Halloween Wrap Up

This weekend was busy and packed full of fun! The kids had a blast Saturday at Noah's birthday party and then at the ward Halloween carnival, they went all out...a hot dog and chili cook off, a kid carnival and then a truck or treat, it really was quite the event.



On to the costumes:

This year everyone wore a costume that my mom made at one point or another. If you are under the impression that residents make money you are sorely mistaken. Our budgets is pretty tight and it was really nice we didn't have to buy any costumes, plus I love that they were all one of a kind and original...and made with love! THANKS MOM!!!



Ninja Gage (also worn by one of my nephews a few years ago)


Pirate Noah (worn by Gage a few years ago)

And fierce, I don't want to look cute or hold still for my pictures, Lion Avery Ann. Yes, I know boy lions are the ones with the manes, but this girl lion had the chubbiest cheeks and looked really cute. She loved to eat the ribbons. Mom made this costume last year for my nephew Daniel (who wore our dinosaur costume this year).

ROAR!!!!!

My parents came up and hung out with us for the festivities. We borrowed some of their wigs and made last minute costumes. They took family pictures and I can't wait to get a copy so I can post it. I was a rocker and Wade...well Wade was something, we aren't sure what, but he won a category, most original adult contest. Thanks Mom and Dad for driving up and being there!

Noah looks pretty funny in this picture because he is chewing on tin foil. I didn't know it at the time but after taking this I looked at him and saw something funny hanging out of his mouth. Apparently when he asked me about if you could eat the chocolate eyeball that was in a tin foil wrapper and I told yes, he thought that meant wrapper and all. YUCK! Silly kid!!! Gage did a little trick or treating in our great neighborhood when we got home. We've never lived in such a good neighborhood, it really was awesome. One of my neighbors told me that if you stay home all night and hand out candy you get over 300 trick or treaters! Noah opted out for more walking and shoved all the candy he could in his little tummy. Funny thing - Gage doesn't like candy, he really could care less, Noah LOVES candy. They decided to put it all in one bucket at the end of the night. I think Noah has consumed half of it already.

I think originality goes out to my sister. I love it Kathy and had to post it! Her boys couldn't decide what to be this year so she decided for them. They wore this.....(click to enlarge)

If you don't know and/or couldn't tell, yes, they are triplets.

Hopefully everyone had a good weekend and stayed safe!

We had a great Halloween!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!


We've had a busy day. This morning we had a costume birthday party for Noah, it was a busy great time. His birthday is Tuesday but since we might not get to see Daddy on that day we celebrated it today.

After the party and naps we then headed to our church's trunk or treat, hot dog & chili feed, and carnival. It was a blast! Pictures of everything coming soon...

Dinner in a Pumpkin

Last night we enjoyed our first annual dinner in a pumpkin. It turned out pretty tasty - tasty enough that we will enjoy it every "Beggars Night" to honor or fond love for Iowa and our stay there. After researching recipes this is the recipe that I decided to go for:

Dinner in a Pumpkin
1 pound ground turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup chopped celery (you could use water chestnuts, but I had celery and it needed to be used)
1 cup fresh mushrooms, chopped
1 1/2 cup cooked rice
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 medium pumpkin

Cut off top of pumpkin and clean. Brown meat with onions and celery. While browning the meat mixture cook the rice. In large bowl mix meat mixture, rice, soup, soy sauce and brown sugar. Spoon into pumpkin and replace the lid and place the pumpkin on a cookie sheet. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour or until pumpkin "meat" is soft. Do not take off the lid during baking.

~~
I served my dinner in a pumpkin with some homemade bread we had made earlier that day.

Pumpkin Pie

Yesterday I turned a pumpkin into a pie. I've made pumpkin pie before from the can, but never this way. It was fun and it turned out yummy. Dinner in a pumpkin is on the menu for tomorrow night.

Pumpkin Carving - A Special Post for Kathy

My sister has mentioned to me before that one of her problems with blogs is that no one blogs about their bad days or things that go wrong. It really does have the potential to make other people (moms especially) feel inadequate because most of us only post the great cool and perfect things that we do.

