Individual shots

Ryan wanted to be a boxer. I couldn't find any cheap boxing costumes that I liked, so I made him this robe and shorts. I swear he was the most devonair boxer ever!
We found this idea on family fun.com. Julia told me that she liked this costume because of all the face paint. It's funny, I thought she looked a lot like a jack-o-lantern, but we kept hearing scarecrow, autumn princess, all sorts of random things.
Emmy was the most precious fire-fighter ever. This was actually the costume I bought for Ben last year, but he refused to wear any costume. Emmy saw it hanging up in my closet a few weeks ago and fell in love with the idea of being a fire-fighter for Halloween. It came with a little toy fire extinguisher which shot water like a squirt gun. I bet you can imagine how popular that was, and how fast it got broken!

Individual shots

Here's Benjamin. Everyone kept asking him which lion he was. I heard Lion King, Aslan, the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz, etc. But all Ben wanted to be was "a nice lion." He kept on holding onto the tail on the costume. I think he was a little bit out of his comfort zone, a little bit asthmatic, and a little bit tired.
My plump and juicy strawberry. Look at that cheezer grin, that's her new favorite face to make. I have to make a note here that Haddie took five steps all by herself today, and is actively practicing her walking. She's up, she's mobile. . .time to babyproof!

visitor

I ran Ryan's lunch over to the school this morning, and a visitor followed me home. He didn't have a collar on, and I wasn't quite sure what to do. We called animal control, and they were absolutely no help at all. We made posters and put them up all over. I had no idea how long he had been stray for, so we went to the store and bought him some food and some shampoo. I gave him a bath, because the kids felt bad that he had to stay outside, but I didn't want him in the house spreading fleas. So, we bathed him and fed him. By 3:30 even Ryan (who's always been afraid of dogs) was in love with him. When his owners called to claim him I had five broken hearts on my hands. Even Haddie loved our guest. I think I'm alone in the relief I felt when they called. I was pretty sure I didn't need one more living thing to care for!

Costumes

Here are my sweeties, they all looked SO great. Ben was a lion, Julia was a jack-o-lantern, Ryan was a boxer, Haddie was a strawberry and Emmy was a firefighter. Awesomeness!
Here's my fabulous family waiting for the other two wards' trunk-or-treat to start. Our ward, for whatever reason, doesn't do one. So, we always just impose on the other wards. But we bring a lot of candy, so that makes it okay!

Spooky Dinner

This was our festive Halloween dinner. We had "worms for brains" and "eyeball salad". It was kind of fun. I also planned on making a graveyard out of rice krispy treats and cookies, but I didn't make it that far, and now the rice krispy treats are almost gone. . .sigh.

The return of danger baby

This is Haddie's new favorite trick. She walks up the bottom wood part of the banister instead of using the stairs. What a crazy! Too be honest, I'm surprised she hasn't broken any bones yet, she's always attempting to scale something.

Pumpkins

We finally carved our pumpkins tonight. I'm always hesitant, because I'm usually the one that ends up doing all of the work. This year was pretty nice though. They, for the most part, scooped all the guts out of their own pumpkins. Emily and Julia drew me pictures of what they wanted their pumpkins to look like, and Ryan carved his own! It was a stellar pumpkin carving session!

W-A-H-O-O!

We went to the store today, and while we were there (even though we're poor) I decided to try on a couple pair of jeans because for the last couple of weeks if I run or jump my pants almost fall off :P
I grabbed a couple of size 10s, because I had been in 12s. Then on a whim I grabbed a size 8. To my utter astonishment, the size 8 fit! It was slightly tight, but it fit! I'm still in shock to be quite honest, the last time I remember buying size 8 pants was when Scott and I were dating--that's 10 years ago folks. So, if you're trying to lose some weight hang in there and keep trying--if I can do it (as addicted to caramels and ice cream as I was) anyone can!

