Happy Halloween

We REALLY celebrated Halloween this year with 3 parties and trick or treating - we were tired of dressing up by the time we actually went trick or treating on Halloween.  Everyone had a great time, ate way too much candy, and partied hard.  Anna Elise was a vampiress, Calvin a pirate, Madeline a witch, Lilah a sock hopper, and Celeste was a princess. 

Scary!

Too cute to be scary!

Lilah lost her cute blue neck scarf at the first party!

Calvin's eye patch broke and he had to hold it up - but we fixed it =)

Ready to Trick or Treat

 

 

 

After Halloween I went to Michaels and all the Halloween stuff was 70% off!  We got some fun things, including a black wig.  Celeste is going to be Snow White next year so it was perfect.  We put it on her and she LOVED it.

 

 





Happy Birthday Lilah Bean!

Our Bean Bean turned 5 on the 14th!  She had toaster strudel for breakfast and homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner.  She wanted cinnamon rolls and I surprised her and glazed them with pink frosting!  So yummy!  The kids had the day off of school so we were able to open her presents in the morning and spend all day playing! What a fun birthday!

The kids also had their primary program recently.  They did so well!  I usually get frustrated when they practice their part and learn it so well and then get nervous and can't do it during the program, but they all did so well!  Their dad paid them to learn their part, do well during practice, sing and do well during the program.  They all earned their dollar!  The program was very well written, all the kids said their parts (Madeline's was a paragraph long), Anna Elise sang in the special descant group for I Am a Child of God and our family sang the first verse of Families Can Be Together Forever.  I was so nervous I nearly forgot the words - I only sing in the car!   It was a such a great program and we were so happy to have our friend Anne come and watch the kids.  We'll do anything to get her to come out and see us ;).

Singing to Lilah!  I know we took more pictures but I can't find them!

 

 

Watch a video of our Primary Program parts and one song here.

Happy Birthday Anna Elise!

Anna Elise turned 10 on 10/10.  Pretty cool!  I can't believe we have hit double digits at our house.  She had a fun day.  She was able to quickly open one present in the morning and she chose to have Pop Tarts for breakfast.  Her dad went and ate lunch with her at school and then she was able to open her presents after she got home from school.  She chose to have beef stroganoff for her birthday dinner and we finished off the celebration with a strawberry Barbie cake.

Celeste has been obsessed with birthdays for months.  Every day she tells me "I having my birthday coming up soon".  I have given up arguing with her and I just tell her yes.  "I going to turn 3 on my birthday."  Atleast she has that one right!  I was worried that she was going to be unhappy celebrating somebody else'a birthday when hers is 'coming up soon'.  We started prepping her for Anna Elise's birthday at the beginning of the week and she did great.  No tears or tantrums and was so happy to be celebrating a birthday.  I was relieved! 

Earlier in the month we found some soft curler and rolled Madeline's hair up to see if we could get some curl (unfortunately we tried the new kind of curling iron and although it's better, her hair still won't hold the curl for long).  Anyway, after hours of trying to sleep she gave up and decided that curls weren't worth the pain of sleeping in curlers and out they came.  She woke up with straight hair in the morning.  I hope she learns to like straight hair!

General Conference was a fun weekend. Mike went to the church building for the priesthood session even though he could've watched it at home.  He had to stop and get our traditional Krispy Kreme doughnuts on his way home.  Sunday morning is so exciting for the kids - they love waking up to Halloween doughnuts for breakfast (sure beats homemade granola or mush or oatmeal).  We tried to watch the 'morning' session on Sunday (it starts at noon here) but had technical difficulties so we watched the Saturday afternoon session instead.  Mike and I watched the second session on Sunday alone and in peace.  It was great.  I'm excited to go back and watch the talks that we missed.  I am so thankful for the prophet and our other leaders to give us direction - we live in such a loud and divisive time and it brings such comfort to hear our leaders telling us to stand strong, giving us direction and encouraging us to do better. 

Singing Happy Birthday to Anna Elise - the video camera shut down right before she blew out the candles...

 Opening presents

 

Anna Elise got a large stuffed lion, so the other girls went and got their stuffed animals out.  That's Celeste behind the pink bear.

 

 

Madeline with her curlers and a typical Madeline silly face!

