Spooky Halloween!

It was a successful night of trick-or-treating for 4 little boys here...before we'd gone halfway around the trunk-or-treat, Christopher was complaining that his bag was "too heavy." Bet we won't be hearing that complaint again in the years to come. Our ward does a big trunk-or-treat at the park just 2 blocks from our house, and then we come back to go around the cul-de-sac of our neighbors...and that's plenty for our crew.

The spooks:


Anthony, aka Obiwan Kenobi


Aaron, the Skeleton (he wanted the scary one, which didn't come in his size...)


Christopher, the T-Rex (what else?)


Carol, the "Halloween Mom" as dubbed by Bub, and Benno, the Tootsie Roll


And George was the Grand High Passer-Outer-of-Candy

An autumn wonderland

What kid doesn't dream of enormous mounds of fallen leaves? Our cul-de-sac is a virtual autumn wonderland--it's so full of leaves (and thankfully, it's been dry here the last week or so, so the leaves are nice & dry & crunchy!) A bunch of the neighborhood kids were out Monday evening just having the time of their lives with the leaves. If it weren't for the fact that I had to keep Benno up out of it for fear he'd get lost under the leaves, I'd have been right there in the leaves with them. I was content to sit back & take some pics though.

A very merry half-birthday!

Benno has now reached the ripe old age of 6 months. I took him in to see the pediatrician on Monday for his regular check-up. His growth stats, if you're interested, are: 27-3/4" long, 17 lbs 8 oz, and his head is 44 cm...which according to the nurse falls in the 90th, 50th, and 60th percentiles respectively. I don't really trust the percentiles all that much since I've heard completely different numbers ascribed for the same measurements all across the country...but anyway, I'm blown away by Benno's size. He's definitely the tallest of our boys so far. And here's something funny to contemplate: Anthony was 17 lbs at not 6 months, but 1 YEAR old! Anthony was a total peanut and still is a bit of a peanut, albeit a very strong one...but at this rate, Anthony won't remain the "big brother" for too long.

Benno is such a fun baby. We all love him to death. He's doing his version of the commando crawl all the time and getting faster and faster with it...and he's still rocking on his knees threatening to just take off crawling one of these days. He's gotten a good start on eating solids with rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, squash, sweet potatoes & applesauce...his favorite is rice cereal. He is a total thumbsucker now, which for now is all right with me, especially since it's helping him to sleep better at night. He's slept through the night (by my definition) at least a dozen times now and otherwise is only up maybe once or twice on a rough night. So I can't complain much on that front! I can't believe he's already 6 months though...that just flew by...

Sorry for the brief MIA

We've been a tad bit busy here lately...here's a quick synopsis of what's occupied us:

Friday I taught Aaron's Art Literacy class. The school districts out here don't hire art teachers (much to my dismay!) but instead use a program of parent volunteers to teach 6 art classes each year. I've been doing Anthony's for the last couple years and now I'm doing both his & Aaron's...it's fun and a great way for me to be able to help out with each of their classes!

Friday evening after gymnastics, we were off to the big school Halloween party, which I must say was a total let-down this year. Some brilliant group of parents who were planning the thing decided we should do away with candy and instead created this raffle system where the kids would get a ticket when they did an activity and then drop it into a bucket for a prize, but of course that meant only a handful of kids actually ended up going home with anything...so needless to say, my boys were pretty disappointed. It was a total madhouse in there and not worth the effort of going. I doubt we'll be going next year. What's a Halloween Party without candy anyway??? I'll tell you: it's LAME!

Saturday morning, I finally cut all 3 boys' hair...then we ran across the street with our pumpkins & carving tools & treats for the Paisley Court Annual Pumpkin Carving Party! Lots of great friends showed up and we had lots of fun. We only carved 4 of our 5 pumpkins though since we had to depart for Anthony's FINAL soccer game! And following the soccer game, we were off to Ikea to replace the collapsed bookcase. : ) We had a great time at Ikea and thankfully the newness of the store must be wearing off since it wasn't nearly as busy as it's been since it opened in July.

Anthony carves his pumpkin:


Aaron's proud of the "ghost pumpkin" he did all by himself!


Sunday was Stake Conference here...always fun with little kids (eyes rolling). I did manage to hear some of it though--a common theme between this and General Conference is "time management" in that we should choose wisely what we do with our time...just because something is "good" doesn't mean it's worth doing. We had friends over to dinner afterward and it was an enjoyable evening (though we spent half the time debating measure 49...all in good fun though I still say, all you Oregonians out there reading this, VOTE NO!!!!)