Gratitude

Well, I'm working on gratitude. As I mentioned in a previous post, things are TIGHT finacially for us right now. So, I am trying to remember that things are definitely better than they once were. This is a scrapbook page I made of our first apartment. It was literally one room about 6 ft.x 6ft. The bathroom was SO small that the sink was out in the main room. You would walk in the door and have literally inches to scoot between the bed and the tiny refrigerator. Next to the refrigerator was a sucky gas stove, then the tiny bathroom, the sink, a tiny closet, my desk and you were back to the bed. We literally had 2 cubic feet of free space in the whole apartment. It was SO hot and we couldn't figure out why. The day we were moving out we discovered a knob on the old fashioned heater--too late to do us any good.
Oddly enough, our landlord was a former mission companion of Scott's father. We know refer to that landlord venomously as "the slum lord of Provo."
Another thing I'm grateful for is my own washer and dryer. We didn't have a set of our own until Emily was about a year old. I can't tell you what a nightmare it was to pack everything up (with a weeks worth of laundry from two small kids, a spitty baby and two adults) into my double stroller in the dead of winter with snow and ice all over the walks and streets and trying to hurry and get the laundry into the washers because I miraculously got all three of my kids to nap at the same time, but not wanting to leave them alone for long in the skanky apartment complex we lived in because it was cheap. Just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach!

The Pumpkin Patch

So, my friend Caroline and I decided that it would be a fabulous idea to haul our kids to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch on Columbus Day. So you can accurately picture the experience I'm about the relate, you need to know that Caroline has four children between the ages of 11 and 5, and I of course have five children between the ages of almost 9 and almost 1. We pack everyone up and we're all excited. The kids to go see the pumpkins and the wood cut-outs of their favorite characters, jump on the jolly jumpers, get their faces painted, etc. And Caroline and I were pumped to have something to occupy our children's time for part of the no school day. Well, we get there and it is completely packed. We weren't even there fifteen minutes before we realized that it just wasn't going to happen. We had kids running in all directions, so excited the couldn't even control themselves. There were LONG lines for the jumpers. Anyway, that's why we only have two pictures. Caroline and I looked at each other and knew we had to get out of there. Instead we ate our picnic lunches at a park and headed to the dollar theater where half of our group watched Wall-E and the other half watched Journey to the Center of the Earth. Ben took the picture of Mickey and Minnie. I have NO CLUE who took the other one (and just in case you are wondering that is me in the pink shirt, and NO I haven't gained weight back, so don't panic! Yesterday I weighed in at 144, so I don't know why I look so fat in this picture).

My first jewelry

Thanks to my beautiful, talented and wonderful friend Marie, I made my first necklace and earring set today. It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it. I only wish we weren't quite so poor so I could go buy some beads and make another set! The skirt off to the right is part of an outfit I never knew what jewelry to wear with. It was my inspiration for the set and I am so excited to wear it together!

Give me some money!

Yesterday and today we had a garage sale. I told myself if I made $100 I would be happy. I raked in $320! I was ecstatic!
It's safe to say that I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with money. I love to spend it, I hate when it's gone, and it goes MUCH too quickly. As of thirty minutes ago I have spent all of that money. Pay tithing, allowances, two dollars to each kid to spend at neighbors sales, I had a little I needed to repay Scott and Julia, I had to buy food, had some pictures printed because that's one of their favorite things to look at during sacrament meeting. It was a community garage sale, and I found a chair and a rice cooker at my neighbors that were just too good to pass up! Pay for another week of Ryan and Julia's school lunches, buy some containers, baby oil and baby shampoo to send my sisters their first batch of homemade wipes, and WHAM-O! I am officially broke until Friday :( (Insert the sound of distraught weeping here)

A baby with a baby

I ran across this picture recently, and I was stunned. I look like a little girl--a baby with a baby. Looking back I realize now how young I was. Not just young in terms of age, but young emotionally, young spiritually, young in my own identity. I can see a lot of the reasons why people in the world think it unwise to start a family at such a young age. In some ways I agree with them, but there is definitely something to be said for putting yourself off in such a dramatic way. When you are a parent, you have to sacrifice so much for the good of that baby. The more kids you have, the more you have to focus on putting the needs of others first. You better understand how Heavenly Father must feel when he looks down on us, struggling through this life. Sometimes I want SO badly to step in and take all of life's cruel consequences away from my children, but I know I cannot. I know that they must learn for themselves. I guess I'm really just kind of thinking while I blog. What I really wanted to say was. . .even though I don't act accordingly at times, I am SO grateful to be a mother. I love each of my children so deeply and even though it is often monotonous and never-ending and brain-numbing and utterly frustrating, I wouldn't give it up for anything. Scott and I were watching a minister on TV the other day, Joel Osteen. He is the most positive person I have ever seen. He loves life, he loves good, everything is good and beautiuful. Watching him I decided that is what I want to become, that is what I must become if I want to survive the times in which we live. God is good, God is gracious, my life is full of blessings of which I am not worthy. I want to strive to become worthy of all I have been given. I want to see the beauty in each new day, the miracle that is each person you meet, the blessings that pour down from Heaven.

