Halloween Faces!!

Lunch Today: Jackolantern Quesadillas with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds!

Jacko'lantern Twins??? TinkerBell -Turned out Better than I thought it would.

School!!

I met with my school district and they have decided after testing-and observing Amber for a week that she is eligible for the early-intervention preschool and gets to start going to school regularly next week. It will be so nice for her to get the help she needs to catch up with the other kids her age. Her language is continually improving-but she still hasn't said too many 6 word sentences and she still uses jargon to fill in gaps. On the other hand-she loves to count and can actually count up to 20. She is doing alot more by herself-because I make her. I don't help her put her shoes on anymore-next will be her socks-if i make her put them on herself-she usually will skip them altogether and just wear her shoes without them..so yes, i still put them on. Don't want those little toes to go cold. And she is also really showing that she wants to do things by herself which makes it really easy for me-I no longer have to provide motivation or reasons "why" when she acts this way. Most of the kids that get into this program no longer need special education when they go into Kindergarten and that is our goal for Amber. She has a really great teacher and speech pathologist working with her and I am sure that every month that passes we will get to see her grow and blossom!!

This week is full of Fall Fun!!

For FHE tonight we raked our neighbor's yard. Who knew service could be so much fun?! Afterwards we went for a walk and then we snuck into our Halloween candy early for treats. We will be carving pumpkins on Thursday and Whitney cannot wait to do hers. She doesn't have school on Halloween day so we are having a Movie Party at our house watching TinkerBell!! Whitney has waited like two-three years for this movie to finally be released..so tomorrow is the big day for me to finally go and buy it. I am not sure she will be able to wait for three days before she can watch it-but I think it's only fair to the other twelve girls we have invited over if she doesn't tell them what happens before. It is going to be an adventurous week with mutual and cubscouts and girls night out tomorrow..super excited about that-we are playing a murder mystery game written by myself so I hope it will be successful. I will let you all know how it goes and post more pictures of this weeks events. But for now-just look at these sweet girls:

Adults still play childhood games

So my sistah tagged me for this one, so here goes:

1. When I get crumbs or salt on my hands from eating fries, brownies, etc.-i rub and flick my fingers together to shake them off-before using a napkin.
2. I have always wanted to design clothes
3. My pinky fingers are crooked
4. I really do think boys play more loudly than girls. (disagree if you want-it's just my opinion based on my experiences)
5. My parents got my middle name from the girl who won the Jr. Miss pageant the year I was born-i'm not joking.
6. Since having kids-my gag reflex is super-sensitive.
7. I always felt my maiden name was difficult to say

Now that you know more about me..
I tag Celeste, Angie, Brooke, Heidi, Nadell, Emily, and Emmalee.

Progress

So we finally have all of our kitchen flooring removed-and the tile and materials purchased. As joe was unloading everything-he was telling me how i was going to be doing a good deal of the work as I am home most of the day-as if that really means i'm free most of the day or something. Everyone says that demolition is the worst part. We still have to pull up the existing tile in the entry way before I can say the demolition part is totally complete. We have been asked to Speak on Sunday so I can't say much will get done tomorrow-but our goal is to have it done by Thanksgiving-that is practical for us-since we will work saturdays and hardly at all during the week-due to Mutual and cub scouts+whatever else life throws at us. I can't wait until it's all done and my kitchen no longer feels like a construction zone. I just keep thinking of what it will look like when it's finished--oh i'm sooo excited!!

Brooke 10 months old

Last time I posted a picture she looked like this:

Look at her NOW:


I haven't posted any recent pictures of Brooke on here lately so here is what she looks like now-her hair has grown a little and it is starting to curl at the ends..her hair is definitely strawberry blonde now, it still surprises me how fair she is.

bedtime snack conversation

When I am old I will cherish these little moments:

Whitney woke up one night wanting something to eat, so as we sat around the table eating a midnight snack..we had the following conversation:
"Mom, can i be a grandma when i grow up?" She asked me.
"Sure-when you have kids and then they have kids you will be a grandma then" I replied
after thinking for a while she then continued:
"Then when I grow up I am going to be a teacher, then a fairy, then a mom and have babies, then a grandma..then an old grandma."
She threw the fairy in there like it was a job or something to be taken seriously. I laughed a little at that. And I guess theres a big difference between a grandma and an old grandma.

New Paint and Floor Demolition

BEFORE PAINT:

After Paint: We painted our front room, kitchen, dining room and hallway about three weeks ago and here are the pictures of before and after. We went with a khaki color-which is fun because in different lighting it goes from a light tan to a khaki green-as you can see in the second picture the garden shelf looks lighter than the the wal behind it. We also painted the ceiling white to open up the room since we went with a darker color from the original and wanted a nice contrast.

