Halloweens Past and Present...

What happened to the Halloweens of  yesteryear, filled with

princesses,

 or dragons...

Mermaids

Spiderman,

or angels?

What happened to cute little witches and red power rangers?

This year, we traded all those things in for something just a little creepier...

"Dead Brides" (yes, that's a direct quote),

Vampires (complete with fake blood dripping from his eyes and mouth)
 and

a hand-me-down witch. :)

Happy Halloween!!!

Fold Your Arms

Yesterday morning, as we were getting ready for family prayer, I asked Paige if she could fold her arms. 

And.....she could!!!!

If there is anything cuter or something that will melt your heart any faster, I can't imagine what it could be.  Oh, how I love that precious baby!

Really?

Sunday morning, (a.k.a. Halloween Hangover) found Paige in the kitchen in nothing but a diaper sucking on three lollipops.  Yes, three at once--two in one hand, one in the other.

Ok, so its possible there is a little snot mixed in there too.  But look, she's a kid, its autumn time and that is just what happens. Anyway, I know she is a fiend when it comes to dum dums, and yet somehow I thought it was a good idea to buy the giant $7.00 bag to pass out to any trick or treaters who came to our house.  So after handing out about 12 lollipops, I'm left with 288 dum dums.  Now I'm pondering who on earth I could give them to.  Anyway, you can probably imagine how she looked after eating three sticky suckers.  She was coated about an inch thick in stickiness.  She drools sticky stuff all down her face, down her tummy, she touches her sticky candy all over her legs, she misses her mouth and gets her cheeks covered, she stumbles while she walks and gets the floor sticky (not to mention what she gets on the lollipop), she wipes her eyes, her hair is matted down.  To say every square inch of her body is sticky seems like such an understatement.  Finally, after those three were gone, I gave her a good soaking in the tub and had her cleaned and ready to go.  Not ten minutes later I see her toddle by me in the bedroom with two blue dum dums.  What?!  Fortunately I caught her before she got too sticky and told the kids to throw them away.  I finished putting on  my clothes and lo and behold, there was that cute little baby sucking on those same two dum dums.  Are you kidding me?!  So I took them away and asked the kids, "Why didn't you throw those lollipops away?"  Elise looked at me and said, "Uh...We did."  Uh oh.  Apparently she'd gotten them out of the bathroom trashcan.  That is just too gross!  So I handed them to Elise and asked her to make sure they got really, really thrown away this time...like buried.  Thankfully we made it to church without another sucker incident.  But when I went back in the bathroom I found the trash scattered all over the floor.  Apparently someone had been scavenging.  Seriously.  Someone has got to come get these suckers from me.

Its a Myth

Oh dear.  It finally happened.  My baby found out the truth about Santa Claus.  Not long ago someone was talking to Cory and I.  The kids were around, but not really "in" the conversation, although you know how that goes sometimes.  We were just talking and in the course of the conversation she said something like, "...once we found out Santa wasn't real..."  As soon as she said it, I almost gasped.  I wasn't sure if Elise had heard or not, but I was pretty sure she had.  Sure enough, a few days later, she asked the big question, "Mama, is Santa real?"  

Truthfully, I've always been a little conflicted on the Santa issue.  I never grew up believing, so I don't really know what that's like.  I always feel a little guilt perpetuating the myth and I always struggle with the issue of trying to impress the true meaning of Christmas upon the kids when all they care about are presents from Santa.  But believing in Santa is a magical part of childhood, when you really believe that a big, chubby, old guy in a red suit could climb down your chimney and bring you gifts.  It is such a carefree time of life.

But we all have to grow up, and I sensed this was Elise's moment to do so.  So I responded to her question with my own question, "Well, what do you think?"  And then she told me how she always believed, but then she overheard this friend of ours say what she said, and now she thought maybe it wasn't true.  So, remembering a time a few years ago when I thought the Santa-era might be coming to an end and some great advice I got from my cousin, I mustered up all the excitement I possibly could, gave her a great big hug and said, "You did it!!!  You figured it out!"  I went on to tell her how grown up she was and that even though there wasn't an actual Santa Claus, she got to act like Santa by helping us grown-ups pick out gifts for the other kids.  I think she was pleased with herself for "discovering the secret", but she was definitely a little sad too.  A bittersweet moment for both of us.  We talked a little more and she got a little teary-eyed, but all in all it went okay.  It was just one of those defining moments, when I realize how brief childhood is and how quickly they grow up.

And now that I've had some time to reflect on things, I'm not sure whether I'm glad we did the whole Santa thing, or whether I really wish we'd never started it in the first place.  I really love the magic of Santa and believing he exists, but the letdown of finding out he isn't is pretty sad.  We'll see how things go this Christmas.  We may have one less believer in Santa, but we'll have one more Christmas elf.

