Halloween Part One

Chevron Party:

 She's playing the games!  I never thought that would happen.

 Oh I hope I win!  I hope I win!

 I won!

 Daddy takes the camera.

Library Festival:

 And now just some bad-lighting, but at least the subjects are cute, pics of the kids on Sunday.

X-Men

Cabe: You don't know what Wolverine looks like?
Me:  Not really.  Well at least not the guy from the real comic book series.
Cabe:  Didn't you watch it growing up?!
Me:  Not that I recall.  The first time I remember learning about X-Men is when the movies came out."
Cabe:  What?!  What is wrong with you people!
Me:  We watched He-Man. Does that count?
Cabe: Uhgh.

Apparently I was deprived as a youth.  My kids,  however, are not being deprived.  This has become and almost nightly ritual:

 I thought he looked so cute just chillin'.

 And these have nothing to the with the post but I took these to my primary kids who had birthdays in October and one kid actually said, "Wow!  Those are cool."  The ultimate compliment from a ten-year-old.  I put mustard eyes on them and sent better looking ones then these but these mummy guys are a huge hit!

A Kiss for Every Star

Every other Friday Caleb is home from work.  On these days I get to walk Mr. M to school with just the two of us.  We both enjoy it so much.  He wants to run a race in December so sometimes we run there together.  Today, however, he wanted to walk and cuddle.  He kept snuggling my arm and giving me kisses.

Today he listed his super-powers, "Mom, I have super-strength, super-speed, and super-love.  You know why I give you so many kisses?  It's because of my super-love.  I give you a kiss for every star in the sky."

Are you kidding me?!  Where does this kid come up with this stuff?!  His wife will be so lucky because he is a hopeless romantic....

and a great artist, I might add:

 I have the privilege to volunteer in his classroom every Friday for reading groups.  I would never want to teach kindergarten, but being around them for short periods is so much fun. Mr. M runs up to me when I arrive and jumps into my arms with his legs wrapped around me like a little monkey.  I will be so sad the day he stops doing that. Also, every chance he gets while I am there, he runs up and kisses my arms up and down.  When I read with him in the hall he sits in my lap and kisses me after every sentence.  He is amazingly sweet. 

He is kind.  His teacher is always so proud of him because he sticks up for other kids when they are being teased.  He is also trusting.  He believes everything everyone tells him.  I have to constantly tell him that so-and-so in the class next door did not get caught in a fire on the playground, or so-and-so's Mom and Dad did not disappear because I just spoke to them.

He won the Triple A award last week.  This means perfect attendance, behavior, and academics.  He was so proud.  He thrives off any sort of praise.

 He is coming more and more out of his shell.  He even gave his part in the primary program.  I had to bribe him.  But even bribery hasn't worked in the past. 

He is so smart.  His learning style is much like mine but he retains like his Daddy.  He comes home every day and tells me all the things he learned almost verbatim.  Sometimes he even tells me who took potty breaks and who ate their snack that day.

  I've been very pleased with his teacher.  She makes sure that even though school districts have tried to cut out all the fun stuff, she still includes it.  She's on the ball. She knows how to use fun things to teach academics.  Because I read with the students I see the many levels the students are on and what she is doing with each student to help them advance. She's also friendly and down to earth and I love to visit with her. We will miss her when we move.

I know I bragged on and on but you all know how sometimes we are just overwhelmed by how incredible our children are.

Day at the Park from Dad's Eyes

Warm Fuzzies

My friend and I were talking about warm fuzzies today and I remembered that I hadn't written about them yet.  This has been the best thing for my household so I thought I would share it.  I got the idea from my cousin and she got it from this talk by President Monson.

 First we had a lesson about how when we do good things for others the Holy Ghost helps us feel warm and fuzzy inside. Then I taught about different things we could do to serve others.  I pointed out that Mr. M loves to pick up litter and open doors for others.  Miss L loves to comfort her friends and help them.  I really want to teach them to look outside of themselves and notice the things around them.  Now when I notice them serving others I give them a warm fuzzy for their jar.

