Nature's Beauties

We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise a few days ago. It filled the entire sky. Gorgeous!!

To Bose or not to Bose

Like his dad, Ben loves music. His dad has shared music with him from the time he was a tiny baby. Ben loves it when his dad sings to him. He has always loved it. Have you ever heard the phrase 'Music tames the savage beast'? Well, often times that is a reality in my home.

When Brek is in charge of keeping Ben out of trouble, out comes the guitar. When Ben cries because it is time to go to bed, out comes the guitar. Brek is teaching Ben at an early age that Bose headphones are the only way to go. Much better quality of sound.

A couple of nights ago, I put Luke and Ben to bed. While I was still in the room, tidying a few things up, Brek walked in with his guitar. He sat down and began playing. Simon and Garfunkel resonated throughout the room. Ben squealed with glee, jumped up, and began dancing and singing along. A picture just doesn't do justice. The girls gathered around and we all laughed and danced with Ben.

Families are great, you know. In them are found many small moments of delight. How lucky I am!

Trick-or-Treat!

Halloween has come and gone once again. The weather was very cooperative, and the kids had a great time trick-or-treating. I'm pretty sure some of my kids made the neighborhood loop more than once. I went trick-or-treating with Maddy and Luke while Brek manned the candy post. He sat on the front step, handing out candy to the many, MANY trick-or-treaters that hit our neighborhood.

Trick-or-treating with Luke is quite the experience. There is no need for speed in that kid. He slowly plodded along, checking out his pumpkin and all the goods inside. Occasionally he would feel the need for a little sugar-boost and reach in for a treat. He completely ignored my complaints about his lack of speed, and continued on in his own little world.

That is, until the rain hit. At that point in time, I quit urging him to move quicker. He no longer had a choice in the matter. I took his hand and we ran for cover. Luckily the rain didn't last long.

The kids all looked cute in their costumes....especially little Ben. He was one cute little monster. And as long as he had a sucker, he was happy as can be. I'm pretty sure my kids went without dinner and just loaded up on candy. I suppose I won't be winning any mother of the year awards. Oh well. A girl can only do so much, you know!

It would appear the color of the day was blue. Go Cougs!

Scott and Josh (and Josh's buddy Davis) decided to be BYU fans. Lack of dinner can be traced back to my involvement in painting shirts, spray-painting hair and bodies, painting faces, etc. Those boys were quite needy!





At last, the photo shoot is over, and we are off. Let the good times roll!

Pumpkin Carving Time

Pumpkin carving is one of those things my kids love, and so we do it....like it or not.

It is a tradition. It must be done. In fact, this year we were carving pumpkins the night before Halloween, well after bedtime.

I will say, however, that this year was much better than last year as far as pumpkin carving goes. Last year, Ben was a week and a half old, and Brek was in China. I was on my own. (You see what I mean abut pumpkin carving being a must?)

This year I had Brek. Thank heavens.

We both cleaned out pumpkins (Brek saved the seeds), and we both helped carve. And this year, for the first time ever, three of our children carved their own pumpkins all by themselves! Poor Luke could barely keep his eyes open by the time we were done. But he perked up when we lit the pumpkins and turned off the lights!

If I was fun like my sister, we would have watched a fun Halloween movie by the light of the jack-0-lantern's glow. But sadly, I am not that fun. Plus, I don't really love Halloween or Halloween movies. Now Christmas....that's a different story.

Any-who....we carved, we conquered, and the pumpkins glowed their little hearts out on Halloween night!



Madelyn wanted to be a dinosaur for Halloween. A dinosaur?? We have a pretty Cinderella costume, or a fun cheerleader costume, but she would have none of that. So a dinosaur she was. And she wore the costume for a good 3 days....at least!

Pumpkin patch time once again

Last Monday we finally made it to the pumpkin patch, after a couple of failed attempts. The pumpkin patch has become a tradition in our family. Halloween just wouldn't be Halloween without a trip to the pumpkin patch.

In case you're wondering if the pumpkins get picked over, the answer is yes. We weren't able to find the usual huge pumpkins we find, but the kids each found a favorite.

As we arrived, we discovered Luke had no shoes (or socks) on. So Luke and Ben rode in the wheelbarrow with the pumpkins. I was the wheelbarrow pusher/photographer, and Brek helped locate pumpkins. Along with the usual pumpkins, we also came home with a few mini pumpkins....Madelyn's favorite. Maddy loves all things small. They are treasures to her.

