Happy Halloween!

Mike took the kids out treak or treating after dinner.  I stayed home with Celeste.  We cleaned up the kitchen, read books, handed out candy, and burned a pan full of pumpkin seeds (my house smells really bad).  It was a good evening!

 We painted everyone's nails with special glow in the dark Halloween nail polish before they went out (we had green for Calvin).  It was a big hit!

Our jack-o-lanterns.  Nick and Calivn's scary pumpkin, Madeline's little pumpkin with blonde hair, and Lilah and Anna's cute pumpkin.

Build-A-Bear

On Monday Hurricane Sandy blew through.  School was cancelled for the kids.  Nick and Janet left to avoid the worst part of the storm and I was left with some stir crazy kids!  It was the perfect day for our Build-A-Bear project.  A couple of years ago I bought some kits at Michaels on clearance (for maybe $3 each) to sew your own Build-A-Bear.  I pulled out the 4 kits and we went to work on sewing our bears.  I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly it went considering how much help they needed from me.  The kits were awesome.  The heads were done, but the bodies needed to be sewed together.  They had pre-punched holes, large plastic needles, and thick 'thread'.  The kids sewed the bears, right sides together, turned them right-side out, stuffed them with fluff and little hearts and then sewed the bottoms together.  I helped a lot, especially the younger two - but it was a fun project.  After lunch we put iron-on decals on their clothes and dressed the bears.  There were three 'boy' bears and only 1 'girl' bear - but the girls shared all the girl clothes and iron-on decals and made it work without any fighting (which is unusual).   We also rented Madagascar 3(cute movie) from the Red Box and we made it a good day!

 The bears came with birth certificates as well - so they discussed and decided on names while they were sewing.  Lilah (who did not want her picture taken) is posing with her bear, Jewel Olivia, Calvin with Taco Nick (yes, after his new uncle), Madeline with Caroleena Trish, and Anna Elise with Claire Brooke.

Our one mis-hap of the day.  I had the iron warming up to do the decals and 'someone' knocked it over on the floor and then didn't tell mommy.  Burned carpet in my bedroom.  We are planning on replacing this carpet next summer, so it will be ok.

Nick & Janet

My sister Janet and her new husband Nick came to visit for the weekend!  We were so excited ! We rarely get visitors and LOVE it when they come.  They came last night after the kids were in bed.  This morning the kids got up excited and ready to play.  Nick spent a lot of time playing with the kids outside.  He was a good sport.  Janet and I got in plenty of talking and visiting.  We went to the local pumpkin patch were we took pictures, went through the hay maze, went on a hay ride and played.  We went home and carved some pumpkins, went to the park, and then had our pizza and video night (a day late).  We stayed up way too late visiting and I think the kids wore Nick out!

 Lilah and Madeline posing for their pictures.

 Janet and Nick in their picture.

 On our hay ride

One of the times Celeste let Janet hold her - she was friendly on a few occasions.

 Madeline cleaning out her little pumpkin she got on her field trip to the pumpkin patch earlier this week.

 Very intent on cleaning out her pumpkin.  This kid is very determined - she always sees things through.  She was the only one who started and finished and didn't go off and play.  She clean out the whole pumpkin, sorted the seeds out and drew up her ideas for a design.  This can be a very good trait -but also a difficult one.  She is very determined to finish her coloring or books even if it is time to clean up or say prayer - how do you teach her it's a good thing, but only sometimes?

 Calvin and Nick designing their scary (or was it mean?) pumpkin

Trunk-or-Treat

Our ward had their Fall Festival tonight.  We ate chili and went Trunk-or-Treating.  The kids had a great time.  It was a bit stressful for me - I was trying to get ready for company, do (and get the kids to do) the Saturday cleaning and laundry, cook chili, make a dessert, get the kids dressed and get myself ready -but we made it and had fun! 

 Calvin was a skeleton again this year - he wanted to wear the same costume again, so I wasn't going to argue with him.  He is trying to make a scary face - but he's too cute to be scary!

 Madeline was a Japanese girl.  She loved having her hair spray painted and eye make-up, until it came time to clean it all off and then she decided she didn't like hair dye or make-up!

 Lilah dressed as Snow White.  She has been excited for this costume since we bought it last year!

 Celeste as a reluctant giraffe.  We got the costumes out a week ago and at first Celeste was terrified of her costume.  We played with it and touched it all week until she would finally hug it.  We kind of tricked her into getting into it.  She refused to wear the hat - here she is trying to get it off of her head.

Mike took Anna Elise's Spider Girl picture - so she gets a cool pose.  He painted her mask on (with spider webs on the side) since she couldn't wear her real mask to the church.

Glasses?

My mom sent the kids these straw glasses.  Lilah couldn't get the ear pieces to stay on her ears so she just held them on her face.  She loved them, but said it made her face cold!  The other kids also used theirs, but I didn't get any pictures.

CHICKEN

We bought 80 pounds of fresh, skinless, boneless, nothing added chicken today.  It was a good deal, but a ton of chicken!  As soon as the kids were down I started trimming and cutting.  I canned 40 pounds of it and froze the other 40 pounds - I trimmed the fat and cut up all of it!  It took much longer then I had anticipated, but I shouldn't have to do it again for about a year (I hope).  It was definitely worth it!  

