Joseph Smith and the first television

Our family recently ordered the Living Scriptures DVDs  and as part of the package we received dramatized Family Hour Stories on CD.  Katie loves to listen to these stories at bedtime and she actually learns a lot from them.  She usually gets out of bed a time or two to tell us something she likes from the stories.  The other night she was listening to the CD about Joseph Smith and the First Vision.  The next day she was eating a snack and she told me, "If you can't eat like gentlemen, eat in the barn".  I asked her where she learned that saying and she proudly replied, "from the story of Joseph Smith and the first television".   Cracked Me Up!!!

Here's another funny Katie story.  We were eating dinner and the conversation turned to Santa and his naughty and nice list.  We asked Katie if she was on his nice list.  She quickly nodded her head yes.  Dean gave her a "are you sure?" look.  Her expression saddened and she said, "I am on the naughty list".  I asked her if she had been a good girl.  She answered, "not that much".  She was very concerned whether she could get back on the nice list or not.  Her big question was if she started being nicer would Santa  "erase her name and write it on the nice list".  Gotta love this time of year and good ol' St. Nick, his list and his elves.

Halloween 2011

Our Halloween wasn't so happy this year.  Everyone in our family was sick at one time or another the week before Halloween and the days following.  Andrew stayed home from daycare for two days, Katie missed one day and the boys missed two days of school. 

Trunk or Treat was on Saturday night and Katie, Eric and I were all sick.  We've never missed a Trunk or Treat.  I might have been more bummed than the kids.  I thought for sure everyone would be better by Halloween.  Charles and Eric were both sick Monday and stayed home from school.  We still had pumpkins to carve so well or not we did it.  Katie had fun and Charles meds kicked in so he enjoyed it too.  Eric, not so much. 

Dean and I debated whether or not to let the kids trick or treat around the neighborhood.  Both boys still had fevers so we did what any good parents would do, loaded them up on meds, dressed them up and out we went.  I bought costumes and made costumes and by damn they were going to get used.   Katie led the way and rang every doorbell and talked to everyone she came in contact with Charles stayed with Eric.  He didn't feel good so he lagged behind a little. 

 Andrew the Lobster

 Charles as Indiana Jones

 Eric a Snow Wolf Ninja

 Katie as Snow White

Even mom dressed up this year!!

First Steps

Friday October 21st Andrew took his first steps.  We had come home from school and everyone was hanging out in the family room.  Andrew was cruising around the couch and the table when he let go and just kept going.  He got in a good six or seven steps before losing his balance.  I love watching a baby learn how to walk.  The kids were all very excited.  I grabbed the video camera but the battery was dead.  I snapped a few blurry pictures on my phone and Dean got some video on his phone.  Here are a few pictures taken a week or so after he started walking. Yay Andrew!!

Sunday Best

A few weeks ago we were getting ready for church in our usual crazy rush.  For some reason we can get out the door for school and work on time but come Sunday morning it is impossible.  I was rounding up the kids to get them in the car and Charles walked up the stairs with his collar half flipped, half turned under and on his feet were a church shoe and a sneaker.  I gave him look of disapproval and asked why he had two different shoes on.  Seems he could only find one church shoe and finding another shoe, any shoe was the best solution.  He ended up finding the other church shoe and we were only a little later than usual.

34

34. That's how old I turned today.  34 is a good number I guess.  I don't feel too old.  We didn't have anything super special planned for my birthday.  Dean and I joined a bowling league with one of his coworkers so that's how we spent Friday night.  Saturday I took the kids to the pumpkin patch.  The big surprise came Saturday evening when I came home from grocery shopping and Dean and the kids had cleaned the house.  When we left that morning it looked like a small tornado had made its way through leaving a little disaster in every room.  I was so thankful they had cleaned while I was gone. 

This morning they surprised me by making breakfast and making me a "cake" out of donuts. They all came into the bedroom singing, holding my "cake" with candles and each kid had a homemade card. That was great. I look forward to the next 34 years.

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aMAZEing

The kids and I took a little trip to Canon City yesterday to visit a pumpkin patch.  It's called Diana's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze.  I sort of felt like I was in a maze trying to get there.  The trusty map from Map Quest wasn't so trusty.  I got lost a few times and then called the pumpkin patch (twice) for directions.  By the time we got there I was, let's just say, aggravated. 

We got our tickets and away we went into the maze.  They set it up like the game of Clue.  There were signs with weapons, people and places and we marked them off our cards as we found them.  There were also scarecrows with clues to help.  I was forewarned by the owner  not to go all the way through since I was "wearing" the baby.  We didn't make it through and never found out who did it. We wandered around for nearly  forty minutes which was about thirty minutes too long for Katie.  She fell and was too hot.  I guess she takes after me and gets cranky when the weather is too warm.

I got our picnic lunch ready while the kids played in the loose, dry corn.  They threw it, filled buckets, dove in it and  buried their sister.  Next, we went over to slide.  They propped a big culvert pipe on a haystack to make the slide.  We had fun climbing up and sliding down into more loose corn.  I went down with Andrew and landed a little too hard at the bottom.  The rest of the day my rear end hurt when I sat down.

The kids also got to choose a pumpkin. Decisions, decisions. They chose great ones. I wish we could have stayed longer and made it through the maze. Next time I need to take cash so we can buy some apple cider or a carmel apple.

City Park

A few weekends ago we went to Pueblo for a birthday party at City Park.  I'd been there a time or two before but had no idea they had kiddie rides for a quarter a ride.  The kids had so much fun.


Mini roller coaster

Charles and Katie in a UFO

Andrew checking out the action

Katie

Eric and Charles waiting for Katie

Katie in a classic car

Carousel ride

Carousel ride

Eric holding on tight

Daddy and Andrew

The Three Amigos

Waiting for the ride to start

Andrew's first carousel ride

Daddy and Andrew

First Day of School 2011

First day of Second grade for Charles and Fifth grade for Eric

Lasy year of elementary school

Charles

Big brother, Little brother

Katie sending the boys off to school

Katie's first day of Advanced Pre-K (or as she calls it "adavanced capri-K")

Katie

Andrew's 1st Birthday

I had so much fun planning and decorating for Andrew's first birthday!  I think that I get the most excited of anyone over birthdays (not necessarily my own).  I decided to do a Monster theme for his birthday.  I found a lot of inspiration on other blogs (thank you creative people out there). 

I started out by making the birthday banner.  I free handed the letters on small paper plates and used monster clip art to embellish.  Then I punched a hole in each and strung it on a ribbon.  I thought it turned out super cute.

 I found the monster watermelon on a blog and then added a few of my own touches (Dean gave me the idea of saving the top of the pineapple as a hat).  I struggled to get the watermelon out of the mouth so I resorted to cutting off the bottom and scooping it out from there.  Much easier. Everyone loved the watermelon monster.

The hardest part was coming up with a cake.  I saw an adorable three layer cake where each layer was a different size and color and decorated with a monster face.  Then I saw the cute little cupcakes.  I decided that I would do one small cake for Andrew and cupcakes for everyone else.  His little cake was adorable.  The kids loved helping with the cupcakes.  There's nothing like squirting frosting willy-nilly all over a cupcake.  

                                    

Just for fun I made monster masks for the kids to hold as their picture was being taken.



Happy Birthday Andrew!  We all had a great time celebrating you.  This is what Andrew looked like one year ago and what he looks like now.