My favorite things-walking!

I really love the location of my house. Location Location Location. That's what they say when you are buying a house. We tried to do that and one of the things that I love about our location is how close we are to our church and the kids schools. I love it, and I am reminded how much I love it each time I send them out the door.
I love that my kids walk. Walk to church. Walk to mutual. Walk to school. Walk home from school. Elementary and Junior High. Walk in the sunshine. Walk in the rain. Walk in the snow. Call it unfair, and sometimes they do, but they just walk no matter the weather. I love that it gives them a little bit of exercise. I love that they have a little bit of time while they are walking home to unwind and release some energy. I love that they can socialize, not only with other neighbor kids, but with each other. I just love that they are out in this beautiful world no matter what mother nature is throwing at them. Oh, and I guess I love that it's one less place I have to chauffeur them around to. Yep, walking to school, one of my favorite things, for sure!

Gotta love it-especially when it's over!

Flag football is my boys favorite sport. All three of them love it. All three of them participated in it this year. All three of them did well. I attended as many games as I could but still stick by my rule that this one is for them, to just have fun. Mom's attendance at games is totally optional. And even with this rule I found myself at more games than I thought I would because they love it so much and are so fun to watch. At Tyler's age they put together their own teams, so this team of 'Tree Huggers" are some of his closest friends. They had a blast and Tyler was awesome.

Brandon had a great season and was also on a team named the "Tree Hugger Juniors" Don't even ask. I have no idea. He was in his glory, he could play football all year long.

I didn't get a picture of Bryson's whole team, but I did get several of him and his, oh so handsome, coach. Bryce had some great plays and several amazing touchdowns!

And now it's over. Although it was fun and we lucked out and didn't have any games in the snow (much to my boys dismay) it was a busy season with each boy having 2 games a week. Yes, that means 6 games a week. It was crazy. But it was fun. And I'm sure we will be in the same situation next fall. Until then, I'm going to try to figure out what to do with all my free nights!

Thoughts on a Sunday

*You know it's bad when you wake up with a "lack of sleep" headache. It has been a very long, tiring, exciting, party filled, fun, and exhausting week. We did so much. We ate so much. I am glad its over.

*I am going to spend all next week catching up on my blogging. October in our house is filled with fun things and lots of traditions- almost as much as December, it sometimes seems. I like to tell myself things will slow down. I know its not entirely true, but a girl can dream. At least all the sports have stopped until January, so that does open up a few nights, but they are quickly filling up I am finding. Oh well, such is the life with 7 children.

*I cleaned out some of my kids drawers this week. That cycle of rotating clothes for kids never seems to end. Get out the summer. Put away the shorts. Pull out the winter. Do they each have enough hoodies? How about coats? What doesn't fit? What can I send down to the next child? Does it have holes? DI or try to sell to Kid to Kid? Do they own any socks without holes? Who needs underwear? Is this even still in style? Who cares, are they still going to wear it? As I was sifting through Alyssa's pajama drawer I noticed one of her favorite nighties. I looked at the size. It was a 4T. Hello, she is 8 years old! I took it and placed it one drawer down in Ashlyn's pajama drawer, where, apparently, it still will have about 5 good years left.

*The other day I was dropping Ethan off at kindergarten. I pulled up to the school and he got out of the car. He turned and said, "Bye mom, bye ash." Ashlyn then piped up and said, "Bye Eto, I love you." He replied with a very sincere, "I love you too Ash!" Be still my heart. My heart was happy all day long.

*I took my boys to get haircuts this week. They all needed it. Why don't I know how to cut boys hair? It would sure save me a bundle. Anyways, Tyler noticed a sign at Fantastic Sams that has had us chuckling all week long. It said "WALK IN, STRUT OUT!" It has been funny to watch my boys mimic 'strutting' around with their new haircuts. They make me laugh.

*I attended traffic school this week. I have never been before. I hope to never go again. Really all it was was asking the police officer questions. I had a few, but never was able to ask them. Instead people went off on a 'right to bear arms' tangent. One man's question was, "So, I own a rifle and I drive a motorcycle. Will I get in trouble if I strap my rifle to my back and ride around the streets on my motorcycle with my rifle on my back?" What? What in the world does that have to do with anything?! (By the way the answer is NO, if he has a gun permit and if that there rifle on his back is not loaded) I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the room who did not have a concealed weapon permit. It was a complete waste of an hour, but my ticket is now wiped off my record, so I guess it was worth it. I guess.

