Anyone know how to avoid the new Blogger fees?

I've been attempting to publish the last 4 1/2 years of this blog into a book or actually 2 books (1 of 2008-2010 & one of 2011-2012) as my sister sent me a 20% off plus free shipping deal from a site she has printed before.  This will rid me somewhat of the guilt I have for not being a better journaler/scrapbooker over the years.  But, as I was attempting to add a few photos to some posts that I had slideshows on (which obviously don't print), I was informed that I'd reached my 1 GB of storage in Picassa Web Albums.  Apparently you have to pay $2.49 a month for 25 times that much storage (which at the moment seems a little bit ridiculous) or maybe you can upload photos to Google +, where you have unlimited storage.  Does anyone do that?  Anyway, just wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to avoid the fees, keep your blog going, & not make the process too complicated :).  Does any of this even make sense to anyone?  I probably just need to upload less pictures or use a lower resolution as my friends suggested in the future and delete older years of posts in order to avoid the fee.  But, boy my kids would miss having it all on the blog for super easy access to the last 4 1/2 years!  Oh decisions!

Trunk-or-Treat 2012

Life has been a little crazy lately with sick kiddos, a trip to Texas, family visiting, etc. etc., so I have some catching up to do!  But, let's start with Halloween.  We aren't real big into dressing up for Halloween at our house.  Our kids love dressing up and we actually have our kids' costumes in their dress up box in the basement and they love dressing up often.  I remember one year when we decided to do a family Toy Story theme.  That ended in a tantrum (someone changed their mind once they saw all the pretty princesses at the party) that lasted the whole entire party and really put a damper on our family's mood.  I got some pretty good pictures that showed the kids' moods that year - posted in November of 2009.  So, ever since then, we keep things simple around here!  I've even toyed with the idea of taking extra costumes for in the car.  Drew was Spider-man this year, the girls were witches (they loved these matching outfits from our Witch Fest), and our neighbor let us use this darling little lion costume for Nathan.  Somehow, Andy convinced me 5 minutes before we had to go to the neighborhood trunk-or-treat that we should wear our old matching firefighter shirts (that I found on clearance for a dollar or two when we were first married) and put a bunch of yucky black make-up on to look like we had been fighting fires.  Of course everyone wondered what we were.  Kassi even thought I was a duck because we had gloves sticking out of our back pockets?!?  People asked Andy if he was a chimney sweep or a coal miner.  ;)!

 This cute little "good" witch decided to wash the table and the amount of water left behind required a lot of drying!  It was fun to watch her be a good little helper when she is typically going around singing her "I'm a mean old witch with a hat" song.  I should post that for any of you who haven't had the privilege to see.  It is adorable if you ask me.

Nathan was the only sad one that night - and thankfully that only lasted 5 or 10 minutes when we first got his costume on.  I guess I didn't prepare him well enough.

 When the girls saw me face painting a spider on Drew, they decided they needed a spider too.

 Nathan was a very cowardly lion at first, but a very happy lion once the candy started coming!

 Oh so cool Spiderman Drew!

 And, one hot fire fighter (if you ask me)!

 Jesi decorated a little bag with her name, a broom, a hat & some bats!  She apparently thought she'd get a decent amount of candy with her little brown lunch sack.

 Kassi on the other hand was counting on a whole backpack full of candy!  She does have a sweet tooth - which unfortunately would explain her recent dental appointment.

 We couldn't resist a picture of our little lamb with Kassi's little friend sheep.

 A few of our good friends in the neighborhood.

 One of our kids' favorite babysitters.  Our little witch decided to be shy and cover her face with her hat!

This hand moved - I think it scared me more than the kids!

 This motor home was too cute - about as cute as these buddies!

 My sister had this great, simple way to decorate her van like a monster.  I was all about simple this year!

 We enjoyed spending time with our old neighbors that moved a couple miles away back in August.  They joined us for the trunk-or-treat and a little bit of trick-or-treating afterwards.  We swapped this ninja costume for Nathan's lion costume.

 Drew may have left a trail of candy for other people with his bag!  He had a giant grocery sack though!  I think he and Kassi think alike!

