Halloween Party

We had our Halloween Party tonight at our house. Our kids were able to go and play with Andy's cousins that are their age during the party. Andy's aunt called this afternoon and I had to double and triple check with her that she could still watch them, but she was just calling to invite the kids to eat dinner with them and asked if I could bring their pajamas for a pajama party and if they could wear their costumes. I asked her if she wanted to give them bathes too! Of course you can feed them. It was great!
Andy is a character from Tron. Tron is a Disney movie (most of it is computer generated) from the '80's.
I was a cowgirl. Kind of boring this year, but I did find some cheap boots that don't fit me well. Anybody wear a size 8-8 1/2 and want some boots?
David and Connie. David is such a nerd. :) Connie had some crazy hair with kitchen utensils in it and a flashy cool ring. Her daughter helped her get her costume ready.
Our friend Nathan (dressed as his computer complete with worms, spam, bugs, and viruses) brought another guy we know named Ryan (who is wearing a Scottish kilt. He served his mission in Scotland). Who's under the hood? One of Andy's friends from the branch, Steve.Sherry and Mike are Olivia's teachers at church. Sherry is a flapper (and her daughter Olivia's age is going to be one tomorrow too!) and Mike is his younger self. He hadn't been freshly shaven for a decade. Several people told him that he looked like one of his sons. He didn't seem to take it as a compliment, which is strange because he made him. He said he never noticed that his son was so good-looking before.Becky with her husband Alex and baby Carter. Prince, Princess, and the Frog Prince.
Carrie and Brian. Carrie is a gypsy and Brian was a demon with wings, but Carrie called the wings fairy wings, so he didn't wear those in. He's NO fairy! He's wearing red contacts too.Heidi and Landon with hidden baby, William. They are tired parents of a newborn.Jim and Lori. Jim is a vampire and Lori is a witch. A very nice vampire and witch, that is!Kim and Aaron. Kim is Sleeping Beauty. She wore her slippers. Aaron is comfortable. He wore camel-hair slippers.
Melissa and Joe were Jean and Gene. They were old blue "Jeans".Alf (Kent) and Cleopatra (Laurie). He really only wore the mask for a few minutes because he couldn't see or breathe under it.
We played Guitar Hero, Apples to Apples, Uno, Catch Phrase, and enjoyed plenty (too much left!) of good food and fun friends!
Just so you know what else you missed. Better plan on coming next time! Hoagies, veggies, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies with homemade frosting, pretzels, and licorice. One of our friends brought a pizza and another brought more pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.Our party was only planned to last until 10pm, but most of our friends ended up staying until 11pm. I cleaned up and put all the yummy food away while Andy went to pick up the kids. They barely got to bed by midnight. I sure hope they can sleep in on Halloween morning. Luckily, we don't have anywhere to go until noon. And then, we are non-stop until bedtime, but it will be fun and really no different than most days, like today. Man, was I busy! I got the house all ready the day before, but I helped at the school counting money for a fundraiser for three hours and then hurried to pick up Olivia and Vincent before dropping something off at a friend's house, rushing to the bank, going grocery shopping, and hurrying to the school to get Elizabeth. Unfortunately, I kind of dropped the ball on the getting Elizabeth from school at the time school gets out (the kids get out 2 hours early every Friday too.) I didn't make it out of the grocery store until five minutes after I was supposed to pick her up, so I was going as fast as allowed to pick her up when I ran into another school's release time on a busy streetlight corner. The kids would cross on our side and then cross the way I wanted to turn left (and I started out seventh in line). The traffic backed up and each cycle would only let one car turning left through. I waited very impatiently and worried-like for my turn. I knew Elizabeth would freak out if I wasn't there. Finally after ten minutes sitting around, I finally had a turn! I used to think our roads around are school are crowded, but now I know that ours are FABULOUS! I picked Elizabeth up 15 minutes late and she seemed okay, but she was in the office waiting for me. She told me one of her classmates called me to see where I was and they called Andy too. This is when a cell phone would be SO handy! (Yes, I'm one of the thousand adults in the country who don't have a cell phone. Andy has one through work, so it doesn't make a lot of sense to get just one for a plan and we are trying to save money.) We got her anyway after much frustration. Then we went to the post office to mail a few baby gifts and home to finish setting up the house and hiding all the toys in a different room and putting away the groceries, etc. before the party. It was all so worth it to have such a great party with fun friends though. Tomorrow will be great too!
This is the picture I found in the hallway of Elizabeth's school that she "published". Is says: "I saw___(forgot what word she said that was) of buffaloes in the car. We saw over 100 buffaloes!"

