Sometimes you just can't win

This has been a fun week so far.  It seems like life starts to go crazy beginning in October with Halloween and then it just escalates and escalates until all the excitement of Christmas is behind us.  This is a great time of year.

That said, BOOOOO to snow!!!!

No thank you.

I would like a refund on fall.

Blechtk!

Still, we make the most of it.  Well, most of us do.  Ellie, not so much, but she is still a baby (to us at least) so we let her attitude slide a little....for now.

As you can see, it all turned out ok in the end, but it was a drama for a while.

We also carved pumpkins this week

(thank you Winco for eight cents a pound).

Logan was a monster (not a dress up one, but a screaming, tantrum throwing one) the night we pumpkined.  However, he fell asleep just before we started knifing our way to creative glory so we let him sleep.  Thus, he has no gourd representation in this picture.  We'll get to it another day. 

And, finally, Gavin had his pre-school Halloween party today, which is always lots of fun, so I thought I would share a bit of that.  He is the devilishly handsome Shadow the Hedgehog on the left end. 

Happy Halloween this weekend everyone!

Some Halloween Fun

This weekend has been a fun one.  We were able to attend our ward's annual Primary Halloween party which is always amazing.  The leaders do an incredible job and we are very grateful for their time and effort.  They make this a really special occasion for our kids. 

This party gave us a chance to try out our costumes.  It is always fun for the kids to get all spruced up for a special event. 

Bryce - Link

Aubrey - Skeleton Princess

Parker - Skull/ Devil thing

Gavin - Shadow the Hedgehog

Logan - Power Ranger

Ellie - Skeleton

Hope you have lots of fun in the week leading up to Halloween too.

WITCHES!!!

Last night we had the chance to visit Gardner Village to view the awesome witch displays that they put out every year.  We all love going and look forward to it every October.  As always, we had a great time.  We brought our own treats this year (since the cookie shop is a bit pricey), so before we left the house I put together these adorable witch hat snacks (check them out, they are fabulous)...super easy and super cute.


Our baby witch, all decked out and excited about it!



G in elegant witch attire.



Hangin with the creepy neighbors.





Children who are totally chill.



Catharsis

  Barry, I love you. 
Not like I love my sweetheart, of course, but I love you, nonetheless!

Today has not been my best day ever.  I hope I am not the only one who has these aberrations to happiness and patience show up on the calendar (if only I could see them there before they happened so at least I could be sure the freezer had ice-cream...sheesh!).

So, I threw on my total ear covering, enormous headphones that block out the world, and turned Barry up as loud as I could handle and then I sang along (according to my husband, not too on key...I guess Bryce asked if they could turn me off, but Josh is a wise man and let me have my moment).

Thank you, Barry, for saving my sanity, and keeping my children from being locked in a closet and having their food passed under the door.  That's why I love you!

Costumes

The other day I was talking to the kids about what they wanted to be for Halloween.  Gavin asked me what I was going to dress up as.  I said I didn't know (I don't usually wear a costume, it is too hard to chase kids with accessories and things dangling from your person...I do wear a festive shirt, though). 

Aubrey piped in and said I should be a pile a laundry for Halloween.

What!

She said I could wear a laundry basket on my head and I could pin dirty clothes all over myself. 

I guess that's one idea. 

The kids at Halloween time last year

Medications R Us

I come from a long line of easily over medicated patients.  For example, if I am having trouble sleeping, I have to cut a Unisom tablet into fourths (not easy, they are very small...I use fingernail clippers to do it) or else I will sleep for days.

My dad has this issue too.  It is funny to see how drunk we can get on certain medications and it often takes several doses before we learn how much our sad systems can really take.

This is true of anesthesia too, and makes for some hilarious groggy stories floating around our family.  When my brother, Josh, had his wisdom teeth out, he could focus on nothing other than a pimple on his chin that he wanted us to pop while his face was numbed.  He got so ridiculously, angrily insistent that we finally just squashed his chin and pretended to have popped the zit. 

Well, I guess this is an extended family trait as well.  A couple of nights ago, my cousin had her appendix removed.  While she was being wheeled back to her room after surgery, she reached out and snagged a taco from a lady standing nearby her in the hall.  After all, she was hungry!  The attendants scolded her lightly and told her she needed to give the taco back, which she reluctantly did. 

After being deposited in her bed, she slept soundly for a long time.  When she woke up, a male nurse was checking her iv.  She grabbed his name tag and demanded to know why he had kidnapped her.  Then she insisted that she verify whether or not it had snowed on the mountain that night...and if he didn't spill the beans, she was going to call her dad!

