Tricks or Treats

Well, here go lots of pictures and a quick rundown of our holiday. The only thing missing are pictures of our huge leaf fight and of Tristan and Alex at school. Alex marched in the little Dora Erickson parade over to Good Sam where they sang Halloween songs, and Tristan's class had a Halloween program. Tristan did great and remembered his part really well. If you ask him, he will recite it for you. I helped in his class with their party and wore that light blue poofy, costume dress we got at D.I. like 10 years ago. I curled my hair all up and put on lots of makeup and all the kids were in awe. I love kids. They're so easy to impress! Anyhoo, I don't have any pictures because of our ever silly camera, and I was soooo very tired of it not working, that we went the next day to Sam's Club and bought a new camera!! Woo-hoo! It was only $94, but it seems great for our needs. I would love to buy a better one, but I am just so happy to have a camera that will actually work. And, Justy very kindly bought us a new memory card with like 800 times as much storage as our old one. So now we can take around 2,300 pictures before it wil be full!

So, here are pictures of some of what we have been doing!

The Tuesday before Halloween we carved pumpkins, which is one of Alex's favorite things to do! I helped him empty his out a little, but he did all the drawing and cutting and everything after that! Do you see the ever-present jar of barbecue sauce? Alex puts it on everything we have for dinner, so it seems like it is always on the table. I should just make a special spot for it!  

Alex's pumpkin is on the left, then Tristan's, which obviously I helped with (he wanted one with "fire"), and then Alaina's cat, which I pretty much did by myself. I shouldn't let them pick out patterns to do. In real life it was pretty funny, because Alex picked out the biggest pumpkin, and then the face on it was all squooshed in one spot!

Proud of their masterpieces, which they picked out the design for!

After carving we made a fire and had smores! I think it was the first time my kids have had them!

Getting ready to go Trick-or-Treating! They were all super excited. In case you can't tell, Alex is Santa, Tristan is a knight, Alaina a fairy princess, Emme is a sunflower and Danny is wearing a pig helmet cover, just for good measure.

Justin went with us, which was really nice. He helped carry Emme and kept the kids from getting run over and kept Alex from taking all the candy from people's houses!

It was such unbelievably nice weather, I loved it!! We just stayed in our neighborhood, as those three blocks seem like just the right amount. And then we get to show off our kids to the neighbors!

It was pretty funny when other kids out for treats would see Alex from a distance. We would hear one of them shout, "Hey! You guys look, it's Santa!!!" And they would all look and get all excited. I'm not sure if their depth perception was off from a distance or from excitement, but they did not seem to be able to tell that it was just a kid in a costume. They were very excited. Tthis happened several times. The funny part is to imagine what a horrible Santa Alex would be, seeing as how he alternately completely ignores people, and then is obsessed at other times and won't leave people alone. Wouldn't that make a great Santa?

This is Alaina falling over at the Wheatley's yard. It was fitting that I got a picture of this, as she probably fell over ten times. But her bag was cloth and flexible, so usually none of her candy fell out, so she didn't mind. She would stand up and say, "It's okay. I'm alright."

This year Alex was a lot better and didn't try to go in people's houses or refuse candy that wasn't chocolate with a "No, thank you," like he did last year. They were all great and Tristan only asked once if he could have two pieces.

Afterwards we went to the Campbells and dumped out bags and saw what they had gotten. They all got tons! So we let them eat what they wanted for a little bit, then that night took all the candy out of their bags except for like 5 or 6 pieces. They never said a word, and I think were just excited that they still got more in the morning! We put all the rest in a huge tupperware bowl and eat from it regularly. I love Halloween! :)

And here are just some other random pictures.

Proof that I do exist, and that I do read to my children. But it must be rarely enough that it is deemed picture worthy! (I don't think so.)

Emme is making lots of noises, seeing this picture of such a cute baby on here!

Now that I have a new camera, hopefully there will be many more pictures to come!

For a Laugh

Every day Alex takes a notebook to school where his teachers can write notes to me or me to them and where his "smiley faces" for good behavior are recorded. Yesterday his notebook had a frowny face for reading time and this is what it said next to it- " "Didn't go to Resource room for reading. Hid in the office. That's new! He went into the office- the principal (Mr. Murdoch) said, 'Alex, can I help you?' Alex said, 'No, I am hiding.' "

I had to laugh- I think his deception skills need some work. :)

And here are just some pictures we've taken recently, for fun!

That's all! 

Ode to a 5k

Oh, you treacherous fiend.