*I love having a kindergartner. Everything is so new and exciting to him. For example, library day is big news and a very anticipated day each week. The first assembly he went to was huge. He came home bursting with the information about how he was never going to be a bully. This past week was red ribbon week. He could hardly contain himself. Backwards day, hat day, tie day, and crazy sock day was practically more than he could handle. My other kids were like, whatever, I'll just wear this old hat, but not Ethan! He was truly excited and could hardly wait for school each day to wear exactly what he was supposed to to show he was never going to take drugs. And to cap it off, his first ever Halloween parade was precious. He was beaming. If only they could hold on to that enthusiasm forever!

*Speaking of that cute little kindergartner. One day this week I was straightening out his bed. I pulled off his pillow to pull up his comforter a little when I noticed two small treasure chests under his pillow. I recognized them immediately. They were those little chests they give kids when they get their teeth pulled. I would know, my kids have had about 1000 teeth pulled between them all. All of them except for Ethan and Ashlyn. So these chests belonged to Brandon, who had these particular teeth pulled months ago. I guess he was saving the teeth. Well, Ethan saw them and devised a plan to outsmart the tooth fairy. He decided he was going to try to trick her with these impostor teeth and get himself a few dollars. His plan was foiled when mom found the chests. I asked, "Ethan, what are these doing here?" With a very guilty and sheepish look he said, "I don't know" I decided to let this little white lie go, because well, he's cute and pretty smart, I mean he really doesn't have any other way to earn money. What's a boy to do? Try to trick the tooth fairy, that's what! What he doesn't realize is that the tooth fairy is one smart woman!

*I have a huge zit in the middle of my forehead. Nice! I have been telling people I am being a teenager for Halloween. It makes them smile and it makes me feel better, just a little!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween-on the Sabbath

Halloween was on a Sunday this year. We had done all of our partying the day before, but I still wanted to do a little something special,

after all, it was Halloween.

We had a simple yummy Halloween night dinner. Homemade bread sticks, spiced apples, fresh garden salad and of coarse.....

..dinner in a pumpkin.

I felt like we were back in Little House days again (remember we are reading this series right now) Everything on our table could have come from our garden or crops. We even scraped out the pumpkin and ate it as our vegetable. It was very "Fallish" "Harvesty" and "Old Fashioned"

But, by far, the most significant thing that happened on Halloween this year was this handsome young man receiving the priesthood. I couldn't have been more proud of Brandon.

He was prepared, he was worthy and he is ready to serve!

It has been a great Halloween indeed!

All Hallows Eve

It was kind of fun having Halloween on a Sunday this year (sorry Sarah). One of the perks of living in Utah is the whole town celebrates on Saturday and, as usual, we dragged it out and celebrated in some way the whole weekend. We carved pumpkins Saturday afternoon and then had our traditional Halloween night dinner. I have tried different things for this dinner, but this one is what we will stick with for the time being, because my kids will actually eat it-all of it, in fact. The menu: mummy dogs, rotten teeth (baked beans) and slimy slugs (mandarin oranges). Simple yet satisfying.

We then began the task of getting everyone into their costumes for, like, the third time. Luckily, my older ones didn't need much help. This year we found roaming around our house a baby (a costume invented by Brandon to break the status quo, since only girls in 6th grade dressed up like babies every year. He thought, why can't there be boy babies? He rounded up some friends and the first band of boy babies was born at Legacy Elementary!), a groovy hippie, the beautiful Belle, Vakama (a mighty bionicle, in case you were wondering), and a very fancy dancer.

The storm hit about an hour before trick or treating time. It was a doozy. It was raining so hard and coming down sideways. Incredible. Beautiful weather the two days prior and now this. Alyssa cried when I told her she couldn't wear the intricate Belle costume that had been handmade by my friend for her daughter. It would get ruined for sure (At least she got to wear it to school). She reluctantly and tearfully pulled an old torn Belle costume out of the dress up box and put it on. I told her it wouldn't matter because it would be covered by her winter coat. That didn't make it any better.

