Congrats!!!

Shout out to Heidi, one of my oldest and dearest friends, and her husband Spencer on the birth of their first child. I know absolutely no details other than he was born the other night, but I want to say congrats! Heidi-I love you, you are awesome, and your life just changed in more ways than you know-you will LOVE it!!! Congrats and cannot wait to hear all about the little guy! Oh and Andrea wants me to remind you that you owe her still miserably pregnant self a lunch...(I should also note that when I say Heidi is one of my oldest friends, I mean I have known her longer than most of my friends-not that she is old...just thought I ought to clear that up before all the people started to point out how much older I am than Heidi...)

First Dives...

Solace

Ender

Armour

Swim Lessons (aka a post for mom)

I was surprised when my mom called last night and said "Well, you must be as busy as we are. You haven;t blogged in a week." I took that as a hint that she wanted to see more pics of her adorable grandkids. So, Here they are at their swimming lessons. These pics were taken 2 Saturdays ago. I will also post the pics from last Saturday when they all got to try their first dive off the diving board into the deep pool. Solace and Ender have class at the same time, and Armour has "daddy and me" lessons after the big kids finish theirs.

Solace

Solace swims to wallSolace and teacher left, Ender and teacher right.
EnderEnder swims to teacher (you would not believe what a big step this was!!)

After their lesson

Just before Army and Wes jumped in

In the pool

This is what daddy and me lessons are like...

How high can we go?!

Jumping in to dad...

Voting, Vetrans, Solace and Tyson

So, I voted last week (or has it been 2 weeks?). Regardless, I voted. I didn't vote for President-elect Obama, but will respect and look for the positive in my new President. (Like he must have some good core family values as he has only been married to Michelle Obama, and they have a traditional marriage and family-very good there!) That is all I want to say that is political in nature.

So, last week, when I came home from voting, and then Solace came home from school, and I had to laugh at myself when I saw what I (totally unintentionally) dressed Solace in that morning. Check out her patriotism:

Speaking of Patriotism...our dear uncle/brother/brother-in-law, Tyson is returning today from Afghanistan!!!!! He has served his country and fought for our rights for the last half a year or so, and is now finally returning home to his wife and kids in Colorado! We are proud of himand we could not be happier for his return! We wish we could be there to welcome him, but since we cannot, we just send our love and our thanks for fighting well for our country!

Welcome Home T-Bone!

4th Picture tag

OK So I have been tagged multiple times for this one, so here goes. I was supposed to post the fourth picture in the fourth picture folder on my computer! Here it is:

Kindle at dinner somewhere while my in-laws were here visiting. Cute girl, huh?!

Solace of....well, gosh, I don't know...

OK, so it occurred to me as I titled this post that Wes and I need to name our home (Like Green Gables). Sadly, I cannot think of anything-I'll ask Wes when he gets home. Anyway...On to the point of this.

For book club this month, we are reading Anne of Green Gable (You are all still welcome and invited to join). I love that book and decided to read it aloud to Solace. So, we have been reading it aloud, but as it turned out, I have been reading it to the whole family. Wes and the boys have been listening too. And, as it turns out, the boys love it as much as Solace. The most surprising thing has been how much Armour loves it-LOVES it-he asks me to "yead mor Anne-What will happen to her now?" We are already more than halfway through.

So, Monday, I was sick. Sick enough that Wes took a day off to take care of me and the kids. That morning as Solace was getting ready for school, she wanted me to fix her hair. So , she got the rest of the way ready, then came into my room quietly. She snuck over to the bed and put her little hand on my forehead. Then she started to sneak out. I said, "Solace, do you need something?"

She quickly said something along these lines: "Oh mother! I am so glad you can talk! I wanted my hair fixed and I was hoping you would put it in 2 very beautiful braids down the sides, but dad said you were sick and I came into your room and felt your head, and it was so hot that I thought I might just burn my hand from touching you like Armour burned his hand. I was ever so worried that it would be a lifelong sorrow, and I really did not want to be in the depths of despair, so I am so very happy to know you can talk to me and that you are not too sick, oh mother! I love you! Could you fix my hair now before I miss the bus and have another sorrow of missing a very important day of school?"