You seducer of fools,

with your promises of water bottles, t-shirts

and prizes that you must be present to win.

How did you do it to me again?

You cajoled, courted and wooed me, and I submitted.

I paid you for pain.

Surely there will be a day of reckoning for these abominations.

Today is that day.

Heart pumping, feet pounding.

I don't think I can do this.

I want to stop.

And I've only been running for three minutes.

Yes, on Saturday I decided to run the University Place 5k. It was a beautiful day for a run! I didn't realize until after the race that I hadn't actually run that far since before I was pregnant with Emme! But I did all right.

 I missed having you guys there so much!! Meggie, do you remember when we convinced you to run with us the night before a race? That was so fun though, running together, even if we weren't actually together during the running!

Anyway, considering that I have been doing no running at all lately, the race was great. I think I got 5th or 6th in the women. I think there were maybe 9 or 10 women running. :) Danny brought the kids and it was really fun to finish and have the kids come running up to hug me, yelling, "You did it Mommy! You won!!" They are my best fan club. Then there were pancakes for everyone and prizes, where I won a Famous Dave's t-shirt that I will save for Danny's birthday. (I actually had that on my list of birthday ideas for him, so that was pretty cool! )

I hate the first three minutes of the run, when you are sure you won't be able to finish, because you have used all of you energy worrying about whether or not you will be able to finish!

 Lisa Burt was there and that was fun to run next to her. She was actually running the route twice because she had to get in 6 miles that day. Crazy girl! She kept talking the whole time, whereas I thought maybe I would die if tried to say hello.

I wish I had pictures, but just imagine me all sweaty and icky and you've about got it. For a better mental image, Alaina wore my running number on her shirt the rest of the day everywhere we went. She thought that made her really cool.

So, all in all, it was fun to see how I did and the kids had fun and I got a t-shirt! I can think of worse ways to spend $25. Of course, I can also think of better ways, too!

So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

   I turned thirty this year. It's a pretty big deal to enter a new decade for only the third time in your life. I always wonder why people make such a big deal over getting older, but Danny says it's not getting older they mind. It's looking older. Well, I'm not quite that vain, and I say better to get old than die young! I have to say, I love being thirty! I was a little afraid of it. So many people say things about getting older. "Oh, just wait until you're thirty. Then you will..." blah blah blah. They said the same thing about getting married. And do you know what? They're wrong! So, in honor of all my new laugh lines and wrinkles, here are a few things I like about getting older. (And just to keep it from being too boring, interspersed are some more pictures Meggie took of our family. We are a verry challenging family to get good pics of, since half the time we are just trying to get the kids to hold still! Thank you Megan for helping us to get some good pictures. It's a miracle!!)

(Alex kills me in this one and another one. He just looks like he is such an angel and all perfection. But we know what he was doing while we were trying to take pictures. Oh yes, we know. )

1. You are so much more comfortable with yourself. I feel like I know myself better than ever and can trust myself. In certain areas. I've had time to see how I react to different things and in different settings, and though I will always be a work in progress, I feel okay about who I am.

2. I'm not intimidated by people. I never feel nervous or worry about what they will think. Just imagine what I will be like when I'm 50! I'll probably just walk around naked and tell people to get over it.

(I loove the pics she got of Tristan. I just wish, oh wish, that we had gotten some individuals of Lainey that day, too! )

3. I've been married for 11 years now, and I love it! I was always so afraid of what it would be like when you are in the midst of raising your kids and your crazy lives, and I can easily say, this is the most fun we have had so far! We've loved every different part of our lives together, but we just love having these crazy kids and all the funny things they do and say. We love having kids old enough to talk to and do fun things with and to teach funny things to. And we know each other so much better. We rarely disagree, and when we do we get over it quickly. We're still sometimes grumpy or tired, but now we know that's what it is. When you are newly married every time something weird happens, you think, "Oh no! We're never going to be happy together!" I don't worry about that now.

4. I feel more confident as a parent. I don't second guess everything I do and worry that I am warping my children. Now I know that I am warping them, and I take pleasure in it! Haha, only joking. I know they are pretty much who they are, and I'm okay with that. I can't change who they intrinsically are, for better or worse.  And we have developed a sense of family identity, who we are as a family together. We are happy, outgoing, crazy, willing to let the house get messy for some fun or to do things together, and find ourselves to be the best things to laugh at.