 We discovered that some nearby neighbors make their own cotton candy for trick-or-treaters, so that will for sure be a tradition from here on out!  If you want to join us next year, let us know!!!

 Another tradition will surely be visiting Drew's 4th grade teacher down the street (who we are SO grateful for) who has this amazing jack-o-lantern that lights up and changes colors and could entertain the kids for hours!  I was a little embarrassed because as we were chatting, Kassi ripped off a piece of mostly dead, dried flowers behind her and fed it to the pumpkin witch!  This is the only picture I got of the kids actually trick-or-treating because the older kids were too fast!!!  It was a fun filled Halloween.  I am sad to say that we were planning on painting pumpkins that afternoon before the trunk-or-treat and they are still sitting on my front porch unpainted!!!  I'm toying with the idea of still doing it this week - but we shall see! 

First Annual Witchapalooza!!!

 My very talented Mother just celebrated her 60th birthday this past week!!!  She has always amazed me with her ability to decorate and make her home look beautiful.  I wish I could say I had half of her talent!  Honestly, I have no confidence whatsoever when it comes to decorating and I am too cheap to spend money on decorations, unless of course I spend pennies on them at a yard sale.  So, my family loves the special times when we are invited to spend time with my mom and visit her beautiful home.  This year we started what we hope will be a tradition of having a luncheon (I forgot to include the picture of the cute "uncrustable" ghost and pumpkin sandwiches that Mom and Nicole made) and going to Gardner Village's Witchapalooza.  It was SO much fun.  We just wish all the girls in our family lived close and could have joined us!!!

My first big scare of the day was ringing the doorbell and hearing Nicole (my beautiful, dramatic sister pictured below) scream out of the intercom.  She knows how jumpy I am - I never fail to entertain her with my reaction.

 On our way to join the witches at Gardner Village!  The next pictures are of us on the "Ride to a Witch Haride" which the girls both agreed was their favorite part of the festival.  My mom said she was handing me our "tickets" to get on the hayride and anyone that knows me could guess my response when I look down right as she drops them in my hand and they are HUGE COCKROACHES!!!  Ha ha.  I screamed and jerked away and sadly probably scared a few people around us - not sure if they were scared of my scream or scared of the crazy lady who would be riding with them!  I scare myself sometimes!

 We visited "Cricket Hollow Swamp" where one witch gave us a tour of her home and shared all of the disgusting details of her life with us.  All of the witches had stories about boogers and the kids thought it was hilarious.  I just hope they didn't get any ideas :)!

 This last witches were all SO funny!  This last witch told us all about her night spa and then had the kids visit the cockroach graveyard :)?!?  She was the 3rd person to make me practically scream!  She was attempting to get the kids to give their best witches cackle.  They weren't quite doing it the way she thought they should, so she demonstrated without my realizing what a demonstration it would be.  She was LOUD and GOOD and it SCARED us!!!  Ha ha.  It was pretty funny.

 And, here are a few more pictures from the fun filled time at Gardner Village:

Stacy and two of her cute girlies.

Two more cute young girls!!!

Three of the five "McConkie Sisters"!  Nicole loves the movie Hocus Pocus, so she thinks we should be called the "Sanderson Sisters" which has been my Mom's last name the last few years :).

 If you can't read the sign, this is the "Witchy Poo".  Too funny.  Anyway, we hope this really will be a yearly tradition and look forward to next year!!!  On our way home from our outing my Mom of course sent the kids home with a bag of candy and out of the blue, when were were just about home, Kassi loudly exclaims, "I don't want to go home!  Grandma's house is so much fun.  She has LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of candy!!!"  Thank you, Mom, for all that you do and for taking the time to make this fun new tradition with us.  We love you with all of our hearts!  Happy Halloween and Happy Belated 60th Birthday!!!

Nathan is Two!!!

