Halloween Fun

What would October be without costumes, candy, and parties? Just another month with 31 days in it I guess! We had a great time this year...here are some pictures.

This year the girls needed new costumes, and I don't know how we managed it...but we strayed away from the traditional princess costumes! Hooray!!!

Brooklynn was a flower fairy...I had lots of fun with her costume. It is made entirely from scrap fabric that I've accumulated over the years from old formals to old curtain sheers that I didn't like anymore. It was a fun project, and seemed to fit her personality really well...cute and spunky.

And Rachey was Sacajawea, or Tiger Lily, or an Indian Princess depending on who asked her and what type of mood she was in. I spent a couple of nights sewing the beads onto her costume...it was really fun and she was really proud of it.

We all got dressed up for our ward's annual Halloween Party. Andy and I pulled out our Raggedy Ann and Andy costumes...and won the "cutest couple" award. I think that Andy should win the "bravest man" award when he wears that costume...he's a good sport.

Matthew was a little intimidated by all the noise at first, but then settled in. He quickly grabbed a golf ball from the miniature golf game, and a marker and got busy creating.

Taylor had fun helping out with the squash bowling game. He's really growing up!

We also went to the Lake Farmpark's Halloween Hayrides this year. It was a rainy night...but we still managed to have a good time. October must be a busy month. Brooklynn zonked out on our way TO the hayrides.

The kids favorite part was the Haunted Hair Salon. Andy and Matthew went into a booth, and were magically transformed into a witch! Taylor was laughing so hard, Brooklynn looked a little concerned, and Rachey just stood there trying to figure it all out. Then they magically appeared again.

The kids also did a haunted hay maze. Taylor went through it a bunch of times. The girls were pretty much done with it after the first time through. Andy and Rachey were having fun with the scarecrow.

For Brooklynn's preschool class, she was supposed to dress up as a community helper. She wanted to dress up as a Veternarian. Here she is complete with cat carrier...which actually had her stuffed horse in it.

When the kids came home from school on Halloween, the first thing they did was to gather in the kitchen to show and share their prizes from class parties.

Then I let them get started on our giant pumpkin. They all took turns reaching in and getting the goop out. Rachey had pumpkin seeds and yucky sticky pumpkin innards up to her elbows.

And the pumpkin was so big, that we did a couple of different designs on it.

Taylor chose to do a bat for his side.
And this is the 2nd year now that we've had our Halloween Dinner. This year we had eyeball stew (tomato soup with tortellinis), tarantula teasers (ritz crackers w/ peanut butter), mummy fingers (hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls), bleeding brains (spaghetti squash with red butter), and bug juice (lemonade, strawberry punch with raisins and gummy worms). The kids love this tradition and are amazingly willing to help with dinner on this day.

We took the kids Trick or Treating...and wore Matthew right out. Our little Peter Pan went straight to bed.

While the rest of us went downstairs to have a Halloween Wii Tournament. We had to break in Andy's birthday present, which was the new game Outdoor Challenge. Everyone loves it...and after we sorted through the kids' candy we had plenty to snack on while burning those sugar calories!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Andy's Birthday

And one of the highlights of October is Andy's birthday of course!

He told Brooklynn at the beginning of the month that he was going to invite her to his birthday party, and so nearly every day until the 26th she would ask me if it was his party day. She was so excited.

Andy turned 25 yet again this year (it's our little tradition) and this year he got a yellow fudge marble cake with my chocolate fudge frosting. His favorite cake is yellow with fudge frosting...but this year we got "creative".

Before cutting the cake, we were having some fun with the automatic function of our camera. The person to watch in these pictures is Matthew. While we're busy posing for the camera, he's sneaking frosting from the cake. What a little character he is.

And after the cake and ice cream, Andy got to open all of his cards and presents. Each of the kids made him a card and wrapped it. They are so funny. Matthew was so hyper from all of our excitement and kept running over to the piano and playing songs for us. He was hilarious.

It was such a great day. Happy Birthday Andy! We all love you!

Random Pictures from October

Just a few fun pictures from our fun and busy month. First, our baby girl really started kicking this month. I was working on young women stuff on the computer, and Rachey came over to ask me something when she saw my tummy move. She just stared at it and asked with huge eyes if that was the baby. Soon I had the three of them surrounding me wanting to feel her. Brooklynn also had to talk to her, which is why she's leaning so far over...Brooklynn had a lot to tell her.