5. It just feels nice to have thirty years under my belt, and still be myself. When I was little I would worry that the grown-up me would be totally different from who I was then. But I'm pretty much the same person.

6. I can still do the splits. And lots of other weird stuff. I still hang upside-down on the monkey bars and read my books in the tree sometimes and can still do a backbend and stand up out of it. I'm pretty proud of that.

Ummm.. there are lots of other things I like about getting older, but a lot of it is just about becoming comfortable with who I am and accepting myself, which in turn allows me to accept others as they are.  I don't mean this post to sound like I am bragging on myself, I just thought it was worth mentioning that so far, getting older is a-okay with me. I thought that might be reassuring to someone out there. Then again, two of the four people who read this are older than me, so I guess you don't need to be told!!
 
  On a last note, when I turned 30 Danny gave me a big kiss and said, "I've never kissed a thirty year-old before." I said, "I have. It's not that great." Hehehe.....

This is the other picture where Alex looks like he is pure angel. Do you see that sweet face?! No one else looks that great, but he looks like he should have a halo around his head.

The stars are aligned...

Yes, I think that even God may be on my side, as the computer won't let me onto any site without saying, "Operation Aborted" and then going blank. Any site but my own blog, that is. So, I was trying to catch up on all of your blogs, but instead I will write quickly on mine.
  A whole summer has gone by, with nary a post, so I will never get everything written down. I will, however, write about the rest of our trip to Meggie's, but since I am on my laptop and there are no pictures on here, I will write about other random going ons. And yes, it is nice to use the laptop and be in a comfy chair, instead of in the kitchen on a hard kitchen chair, except that the battery in this doesn't work and the cord keeps coming unplugged, so it has randomly turned off on me like 3 times now. I think we will invest in a new battery.
  New things- School has started! A little bittersweet. Especially with Tristan starting. In Kindergarten they still seem so very little, with their backpacks sticking up past their heads and crammed with all their supplies. How can he survive in the world without me? What will he do if someone is mean, or doesn't pick him for their team? What if a big kid tries to pick on him, or he gets lost on the way back from the bathroom? But amazingly, I seem to be the only one concerned. Tristan on the other hand, is happy and confident and loving school. He has two of his friends from church in his class, which I feel like was a real blessing, and they play together a lot. I do worry about the kids in his school. His one friend in his class from church apparently was coming out of the bathroom and was knocked down and kicked in the back and the stomach by two third graders. He didn't tell anyone until his Mom picked him up. If that happened to Tristan, I think I would hunt those kids down and... well, I don't know what I would do then, but it makes me soo mad just thinking about it!! So I told Tristan that from now on he isn't to go anywhere by himself and I am going to talk to his teacher about my concerns. He doesn't know anything about the bigger kids, and thinks he has to have a buddy so he doesn't get lost. He is just so happy and sweet, I can't stand the thought of anything changing that. And I think I would want revenge on someone if they did change that for him. And I think in the meantime, I am going to just get on the waiting list for a charter school. But, besides my worries, Tristan is loving school! Oh, and I helped in his class on Friday and had to convince a boy to stop coloring his picture of a teacher to look like there was blood dripping from his arms to his shoes. Lovely.
  Alex has had an amazing first two weeks of school and has been almost exclusively in the regular second grade classroom. His teacher is amazed and we are delighted! He has been earning stars by doing well in school, and today earned his last star at church to get a zhu zhu pet. He was so excited and happy and went to bed with it in a ziploc bag next to him.
  On Labor Day we went to the State Fair and Kattie and Justin came, too. We spent all day there and had soo much fun! We brought most of our own food to save on money, but did buy ice cream cones and curly fries. The kids had fun as usual, especially in a big sandbox they had with toys in it, and on the bike that blew bubbles when you rode it. Alas, our camera is broken and we are borrowing Mommy's, but I can't find the battery charger anywhere, so I didn't get to take any pictures! (No pictures of first days of school either. Sad. Don't worry Mommy, it is here, and we will find it!) But here are my favorite memories of the day-
