Holy Bursting Bags of Candy, Batman!

What do you get when you send 5 kids out to Trick-or-Treat?
Well, 5 giant bags full of candy – that’s what.

This picture was taken two days after Halloween. So the candy has already been picked through, and still - this is what’s left.

Guess who can’t stay out of it? I’ll give you a clue: She has full access to the candy that is unguarded while the kids are at school.

Does anyone have any Will Power I can borrow?

Our Halloween started out with a lovely breakfast made by Jonathon and Steve. Jonathon learned how to make German Pancakes at school and now we are addicted to them. Again – must   obtain   Will   Power.

Pumpkin carving this year was actually enjoyable. There was not so much arguing this year – not like we will be able to figure out why so we can duplicate it for next year. Then we had Chinese food – I think this might become a Halloween tradition for us.

Trunk-or-Treat at the church parking lot started off the festivities for the day. It was a beautiful day, and I think I had more fun than the kids did. After I picked up my Hot Chocolate, I headed over to the fire pit to make S’mores. As I made the rounds with Henry, it was great to visit with everyone and see who got creative with the costumes and decorations. If we do it again next year, I’m going to kick it up a notch and do something besides candy – I have a whole year to think of something amazing. (Please don’t bring this post up next year when you make a special visit to my trunk, only to find an undecorated trunk and a bowl full of candy.)

 

This year, I was on the ball and bought costumes early – Usually I am trying to scrounge up costumes the day of – making my poor kids go out as Toilet Paper Mummies or Bed Sheet Ghosts. Amazingly they were all happy with the costumes they were given – since I didn’t consult with any kids when I picked them out.

  JONATHON – THE SAD PUPPY DOG NIGHT STALKER
Originally just a Night Stalker costume, but so much
better with the added artistic face paintings of Steve.

 

THOMAS – FRANKENSTEIN
Thomas cut out early so he didn’t get his face painted, but I think a puppy dog nose really would have finished off the costume.

 

HANNAH – THE SPIDER WITCH
However, her official title changed more often than Henry
changes his clothes each day – which is often.

 

LIBBY – TRYING TO BE AN EVIL PRINCESS
What can I say – is it even possible for Libby to be evil?

 

  HENRY – THE SCARY BLUE RUNNY NOSE MONSTER
I couldn’t resist buying this costume.
I thought it was so cute, and was glad that it kept him warm.

 

JACK – MR. PUMPKIN PANTS and STEVE – OFFICIAL YANKEES FAN
They stayed home to watch the Yankees beat the
Phillies in game 3 of the world series.

So as much as I complain about Halloween, when all is said and done, we always have a great time. So next year, I am going to try and embrace the holiday and maybe put up a few decorations.

So, What Have You Been Up To?

Other than Birthdays, which seem to be abundant during the summer, we really did not do anything too exciting over the summer. Since school started, things have been pretty slow around here. But I would like to at least document a few things. That sounds so exciting, right? So here are a few things we did this summer. Hope it’s not too long.

 

Our 4th of July celebration was pretty low key.
It gets pretty chaotic if we try to take the whole bunch anywhere, so we just stay home and do a few fireworks in the driveway.  It’s safer that way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was very nice – it didn’t even get very cold when the sun went down. Jack was probably over heated by the end of the night.

 

I wanted to be a fun mom this summer – I wish I had more patience to take all of the kids out to fun places. We did make it on two picnics. We even got pictures of one of them. I took the kids to Bridal Veil Falls the first week of August. I think they had fun?

I don’t know if you can see them, but those are my kids climbing up the falls – I made them come back down because they were wearing flip flops. I pictured a not so fun slide down the falls for one of them.

Henry would not get out of the stroller to play in the water. It’s ok, because it was quite cold, and I don’t think he would have liked it.

 

Every summer I tell myself that I am going to spend more time with my family up at Bear Lake. This year we were able to fit one whole trip in the week before school started.