Flooring:

We started pulling up the flooring in the dining room and kitchen last Fri/Sat. The dining room was easy since there was carpet down there so we only had to pull up the carpet and padding. The portion under the bar and the kitchen however has turned into a nightmare just beginning. We have found out that our vinyl is attached to particle board which has not just been stapled-but glued heavily down to the plywood beneath it-which we are trying to salvage. It took about 6 hours for Joe to remove the 2 x 6 ft area you see him working on-so you can imagine how long it will take us to remove the entire kitchen floor using a skilsaw/chisel and hammer..very slow going. Wish us luck and that somehow the rest of floor might not be glued down as much as what we have encountered so far. To anyone laying floor-never use particle board and don't ever glue it all down...

Mutton Bustin' Cowgirl!!!

Whitey got to do some more mutton bustin' at a local rodeo here. She did very well and got third-there was more than twenty kids-so that's not too shabby. She got stepped on by the sheep when she feell off, but she's tough-not tears. She was dissapointed that she didn't get first though-she's already competitive. I think had she not had a soccer game right before she might have had more energy to stay on longer. She played almost the entire game since they were missing half of their team-only one person to sub in. As soon as she was done we were racin to the rodeo and got there just in time for her to ride. Grandma and grandpa were able to watch her events and so that was fun and special for her. Here is the video from Saturday and from Last years' mutton busting. I wasn't able to get her whole ride on one of them -due to the fact I was holding two cameras -but this is the one i could upload. Enjoy>

Last Year:

Last Saturday:

Ode to a Chevy...

We had to sell you, sad but true

the day you left our faces were blue

the gas mileage you gave wasn't your best feature

and we had to downgrade to something much cheaper

Your future is filled with alot more fun

Camping with a zoologist in the arizona sun

With rugged terrain that can't be beat

i doubt you will miss screaming kids in your backseat.

Fear not that we will forget you silverado

Joe's a pickup man-gotta be chevy-that's his motto.
So in years to come watch for us on the highway

We may once again be crammed in a pickup-but not today.

Okay, yeah, we sold our truck a week ago-my husbands baby...sad sad sad-and yesterday we bought a minivan. I warned you in my last post that it was coming. I was so certain that we'd always have a truck-since usually for Joe's line of work, he needs one. With this new job of his, however, he doesn't-so we opted to have more room for the kids and lower gas mileage with the trade-especially since he now commutes 20-30 minutes there and back. I like the van-it's a 2005 Sienna -only 23k miles on it-so it should last us a long time. The kids definitely have room-it seats 8!! It will totally come in handy when driving the 16 beehives around for young womens. It has been nice to have a truck the last few years for so many reasons. Great when moving, the kids fit better in it's backseat than the cars', Power in the engine, 4wheel drive during winter in spokane was critical when driving up and down the hill where we lived, it was fun to drive-it always reminded me of when joe and i were dating (he drove a '95 then-and he let me drive it too). Joe sums it up best when he said yesterday: "That was a sweet truck." I guess if we start having withdrawals-myself included-we can go test drive a brand new one on date night???

Whitney's First Soccer Game!

Whitney had her first Soccer game today. Their team name is the Broncos-I know very original. The score was like 7-0 and we lost-it didn't help that we scored on ourselves for the first one. After that it went downhill. The kids did have fun and the coaches now know what to work on with them. Half of her team is girls and most of her teammates haven't ever played before so i thought they all had great attitudes, considering they didn't really know what they were doing! I had fun cheering them on and more fun watching the other parents-its entertaining. I have now become a soccer mom. Next will be a minivan-can't i wait. Anyway here are some pictures i promised to post:

Here she is in all her glory-pigtails whippin in the wind and long legs moving!!

Don't you just love her pink shin-gaurds. We can spot her anywhere on the field.

Girl Power - Whitney passes it to two other girls on her team.

She was so excited to be number six because that's how old she is!!

Will they win on your ignorance??? I hope not.

When I registered to vote again after moving back, I was asked whether or not i wanted to vote by absentee ballot. I said No Way. Now that is just my preference because I really enjoy going to the polls and voting in person-it makes me feel more aware that I make a difference by showing up and getting counted. I haven't voted for everything I could have in the past including school funding and city council but I always try to stay informed so that if I can, I make the best choice for myself when I vote. And with November around the corner i want to say to all who read my small little blog...go and learn of the candidates who are running for our President. If you don't know much about them...ask questions, go to their local campaign offices (or e-mail). This election will be historic no matter who wins-but most important is the choice you voice and preparing yourself to sound it true to your own character and what you believe in. Go and learn and be a proactive voter this November.