Halloween 2008

Warning: This post contains an overload of pictures.

We have had a blast leading up to and celebrating this day. Here are some pictures from all our activities in the past week....

Picking pumpkins at the pumpkin patch:

It was an unbelievably warm day at the pumpkin patch....PERFECT!

The corn maze:

We played 'Beautiful Freak' in the corn maze....

Illegally feeding the horses corn:

Shhh...don't tell anyone....

The giant potato slide:

We love that there are no rules on this slide...just fun!

Corn diving for candy:

Finding candy is only half the fun!

Making carmeled apples:

Let the sugar begin!

Carving Pumpkins:

Randy's 'skills' amaze me!

Class parties:

One parent has more free time (and creativity) than I do....

Trunk-or-Treating/ drive-in movie

Such fun with friends...thanks, guys!!!

Trick-or-Treating at the assisted living center:


Always a treat!

Trick-or-Treating the neighborhood:

Yes, I pulled it off...everyone had a costume!

Scaring unsuspecting kids:

Randy likes to wait on the porch and as the kids reach for their candy, he moves and scares the pants off 'em!

Sugar overload:

You can never have to much of the good stuff...

FUN!!!

The Bare Necessities

Never before have I seen a child so comfortable in their birthday suit as Emma is in hers. She sheds her clothes like a snake sheds it's skin...only with much more frequency. Like a hundred times a day. Since her recent potty accomplishment, the act has become much more prevalent. Although she is stinkin' cute when she's butt naked, it is usually frowned upon to wear nothing but your bare bum to the school. Or the dentist. Or to church.

The first public episode occurred several months back at the dentist. I had yet another tooth emergency and had no option but to take Nathan and Emma with me to the dentist. I wasn't worried about taking them because a nice family we have known for years runs the office and they have a kiddie corner complete with Disney movies. The nice receptionist assured me they'd be fine and she would keep an eye on them for me. After much too long in the chair, and as the dentist held a drill to my tooth, the lady came to me: "Ma'am, your daughter has taken all her clothes off. Would you like me to put her diaper back on?"

Um, no.....I prefer my children parade around naked...

Her days of tediously removing a diaper are long gone. She is pro now. With nothin' but panties, and not enough behind to hold those panties on, she effortlessly rids herself of unwanted clothing. Take for example- sacrament meeting.....

I try to be a well prepared mom, although I usually fall short. But not last Sunday. I remembered to pack an extra pair of underwear and a spare dress in my church bag- just in case. When Emma chose what she was going to wear to church, she decided on her blue 'Hawaii' dress. She also has a cute little pink Mu mu so I packed that one as the back-up.

She did a good job telling her teachers when she needed to go potty and she was dry all through church. Then, during Sacrament meeting, she got a glimpse of the beloved pink mu mu in my bag and decided she HAD to wear it. I quietly told her she could change when we got home. I turned my head to try and focus on the speaker (I know, what was I thinking?) and when I turned back to look at her she was sitting on the floor COMPLETELY NAKED! She did a total outfit change, underwear and all, right there in the chapel. Nice.

Monday was PTA day. I had Reflections stuff to do at the school first thing in the morning, and returned again after lunch. Nathan and Emma are pretty comfortable at the school. They know their way around and I have become a little too relaxed about letting them do their thing. They found some cones in the gym and I was just across the hall in the office. As I was wrapping up some business, a lady walked into the office asked if 'this child belonged to someone'. There stood Emma, naked from the waist down. Another proud moment.

Tuesday, I returned to help set up for the book fair. I felt pretty crummy, but had promised to be there. We have great ladies in charge of it, but I want to be involved and let them know I am there- so I went. As we were leaving, Emma took off in one direction, and Nathan in another. I had a stop to make at a classroom before we left and thought I would hurry and make it before rounding them up. You would have thought I would have learned from the previous day, but as you'll soon see, I did not.