  1. Tristan asking all day if he could ride the ferris wheel. When I told him I wasn't sure because it cost a lot of money, he said, "Justin can pay. He has a lot of money." And when all was said and done, he was right. Because in the end Justin did end up paying for me and Tristan to ride it together. It was so high and I tried not to let Tristan see just how uncomfortable I was and just kept smiling and trying not to hold onto him too tightly. But he loved it!
  2. Sitting in the bleachers listening to a bluegrass type band with fiddles and such play. But what made it so memorable was Alex dancing in the stands. Facing backwards for the benefit of the people behind us. And you guys know how Alex dances. So. Funny. We could not stop laughing.
  3. Walking around the animal barns, and as I passed under a sign, I jumped up so high because a huge spider had just dropped down in front of me! Then I heard a guy laughing, and realized that it was a fake spider and he was controlling it, making it drop in front of people to scare them. I guess you've got to do something when you are stuck next to cows all day. Of course then we had to make Alex and Tristan go under the sign, too and scare them. Why is that so much fun?
  4. In the pig barn there was a clipping from a newspaper of a letter that someone had written to them. The letter said this, "All you people who go out and hunt for meat to eat should be ashamed of yourselves! You should go to the store and buy meat like the rest of us, where it can be made and no animals are hurt." Can you believe that?! Next to the article they had written, "And just think, this person probably votes and may already have reproduced!"
  5. Possibly the most fun I had all day was riding a ride with Kattie that swung back and forth and went backwards and upside down. Justy was going to ride it with her, but convinced me instead. I tried to convince him to go, but really deep down I really wanted to. Oh, it was sooo funnn!! Crazy fun! And we were laughing so hard the entire time. At one point, they let you hang upside down for a few moments, and I could not stop laughing, and drool starting running up my face. How can you put a price on that? Luckily, I didn't have to, as Justin had paid for me. Thank you Justin, for giving me two of my best memories of the fair! And I think they had quite a lot of fun, just watching Kattie and I almost wet our pants.
  6. Last, but not least, after that ride Alaina was crying because she wanted to ride it, but obviously she was too little. I was about to give in and spend $10 so she could ride something with me, when a lady and her teenage daughter came up and asked if I minded if they gave Alaina a stuffed monkey they had. I told them they didn't need to, but they were welcome to if they wanted. The teenage girl gave her the monkey and Alaina was instantly soo happy and loves it and wouldn't let go of it even when she fell asleep in the car. After they gave it to her, they left really fast so we could hardly tell them thank you. But wherever you are out there, thank you, for not only doing something kind for a little girl, but for reaffirming my faith in humanity.
  So, that's all about the fair. So much fun. Still managed to spend $50 even bringing our own food and with Justin paying for the rides. (How can that be??) But it was well worth for the memories and the tradition. I love doing things like that with the kids.
  A couple of last things. The other day Alex got stung by a wasp on the forehead. He grabbed his forehead and said, "Ow! It's hot!" While holding him down so we could spray anti-pain stuff on his sting, I pointed out to Danny how loose his other front tooth was. So then we held him down a little more until that was pulled out! Poor kid, we can't leave him alone. But he was happy once it was out, and it was a good thing we took it out, because the new one was already coming in!
  Mommy was here and reading a kids Book of Mormon story to Tristan and Alaina. Tristan raised his arms and said, "I'm a Nephite! I'm a Nephite!" Not to be left out, but still wanting her to be herself, Alaina raised her arms and said, "I'm a Dora-phite! I'm a Dora-phite!"
  And lastly, Alex had to have blood drawn to test his med levels in his blood. He barely squirmed when they put the needle in his arm and just said, "Ow." Then he just watched while they took one vial of blood. But when they started on the second one he pointed at it and said, "That's dangerous!"
 