Harvest Hoedown

The first graders at Elizabeth's school have a Harvest Hoedown each year. Tonight was it.
It was pretty fun since it didn't feel too weird to try to dress up cowboy-ish for a night right before Halloween.
(I'm going to apologize again for never being able to narrow pictures down. I guess I already did delete all the bad shots, so I'm left with mostly good ones to choose from here. Sorry.)
Andy dancing with Elizabeth. The kids learned a do-si-do dance that she showed him a few nights ago and told him she'd pick him to dance with.
While they waited for the music to begin, Elizabeth was standing like this with her hands folded behind her back. She acts like that is a comfortable stance. How strange. Now, you have to try it. You know you want to. Is it comfortable? Wait, maybe it's not much worse than hands on the hips. I might need to try it some more...

Olivia and Vincent watching the show.
The kids were getting pretty excited about the first grade hoedown before Andy got home. Olivia just asked Elizabeth to "teach me the hoe dance." I'm pretty sure I don't want her dancing that way...Therefore, she was a wallflower instead.Elizabeth showed us the scarecrow that she colored in class. Eating our haystack cookies. The kids made them in class. Elizabeth said they used the teacher's crockpot. They also announced that the kids had clean hands. Um, yeah, I sure hope so!
Me and my girls eating our snacks. Andy hung out with Vincent by the stroller avoiding the food battle with him, but also took some cute shots of Vincent.Here's all three kids in the picture posing spot. I can never manage a really great picture with all three looking the same direction at the same time, so I've kind of given up a little, especially when there is so much to look at on either side of me.
I baked SO many cookies today and after the hoedown, we went and picked up the rest of the refreshments for the Adult Halloween Costume Party Friday night at our house (7pm-10pm).

Halloween at Ballet

The girls were able to dress up at ballet this week in their Halloween costumes so here is a preview of their outfits.
Olivia's class was on Tuesday. She wanted to be a fairy mermaid like the fairy mermaid in Barbie Fairytopia Mermaidia (if you only have boys or tiny girls and don't know about the Barbie movies, watch out!) Luckily, my awesome mom made a mermaid costume for Elizabeth two years ago when she was Ariel (from The Little Mermaid-I was Ursula). We added fairy wings from the dollar store and we were done! Oh, and then we went to the mall and found bows for each of them to wear in their hair too.I took this picture of her taking her turn across the studio right after her tail fell down. Then I called her out to safety pin the top up. She's too skinny for it!Elizabeth wanted the wings when we went to the store too, so she changed her mind about being a cowgirl (which was good since that's MY costume!) and decided to be an orange fairy. I found an orange shirt and shorts/skort at Goodwill and made a little tutu for her.No one else in her class dressed up. It was strange. Every other year all the kids dress up. I'm not sure if they all forgot or just didn't want to bother with it or if they didn't have everything together for their costumes. Anyway, so Elizabeth is in her bright orange outfit and the rest of the girls in the class are wearing their white leotards and white or light pink tutus. She's always the one who stands out. I don't think she cared. She likes all the attention. She was letting them all play with her tutu and wings.
Tonight is the First Grade Harvest Hoedown, so I'll probably post some cute pictures of Elizabeth's do-si-do with Andy.

Halloween Party Friday Night

You are invited to Ransom’s 3rd Annual
Adult Halloween Costume Party

We will have treats, games, and prizes!

Friday, October 30, 2009
7:00pm-10:00pm
Andy and NaDell Ransom’s home

Call me (or email) if you have any questions.

A little funny

Last week while I helped at the Book Fair at the school, a kindergartner girl bought an eraser with a 50 dollar bill on it. After she had paid, the lady who was helping her asked her if she knew whose picture was on it. She said, "God???" It made us laugh. Nope. President Grant. But close.
Kids are funny.
Happy Tuesday!

Best Day!