When they have filled their jar they get to go on a date with the parent of their choice.  I made sure the first month I pointed out every little good thing they did so they could fill them quickly in the hopes that it would make them excited about it. It took about two weeks and then Miss L and I went on a date to the cupcake store and Mr. M and Daddy went to McDonalds.  It was a blast and definately motivated them. 

I usually say something like, "Oh it's so sweet of you to make Baby D feel better. That definately earns a warm fuzzy!"

I have noticed big changes.  I've noticed the biggest change in the way they treat each other.  And Mr. M will come home with stories from school where he was kind to someone or helped them. His teacher is always sharing stories of what a sweet kid he is and how wonderful he is to other students.

Sometimes when my kids are fighting I will tell them, "Whoever solves this will get a warm fuzzy."  It doesn't work every time but it does often.  Sometimes they both stop and solve it. I love it because I see them stop and think and change their behavior. 

Often they even point out my behavior, "Oh Mom!  That was so nice, you should get a warm fuzzy!" 

I love that it has helped them fight less but what I love most is that it has helped me to recognize the good things they do and make sure they get verbal recognition for it.  I can get negative sometimes and I need to compliment more. 

President Monson is the prime example of serving others.  His biography was so inspiring. I hope to instill that kind of a love for serving others in my children.

President Monson,  "Recall with me the words of King Benjamin: 'When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God' (Mosiah 2:17). We are surrounded by those in need of our kindness. We are the Lord’s hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve His children."

All About Miss L

Miss L had a pre-school open house last week.

We received and All About Me Book she had made.

She was extremely excited to show it to Mr. M. and Daddy.

  I love her little smirky face.

 I could tell she felt special going to her preschool open house with just mommy and no boys.
She's all about the whole, "NO BOYS!" thing right now.  And I enjoyed it too.
She chatted to me the whole way there and whole way back.
I wish I'd had a tape recorder because I don't remember much of it but I do remember it was hilarious.
She has a great sense of humor. Even if it mostly revolves around fibs and poop jokes.

Last week she was singing, "Little One, Jesus loves you this I know, for the poo poo tells me so."
I think I will actually be sad when this whole poop faze ends because it really is rather funny.

Fairies and Robots

Miss L from day one knew she wanted to be a fairy.  Which was great because I had most of the materials at hand.  She kept adding her own little things and loved having her make-up done.  She kept saying, "Oh mom, I look pretty!"  And I told her over and over again that she is always pretty. 

She also insisted on carrying the wrapper to her leotard around.  She still refuses to let me throw it away.

 Mr. D changed his mind five or six times.  He wanted to be a bat, a tiger, Wolverine, Spiderman, and finally, after reading a book where a kid dressed as a robot, he chose that (mom may have prodded a little).  We had a blast making this thing together and I was admittedly pretty proud.  Maybe a little too proud.  I think I was more upset than he at first when he didn't win the costume contest at church.

 I told the friend in charge they needed a recount on the votes...I was joking....kind of. She told him he had a great costume but he wasn't wearing it when they were voting (he had to take it off to eat his treat, his hands wouldn't reach his mouth very well).  He had a complete meltdown in the hall.  It was so sad.  Eventually he came to realize what she said and then he's told everyone, "I had the best costume of all!"  I'm pretty sure those were not her exact words but it made him feel better so everyone was happy.
(I put little glow sticks behind the holes in the front and he drew buttons all over the right hand side too.)

This is the first year I actually enjoyed costume making.  However, my house may never recover.  While I was spending hours getting kids ready, the others were ransacking.  I should be cleaning it now, but I don't wanna.
Damon is a little pirate and was actually dressed to go, but the party started at 7 and his bedtime is 6:30.  He was so tired we decided to leave him home with Dad.  Which worked out great because he didn't get overtired and slept in today while the other two (mainly Mr. M) had major over-tired issues and woke up several times.  It is much more exhausting to wake up with older kids than babies. But at least I wasn't waking up with older kids AND babies.

Search and Destroy

When I first started reading blogs, one of you (I think Jonsie) had a friend who called her kids "Search" and "Destroy" in her comments.  At the time I didn't really understand why because I had one little guy who was amazingly well behaved (you know, back when his mom had time to chase him around and make him behave, and suck all the fun out of life in the process) and hardly made any messes. 