My plan was to get the beach out of the way first off and then head to my mom’s house. I found a nice quiet spot and let the kids loose. Not 10 minutes later a big green suburban pulled in next to us, and as I watched all of the little girls pile out of it, I wondered why they had decided to park next to me. The next thing I know, my kids are yelling, “It’s Katie and Fallon.” Sure enough it was some of my cousins come to the beach for a summer party. They didn’t even know that I was coming up – what a coincidence! We had such a great time, I felt bad that we had not come up more often.

 

I never would have thought that Libby would like to be buried under the sand – she’s quite claustrophobic – but that is the first thing she asked for when we hit the beach.

 

I wonder if we can re-create this look for Crazy Hair Day.

This was Henry’s first time in the lake. He had tons of fun filling up a bucket of water and dumping it in the sand.

Jonathon was very proud of the sand castle that he built.

We had so much fun, that we even went back the next day. I love it that my kids can enjoy the beach just like I did when I was a kid.

 

Lastly, once the kids were finally back in school, I decided to try my hand at canning. I have only ever made jam before, but this year I bottled tomatoes and peaches.

Lots of tomatoes and peaches.

It was a messy job. (Thanks Heather)

But I’m so glad that I made the effort.

 

Well that’s about all, I just want to post a picture of Jack, because he’s getting so big. He is almost 8 months old now. Time is flying by so fast.

We call him fatty fat pants.

 

One final note - because we just got done watching them win game 2 GO YANKEES!

Hannah’s Magical #8

Hannah turned Eight on Wednesday. She was lucky that her birthday fell before the first Saturday of the month so that she could be baptized today.

It seemed like August was going to last forever to her. She was very excited and couldn’t wait for September to get here. I promised her that we would go shopping for a white dress towards the end of August, and she would not stop asking me when we would go.

When we finally did go shopping, we had a little trouble finding a frilly white dress – there were quite a few in the spring when I was out shopping, but not so many at the end of the summer.

Finally, at the fifth store that we visited we found a wall full of pretty white dresses. We looked and discussed and decided on a few to try on. She knew right away which one she wanted – but of course, it was too big and they didn’t have one in her size. So we tried on a few more – nope, she wanted the first one.

I had a bit of a flash forward to us trying to pick
out a wedding dress, and I’m not sure if I’ll
be able to cope when the time comes.

After trying on every dress – some even twice, she finally picked out a different one. Whew!

 

Wednesday the 2nd was her Birthday – she got a new outfit to wear to school and I made rice crispy treats to take to her class at school. When school was out, we decided to go to the Kamas pool and swim for a couple of hours and then come home for dinner and cake. So we loaded everyone in the car and made the 30 min drive - just to find out that the pool was closed for maintenance.

(I did check online before we went, but silly me, I was looking on the POOL HOURS page, not the Rec Center front page with the small red print at the bottom that said the pool was closed.)

So we were all bummed and drove home in sulking silence.

However, when we got home there were presents to be opened and we forgot all about the pool.

Along with her new dress, she got her own set of scriptures, some art/craft project books and new clothes and shoes for school.

She asked for a lemon cake with strawberry frosting. I was not sure of the combo, but I tried my friends recipe for strawberry frosting and it was quite a tasty cake.

Luckily Thursday and Friday went by quickly and today we all got dressed up and headed to the Baptism. It is so fun to see all of the kids dressed in white on the front bench. Hannah was a little worried, but she did great.

Tonight we continued our Baptism Tradition, and took her to The Roof down at Temple Square – Just Steve, Me, and Hannah. We all enjoyed dinner very much, and then we walked around Temple Square.

Tomorrow she will be confirmed, and that will be her last special day for a while. I hope that her memories of this weekend will keep her smiling for a while.

Hannah is a very high maintenance girl. She knows what she wants and won’t stop until she gets it. This is both good and bad.  We battle a lot of the time, but I think it’s because we are very similar – neither of us like it when things don’t go our way. She is very good to help me with Jack and Henry. I am very proud of her today.

And Another One – Libby Turns 6

Libby had her 6th birthday on July 18th. We started off her Magical Birthday Weekend with a trip to the Kamas pool on Friday. It was Jack’s first visit, and he loved it. Steve even took the day off to come with us. We all enjoyed the morning swimming and then headed to the pizza and ice cream place to have lunch. We had never eaten there before, and it was surprisingly tasty.