Today was easily the best day of the week.
I made muffins for breakfast and showered before Elizabeth went to school.
She was able to take her umbrella with her which always makes her happy. It was raining a lot today.
I decided that we would go into the school after the rain stopped or slowed down so we didn't go until a half hour before school got out.
So, we came home to watch PBS kids and I cross-stitched while listening to the radio.
Then I took a two hour nap. NICE!
Lunchtime. I made a salad and tried out a new dressing. I didn't like the dressing much, but ate the whole salad anyway. Trying to not eat so badly all the time...and I haven't made cookies for a few weeks. I really wanted to though. Next week I will, but only because I'll make some for our Adult Halloween Costume Party on Friday night next week. If you're reading this, you're invited!
Woke Vincent up to go help at the school and help Elizabeth's teacher. On Fridays I staple things and help her get set for the next week. Not hard and I just did it in the hallway with Olivia and Vincent "helping". Olivia was trying really hard to read things and did the counting pages really well.

It's officially fall now. I'm glad that the week of wintertime weather disappeared for a while and I can now appreciate the cool weather. I love watching our trees change in the front yard and finally had a minute today to notice that our trees are now YELLOW! Beautiful. The wind was whipping it around though and there is a perfect little circle of fallen yellow leaves around the tree. Came home and started popcorn and a movie. We watched Wall-E because it is due back to the library soonest. Then, because I was feeling lazy and enjoying Friday afternoon movies, we put in Gordy too. I had never watched it before. Now I know why. At least they were just movies from the library and I didn't pay anything for them.
When Andy got home, the movie was just ending and we still had an hour or so before dinner so I took another little nap. My eyes have just been so tired lately!
Andy made some tater tots and our buddy, Nathan, came over to babysit the kids while Andy and I went to the Temple. It was so nice.
When we got home, we put the kids to bed and I read the second half of a great book. I found two new favorite quotes (Sorry if you get everything I update with them.)
"I don't know how losin' your pup is for your good, Josh, but I am sure that it can be or God wouldn't have let it happen. It's all up to you, Josh. Whenever something comes into our life that hurts us, we do the decidin'-do I let this work for my good, as God intended, or do I let bitterness grow like a bothersome canker sore in my soul?"
"It's true that things happen in life that seem wrong and are painful, but it isn't because God likes to see us suffer. He wants us to grow. He wants us to love Him, to trust Him."
-Once Upon a Summer (Seasons of the Heart Series) by Janette Oke
I can't wait to read the next three books! It's too late to start the next one now, so I'm doing this instead.
I had a great day and a night and tomorrow doesn't have much on the schedule, just Nutcracker practice for a few hours for Andy and a baptism for a man in our ward and collecting the last of the Halloween costumes, so I'm looking forward to a little more downtime with my cross-stitch and book. Too bad I can't do them both at the same time.
Thursday night we attended my sister-in-law's mother's funeral. It was a very nice service. My brother gave the life sketch, my dad gave a talk about families, my sister-in-law's good friend sang "I Know that My Redeemer Lives", and my amazingly wonderful and strong sister-in-law gave a little talk too. It was so sad. Her mother fought a three year battle with cancer courageously. It made me happy to hear all the great things that were said about families. I believe in families. I love mine. Take some time to appreciate yours.
While you're at it, watch this video of Olivia tap dancing in the hallway waiting for her tap/ballet class on Tuesday. She slipped down a few times before this very cutely, so I was a tiny bit disappointed that she was solid on this one. Still, very cute. She's got her own little beat going and always has.

With or without you....

