HaLloWeen 2009

Trick or Treating to Grandma and Grandpa Park's house. NOt onlydid they have candy they had donuts and maple bars and chocolate milk.....we went to early or it would have been HOT chocolate. That's o.k. I love chocolate milk. I also got a LIVEWIRE Mountain Dew in trade for the Sausage Stars I made for Grandpa Park.

The Pumpkins carved for the Christensen's pumpkin walk MOnday NIght. The first on #13 is Burton's. Uncle David carved it to resemble his prize winning decorated potato I've yet to show.

This is a little glimpse of our day. Cooper was Sully, Mack was Mike from MONSTERS, INC., Liberty was HANNAH MONTANA, and Burton a HERO/ a FIREMAN!

The twins were going to use the Lightning McQueen and Mater costumes we had for Briggs and Burton at this age BUT it was to fitting to go with MONSTERS.

Drew is 30!

For the big day I was trying to be so sneaky. I wanted to collect pictures from his life and make a game board like my mom had made for me. Then I needed questions for us to answer about him and then questions for him to answer, in an effort to race teams to a finish line. Working quietly on a project this doesn't come easily unless kids are in bed for the night or at naps. Finally, it all pulled together. Jamie and Amber helped me brainstorm events from Drew's life to make questions from and the then I googled 1979 to see what life was like then for questions for Drew. He really knew a lot about that year. I then downloaded from the TOP 100 hits songs I recognized from that year to play at his party.

We had a GREAT time. The game was fun.....DESSERT was good......we had a blast having our families there. This birthday was one to remember.

The changes a week can bring......

Ever in a mad race to catch up, keep up on top of the pile, or manage the next mess before it begins spiral out of control seems to be the story of my life the last two weeks. I have had life to manage, presents to be sneaky about (Drew turned 30), and Young Women in Excellence to plan and now finally make happen ( I really have been excited about all of the above but it has been a lot of work behind the scences).
Tonight in an effort to catch up and clean the memory card of my camera, I was reviewing the activities of the last month And how truly my family has been blessed. My Dad has been really sick. He nevers throws in the towel but we knew he was sick when he asked to go to the ER not once but twice this month. He had a bad relapse of this illness last week and was admitted to the hospital. As busy as they are this year with the swine flu, they let him come home to sleep and to go back in for testing the next day. The night he came home happened to be Drew's Birthday and we had a little shindig planned with our families. Drew and His Dad administered to my Dad and I was so blessed to see the unity of families. All three men I admire coming together to use their priesthood power to make one whole.
A couple of days later good news arrived and the illness my dad is suffering from is giardia (coming from drinking river water to say it cleanly:)). So, last Sunday was a day of thanks and being ever so grateful to the blessing given to us. We recognized the blessing given to us. Now I sit in reflection of the week gone by and the everyday happenings, the conversations I've had, the blogs I've read ....I'm a blog hopper.....You need to read Payne on my blog list about change.....and how I should never take anything for granted. How life can take dramatic turns and sometimes it isn't always with good news. And now a Sunday later I am asking for that blessing to come to a family in need.

Time for explanation.....Last year we decided our annual Spud Harvest tradition would be to make Spudnuts in honor of the break. I feel like I gave it only a half hearted attempt to keep the tradition alive this year. I was sick the starting of the break and never got up to full speed like I would have liked.
Other events that made our weeks special were.......

• Potelco... a local credit union sponsored a decorate a potato contest. Camber and I took the halloween theme and let the kids run with it. Liberty's potao was a mummy, Burton's the white skeleton, Briggs a bat, Cambree a black cat, and Averie's a candy corn. Burton's won the preschool level and he won $25.00 gift certificate to Toys R Us.... He split it in half with Liberty.
• I also decided to CLEAN out baby girl stuff I wasn't going to use again and let someone else get good use of it before it was old and out of style. I threw together a little yard sale and along with other stuff I decided we didn't need anymore put on the front lawn. We sold four garbage sacks full of clothes and made $12.oo. We I got done sitting there we folded it up and hauled it to the DI.

Momma misses the binkie!........

I was tricked. I know I should have taken the binkie away from Cooper months ago. Drew suggested the idea and I blew it off because I am the one home who listens to ALL of the whining and I need to be able to plug at least one of them up. Our annual Potato Harvest began a couple of weeks ago and for some reason I had been thinking prior to the vacation to pull the PLUG! WHY?! Because it is a break and I could lose sleep when I don't have preschool to worry about. My Mom also suggested it was time one day as I was frantically trying to find the dumb thing and decided after no luck of finding it that it was now the time to lose the binkie. I came home and threw away all the binkie's that miraculously appeared after never being able to find ONE.

So now the break is over and I can't figure out why I am so flustered and tired all the time. Yesterday, I found another one of those darn binkie's and KNEW WHY! Throwing out the binkie messed up everything. It made nap time hard to almost nonexistent. Then with the twins up in my business all day, I never can feel like I've gotten a thing accomplished. They are now pushing around chairs to stand on higher ground. Mostly, the counter where all the knives are placed which is below the cupboard they think all the candy is in.

The sad thing is I also have seen Cooper change from being my baby to a two year old this week. Last week he began jumping. He stands and jumps into the air from the ground . He tries so hard but doesn't get to far off the ground. I love it! He walks to the refrigerator and wants milk. If we try to fill his cup with the water from the refrigerator he screams. He has the cutest little face and sings this song from the monkeys OOO and AAAA from playhouse Disney. Cooper flipped and slammed his head on the concrete floor of Home Depot this week too. An Industrial sized store really needs industrial sized shopping carts NOT ones that feel like I am playing with a toy.

Mack is walking like a pro. He thinks it isn't fair when I think it is better to carry him because he wants to be down just like everyone else. He blows raspberries like crazy and it drives him nuts after a long day to have someone even touch his carseat let alone him. (That is when a blanket over the head comes in handy) His body is low tone so he feels like a light weight. Which is okay any day of the week because it doesn't keep him from anything he wants but when he is sick he feels REALLY sick. The home teacher's were here the other night and what a show off he was. He was running in circles through the living room into the kitchen and around while screaming. Cooper followed suit and it was a mad house. We were screaming to visit over the twins noise.

I had to make the binkie change now because what is really going to kill me is when we take away the crib and change the baby room to the BOY room at Christmas. EEK! We are so dependant on our routine...established from the NICU.....These babies are not cuddly or rocked to sleep but loved while getting bathed, jammied, and then put in their room lights off and the door shut. OH Boy....I am in for it......This is when the blanket over the head might work for me.

Asking Forgiveness?........

A couple of posts back I listed how grateful I was for the preschool help that came my way this year. BUT I neglected to list a lot more people who help everyday kick off and for me to feel success.
Camber is coming over to help with preschool too. We have a great time together giggling at the kids and sharing glances when the roudy ones are about to throw us over the edge. It is so very nice and I appreciate her willingness to do whatever is needed especially when sick kids throw a curve ball in my preschool days. I am glad this is yet another activity we share experiences together.
My Good Looking Husband(read the Shelley Pioneer this week;)is always there in my frantic fits at night to ask what needs to be done to be ready in the morning for life and preschool. I love this guy. He stayed home from work today to help with the sick kid moments.

Happy Fall Ya'LL

Back to School pics .......