State Fair

Every year, one of our favorite outings as a family is the State Fair.  We're there rain or shine, no matter what.  We even went last year with a few week old baby.  And it was worth it. :)  This year, it was quite a bit chillier than previous years, especially first thing in the morning.  We all bundled up pretty good, but some of us wished we'd bundled up a little more.

Merry Grace, Paige and Elise...My Girls!

Charles Allen, Emmy, Elise, Marleigh, Ian, Merry Grace and Kyleigh--the big kids!

Here are two of the little kids--Parker and Ally--both getting a taste of those yummy fingers.

And another little kid--Paige--with her yummy thumb.  Those little ones are too cute!

The kids rode rides, snacked on good fair food, got their faces painted, enjoyed being with family,  held baby chicks, rode more rides, ate more food and had more fun than should be allowed.  In fact, we had so much fun that after a long day at the fair, we just didn't want the fun to end and decided to all go eat pizza together.

Here are Cory and Paige before that rowdy little baby girl had to be taken out.  Eating out may be a rarity with this little rascal.  She reminds me a lot more of Ian than Elise and Merry Grace when it comes to restaurant behavior and etiquette.

Even more fun was the fact that it was family night at the pizza place and our friendly neighborhood clown made these cool balloon hats for all the kids.

What a fun day it was, just like every year before this one.  Its just a shame it only comes once a year. :)

Friday Thoughts

Can I just say that I LOVE getting something on sale?  I was talking to my brother the other day and was going through how cheaply I had gotten everything I was wearing.  I had on a shirt that cost $1.99, jeans for $6.98, a sweater for $4.98, sock for $0.33, and shoes for $6.48.  Yes, I just feel good when I get something on sale.  The other day I popped into Kmart and found some shoes for baby Paige that were on sale for 50% off, which would mean I'd pay $2.00 for them.  When I checked out, the total was less than I expected, so I looked over my receipt and saw the shoes had only cost me $0.01.  That right--a penny!!!!  I think it was an error in the way someone had entered it into the computer, but they sold it to me anyway.  Nice, right?  I've also been getting a few things for the kids for next year and haven't paid more than $2.00 for any shirt or pair of shorts I've gotten.  I really love clothes, but I love it even more when I know everything I bought was a bargain!

We've been working on getting flu shots for everyone, not the swine kind, but the seasonal ones.  Ian and Elise got theirs at the same time.  They did great and didn't even make a face.  It could have helped that they were trying to be braver than Uncle Adam or the fact that they were getting to pick out a pack of gum or piece of candy afterwards, but whatever the ultimate motivation, they were troopers.  Paige had hers the next day and she didn't make a peep either.  She squinched up her face, but never fussed at all.  Then yesterday I took Merry Grace.  I already knew this was going to be tougher then the other ones.  Merry Grace cried when Paige got hers.  She covered her ears at all the other flu shots, worried that someone would cry.  We went to the minute clinic at CVS pharmacy.  First of all, we had to wait for about 45 minutes which was torture.  When we walked into the room, Merry Grace immediately attached herself to my leg and began sobbing.  This was well before we even got started thinking about a shot.  By the time the nurse got around to giving the shot, I was holding Merry Grace on my lap with her arms pinned to her side while she struggled to get free.  When the needle went in she actually screamed louder (I didn't think it was possible) and then completely stopped crying.  I guess she realized it wasn't as terrible as she'd imagined.  Boy, am I glad to have that out of the way.  Now I can just look forward to taking her to get the swine one.  How fun. :)

 Here are the cute cousins this past Sunday.  If they get any sassier, any fancier or any sweeter, I don't know what I will do!

In the afternoon, they rode around in the jeep for a while.  Thankfully, there always seems to be room for one more.

Cory put the training wheels back on Ian's old bike and Merry Grace took up riding right away.  She was great at it and loved the feel of being on a big kid's bike.  She kept saying, "I'm pretty good at riding bikes!", in her cute little voice.

Oh my word, sweet little Merry Grace does love to take care of that baby.  She is so good at it too!

We made Halloween masks the other night.  Merry Grace's is a little too big, but she doesn't seem to mind at all.

   

After a bit, she pushed it on top of her head like sunglasses and her hair bushed out behind it.  So cute and funny!

Elise and Ian made them too.  Elise was only concerned about fashion!  She wanted hers to look stylish and was slightly disappointed when it bulged out a little once she put it on.  She was a good sport, though, and can't really be blamed for the fact that her mother isn't a professional mask maker.  Ian wanted his scary which means NO GLITTER.  Finally, after coloring on his black mask with a black marker for about 20 minutes, he decided a small amount of green glitter might actually be scary.  I don't know, though.  I think he might be too cute to be scary.