Trevor scoured the house and came up with 5 umbrellas. Some were in pretty bad shape, as most umbrellas are in our house, but they would just have to do. He also grabbed the huge beach umbrella and toted that around. It drew a few laughs, but kept us dry. I told the kids this would be a Halloween they would remember, kind of like the one where it was totally snowing. Oh, and Bryce couldn't wear his hippie wig, it wasn't really conducive to pouring rain, so he was a hippie wearing a beanie.

It worked.

We then hit the streets, I didn't think any of us would last long, but I was wrong. The rain amazingly stopped, the air warmed, and for the first time we didn't have to carry a little one around. Ashlyn loved it. She looked up at Trevor after a few houses and said, "Halloween is FUN!" And fun it was. We trick or treated throughout the whole ward. Is there anything better than being outside with all your neighbors milling around, getting so much candy and the smell of pumpkins burning on the doorsteps?

I don't think so.

We made it back to our cozy house dry and content. Then the traditional candy inventory and sorting started. I totally remember doing this as a kid.

Halloween.

Memories.

Candy.

Being together.

That's what Halloween is really all about to us-

and we love it!

School Parties-Gotta Love Em!

You gotta love being a room mom. Especially in Kindergarten. They are so excited about everything. I tried really hard not to be a room mom this year, but here I am, the room mom for Ethan's class. I really love getting to watch my kids in their classes and I always love a good party so here is a recap of Ethan's first school holiday party. We turned on some fun Halloween music and let the games begin.
We had one station that focused on spiders. They played pass the spider, which happened to be frozen in an ice cube. They had to pass it until it melted and then they got to keep the spider.

In the spider station they also made cute little film canister spiders. Finding film canisters is not very easy now a days. I had to go to like 6 stores to get enough. But they turned out cute and were easy enough for these little 5 year olds to make.

The next station was a pumpkin station. They started out dipping their little thumbs in orange paint and then making a bunch of thumbprints on a brown piece of paper. We then wrote "Ethan's Pumpkin Patch" on the top and drew in some stems and vines. They then played "Don't Eat Jack." Always a favorite!

The third station was a witch station. They each got a pre-made green paper airplane (thank you Trevor!) that was their witch. They then tried to fly their witch through the moon. They loved this. I think they could have played this the whole time. They also had a little activity where they each were given a piece of bubble gum, got to chew it up, and then stick it on a picture of a witch, making her wart.

We ended the party by making a fun witches brew (they had each been asked to bring in a can of non-caffeinated soda to add to the brew. I also brought extra in case someone forgot). It bubbled and brewed as they each added their soda and they claimed it was delicious! We supplemented our brew with some bones and blood (Little Ceaser bread sticks and sauce) and then headed off to the costume parade. Ethan was happy, so I will call it a success. And that green witch is still flying all over our house!

Old Fashioned Halloween Party

I worked with a nurse once who had the same birthday as Brandon. October 28th. I remember her telling me that she had a Halloween birthday party every year. Her mom never asked her what kind of party she wanted, it was always just a Halloween party. I have always remembered that and made a resolve that Brandon would grow up having normal kid birthday parties. And he did. We had it all, blues clues, veggie tales, spiderman, pirates, star wars, and of coarse, football parties to name a few. This year, his 12th birthday I decided it was time for a good old fashioned Halloween party. Of coarse, I ran the idea by him, and he gave his consent. So here we go.

We held almost the whole party in our garage, which was fabulous. We started out by guessing the weight of this great warty pumpkin I bought. The winner, determined after we brought down the bathroom scale, won a great gummy brain that I found at Walgreens.

Of coarse we had to carve pumpkins. But these were 12 year old boys, so we did some extreme pumpkin carving. We had an electrocuted pumpkin, scar face, roadkill pumpkin, cannibal pumpkin (he is eating a little pumpkin), vomiting pumpkin and I don't know what that last one was. They loved it.

You can't have a Halloween party without the donuts on a string game.

Bobbing for apples-another favorite!