All of us have bad days, we all need help once in a while. We just usually don't post about it.

Last night we carved our pumpkins for Family Home Evening. Now, I could just post a picture of our cute jack-o-lanterns and call it good, but this post is for Kathy, the rest of you can just skip down for the pictures. Enjoy!

One of my favorite things about our babies first Halloweens is that they get to help carve the pumpkins by dressing down to their diaper and playing with the pumpkin. Gage loved it his first year and giggled and laughed. We have it on video and I still love watching it. Noah sat in his high chair eating the pumpkin lid trying his best to get a good bite. I was really looking forward to last night.

Avery, Avery Ann. She screamed like a little princess girl anytime we got her remotely close to the big orange monster. Then she would do stiff body and throw herself backwards if we actually forced her to touch it.

Then the boys started screaming like girls. Everyone was scared to touch the pumpkins. Everyone was grumpy which was making me grumpy and Wade kept saying that we were all grumpy so I decided to stop being grumpy about it all and just laugh. Gage kept complaining he didn't want to help but he wanted his pumpkin done - NOW. I was trying my best to work on his pumpkin & holding Avery because she wasn't going to have anything to do with the Baby Einstein that I finally broke down and turned on for her, but holding a screaming baby and use knifes to carve pumpkins just don't mix.

This picture lies. If you only knew. Gage is really leaned back as far as he can and using a long long spoon trying to get the guts out and Noah was just wanting to use the carving knifes to poke holes in his pumpkin. We told him sternly once, "Noah, stop poking your pumpkin!" Then we looked at each other and laughed because it is his pumpkin and we should have just let him poke holes in the darn thing if that is what he wanted.

We could only stand the whinging and complaining for so long before we told everyone they had to stop whining, get down from the table while we finished "their" pumpkins or else they had to go to time out.

It was a really spiritual family home evening can you tell?

They did get down and spent 10 minutes giggling their heads off while Avery crawled chasing them around the island in the kitchen. Then the crying and whining started again. So I put Avery to bed and helped get Noah and Gage ready for bed. During this Wade finished up both pumpkins by himself. Way to go Wade.

Before bed the boys got to go outside and see the results. They were pretty proud of their pumpkins and all their hard work. We had a good laugh at that.

We have two small pumpkins they can paint. Maybe that will go a little better. Let's all hope so.

-Pictures-

We were in desperate need of some family photos. My friend Aimee was willing to take us on as guinea pigs so we went for it. To say that she did a WONDERFUL job would be an understatement.

My family really doesn't like getting family pictures taken. I stress out over silly things like wanting us to wear nice things, (i.e. pants for Noah). I wish I could get them all to wear things like solid color shirts, but at least we were all there. Wade wasn't on-call but kept saying it would be nice if his pager went off?!?!


Noah was in a funny mood and only wanted to throw rocks in the water and not look at the camera without making a face. Then he kept wiping his nose on his shirt. Really? Avery started crying half way through. Gage loved it and kept saying over and over "Aimee, Aimee, can you take a picture of me doing this?"

Anyway, she got some great pictures and I am really excited to see the rest. My favorite ones are the ones of the kids and the family picture by the fence.

Check them out by clicking {HERE}

ps. I have to share how small this world is. I knew Aimee from church and then we went to junior high together way back when I lived in Idaho. Then I moved to Arkansas, then Utah, married Wade and then years later we moved to Iowa for school. One day at a church stake conference a girl came up to me and asked if I was Debbi (maiden name). It was Aimee. She hasn't changed one bit, I can't believe I didn't recognize her first! We bumped into each other from time to time in Iowa, then her family moved to Washington for residency, and now we are here as well (different programs). My mom's friend from high school is now (or at least has been) her visiting teacher. Small world indeed.

Pears

Who would have thought that I would love canning so much? Last year while on rotation Wade met a Dr. that joked with him that Mormons thought a good time only involved canning. I don't think that's the only thing fun that I do, but I admit I really have liked the whole process!

Before this year the last time I've bottled or canned was when we had a small garden at the U of U and we bottled tomatoes. Sadly, I think I've finally finished my canning with four bottles of pears today. I would have loved to bottle a few more of the pears and peaches since that is what we love to eat, but these babies are a lot of work to do by yourself.

