Beggar's Night

In Ohio, they have what they have dubbed beggar's night. It is the night the children go Trick-or-Treating. It is held on different nights determined by the different cities. If you are really excited, you could clean up on the candy thing! We chose to stick to just our cities beggars' night which was deemed to be Saturday from the times of 6-8pm. We basically stuck to our own immediate neighborhood as well. We went to the next neighborhood over just to go around one circle and to the graveyard- something you absolutely have to do on Halloween (OK, so it wasn't technically Halloween.)
The kids all around the neighborhood pretty much stuck to just 2 groups, so Emma and her friend who were at home handing out the candy were done with their job in about 1/2 hour.
That afternoon, Emma had convinced me that we didn't have enough candy. You never want to be the looser house on Halloween! I'm not up for ultimate winner status either- too expensive- but still you don't want to be caught turning off your lights ten minutes after it all starts or raiding your kids baskets to try to regift candy! (done it!!) I had bought the boxes of individual bags of popcorn, because it seemed cool, different and I wouldn't eat it before Halloween! But then I broke down and got a couple of bags of chocolate that I was using as bribes (Yep, I ate a lot of it!) I was afraid, that most of those two bags were now gone and that the boxes of popcorn only had like 20 bags in them, so I went to Sam's club and got two more bags of candy. We ended up not even going through the popcorn and giving out none of the candy! Darn- I should have insisted they give out candy first!! Of course, I would take them back, but some little hands got into each bag. I'm not sure why, when they had a full bucket of candy right in front of them!! So now my house is flowing with chocolate once again. I'll never look good for this cruise!
I was a little slow on the whole Halloween thing this year- the year is just going way too fast for me. Almost no decoration were put up until the day of Beggar's night and we didn't carve the pumpkin until 5 pm on Saturday. I started out having the kids help, but they didn't get far, so I hurried and made a quick butcher knife pumpkin- my pumpkin saws broke! Oh, well, it worked!

A Chill in the Air

We have been loving the fall colors in Ohio. So beautiful! The weather is a little nippy, but not like Wyoming nippy, so it's all good!
The other day we went to our Ward's Trunk or Treat. It was really fun and can you believe it- Sam won best child's costume! Rob still raves about it. He says he never dreamed he would marry a woman who could make the best child's costume from scratch. I think he is just trying to butter me up! LOL

Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch/best ice cream place ever! It was like pulling teeth to get this shot. I finally gave up and this is the best one we have.The dairy where they make their own ice cream is very popular! When you asked for 1 scoop, you actually get three!- and it's soooo yummy!
The kids did the little train ride, the big slide No, that is not Max with Joseph. It is some other random kid. Do you wonder sometimes about the random people in your forever photos!? Or better yet, do you wonder how many photos you are in of other peoples? Max got to the top of the slide and freaked out because it was too high! Emma was so embarrassed! Max is our wimp child!
and Sam did the batting cages! It was a lot of fun and did I mention super yummy?!

I loved how Emma's picture turned out. See, doing crazy things your mother insists you do, actually makes you look pretty, even if it itches your belly! There's a message in there somewhere, I'm just not sure what it is!

What I am hearing lately

DUDE, Seriously!
Ok, can you guess who says that? Right! One time when Emma had used Dude 3 times in one sentence, Rob started saying it back, "Dude!" And then of course we all had to chime in. The car rang with "Dude!" for a good 3 minutes. Emma was so annoyed!


"There was a big bee that came out of the barn, he had a big stick under his arm and he went, bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" This is accompanied with tickling and elicits laughter intermingled with "uhhhhh, Daddddd!" He either uses this to wake the boys up or "The bear goes gallumphing along, gallumph, gallumph" before he pounces on you. I remember my dad waking us up with singing. I thought it was the most annoying thing ever! Of course, turn around is fair play, so that's how the boys get woken up if Dad doesn't do his bear or bee impression! Emma has moved into the realm of waking herself up, thank you very much!

I asked Emma what she was going to do now that volleyball was done and she said, "relax, for once!" It's so hard to be a teenager these days!