When I finally located Emma, she was naked, once again. Luckily this time, she had made it into the bathroom. The boys bathroom, that is. She had found a cute little toilet just her size. A funny-shaped toilet hanging from the wall- with no seat. And she had pooped in it. When I arrived on the scene, she was fervently trying to find the toilet paper that was nowhere to be found. I showed her that the T.P. was in the stall and helped her wipe her little bum. Just then, two boys walked in, not knowing I was there. Emma ran out of the stall (still naked) and I grabbed her panties and shoes and apologized to the boys. I think they were in shock, because they continued with their business and never said a word. I hope thay aren't premantently scarred.

Mold

My friend, Jenny commented how her blog had gone 'moldy' from neglect. Unfortunately, my blog isn't the only moldy thing. Hannah came to me yesterday telling me I needed to rid the fridge of the 'blue stuff on the noodles'. Today, she took it upon herself.

....I have a lot of blogging to catch up on, but first, I need to throw together 6 Halloween costumes....

Two Beds are Better Than One

No, Randy and I didn't have a fight. In fact, he was so excited to tell me his idea for a 'headline' for my blog. It refers to our weekend.

We took off Friday morning for some adventurous rock hounding. We have wanted to go for over a year now, but haven't gotten around to it. The weather was holding out and the kids had the day off school, so off we went. We left the sleeping bags and tent behind and we piled into the ol' Suburban not knowing where we would sleep that night. (We like to live on the edge....OK, and the fact that the town is so small that they apparently don't know what the Internet is, because not a single hotel had a website.)

Our first stop on the adventure took us to some geode beds (Ge-oides as Casey calls them.) After cruising down a dirt road for 50...yes, 50 miles, we arrived! We hopped out with our shovels and hammers, optimistic about the impending discovery. After several minutes of digging, we grew impatient. Nobody there was coming up with anything. My expectations lowered and I prayed that we would find JUST ONE! So the kids could have a fun memory. Nothing. As we were loading back into the car the look for a better location, a family, with buckets in hand came walking back to their car. They told us where to go to find the mother-load!

I must admit, although the big black Suburban I drive can sometimes be a pain (like at the gas pump, and when I run over small cars in parking lots) it sure comes in handy for trips like this. (It's ironic that Randy designs such beautiful roads, because he sure likes taking ugly, bumpy, rocky ones!) Randy put that baby into 4WD and we climbed up the hill and back down like it was nothin'. When we reached the mentioned hole, we hopped out and immediately, Hannah found a geode! They were everywhere! I could hardly believe it. I mean, I had seen them in souvenir shops, but this was awesome! We hiked around the hills for a little while and after finding a few dozen, told the kids to pick their five favorite. That's 40 geodes in just a short time!

Our next stop was promising Topaz. After some serious haulin' down a washboard dirt road(again, thanks to the big black beauty,) we reached the area. It was almost getting dark so we hiked around for a little while but couldn't find anything. I broke open a few rocks with no luck and we left. The kids were hungry and we didn't know where we were sleeping.

We drove to the small town and looked for a hotel that wasn't too Bates-ish. We found a nice one but opted against it due to it's Anaheim-ish prices. We drove back through town a little further and settled on one that actually had rooms inside a building and a family-friendly price tag of $40. The bathroom was clean and the room was cozy....maybe cozy isn't the right word when you have eight people crammed in there. And two double beds. Two beds are better than one.

Don't pay attention to the fact that Casey is face-down on the bare mattress. Bleck! But you can pay attention to the fact that he is a blanket hog!

My slice of bed was on the left

A McDonald's down the street provided a place to release the last of the children's energy...or so we hoped. Back at our 'cozy' room, we started the bathing while the other kids glued themselves to the TV (That's what happens when you deprive your children of the tube) We watched some nature show and "Who's Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" as one by one, they showered. By the time it was my turn, there was no more hot water. I still can't figure out how a hotel runs out of hot water, but for $40, I won't ask. I took my place on my six-inch-edge of the bed and settled in. With Randy, and Emma, too. The rest of the gang had a hard time keeping to themselves and staking claim to their own six inches of mattress. I drifted off before them, as usual, but I was aware all night of the three other bodies I shared the bed with (Nathan found his way onto our bed at some point.)

