Halloween

Last night we got our pumpkins carved and all fingers are still attached. That's a miracle considering Emma and Jack got to cut their own pumpkins. They did a great job and had a great time deciding on the all important design. We carved the pumpkins at the neighborhood barn, we meaning mostly the parents, while the younger kids ran around. Hopefully this is the first of many neighborhood Halloween pumpkin parties.

Lily running around while Michael carves.

Emma carving the first design on her pumpkin.

Jack scooping out the pumpkin brains.

Four little pumpkins sitting on the porch.

Mindless Game

This is especially for Debbie...but everyone can play. I know how much we love mindless games.

The Day Before Halloween

The cookies were baked and costumes were hung in the closets with care. I had a cheesecake to bake for Michael's "Harvest Festival" tomorrow. He's having a potluck lunch at work and he asked me (very nicely) make something for him to bring.
This is supposed to be a cat. I only have two cookie cutter to my name and a friend had to bring the cat cookie cutter over to borrow. I guess I should add some variety to my cookie repertoire.
Tonight we're going to a pumpkin caring party, thus making the cookies. I guess I should have tools to carve our pumpkin....

Sleepless in Seattle

The excuse that we used to meet in Seattle for a sister's weekend was "Super Saturday". Affectionately called "stupid Saturday" by others, we will use any excuse to get together.

Anything to use power tools in the morning.
Keira delivered some slides and 8mm film to Sherri.The slides where we discovered hidden gems of long lost childhoods. Of course Keira, Tia, and myself didn't exist yet. I was most amazed to see pictures of Sherri and that her daughter Lauren looks much like her.
Alex was a very cooperative subject for his "Senior" pictures. I told him he was a lot easier to photograph than a three year old. I'm not sure he took that as a compliment, but he was a pleasure to take pictures of.
Funniest part of the weekend was sharing a bed with Sherri. We used to sleep together when we were little. We jokingly said that we needed to keep to our designated edges of the bed. Well, wouldn't you know, she reached over the first night to see who was in bed with her. A full sized bed is not very big!

Fall Colors

It was a long, hot Summer and my hair had the highlights to prove it. Now firmly in the Fall season, I wanted to shake up things a bit and color the blonde highlights. There may or may not have been a few gray hairs mixed in with the blonde, but let's not go there.

Staring at the entire aisle of hair dye is a bit daunting, but I wasn't about to let that deter me from a new me. I whittled my choices down by elimination, I knew I wasn't going to go blonde or black. Then it was a matter of what it looked like on the box. Remember when there were fake hair samples to show you what you hair "might" look like? It was a little creepy walking down the aisle with loops of hair on the shelves. My kids loved "picking" their favorite loop. Target doesn't have the loops anymore.

I finally decided on a color that looked a shade darker than what I normally have. I wanted a dark chestnut color. Does the name "Chocolate Caramel" sound close to that? You know that phrase "never shop hungry", it's a good creed to live by, because I didn't end up with chocolate caramel hair. There was some red in the dye and I have some Chocolate Cherry hair to prove it.
(I'd take a picture, but it late and I need to charge the camera, and I need to pack, and I forgot where I put the camera, and I might update my picture when my hair has faded just a bit)

Fall Photos

I went to the park last week to take "Fall" pictures. I went with my neighbor who has two kids and my three which made five kids total. That's a lot of kids to wrangle, but she thought ahead and brought lots of treats. Pez Dispensers are great for bribery. Thanks Heather. (her boys are the cute ones at the bottom)

"Falling Leaves"

"Stuck in Tree"

"Scary Graffiti"

"Defenseless Brother"

"Falling Brother"

Crazy Day

This afternoon we had Parent/Teacher conferences for Jack and Emma. I had a bad night's sleep, woke up in a funk, and was dreading going to a certain conference. In an attempt to get out of the funk I stayed as busy as I could all day. That's not hard when Lily follows me and undoes everything that I've just done. (she's awfully cute doing it)

Usually I get babysitting so that we don't have to take the kids to the conferences. Being a slacker, I didn't get babysitting and Michael and I had to brave conferences with three kids. Luckily Jack and Emma are old enough to sit in the hallway and wait, but Lily hit a wall about halfway through each conference.

The good news about both conferences were that they were fairly short and sweet. Not too many surprises and grades were pretty good. Emma made out pretty well. We decided to start paying for grades and she made off with eight hard earned dollars. Jack is working hard, he managed to earn $4.50. Money well spent.

Once conferences were over, my day got a lot better. Pulled off dinner for us and a family across that street. Made rolls that I was a little dubious would turn out..totally turned out. Had the kitchen completely cleaned before bed, and read to all the kids before bed.

