H.A.L.L.O.W.E.E.N.

October 15-17 Solace had school off for conferences and stuff, so we hung out at home and did mommy school (among other things like forgetting all other responsibilities I had that week-seriously, I missed every lesson and everything I was supposed to to that week). Here are the poems the kids came up with about Halloween.

First is Ender's. (In case you cannot read it, I will type what it says under the picture.)

Happy Halloween

All of you

Loo Loo

Looks cute
Of all

Wall Wes Wet

Ender

Ender

Night to eat

And Solace's...Hello Hello

Armour is Cute!

Like our mom

Like us too

Oh, and like dad.

Witches stole Armour.

Ender saved him

Eash of us was happy

Now we are trick or treating

One Day...

One day I left Kindle laying on the floor while I went potty. I came back to find this:

Valas...mega mart of pumpkin patches!

So, 2 weeks ago we had a playgroup at Vala's pumpkin patch, which as one of my friends said on her blog is "like a Halloween amusement park." It is a pumpkin patch that over the years has expanded out and now has hayrack and train rides, pig races, a petting zoo, shows and all kinds of "haunted" attractions (houses, play areas, etc.). We went to it while Solace was at school and here are a few of our good adventures of Vala's (we did have a bad, horrible adventure in that Armour's $50 of birthday money was stolen, but we are going to just ignore that and post our fun adventures!! I didn't take any pictures after the money was gone anyway-just packed up, freaked out, talked to them, and left!) Anyway-here's a small part of Vala's! Oh-I should note it was the day after a TON of rain, so though it did not rain that day, it was sure a muddy day!!!

Muddy wet play area.

How tall are we?!


This is the dragon in the dragon show. It consisted of a couple corny jokes, then a pumpkin being placed in his mouth, raised up and thrown to the ground to smash...literally smashing pumpkins...
Note the pumpkin about to be dropped.

The picture says it all...

Petting zoo-yes that is a camel...real, live, messy, muddy camel...

Cute and cuddly baby girl!

More animals

Ender is going to be a vampire and thought this joke was awesome, so he stood by it and posed in his best vampire growl (It says something like "How do you know a vampire has been to the donut shop? All the jelly has been sucked out of the jelly donuts.")

Ender took this on the hay rack ride to pick our pumpkins-read: this is right before we got really muddy...

Hayrack ride

Just a dino tail

On the train

"Witches brew"

Playin

Just thought this was cool!

Whistle blowers!!

Just a cute outfit...

One day for school Sol dressed so cute that we had to take some pics before heading over to the bus stop! (FYI-this was right before it got so darn cold!! Thus no coats!)

Adventures of the Giraffe and the Star of the Week!

Here are a few of the adventures:

Getting ready for swimming lesson

Sleeping (Mel-note Jacob there too-he is the giraffe's best friend so I've been told)

Goofing off

Beautiful!

Another pre-swim pic...

Going into dance class...



Waiting in Sol's dance bag.

In the doctor's office waiting room-waiting to get the flu mist.

About to get the flu mist.

Right after Sol got the flu mist. (She made a really funny face that the pic did not fully capture.)

Star of the Week!

Last week Solace was the Star of the Week in her class. She had to make a poster about herself, bring a different favorite thing to class each day, and carry around their class giraffe all week (then bring back a poster and pics of her adventures with him on Friday). It was basically the same project as she did with the monkey last year with Mrs Lafferty. Here are a few of the things she said about herself, and a few of the pics she used (with why she used them). I wish the camera was working because then I would post a pic of the poster because she wrote the whole thing by herself!!! She also colored the whole thing alone. She is getting to read and write REALLY well (she is actually going to be doing her reading group with the first grade class 2 times a week). Anyway-here are some things from our Star of the Week:





"This is a picture of me" (She used the following pic as well as a baby pic and a pic of her at 3-yr-old)

Fascinating Fact about me: "When I grow up I would like to be a Singer"


"I show others I care by Helping them with what they need" (She used the following picture to show that-see how she is "helping" her brother withwhat he needs?!)

"I am a star because I play with my brothers and sister." (She used the following pic, and the pic after that was her backup one that wouldn't fit ont he poster.)

Three super cool facts about me are:

"I am the oldest of 4 kids with cool names" (Used the next pic)

"I have lived in 3 states" (She used the next pic but colored in the 3 states)
"I keep my own journal." (Used this pic of her journal)

Here is another super-cool fact she wanted to use, but it did not fit. "I have an uncle that is only 11-yr-old, and he is closer to my age than to any of his sisters' ages." (see next pic of Spence)

Here are a few of my Favorite things!

Color: pink

Animal: lion

Food: eggs

Book: Falling for Repunzel by Leah Wilcox

Sport: soccer and basketball

Thing to do in school: go to centers

Thing to do at home: play with my brothers

Ah...Sundays...

I am a blogging slacker-part of my problem is that I cannot find my cord to upload my pics and I want to post pics about what we have been up to. But, I thought I could tell a story or two anyway. This picture is actually from the museum, but you will find that it expresses so much about this short tidbit.