Monday...more on Monday later...

Tuesday, Aaron & I both woke up sick. Not sure whether we just caught a bug or it was some bad leftovers or the cookie dough we were indulging in while making cookies Monday night (it was egg-less cookie dough so I thought it was "safe") but anyway, he stayed home from school and we spent the morning recuperating as much as possible. By the afternoon we both seemed to be feeling better so we took off for the first of 10 swimming lessons! The boys were all happy to get back into the water. Directly afterward, we headed off to Papa's Pizza for Anthony's soccer party (with a pit stop at Costco for some GOOD pizza...if you recall, I HATE Papa's Pizza!) The boys played until the trophies were handed out & then we went home.

More internet silliness

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!Ok, Nikki, you did it so I had to try it too.... Oh my gosh, I laughed so hard...

Another Morph

I tried one more--this photo apparently makes me look like David Letterman?!?

%1

Celebrity Morph

This is weird too--watch me morph into Mini Anden and back.

%1

Celebrity look-alikes???

I saw someone else do this and thought I would try. This photo of me is a couple years old from my high school reunion!



What exactly does that say about me that it came up with Dakota Fanning??? I don't actually think any of these people look like me.

Tagged by Nikki

Five things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. In my junior year at BYU

2. Working as an early morning custodian in the SFLC (we BYUers pronounced that acronym as "syphilis"...lovely, I know.)

3. Preparing for my study abroad in France

4. Dating George
5. My church calling was as an "FHE Mom"

 (the fluffiest of all fluff callings!)

Five things on my "to do list" today:

1. Walk Aaron to school

2. Mask the walls so I can get started painting

3. Run a couple loads of laundry, particularly the 12 month baby stuff I just pulled out of the attic which Benno is now wearing at (almost) 6 mos old!
4. Take Anthony to soccer practice (last one of the season, YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!)

5. Cut 3 mops...er, I mean 3 boys' hair



Five things I would do if I were a millionaire:

1. Add 3 rooms to my house

2. Completely renovate the interior with new floors, fixtures, baths & kitchen...

3. Use a weekly maid service

4. Travel throughout Europe--must-sees would have to be England, Ireland, Scandinavia, and France

5. Invest the rest
(Goodness, can you tell I'm 30 now?...now ask me what my five things would have been 10 years ago, ha.)




Five things I will never wear again:

1. My Ox-blood Docs

2. Leggings

3. Oversized flannel plaid shirts

4. Shoulder pads

5. As soon as I have Lasik, I'll add glasses to this list.



My favorite Toys:

1. iPhone

2. Canon digital camera

3. Nano

4. Undercabinet kitchen radio

5. Cocoa Latte machine



Five people to tag:

1. Maury

2. Katie

3. Mom to 3 Monkeys

4. Candy

5. Heather

Thanks, Nikki...this was fun and sadly very revealing about where I am in life now!


If you see your name on here (and even if you don't...if you want to play too, go ahead), repost it to your blog and fill in the blanks. (I promise I won't be offended if you don't do it...)

True catastrophe!

And you know how to pronounce that in English!

I cannot believe the images of devastation from the fires that are ravaging southern CA. This one especially struck me--can you imagine how blessed and grateful the one family feels but at the same time how hard it would be to come home to an intact house while ALL of your neighbors have lost EVERYTHING. My heart goes out to all of these people. And it's a good reminder to all of us to have emergency kits ready to go in the event of any kind of disaster like this.

Catastrophe!

(That's pronounced ca-tas-troff in French, in case you were wondering.) George & I bought some cheap black bookshelves long, long ago before we had kids...these bookshelves have made several moves with us and been moved from room to room within each home...one died when we moved here, and the remaining two found themselves in our bedroom most recently, where they house random books that don't have a home elsewhere in our house. The bookcase beside George's side of the bed was leaning perilously to one side, and despite both his and my efforts to shift books around so it would lean the other direction, it was a very stubborn leaning tower.

Just last night, George mentioned again that we should probably replace that bookcase as it seemed to be leaning further and further... George went downstairs to finish up a Frutzzo project while I drifted off to sleep. I was rudely awoken by a horrendous crash when that dear old bookcase at last gave way--it scared me half to death and in my sleepy stupor I thought maybe George had fallen out of bed. Moments later George ran up the stairs and laughed to see that pitiful old bookcase with books spilled out all over and my dazed expression.



