not even teens yet....

Kaylie, Amber, Emma, Chloe, and Mackenna after they screamed - literally - for Troy Bolton (aka Zac Efron) during High School Musical 3. I figured Emma would have more fun seeing the movie with friends instead of only us. I was right. The girls had a great time, and I was glad to take them. Afterwards, we came back to our house for post movie fun....I'm wondering if the "fun" gets louder and more silly when they enter the teen years. They couldn't possibly eat more...could they?

A Day of Pumpkins

My dad came up today and we took the kiddos to the pumpkin patch. The kids rode ponies and the "train". We went through an honest to goodness corn maze that left Grandpa looking for a good shady spot to sit and a drink of water. Of course, we picked up some pumpkins for carving. This is my favorite picture from today, especially since Nash is coming out of the nose like the little booger that he is.

With Halloween coming we've been talking costumes. Nash and Dedan have costumes ready to go, but Emma keeps changing her mind. Answer our survey in the right column to help her decide!

Weirdos

Today I was leaving the grocery store and realized my kids would be getting home from school at the same moment - and I wasn't home. I called the house to find that Emma & Dedan had just walked in the door. They didn't care that I wasn't there...of course. I told them I'd be home in a few minutes. As I walked in the back door with a sleeping Nash on my shoulder I could hear muffled grunting. This is what I found in the living room...

My poor kids have inherited my warped sense of humor. At least they make me laugh!

Staring Contest

I just uploaded photos from my camera and found this one I had to share of Nash and the donkey at the pumpkin patch. This kind of cute is why I keep him.

My day...

Two posts in two days...can you tell my love is out of town?

Today was just as busy as the rest of my week. We had to meet a neighbor - ok, daughter of our neighbor - at 8 bleeping a.m. to pick up, transport and then set up tables and chairs. Rushed home, showered and went to the funeral of our sweet neighbor, Maggie George, at the Catholic church (her daughters babysat me as a kid). Left the funeral at light speed to beat everyone to the family luncheon at a cousins in order to set up food and help in any other way our hostess needed. Enlisted the help of many people to tell my mom to stay off her feet since she's supposed to not stand for more than 5 minutes during her recovery from surgery. She was fairly annoyed with me by the end of the lunch...which means I was effectively following the doctor's orders. We helped force extra food on people as they left, took the tables and chairs back to our church, and got home with exactly one hour until I had to take the kids to the stake center to practice for that night's program at the adult session of our Stake Conference.

Nash was at home with Papa for most of the day, and that says a lot about Papa because Nash is going through his child from hell stage. Good thing he's cute and has moments of brilliance that amaze me or make me laugh. Off topic! Kids made it to the church for rehersal just as they were starting. Then the program started. Afterward, my kids wanted to go home, but I wanted to stay and listen to the speakers. SO GLAD I DID.

Being at this session of Stake Conference was the lift I needed from this insane week. It is so peaceful just being in the room where so many people who are close to the Lord sit. Then hearing the speakers remind me of some gospel principles I needed to be reminded of! Filled my cup. What did I re-learn?
~The family is ordained of God.
~Read scriptures together and your family will be stronger and more peaceful (I could use some peace!)
~The covenant of marriage is a gift that we need to remember, cherish, and celebrate.
~Don't run away from the hard stuff (places, people, etc.) like Jonah did. The Lord will find a way to put you where He wants you to be. Do you really want to be in the belly of a whale for a couple of days?
~Discipline your children while they are young and the teenage years will be easier (I am a HUGE believer in this prinicple).
~When Dedan is tired he will sleep anywhere. Ok, so no one spoke on this, but he was snoring on my lap, and getting him to the car was like leading a zombie.

Busy day. Great day!

My week

I have had a full week. Other than the normal wife/mom stuff and the one thing I do regularly for myself - exercise class - I had my haircut by my fantastic visiting teacher, saw Wicked at the Pantages (Thanks, Dad!), sat for hours in the UCLA surgery center for/with my mom, fasted and prayed for big answers, planted herbs, helped Har build a shelf for mom's new fancy DVD player that filters the movies for you, saw my good husband off to Colorado where he'll be hunting and visiting family for TEN LONG DAYS, tried not to cry about that, and visited a pumpkin patch with Nash and some of our friends...some very sweet moms from another ward who quite often invite me to their play dates even though I'm probably 10 years older than most of them. I did have a similar friend a few years back, a younger friend, who told me that we got along so well because I'm so immature. I guess I haven't changed!

Our Little Vampire

Maybe it's because it's the season of Halloween or maybe because most of my family is either reading or listening to the Twilight Saga, but after Nash finished his Jell-O last night we decided he looked like he was a little vampire that had just eaten baby. Sick and wrong?...We know, but he got us back by waking up at 4 am throwing up all the Jell-O and then some.

Street Art Festival

Emma volunteered to help with her school's chalk art project at the local Street Art Fair. It was a pretty cool event. Saturday morning she brought Amber along for her shift. They got all chalky and hot in the sun.

Sunday afternoon we went for a family outing to see the finished product (Mystical Head: Head of an Angel by Alexei Jawlensky) and all of the other cool art. There was a full block of chalk art with pictures that were both replicas, like our school's, and some that were originals. All were cool. They also had some performance art. We saw a cool percussion group called ConUnDrum. JR's favorite was a car that had 2 front ends back-to-back with an independent engine in each end. She's a practical one, my mother. Since we were there at the very end of the whole weekend event we missed a lot of the other art, but it was a nice Sunday after church family activity. We're proud of our Emma for volunteering and representing her school.

Today's garage sale finds

Cool cape that flys behind you when you run: $5.

Something to put ladybugs in: $1.

Pink Butterfly Net: 25 cents.

Your first garage sale purchase ever: Priceless.

Amber, Emma's friend, buying Rollerblades. These are the new and exciting things we do with your kids when they stay the night at our house.