Oh yeah-it's that obvious what we have been reading!

Halloween

The night before Halloween we carved our pumpkins. On Halloween we were busy bees! We went to Sol's party, then when she came home we had to get ready right away to Trick or Treat in our neighborhood. Then we had to go to the Trunk or Treat at our ward, followed by a stop at a friend's house (someone Wes works with). It was packed and fun, and I of course only took a few pictures.

A little something about the pumpkins. Armour had 2 very small pumpkins (one was really Kindles, but whatever). Solace and Ender each had a pumpkin of their own which they drew up designs for then had Wes carve out what they drew. Armour just gave Wes directions-he wanted one mad one and one happy one.

So, in this picture, Kindle and I are holding Army's happy pumpkin on the left and the mean (or evil) Pumpkin on the right! Vampire Ender with his pumpkin

3 kids with their jack-o-lanterns on Halloween night!

Wes in his costume...

School Party

I am the "Room mom" for Solace's class. They split the class a couple weeks into the school year, so we combined the party with the other class. We wrapped the teachers as mummies (with TP), made a bat craft (super easy), and played a spider ring toss game. All of this was after the school wide parade, and before we ate a ton of treats! The 2 boys went over to a friends house while Kindle and I went over to run the party. Here are a few pictures:

Kindle the monkey Cowgirl Solace
Another monkey shot

Making her bat

Solace (and a little Snow White) wrapping up their teacher (The 2 teachers dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2)

Solace's class with their wrapped up teacher.

Dance Halloween party

Solace's dance class had a Halloween party. She couldn't dance well in the cowgirl outfit, so she wore her Jasmine costume pants. Here she is dancing at the party:

A lesson on respect and rights...go vote!

I hate politics. Mainly because I have strong opinions that you will not change, and I do not believe I will change yours, and I HATE to argue, or even have heated discussions. That said, I wanted to post this experience today before I go vote, and before we have a new President picked.

I am a McCain/Palin supporter. I believe that Obama will win, but wish it wasn't so. I am so grateful for my chance to go vote today and put in my vote whether I win or lose. This week our neighborhood has been heavily canvased by the 2 main parties. I am a registered Republican. Wes is unaffiliated. So, the Republicans come talk to me and make sure I am going out to vote. Both parties are calling and stopping by to try to persuade Wes to go vote (for their candidate obviously). I am always polite, but as I said, I hate political discussion.

Yesterday, a man showed up at my door representing the Obama camp. He nervously told me he was there for the democratic party and to remind me to go out and vote for Obama. I assured him that we would be out to vote, though not for who he wanted us to. I could tell at that point that he was particularly nervous as sweat beads started to roll on his forehead. He was obviously someone like me that is not one that likes to have political discussions and conflict, but he was still out going door to door for someone he believes in. He said to me, "Well, I am glad to know you are going to vote anyway! Can I help you look up your polling place?"

I assured him that I knew where to go and he left. I totally disagreed with him and with who he was supporting, but I could not help but be impressed with the fact that though he was nervous, he stood up for his own beliefs. I respect him for doing so and I respect his right to do so.

I also have the right to stand up for what I believe in and I am exercising that right today as I vote! I hope you will all go vote as well, no matter who you are voting for, you should go exercise your right to vote! Go! Do it!

Ah...Autumn!

I love fall!!! LOVE IT!! The leaves are beautiful, the weather is nice, and there are plenty of photo ops! The other day I raked up the leaves in our front yard and took some pictures of our kids. They were cute pictures, but I will never do that again with an infant! She grabbed a leaf, which went right in her mouth, and she choked on it. It was massively scary and I was freaking out, so consider this a warning to you parents out there-be VERY careful when you are taking leaf pictures! (She is fine, it was just a scare for me!)

That aside, I wanted to share just a few of the yard/leaf pictures. I will warn you-they are beautiful!

Ender in the front yard before the raking began. Throwing the leaves

The big pile!

All 4 cuties in the pile

Girls (Ok-and Armour on the right side)

Boys

Playing in the pile