 

On Saturday Grammy dropped by with presents for everyone. The weather was beautiful and so we decided to have an impromptu water party. We invited a few friends over and they ran through the sprinklers, threw water balloons, and ate tons of popsicles.

 

She got a razor scooter, a pet shop doggy and some hair accessories. She asked for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. She didn’t even eat it. I had a feeling that she wouldn’t like it. I don’t think she has ever really liked any of the birthday cakes that we have had. Steve liked it though, because I used chocolate mousse instead of frosting. I didn’t like it, so this is the first birthday cake that I didn’t eat – all in all it turned out well for all of us.

Libby is just getting used to the fact that she is not the baby anymore – it only took her 2 whole years to figure it out. She loves to play with her friends – she is not happy to just stay home. She always lets us know when she is being good. She always wants to give and get hugs. We can always make her laugh even when she is on the verge of tears. We love her happy smile.

Rewind – Thomas Turns Ten

Thomas turned 10 on May 19th, but since my camera was missing, I didn’t get any pictures on his birthday. It has taken this long for me to get the pictures from my mom’s camera.

There is a reason why you should write things down when they happen, because I don’t really remember what we did for his birthday. I was hoping that the pics from my moms camera would jog my memory but I have just looked, and there are a total of 5 pictures of Thomas with his cake – that’s it.

So here is what I do remember. . .

Even though it was

against my motherly instincts,

I let Steve buy Thomas a Pellet/BB Gun. We laid down the rules and set him loose in the backyard to shoot at paper targets taped to a piece of plywood propped up against the fence. He was very good at following the rules, though it wasn’t long before he was out shooting soda cans and army guys.

My mom and dad came for a visit and they brought their dogs. Thomas loves them and he spent most of his time outside playing with them.

We had chocolate cake with strawberries and ice cream. It was too good and I couldn’t stay out of it. It’s really not a good thing that we have a birthday to celebrate 8 months out of the year – I will forever be snacking on cake.

Even though his birthday was on a Tuesday, we celebrated it on Monday because we had a special Enrichment activity/challenge on Tuesday that I  absolutely  couldn’t miss.           

 

Thomas is pretty easy going.
He tries very hard not to laugh when you tickle him, but we know his weak spots. He hates it when you pretend that he is a girl, but he acts like it doesn’t bother him.
His nickname is Lou because one day I was calling him Tommy Loulou to tease him and it just stuck. He has always been cuddly and loves to curl up in a blanket even in the summertime. He has a hard time keeping his showers short and could stay in there for hours if we let him.

Hopefully your Birthday wasn’t too boring Thomas – we will have to have a fun one next year.

Henry Turns Two

 

Henry’s birthday was on June 30th. It was not the most fun birthday for him, because he was sick. He woke up with a fever, and slept most of the day. Steve came home with presents and that made him a little happier, but he was in no mood for cake.

Since Hannah and Jack had both been diagnosed with Strep Throat, Henry didn’t have to go to the doctor on his Birthday. They just called in a prescription for him.

He did not want to blow out the candles, and he did not want to eat his cupcake. I wish I could say the same for me, I ate enough cake for the both of us.

He felt better the next day, and decided to take his new bike for a spin. He also got a new baseball bat and ball, but I didn’t get a picture of him playing with them. We are also going to take the money that Grandma sent and buy him some new pants, because he has obviously grown out of this pair.

This picture was only taken 2 months ago, but now with his haircut he looks so much older to me. I wish I would not have had it cut so short. Henry is a handful, but I have no idea what I would do with out him. He makes us all laugh. I don’t want him to grow up. I do want him to stay out of the sugar bin though.

Happy 15th!

Well, we are back from our trip and we had a blast. It’s good to be home, though, not good to have to do all of the laundry that needs to get done. We have gone to NY many times, but this is the first time that we have ever taken pictures - at least good pictures anyway.

This trip started out with Steve heading off to Florida on Wednesday to leave Jack with his grandparents while we were away. Wednesday was sort of a downer day for me – and I didn’t really want to do anything to get ready to go.

