Carving Pumpkins and School Program

Yesterday was Josh's kindergarten Halloween program and party. He was a little ham. Matthew also had a Halloween party--so they both came home with lots of treats that didn't last very long. We also carved pumpkins last night. This is the first year they really were able to draw the faces on the pumpkins to carve. It was fun.

Mission Accomplished...Almost

We finally found and bought a dishwasher we could both somewhat agree on. The only down side is it is not available until Saturday. It is amazing how much you rely on the dishwasher until you don't have one. Just three more days. I view it more as a necessity than a luxury--it is interesting how times change. My grandparents still don't have a dishwasher even after remodeling their kitchen a few years back because they didn't feel they needed one. I guess we could agree to disagree on that one :).

Matthew is enjoying his swimming lessons. The complete attention on him is what he needed to stay focused and do what his teacher tells him to. Daniel passed his class--Wahoo! Josh gets to repeat his class again--hopefully, the third time will be the charm.

My sister got Sarah a cute Halloween shirt, so to maximum amount of usage she is going to wear it a lot or until she poops all over it. She wore it today and the kids are so used to seeing her in pink, Josh came downstairs and asked why she was wearing a boy shirt. She ended up wearing a huge head-squeezer bow the rest of the day so there would be no mistaking her gender.

Kids take things so literally! The other day we were on our way somewhere and I had gotten ready in a hurry and didn't look so great. I was having a pretty bad hair day and I was sarcastically making fun of it to Aaron saying I had some pretty hot hair. Daniel felt his head and said his hair was cold. I just nodded and said, "Oh...Ok. Glad to hear that."

I went and voted today. The wait was about an hour. Aaron and I divided and conquered. He took Josh and Matthew to swimming while I took the other two to vote. Daniel provided comic relief to everyone in the line the whole time whether they wanted it or not. Is it just me or is it between the lesser of two evils for president? I will be glad when the election is over!

Chicken, Chicken and More Chicken

Our local grocery store had boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.19/lb this week. Knowing that I can't pass up a good deal I bought a 40 pound box. I didn't realize how much chicken that is until I started canning it. It took me pretty much all day to clean it, cut it up and bottle it. My poor kids were neglected yesterday!! Good thing they like to watch movies and play on the computer!! I ended up getting 36 pints of chicken and they all sealed. We only had one casualty bottle that broke. They are currently sitting on the counter so I can look at them and pat myself on the back for bottling something this year. Hopefully next year I can bottle some more things like juice, tomatoes, pears, peaches, etc. Yesterday Aaron also volunteered me to make dinner for a work friend's family. His friend's wife got her tonsils out and didn't feel so great. So while I was doing chicken I had to make something in the crock pot. I didn't mind, but after doing so much cooking I had dirtied almost every dish in my kitchen. I loaded up the dishwasher and turned it on to find, much to my chagrin, it had died. I spent the rest of the night washing dishes in the sink and cleaning up the kitchen. I really have dishpan hands today!! I am not all that upset because it wasn't a very good dishwasher, anyway. It will be nice to get one that works better. Needless to say we will be shopping for a dishwasher today. Merry Christmas to me, Merry Christmas to me! It's just what I wanted for Christmas :).

Yesterday Matthew started some special needs swimming lessons. It is a one-on-one lesson for 20 minutes. His teacher also has a 7 year old autistic daughter so he kind of knew what makes Matthew tick. Matthew loved having all the attention and also going to swimming lessons. Hopefully he can progress in his swimming ability.

I can also pat myself on the back again because I remembered picture day this year since I had forgotten the two previous years. I even got up and ironed their shirts. That happens so rare that the kids were wondering what I was doing. I am glad Matthew's bus was late this morning because it took me extra long to get them ready this morning because I did iron :).

4:4:4 Tag

I've been tagged by April.

Here's how it works:

1. Go to your pictures.

2. Upload the fourth picture from the fourth folder.

3. Post.

4. Tag 4 friends.

This is Josh at the corn maze a couple years ago. He seems so little. I think it was this fateful day he decided to forget the potty training and take care of the #2 business in his pants. This doubly bad because we only had two wet wipes and no extra underwear or clothing. Aaron took one for the team and cleaned him up the best he could in a smelly port-o-potty. The Scooby underwear didn't make it either. They were left in the depths of the port-o-potty. Josh had to go commando until we got home. Oh the memories!!

I tag Johanna, Nikki, Susan and Nurse Heidi.

Mysterious Pumpkin Program

Saturday we finally have solved a mystery. For 5 years while driving in the car Matthew would randomly yell out, "There are my ohs!" He would keep saying it until he was acknowleged. We have been trying to figure out what in the world this was and we finally did Saturday. We were driving when he yelled out, "There is my ohs!" We stopped and had Matthew give us direction to his ohs and eventually found ourselves in front of a power pole. All this time he was saying he saw his ohs and it was just a power pole. I really wonder what goes through his mind at times.

