Going Crazy and Having Fun

Usually the TV is the number one reward for my kids. Turn on the tube, and they turn into complete zombies. Usually it's their favorite form of release. Usually nothing captivates them like the television does. But today we found our new favorite form of entertainment that was WAY better than TV.

We signed Sarah up for dance!

Last week when Madeline came out of her class, she had a note informing us that there were some openings at her studio for 2 & 3 year olds. I raced right in and said that we would take a spot. All week long we have all been looking forward to Sarah's first dance class. She was looking forward to it because she has been dragged along to dance classes and recitals for her entire life and now she finally gets her own turn. The rest of us were looking forward to it, because let's facet it, what could be cuter than an extremely free-spirited two year old trying to dance. We have been talking about it all week and for the first time ever, I had the boys begging me to let them come with us to dance. Well, let me tell you, Sarah didn't disappoint us in the slightest. I knew she would be a hit as soon as I put her in he dance clothes. I mean really, who wouldn't be expecting a great show as soon as they caught a glance of a two year old, in a leotard, with a diaper underneath? Andrew, Madeline, Ben and I spent the entire half hour of her class perched outside the window giggling. She was so cute. She was totally in her own world. She couldn't do a thing the way she was supposed to. But she was the cutest kid in the class--big diaper bum and all! The first thing she said to me when we were done was,"I want go my dancing class again!" with a huge grin plastered on her face. It was priceless. In fact when we dropped Madeline off later in the afternoon, Sarah actually broke down crying because she wasn't getting the chance to go again.
While everything about the whole experience was beyond cute, I think my favorite part of the whole day was watching how much my kids enjoy each other. It was such a priceless moment for me to be an observer of. All of my kids went to that lesson because they wanted to. They wanted to be there to see a milestone in their sisters life. They were excited for her and they loved being part of it. Sure they giggled through almost the entire class, but that's because they were thoroughly enjoyed seeing Sarah in a different light. I even had two other mom's who were watching their little kids say something to me about how cute it was to see her older siblings show such an interest in her. Sure, my kids fight. Sure, there are times they don't really like each other. But this moment today proved to me that those aren't the feelings they hold closest to their hearts. They love each other. They enjoy each other. They support each other. They cheer for each other. And they do it because they want to and not because I make them, but because they genuinely care about each other.
I AM A A LUCKY MOM!

Craig and I are online shoppers. We buy most of our Christmas/birthday gifts from Amazon. We like shopping together, late at night, without leaving the comfort of our home. Craig is also a huge fan of not paying tax with our online purchases--he thinks it's fantastic. With that said, this time of year, the UPS truck is kind of a fixture at our house. So far this month we have received at least two boxes a week--sometimes more. This didn't really register as anything out of the ordinary with me me until Monday when I viewed these deliveries from Ben's perspective.
Monday morning our doorbell rang-it was, of course, the UPS man. As usual there was a scurry of little footsteps and a chorus of little voices yelling "I'll get it." Benjamin won the race to the door (which isn't too hard when Sarah is your only competition;-) I caught up with him as he was opening it; just in time to see the UPS man headed back toward his big brown truck. That's when Ben looked up at me and said,