Looks like we'll be paying Ikea another visit...that or Goodwill will be receiving a good hefty donation of books. : ) (I vote for the latter but I doubt George will agree with me.)

Playing in the Park

Today is an unbelievably beautiful Fall day here...it's 70 gorgeous degrees out and there's not a cloud in the sky! We called friends, packed lunches, and walked off to the park for some friendly fun, enjoying the beautiful Fall foliage all along the way.

New Camera!

I've been complaining about my replacement camera ever since my dear old Canon SD200 died in Greece. George & I found a great deal on another Canon and went ahead & ordered it--I checked the tracking on my order every day since anxiously awaiting the new camera and each time it listed it as not having shipped yet, so imagine my surprise and great joy when we found a package on the doorstep after returning from the park today!!!
I've been playing with the features...the jury's still out yet on whether this camera measures up to the little old SD200.

Papu comes to town

George's Dad, aka Papu, arrived Saturday afternoon & stayed overnight until we dropped him back off at the airport Sunday afternoon. The boys think Papu is a jungle gym and go wild jumping and climbing all over him. I hope they didn't hurt him. It was a fun quick visit and we're always glad to see any family who take the time to visit us here!


I'm only posting this particular photo because I think Benno's face is absolutely hilarious. My dumb camera once again failed to focus on my subjects...but it did capture this moment of fear on Benno's face.

Perfect End to a Crazy Week...

George was in Bend, OR, all week last week on an "offsite" for work. (Bend is about 3 hours from here.) He was home Friday afternoon though and we had tickets for him & the 3 older boys to all go see "Honk! The Ugly Duckling Musical" at the Northwest Children's Theater...so off they went and I had a blissfully quiet night at home with just Benno, who was kind enough to take a good long nap and go to bed early for me! I couldn't think of a more perfect end to a crazy week alone with all the boys. The boys were just as happy to get out with Dada too. : ) Here they are before they piled in the car to go see their show.

Notice anything different?

Little Mr. Benno's had his first hair cut. He had this patch of long hair right at the top of his head, and another dwindling patch on the back so both patches got a trim. He's got such a great soft, fuzzy head. Sweet guy!

***On a side note, can I just express my displeasure with my camera??? It's glaringly obvious to me but you may or may not notice how my camera refuses to focus on faces...it's driving me crazy! I miss my little Canon SD200 that I drowned in Greece, which of course they don't make any more, sob.

The long-awaited end...

...of soccer is here!!!! Well, at least Aaron's season is over with. Anthony has another week left, but one less activity makes a world of difference. Here he is with his well-earned trophy:

Aaron really did make huge strides with soccer--he went from absentmindedly chasing after the ball to aggressively tackling it and scoring goals. Honestly, I don't think soccer is really his thing though--he's already been asking when he can start swimming again. This kid loves water more than a fish...and swimming lessons will be starting up in a couple weeks.

Here's a happy little Christopher--the big end-of-soccer pizza party was at Papa's Pizza (which is a place I don't go to except for these parties...it's a total madhouse with over-priced pizza that tastes like cardboard) and they have a big play area in the middle so of course the boys were loving it.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy Birthday to my Dad!!!
I'm sure nothing made you feel older this year than the fact that I, your firstborn, turned 30! : ) Another year older, another year wiser, another year that we love you more and more and more and appreciate all you've done for us. We're eating Pumpkin Pie here tonight in honor of you.
I love you Daddy!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Plumper Pumpkin Patch: Saturday

After soccer on Saturday, we went back to Plumper Pumpkin Patch again (did I mention that PPP is one of our favorites? Well, it is and we would go there every day if we could.) We went with our friends (and very distant relatives...6th cousins?) the Jarvis's to play.






Can you tell we enjoyed the slides? (See videos posted below for "action" shots.) This slide below is 40 feet long!!! The first year we went to PPP, there was just the first slide, which was plenty fun, but now they've added a few more & they keep getting bigger & better. The best kind of fun money can buy!


The hayride takes you up the hillside where you have the most amazing view of the valley--gorgeous Oregonian countryside! We LOVE it here!!!

There's so much more to this farm that we absolutely love but I didn't get in photos on this visit--there's a trebuchet, air cannon, pumpkin slingshots, caramel apples, bbq'd corn on the cob, hot apple cider, hay mazes, animals of all shapes, sizes & smells...and it's all family owned so you feel so "at home" there. : ) We bought our pumpkins and some autumn decor while there...at some point I'll take a pic & post that too.