Today was a busy day. We dropped Elizabeth off at school, came home to get ready for the day, got a call that the preschool field trip to the apple orchard was canceled again (it was canceled last week because of rain too.), but we were able to have Olivia play with most of her preschool friends at my friend's house. On the way to her house, I stopped by a new church friend's apartment to pick up some free stuff that a different lady from church had that this new friend picked up-long story, anyway we picked up like 10 big bags of stuff. Most of it was sheets and bedding. I sorted through it with the preschool mom and we took out the flat sheets so the young women in our ward can use them to close the A-Frames they sleep in at girl's camp, took out any other clothes we could use, and then I donated all the nubby sheets and old bathroom mats that I don't think anyone else would use. I took the remaining three bags of clothes to a friend and will just take them to a couple more if there's more before donating the rest. I did find some clothes that would work for me and a couple bags. There was even two princess sleeping bags. My friend found older girl clothes that will work soon for her older daughter. Kind of long there, sorry.
After the playing, donating, dropping off the clothes for one friend to look through, we made copies at the school, came home for lunch, Vincent napped, I cleaned and got everything ready for Thursday night at the school, I think I rested a tiny bit, went to get Elizabeth at school, went to ballet, Andy met me there to take the kids, I drove to a lady's house closeby to catch a ride to Walla Walla for a PTA training (there's one here on Thursday, but I'm too busy Thursday night), and ate dinner there. I was the only student which was funny because I went with three people (who were in charge) from Richland and two people from Seattle came to teach and no one from Walla Walla came. Interesting. But the class went very quickly. It was a class on PTA and the Law. Very educational. It was basically the things that you should do so you don't get sued and records to keep. It started at 6pm and was over at 7:20pm. I guess the classes are normally three hours long. I must have been a good student. :) So, I got home a little after 9pm with a giant headache. I took some medicine, helped (a little) put the kids to bed, and crawled into bed myself.
Our home doesn't run well without me around. Elizabeth didn't do her homework, have her folder signed, or her lunch bag brought in. When Vincent woke up at 1:30, I went out to the car to get her backpack to make her lunch. The kids were still up when I got home, so they didn't go to bed until 9:30, which will make tomorrow morning really fun. Andy took the kids to McDonald's for dinner instead of feeding them the leftovers in the fridge. When I asked him if Elizabeth did her homework, he said they were too busy for that after ballet (which got over at 5pm.) I'm pretty sure I'm needed around here to keep things running smoothly. I just wish I got a break once in a while. Andy really is a help. He just doesn't have to do all the organizing/scheduling because I do it.
Anyway, off to sleep more so I'm ready for a busy Thursday. Sorry about the long peek into my Wednesday. On tomorrow's agenda, help at book fair (hopefully because Andy was going to verify the babysitter and forgot), missing a church cooking class, missing a family night at the school, and going to my sister-in-law's mother's funeral without kids.

Trick or Treat Tag

List five tricks you use around the house and one of your favorite Halloween treats.
Then tag five people.

TRICKS:
1. I have a little wallet size photo album for each kid (something I received as a gift when Elizabeth was a baby) and I put one of each of their professional pictures in there. That way, I have them all in an easily accessible place, I can compare pictures without hauling out photo albums, and if I feel like recreating a pose, I can take them with me to the photographer. I plan on giving these to my kids when they leave home. (I am thinking of saving them in the safe too though, so if anything did happen to the rest of the pictures, I could enlarge those or something.)

2. I use toilet bowl cleaner to clean the soap scum out of the tub. I don't have to scrub at all! Some might say it's not "green", but we care more about clean than green, and it saves my hands from being raw, my back from hurting, and my kids from bathing in filth, so I don't care! Plus, I hear that a lot of the green products don't work and I KNOW they cost more, so as soon as those problems are solved, I'll try them out. And I rediscovered this week that some of that Ajax powder cleaner works to get burned-on food off of stainless steel dishes and FAST!

3. When I make a meal that we eat on a regular basis (pizza, lasagna, enchiladas, tacos, spaghetti, etc), I add the ingredients to my grocery list so that when I want to make it again, I'll have what I need.

4. I keep a list of all the people I know who are having babies or weddings that I need to make something for so I know which gift to do next and which one is coming up. (I try to have a stockpile, but people keep depleting it by having so many babies and weddings!-I'm totally kidding! I love it!)

5. My mother-in-law gave us a fabric-covered photo box when we had Elizabeth. I keep all of her birthday cards and little momentos that are too big for the scrapbook in it. The other kids each have one too and so do Andy and I. Elizabeth just wishes I'd let her look through her box more often.


TREAT: Reese's anything, but especially those ones they make for holidays that come in the pumpkin shape or whatever holiday it is (Christmas trees, hearts, Easter eggs). My mom used to completely spoil me by going to the store the day after the holiday and buying me a bunch of them on sale. I have an awesome mom!
I just love those little fun size candy bars and I steal them from the kids. Yum.
I also started liking Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies. I didn't used to like pumpkin at all, so that's pretty good for me. I've always liked cherry or berry pies (or chocolate/lemon pudding pies) much better than pumpkin too.