Every year I struggle with how hard it is to keep Christmas centered around Christ when the commercial side of Christmas is everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I love the fun of Christmas, I love Santa, I love stockings, I love shopping for others and I even love the hustle and bustle of the whole season. However, I always tend to get more caught up in that aspect of Christmas than I do in focusing on Christ's birth and life and I know that is where my focus should be. This year we have been doing something that I think will now become a family tradition. This month in the Children's Friend they have a countdown to Christmas. It's purpose, to focus on Christ. Every night leading up to Christmas, they have a scripture to read that talks about Christ's birth, life, and teachings. If you have a gospel art picture kit, you can also pull out a picture that corresponds with each scriptural reference to Jesus and his life. Once you read the scripture you can color in a set of scriptures in the friend to use for your countdown. It's a great twist on the traditional advent calendar and it really has been helping my family put the Christ back in Christmas. I am so grateful that we have been doing this as a family this month. My kids look forward to it every night and we are enjoying reading and sharing and talking about the scriptures together. The kids have all mentioned how much they like the activity and I love the spirit it brings to our home. Not only is it helping us place more of a focus on Christ this season, it is also reminding me that my family really does benefit from scripture study and that is easier to do than I tend to think it is. I would highly recommend this activity to anyone who reads this, whether you have kids or not, it is such a great and beautiful thing to be able to sit as a family each night and focus on our Savior. It brings such a sweet spirit into our homes and makes all our silly challenges and frustrations seem to melt away. So I do have to say "Thank you Friend" for helping our family put the focus more on Christ this Christmas. I am so grateful for Him and all that He has done for me and all that I can learn from Him. I know He loves me and I use that knowledge to bring me peace and comfort every day. And finally I am grateful that I can spend meaningful time with my children talking about Him, His teachings, and the influence He can have in their lives.

Click here to link to the article mentioned. You still have time to catch up--I promise it is worth
your time.

That's right pockets! Today Sarah discovered her pockets and it was the cutest thing ever. Not because she walked around for 35 minutes with her hands inside her pockets just 'cause they were there. Not because she was wearing elastic waistband pants that kept getting lower and lower and lower the longer her hands were in her pockets. (It would have been obscene if she wasn't still a diaper girl;-) And not because of the goofy grin she had on her face and the twinkle and amazement she showed in her eyes every time she looked at me with her hands buried deep in her pockets and her pants hanging down past her cute little bum and said
It was simply because I had a minute today where I saw life from her eyes. I had a brief glimpse into a 2 year old point of view! I can only imagine her train of thought and the pure joy she felt with such a discovery. I can also admit that I am jealous of her innocence and the simple pleasure she finds in things I see as boring and mundane. No wonder she is always happy--life is great and every day is an adventure full of new things to discover and new obstacles to conquer. I love that girl and I love what she teaches me because even if she tries my patience it's simply because she has the joy and blessing of discovering something new and exciting every day and I'm just glad I get to sit in the passenger seat for the ride! Now will someone remind me of that the next time she dumps an entire box of Cheerios on the floor, or uses half a bottle of my new soap just because she felt like washing her hands, or sneaks out of the house, into my car and pushes every button and twists every knob to make the next starting of the van a truly unique and somewhat terrifying experience, or...................................................

Sometimes I forget how easy it is to make my kids happy. Yesterday due to the beautiful weather and the temporary day care that I was hosting in my home, I sent all the kids outside. While we were there, I could tell that Ben was feeling left out and so I pulled him aside and asked him if he wanted to swing--spider style. He said sure and as soon as I really got us going high, he just rested his body against mine and giggled--the whole time! I swung for as long and as high as I could just so I could hear that laughter echoing in my ear over and over again. I pumped until I my legs started to hurt, all the while hearing the simple sounds of laughter, pure genuine laughter ringing out of my sweet little four year old's mouth.
So Simple.
So Easy.
So Fun.
So Needed.
He is the one I always worry about--mostly I worry that he's not getting enough time and attention from me and this moment just reminded me that it really is the simple things that matter. He doesn't need that much, he just needs me and I know I have to find more ways to give him more of me! I just need to keep my eyes open and my mind ready for those swing and giggle moments!

* For the record, my swings aren't nearly as rusty or dangerous as the ones pictured, but they don't look nearly as cool.

I just feel a need to post something and I don't really have anything specific to say so here comes another addition of RANDOM THOUGHT by Becca:

* I really miss my big sister lately. The two hour time difference between our houses means that she's busy when I'm not and I'm busy when she's not which has severely limited our talking time. Right now all we get is quick hello's and I'm missing the mindless conversations of days gone by about everything and nothing!