Thankfully, she is feeling much better minus her appendix, and we all got a great laugh out of it.  Super fun.

Storms

We have an eight year old daughter (who shall remain nameless) who had a rough morning yesterday. 

She has been looking forward to a class field trip to "This is the Place Heritage Park" for quite a while, and Wednesday was the day.  However, when she came in the house after feeding the puppies, she told me she wanted to stay home and not go to school.

After some wheedling (boy am I a good wheedler), I discovered that the problem was the weather.  Said child is horribly afraid of lightning and thunder and yesterday morning was stormy.  She was afraid they would go on the field trip and it would thunder and she would be scared.  She was in tears, begging me not to make her go on the trip.

Poor kid.  So, we talked about being brave.  She told me the bravest person she knows is her dad (what am I, chopped liver...just kidding, he's the bravest person I know too).  We scavenged through his things to find something of his she could keep in her pocket.  Then, if she got scared, she could hold it and it would be like he was holding her hand.

We also decided to enlist divine help.  We said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help her have the courage to go on the field trip and be happy.  We also asked that if it was alright, God might hold off the storms until after the school trip was finished.  She headed to school reassured.

Obviously God listens to the prayers of these innocent sweethearts.  She didn't have any problems on the trip and the rain and storms didn't even show up for the fun.  It was a pretty sweet day for both of us. 

A Cacophonous Conference

Last weekend was general conference.

This is always a mixed bag at our house.

I love listening to the words of living prophets, and I love the spirit that fills our home and we tune our TV and every available radio to the broadcast so that no matter where you are or what you are doing, you hear servants of God speaking to you.

However, my children are small.  Sometimes the talks are interrupted by wrestling matches or basketball games or thumb wars.  Sometimes it is hard to hear because we are all laughing.

I used to fight this.

I used to try to insist on quiet (ha ha ha, joke's on me).

And then I learned that if I want conference to be a positive experience for my little brood, I can't act like the Wicked Witch of the West insisting on silence and stillness...bringing sadness. 

So, our kids climb all over us, they flip through the conference packets that I dutifully print every time.  They munch on snacks as we play conference bingo, but they are happily exposed to inspired messages.  Sometimes they pause when a story sticks out to them, sometimes they laugh at a funny comment, and sometimes they roll on the floor seemingly in another world, but really just enjoying the spirit of the moment. 

I smiled when Gavin turned to me while President Monson was speaking and proclaimed, "He's talking to me."

I couldn't help but laugh as Logan shouted "Put your shoulder to the wheel" at the top of his voice throughout the song, even if everyone else was singing other words. 

It may not be that idealistic picture I used to have in my head, but this is how we help our sweethearts learn to enjoy general conference and look forward to spending this time together.

I guess I'm not the only one who feels this way.  Take a peek at this article, it is just how I feel. 

When all is said and done, it was a GREAT weekend. 

An Epic Evening

Dun du du Dun du DUUUUUUUN!

(Imaginary Trumpets)

Announcing….

Pinewood Derby!

Last night was our yearly jaunt with the scouts and leaders to try to get a hunk of wood to fly down the track like a rocket.
So…Much…Fun!

Bryce has been looking forward to this for a couple of months.

Honestly, I was worried.

As you may have noted from my previous regularly whining posts, Josh has not been home much lately. I was pretty worried about how I was going to help Bryce create a derby car that would get down the track in one piece, let alone do it as fast as lightning.

Thankfully, I have incredible parents. My dad came and picked Bryce up a couple of nights a week and took him to their house to work on the car (this kept my other kidlets from being in the middle of everything which would have been a problem).

They sanded and buffed and cut and drilled and came up with a pretty smoking slab of pinewood. Bryce named his car “The Phoenix” and decided on number 98 as his lucky number.

And there must have been magic in the graphite they used (can pixie dust disguise itself as graphite?) because the night was Kismet. Bryce’s car shredded up the track and he ended up taking first place. He was pretty thrilled.

 I was proud of Bryce because he put so much effort and good hard work into making the best car that he could. He sanded for long periods, he painted and designed the logos on his own.  He shook the graphite bag containing the wheels whenever he wasn't doing anything else.  He put a lot of time into his car.

Also, my father is amazing.  After all these years (it’s been nearly 10 years since the last time he had to put together a pinewood derby car), looks like Grandpa’s still got it! Thanks, Dad.