Service Auction

Tonight at church we had a "Service Auction" that was a ton of fun. I've heard of these service auctions but never had an opportunity to participate. When I was explaining it to Michael, he thought that we were doing it to put money back into the church. No, we're not that altruistic. It was just a fun evening where women brought things they had made or volunteered to give/do and everyone "bid" on the item.

I volunteered to do a "photo shoot" and I was a little nervous to do so. I know I can take pictures (mostly of my kids), but there are two "professional" photographers in our ward. I figured it's a good way to get some more practice. Luckily, I know the person that won the photo shoot and hopefully I'll make her happy.

At the start of the auction, everyone got $500 imaginary money to start with. The items to bid on came out one at a time, so you didn't know if something better was coming out next. Not that it mattered, it was fun to see what people made or volunteered to do. There were a lot of home cooked meals that went up for auction. The highest bid of the night was $775 for a box of scrapbooking supplies. I ended up paying $500 for "free" babysitting. Seems spendy, but a night out with Michael? Priceless.

Lippy

Lily had a major fall this weekend and ended up with a big fat lip. I'm glad I didn't see the fall but I heard it as I was about to go down the stairs. I think that I flew down the stairs and scooped up Lily before she had a chance to enter the "ugly cry" stage of her accident.

She was able to milk every bit of her accident for it's worth. Nothing like blood to make me feel awful (even if I wasn't there).

Now that it's over and she's feeling better. I keep thinking that she has all the attitude of a three year old and the lip to go with it.

Right of Passage

In an attempt to give Emma a birthday she will remember I decided that getting her ears pierced would be pretty memorable. Not having a "birthday party" with friends was an extreme punishment (for her), but I wanted to have a positive day with our family to celebrate her day.

The morning of her birthday, I figured that I should ask Emma if she even wanted her ears pierced. I guess that was like asking the Pope if he's Catholic. She was ECSTATIC when I asked and had to think about it for a millisecond before replying, "YES!" It was a another second before she asked, "Is it going to hurt?"

Calming her fears, we quickly rushed off to the mall and did the deed. She was kinda nervous, but she didn't cry (which was important to her).

Emma's Birthday

Happy Birthday Emma! She has a spectacular birthday because it's so easy to remember, who can forget 10-11-01?! She also shares her birthday with her Aunt Debbie, again, two for the price of one. Happy Birthday Debbie! If only I had pictures of Debbie to post.

Emma's arrival.
Emma's 1st birthday cake.

Emma at two.Turning three.
Emma @ 4.
She is this many fingers.
Is that really six candles?!
Emma turns 7!!! (I know that only looks like two candles. I forgot to check how many candles I had until it was time to light the cake. Opps.)

Bread

When we were at the pumpkin patch, the "general store" offered a myriad of organic, homemade, natural, etc. food. I was really tempted to get the huge bag of caramel corn, but resisted. Michael had his eye on a tasty looking loaf of pumpkin bread. As much as I wanted some delicious bread, I wasn't willing to pay $7.00 for a small loaf.

Being ever so thrifty, I scoped out what I had in my pantry and decided that I had enough if not all the ingredients for some pumpkin bread. Thanks to Google I found an easy recipe. So from idea to loaf, it took 80 minutes. Not bad. I think the bread was half gone as soon as it cooled enough to eat. Michael said it was the best banana bread he'd ever had. Thanks Michael.

Sick Day

This morning Jack woke up with a deep cough and a slight fever. Dang it, if he didn't have the fever I would totally have sent him to school. Emma and Jack were having a discussion during breakfast regarding who was more sick. I know that Emma wasn't so interested in going to school when Jack had a good out. Well, not one to coddle my unsick children, I headed off to school to drop off Emma.

I managed to get a few things done (laundry) and get lunch in before I got a call from the nurse's office. Emma's ear was hurting her. I'm not sure if this was a legitimate call, but she stayed at school until 1pm. Good enough for me.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Pumpkin farm this weekend and picked out a big pumpkin. The kids got to ride in scary carnival looking rides and run through a hay maze. I'm thinking that we need to find a corn maze and spend a day at something like that.

Booboos and Bandaids

Lily took a big spill today after I picked up the kids from school. Emma and Lily were racing to the car and Lily went down on her hands and knees. I don't know if it's the shoes that she's wearing or if she's in a growth spurt, but she has been really clumsy these past few days.

Booboo's and bandaids are synonymous at our house. Jack is not a fan of bandaids, they hurt when they come off. He'd rather suck it up and try and get by without the torture tape. Emma and Lily have been using bandaids like stickers. I swear that I have been finding bandaid wrappers hidden under Emma's bed for weeks. Frankly I'm surprised that we even have bandaids left. The last owie that Emma had, she tried to use a butterfly bandaid because that's all that she could find in the medicine basket. Luckily I saved some Barbie bandaids and put them on a high shelf for an emergency like today.