*I just bought Andrew a new Utah shirt that was ridiculously expensive for a kid, but it is really cute and he better wear it with pride this week in Cougar territory!

*I went the the grocery store today and was completely annoyed when I walked in and found myself in the middle of the Christmas open house---in the middle of November. I was shocked enough when I walked in and was serenaded with Christmas tunes on the grand piano in the lobby. But when I walked around the corner and saw Santa ready and waiting with candy canes for the kids, I wanted to scream. Seriously folks--WHAT HAPPENED TO THANKSGIVING? Is it so important to squeeze a few extra bucks out of the average Joe that we have to completely ignore the one holiday that actually makes us stop and think about what is good in our lives and how blessed we are. I get more and more annoyed with this every year and I it makes me come into the real Christmas season with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth because of the commercial focus on it.

*Ben went to his cousins birthday party today. He was so excited and it was so cute. My other kids were jealous. It was good for them!

*I went on the best run this morning and it put me in a really good mood!

*I love my job in Primary!

* I filled up my car yesterday. Gas was only $1.93 a gallon. I felt like having a party :-)

*I would really like to take off and go somewhere fun over Christmas break. I'm not sure where, but I want to go and play and forget about real life for a while.

*I hate it when I work really hard on something and it just doesn't turn out the way I was hoping--but that's life and I have to deal with it!

*I'm still annoyed about the Christmas in November thing!

THE END

So you saw the costumes, but I am just now getting around to posting about the day's events. Of course there was the Halloween parade, where we sat with our friends:
smiled at our cute kids,

and of course we enjoyed our extra visitor Chloe (who sadly wasn't really enjoying the events herself). Her mom was busy having a baby and we loved spending the day with her:

Then after school, there was Craig's work party. Now I had heard about the intensity of this in advance, but it was INSANE. I have never seen an office transformed in so many ways. Each department had a theme and the whole office was decorated like you wouldn't believe. My kids were in awe of what there was to see. Entire departments were transformed into, forests, complete with crunching leaves on the ground. Ski slopes, with thousands upon thousands of white packing peanuts crumbled up to look like snow. There was a spook alley full of all the gooey and gory things you could imagine and plenty that you would never dream of. One department had a Candy Land theme complete with all the characters ready and waiting and a game board on the floor. There was Gotham City, a Nintendo wonder land, a wild west saloon and shoot out and so many others that I can't even remember. The executive offices were decorated with a Wizard of Oz theme, complete with a yellow brick road, the wizzard, the scarcrow--in a corn filed, the munchkins, the wicked witch of the west, Glenda the good witch, and of course Dorothy and Toto.
Really it was crazy that a business place could be transformed into a Halloween spectacular in such a short amount of time. The kids absolutely loved it and they are already looking forward to next year. (Don't tell them we handed out most of their candy to the trick-or-theaters that came knocking on our door)

After the party, it was home for a quick dinner and then off to trick-or treat with friends. It has sort of turned into tradition to go with the same group for the past few years and my kids look forward to being with our friends every Halloween night. This year, we added a few extra friends and I am guessing that they will be a permanent addition.

The kids had a blast and by the end of the day, we were all exhausted!

Yesterday truly felt like a fall day to me--complete with raking leaves, my first real cold and the crisp autumn air that I love so much. Today it seems like winter is knocking on my door, and I feel like there wasn't nearly enough fall and that makes me sad. I love running in the morning in shorts and a long sleeve shirt. I love crisp apples and even crisper air. I really do love fall and I think I always forget that. To help me remember, I thought I better put up our last few pictures of fall fun. One of my favorite days of the past few weeks was when my doorbell rang and some of my favorite friends were there wondering if they could rake up our leaves. Their intentions we to fill up some pumpkin leaf bags, but ended up getting a few ideas that seemed like lots more fun.
At first the kids just wanted to jump in the leaf piles, but Andrew decided to be resourceful and found a rope and then hooked everyone up with a rope swing. The kids had so much fun swinging into the giant pile of leaves that we had just raked up and that rope swing turned into one of the hottest neighborhood attractions of the week.