I TAG:
1. April
2. Lisa
3. Sara
4. Tina
5. Wendy

Feel free to leave me tricks in the comments and treats on my doorstep. I love both!

Trip to Big D

Andy says:

Ba bum, ba bum, ba ba ba ba bum bum. Ba ba ba, ba ba bummm! Just in case you can't tell, that's me singing the theme to the TV show Dallas. We watched that show when I was a kid, but I don't remember much about it, so don't ask me who shot J.R. (totally unrelated, I once had a roommate who served a mission in Romania, and they were just getting Dallas on TV there, and so he had to learn who shot J.R. because people were always asking him about it.) Anyway, I had to go to Dallas last week (Oct 5th-8th) for some training.

I left Monday morning at 6am (you have to leave early from our airport, if you want to get where you're going before 11pm). I don't ride on enough planes to get completely bored of it, but this plane ride was kind of boring because there were too many clouds for me to see anything out the window. I got on the rent-a-car shuttle bus, and the driver promptly took us to the opposite side of the airport from the rent-a-car office. I usually don't mind the scenic route, but parking lots aren't much scenery. Eventually the driver figured out he was going the wrong way and turned us around. I got my gutless cheapo rent-a-car (the people in Dallas are fairly aggressive drivers, so I wish I would have gotten a peppier car, but I was trying to save the company some money) and went to my hotel. I had all the rest of Monday to do whatever I wanted, so I got on the light-rail and went to downtown Dallas. It looked like this.
There's this big J P Morgan Chase building that has an observation level. It was cool. Aside from the Space Needle, I haven't ever been in a building this tall. After that, I got back on the light-rail and saw a few more sights. The track goes right past the place where JFK got killed, then I was in the hood. Everyone was nice, but I didn't think it would be a good idea to act all touristy. There was a reassuringly large number of transit-cops, so I probably was just being paranoid. In fact, a cop checked my ticket, and I had a little trouble fishing it out of my pocket. The only other light-rail I've been on is in Portland, and they don't seem to care too much if you pay there, they do things a little different in Dallas.

On Tuesday, my training started. It was interesting to me, but would be boring to 99.9% of this blog's readers so I won't go into it. At the end of the day, I cruised around and looked at some Malls, so I could get a few souvenirs. Wednesday was about the same as Tuesday.

My training ended on Thursday, so as soon as it was over, I went to the airport. The plane ride home was a little more interesting than the plane there. One fun thing, was that there was turbulence, and some lady a couple rows ahead of me was all nervous. The stewardess told her that as long as the crew was walking around, it was just regular turbulence, and she should just close her eyes and pretend she was on a roller-coaster. I had to change planes in Seattle, and got home, safe and sound, about 11:30.

It was a fun trip. I had a nice hotel room. All the people were nice. I was worried that it would be a hundred degrees, but it was nice and cool. A lot of my trips for work are needed because we screwed something up, so it's nice to go on one without the pressure of having to fix anything.

Funny Ideas People Think

Andy says:

Have you ever had someone say something really strange, that they've figured out in their mind, and makes total sense to them. Here's some of my favorite ones.

1) A college friend of mine thought trees made the wind. You know, when trees rock back and forth, they move the air, and that's where wind comes from. I asked him what makes the wind over the ocean, or Antarctica, (there's no trees there) he didn't have a good answer for that.

2) Another college friend commented once about how our belly-button never really fully seals off. We said, "what are you talking about?" He said, "because there's an opening there still, and lint gets into your belly-button from inside your body." He had a hard time believing that lint comes from your clothes.

I tried to find a good belly-button lint picture, but when I searched in Google Images, they were all disgusting, so I'll spare you.

3) A guy I know was talking about trains, a teen aged girl commented on how it was a good thing there were trains so we could have cotton (you know that fluffy stuff that comes from a steam engine's smokestack). He couldn't decide whether she really believed it, or was a genius actress for being so convincing that she believed it.

4) Just to be a good sport, I'll mock myself. It took me until I was about fifteen to understand that when they said the word 'euthanasia' on the news, they weren't talking about kids in Japan.

5) Also, until a few months ago, I thought that Hannah Montana was a real person.

Add your own in the comments.