I'm a dork and pretty proud. They all look so pretty lined up on top of my kitchen shelves.

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went with our neighbor to a local pumpkin patch. We were planning on visiting the same patch that we visited last year but since it was farther away we decided to go to the one just minutes from our house. We learned our lesson. The kids had fun but we agreed the one from last year was our favorite. I might have to make a trip there sometime this week just because I loved it so much.

Gage and Noah kept picking up every pumpkin that they could and then dropping them. Good thing that no one that worked there saw them. I don't think they were meaning to drop them, or at least that is what I would like to think...

Avery had a great time. She is such a smiley girl!

Here is Gage and his friend Jake who is our neighbor and happens to be in the same kindergarten class. (I think Jake and his sister are so stinkin' cute and I have to say we all should pray for their family, there dad left last month on his second deployment to Iraq.Their whole family are HERO's in my opinion!) Here they are demonstrating that kindergartners are tough and can pull 6 big pumpkins and their younger siblings.

The only fun thing at this patch besides a WAY over priced corn maze was the pumpkin sling shot. Noah and Wade almost hit the goal.

Then Gage took a turn and hit the target winning 2 small free pumpkins.

Apparently no one told Gage and Noah that when you get the change to pick a free pumpkin, even if they are all small, you pick the largest ones in the pile. They were so excited to pick these very tiny pumpkins out. I had a good laugh at these pumpkins. Then Wade dazzled me with his excellent juggling skills.

Not only is he a surgeon, but a good juggler and I'm not joking. That is why I married him. I always new that if medical school fell through that we could run off and join the circus. I love this crazy man.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Happy Pumpkin Patch!

My comment

Instead of leaving a comment to myself I thought I would make a new post.





1. In reference to Noah's being happy job. Well, this will tell everyone just how lazy I am, the chore chart came like that, Gage's chart has it too, but I covered it up. Noah doesn't have any "happy/unhappy" issues.



2. I know a lot of these things are household things that they should do regardless but they absolutely love it that they can come and cross it off...especially now that I hand over the dry erase marker. They have other jobs too that aren't on here, I just use this as incentive.



3. I don't think that reading scriptures or reading is a "chore" but something that we can cross off every single day even if we don't do any other jobs. They really just love to cross something off. I don't think it's bad to have reading on a chart, it's like being happy, if you read a lot or are happy a lot it's nice to have something you can check off every day.


4. I think in my little family this chore chart thing works as a confidence builder. My boys respond VERY well to praise. Don't we all love being told that we did a good job and being recognized for it? I know if I've had a long day with 4 kids under the age of 5 (my weekly schedule) and Wade comes home and tells me that the house looks nice and that he appreciates dinner that I feel better. Yes, they know they should do these jobs, abut I think if it makes it fun and they feel better about themselves by having a chart they can check it off of then it works for us.



5. Allowance. Jurys still out. Every once in a while I will bribe the boys with a quarter or a dime in exchange for a quick job. This works really well when they are slow poking around the house. I love that they don't care that is is a nickle, a dime, a quarter or even a penny. I like the idea of learning how to save your own money and pay your tithing. I like Aimee's idea of when they turn 8.



I'm not an expert but I enjoy hearing about what works for other people and that is why I posted. I read two books earlier this fall by people I would consider experts, Teaching Your Children Values, and Teaching Your Children Joy. The Eyre family suggests using peg boards and I think it would be a great thing to create sometime for our little family.

Caterpiller

This week we made a spooky caterpillar. Ours didn't turn out very spooky looking. The picture we saw looked really cute but more goodies went in little boy mouths than on our cupcakes. As you can tell from the picture, Noah didn't even want to decorate it, just eat it. We are getting very excited for Halloween.

Jobs & Your Opinion

The boys have chore charts. Each day we try to review what jobs they did the day before and check off their jobs. I found these blank charts at a teacher store in Iowa and they have been great. I filled them in with pictures so they boys can "read" their charts.