A Comedy of Errors

Before I begin I want to announce that it's my 500th post!  Yeah!  Kind of crazy.... OK, the kids settled into school and I struggled to keep up.  I thought that when school started life would get a bit easier but with the orthodontist and dentist appointments, my work schedule getting busier and lots of
little things that needed doing and everything we neglected during the summer my life got very hectic!  Mike decided to go to the Virginia Dental Convention to advertise for our vending business and he convinced me to go with him as a sort of working vacation.  I was able to get our superstar babysitter Anne to come spend a couple of days with the kids and we were able to go.  Mike and I drove the 3 hours in our separate cars to this amazing hotel in the middle of nowhere, without incident but from there it just went down hill.  Nothing big, but lots of little things just made the whole trip a bit ridiculous.  We had trouble getting into and out of the loading bay to unload all of our stuff.  In fact at one point we were blocked in and totally stuck.  We finally got our both completely set up and both cars parked.  We decided to go for a hike since we had the whole afternoon and evening free.  We had a great hike and great conversation.  I realized while we were hiking that I had left a stack of our stuff on the loading dock - oops.  I hoped it would still be there.  I also wondered why we had to be all set up so early in the day if we weren't going to be displaying that evening.  We got back all sweaty and dirty and decided to cut through the ballroom and just check on everything.  We found that there was a reception that had started 15 minutes ago and people were in there!  Oops.  We ran out to the car - Mike changed his shoes and cleaned up while I took care of a few last minute details.  I looked awful so I hid in the car while Mike worked the crowd.  I tried desperately to get my phone charged and to find a signal.  My sister had her baby that day and I had been unable to get details or pictures and was so frustrated!  Mike finally showed back up and we drove 20 minutes down the road to the small town we were staying in.  My phone wasn't working and I couldn't remember where our reservation was.  After aimlessly driving around I made a lucky guess and we found our hotel!  Mike checked us in and we went straight to dinner.  It was awful.  Terrible food and totally overpriced.  I just wanted to sleep, I was exhausted.  We went back to the hotel only to find our room was a smoking room and really stank.  We complained, but they were full.  So they made us a reservation at their sister hotel.  We had to go to a third hotel to get our key and check in.  The hotel we were staying at had a 'virtual concierge' which meant that nobody actually sat at the desk.  You skyped another hotel to talk to the manager.  Weird.  We finally got checked in and into our hotel.  I went to bed only to be woken up several times by some random beeping noise in another room.  I couldn't even go complain to the front desk - because nobody was there! I still don't know what was beeping, but it was so annoying!  We made it back to our booth the next morning only to find that it was a super slow convention.  Mike spend a lot of time on his phone in the hallway working and I sat at the booth totally bored.  Not fun.  No internet so I couldn't play on my laptop and no cell coverage in the ballroom.  It was finally time for me to go home.  I picked up my purse and the strap broke.  My purse dropped.  It was only a couple months old- I was so irritated.  I started the long drive home.  I didn't have Mike to follow, he was staying for one more day and my phone didn't work to get directions.  I, of course, got lost.  Not fun.  I finally figured it out on my own and made it home - but not without a lot of frustration!  I finally got some cell coverage but for some reason when I called Mike I couldn't hear him talking to me.  I would call him and talk and then hang up and then he would text me his answers.  Ridiculous!  When I got home I got the kids to bed very late and was so glad to sleep at home.  Mike called me in the morning to tell me he had locked his keys in the car.  He wanted me to research what was cheaper, a locksmith on a Saturday or a new window for his car.  The nearest locksmith was over an hour away - so not an option.  Luckily we found out that in remote counties like that the sheriff will get you into your car, so we didn't have to pay for either!  Mike made it home early.  I was glad to see the weekend end!  We aren't going back to that convention next year!

 Mike at our Treasure Tower booth

 

 

A deer we walked by on our hike

Back to School

On Tuesday the kids went back to school.  It was tough getting up early and having to hurry and get ready, but they all made it on the bus.  They all love their teachers, had a great first day and are doing well.  There were some disappointments as far as everyone having all their friends in their class, but that's the way it goes! Going back to school can be a hard adjustment for everyone.  We had some tough mornings, grouchy kids, tears, temper tantrums over homework, etc, but it will get easier each week as we adjust.  We had a very busy week and finished it up with a bang.

In other news, I went to Time Out For Women here in Richmond.  I went on Friday evening.  Mike came home as I walked out the door.  After he feed the kids he decided to take them to the NASCAR race.  It was race weekend here in Richmond.  (For those of you who haven't lived in the south - Nascar is a BIG deal.  Everyone has their favorite driver's number on their vehicle, they camp here during race weekend and the traffic is horrendous!  In the 12 years we have lived here, we've never been to a Nascar race.)  The 'big' race is on Saturday - on Friday it was the junior league races, so children 12 and under are free, the parking is free, and there is very little traffic.  So Mike loaded up the kids, stopped by to get a 6 pack of ear plugs and took them to the race track.  They were there for the pre-race festivities and for the 'Gentleman, start your engines!' and for a good part of the race. The kids had a fabulous time!  They said it was very loud.  They left before it was over and on their way out had to walk right by the track.  It was so loud and scary that Celeste wet her pants - did I mention that Mike was carrying her? =).   On Saturday I got up early and went back to Time Out For Women for most of  the day.  I had such a good time.  The speakers are all uplifting and funny and inspiring.  Having access to Deseret Book is always a good (but dangerous) thing, I had fun with the women I went with, and it was a great break!  I came home to a clean house and happy kids.