Saturday night we went to the annual Syracuse Pumpkin Walk. It was pretty fun to see all the different carved pumpkins. They even had trick-or-treat stations along the way to give the kids candy, play doh and stickers. The kids were more interested in the stations than the pumpkins, but what can you do when candy and toys are involved? Sarah enjoyed being carried the whole time even though my arm was about to fall off by the time we were finished. The weather was nice enough that Aaron and I wore shorts and sandals. That's pretty crazy for October! We took a picture of a few pumpkins including a Luke Skywalker with Yoda and also Joseph Smith. We also got one of our alma mater the "Y".

Today was the primary program at church. Matthew and Josh both had speaking parts. We were curious to see how they both would do because Josh got stage fright last year. Last year when he got up to the microphone and saw the audience, he turned around without saying a word and went back to his seat. He did great and there was no stage fright this time. Matthew did great when he did his speaking part, but he sure gave his primary teachers a good workout through the whole program. I nervously watched because they sat him quite close to the piano and he has taken a whole new interest in playing with our piano at home. Luckily, the teachers have gotten pretty fast at catching him and knowing Matthew's impulsive triggers. Aaron and Daniel had to stay home because Daniel woke up sick and wheezing this morning so we needed to start nebulizer treatments again. Oh the joys of cold and flu season.

Sarah's head squeezers sometimes fall over her eyes. It happens pretty often--often enough that she doesn't cry right away anymore when it happens--poor thing. I guess she is just learning the price of beauty at a young age :).

Halloween Party

Yesterday was our ward's Halloween party. Seeing as we have lived here for over five years and have yet to go to a ward party we thought we should go to this one. The kids were really excited to get dressed in their Halloween costumes. Matthew is a pirate, Josh a skeleton, Daniel a bat, and Sarah is a bee. The party was packed so we didn't last too long, but hey we made it at least. While we were there we played hot potato with a pumpkin, we did a bean bag toss, and we sampled the chili from the chili contest. The kids had fun.

Daniel is still taking swimming lessons, but Thursday he had a bad experience. To pass his class he has to hold his breath and stay under water for three seconds. His teacher pushed him under and kept him down for three seconds, but he wasn't ready before he got pushed under. He came up screaming and continued to scream the whole rest of the lesson. I hope he will be able to handle the lesson on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed!

Huh?!

Kids say the craziest things not always at the best times. I was at Kohls today and walking out to the car I had my hands full. I was carrying Sarah in the car seat, holding Daniel's hand and holding the bag with the other hand. Josh was walking about 20 feet behind me. I passed a lady walking inside the store and didn't pay any attention. When she walked by Josh, thinking he was being silly, yelled out, "HELLO, MEXICAN!" I don't think he even knows what that means and I didn't even notice if she was or not. I'm not even sure where he heard it from. I just pretended like I didn't hear a thing and hurried a little faster to the car. I thought about leaving Josh there, but... just joking :). We had to have a talk about what is nice to say to people and what is not. It's almost as bad as my brother's Philippino missionary companion in Hawaii, not knowing any better, asking a black individual standing on the corner, "What's up my n_____?" Some things you just can't recover from.

I had an early morning doctor's appointment this morning. That means Aaron had to do the whole hectic morning routine with the kids. I did take Sarah with me to make things a little easier. By the time I got home he was really ready to leave and go to work. He, actually, did a great job with the kids. Josh even had his hair combed when I picked him up from school. I was impressed.

Swimmin'

Daniel started swimming lessons yesterday. He is pretty entertaining to watch. Everyone knows who his Mom is because he stands and waves while yelling, "Hi, Mom!" He is having a pretty good time. He is also showing no fear of the water. He must have learned that from Josh.

Saturday was our ward's Super Saturday. Aaron was kind enough to let me only go with one child--Sarah. While I was gone he pulled out the garden and filled up our two trash cans. He was planning on mowing, but ran out of trash can space. It was the deer hunt Saturday, but Aaron decided to stay home this time instead. Hopefully, next year he will be able to go. I did, however, get a lot done. It was nice to have some adult conversation, too.

Today Sarah had her two month check-up. She is doing great and gaining weight. That is a great thing to hear especially after having Daniel. She is up to 11 pounds 3 ounces and is 23 inches long. I am hoping that she will still fit into her blessing dress next month. She will be wearing my old one--that is if she hasn't outgrown it by next month! The last few nights she has slept through the night and it has been great!! I am still having a lot of fun dressing my baby doll up every day. Girls are so fun!

Gettin' Down With It

The Tooth Fairy will come again tonight--at least we hope she will remember after the kids go to bed :). Josh lost his other front tooth this afternoon. I think he is the only kindergartner that can say all he wants for Christmas is his two front teeth.