Walk in the Rain

I dropped off a friend's daughter a few blocks away after school and the girls wanted to walk home in the rain. I drove half a block at a time to keep an eye on them. Then, once they hit our road, I parked and ran in the house to grab the camera.I love that they are holding hands so sweetly.
Elizabeth wanted her winter coat today. Oh, and I found those umbrellas at the Dollar Store last year.
After we got in, Elizabeth told me that Olivia stepped in a puddle she couldn't jump over, so while she changed her socks and pants, I made some hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped topping on top. Yum. We are all wearing slippers too.
Cozy and warm. But a little sad that we only had two weeks (if that!) of Autumn.

Chilly Wedding

After our lazy morning, we went down to Oregon for a wedding by the river. Yeah, outside. It was cold! And it was windy! It sounded (what we could hear) like it was a nice wedding though. The preacher quoted the scripture in 1 Corinthians about love and that part was very nice. We walked over to the marina "club house" after the wedding part for the reception. It was pretty much a living room size room with a kitchen. It was a little crowded. We had fun anyway. Andy's parents were there and so was his boss, so we knew a few people. I saw a bunch of the other people Andy works with there, so at least I can put a face with their name now. They were having roast pig for part of the meal, but Andy felt it was getting a little too crowded and the champagne and keg were starting, so we just went to McDonalds instead.
Here's the girls in front of the roast pig. (NOTE: I did not take this picture. Sam-Andy's boss-did. I have no idea why Elizabeth decided she didn't want to eat any of it. Weird.) Then, we went to Payless and got some new shoes for me and Olivia. My feet were dying! I don't know why I wore uncomfortable shoes just to look cute!
Andy asked on our way out of town if I wanted to go to Walla Walla after the wedding to see my parents, so we went over there next. We visited with them and my dad and I taught the girls how to play Uno and Rummikub. We had ice cream cones after Vincent went through the open cupboard and found something he could have (we wouldn't let him play with the vinegar and corn syrup. I know, we are SO mean.) He wanted to eat it, but didn't like the cold. I took a video because his reaction was funny. Watch and see.

Even after all of that, Andy spoon fed him some and he liked it, but still didn't want Andy to throw it away when he finished. He has had ice cream before, but not on a cone. I usually give him some during birthday parties with cake. He's had popsicles too. His reaction was great though.
Olivia with her ice cream.
Elizabeth with her ice cream.
It's always nice to visit with my parents and the kids love them too! Thanks for letting us barge in. :) Check out their blog for another picture.

Reading Time

I love lazy Saturday mornings. It's so nice that the kids can be easily entertained.
When I came back from helping Elizabeth start a craft project in the family room, I saw this in the hallway outside the bathroom where Andy was getting ready. Olivia was "reading" the story of "Purplicious" to Vincent and making up her own story too. Mostly, it was what happened, so I think that's a good sign for her future reading prognosis (or something). Elizabeth is still so stubborn about reading. She'd rather just listen still. She knows some words and can sound out others, but pretends she can't. I make her anyway. She will catch on soon, I hope! Vincent loves books too.After they finished reading, and I came in here to upload the pictures, Olivia took her book behind the door. I think she was hiding from Vincent. I think it worked too, which is almost more funny than that she was hiding behind the door.Last night Andy and I went to an Elder's Quorum Pinewood Derby. We lost horribly, but our car did win best design. At least we still got a prize of three already opened boxes of Cheerios (the boxes were open, but not the bags.)Andy was in Dallas, Texas most of the week, so it was nice to spend some time with him. He left Monday morning, really early and got back Thursday night, really late. He was doing some training there. He has some pictures to upload today or tomorrow.
This week was pretty good with just me and the kids. I survived. I know I can do it alone, but I don't want to long term obviously. I had fun together with the kids though and did a lot of crafting for our Autumn Event after they went to bed.
Here's the Touchy-Feely Baby Girl Quilt I made. I am almost done with two boy ones too. Every square is different and they feel different and help babies to see different patterns too for their "tummy time".
I made these tote bags for children. They are just big enough for a notebook, markers, and the addition of a child's toy.
Today we are going to a wedding for one of Andy's co-workers in Umatilla. The kids are coming too. Hope it's fun. Maybe I'll take some pictures. Now, off to bathe and dress some kids and hope that my ibuprofen kicks in so my back will stop hurting so bad! Andy left to pick up the rest of the supplies to finish our family room ceiling

Happy October!