Andy is our ward's cub scout leader, and this month they made sugar cookies and then decorated them. They meet in our home...so for the week that they actually made the cookies, I was very VERY thankful that I had a presidency meeting and had to leave. Some things are just better not to witness...like a group of 8 year old cub scouts baking in my kitchen. The next week they decorated their cookies.
While the scouts were upstairs decorating, I had Matthew, Brooklynn and Rachel in the basement with me. We painted our nails. (Yes, even Matthew had to join in.) He was so proud of his beautiful fire engine red nails...for about 5 seconds and then he went back to playing with his train. After the scouts left, Rachel and Brooklynn and Matthew went upstairs and decorated a cookie. You know, a bunch of sugar right before bed...makes for sweet dreams. HA!


And...the other day Brooklynn was outside playing while I was busy in the kitchen. Andy had just come home from school...we looked out the window and Brooklynn had decided that she was going to take the scooter for a spin. Look out world.

Embarrassing Mom Moments

Over the 8 1/2 years that I've been a mom...I've had some pretty funny and/or embarrassing things happen to me. Enjoy.

When Rachey was 2, I was at a Young Women's presidency meeting. We had our table set up in the foyer right outside the gym, where all of our kids were busily and happily playing. My back was to the gym doors. All of us (there were 6 of us ladies there that day) were busy talking and planning when they all stopped and looked at me. They all had these absurdly amused looks on their faces. Ahem. I turn around, and out walks little Rachey. Completely naked except for her shoes. I jumped up and ran over to her and asked her where her clothes were and she just gestured towards the gym. I remember saying "We need to get your clothes back on young lady!" To which she responded in her cute little 2-yr old voice "No, I's NOT a lady!"

I was serving as primary pianist in the same ward, when Taylor was a brand new Sunbeam. They were doing a sharing time on how we can tell our Mother's love us, and were giving examples of all the many things that mom's do in the home. One little boy said that his mom fixes the holes in his socks. Immediately, Taylor takes off his left shoe and runs up to the front hopping on one foot so everyone can see his left foot and yells, "My mommy told me she doesn't have time to fix MY socks!" Mind you, his left foot was nearly hanging out of what was left of his sock. It was pretty bad, and everyone got a good laugh out of that one.

For Taylor's 100th day of school party in Kindergarten he was set on bringing 100 of the "flavored/multi-colored" marshmallows. We were here in Cleveland at the time...that's an important detail. So, we're in the grocery store and it's very busy, people everywhere...and I couldn't find any flavored marshmallows, only white ones. So, I ask Taylor if he'd be okay with just bringing the white ones instead. He tells me in a loud voice..."no Mom, I don't want the white ones, I want the colored ones." A few black people look over at me and I'm sure that I wasn't white anymore...I was red. We now make sure to call them "flavored" so as not to offend any racially sensitive shoppers. Good grief. Oh, and by the way, I want "white" marshmallows changed to "just plain old regular vanillay sugary flavored marshmallows" because "white" offends me.

Last winter I was picking up Rachey early from school and she was outside playing at recess. I was carrying Matthew, and had Brooklynn's hand while speed-walking across the freezing playground. I couldn't figure out why Brooklynn kept getting slower and slower until I looked down and saw that her pants had fallen down around her ankles and she was having to kind of hop-walk to keep up with me. And I thought I was cold!

Friday I took all 4 kids into the dental clinic so that Andy could clean their teeth. We were in there for 2 1/2 hours because Rachel had a cavity and Andy just did her filling while we were already in there. So, in the Peds/Ortho waiting room there are two signs that say "No food or drink in the waiting room please." Ya right. I had brought a little baggy of cut up apples for the kids to munch on. Brooklynn said she was starving, so I told her to go sit on a chair and I gave her a sweatshirt to put on her lap. Then, I told her that the sign says I can't give her any snacks, but if she's sneaky about it, she'd be okay. (I KNOW! TERRIBLE HUH!!!) Anyway, a few students that we know walked through and asked Brooklynn how she was doing, to which she replied "um. Good. I'm eating my apples but mommy told me to be sneaky so don't tell."