Saturday night, George & I went to our ward's annual Chili Cook-Off. I took my Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake (for the 3rd year in a row) and I won 3rd place for it... I bet it would have won 1st if I had had time to chill it as it was still warm when we brought it...so watch out next year fellow pie contestants!!! I'm in this to win it!!! ; )

Soccer in the fog

As has been our life for the last month and a half, Saturday morning found us at yet another soccer game. (The season is nearing its end, thankfully...Aaron will be finished this week while Anthony has another week beyond next.)



The team we played against on Saturday didn't have enough teammates so Anthony got recruited to play on their side. Poor guy didn't know whether to celebrate each time "his" team or his normal team scored. On the plus side, he did finally score his first goal of the season, while playing for the other team, LOL. Anthony is throwing the ball in and wearing a red jersey over his uniform below:

Sliding the day away

One of our favorite features of the Plumper Pumpkin Patch is their bumpy slide--well, there are several now and they're all fun. Watch & see just how much fun!

Plumper Pumpkin Patch: Friday

The day was so beautiful on Friday that after we left Roloff, we headed to Plumper Pumpkin Patch--a favorite of ours--for more farm fun. They had the ponies out so of course we had to get rides. You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!

Roloff Farm

Friday was another no-school-day for us, and given the sunny weather, where else would we be but at a pumpkin farm! : ) We met up with some good friends and headed first to Roloff Farm. If you've ever seen the TLC program "Little People, Big World," this is the farm that family owns.

My boys with friends Josh & Zach:


Here's the mom of the Roloff family--there was a line to meet her & get your photo taken with her so I just snapped this shot of her with a random guy.

Happy Columbus Day!

Happy Columbus Day! Today's the official Columbus Day though the Federal Holiday is always celebrated on a Monday. Here's my little tribute to a great man in history.

"And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land." 1 Nephi 13:12, Book of Mormon

And I grew up listening to Stan Freberg's version of American history--it still makes me laugh and I can recite it by heart though in the interest of time, I'm lifting this off of Wikipedia for your enjoyment:
Being skeptical of the Natives' diet of corn and "other organically grown vegetables", Columbus wants to open "America's first Italian restaurant" and needs to cash a check to get started:
Native: "You out of luck today. Banks closed."
Columbus: "Oh? Why?"
Native: "Columbus Day!"
Columbus: "Oh, yeah." [pregnant pause] "We going out on that joke?"
Native: "No, we do reprise of song. That help, but. .."
Columbus and Native together: "...not much, no!"

If you haven't heard Stan Freberg, you must--you'll find this on Amazon:


Thank you to that "crazy Italian sailor"! And ultimately thanks to God for the gift of this "promised land."

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today's my mom's birthday! We don't see her much since she lives in Pennsylvania, but here she is with my pretty sister Katie last time we were all together for Thanksgiving a couple years ago!

Happy Birthday!

Creepy things

First, I had to get this on video because I know people would think I'm exaggerating to say my 5 month old is threatening to crawl--he's getting up on his hands & knees and rocking and he's creeping on the floor already. This isn't the greatest video--pretty dark and the boys are battling over building toy pieces in the background but you get an idea of how Benno is on the move.




And another creepy thing of a different nature: remember that ant farm? They're actually FARMING!!! I have no idea how this happened as I'm pretty sure we haven't put any seeds in there....but the ants have built this giant mound up toward the top (we joke that they're trying to escape) and right at the very top of the mound is a SEEDLING! There's a plant growing in there!!! WIERD!

Happy Birthday, Nora!!!

Introducing the boys' newest little cousin & our new niece Nora! She was born yesterday afternoon. Congratulations, Terry & Jenny!!! Congrats to the big bros & sis: Theo, Adrian & Karlie!!!

Funny thing--I love Nora's name, but now look at this: on one side of the family there are cousins Theo & Nora...on the other are Theora & Nola! And Theora is Theora Mae--and on the other side is cousin Kiara Rae. And there's more name-fun when you know that Theo is Anthony Theodore, and we have an Anthony...and not to be left out, Adrian is simply Bub's twin. : ) I'm sure we could find more if we thought about it too--I know that Theo & all also have a cousin named Benjamin on their other side.

Welcome to the world, little Nora!!! We can't wait to meet you in person!!!

Happy Birthday, Christopher!

Happy, happy birthday, Christopher!!! He's 3 years old, and what a fun 3 years it has been. He had 2 cakes for his 3rd birthday--we shared the "ordinary" cake with friends in between General Conference sessions and enjoyed the train cake at home. WE LOVE YOU, BUB!!!