Amber slept over at Grandma's on Thanksgiving Eve. She was getting restless as they were settling down to their long winter's nap and she finally told Grandma, "I'm bored of going to sleep." Dang! Going to sleep is the most exciting part of my day. :)

Today was Amber's Thanksgiving party at school. Have I mentioned how glad I am that Amber is still attending this preschool?

Here is the last picture we have of our lovely Cottonwood. When the landscaper first xeriscaped out front yard and planted this tree, it was so tiny that we had to stake it in three places and I still thought it would snap like a twig in a wind storm. Four years later, it had become a monster with huge, sprawling roots and millions of leaves that dumped all over the rocks every fall. It turns out that you aren't really supposed to plant Cottonwoods anywhere except down by the river because as they mature, they become absolutely huge. So, alas, we had to say goodbye to our little tree before it did serious damage to the infrastructure of our home.

Amberism - Yesterday, Amber told Sam, "Daddy, we had November for spreechool (preschool) today."

Aaronism #1 - A couple of days ago, I was helping Aaron with his math homework. I wasn't sure we'd gotten one of the probability problems right and we didn't want to wake Sam up to check. I asked Aaron if his teacher went over the homework problems during class. He replied, "No, she just puts the answers on the board and then goes outside and smokes crack." Sam thought this was a horrible story but I must be bad mom because I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants.

Aaronism #2 - Aaron's social studies class did a class swap meet this week that was supposed to teach them something about Egyptian culture (don't ask me). I didn't realize the event had already taken place and I asked him what kind of things he was going to bring to swap. He told me it was a done deal but not to worry, he'd just gathered a few things from around the house that nobody uses anymore. "Such as what?", I asked him. "Oh, I just took Chad's baseball signed by all the Red Sox, your wedding ring and Dad's computer hard drive." How does he say these things with a straight face?

The Hoosiers played together for the first time this weekend. Here are two of the most handsome boys on the team, if I do say so myself. Aaron didn't appreciate my "constructive" criticism after the first game. Not only did I make him cry but he came home and wrote "Loser!" all over one of his tshirts and wore it around for the rest of the night just to make me feel like the horrible mother that I am. Alas, will I never learn to leave pep talks to the coach? I apparently am not very good at them. The second game went much better and Aaron even got a basket. Woo Hoo! When that ball went through the hoop, everyone on the team and their parents erupted in cheers. Chad thinks it's not fair that everybody made such a big deal over one basket when he got 17 points. But I say, suck it up, Bud!

Here is the cake I made for the baby shower of Sarah and AdriAnne - two of the cutest pregnant ladies ever. It was really fun to decorate, but now the leftovers are haunting me. My diet was going just great until Halloween weekend. I had lost 5 lb. and my pants were starting to feel quite loose and comfy. Shoot, I was about to get out the old, smaller jeans just for kicks and giggles. But how do you say no to jack-o-lantern pizza and 100 Grand bars lovingly offered to you by your darling son? Plus, some evil temptress brought the most fabulous current tart to the ward Halloween party. The world must be against me. How does one have self discipline this time of year, I ask you? And can someone please come get the rest of this cake and take it away? I can't bring myself to throw it out and I have to lose 5 more pounds before Thanksgiving pie making day.

Here's our princess on a unicorn. At first I thought Miranda wanted to be an actual unicorn and I bought a vintage pattern off of ebay. Her face fell when she saw it however, and we finally figured out that she had riding a unicorn more in mind than actually being one.

So, it turns out that Bethany has become a quite um... agressive soccer player. This is her second year playing and I almost didn't sign her up. Soccer always conflicts with baseball and I found that Grandma and the aunts were taking her to half of her games. It seemed like I just couldn't make it work. Plus, I didn't think she particularly loved it. Miranda certainly didn't. Fortunately (I think), one of Bethany's best friends begged her to be on her soccer team and we were able to get her on in a semi-legal legal way. :) Well, since about the third game of the season, Bethany has become a beast. She loves playing defense and has decided that it is up to her to protect the goal at all times - even when she's playing full-back or center. Often times, she will hang out in the goal box just because, "The goalie needed my support." Yesterday, her coach asked her why she was hanging back near the goal when she was supposed to be playing center and she answered, "But coach, no one else is defending." The coach laughed and told her to let him worry about it and just play her position. She also is seemingly always on hand when it's time for a corner kick or a throw-in. Yesterday, the coach was about to assign someone else to throw in the ball when Bethany just went ahead and did it. It went something like this. "Ella throw it in - or okay, Bethany, that'll work, I guess." And right before the end of the fourth quarter, the ball went off sides and Bethany ran for it. You could hear Olivia running behind her yelling, "Bethany, it's my turn to throw it in." Luckily, just then the game ended so we didn't have a brawl on the soccer field. I'm not sure what to think about this turn of events. I'm thrilled that she's becoming assertive and that she has made several goals and assists this year but I don't want her to turn into a total ball hog. Any suggestions? It's kind of funny now, but it may become less and less funny as time goes on.