather. I hate buying the stuff in the store, but now I have my own homemade fruit roll-up! I don't think I can share with Nathan.

Tomorrow I have a TON of apples to can. I'll be making apple butter, applesauce, apple crisp filling, and cinnamon red-hot apple slices. I'm also drying some apples. Then I'll be done canning for the year!

 Addi is ready for Halloween, she has a super cute Halloween scarf!

She also loves her Daddy very much!

Addi seem to think that my pumpkin decorations are to be used for fetch. Silly dog. Good thing she's cute.

 Nathan has finally come around to the kittens. He loves them now!

But how could he not love these cute little faces?

Roxie was not happy with my decision to take pictures while she was trying to sleep.


The kittens are getting so big! Clover and Roxie are finally the size they should have been when we first got them. Now they're super cute "commercial" kittens, like the kittens you see in commercials that are so adorable you want to go out a buy a kitten right away.

Our three happy children! (The kittens don't like their picture taken.)

 Nathan took the picture, or else he would be in it too. Then it would be a family picture! Maybe we'll have to do a "family photo" and send out Christmas Cards! Nathan just said he'd rather be shot than do that because people will think we're even crazier than we already are.