Fall Fun

I didn't know that it would be like pulling teeth to get the kids to come and help rake leaves and play in leaves today.  No one wanted to play in the leaves!!!  The photos are staged.  And they quickly got up and brushed themselves off.  And then we struggled to get along long enough to put our pile of leaves in a bag.  Why??  I blame the late night and sleepover.

Sleep Over

It's like Rich somehow knew...  The kids had a sleepover with Macie and Derek (plus Justin and Allison of course) while Karolee and Nate are moving.  What fun!  The boys ended up in the basement with The Hobbit, and with popcorn thanks to Max.  The little ones ended up in my bed watching cartoons with no popcorn thanks to me.  I didn't really want to sleep with popcorn tonight.  And Sophie ended up at Grandma's watching Oz, with London on her lap.  Couldn't ask for more fun than that!

Mmm Mmmm McDonalds

Max got to read the paper chain today and he read it all by himself.  "Thursday, Nov. 7th.  Go to McDonald's"  and he was ECSTATIC!!  It is right up there with Disneyland and Christmas in his books.  He loves their french fries!!!!  And he was also the only one to actually eat his whole burger too.  I hardly ever let them have happy meals because they don't have enough fries!!

Anyway, I think the kids thought this was the best one yet and look forward to more awesome paper chain days!  I'm glad they are also ok with easy days like making silly faces...

Silly Faces

Just snuck these silly faces in as I was tucking the kids into bed tonight.  We keep following the paper chain!!!  We took count today to find out when Christmas was and it is in the top right hand corner of the paper chain around out bedroom door.  It seems like forever away.  But I think we are down to 88 days?  Every day we survive through is one day closer to being a family together again.  But until then we will keep making funny faces, or whatever the paper chain may tell us to do!

And on a side note, Gavin would NOT get in the shower tonight because he didn't want to take one alone.  Peter and Max were showered, clean and in ttheir pajamas and Gavin was still just running around the house buck naked!  Somehow Max and Justin got it in their heads that it would be a great idea to throw ice cubes at the naked 5yr old...  Yeah, great idea, especially when you throw so hard that you leave red marks all over, even on his bum!  Oh what a great way to end the day...  Such is my life all the time.  One great idea after the other.  Why can't I think of things like that?

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

One of the most important days to remember around these parts is Grandpa's birthday.  Gavin has been asking Grandma for a few days if we were going to eat German Chocolate Cake.  Turns out the poor boy doesn't even like the coconut german chocolate frosting, he just likes the chocolate cake.  I don't think he has ever had chocolate cake without it being german chocolate cake! I never make it!  But it was a fun day and a nice dinner.  Grandpa has officially broken in our birthday plate and cup.  Lucky duck being the first one to use them!  And Gavin went around all day trying to give grandpa 110 birthday whoopin's! - That's 42 more than he needed, but it was fun watching him try to catch him!
(The paper chain told us to eat german chocolate cake and give grandpa his birthday whoopin's)

FHE

Peter is in Bears in Cub-scouts.  Our goal is to help  him earn his Bear and his Religious Knot before we leave for China in January.  One of the things he has to do to earn his religious knot is to teach a family home evening lesson on Joseph Smith.  Knowing this ahead of time, Rich made that be our paper chain for the day.  Nothing like a push to get something done!  He did great, he read the story in the children's Book of Mormon and read some scriptures and summarized the story all on his own.  Congrats Peter, you are one step closer :)

Snowing at the Temple

I couldn't believe it when I saw huge fluffy snowflakes falling this morning when I looked out the window!  But it melted in an hour and I didn't think much of it till we started driving higher to get to the Bountiful Temple before we headed to church at 1pm.  There was an inch or two on the ground there.  Good thing we all had sweaters on!  I knew we couldn't walk around the temple grounds, but it was nice to be there all the same.  The kids kept sneaking behind the gates and walking through the snow.  They even made a few snowballs!  I love my family so much and am so grateful to know we are sealed together through the blessings of the temple.  I hope I can teach that to my children and help their love and testimonies to grow each day.  We are so blessed to live so close to so many temples.  From Logan to Provo, about a 2 hour drive, you pass 11 temples!  That is just crazy and wonderful all at the same time.