Gage's list: read scriptures, pick up toys, clear plates, brush teeth, put away laundry if he has any, and make his bed.
Noah's list: read scriptures, pick up toys, clear plates, brush teeth and be happy.

I've been thinking about making some changes in the chart. Noah needs to start helping make his bed. He also needs to dress himself each morning, or at least try. My friend Colleen put this on her blog today and it inspired me to finally go ahead a make these changes. She saw this chart on ModEco Kids and I love it. This chart is WAY cuter than the ones I got at the teacher store. I might have to print two out, one with simple words Gage can read and one with pictures again so Noah can "read" his.

Now, about jobs, I have a story and two questions. The story is about Gage. As I said above one of his jobs is to make his bed each day. Now, it doesn't look good, but he does try. If we have people over and I know someone is going to look at the house I usually try to help him or fix it without him knowing it later (because if he sees me do it, he gets mad, because he just worked hard, right?) Back to the point. This silly boy Gage has figured out that if he sleeps on top of his covers each night that he doesn't have to make his bed each day because it's already done. This has been going on for months. Well, it works great in the summer time, but this past week I've noticed that he has been walking into our room at night and getting in bed with us because he says he wants to cuddle. When in fact he is just so cold! The other night at bedtime I overheard Wade lean over and whisper to him, "Gage it's okay to get in your covers, I will help you make your bed tomorrow." Gage quickly got in his covers and went fast to sleep.

~~~

Now - my questions. I relayed this story to one of the kindergarten moms and she was surprised that Gage had so many jobs. Sometimes I don't think that either boy has enough jobs. I must be really really mean. Do your kids do jobs, what jobs do your kids do? Do your kids get allowances for doing jobs or just to get them? We haven't started allowances yet and I'm curious about it. I have some opinions but I want to hear others....

The Great Clam Dig of October '09

Clam season opened up Saturday.
We went. Drove two and half hours to the beach.

We bundled up in hopes that the rain and wind might go away.

We wore our snazzy new boots.

We walked around on the beach and looked for clams. Jumped in waves and looked for clams.

We dug in the sand and looked for clams.

Then we got cold abandoned poor Wade. We spent an hour in the van watching a movie (or eating the fuzzies on the blanket depending on who you were) while Wade walked around in the rain like a mad clam hunting man.

Then we aborted mission and headed home empty handed.

Not exactly like the last time we did this, but we goofed off in the van, joked about the situation and made some memories. I think that is really what it is all about.

8 Months

If only I could stop time. Little Princess Avery Ann is 8 months old today.

She is such a joy. Seriously. She smiles all the time and has such a good temperament. She crawls every where and has started to try climbing a few obstacles. If there is a door open left open she will move so fast to get in that room and explore! She loves to sit in her chair and eat meals with us. No mashed up baby food for this little princess, she wants the real stuff and uses her two little teeth to mash and mash until she can eat it. The other day at the store I picked up some baby puffs and she got so excited and tried to eat the container right there in the store! Avery loves her brothers. She gets so excited to see Gage come out of school each afternoon and she giggles and coos at him when we all get back in the van.


Avery loves to growl at us like a bear and loves to wrestle with us, especially at bedtime when we take off her clothes. She loves to nurse every 3 to 4 hours, which I don't really mind. She is a horrible sleeper though and it's all my fault, it's listen to her cry for hours or nurse her for 5 minutes. I finally have to be strong and stop these nighttime shenanigans so I can go with Wade next month on a resident retreat.


As happy as she is, the one thing that she really doesn't like is bath time. It's almost comical how much she really hates getting in the bath. She was always such a cautious bather, not really sure how she felt about the water and then there was the time that Noah "helped" and splashed her. That was the end of it. She would rather stand stiff as a board in the water and scream until we are done washing her off.

2/3 of the way to one, we all adore Miss Avery Ann.

{babylegs}

I got a pair of BabyLegs for Avery at a baby shower the girls at my church held for me when we were living in Tacoma last year for Wade's core. They were so super cute I couldn't wait to get them on Avery. Since the weather has turned a little cooler this past week I bust these babies out and I was not disappointed! I only wish I had a better camera and or a more talented photographer so I could better capture these moments.

