Halloween

We hosted the Halloween Joy School party today and it was a wild and crazy time. These kids were all so excited. The best part was the indoor trick-or-treat at the bedroom doors. Tristan even got in on the fun.

My parents and siblings came over for dinner (elk chili is a family tradition, but Pop is in Mexico so Mom and I attempted our own version). Then Adam and my Dad took the kids out in the neighborhood while my Mom and I got to visit. We laughed our heads off (only interrupted a few times by trick-or-treaters). I think my Mom is great.

Moments I Want To Remember

Kaia throwing a tantrum then falling asleep in the hallway.

Adam and I lying on the living room carpet, him reading poetry to me from his big book of poetry while the kids wrestled all over us.

Me locking myself in my bedroom to get some "quiet time." I told them all I was going to stare at the wall and say "babababababab" (like Goldie Hawn in "Overboard"), but Sierra caught me reading blogs.

Adam sweetly saying my homemade spaghetti sauce "had a little kick to it". It was horrible--I added too much garlic--but he knew I spent a lot of time on dinner.

How lonely this neighborhood feels with Gram and Pop out of town (oh I pray they are having a great time in Mexico).

After about 4 months we finally finished a batch of rocks in Kaia's rock polisher. It was so exciting to rinse them off and see how beautiful they are.

Picking Sierra up from her Halloween party at 10:45 a.m. All the kids in costume running through the school yard, joyfully breaking free from the routine of a normal school day.

Listening to Adam explain to Sierra that no one really knows what color dinosaurs were. Thinking about the creepy scientist I saw on tv who said it was insulting to children to teach them about Noah and the ark. Can't wait until we know the whole story there.

10 Things I'm Grateful For Today

1. Tristan didn't take a nap, but Kaia did. I pulled him out of the crib, changed his poopiness (the cause of no nap) and took him outside to sweep leaves off the deck. He was so delightful to watch. I had a big broom, he had a tiny one and he would mimic my every move. The sun was bright and the air was warm. Then he ran next door and Gram invited him in. She said she was going to be home for the afternoon and I could put him down for a nap there. So now he is sleeping and I only have to wake Kaia and drag her out the door in a few minutes to get Sierra from school.
2. A speck of time today to catch up on my blogging.
3. A healthy body.
4. Stephanie Nielson is "out of the woods". Read the latest here.
5. After I picked Sierra up from Kindergarten, Gram let me leave the kids at her house so I could go for a walk. It was perfect.
6. Joy School was at our house today. I got to play with 8 really fun kids for two hours.
7. I have feta cheese, spinach, artichokes, Annie's dressing, and sunflower seeds. Everything I need to make my favorite salad.
8. Adam is mountain biking with his buddy right now.
9. All my maternity and/or regular pants are too big or too small, yet I am overwhelmingly grateful to be pregnant.
10. My new calling. It is such a blessing to be set apart again and serving in the Church. I'm teaching the 13-year old Sunday School class. I pour over my lessons and think about/pray for the amazing kids in my class all the time.

Pumpkin Carving FHE

We had Pa in town for a quick visit, just in time to help with FHE pumpkin carving.
Tristan takes over with the knife, thank goodness Pa was there to step in and help.

Here is Sierra, smiling a bit like our pumpkins.
After dinner we all got cozy on the couch to watch our favorite Halloween movie, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.

Sierra Lost Her First Baby Tooth

Pop tried to use the pliers first, but they were too big and the tooth too slippery and small. Sierra is such a toughie, she didn't even flinch.

Then Pop used the tried and true method of just pulling the tooth out bare handed. Success!
>
Here's the proud jack-o-lantern smile!

Leaves

Windows

Sierra grabbed the camera the other day and took a plethora of pictures. My favorites are the above self-portrait, Kaia's swanky walk, and my wonderful bedroom windows. Which made me think I needed to add a poem about windows.



Windows by Charles Baudelaire

Looking from outside into an open window
one never sees as much as when one looks
through a closed window. There is nothing more profound,
more mysterious, more pregnant, more insidious, more dazzling
than a window lighted by a single candle.
What one can see out in the sunlight is always less interesting
than what goes on behind a windowpane. In that black or luminous
square life lives, life dreams, life suffers.

Across the ocean of roofs I can see a middle-aged woman,
her face already lined, who is forever bending over
something and who never goes out. Out of her face, her dress,
and her gestures, out of practically nothing at all, I have made
up this woman's story, or rather legend, and sometimes I tell it
to myself and weep.

If it had been an old man I could have made up his just as well.

And I go to bed proud to have lived and to have suffered in
some one besides myself.

Perhaps you will say "Are you sure that your story is
really the one?" But what does it matter what reality is
outside myself, so long as it has helped me to live, to feel that I am,
and what I am?

Cupcakes in Kindergarten

Here is Sierra opening a birthday gift before school on Monday morning. Kaia likes to be the center of attention these days.
Sierra talked me into taking cupcakes into her class. I cleared it with her teacher and Kaia and I worked on them while Sie was in school. I thought cool whip frosting would be a good idea. The online recipe told me to add a cup of milk. This turned my frosting into soup. I tried to salvage it by adding more powdered sugar. Didn't work. Pretty soon I just dumped my whole container of sugar in there. Still didn't work. But the kids ate 'em and didn't complain. The only trouble was talking with Sierra's teacher, Mrs. Muller. When we arrived, the class was out at recess so we had about 10 minutes to chat with Mrs. Muller. I told her about my frosting disaster and she told me she was a very good cook and that she didn't use recipes. She said there are two kinds of cooks, ones who do use recipes and ones who don't. Needless to say I felt like an idiot and left feeling like I've never cooked anything right in my life.

Disney World

Here are all 16 of us. Can't you imagine all of us running to catch the Disney shuttle bus at 8 a.m.?

On the last day we managed to get a family shot. The look on Adam's face is: MGM (Mickey's got my money).
6 out of 8 cousins. Jackson, Sierra, Wilohm, Kaia, Cole, and Bennett.
Darla and Geof. in Germany.
Meagan and Cory in Italy.
Adam pulls this face every time, just check his facebook for proof.

Tristan the Viking.
The girls with Minnie Mouse.

It was a really great trip. My favorite part was how hard Adam worked to keep his wife fed and happy. He would run to the grocery store at 10 p.m. and stay up late making healthy sandwiches for me to have at the park the next day. What a guy!

Months in the Making

I know this isn't that big of a deal, but I've been wanting to make this table cloth for months and it finally came together today. The trip to Hobby Lobby to get the fabric yesterday was a disaster, saved only by my wonderful Gram (who will most likely never join my kids and I to the fabric store). Tristan cried the whole time, no threat could keep the girls from hiding in the fabric displays, etc. But it is over now and I won't ever have to go back (unless I start thinking I need a Christmas table cloth).