The next morning, we enjoyed our own little continental breakfast of PopTarts, crumb donuts and OJ while watching some ADD Saturday morning cartoons. By 10:00 we were headed to the local rock shop to get some pointers and see what Topaz even looks like. The little lady there was kind and offered some suggestions. I let the kids each choose three polished rocks to fill up our little $3 satchel. (I know, I am soooo generous!) They all lost them within 10 minutes of being in the car. (the rocks must have been swallowed by the same black hole that ate my scissors.)

We arrived at the knoll known for sunstones. Although tiny, they glistened all over the ground. We played there for a while as the kids enjoyed climbing the rocks and chipping away at the boulders for the clear little stones.

Next stop: trilobites. I was very skeptical about this one. Were we seriously going to find some real-life fossils? We had seen an ad for a place you can pay to dig. But at $28 for the adults, and $16 for kids, it adds up fast. After all, we already paid for a hotel room! ;) Just past the overpriced dig site, was a new dig site. Randy asked the man what the cost was and he offered to let us all dig for $30! He gave us each a hammer and a bucket for the family. Right away, Tyler found a Trilobite! The next rock the man picked up contained one, too! Rock after rock opened up to reveal an ancient insect. It was incredible. I felt a little bad hammering away at these rocks that have been there for so long. But it was addicting. Each rock held a little suspense. Sadly, after a couple hours, it was time to head home. We had a full bucket of fossils and pockets that contained treasures and memories.

In the way home, we swung by some sand dunes and let the kids get nice and sandy before the sun went down. Being a 'holiday' weekend, the place was packed with dune buggies and four wheelers whizzing by. We had fun watching them zip up and down the sand mountain as the kids played.

It was remarkable how many different geological formations we encountered on our two-day adventure. Definitely a trip we'll never forget!

Rock Hounding Aventures

Hannah

Hannah was tagged by Boston quite a while back. Blogger had image uploading issues, and I have been busy. So here it goes.....

Some things you may not know about Hannah.

Hannah LOVES animals! She plays with her stuffed animals constantly. I hate to admit, but there have been times when she has 'disappeared'. We look all over the neighborhood and call her name. Only to find her playing quietly in her closet with there vast array of stuffed animals. Her favorite: little stuffed dogs.


When Hannah was a baby, she loved sucking on her thumb and finger. When she was done, she'd wipe them dry on her 'huschly' (her 'fluffy'.) She was painfully attached to her 'fluffy' and when she got hurt, she didn't want mom, just her fluffy....or her big sister.


Hannah LOVES her sleep. At a year and a half, she was still sleeping 19 hours a day! Up until kindergarten, she was still sleeping until noon on a regular basis. There was a year when we had 9:00 church and Randy and I took turns going to church on time because there was absolutely NO getting her up before she was ready. Now, well, let's just say there are mornings she doesn't get breakfast and I am dressing her while she is half asleep. OK, so it doesn't help that she is a total NIGHT OWL....
Hannah is obsessed with hair (hmmmm.....I wonder where she gets that?) Her ponies and dolls always have to have perfectly coiffed hair. If she doesn't like the hair of a toy, she won't play with it. She can be found in front of the mirror at night, combing her hair. If she doesn't like the way I have styled it for the day, she is not shy about letting me know it.


Hannah has an infectious smile. While I post a lot about the funny things Nathan says and does, all Hannah has to do is smile or laugh, and the rest of us follow along!

WE LOVE OUR HANNAH!!!

Snips and Snails

This is for all you moms of all girls out there. Just see what you are missing out on.

Yes, Nathan thought the worms were a little dirty so he gave them a bath. His worms, both named James, enjoyed getting Zestfully clean, and now have more volume and bounce.

When I inquired about the worm I found in the tub he told me what he had done.

"Now they are clean...But now they are in the ocean. So next I go to the ocean, I can see them.... I miss those guys. I shouldn't have taken them in the tub. Shoot. They were my best buddies."