Most of the boys had never bobbed for apples. Probably because of sanitary reasons, but oh well, what they don't know won't hurt them right? They thought it was great and wanted to do it again and again, and I let them, becasue that's the kind of party thrower I am.

More party--and a little football

Let's continue. (Someday I will learn how to put on more than 5 pictures at a time, Sarah where are you?)

This was a Survivor type team game. Each team had one caller standing on a stool. The rest of the team (tribe) was blindfolded and the caller had to direct them to pick up a skeleton piece and then go lay it down to assemble the full skeleton. Tyler was yelling out encouragement and updates pretending he was Jeff Probst. Pretty funny.

Witches brew. They had to work as a team and suck up all of these creatures with a straw. Once they sucked it up they had to run around a pillar in the garage and then put it into a cauldron. They were out of breath and kind of lightheaded. Now that's a good game.

We served some treats outside. Dipped oreos (which, by the way, kind of went unappreciated by the boys) nachos and drinks.

We then headed into the kitchen for the only inside activity. Brandon didn't want cake (he claims it's tasteless) so we made ice cream cone witches. A little childish for 12 year olds, but they enjoyed it and gobbled their witches right up. We also opened presents inside and then headed right back outside for some........


...FOOTBALL! Not very Halloweenish, but I think that's probably what they wanted to do most of all! We all had a fun time and I was able to squeeze in one Halloween party for my wonderful Halloween boy!

Twelve years!

It has been 12 years, 12 great years. Over the last 12 years I have watched this boy develop his taste for fine foods, namely steak, shrimp and salmon. For 12 years I have watched this boy try out new trends like under armor, converse high tops and black socks. Over the last 12 years I have been to hundreds, it could be thousands, of baseball, basketball, soccer and football games to cheer this athlete on. He has never disappointed.

Over the last 12 years I have received many precious notes from this boy who loves his mama and his family. Over the last 12 years I have rarely had to help with homework, he is a self-starter, very organized and a great student. Over the past 12 years I have received too many compliments to count on what a great boy I have.

It seems like it has taken 12 years for some of his teeth to come out AND come in. It has been for 12 years that I have admired this boys talents and kindness and testimony. In the last year I have seen him reach out to others who truly needed a friend, he has been an answer to another mother's prayer,

I am sure of it.

It has been an amazing 12 years.

Twelve years of Brandon.

Twelve years of having a son that I adore.

Twelve years of watching him grow and develop into a fantastic young man

with so much more yet to come.

Happy Birthday Brandon!

I love you!

(even if you are a hobo!)

When Fall and Winter collide!

We had our first snowstorm of the season. It was October 27th and it was amazing! It started in the middle of the night. I didn't even know it was supposed to snow. At about 6 am Trevor told me to be careful driving today because it had snowed. I said, "It did?" He said yes, can't you see how light it is outside and listen it is so quiet. I love snowstorms. They are quiet and oh so beautiful.

This picture just reminded me that it is still Fall, not Winter. With the leaves still falling off into the white snow. I had to drive my kids to piano lessons in the morning and I just couldn't get over how beautiful everything looked. You would think I have never seen a snowstorm before. But ones this early have a different look because there are still so many trees with leaves, so the snow sticks to all the leaves and the view is breathtaking. I really couldn't get enough. I drove around after dropping the kids off for a while just looking at everything. What an amazing world we live in.

It was like a winter wonderland and so cozy. I knew that it would all be gone by the time the kids got home from school, that's how these early storms go. And it was. All gone. But I got some good pictures, enjoyed my little solo drive around my little town, made myself some hot chocolate and find myself looking forward to the next one. I just need my boys to mow one more time before this stuff really sticks! I think they will have time. After all, it is still October!

Tradition Tuesday-We've been shot!

Let's face it. Not all traditions are fun around here. This one in particular is probably my kids least favorite tradition and yet I force them to do it every year in October. We call it Flu shot Family Night and it is anything but fun. We all shuffle into the Health Department Clinic and Trevor and I start to fill out our 9 forms-one for each and every one of us. This takes a little time, time for the kids to get even more nervous than they already were, while sitting in the sterile mediciny smelling office. (They even claim they have seen dead bugs in the corners, this adds to the not so happy feeling they have about being there.) The nurse will then come out and asks us to send the littlest one in first, the one who should be the most scared. We opt to not send the littlest and we send Bryce. Definitely the one the most scared of needles.
He was crying before he even got up out of his chair to walk down to get the shot. He is truly petrified of needles (thank goodness he is not Tyler!). Before he could even blurt out that he wasn't ready yet, she was done and he didn't feel a thing. All of those tears over nothing.