Here is my new pressure canner.  It's an early Christmas present from my mom!  I love it and hope to use it next summer and fall to can everything that comes out of my garden!

Mmmmm

Eating warm chocolate chip cookies that Anna Elise made, so yummy! 

Unloading the Dishwasher

Lilah's job is to unload the bottom of the dishwasher.  I'm not sure it saves me any time when she unloads it like this...

Calvin's 2nd Grade Concert

Calvin sang at the PTA meeting tonight.  This is the first time I've had a child perform at a school function (that seems so odd to me).  He did great.  You can watch him sing the last half of their second song in this video.   They have a choreographed leaf section that was so cute!  We took the whole family for the family pizza game night before the meeting.  By the time everything was over we were ready to come home.  Something about going to the school at night makes all the kids super hyper!

The Birthday Celebration Continued

Today we finished celebrating Lilah's birthday.  I took her (and her sidekick, Celeste) to Chick-fi-la for lunch and playing.  After dinner we had Barbie cake and ice cream.  She loved her cake!

 Apparently Calvin was pretty excited about the cake too

Cute birthday girl!

Happy 4th Birthday Lilah!

I got home this evening and we went straight home and Lilah opened her birthday presents! 

Mr. Mom

Mike went all out and baked coffee cake muffins for breakfast this morning.  I should let him take over more often! 

Romney Rally

I went to Washington state for my sisters wedding and left Mike at home with all the kids!  There was a Romney rally in Richmond so Mike loaded Lilah and Celeste up and took them to the rally.  They almost made it through the whole thing.  Lilah told me she couldn't see Mitt and that there was a lot of yelling.

Unfortunately I didn't take a single picture of the beautiful bride or my adorable nieces in their outfits or my siblings.  But lots of other people did, so as soon as they share (hint, hint) I'll post some pictures and more details!  I had a great time and it was a nice little break!

Anna Elise 9th Birthday!

Today was her big day!  She wore her new sweater dress, the shoes she picked out from her grandma, and the locket she bought last night with her money from Grammy.  She had a good day!

Anna Elise's Birthday Celebration

Anna Elise turns 9 tomorrow.  It's going to be a busy day so we celebrated this evening with her presents and cupcakes.

 She wanted her doll there for the occasion, since she knew she would be getting new doll clothes!

 Her card from Grammy

Her new hat

Blowing out her cupcake candles! 

Conference

Today we watched conference.  The kids love conference Sunday because it means Krispy Kreme for breakfast!  I made all the kids stand up and sing 'Called to Serve' during the first session this morning.  They didn't really want to stand up - but did a good job singing!  Lilah kept asking all day "when are we going to church?"  She didn't really like staying at home.  Celeste, on the other hand, did very well - she was quiet and cooperative while we watched - she just needs her space and she is good - too bad we can't have sacrament meeting in our play room!

Butterfly

A couple of weeks ago we were digging carrots and found a beautiful cocoon on one of the carrot tops.  The kids were so excited - we carefully put the carrot top and the cocoon in an open mason jar and set it up in the kitchen.  I meant to try to look it up and figure out what kind of butterfly it was but never got around to it.  It was a light green cocoon with a line and several dots of gold - I mean real gilt - metallic looking gold.  I couldn't believe it.  Of course I didn't take a picture of it...We watched it for weeks and Mike became convinced it was never going to open.  This morning I glanced at it and noticed it was black.  I was concerned.  I turned the jar around and realized it was the black butterfly I could see and the orange wings on the other side.  Within a couple of hours the butterfly was out and trying to dry it's wings in a jar while hanging from a dead carrot top.  Mike took him outside and set him up on a branch to give him some stability and room.  The kids were so upset to 'let him go'.  They were worried about him - we tried to explain that it wasn't our butterfly and he'd survive better on his own. The monarch was beautiful and I couldn't believe how small of a cocoon he fit in.  By lunch the butterfly had dried out and flown away.

Copy Cat

We have a little copy cat.  I was watching Celeste and noticed that every time Mike moved, so did she.  It was so cute!  After we figured out what she was doing we tried to see what we could make her do.  She needs to be a little bit more coordinated to keep up with her dad!

I got these two pictures before she noticed the camera and lost interest in copying!

At Home With Lilah

Lilah has had a bit of a hard time with the kids going back to school.  She likes being at home with mom and she does really well with Celeste (who wanders around the house saying Yiyah all day) but she misses the kids and can't wait to go get them off  the bus at 2:20!  Today the kids were all invited to a friend's house - they have boys that are Anna's and Madeline's ages and so the three of them were invited to go play.  We walked a couple of blocks to the stop before ours and gave permission for them to get off the bus, gathered up their backpacks, and sent them on.  Lilah was not happy to have to go back home with mom!  So we got out some fresh water colors to do some painting and we made no-bake cookies together!  We had fun this afternoon, but she still really missed the kids!

Romney, Ryan

The yard sign that we ordered came today!  So exciting!  It's been kind of neat to be in a 'swing' state - to feel like my vote really matters and that I can make a difference.  On the other hand the constant barrage of commercials, phone calls, ads, mail, and just everything has been overwhelming and I'm getting a bit tired of it.  Let's just vote already!