Wow, I have turned into one of those emotional moms!!!  My youngest baby is 2 years old and has grown up way too fast!  My sister-in-law took the above awesome pictures along with some other family pictures last weekend up the canyon.  It was beautiful and she did a wonderful job.  If you look closely, you will see Nathan's black fingers.  He was loving throwing these rocks over his shoulders and he had a bit of a black bum as well from sitting on the railroad tracks.  That just made these pictures all the more natural - since Nathan loves to play in the dirt.  Next thing I know, my little Nathan will be packed up and ready to go to college!  Of course, that is how he looked the morning of his 2nd birthday (in the pictures below)!  He begs for my phone most of the day - and ALWAYS when it rings or I'm on the phone, which makes it very difficult to make phone calls, unless he is down for a nap.  They really need to have phones that are like real cell phones to entertain this boy so that I don't have to worry about him throwing it if something doesn't go right!!!  

I have tried and tried to download pictures from my phone for this post and it just hasn't worked since we had to change my passwords due to some crazy situation where videos from my phone kept getting uploaded to facebook!  I thought Nathan was the culprit, but apparently my phone was doing it on it's own because over a dozen videos were uploaded to facebook while he was sound asleep.  So, sorry Nathan for thinking you would ever do something like that :)!

Your Daddy and I and your siblings sure love you, Nathan!  From the moment you wake up to the moment it is time for bed, you fill our lives with excitement.  You have so much natural wonder and curiosity about the world around you and it is so fun to see your eyes light up when you make a new discovery!  I love the way you pucker up your lips when we ask you to, or you want to give me a kiss.  I love the way you get SO excited when you see a football or see that a football game is on tv or on the computer!  I love the way you fit perfectly when you put your head on my shoulder and wrap your arms around me when I sing, "I am a Child of God" anytime you are going down for a nap or bedtime and how you always finish the song with the word, "Day" in your oh so cute little voice.  You even do the same for Daddy when he puts you to bed, even though he likes to make you laugh by singing silly.  I love how you are starting to speak in sentences, so that we can get a glimpse into what you are thinking.  Your new sentence at lunch time yesterday was, "I want eggs."  That was very helpful to know!  You also just learned "What's that noise?" and I love the way you say "noise"!!!  You love airplanes, ants, animals, wrestling, somersaults on the trampoline, leading the music with both hands, Daddy & siblings coming home, playing at the park and swinging really high for a very long time, helping Mommy bake, clean, & sweep, coloring pictures, reading stories, dancing (or squatting with an arm swing), and running everywhere there might be an adventure or a favorite person waiting!  

Your favorite foods are pizza, pasta, french toast, eggs, watermelon, strawberries, grapes, tomatoes, yogurt, chicken, meat, ice cream, cookies, and most everything else.  You are a pretty good little eater and we have so much fun watching you eat your food!  You are  now 2 going on 16 and we know the time will fly by way too fast.  Many of the arguments among your siblings begin with who gets to play with/carry/help Nathan with this or that.  You are so very loved and we just can't get enough of you.  

Most of all, I love how you love and trust so perfectly in us.  Your beautiful blue eyes melt our hearts.  I love kissing your warm cheeks when you wake up and holding you while we read a story or sing a song when you are sad.  I love playing outside and working in the garden with you by my side, playing in the dirt and exploring the world around you.  I love how you are so good to help me focus on what is important.  Sometimes I get so focused on seemingly insurmountable tasks that need done that day, only to find you begging for my undivided attention.  When I stop what I'm doing to hold and love you, I am never disappointed.  Your sweet spirit warms my soul and makes me want to be the mother that you deserve.  I know that you bless my life so much more than I bless yours and I am so grateful for the gift of having you in our family.  We recently read an old short story about a girl who had never known her birthday or what birthdays were all about.  When a woman gave her some money and told her to go buy some gifts, she went to the store and bought gifts for all of her family and the kind woman who had wanted to help her have a good birthday.  That little girl had a wonderful birthday because she was able to give gifts to those she loved.  Her new friend and others who witnessed her joy on her birthday then made it a tradition to give gifts to others on their birthday.  That story reminds me of you.  You would have been completely happy without any gifts for your birthday and your favorite gift was actually a wrapped up marble works toy from when Drew was a toddler, but you share your gifts with others so willingly and you are truly a gift to all who know you.  Thank you for sharing your gifts - your time, your love, and all that you are with us, Nathan.  We sure love every little bit of you from your wiggly toes to your strawberry blonde head.   