Brandon appears brave in this picture, but if you were there in real life you would have seen his cheek quivering with anticipation and fear. Again, unwarranted, it was over before he knew it.

Ethan is one of my bravest. He didn't get nervous. He has never cried. Just marched right in, pulled up his sleeve and got the job done.

Ashlyn had no idea what was going on. She saw the camera and dutifully smiled at me. And then she got shot. She looked over at her arm, saw the band aid, hopped off daddy's lap and walked down the hall. All her siblings were cheering for her because she didn't cry. When she saw them, heard their praise and then looked at the band aid again.....she started to cry.

All in all it went very smoothly. We did what we had to do. We had sore arms for several days afterwards but we are proud to be and always will be (much to my kids dismay).....

FLU FIGHTERS!

Thoughts on a Sunday

*A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that Ethan hasn't had a tantrum at night for a long time. I think I even called it a miracle. Well, this week he has had two night tantrums. Bad ones, where he is wandering around in the basement, lost, confused, screaming. Trevor thinks it is because I blogged about it. I am forbidden now to blog about Ethan not crying at night. He thinks I cursed it. He may be right. So it will not be mentioned again. I hope that means it will stop....again.

*Ashlyn found a little spider on our porch this week. She told me about it and I went to check it out. It just so happened that it was a huge black widow spider, right there on our porch. The word quickly spread amongst our children. I tried to keep it from our arachnaphobe, but he caught wind of it and ran out to see it. I feared we would have big nightmares that night, but amazingly we didn't. I'm not too afraid of spiders, I mean really, what are the odds of being bit by a black widow? (Ok, don't ask Sarah that question!) Trevor bravely killed the innocent spider and peace was restored to our household.

*We were involved in a hit and run this week. Trevor was getting his haircut and while he was in the back leisurely getting his shampoo, someone came running into the store asking if any one had a Suburban, that it had been hit. Since Trevor was otherwise occupied, he didn't hear this news. When he did emerge from the bowels of the hair salon they asked again and he went out to see. Two people had witnessed the lady back into our car, look anxiously around, and then quickly drive off! Can you believe that? Trevor called the insurance and to have it fixed we have to pay our $500 deductible! It is very frustrating and just plain rude!

*I love having 2 kids in seminary this year. Each Sunday we have them share something they learned that week. What they share is inspiring and uplifting. I am so grateful for their seminary teachers and for the experiences they are having. I love that they can feel the spirit like that at school.

*My kids had a piano recital this week. It was great. I love their new teacher and they are progressing very well. This was Alyssa's very first recital, she had only been taking piano for 4 months. She stood up, announced her pieces and then on the last piece, stated, "And I'm going to sing this one!" And sing she did. My little 8 year old, sang Families can be Together Forever at the top of her lungs as she accompanied herself. It was absolutely precious and something I myself never could have done. She amazes me!

*At the dentist last week, we were told Ashlyn really needed to stop sucking her thumb. A couple of days later I put a band aid on her thumb to see what she would do. Right after I did it, she looked at it for a while and then slowly laid down on the floor. She laid there, curled in a little ball and wouldn't talk or move for a long time. After trying everything to get her to get up and come eat lunch, I finally went over and ripped the dang band aid off. She then snapped out of her depression and came over to eat. What am I going to do with this one!?!

* We had a ward activity this week based on the show Iron Chef. The secret ingredient was rice. I am proud to say that I won first place for my stuffed mushrooms! It was quite an accomplishment because I really don't love to cook, Ive never seen that show (not that it really mattered) and I've never even tried this recipe before. I am now making my family call me Iron chef. Yep, I'm pretty proud and my family is pretty lucky to have me making all of their food!

*We had our Primary Program today. It was wonderful as usual. I felt the spirit and feel so blessed to serve amongst these little angels.

Until next week!