Handbag Planet.com

My friend Alyson (thanks Aly!) sent me an email about this contest at a new website called handbagplanet.com. On October 15th they are going to give away 24 free handbags, one every hour for 24 hrs. They are darling! You should go check it out and register for the contest!

Tagged #2

Suzanne tagged me. Sorry it took me so long to post it. It has taken me forever to figure out how to post the dumb picture.
1. Not many people know this, but I am a professional snowflake creator!
2. I broke my collar bone when I was four, and my arm when I was six.
3. I wanted to serve a mission. When I went in to see the bishop, he told me to, "fast and pray for my eternal companion." I was peeved. I happened upon Jacob 4:6 which says, "seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand." I did what the bishop said, four days later Scott called me to, "thank me for something," and felt the spirit tell him to ask me out. The rest is history.
4. I think really my only fear, is the fear of failure.
5. I have loved learning to play the organ in sacrament meeting. I have always loved doing anything that involves music.
6. My mother was a pack-rat when I was growing up, and so to balance things out I'm so anti-clutter sometimes I throw things away I later wish I hadn't.
7. When my family and I were moving from Wyoming to Wisconsin, my dad didn't see a height sign for a bridge, and he crashed into it. The top of our U-haul literally peeled off like the lid on a can of sardines. It was not a good thing, but it was kind of cool because we could hear the police sirens what seemed like seconds later. It was kind of like being on a TV show. An experience I will definitely always remember.

I tag Sarah Ebbert, Kristi Mayer, Janene Fordham, Audrey Petersen, Amy Schmutz, Amelia Carlson, and Nicole Cunningham.

Tagged

As a recipient of this award, there are rules to follow. I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others! The questions are as follows:

1. Where is your cell phone? place
2. Where is your significant other? couch
3. Your hair color? non-descript
4. Your mother? busy
5. Your father? reader
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? teaching
8. Your dream/goal? Christ-like
9. The room you're in? kitchen
10. Your hobby? music
11. Your fear? failure
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? here
14. What you're not? scheduled
15. One of your wish-list items? clothes
16. Where you grew up? everywhere
17. The last thing you did? family
18. What are you wearing? T-shirt
19. Your TV? old
20. Your pet? none
21. Your computer? Dell
22. Your mood? stressed
23. Missing someone? Always
24. Your car? van
25. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? hard
28. Love someone? many
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? tonight
31. Last time you cried? ?

The bloggers that I'm nominating:
Angela Bowles
Suzanne Graham
Tiffany Hawke
Kristie Yorke
Codee Bell
Stephanie Stout
Stephanie Grimstead

Now, for you recipients of this award, here's the deal:
* Display your award.
* Link back to the person who gave you the award.
* Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
* Put links to those blogs on yours.
* Leave a message on the blogs of the people you've nominated.
* Enjoy your award!

Cuteness, earrings and one dapper boy

I snapped this photo the other day because they looked SO cute happily sitting on the couch together, all ready for bed.
On Friday, Emily, Ben, Hadley and I met Scott at the mall. We got there first and the two little girls got their ears pierced. Now they look SO pretty! Then we had a festive lunch with daddy, ran some errands and made it home by the skin of our teeth in time for the big kids to come home from school. Whew!

I couldn't resist. I just had to take a picture! Ben's Sunday clothes were getting pretty ratty! For special time last month, he and I went to Burlington Coat Factory to pick out some new Sunday clothes for him (you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find dress clothers here, aaahhhh!). He fell in love with these instantly and when he put them on today he just looked so dapper, I had to snap a pic!