I love the Fall season. I love the leaves changing, falling, and blowing into our neighbor's yards so we don't have to mess with them. Our backyard has a large tree and we do keep most of those leaves. I love the yummy soups and pumpkin cookies and warmth of cuddling into a blanket and a good book or movie. Fall is so great! The temperature is the best and I just love FALL!
Tomorrow I need to decorate for Halloween.
I also get to start helping in Elizabeth's class in the morning.
The girls are all set for FHE activity. Grandma Shirley printed out some paper dolls that we are going to cut out and play with.
This week is going to be a great one.
I apologize for my lack in blogging this last week. I love to read other peoples' updated blogs and then completely neglect mine once in a while.
Yesterday in between General Conference, we went to Keone's Star Wars themed birthday party. It was at a gym here and they had the kids complete Jedi training. They went through a "Stellar Obstacle Course", swam in the "Intergalatic pool", and had "Planetary Pizza and Cosmic Cake". The girls had a great time. Vincent stayed home with Andy to nap. I did manage to take a few pictures this week.
They lined up and then jumped over kid hurdles, jump roped, shot a basketball, and then scootered to the back of the line. Unless you were little like Olivia. Then, you could just run cutely through the things and run back to the line. I was a little disappointed because one boy in the other line was about the same size as her was pushed back on the scooter by the girl helper from the gym. I kind of hoped Olivia would be too.
Standing in line listening to the instructions. Keone is the tall boy at the front of the line. Elizabeth is in black and white and Olivia is at the end of the line.I didn't want to get in the pool, so I brought along the life jacket for Olivia. Elizabeth does really well with just a noodle. They stayed together the whole time too. That made it really easy to watch them.We are getting ready for our third annual Adult HALLOWEEN COSTUME PARTY!!! It's going to be at our home on Friday, October 30th. Invitations will be delivered soon, but just in case you need more time to plan a fabulous costume, now you know. Yummy treats and spooky games, and of course, a lot of fun! Find a babysitter, if needed, and come play!

I guess I'll let you read some of the tidbits that did happen this week. I already posted these on Facebook, so sorry if you have to read them twice.

I made chore charts for the girls and told them that they will start tomorrow. I also told them that if they do it today and check to make sure that it's done tomorrow, it counts. They asked if it was okay to help each other with the chores. Um, okay. Go for it. They are now cleaning the bathroom together. We'll see how long this keeps up!

I sorted through all the kid clothes to put away summer stuff and find long pants. I love fall weather! No more skinned knees, right, just holes in jeans. Wait, maybe that's not better!

I was going to go up to my former work to get invitations printed for our Autumn Event, but wanted to do a few other errands first, so I dropped off our Goodwill stuff and shopped there, then went to another thrift store (I found some more pants for Elizabeth and Vincent and a few dresses for Elizabeth too!) and when I was walking out of the last one and about to go up to my old print shop, I ran into my old boss and handed the stuff to him. It was so great because he told me that the road in front of the store was under construction and closed. It was naptime too, so it was so nice! It's great to be in the right place at the right time!

Read a name on top of a form yesterday in the name place. We thought it was a joke until someone told us how to say it. First name: abcde. Pronuciation: Ab-sid-ee. Now, I'm not really one to make fun of unique names (since I have one of my own that I've dealt with all the misspellings and mispronunciations my whole life and making sure forms at the school and church all spell my name the right way-My D is BIG!) I just thought it was interesting and I hadn't ever heard it before. I really like my kids to have basic, classic names, obviously. :)

I enjoyed General Conference. I hear many things that touched my spirit, but can't remember exactly who said what or quote what they said. The kids are a little distracting and when you sit in the recliner and then Vincent wants to cuddle, you kind of don't pay attention very well (and maybe, maybe you fall asleep.) I'm looking forward to reading all of the talks in the Ensign. That is something I always do. I figure that if I can waste time doing other things (computer, reading books, crafting, baking, etc) then I should have time to read the wonderful material sent to our home monthly that is inspired counsel given to us. One of my Relief Society Presidents once said that she read the newspaper every morning, but had a hard time reading her scriptures. That made me reevaluate my reading of the church magazines and put them to the front of the stack. I read while I eat my breakfast and lunch a lot of days. Just another idea of a way to get it done.
Have a great week in October!