Roasting Marshmallows

Our Halloween activity for today was roasting marshmallows.  Tonight was the perfect night for it.  We had the best time just relaxing, laughing and being together.  Cory got a great fire going and we had a feast of toasted marshmallows.

Before the charcoal burnt down to coals, we had a roaring fire.  Merry Grace didn't quite have it figured out that avoiding the fire was the way to go.

As you can see, hers quickly caught on fire.  Ian tried blowing them out for her.  She seemed really surprised that this is what happened.  Who would've thought?

Ah yes.  Nice and crispy.  Charcoaled marshmallow anyone?

Alas, somehow she managed to burn the next two too.  I love the look on her face.  She's in complete disbelief and annoyance.

Elise got hers perfectly golden brown.  Merry Grace's are burnt to a crisp.  Again.  She's getting frustrated...

And (believe it or not) she did it again!  At least by this point she could see the humor in it. :)

Finally she just had someone else cook one for her.  This one was yummy!

Ian burned several too.  His were slightly more intentional than Merry Grace's.  And he would eat his like this.

He's feigning shock and surprise in this picture.  Actually, he was thrilled that he could "make fire."  Afterwards, he referred to himself as "the man."

Ian found a frog hopping around and Elise (being the animal lover that she is) tried to feed it a marshmallow.  I've never known frogs to be big marshmallow eaters, but I think it is the thought that counts.

This is the part where Cory went "stone blind" from the flash from my camera.  And people think my kids got their dramatic streak from me.  Ha!

After marshmallows, the kids rode their bikes around the yard.  I just had to post this picture because Elise is just too dang cute. :)

It was a fun Friday night activity and we all loved being together as a family.  Earlier in the evening we made a quick run to the store and as we were all getting out of the car and getting across the parking lot Elise said, "I'll bet some people would see us and think, 'Wow, four kids is a lot.  That's a lot of work.' But its not a lot of work for me."  I'm glad to know four kids isn't too much for her.  I'll check back in with her when the kids are actually hers.  I think four kids is a lot of work.  But I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. :)

Help Wanted?

Paige was in rare form this morning, being a little fussy, very much a busy-body, and getting into everything.  I offered to let Cory take her to work with him, but for some reason he wasn't interested.  Something about her needing to brush up her resume...Frankly, I'm stunned.  This baby is amazing.  She can drool on your keyboard, wipe snot on your nice clothes, use her sticky fingers (literally) to go through your mail and touch your computer screen.  She can spill your water bottle on the carpet, wad up your important papers, eat your important papers, and pull out all your USB cables.  She can leave fingerprints on your camera or ipod, dial China on your cell phone and pop the keys off your keyboard.  And this is all before lunch!!!!  How could someone possibly not need this kind of help around the office?

But seriously.  Could you really say "No" to this face?

Temper, Temper

Oh my goodness!!!  My baby has got a temper!  She is a feisty little thing.  She is walking really well now, usually preferring it to crawling, although she still does some of that.  She is on the move, getting into lots of messes (oh how she loves pulling things out of boxes, bags, baskets or containers!) and letting you know when she doesn't get her way.  Yes, we have seen a fit or two...or three. :)  But she is still the cutest, snuggliest baby and we spoil her rotten.  Hmmm....maybe that is the reason for the temper? :)

Look at those kissable cheeks!  We can't see them and not kiss them.  I think she might get more kisses in a day than any other baby in the history of the world.  But wouldn't you want to kiss them too?

Merry Grace loves pushing Paige around in her little doll stroller.  They both have fun.  Paige gets some attention and Merry Grace gets to be a little Mama.

Would you look at that face?  This is her "I'm up to something" expression.  We see it a lot, but only in glimpses. :)

Yes, her hair is long enough for a little sprout on the top of her head.  It is so cute I can barely stand it.  Even Charles Allen thought her hair was pretty, and he knows something about pretty hair.

Ghostly Marshmallows

So for Family Home Evening refreshments last night, we made these Ghostly Marshmallows.  They were really, really, really quick and easy to make.  I'm not a huge fan of eating marshmallows in anything besides rice krispie treats or smores, but these were actually really tasty.  I had one marshmallow dipped in the warm white chocolate, so that it melted the marshmallow a little bit.  Yum!!!  The kids had a lot of fun with this, and it went so quickly that we even made bedtime.  SCORE! :)

Halloween is Coming...

I love that there are creative people out there to give me lots of fun ideas to do with my own kids.  This month, we're doing a countdown to Halloween.

So during conference this weekend, I had the kids decorate strips of paper to make this Halloween paper chain.  Then we wrote a fun activity on each one to do each day as we countdown to Halloween.  I got a lot of my ideas here, but changed out a few with some of my own and depending on what we found on sale at Michael's. :)  Tonight we are making these Ghostly Marshmallows.  It will just be a fun way to welcome fall and get ready for Halloween.  Yippee!!