What a Weirdy...

 

I need a laugh today, so I thought I'd post these silly pictures of Claire and her imagination.  She's is such an interesting little girly...

I love the middle picture, maybe if I tried that with my scarf I'd get a lovely butt lift! ;)

Good Grief, Enough of Halloween Already!

Sorry, gotta finish up Halloween so I can get onto Em's birthday (um, key words here: hives, 17 girls, and Benedryl).  On Halloween we had a little get together with a couple families at a friend's house for dinner.  Afterwards we all went to the ward's trunk or treat.  Unfortunately, Dave had a work emergency and missed the dinner and showed up at the church right before it started.  The man showed up with this hat with this grotesque hair attached to it.  And it's not just any hair, it looks like the man bleached out his hair and then let it grow out.  Honestly, from far away, it looked like I brought some weirdo off the streets trunk or treating with me.  He wore it the Halloween I was pregnant with Emma, we looked like such the white trash couple! Ok, enough about the hair...
Emma and Claire ran off with their little buddies and as Dave and I were walking around with Hallie, many of our friends said the girls had all made it around a few times already! The stinkers! It was a blast though, and the kids loved my parent's truck all decorated with cobwebs.  After the trunk or treat, we went trick or treating in a friend's gigantic neighborhood (because apparently we didn't have enough candy yet).  The kid's buckets were so overflowing that at the end each step they took candy would fall out.  It was a lot of fun though and the weather cooperated!

My dad with Hal trying to keep her warm

 

My friend Kelly's little boy Luke, I had to get a shot of the cow people!

Some of my kid's good little friends posing before they took off for candy!

Arghhhh...the ugly hair.  I somehow felt the need to tell everyone it was fake and grotesque - like they needed me to tell them that...

Trick or treating at my parent's truck

Digging into their candy stash in the back of my dad's truck.  And oh great, the back of Dave's ugly hair/hat...told you it was disgusting!

Pumpkin Carving and a little Indian

The girls loved drawing their pumpkin faces before David and I cut them out.

 

"Mama, I help!"

 

I LOVE this picture.  This is Hallie to a "T".  She is so smart and sassy for a 2 year-old! Apparently she didn't like helping me scoop out the pumpkin's guts...

For out family night we carved pumpkins and ate home-made donuts while watching Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin movie.  The girls had a blast eating all the goodies! FYI, it's probably not a good idea to make dinner, roast pumpkin seeds and fry donuts all at the same time.  First batch of donuts cooked WAY too long and the seeds burned.  Whatever...we had fun!

Now on to my little Indian.  Emma chose to be an Indian and Claire and Hal really wanted to be cowgirls.  I searched in vain for outfits for all of them that I liked.  Couldn't find anything! So I decided to make them.  Now I'm not a sewer, I'm a hot glue mama! I thought I could figure out something, so I got some material at Walmart for the costumes but forgot when the actual school parties were that I needed the costumes done in time for.  Luckily I called a friend whose daughter is in Emma's class about something and she mentioned the party! Holy crap! It was almost 11:15 and Emma had to be at school in less than an hour! So I pulled out a dress from her closet and cut around it, put my glue gun to use, cut and ripped the bottom and attached beads.  I think it actually turned out pretty good considering I hadn't really planned the outfit out yet and had 45 minutes to make the costume and feed the kids lunch! Whewwwww...

Emma was happy with it, and that's what counts, right?

She loved the make-up I put on her...shocker I know.

Some of her besties at school: Ella, Haylie, Emma and Peyton.  Aren't they so darling? All these girls went to preschool together last year too!

Our darling neighbor and Em's buddy, Ella.

On our way back home Emma wanted a picture of both of us.  She was thrilled I was able to help at her school party.

Can you tell I've had enough? Emma grabbed the camera and said "smile", I look a little posessed!

I'm sure you're sick of Halloween posts by now, and I haven't even gotten to the party or Halloween itself! Hah!

Haunted Happenings...

First of all, thanks to everyone who responded with kind words and deeds last week, it meant so much to me! I'm finally feeling good about the whole situation, if we are going to have another tiny spirit in our home Heavenly Father will bless us with one!

On to the week of Halloween Happenings.  We don't usually celebrate just one day for a holiday, we have many days of celebrating - and that includes birthdays!  We started on the 24th by having my sister Laura down and my friend Crystal.  We had yummy Costco pizza and a really yummy pizza made by my dad with roasted veggies...mmmmmm... Afterwards we tried to watch Coraline and make sugar cookies.  It is definitely NOT Halloween without pumpkin sugar cookies! And I say "tried" to watch Coraline because half way through it got SUPER scary! So we started Harry Potter (the first one, and the best in my book!) until the girls came off their sugar rush and went to bed.  Then we watched My Life in Ruins.  Oh my heck! Talk about a fantastic movie! Hilarious and romantic at the same time! Loved it!

