Happy Halloween!

Halloween was very happy this year, (at least for he kids!), even if it did last for almost a week at our house. We decided to make the most of the unseasonably warm weather, as well as the fact that the kids were on fall break, and pack in as much Halloween as we could. Besides, I actually made costumes for the girls this year, (YES! I know it's hard to believe, but it's true!), so I figured that they better get their mileage out of them. Just in case you can't tell, Hunter was a mobster this year, Lily was a ladybug, and Sophie was a blue butterfly. We had a fun if not exhausting week! In between Halloween festivities, we also crammed in fall break trips to the library and the museum, the eye doctor, and lots of visits with cousins! Whew!! There were too may pictures, so here they are in a slideshow for your viewing enjoyment!!

I am a REALLY nice mom, and I mean REALLY REALLY nice.

Why, you say? What would make me so puffed up and sure of myself, so confident in my parenting prowess that I would make such a claim? This is why:

For those of you who haven't been educated in the ways of the third grader yet, this lovely bowl is the result of the life cycle unit at school: MEALWORMS. And I am pretty sure they're an insect, becuase it says worm in their name. And, as Hunter has informed me, once they come out ouf their chrysalis, they are referred to as a beetle. Yep, insects for sure. I HATE insects. Some more then others, but I am pretty comfortable saying that I hate them all. So, when the note came home a couple of weeks ago asking for permission to bring the creepie crawlies home, I had to think REALLY hard. But Hunter is an eight year-old boy, so he had his heart set. We came to a compromise, and I told him the mealworms could come home... as long as they stayed in the garage. (Hence the car tires in the background and the lovely cement floor! Aren't I a great hostess?) Well...as you can see, the mealworms came home today. And he was SO excited that he took me to the garage to see them the second he got home. And my skin crawled and I wanted to scream, but what I did was smile and enjoy his enthusiasm. I listened patiently even though I wanted to run away as fast as my little feet would take me. He told me all the things he had learned about their life cycle, and I must admit that I was impressed. He must really be listening in class! So you see, I let the mealworms come to live with us, albeit in the garage. I really am a nice mom, aren't I?

"Potty Training"

Sure, it would be great if Sophie could get out of her diaper and onto the toilet and take care of business all by herself. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind!

(And for all you out there asking the big question, the answer is YES, she is sitting IN the water!)

"One Song Snuggle"

Well, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of things that I really love about being a mom. Like my "one song snuggles" with Lily. Occasionally, Lil will still take a nap after morning kindergarten. She likes to listen to my iPod, and after she chooses something from her playlist she always requests a "one song snuggle". That means that I get to climb into the bed with her and snuggle her for the duration of one song. And let me tell you, Lil is a great snuggler! This occurred today, and I realized that I needed to write it down, because she is five and I don't know how many one song snuggles there are in my future. This is definitely a sweet memory that I want to keep! It's one little thing that makes the whole day brighter.

I Love You Too!

I went in to get Sophie up from her nap today, and the conversation went like this:

Mom: Hi sweetheart! Good nap!
Soph: Thank you. Where my daddy?!
Mom: He's at work. It's time to go get brother from school.
Soph: Where my daddy?!
Mom: He's at work. Let's go get your shoes on, ok?
Soph: Where my daddy?!
Mom: Daddy's at work. Let's go get Hunter and you can bring a book in the car and I will read to you. You have such a nice mommy.
Soph: I have a nice daddy.

Ah....the joys of motherhood. I'm off to cook dinner for kids who probably won't even eat it!!

Having Flashbacks

We were at my mom and dad's for Sunday dinner this past weekend and my mom pulled out a dusty box of old books from the basement. It was like finding buried treasure! I have always loved to read, and some of the books in that box brought back such memories. Among them were The Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley Twins, Choose Your Own Adventures, and Encyclopedia Brown. But the real treasures were the two series of books that delighted me as a kid. I can remember reading for hours and being as happy as could be.


I absolutely LOVED the Anne of Green Gables series when I was young. If you have never read these, you might think about it. I have decided to reread these treasures twenty something years later and see if I love them as much now as I did then.

The Little House on the Prairie books were my other favorites. I've read them over and over. Thanks to the Hallmark Channel, Lily has recently been introduced to the Little House tv series. When she saw the books she was so excited and immediately asked if I would read them to her. Absolutely!!


OK, this CD wasn't in the box of dusty books, but deserves a shout out from my childhood. We had Power Tunes on a cassette tape when I was a kid. I am sure I played the tape in my rockin' purple boom box. Ah, those were the days. Anyway, if you haven't heard these songs they are worth a look for your kids. They are cheesy, corny, dorky, and goofy, and my kids LOVE them just as much as I did. The songs have titles like "Attitude", "Determination", and "Family". When I saw this on the Deseret Book website last fall I knew my kiddos had to have it.

So now, when you leave me a comment, tell me one or two things that give you flashbacks!

Sophie Adventures

There are so many Sophie adventures, I dare say they are a daily occurence. And they aren't always the good kind of adventures! But this was one of my favorites from this week. The kids were playing in the back yard and Hunter and Lily felt the urge to tattle (once again) on their little sister. Apparently she was eating fresh vegetables, straight from the garden, again. The kids know this drives me nuts, because we don't have that many vegetables in the garden to begin with! So I went out back to check things out and found Sophie playing happily after ingesting not a tomato or a bean, but an entire jalapeno pepper, all but the stem.

Mom: Sophie, are you ok?

Sophie: ya

Mom: Do you need a drink or something?

Sophie: (thinking...) um, ok

So she heads in to get a drink. Thirty seconds later she is screaming at the top of her lungs. I head to the kitchen and find this:

She got to the milk, but then she couldn't get down. Talk about doing things the hard way! (Ignore the DDP on the top shelf. I really have no idea who it belongs to.)