Yesterday I was going along with everything hunky-dory when I got a call with a pre-recorded message from the kids' school principal saying they didn't have school Thursday and Friday due to fall break. I had completely spaced this little tidbit of info meaning it came as a big surprise. I just thought NOOOOOOOO! However, it didn't turn out as bad as I thought. We had a lazy day at home which doesn't happen all too often in this household. I almost took all four kids out to the store by myself, but then I chickened out at the last minute. I didn't think that would be wise for the blood pressure. Aaron, out of the kindness of his heart, is taking off tomorrow so I only had to worry about one day instead of two.

Sarah is two months old today. How time flies!! Her newborn clothes are starting to get tight which is sad :(. They grow so fast!! She has her two month appointment next week so we will see how much she weighs then.

This week there was a pharmacy coupon so that is the week I took all of our prescriptions in to be filled and walked out with $50 in gift cards--WAHOO!! While we were waiting for the scripts to be filled we did a little R&D--research and decision making for Christmas in the toy aisle. Daniel got down and jiggy with it while listening to a particular toy. We got it on video so hopefully I can download the video. He got so into it he fell down, but he has learned early on to try and make it look like he did it on purpose. He probably has seen Aaron and I do that a time or two with our excellent coordination skills :).

Good Times at Playgroup

We had play group at our house again this week. After Matthew and Josh left for school Daniel followed me all over the house with his shoes telling me it was time to go to playgroup. He got really excited when everyone came here. They got to color some scary Halloween pictures and then decorate with A LOT of stickers. I didn't know you could fit that many stickers on a single page!! We also had some apples and grape juice for snack. I got out the sippy cups for the juice and Carter was quite offended. He said, "I growed real big and don't use those!" I took the lid off so he could have a big boy drink :). It was a pretty good day. We will be sad to see Sibley go, though. Hopefully she can find some more boyfriends to replace Daniel and Carter at her new home.

Scary Dragon

Daniel's asthma is acting up so we had to get out the nebulizer again because the inhaler just wasn't cutting it anymore. This time, however, we got to try out a nifty new mask we got from the doctor at our last visit. It is a dragon so Daniel was more willing to wear this during the whole breathing treatment. This was a lot more effective than the blow-by thing we have been using. He still looks pitiful, though.

Our Comings and Goings

Friday when we went to pick Josh up from school we were a few minutes late. When Aaron got out of the car to get him from inside the front doors, his eyes and face were all red from crying. His teacher hurried out to explain that Josh did nothing wrong, but she had tried to send Josh home with the wrong family. I guess Josh got pretty upset with him having tender feelings as the teacher puts it. He was pretty glad to see us when we got there. I guess Josh has now learned stranger danger even when the teacher says it's OK :).

Friday afternoon we decided to go on the annual J&J Nursery hay ride to the pumpkin patch. We tried to go before it got too cold and started to rain/snow. We only had to wait in line for about 30 minutes until it was our turn. When we got to the pumpkin patch we tried to steer the kids to three smaller pumpkins since we have to carry them back ourselves and we only have two hands. They kept spying the biggest pumpkins, but our parental advice won out and all of them chose three smaller pumpkins. We thought about picking one up for Sarah, but we ran out of hands. We got back just as it started to rain. We had fun.

Saturday Josh and Matthew had their soccer games. Josh had his first thing in the morning and it was COLD!! Aaron stayed home with Daniel and Sarah while I took Matthew and Josh. It was questionable whether they were going to play or not since it was quite overcast and supposed to snow. They ended up playing, but all the kids were quite slow since it was so cold. His game ended and we got home just as it started to rain/sleet. We had pretty good timing in beating the storms this weekend. Matthew's game was moved to an indoor gym so we didn't have to worry about the weather for him. They both had a good time playing.

Saturday we also got to see G&G Terry since they came to visit. They came bearing Halloween goodies which is always a hit at our house. It is always nice to visit and see them.

This morning we woke up to a lot of SNOW!! The kids were convinced it was Christmas. They were pretty disappointed when they found out they have three more months until Christmas. It is sad to see the garden go. Hopefully, next year I can do more with all the tomatoes than I could this year.

Sarah and I ventured to church for the first time today. I didn't realize how many layers girls wear. I was a little confused getting her dressed when I saw the diaper, tights, bumpkin and dress with shoes. I think I got them in the right order because no one said any different--or they are laughing behind my back :). I was glad she didn't have a blowout because there would be so many layers to change!! We did lose a shoe, but hopefully, it will be in lost and found next week. It was fun dressing her up today, though.