We didn't do anything too exciting for your birthday, but you didn't complain!  We started your day out with some yogurt which is one of your favorite foods.  Somehow we talked you into a kissy face too!  I have a little video that I tried to download as well as some pictures of our outing to McDonalds.  I can't believe how you had 4 teeth and then all of a sudden, you had a full mouthful of them!!!

I read recently that a good mom lets you lick the beaters.  A great mom remembers to unplug them first!  You helped me make the frosting for your cupcakes and you were even more helpful licking off the chocolaty beaters!  It was so fun watching your different methods!

More!?!

One of your new favorite things is coloring your face.  Your sisters call it face painting and I have learned to hide the non-washable markers from you and your sisters!  So, it was only appropriate that we enjoyed some face painting on your birthday!

You also love being outside and one of your favorite activities this summer has been picking and eating tomatoes.  You are very accepting and have no prejudices about the color of the tomatoes skins!  But, I think you do prefer the taste of the red and orange cherry tomatoes over the green ones.

You were so excited that we were able to have our old neighbors over the night of your birthday for a little homemade pizza party!  We were missing an ingredient and it just took longer than planned as you can see by the lack of sun, but you guys didn't complain because you had your friends to play with!!!  Even since our friends moved away, you still look over at their house and say, "Samuel!"  You loved the pizza so much that I found you scavengering around the picnic table eating everyone's leftovers before I realized that you wanted seconds!  I guess I've taught you well to clean off your plate - I just didn't expect you to clean off everyone else's plates!

You looked like quite the king on your throne when you moved the bar stool over to the table.  It was pretty cute!  We decided to use these polka dotted wrappers for your cupcakes because you LOVE dots!  You always point to each one and say, "DOT! DOT! DOT!"  The girls are always making pictures for you with plenty of dots to keep you entertained.  And, the kids wanted to use marshmallows for decorating because they look like dots too!  But, you ate your first cupcake too fast to see that part!

You loved this new book that G-ma and G-pa Walker sent you.  It has a moon that glows and you like to have it in your crib every night with the moon glowing as you go to sleep!  You also loved the new soft and comfy jammies they sent you!  You look pretty handsome in the new outfit, but I haven't taken any pictures of you in it yet.

You were very excited to watch the BYU game on your birthday.  Our internet isn't very fast, so that was frustrating at times, but we put you to bed around 9 pm, an hour past your bedtime and you cheered on those Cougs from your crib until 10:30 at night!  You were a true BYU fan!!!  It was pretty darn cute if you ask me!  Again, I have pictures of you with Dad watching the game, but they are on the phone and aren't uploading.

The next day, you got to eat cupcakes too.  You were pretty happy & pretty cute as usual!!!

Daddy cut your hair a couple weeks before your birthday right before I taught a Relief Society lesson on a beautiful talk given April 2012 by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/the-merciful-obtain-mercy?lang=eng&query=merciful+obtain+mercy.  Miraculously I got through the whole lesson with a couple minutes to spare and was able to share a thought I had had about you during the sacrament that morning.  I mentioned that I was so sad when Daddy chopped your hair off, for 2 reasons.  First, because you have beautiful hair and I hated to see it go.  Second, because you remind me of the little Jewish boy on the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas".  Your Dad and I just watched that movie a few months ago and it is SOOO sad.  But, it taught a powerful lesson about how important it is that we realize that when we allow hate to enter our hearts, it has very real and very sad consequences that effect not only us, but those that we love.  The father in this movie thinks that his family is safe and unaffected by his willingness to allow the Jews to be mistreated and killed in a nearby concentration camp.  He ends up losing his son (who was trying to help his new little friend on the other side of the fence find his missing father) in the same horrific way that he thought would only effect the Jews.  So, every time I see you with this short hair cut, I think of how important it is to love and show mercy to all around us, despite our differences, as our Heavenly Father and Savior love us.  You are such a perfect little example of unconditional love and we love you so much.  You have touched us so much with your sweet, loving spirit.  Happy Belated Birthday, little precious guy!!!