I put off cleaning and packing until late and finally headed to bed just after midnight. There was no sleep for me though, because Henry woke up with a nasty croupy cough and a high fever, and didn’t really go back to sleep until about 5 am. By then it was time for me to get up and get ready to go. How awful I felt leaving him home with my Mom while I ran away to play.

Steve and I met up at the NY Airport on Thursday and headed right for the Pizza place - we were starving. It took us a couple of tries, but we finally found the right Famous Original Ray’s to eat at. Really, I don’t know if it is just because we are always starving when we go here, but It is truly the best pizza I’ve ever had.

We were supposed to go to the top of the Rockefeller Center but the weather wasn’t great, and there was zero visibility up there so we rescheduled for Saturday. You can’t really see it, but the top of the building disappears into the misty sky.

On Friday we decided to walk around downtown. Across the street from Ground Zero was St. Paul’s church and there was a small cemetery in the yard. Apparently this church miraculously survived 9/11. Some of the gravestones are more than 200 years old.

Next stop Grand Central Station for lunch. There is a huge food court downstairs with way to many things to choose from. I went for a chicken sandwich from a place called The Chirping Chicken. My sandwich was not really a sandwich at all – just a flat chicken breast marinated and grilled up, served in a folded pita bread. Topped with lettuce, tomato and a little mayo, it was delicious. Steve and I agreed that you don’t come across pita sandwiches very often, but I will be picking up pita bread next time I head to the store.

Later it was the Yankees vs. the Mets. This was our first visit to the new Yankee Stadium. We were sad that the old one is no longer in use and will be torn down. The new one was very nice though, and we hope to make it back many more times in the future.

I had to throw this pic in, because I enjoy watching Jeter play. This is him warming up before the game. It’s amazing how far these guys can throw the ball.

The Yanks were set to lose the game in the 9th with a score of 7-8. Jeter was on second, Tex was on first and A-Rod was up – pop fly to shallow right field. The Mets second base man was right there and all of the Mets fans in the stadium were on their feet cheering . . . until the guy dropped the ball – oops. The Yankees Win! But it was bittersweet because they really lost.

Our night ended with a trip to the top of the Empire State Building. This is the second time I have been up there, and I have to say that I don’t love it – even at midnight it was way busy and there is not a lot of room. Also, at night there is not too much to see, just the lights of the city. It’s just one of those things that you can say you did.

Saturday morning we headed up to the Top of the Rockefeller Center and had a great view of the Empire State Building.

Also, Central Park. It amazes me how big it is and how it’s just smack dab in the middle of this huge city.

I recommend The Rock over the Empire State Building. The only thing was that we couldn’t really get a good shot of the Chrysler building, For that you need to go to the Empire State Building.

We had lunch at Lombardi’s – the first licensed pizzeria in America. Located in Little Italy. It was pretty good pizza, but the breadsticks were awful. Little Italy and it’s neighbor Chinatown are the place to go for souvenirs at half the price they are elsewhere. I always shop here first – even for scarves and handbags.

Thanks to the hotel concierge, we had dinner reservations at a place called Gallagher's. This was supposed to be our nice anniversary dinner, but it was quite a disappointment. I guess we should have specified that we wanted to go to a nice restaurant. This was possibly the worst steak house we have ever eaten at. With the exception of the Apple Pie, the food was not good and the service was worse. Things got a little brighter as we were walking from the restaurant to the show, a group of about 20 naked cyclists rode down Broadway in some sort of protest – ewww.

Later, the night improved greatly as we thoroughly enjoyed the musical Wicked. We are sitting in front of the set, but you can’t really see it. It was amazing. Please Note: It was humid and windy while we were there, so that no matter how good my hair looked in the room, there was no hope for it when we got outside.

After church on Sunday, we headed to the Park for a lovely stroll. Or so we thought. When we got there, the park was partially blocked off because of the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Who knew it would last over 4 hours.

This is Times Square – we try to avoid it at all costs – way too many people in one small area. Makes me so I can’t breathe.