The "Not Me" Ghost Strikes Again

When Josh came home from school today we had lunch and then he got busy doing his homework. His homework consisted of a lot of coloring. After he had done the majority of it, I left him alone to finish his homework while I did some laundry. I didn't think anymore about it until he had gone over to the neighbors to play and I saw the bar stool. Josh had decided to write his name on one bar stool and color on the other bar stools. When Josh came home from playing, Aaron was home and that's when Aaron asked him what happened. I thought this would be an easy question since the answer was written in plain sight, but it looked like Josh needed a lifeline to get the answer right. Now I can sympathize with my mom when she complained that she couldn't have anything nice while she had kids at home. Kids are quite the little destructos!! I've added a few pictures of their best work to my house...I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids...

Fighter Fighters

Today there was a safety fair up on base. Since we missed the one our city did, I decided to take Josh, Daniel and Sarah to this one after lunch--Matthew was still in school. Josh and Daniel were pretty excited to see the fire trucks and the fighter fighters (fire fighters) according to Daniel. The Life Flight helicopter had left by the time we arrived so we missed out on that, but we got to see the paramedics and get some cool fighter fighter hats and balloons. We even picked up a hat for Matthew since he wasn't there. The paramedics were from Davis County and I almost asked them if they were the ones that came to our house when Sarah was born, but then I realized they probably wouldn't recognize me with clothes on :)--just kidding. They even had a blow up jumping toy the kids liked playing on. Afterward we stopped by to say Hi to Dad at work because it was right by his building.

This is where we found Daniel asleep last night. He was in the process of sneaking downstairs when he got too tired and fell asleep on the floor of the stair landing. I don't know what to do about him...

Fall Weekend

This weekend was pretty slow. Both the boy's soccer games got rained out so we decided to go for a drive while listening to General Conference. We drove up to Logan to see the fall foliage up Sardine Canyon--it's something we try to do every year. With Aaron in the car you can't drive up to Logan without stopping at Casper's Ice Cream Shop for a cone. Daniel did have lots of fruit snacks instead of ice cream--we still feel a small bit guilty eating ice cream in front of him, but what can you do? We also drove around the Logan tabernacle and temple. Daniel called it the castle where you get married. I guess he has watched Cinderella a time or three.

Matthew's teacher gave us a link to a child friendly browser you can download. It was made specifically for autistic children, but it is great for all children because it filters everything to make it super safe. It has lots of games and video clips as well as stories. It limits use to just the mouse to keep kids away from playing with the keyboard--it turns off the keyboard so you can push any button and it doesn't do anything. We tried it out with Matthew and he loved it as well as Josh and Daniel.

http://www.zacbrowser.com/

Today we listened to Conference while the kids and I made Daniel friendly chocolate cupcakes. I had more help than I know what to do with ;). They were more excited about licking the beaters than making the cupcakes. The recipe is really good and as far as vegan recipes it isn't that weird either. I've included the recipe and you can't even tell they are vegan because they are so moist and chocolaty!!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

3/4 c granulated sugar

1/3 c canola oil

1 &1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1/3 c cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Bake 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees in cupcake liners filled 3/4 full. Makes about 18 cupcakes.

Badge of Courage

Here are the pictures of the boys showing their badges of courage after getting their blood drawn. Matthew refused to take his blue bandage off for the whole day saying it made it feel better. Daniel got loaded up with tons of sticker, toys and suckers from the lab after he got his blood drawn. We just got Matthew's and Daniel's lab results back. Matthew, as expected, is normal and Daniel well... he still is Epi-Pen allergic to milk, but the egg allergy is starting to resolve. Unfortunately he is starting to develop a small allergy to strawberries and honeydew melon. It will be hard to keep him away from the strawberries!! They didn't even test the nuts because it takes so long for them to grow out of that they won't test him for a couple years. We know he is still allergic to at least almonds. I had been eating some almonds and had some almond dust on my hands then I touched his face--his eye swelled shut and he got hives all over his face. Anyway, we are hoping by his next visit in six months the egg allergy will be gone. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

We finally got a good smiling picture of Sarah today. She's a pretty happy baby as long as she is held, of course. I am enjoying my assortment of bows and girly clothes. She wore her first skirt two days ago. It only took her two hours to poop all over it, but she looked really cute for those two hours.

My second tatting class was last night. It is pretty fun and portable. It is small enough to fit in my purse. I am hoping I can do it outside of class without the teacher to help me. If not I still have her phone number--which may not have been a smart thing on her part ;).

Smiley Sarah

Sarah is just starting to smile occasionally. I tried to catch it, but I didn't do a very good job. I still think it's cute.
The boys are modeling their new shirts they got from G&G Mancil that change from white to color in the sun. They think it's pretty neat to see.

Josh started swimming lessons again just to reinforce what he's learned in the class he had during the summer. Hopefully, he can pass it this time since he's repeating the same class. He loves it, though.

Daniel had playgroup today and made a leaf picture with the fall leaves. He was pretty proud and showed Aaron as soon as he walked through the door. He had fun.