"Knock, Knock" yep, Max has moved into the knock, knock phase. I will be so sad when that is all done. I guess I will just have to let them hear me do it. After all they need the experience, before they have children, of laughing at things that don't make any sense!

"Mom where did you put..." Um, really, seriously?! How about someone uses, "now, where did I put..." every once in a while!

"Do we have anymore Peanut Butter?"
We go through a lot of Peanut butter at this house ever since we stopped letting them buy lunch at the school. Joseph only does peanut butter! They also like to put it on pancakes and waffles and in cookies and in their rice krispy treats that have chocolate on top of them (sinful!) We usually have at least 2 more jars of Skippy Natural floating around somewhere- just in case you ever need to borrow a cup!


"Mom, I stayed dry!"
Yeah! All of my children have been potty trained by the time they were two, except at night. A couple of them had trouble with night time. Max has had the hardest. This is a cognitive thing, I know. The synapses for that subconscious part of the brain don't even start to develop until 2 and can take all the way up to 5 (so the book says.) Well Max is 5, so I was getting a little worried we would have to do something other than bribery, pottying lots before bed, etc. I was starting to look into those little alarms when all the sudden things seemed to have just clicked! Those synapses must have finished their little party and are coming home to start work! Double yeah for us!!

Homecoming

We made it to the Homecoming parade because Emma marched in it. They had all kinds of people march in the parade- all the teams from the high school and junior high and all the little football leagues and cheerleading leagues. Then they had their royalty and the class floats and some boy scouts. It was really a community parade.Waiting for the parade to start
We did not however make it to the Homecoming game- Robert was again brain dead and just wanted to sit in front of the TV. Besides it had turned downright chilly outside! We have no one old enough for a Homecoming dance, so we didn't have to bother about that either.
This parade was fun- they still throw candy here! Before the parade started the President of the Student Body Councel came by, saw the boys and gave them all a cow with a certificate for a free milk shake or cinnamon rolls or in Sam's case an ice tea (throw that one away!) stapled to them. We also saw a couple people from the ward in the parade. One of them is a Dad to one of the boys I teach in Sunday School, so he threw us two of the little footballs he had to give away.
As always we lost one of the boys at the end, so we missed the marching band performance. We hear they are really good and I have several kids that I teach that are in the marching band. I really have to go see one of these home games sometime, so I can see the band! Unfortunately time is running out! Emma's season is now over.
I definitely think she was the most improved on the team. She went from not playing at all sometimes to playing the entire time and even serving. At their last game in the tournament they were down 17-24. 25 wins and since it is rally scoring, the other team wins even if you don't get the ball over the net on your serve. And guess who came up to serve. I was so nervous for her! I was so happy when she got 4 serves in a row over and then they lost it after the return! At the end of season party her coach just grunted and handed out little gifts to each of the girls and didn't say anything about any of them. That's his personality. I am surprised he isn't a football coach instead!

Emma's been Eaten

This is what Dad and the boys do on most Sunday's during sacrament meeting. Max drew some of these beast eating Emma and Dad drew some of them. But each and every one of them, did eat Emma. That's because they always eat Emma. She used to fight and grab the pen and mark out her name and try to make someone else be eaten, but now she just does the "Whatever!" and the boys all think they are the funniest people ever! Can you interpret the writing on the bottom and up the side of the page?

The Boys go Campin'

The older boys got invited to go camping overnight. They had to drive a couple hours away and then hike in about 2 miles. Rob bought them a 4 man tent that he could carry and a little stove to cook on. They also got some cool little headlights that we really could have used during our marathon training! It was not easy running in the dark!
Joseph looks like there is no way he could make it on a 2 mile walk, but really that is just stuffed with his sleeping bag. It only weighed a couple of pounds. Sam totally forgot to put his sleeping bag in, so he had an interesting night! In the end, both Joseph and Sam crashed on the way home the next day and were more than happy to go to bed at 9 pm.
I think in the end they had a lot of fun. Thanks Dad for taking them out!