Then number two learned to walk and climb and discover. Then number three learned to walk and climb and discover.  Now I'm thinking "Search" and "Destroy" are not strong enough words to describe these people!

Miss L has had her fair share of mess-making posts, so this one is dedicated to Mr. D.  It's a small sampling of my minute to minute life.

Lil' D discovers the laundry basket.
Over and over and over again. 
He loves to pull the dirty clothes out and drape them all over himself to wander about the house. 
He's crazy.
 

Lil' D discovers cookie cutters and water jugs. 
Water jugs are apparently not too heavy to be packed around.
 

One of his personal and extremly loud favorites:

 Tupperware drawers are the best!

 Shoes.Shoes.Shoes.

And many more.....for another day. 

We Will Miss These People

I try really hard not to think about what we will be leaving behind when we move. 

There's no point to it. 

It won't change anything. 

But I have to admit we will miss these people:

(Lucky for me Ashleigh loves pics where the kids are being themselves - silliness and all - makes photo taking easier and more fun.)

I've been so blessed my entire life with great friends. 

And I will be sad to leave these girls (and one guy) behind.

 
They have been such a big help to us here in Texas. 
They've been the rock we needed while we been so far from family.

 They think I'm doing them a favor taking their family photos but I'm just so happy they will let me practice on them.  How can you go wrong with faces like these.

  I'm pretty sure Miss L thinks Molly is coming with us.  I'm not looking forward to the day she realizes it's not happening.

Many thanks to some awesome friends.  I'm glad we still have a month or two left...these pics just had me feeling nostalgic.

Comments, Comments, Whine, Whine.

I'll admit it: I really miss comments.  I keep trying to tell myself that I don't care because this is my journal and whether other people comment or not doesn't matter.  But I still miss them. I figure there are three possible reasons:

1. Blogger's commenting system stinks and it's just too frustrating to try.  I know because I sometimes can't comment on other blogs.
2. People can't think of another interesting and fun way to tell me how adorably cute my munchkins are.  If this is you, don't worry I don't need anyone to tell me, it's amazingly obvious how sweet and precious and adorable they are. :-P   I'd even go for a comment on the weather, or fashion trends (ha ha), or something.
3. People no longer read because there are so many blogs these days and that leaves little time for commenting.  I also get this considering I read two blogs a day at most and I keep forgetting to read those who have private blogs. 

I know I've whined about it before.  What can I say?  I'm a whiner.

Apple Orchard Country

I was sooo excited to go to the Apple Orchard. 

Doing things like this with my kids is a huge part of what I always dreamed of.

Autumn activities are by far my favorite.

The night before it rained like crazy and we weren't sure if they'd be open.

But they were.

We headed out.

We had a flat.

Mr. M had a big ole' fit.  He wanted the apple orchard even if we had to walk there.

We got it fixed.

We hung out at McDonalds while we waited.

Then we headed out again.

It took over two hours to get there. Kind of like everything else in TX.

 

 In my mind I saw this huge Southern, white plantation with tall trees going for miles.
It was nothing like that. 
It was a small, quaint, worn-out building with short rows of short little trees. 
It didn't matter though, it was still a dream come true.

(This my "Git-ya, git-ya, git-ya, face.)

 The joy on the kids' faces was exactly what I hoped for.

 We explained that if the apples had worm holes they were to leave those ones behind.  Miss L, I think, had it backwards and was actually gathering ones with holes.

 They loved that they could eat the apples as they went along.  I think they ate almost as many as we brought home.  Of course, so did I.  Nummy!

This is the only pic of Daddy.  I feel bad. We had another one Mr. M took but we both looked horrible in it so it was deleted.

 Lil' D had no desire to keep up with us.  He wandered behind picking up apple after apple and hitting them together.  So. Darn. Cute.

 After picking apples we chose out pumpkins and then had an on-site, outdoor, brisket sandwich lunch.

So far we've made apple cake and have plans for applesauce and maybe a pie.  Miss L has eaten a large majority of our apples though so we'll see.

 

Posing on the gigantic pumpkin!

Such a beautiful, cloudy, cool-weather day.  It was perfect...well after the flat tire and all.