I was in a Relief Society presidency when Taylor was born, and my first week back to church I had to conduct. Andy was in the EQ presidency and he also had to conduct so I got the baby. Anyway, I was holding Taylor while in front of everyone and he had just eaten. He promptly spit up and then filled his diaper. I had on a white shirt, and let's just say I quickly finished the announcements and had to go home and change. From then on, Andy and I coordinated our conducting months so that we could take turns having the baby.

Again as primary pianist and Taylor as a Sunbeam, they were having a sharing time about Lehi's family's 8 year sojourn in the wilderness. The question was asked, "how many of you would like to go camping for 8 years?" Taylor excitedly shouts out "We've done that before, right before mommy had Rachel!" I just ducked down behind the piano and laughed and laughed and laughed. From that day forward, the sisters in Primary had a great time teasing me about being pregnant and eating raw meat in the wilderness for 8 years.

So, there are many others but these are a few of my favorites. Kids are so funny.

Fall Leaves

So last week we took the kids out back and took pictures of them playing in the leaves...we've done this every year since we moved here...so I thought it'd be fun to start with a picture from '05 and let you all see how the kids have grown during our years here in Cleveland.

Fall '05

Rachel (3), Brooklynn (1), Taylor (5)

Fall '06

Rachel (4), Brooklynn (2)

Fall '07

Rachel (5), Taylor (7), Brooklynn (3), Matthew (9 mths)

Fall '08

Matthew (18 mths), Taylor (8), Rachel (6), Brooklynn (4)

Fall is my favorite season here in Ohio. I love the crispness that comes back to the air, and enjoy how comfortable the temperature is. I love wearing sweaters and boots, baking with apples, and watching all of the leaves turn colors. There is a huge maple tree at the corner of our street that is my absolute favorite tree of all...it's leaves are varigated when they turn...they're red on the top, and stay green on the bottom for a little longer so it just looks amazing. I'll have to snap a picture of it this week!

The Real Manwich

Last week I made some homemade bread...and Andy came home from school and made a "snack" out of it.I should have taken pictures of him eating it. I had no idea his mouth could fit around something that large. My jaw would have locked into place and I would have ended up in the hospital! Hey. Apparently looking into people's problem-filled mouths all day can work up an appetite!

Life

Sometimes, life takes you by surprise and makes your hair stand on end...
Sometimes it can throw you for a loop...

Sometimes you get stuck carrying all the load...

Sometimes you feel stuck in a box...

Sometimes it makes you feel like you're nearing spontaneous combustion...

Sometimes you get caught in tight places...
But it's okay...if we all work together...

It'll turn out all right in the end.

Have an awesome day!

Just an Idea

I absolutely loved conference this year. One of my favorite talks was Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from the Relief Society broadcast. His focus on "creating" and how that was a celestial part of our natures made me feel like my love for creating things wasn't just a hobby...but something really and truly worthwhile! Hooray! But so many of the talks were focused on finding joy and having unity that I just felt like the entire weekend was one big re-energizing boost that I needed. And...as always, I came away thinking that I needed to step it up a bit in our home, that I needed to find ways to make the gospel more a part of who we are so that the kids are strong and so that their budding testimonies will continue to grow.

We already have family home evening once a week, and I don't think we could ever go without it...one of the kids would remind us for sure. But, I was trying to think of a way to make the topics that we teach about last a little longer in our home.

This is just a little something that I've tried and the kids have really liked it: I chose a very simple scripture that went along with our lesson topic. This month we're concentrating on "Keeping the Commandments" and so all of our lessons will focus around this theme. We also already do a scripture and a song each morning before family prayer...but the scriptures have been random. So, I decided to try combining the two to see if it would be more effective. In our home, it has been.

I printed out the scripture that correlates with our FHE theme for the month on a piece of cardstock and put it on display in the living room. Now the kids can see it all the time and remember what we talked about, and in the mornings we recite this scripture before singing our song. After only a few days, all of the kids have this scripture memorized: Proverbs 29:18 He that keepeth the law, happy is he." It is very short and very simple, yet it's something that they each have stuck in their heads now...to carry with them throughout the school day while they are out in the world and away from our home. And hopefully, just remembering this simple scripture will help them remember the stories and discussions we've had during our lessons.



So, I know that I have awesome talented friends who probably have these amazing ideas that they're doing in their homes...I would love to hear all of your ideas!!! Please share!