Last Sunday (Ok actually the one before yesterday-the 19th) Wes and I were sleeping in, so we were still in bed when Ender woke up. He came in and asked if he could watch PBS kids on our TV. Wes said, "Actually no, because it is not on this morning, today is Sunday and you need to get ready for church." Ender's face fell, began to look like that picture and as he ran out into the hall way he yelled, "Oh Dear! Not againnnnnnnnnn!"

It was hilarious, and I hope not one of those had to be there things...if it is, sorry...just know, we laughed and laughed!

Dang...

OK, so I read a funny little thing once. It was a list. You know one of those things like "You know you live in Utah if..." or "You know you have kids if..." Well, This one was "You know you are a cyber-nerd if..." I am not going to lie, I was kind-of surprised (ok not very surprised at all) to learn that I could check off almost all of the thing that make you a "cyber-nerd." Things like having a blog (that you actually update), checking your email multiple times a day, Being on multiple networking sites (MySpace, Facebook), and having more contact online with family and friends than offline (cut me some slack on this one I live far from most of my friends and all my family). It also had things like "You would rather order a pizza online than on the phone" (that is so me-I hate the phone.). Like I said, I could check all of these things off, but there was one major one that I did not have that made me feel I could still claim not to be a cyber-nerd. It said "You know you are a cyber nerd if you have more than 300 friends on Facebook." Fwww, I thought, I don't have even close to that many-I am SOOOO not a cyber-nerd!" I have been holding on to that for quite a while.

Now I have 312 friends on Facebook....

Dang!

Update...coming soon

I owe a huge update as I have been largely absent from blogging for a while. Sorry to say that it is still forthcoming and when it does, watch out!! Sorry for the wait, but just know that we are well, busy, and as always, trying to find the happiness in this crazy thing we call life!

Happy Birthday Baby Ender!!!

Yesterday was my adorable (and well named) nephew, Ender's birthday! He is a terrible two-yr-old now. Though he doesn't sound too terrible! We wish we lived closer so we could know him better, but we love to talk to him on the phone and we love reading about him on his mommy's blog. I love the story of the aquaphor and the photos of the child asleep in the pillows! Ender is a great kids an he is growing like a weed! He will make a great big brother in December and we love him and wish him a happy (late) birthday! Some favorite things about Ender form my kids:

Armour: "I no want to tell him happy birthday! I just wanna yook at the picture of baby Ender-I yike the blond hair like me on him." And a few minutes later "Happy Birthday to You!!" (Said loudly, with a huge smile, and his arms raised high-followed by singing the Happy birthday song over and over)

Ender: "Happy Birthday cute little Prince!"

Solace: "Baby Ender you are cute and nice. Happy Birthday!" (She actually made up a tune to this and is singing it over and over.)

Kindle: "Ahhhhhh. Hi!"

About Wes's mission...

In case it was unclear, Wes's mission is to get family to come visit for Thanksgiving...

I would add that though we would love to have family (or friends) stop by for Thanksgiving, it is an open invitation-anytime! Seriously, anytime, you are welcome!! (Just give me a day or 2 warning so I can clean)!

I would also add that we live in the middle of the country...if you are driving across the country you would like basically be driving past our house on I-80. (Ok-so not right off I-80, it is about 1.5 miles off the freeway)

That is all for now!

Wes: A man with a mission...and a blog.

Wes has a blog. It is listed on my sidebar. He was turning into quite a blogger...but now, he has not posted in like a week. This is the last thing he posted:

I just want to take this opportunity to point out an inconvenient truth. In the 5 1/2 years since I started medical school and have been living away from Utah we have made 2 visits across the country to Maryland and California in cities we had never been to before to see Mickey and Natalie (we don't even have a gps, unless Rochelle counts), 1 to see Eli and Trieste in Montana, 2 to see Tyson and Lindsey in Colorado, and multiple visits back to Utah for various reasons and to visit everyone there. I hate to report it, but aside from visits from G. G. and Great Grandpa, my parents and my little brothers and sisters (not Tyson), no one else has come to visit (Beckee's family has visited extensively, and are more than welcome to visit any time). This is an open invitation for Thanksgiving this year. Tyson at least has an excuse. Eli and Mickey have the least excuse of all, what good is being a dentist if you can't even visit your poor resident cousin in Nebraska? Cody and Bret, you have never been here. All of my cousins are on the hook, Adam, Sarah, Laura, Cassie and the rest of you. We have a queen-sized bed in an extra room as well as two extra toddler beds and a top-bunk. There are two other big living rooms that we could set up for families and kids. The first two families to invite themselves are invited. I have Wednesday through Sunday off the week of Thanksgiving so we could actually visit. We make crispy-skin Turkey....
Love, Wes

Two theories on why he no longer blogs: First, I am pretty sure that the lack of response to his open invitation has lowered his level of blogging interest...so I am reposting our invitation on our family blog...maybe it will remind our wonderful family of the open invitation...Come on down to the Heartland and visit Wes-lets get him blogging again...

Oh yeah-the second reason for Wes's lack of blogging might be that he had to go back to work...maybe...