We also had a blast carving pumpkins. Sarah REFUSED to stick her hand inside the pumpkin, but she loved seeing her pumpkin with a "happy face." We had to go outside multiple times a day just to look at it and it always made her so happy! I tried to talk the kids into using a pumpkin stencil and doing something cool on their pumpkins, but the best I could do was get Ben to use a stencil......of a jack-o-lantern face. Sadly I didn't take pictures of the finished product, but if you look real close, you can see them on the side of the porch by all the trick-o-treaters.

Today I've been grumpy and I don't know why.
At times I just wanted to sit down and cry.
My kid's haven't listened, my house is a mess,
There's so much to do and I'm chalk full of stress.
I've tried lots of things to improve my mood,
But it seems that I simply keep turning to food.
And the worst part of that is that our house has to much
Of that Halloween candy I just shouldn't touch.
The Snickers are gone --I ate those in a snap
So now I'm stuck eating the leftover crap.
But back to my day, there was so much to do
And so many people who needed me too.
And just when I thought it wouldn't get better-
I put on my sweats and my RED UTAH sweater.*
Then I sat my butt down and listened real hard **
To the announcer who called each play--yard by yard.
And just when I thought the game might be lost,
There was a wonderful catch from a ball that was tossed!
That's right, the Utes won their game--just by 3,
And now I can say that I'm not quite so grumpy
My day might have seen me down in the dump,
But the end of that game made me stand up and jump!
So now I just have one last thing to say-
Thank you UTE FOOTBALL, you just made my day!


*Technically it is a sweatshirt, but nothing rhymed with that!

**We do not have the channel the game was being broadcast on so I had to listen to it on the computer as I watched updates online

I love Halloween--not the whole beg candy off your neighbors then make yourself sick part, but the dress up and have fun part! I love figuring out costumes with my kids and seeing how much fun they have dressing up. This year, I had a bunch of the cutest kids around:
After 3 or 4 different costumes, tons of indecision, and a great find on the clearance rack, we ended up with my favorite knight in shining armor!

But my personal favorite costume of the day was this:

Last week was yet another one filled to the brim with all sorts of fun things for our family. On Thursday we went to Cornbelly's with my brother, Greg, and his family. Due to the frazzled state of my life right now I of course forgot the camera, so sorry, no pictures. I will have to say, I enjoyed Cornbellys a lot more last year, that I did this year, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I was done being a mom long before the day was over and I just wasn't in the right place mentally to be involved in a fun family activity. Despite my bad attitude, the kids really did have a blast and are already looking forward to going again next year!


After the zoo we went up to my mom's house for ourHalloween party, complete with our spooky dinner that she likes to have every year. This year we unintentionally had an eyeball theme. The kids loved helping prepare some of the food with grandma, and we all loved laughing at how gross it looked! Cindy did a really cute craft where we made bats out of pumpkins and everyone had a great time. It really was a fun family party.
My mother never ceases to amaze me with all the fun things she plans for her grand kids. The day before this party, she came to my house and helped us make a skeleton out of PVC pipe. We named him Mr. Bones and he looks so cute sitting on our front porch. (Maybe I will remember to take a picture some time soon). Perhaps my favorite thing about the holiday parties my mom hosts, is that she always gives my kids a new book at each and every one. This year, we got Frank was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance. My kids all love it and we have already read it more times than I can count. I have so many fun holiday themed books around and I owe my mother a huge thank-you for all of them. I love how much she does to make my kids love to read.


Later that evening, Madeline lost a tooth while she was at a friends house and then we ended the night at the ward chili cook off. It was so great to not have to cook dinner since I feel like we are constantly going 100 miles per hour every day around here lately. I am actually really looking forward to a chance to slow down a little bit for the fall, but we'll see if that actually happens;-)