{Stink bug move}

She wears them almost everyday now. I am in love. I might {{might}} have to learn to knit so I can make my own little leg warmers.

Aprons

Thanks Anne-Marie! We LOOVE YOU and all love our cute aprons, you are such a talented girl! Saturday the boys were so excited to wear their aprons and help me make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Wade and Avery watched college football. Wade commented that something was wrong with the picture, but I thought it was perfect, someday my boys will know how to impress girls with their cooking and my girl will know about sports!

Peaches

Peaches were 50 cents a pound on Monday at Walmart.

I got two bags full since I've never bottled them before. It took an hour or so yesterday afternoon but I got 6 jars. I'm going back for more, but I really think you should can peaches with a friend, there are a lot of steps. Any takers?

My total now is:

Peaches: 6 quart jars

Tomatoes: 12 quart jars

Applesauce: 4 quart jars

Salsa: 3 frozen quart size bags

Strawberry Jam: 4 (left, it's good stuff) pint jars

Raspberry Jam: 2 frozen quart size bags

Not too much, but not a bad start. They look pretty all lined up.

Warm Fuzzy Jar

This past weekend we were able to go to my parents house and enjoy watching our church's General Conference sessions, these happen every 6 months and are always so inspiring. I thought the boys were extra good at finding thing to do with their time and Gage especially did a good job paying attention and coloring in his tie chart. His favorite talk was by President Monson Sunday morning. For his birthday one year, President Monson was given a jar full of "warm fuzzies" each representing an act of service that was rendered. Gage loved it!


Today we sought out some "warm fuzzies" and then for family home evening we read a short talk about President Monson (in this month's Friend) and then divided up into teams and did some 'service' around the house (put away things bought at Costco today, sweep the kitchen, take out the trash...Avery had a little bit of a hard time reaching the lid to the trash can but in with a little stretching she was able to do it!). Then each family member got to put in 2 warm fuzzies to get started. Each night at dinner we are now going to report what warm fuzzy we did that day. They boys are very excited I can't wait to see how full our "Warm Fuzzy Jar" can get!

October 1

YAY for fall. A chill has been in the air and we've woke up to gray mornings lately. I should get used to the gray I suppose. If it weren't for the gray days I wouldn't fully appreciate the sunny ones.

This week we've been busy with fall activities. Yesterday I had 6 little kiddos playing at my house - including Avery Ann crawling around in the fun mix. I saw this simple craft on Make and Takes and thought it would be a fun way to get the kids to settle down for just a bit. They all loved it and made little yarn pumpkins.

We broke out the pumpkin recipes today and made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies today while Gage was at school.

Applesauce. I've made two batches this week - one to test and gobble up (warmed up with vanilla ice cream is a good way to go!) and one to bottle.

We pulled out our little garden this weekend. I was a little sad but I've already got big plans for next year. I spent some time Saturday bottling tomatoes. We still had green tomatoes on the vine that we picked that are now inside turning red and then I can bottle another batch!

Train Quilts

At the beginning of the month Wade's parents and his sister and brother in law were able to stop and visit us for a day. They were returning from an Alaskan Cruise (can't wait to go on one someday!)

Betty and Pam brought Gage and Noah the best gifts ever...their train quilts. This project was started when we were in Utah this spring. Gage would perch himself on a stool in Betty's sewing room and help create this train. It was funny how particular he was. He has no idea how much time goes into a quilt and has been asking for it day after day since we left Utah.

Noah has a matching quilt and these are amazing blankets!


You can see in the upper corner that each boy has a tag on their quilt with their name and that Grandma Betty and Aunt Pam made it for them. Pam used her new long-arm machine to quilt a train onto the quilt.

I love them and the boys love them. The boys love having their trains on their beds each night and they look so good that I'm tempted to make their room into trains...just when I think we outgrow trains they always come back.

Avery has her quilt from Betty and Pam on her crib in her room and I've been inspired to make some cupcake art for her walls. Maybe I can make cupcake and train art for Christmas.

Thanks Pam and Betty - we really all LOVE the quilts that you make!!!