I don't know what that was all about, but I wanted to show off their darling aprons my mom made them last Christmas!

 Oh my goodness, these cookies were fabulous! I got the recipe on the Martha Stewart web site.  My frosting is butter, powdered sugar, a little milk and vanilla.  Heaven!

Weird Week...

I don't normally post things like this, but it's definitely been a weird week.  Ever been so sick on and off you feel kind of like you're floating outside of your body and watching yourself go through the motions of living life? We've had this weird cold I guess, that's lingered for weeks! Maybe it's the flu, I don't know.  And if anyone asks if it's the "s" flu I'm going to scream.  Plus it's just a busy time of year for everyone, so I've felt really out of touch with family and friends.  And then on Saturday (too much info coming up, sorry!) I think I had a miscarriage.  My period was late and I took a pregnancy test on Thursday with the result being negative.  I thought "hooray!" because I didn't want to get pregnant until this next summer.  Just not ready, ya know? But then some things happened on Saturday that makes me believe that I really was preggo but just not far along.  They say many women have miscarriages and don't even know it because they aren't far along when it happens so they think their periods are just heavier for some reason.  I thought I was ok about the whole thing until Sunday's primary presentation.  For some reason I could not turn off the tears! I really want a 4th baby, and I'm so happy I've got the 3 I have.  They are my life.  But I REALLY want a 4th.  So I thought, what if I can't have anymore? I'll be 33 in February.  Am I getting too old? Am I done having children? I think that's what made me so sad.  I'm not in the right place right now to be pregnant, but I really do want another one.  So, lots to think about this week along with everyone (except Claire so far) being sick.  One bright spot though, was yesterday's parent/teacher conference...we were told Emma is a "superior" student, what a wonderful thing to hear about your child! Thanks Emma for being such a great little kid. :)

How Tall This Fall?

Dave had the week off last week, so we decided to take the kiddos to Schilter's Farm.  Usually we get to go on a hay ride and see pumpkins sling shot, but we got there at almost closing and missed that stuff.  The bright side was that the girls got the animals all to themselves! They were very excited about that! Here are a few pics of the event.

 

 

Their "goofy" faces...

 

 

 

 

Hallie loved the "hoceee" .

 

The kittens were by far the hit, until one scratched Claire.

 

I think the goat's trying to eat her scarf! Yikes!

Crafts and a Visit from a Friend

A week ago one of my best friends came for a visit.  Back in the day, I watched her baby for her when she went back to work - her baby Morgan, was born 1 day after Emma! It was so fun watching the two babies together.  All good things must end I guess, because right after the girls turned 1, Shayla moved back to Utah! Sad day.  BUT, luckily the place she works for sends her to Seattle once a year for training, so I get to see her! We've been able to stay good friends even if we are separated by a few states.  It's nice to have a friend that has real history with you, isn't it? Here are a few pics from our visit.  The girls LOVE Shayla.  In fact Emma kept saying she was leaving me and going with Shay to stay with her.  Hmmm...tried not to let that hurt my feelings! :)

Emma had to pop her little head in the picture...

 

Playing with Hal

 

What a nice friend to let my girls do her hair!

A couple days after that I had some friends from the ward over for a craft day and yummy potluck! We made banners out of burlap and talked a little too much to start the second craft! Shocker! We had a lot of fun!

Eating yummy food!

 

Becca holding baby Adelyn! She's a fav around here!

 

Wyatt goin' to town on that sucker!

 

Rachel is concentrating REALLY hard on her banner!

 

Thanks ladies for comin' over for a fun day!

My friend Rachel's little girl Olivia.  She was totally rocking that awesome headband! The 80's are back my friend!

Cinderelly Cinderelly Night and Day it's Cinderelly!

...make the fire, fix the breakfast wash the dishes do the mopping, and the sweeping and the dusting! They always keep her hopping! She goes around in circles til she's very very dizzy, still they holler keep a busy Cinderelly!

Sorry, these pictures reminded me of that little ditty and we LOVE that movie. 

For those that don't believe in child labor, walk away from this post! Do not read any further! The following pictures are not for the faint of heart...they are of my children ACTUALLY CLEANING! Oh yeah, the ONLY chore the girls fight over doing is mopping the floor! They love to take turns "helping" mommy soap up the floor.  And they actually do a pretty good job! Most of the water ends up on the floor and not in the bucket (they're not so good at ringing OUT the mop before putting it back on the floor)! Quite often we're slipping and sliding for a couple of hours until the floor dries up (after using 5-6 bath towels to mop up most of the soapy water).  So to all of you, get a bucket of soapy water and a mop and put up your feet while your children slave away on the kitchen floor.  Laugh at them as tiny beads of sweat roll down their temples and they sigh in pure exhaustion! Mop my little darlings...mop! Muuuuuaahaahaahaahaa! Now if only they would fight over the rest of their chores!