True Colors

Everybody loves Sam- Everyone! And nobody would believe me when I tell them how stubborn and difficult this boy can be, so I took a picture as proof!
The weather has turned cool here in Ohio. This weekend it's suppose to rebound into the 70's, but mostly it is in the 50-60's. Sam thinks he is too cool for pants and jackets, though, even when the temperature at the bus stop is 40, so I have been slowly packing up all the shorts. He kept finding some to wear, though. Finally I got them all- including his workout/sports ones and put them away. So today he refused to wear any pants. Yep, he put his shoes on with his boxers and got prepared to go out to the bus stop. This is when I snapped the picture. I was so curious to see how far his stubbornness would take him, but his Dad walked out of the bathroom, saw him that way and yelled at him. He grudgingly put on the jeans I had brought down for him and ran for the bus he was now late for. Darn! I wanted to see him open that door and take the first step out the door that way! What would I have done, if he made it all the way down to the bus stop with that stubbornness, though? I tell you I would have died laughing, but then I probably would have had to yell at him myself, because then I would get a call from the school and that would be embarrassing to mom! Don't you just love a power play first thing in the morning?

Conference Weekend

We had a lovely conference weekend inside. The weather has gotten positively yucky here, so inside was a good thing.
The boys played with Lego's and did Conference Bingo with M&M's- there was more M&M sneaking than anything. (I told Max to put his shirt back on, but he told me that to be like that was Cool!) Emma did conference bingo too and had a surprisingly high bingo ratio! I worked on the same project I have been working on for the last 40 conferences. For all you math challenged folks that is 20 years! It is the only time I dig out the cross stitching, so it has really taken that long to do! I am excited to say that I finally finished the cross stitching part! I only have the back stitching to do! So if you come and see me in a couple years, I may have the picture up for Christmas!
We turned the fireplace on for the first time. We had the sister missionaries over for dinner. It was a good weekend. How was your conference weekend?

Things that are Making Me Smile Right Now!

I finally have flowers hanging on my pegs again. I had to buy them myself, but that's fine. They are beautiful either way!
I finally came up with something that works for my mantel piece without buying anything new. Not that I don't want to buy something new, but it's nice to be able to use the stuff you have and make it look decent! Proof that Emma actually plays volleyball for her Middle school team! I got my camera working, but kept missing any action shots, because I wanted to watch the game. Emma played 2 out of the three games, the whole time. He even let her serve and play all the positions. She got a couple really good hits and a couple good serves!


I saw this stack of soccer shoes in our garage the other day and it made me smile! We should open up a second hand soccer store! You should see how many soccer balls we have!
Beautiful fall leaves! I am not so excited about the crisp Autumn air, but I do love the changing leaves!
I learned to miter on my own! Yeah me! I made this pattern up on my own. It took me about 10 sheets of paper to get the dimensions right. Then I went and ruined it by accidentally not measuring the top and bottoms the right size, which changed the dimensions of the other stuff. I couldn't make them fit right, so I added this triangular piece. It took forever and a day, graph paper and a Google search to finally come up with something that would work, but it did! I am so excited!! Double Yeah Me!

I got Becky Higgins' Project Life kit in my mail the other day! They were on sale for $10 off, because she is coming up with a new kit for Christmas time. I love the idea of just throwing pictures in pockets and having most of the design done for me, but still having the option of creativity! Maybe, just maybe the kids' pictures will get in an album now!
My pretty pumpkins from Micheal's in an apothecary jar. The little reddish thing on the counter is a seed pod that Sam found me. I wish he would find me tons of them and then I would break out another apothecary jar! Having fun listening to Sandra Boyton's Dog train and Philadelphia Chickens with Max! They are such fun songs! Thanks Mom for introducing them to us!
I got this new book from the library. I have had photoshop Elements 6 for quite a while, but still haven't figured it out. I have gotten books before at the library, but they haven't helped as much as this one has! I have only finished the first chapter (problems with motherhood, right!) but I have already learned a lot! I am excited to get into it some more!
And finally the thing that is making me smile right now, is that it's Cookie Day again!! Happy Cookie Day to you!