First Day of School

somebody always gets bunny ears

Anna Elise was not happy and Calvin definitely got the reaction he was after

So excited at the track

watching the race with earplugs

the race cars

Goodbye Summer!

The last two weeks of summer were crammed full of fun!  We had our second week of swim lessons (sadly, no pictures, I got sick the last few days and it was all I could do to get them there and back home).  We also had fun doing our last craft of the summer - everyone got to pick their own.  Everyone picked out a birdhouse to paint (they were fancy birdhouses) except for Anna Elise who chose to do a latch hook rug. Calvin was able to go swimming with his friend a couple of times, we went to Busch Gardens one more time, we had a 'friend' day (actually I was asked to babysit for two different families on the same day - it just so happens that with the two families everyone had a friend) so I had 11 kids at my house for most of the morning (note: I'm glad I don't really have 11 kids!).  We had more orthodontist appointments and went to the school to meet our new teachers and drop off our school supplies one afternoon.

Mike and I were able to attend the BYU v. UVA game in Charlottesville.  It was CrAzY!  Mike got the tickets as a surprise anniversary gift for me.  I was SO excited.  I haven't been to a BYU game since I was an undergraduate student at BYU years ago (we'll just say lots of years ago, no need to count them =) ).  We got a sitter, drove the hour to Charlottesville, managed to get parked in all the craziness of 'game day' in a small town and hike to the stadium.  It was so fun to see so many people wear their blue BYU shirts!  After a frustrating first quarter they announced a lightening warning and evacuated the stadium.  We were told to return to our cars.  Since we parked a mile away, we found cover across the street at the UVA bookstore.  After lots of thunder and lightening and a rain storm we wandered back to the stadium, but still had to wait for the lightening in the distance to finally stop before they let us back in and resumed the game.  Right around half time it started pouring rain.  By the time I made my way to cover - I was soaking wet and the cover was all taken.  We debated about leaving, but I was already wet so why leave?  I had to keep wiping water out of my eyes as we stood in the rain and watched the teams try to play.  It was ridiculous.  Every step produced a spray of water.  Nobody could hold onto the ball!  It finally stopped raining and there was some really good action.  Unfortunately we lost - but I had a blast.  I'm happy to report I still remember the fight song =)  It was good to hear it again!  Goooooo Cougars!

 Eating watermelon from our garden for FHE

Our crafts

Celeste has been begging for pony tails, so we put some in.  As bald as all my girls have been, Celeste has less hair then any of them.  She also seems to have some curl  (hopefully it stays)!

Calvin's lego tower.  He had his little legos taken away for a week, so had to resort to playing with the big legos.  The babysitter helped him with this tower while we were at the BYU game.

Learning to Swim

We started swimming lessons!  The kids have been looking forward to this all summer.  We joined an aquatics center for the month of August.  We have been able to go for family swim several times and we can stay after lessons on some days for free swim as well.  The kids love it!  Our first week went pretty well and we are ready for week 2!  Celeste is the only one who is not in lessons and she is not happy about it.  Luckily she has other opportunities to get in the pool.  She will be old enough for independent lessons next summer.

We've been really busy the last few weeks with orthodontics appointments for Anna Elise.  She has an expander in right now and she loves it (not really).  She is looking forward to getting head gear and then braces.  Exciting times (that was sarcastic =)).  Our chickens started laying eggs!  This was earlier then expected, but so exciting.  We had one chicken that was really early, but today we collected 6 eggs so we think that all of them are now laying eggs.  It's fun for the kids to get check the egg box every 30 minutes and bring in new eggs or to report back that they had found another cracked egg not in the egg box.  Apparently the chickens have a short learning curve when it comes to where to lay their eggs, but they seem to be getting the hang of it.   We also celebrated Mike's birthday.  The kids blew up balloons to surprise him.  Mike came home earlier then expected - while the kids were all upstairs - I motioned him out the back door just before they came downstairs and he was able to make a second entrance and be 'surprised'.  We had apple pie to celebrate.  On Saturday of that same week we had our 12th wedding anniversary.  We went out to dinner and a movie, it was very nice to get out for a few hours.  Calvin participated in the cub scout cardboard regatta and raced in a cardboard boat his dad helped him make, his boat did ok, he did eventually tip over during each race.  We also went to Busch Gardens (again) and had fun until we got rained out. Unfortunately I have not been taking pictures these past few weeks and I only have a couple to share.  I didn't take any pictures of our eggs, I plan on getting pictures at swimming lessons this week and I'm sad I missed pictures of Mike's birthday, of Celeste getting her hair fixed for church (we can squeeze a teeny, tiny ponytail out on the top and clip a little barrette to it), and lots of other things.  I'll try to do better these last 2 weeks of summer.

A sign the kids made in our yard - so funny!

Calvin in his boat

Calvin not in his boat =)