Candy Corn Clowns

It was a candy corn stuffing the face kind of paper chain fun tonight!  We went through a whole bag of candy corn trying to come up with the best faces.  Max kept trying to smash them into his teeth but they kept breaking so we ended up just decorating his face, but he kept laughing and they would fall off.  It was so hard to get a shot for a picture!  And Sophie really doesn't like candy corn, so she stood by the bathroom sink and kept spitting them out to try and try again!  Arggg, Peter got first try and Gavin was happy too, and they all thought all my faces and teeth were so cool and wanted to know how I did it.  Remember that kids, you think I'm cool!!!

Let's go to the movies...

The kids were super excited to read today's paper chain.  We got to go to the movies!! And lucky us, Smurf's 2 had just come to the kaysville theater tonight!  All day we were looking forward to going, and it was so great!
We love the kaysville theater.  Even on the expensive nights of friday or saturday admission is only $3 each and then they can each get a small soda for $1 and a small popcorn for $1 and because they did so well picking up leaves today I let them get a candy for $1 also.  So for $6 each we were in movie heaven!

Halloween Part B

Our paper chain for Halloween was to eat dinner in a pumpkin and get tons of candy trickortreating.  Well, trickortreating went really well, but we were in a little bit of a rush getting out the door so we ended up with pizza instead of dinner in a pumpkin.  That meal had to be put on standby.  Until today, and so the tradition lives on!  And it is so good !!!  We all love it, sort of.  The paper chain said Max had to at least try it, and I think that is the only reason he did.  But great job for trying Max!

Fall leaves

The kids were willing when Grandpa called this afternoon for some help in the yard raking leaves.  I was actually surprised at how easy it was to get the kids to help, usually it is like pulling teeth to get them to do yard work, but today they surprised me.  We only worked for an hour or so and ended up with 8 huge garbage bags smashed down with leaves!  I think all the kids were wishing they could have made it into one giant pile to jump into, but I was proud of them for sticking to the task at hand.  Great job everyone!

Happy Halloween

Super fun night with my 2 ninjas, cleopatra, and Hulk Smash.  It felt so low key and unrushed in the perfect crisp fall evening.  We were out for about an hour and the kids managed to score 6 full sized candy bars!!  Yep, we know all the best houses to go to!  And we followed out usual route to the awesome backyard with hot chocolate and scones!  The kids counted their loot and carefully chose out their 12 pieces of candy that they are allowed to keep and somehow managed to talk me into 2 additional pieces this year.  Then the rest was left for the witch to take away!  She gave the kids each $5 for their candy!  Nice witch if I do say so myself.
So Halloween wasn't ruined by my lack of sewing creativity as it was the first year I went out and bought the kids costumes.  Kinda sad, but it was such a hard year at home that I couldn't handle the stress of choosing a cute theme or sewing or anything.  And the kids were really happy with what they ended up with.  Even if Max ended up as a ninja, and not Captain America...  but that's another story for another day.

Fruit Loop Necklaces

This was one of the best paper chains so far.  It was a great 'snacktivity' as the kids called it.  I loved it so much because we all sat on the floor in my room with the door shut and took our time creating necklaces.  The kids were talking, not shouting, and giggling at a normal level.  No one got riled up or out of control.  I loved that we weren't rushed to do anything or go anywhere.  It was an easy night.  And who doesn't love the fruity rainbow of fruit loop cereal.  At the end, Max was even writing words on the carpet out of his cereal.  I'd do this night over again for sure!

