Halloween 2

Our school celebrated the holiday by having it be wacky tacky hair day. My nephew had done something similar with his hair, so I talked Xander into doing it.  For Eliza, I wasn't sure what to do and then we thought of this web hair with spiders.  It all turned out pretty cool!

 For dinner we did a Halloween-ie roast!  We lit up the fire and every one joined in. I provided our dinner in a pumpkin and other brought yummy things to add. 

 The neighborhood gang

 Vi & her friends! She wanted to go Trick-or-treating with her friends this year so we let her go with their family and we took their son.  Half way through Violet & Eliza couldn't keep up so Mr. Johnson took my girls while Mrs. Johnson took theirs.  Hahaha. 

Abby & I stayed home and passed out candy. It was a quiet year...we had very few trick or treaters.  I have TONS of extra candy.  Maybe next year!

Pumpkin Parties!

We procrastinated BIG time with our pumpkins this year.  I thought that by doing so we'd only have tiny ugly ones left...I was WRONG.  We only had HUGE ones to pick through--our smallest one was 18lbs and the largest one was 26lbs.  Each kid drew what they wanted on the pumpkin and we worked on it together.    Xander drew a very elaborate ninjago ninja and Ben did a fabulous job free-handing it.  Eliza did a fun drawing with fancy fire eyelashes and for Violet's we just asked her to tell her what shapes she wanted where.  They all turned out beautiful and we had LOTS of fun carving.

Finished products:

Busy Bees Field Trip

Vi's preschool group had a field trip to our local pumpkin patch so Abby got to tag a long.  It was a great morning learning about animals, how plants grow, and picking pumpkins.  So thankful this got organized so my little girls could have their chance at going to a pumpkin patch!  :)

Halloween 1

Our church had a Trunk or Treat a week before Halloween and look who I got to dress up?  Well, actually the kids did.  They keep asking Ben what he was going to be...so he dug out his ref clothes and then handed me his soccer clothes...so cute! 

 Xander & his friend Jack!

 Abby Cadabby

Ready for the parade!

 Angel

I entered a pot of chili into the mix to be judged--I one "Most Unusual".  Not sure what that means--I used good old Betty Crockers recipe...hmmmmmmm.  The winning chili was one with cream cheese.  Now, that IS unusual!

LOVE

I may have been late to work but at least everyone was HAPPY and we looked like a PERFECT family :)

Sickos

It all started with this one:

And then this one:

After a full week of sickness, we are all healthy once again.  It was a miserable week with lots of unexpected craziness.  I totally freaked out with the amount of diarrhea Abby put out and panicked even more after reading stuff online so I rushed her to urgent care only to be told it was nothing to worry about.  We thought we were in the clear with everyone by Tuesday so we were hanging out with a friend at Trader Joes when all of a sudden I feel something hit my feet.  Bewildered, I look around and see throw up and think--oh poor kid! I wonder whose kid is sick. (Seriously that's what I thought).  Then I realized I was the only one in that aisle.  AHH!  Violet had puked all over all my produce--everything I was buying to make dinner for the missionaries at our church. :/  Trader joes didn't miss a beat...they helped clean everything up, discarded the vomited covered produce and replaced it with clean fresh items.  seriously WOW!  Then she didn't vomit for well over 24 hours so I was all set to send her to preschool when it hit again.  It got really bad from there for a few hours and then was fine and then reverted the next morning. I guess she had morning sickness--she threw up every morning and then was happy and energetic all day long.  Whatever it was so glad its over!

Oh but wait, there's more.  Several days after Vi had been well again she came running to me saying her feet were hurting. I said, you are fine, keep playing :) (I was cleaning out the toy closet)  She persisted.  So I looked and realized she was covered in hives! Her hands and feet were bright red and swollen.  I called the Doctor and he said to bring her in.  We got there and we were trying to figure out what was going on when I mentioned that she'd had the flu.  The Doctor said, "WOW, then this is the 3rd time I've seen someone who had a flu and then broke out in hives." So weird!  Nothing we could do but put her on some benedryl for a day. 

Weekend Job

Our good friends asked us if we could watch their dog, Abby for a couple days.  Our Abby is terrified of dogs but I have been wanting to help her overcome that so I found that this was the perfect opportunity.  Abby (the dog) is really old and slow so I was hoping our Abby would get comfortable with her.  My evil plan worked!

So long as our Abby got to come to the dog, not the dog coming to her, we were happy and content.  We really had fun with this dog but I'm re-thinking our preparedness for one.  We still have a lot of work to get done in the backyard before we can have a dog because we don't want the nasty weeds getting in their hair but the kids are certainly ready and willing to try!  If only life were that simple...

Apple Hill 2013

The kids had a 4-day weekend and I have to admit i LOVED it!  Having a Friday off is way better than having a Monday!  seriously!  Since Ben was finally home we begged him to take a half of day off so we could do a family trip to Apple Hill.  So Friday morning we woke up and rode bikes to the park (where we had invited a TON of friends) and played there for a couple hours before we went.  We had a BLAST!  We went to Pine-o-Mine and Rainbow Orchards.  I'm starting to feel really pathetic because I have lived here my whole life and haven't ever really ventured out from the farms I'm used to. I have repented though and I collected a few maps and I am going to start visiting the different farms now...I PROMISE.  Apple Hill is such a unique and fabulous place though and I feel so blessed to live so close.  Such a fun family day trip!

Proud Mommy Moment

Ben has been traveling a bunch again. He was gone for a full 4-days last week.  Getting every one ready for school on those days is REALLY tricky because I still want my morning time--I wake up at 6AM (or earlier) every morning right now to have some quiet time to myself to read Scriptures and exercise.  It's not a lot of time but it is necessary ME time.  Anyways, I've had a lot of friends come out lately about how they yell and all I can say is THANK YOU for making me feel more normal.  Our house is no different--why?  Because my kids don't listen unless I use an angry, loud voice.  I don't know why it is, that's just the way it is.  We are working on it.  Maybe I should dock their pay each time I have to raise my voice?  But then I have to follow through...

Anyways!  Wednesday mornings are particularly difficult because Xander has to be at school 45min earlier.  So we really have to wake up and get going.  I was really nervous about how it would go but felt so blessed when I came downstairs from my shower to find Xander & Eliza making their lunches, fully dressed!  It was a huge help and I was gushing with praise!  It was fabulous!

Ready to be a big girl

We love to be outside!

Fall is here! It is AWESOME!  We are outside as much as possible.  I'm finally grateful for our swings & tramp.  But now I need bout $10,000 to finish my yard so that we can really enjoy this place! :) Anyone??