Let it SNOW!!

We woke up to the white stuff this morning. Actually, I woke up to this:Yes, just in the nick of time because she was on her way OUT THE DOOR! Yesterday I thought she was downstairs playing with Kesley, but about 8:30am I realized neither of them were in the house. I found them over at our favorite neighbors and adopted grandparents making cookies. They had been there since 7:30am!! Time to stop sleeping in on Saturday & Sundays I guess...

Well, the white stuff wasn't going to last, so I let Gavin and Kesley enjoy it even though it was Sunday. I also needed a few extra minutes to finish my Relief Society lesson. Upside to big kids: They can get their own snow clothes on and make the snow man themselves!!!

Playing catch-up--again.

Ugg. Where to start???

Well, Brent had a birthday!! He was a little shocked to find out that he was turning 37 and not 36 like he thought. Funny how that happens. He had no problem drowning his sorrows in a big slice of his favorite chocolate cake!What else??? Halloween! Nothing crazy this year and only 2 days of dressing up instead of last years marathon 3 dayer. I'm sure I am not the only one looking forward to a ONE DAY HALLOWEEN next year when it falls on a MONDAY!! Woot! Woot!

We couldn't break tradition and skip the pumpkin carving--even though it was VERY tempting. My kids seem to love the gutting--not so much the carving. I think I ended up carving all the pumpkins and the kids were nowhere to be found. Next year I am going to push for a new tradition: We gut the pumpkins and then throw them off the roof and watch them explode!

Gavin and Brent's GUT WAR!

Kesley in gut heaven

My Cheerleader, Mermaid & Mario!This year I stole a friends idea and paid my kids $5 if they would give me all their candy after trick or treating. They each got to choose their favorite 20 pieces and the rest went into my closet for safe keeping. The idea was to save it for Christmas and use it in stockings and candy houses...that was the idea. Let's just say it now BAD IDEA!! NEVER DO THIS! Most of the candy is gone (well, all the good chocolaty/nutty/chewy stuff) and I am only attempting sweats because I can't handle the shock of the too tight jeans...you know, the one's that were already my FAT lady jeans. BAD idea, Maria. BAD, BAD IDEA!!

Actual Halloween day--October 31st--was AWESOME--but that is for tomorrows post.

This is what I got to do today...

It's not everyday that your sister needs an Appendectomy. I was lucky enough to get Emily's littles for the day and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I snuggled Olivia for the first 4 hours to keep her in a sleep coma in case Emily ended up not needing surgery and came back and needed to nurse her. I was constantly flashing back to Gavin and probably everybody's baby #1 that gets held and adored all day long because--why not? What else was there to do!?



Emily is out of surgery and doing well. She is staying at the hospital until tomorrow. Brian came and picked up Tanner, but I get to keep Paige and Olivia for the night. You should have seen Olivia light up and smile and try to talk when Brian walked into the room--even a 5 week old knows her mom and dad! I wish I had caught that on video!--p.s. the purple mouth is thanks to the medication she is taking for...yeast infection? Can't remember exactly--but it is BRIGHT purple!

For Mom

Facebook won't let me load this cute video of the kids for some reason--probably me.

Anyway, we LOVE YOU and hope you had a WONDERFUL day!

Gavin turns 8!

EIGHT IS GREAT!

All Gavin wanted for his birthday was $25--all in ones. I should have listened to him on that one. Instead, I spent way more than that on stupid things I can't even remember now and all I can remember is the 8--one dollar bills that I hid around the living room and he played "hot & cold" to find. Live and learn. The other failure of the day was the cake you see above. It was supposed to be a Lego cake. It turned out to be a leaning tower of disgust. Tasted good though. Note to self: Stop trying to make theme cakes out of box cake mixes and goopy frosting--THEY NEVER WORK! Luckily, he is a sweet kid and didn't care.

He did end up getting quite a few dollars from other people on his big day and, true to form, lost half of them over the next couple of days. HOW does a kid like money so much and then not even notice or care when he is dropping and loosing bills all over the place? Makes me CRAZY--but has also saved the day and bought milk, bread and eggs on too many occasions...sshhh. We decided it was time for things to change.

Monday, for FHE, we took all the kids and their piggy banks to our bank to open bank accounts. Gavin & Kes were more than excited, but Jenna--she wasn't parting with her piggy bank money for anything--that is until she saw the welcome packages that Gavin and Kesley were handed on the way out of the bank--then she REALLY wanted to open her own account, but it was already 15 minutes past closing time. I promised her she and I would come back the next morning and open one for her. You would have thought it was Christmas Eve. She could not go to sleep because she was so excited. She woke me up at 2am, 3am with piggy bank in hand and then at 5am she was up for good. I got this lady to the bank by 9am and she is now the proud owner of an account with $3.27 in it! Yay for Beaner!

p.s. I know this is a horrible picture of Jenna--kinda like she's looking into a Christmas ornament, but she wouldn't hold still for anything...plus, it may possibly be a little subconscious payback for making me pull an all nighter the night before...

Jenna Bean turns 4!

My baby is 4!
Jenna is my sunshine. Two years ago she started waking me up saying, "It's a great day outside, Mom!" That really kinda sums her up. Positive. Happy. She loves to laugh. Love's people. I love this lady.

Jenna wanted a Mary Poppins cake her her birthday. About 5:00pm last night--when I realized I had no idea how to make a Mary Poppins cake, this castle cake idea was pretty easily transformed into her idea and the 'gotta have' cake for her big day...I know, I suck--but I have always said manipulation is the #1 parenting skill and I have mastered it.

Here's the party--nothing beats Pirate Island Pizza and endless tokens! (remind me to NEVER let Gavin get within 100 miles of Las Vegas--you haven't seen anything as scary as that kid and tokens) Thanks Bon & Jon for coming and thank you Aunt Amber for making Jenna's birthday so fun!
My Big 4 Year old girl!

To blog or not to blog...

Just got off the phone with my wonderful mother. Here's an update for you, Mom!

Do not fear! Gavin loves school! This kid has major ANXIETY issues that he has inherited from his dad. He's lucky I understand it and don't kill him out of FRUSTRATION! Saturday evenings (you know how church is always on Sunday...)is always pretty interesting. Big events like a birthday or, say, an upcoming BAPTISM can bring on a lot of outbursts. We are taking that one, one day at a time. He does fine once he gets somewhere (just like his dad) but the build up to the event is sometimes not worth the fight.

I wanted to make sure things were good at school, so I decided to be a recess duty lady--remember those? I wanted to see how he was interacting with other kids and thought I could possibly help him a little if he wasn't. Happy to say that he is doing great. I am having a great time teaching 1st & 2nd graders how to jump rope. I think they have all mastered "Keep the kettle boiling, be on TIME!" remember that?

I found this picture tonight as I was downloading pictures from Kesleys camera. In the chain of pictures before this one, it is obvious he somehow took this beauty of himself! I can't stop laughing!
He is also loving scouts. I am the Den Leader for the Wolves and he has been counting down the days until he can EARN MERIT BADGES!!! You know how this kid loves himself any kind of trophy, or ribbon, or bead, or ANYTHING! Here is at the bike rodeo right after he won his ribbon...along with every other scout or sibling there... I love my Gavin.
I recently found a bag of 12 UNDEVELOPED rolls of film. I have been DYING to see what was on them and also terrified I had ruined them by storing them in a hot storage room. It's too spendy to get them all developed at once, so I took my first 3 rolls in and crossed my fingers. TREASURE!! I did damage the rolls, which makes me sick, but still--check out some of the cuteness--I'll share more throughout the week. And p.s. Jenna's birthday on Tuesday!