Happy Birthday Plate

We painted the coolest plate and goblet cup when we lived in Iowa many years ago and used it for every birthday until it accidently got broken...  Saddest day ever.  For the past year we have been using a gold charger and a glass goblet.  Not near the same, so before Rich left for China, we made it a point to go and paint a new birthday plate and cup.  They didn't have a goblet, but the cup turned out pretty cool.  We all helped pick out the colors and Rich and I painted them while the kids painted Christmas ornaments for their ornament this year.  It was a super fun evening and it was great to finally pick it up today.  Can't wait for the next birthday so we can start up the birthday plate tradition again!!!

Kangaroos

Hop around the house like kangaroos today!!  Gotta love that paper chain :)  We waited till it was too dark and we couldn't do it outside, so we did it inside.  I think there is a reason why kangaroos don't live and bounce in houses!!  Too loud and destructive...  But the kids loved it and it got a few wiggles out before bed, and also created a few new wiggles before bed too!

Pumpkin Faces

Our tradition of carving pumpkins is still alive while Rich is half way around the world.  10 of us in the kitchen made for a very loud and fun night of knives, spoons, guts and more as we made out pumpkins come to life.  The kids were pretty quick at choosing the faces they wanted on their pumpkins.  I was missing Rich's help, but was so grateful Matt was home to help out tonight.  He carved 3 out of 4 of the kids pumpkins tonight.  And he even gutted one of them too.  I helped by gutting the rest of them, carving one, and sorting the seeds and guts and cleaning the seeds to prep for roasted pumpkin seeds tomorrow!  Yum!!  The night came through without any mishaps or tears, which is always a bonus!  Happy Halloween !

Good bye old gals!

We have had chickens for a year and a half now.  We started with 7, Twinkle, Sprinkle, MaMa Bear, Cookie Dough, Penelope, Midnight and Midget, then Midget got stepped on and died and we replaced her with Sylvia.  Then during the winter a bobcat came and took care of Penelope, Twinkle and Sprinkle.  This spring we got 4 more.  Mona, Ruby, Ellie, and Flo.  Ellie died of heat in the summer, Mona died of starvation we think because none of the other chickens would let her eat (that or she couldn't see her food with her awesome mo-hawk hair), and Flo turned out to be Fred and was a rooster who crowed all the time.  Our painter ended up taking him home.  So we ended up with 4 good chickens.  We got 3-4 eggs a day.  Light blue, brown and light brown.  Great girls.  Too bad no one ever wanted to take care of them and you know who ended up doing all the work!!!  Well, we knew we had to get rid of them before moving to China, and no better time to do it then when it is nice and warm out still, and not snowing... that was the worst last winter...  So here they are, all boxed up, ready to go to their new home in the country to free range with 5 other happy chickens.  They will love it!!  Poor Peter had a hard time letting go.  He has such a tender heart sometimes.
Bye Bye girls!  It's been fun!

Tick tock, what time is on the clock?

The kids thought this was a boring paper chain today.  'Get to church on time and take a picture to prove it'  Huh, I wonder why they thought that?

Anyway, we tried hard and got to our one o'clock church barely on time.  I secretly took a picture of the clock from our seat, but it was super blurry, but what's a girl to do?  So we ended up in the primary room and took the clock down for a decent picture.  I swore the kids to secrecy, but we took this picture after church and wound back the time.  They were SOOO embarrassed!!  But here's the proof, sort of, that we can get to church on time without Rich!  Ha, HE is the one that always makes us late. Take that!

Pick a Pumpkin, Any Pumpkin

Our paper chain told us to go pick pumpkins today.  And it was super uneventful.  No drama what so ever.  Perfect weather, perfect tractor ride, everyone got to sit by who they wanted to, perfect pumpkins, everyone got just what they wanted, even Gavin with his mini pumpkin as he calls it.  And really, perfectly happy kids.  When does that ever happen??  The worst of it all was convincing Sophie that she shouldn't wear her yellow capri's in case they got dirty, that regular blue jeans, or blue jean shorts as it turned out, would be the better pick.  And I got to hear "you were right" out of her mouth when she wiped her muddy hand on her leg and I reminded her that that could have been on her yellow pants...  I win.  And we all won on this perfect fall afternoon.