We topped off the night with pizza, eaten at Brek's work while he finished up a few things. What fun!

A Few Words from Luke

Hi. My name is Luke. And I love, love, love to take baths!

As a matter of fact, this could possibly be my third bath of the day. I usually get in at least two. Whenever I hear the bath water running, I run to the bathroom, take off all my clothes and hop in before anybody can stop me. Sometimes it's my sister's bath, sometimes it's Ben's, and sometimes it's my mom's. But, no matter. We're all one big happy family, right?!

This is my little brother Ben. He loves taking baths, too. He would play in there for hours. But sometimes he cries and wants mom to get him out. Do you think it's because I keep dumping water all over his head? Naaahhhh. That couldn't be it.


Oh, and Ben also loves the dishwasher. He drives my mom crazy, because he tries to pull all the dishes out while she's loading. She tells him no, but he doesn't really listen. He thinks he's pretty funny.

Actually, I think he's pretty funny, too!

A Typical Saturday? I don't think so.

What did I do today???
(I'll give you 3 guesses)

Go to a football game? No.

Clean my house? No.

Run a half marathon? Yes!!!

It's true. I ran a half marathon today, and I am so very proud of myself! I am also very tired and have very tired legs. But, I finished. And I did it in 2 hours. So, three cheers for me!

What am I going to do tomorrow?

Go to church, of course, then hopefully catch up on all those posts I meant to write last week. The pictures are building up. They are calling out to me. I must record all the good times! It was a full week.

What am I going to do right now?

Absolutely nothing!

Chalk One Up for Mom

This year I have moved on to a new stage of life. I feel like I have stepped over the threshold of young mom into whatever the next step is! I know, I know, you are probably thinking....What do you mean you still thought you were a young mom?! Six kids? You lost young mom status long ago!

However, contrary to what anyone may have thought, until this year, I still felt a bit young momish.

So, what happened this year to change everything? Two words. Junior High.

This year, Scott started Junior High. In many ways, this year hasn't been much different than any other. Scott still rarely has homework. He loves some teachers, and others...well, not so much. He still comes home after school with lots to talk about. But in two ways (so far), it is quite different.

The first is the morning drop-off. Instead of hitting two schools, I now have to hit three. And, Scott's school starts 5 min. earlier than last year. AND, he gets in trouble if he's late. Thank heavens Brek can drive them most of the time. So far so good on the whole tardy issue.

The second took place this week. Three words. Parent Teacher Conference.

Enter here the whole 3 school issue once again. Three schools to visit for parent teacher conference! And do you have any idea how many teachers Scott has?! About a bazillion.

Thursday night was CRAZY for me, so all I could squeeze in was a quick visit to Syd and Maddy's teachers. Wait, did I say quick visit? Oh, excuse me. Is there any such thing? It seems the people in front of me typically have a LOT to talk about. Oh well. Such is life.

Anyway, back to my story. Last night was crazy....I only got to one school, leaving two schools for Friday morning. I arrived at Burley Junior High at 9:15 am, leaving myself plenty of time to hit both schools. I had until 11:00, or so I thought. I quickly realized something was up when I entered Scott's school and saw tables labeled 7th grade and 8th grade, with nothing on them. Hmmm, odd, I thought to myself. And how strange it seemed that there was nobody to direct me. I was new to this whole junior high scene, you know. And stranger still, as I entered the gym, I found several small tables, labeled with teachers names, but....no teachers!

Apparently the junior high parent teacher conferences ended at 9:00. OOPS!

My first parent teacher conference at the junior high was a huge success, don't you think? Hopefully next time things will work out a bit better!

HELP

I want to print my blog. You know, have it made into a book. You see, this is my new form of scrapbooking/journaling. Hence, all the daily going-ons that I write about. Sorry if they bore you.

Here's where you come in. Does anyone know a good place to get this done? I found a great site--blurb.com, but now they don't print blogspot blogs. Arghh! Any other ideas???

Guess What?

If you spill krazy glue on your hands, you should NOT try to rinse it off with water. This does NOT work. Instead of the water rinsing away the glue, it has the reverse effect. It makes the glue instantly dry!

How do I know this? Oh, you know. Just a little tid bit of info I picked up today.

By the way. Does anyone know how to get krazy glue off skin?!