Oh, the places you'll go!!

   How invigorating! We just got back from swimming and sliding and I think that is how every day should end. At the top of a water slide with lightning bugs all around and the moon hanging low. Ahhh.....
  We are having so much fun and so that I don't forget here is a quick rundown of what we have done so far. It might be boring for you to read, but it sure is fun for us to live!!
  Our drive out went absolutely great!! I never dreamt that the kids could be so good for so long. I am contemplating living in our car from now on, as they are so much better behaved. Of course, Justin burnt dvds with our movies and each disc had like 4-6 movies on it. So they did watch a very large amount of movies.
  There were only two downsides to our drive. One, a 20 hour drive from Idaho to Missouri took us 29 hours total. But we did only spend $12 on food the whole way!
 They other bad thing was that Tristan and Alaina both threw up. (Tristan did 4 times!) Which was partly why we only spent $12 on food! And also a large reason why the drive took so long. We had to make a side trip for cleaning materials in Nebraska because I was tired of cleaning up with just baby wipes.     

                              This was at the Wal-Mart in Nebraska.  I was cleaning and Alex strapped Emme in and played with her. Doesn't she look worried?

 

   You know you have really sunk low when you walk into Wal-Mart and think, "What magical paradise is this, with air conditioning and everything you could ever need? Who would ever leave a place like this?" When I saw myself in the bathroom mirrors there it was kind of shocking. I looked like I was living out of my car. Oh, wait. I was.  Then we got parts for our oil pump (we're traveling on used vegetable oil) at Home Depot and thankfully everyone was fine by the time we got to Daddy's, many, many hours later.
  We had so much fun with Daddy and it was so fun for the kids to see him and him to see the kids!! They liked him right away because he was a Grandpa so that was an automatic "in" and then he was nice to them and let them sit on his lap and have his quarters that they found around his house. We spent time at his house and went to Bonkers, a huge playland that is basically a hamster cage for humans. So fun!! Tristan used all his quarters from Grandpa Cripe on the candy machine and Emme smothered Grandpa in slobbery kisses. We ate after that and by the time we got back to Mexico Grandpa was pretty well worn out. We dropped him at his house and then took the kids swimming at the hotel pool.

This picture is blurry, but I just thought it was so cute!

 They finally went to bed at like 11 pm. They were all super good at sleeping in the same room. We found that the secret is to get them so tired that they just konk out, rather than trying to put them to bed at any decent hour.
   Next morning, visited with Daddy and ate lunch with him and then started for Meggies at about 1:30 in the afternoon. Made the mistake of mentally thinking it would be a shorter drive, so that it felt like forever. Turned a ten hour drive into a 12 hour drive. At one point I was looking for the GPS charger under Lainey's seat and sat the GPS in Emme's car seat. I couldn't find the charger, so we pulled off but not on an exit, onto another highway instead. Finally got back on the road but the GPS was giving us such strange directions and we felt like we were driving everywhere. Finally after about 20 minutes of thinking we were going crazy, I thought to check the GPS again, and while it was in Emme's car seat for like 20 seconds her little toes had reset our whole trip route and we were driving who knows where! So, we got that fixed and laughed about it. But we were getting a little annoyed before that. (I thought I was going to scream if he said, "Recalculating," one more time.)

  We had fog and curvy roads and a deer run in front of us on our way to Megan's. Just West Virginia's way of saying hello. (Did you know that a couple of years ago it was on all the national news because a boy here got hit by a deer, on his BIKE?! The boy was on the bike, not the deer.)
   So, we got to Meg's all safe and sound at about 2 am and stayed up until 4 am talking. Naturally. Because we think it's fun when we're together to see what we can do on as little sleep as possible.
  The next day Tristan went with Megan and her kids to their library reading program activity, while we unpacked things here and basically took over Aiden's room. Then we went to Sam's Club and Wal-Mart, just to prove that it doesn't matter where you go in the world, you will still have to go to Wal-Mart. And they will still be out of at least one thing that you need.

  That night was their ward's swim party, so after dinner we went to that and had so much fun! The weather here is perfect for evening swimming and the pool was never over 5 feet and is really big. So fun! 

Gosh, it doesn't look like Alex is very happy, does it? 

 

 Isn't this such an Emme expression?

 Then that night Meggie and I  went to stores and looked around while Danny, Brooks and Aiden played a game at home. Then we stayed up until 2 am looking at clips of Wicked online and wishing we could go see it together in Columbus. Good times.
  Yesterday we slept in pretty late, can't figure out why, and then took the kids to the cutest little town here, Marietta. Unfortunately, it was the hottest part of the day and we left all the water in the car and we thought we were all going to die of heat stroke. The funnest part was after we all got back in the car, blasted the air conditioning and drove up and down the streets looking at some of the cutest houses you have ever seen!! It all looked just like in Meet Me In St. Louis and Meggie and I were dying! But not of heat stroke this time.

Aren't they cute together? They were supposed to be sleeping, but instead they were playing with the Lite-Brite. 

This was Audrey and Alaina playing house in the bathroom. They were making "soup", which was a little scary, considering where they were doing their cooking.

  Today Danny and I drove to Charleston, got lost because we thought we could get there without the GPS, turned the GPS back on and finally got to visit with Danny's cousin who lives out here and her four kids. We had lots of fun with them and their kids looked so much like Alex, with red hair and blue eyes just like him! They had so much fun playing and visiting and Robin made some killer peach cobbler with ice cream! Yumm....

     Drove back to Parkersburg and got totally lost trying to find the swim park because someone, let's just call her Megan H., or M. Haroldsen had given us the wrong address. We finally found the park, where the library was having their end of year party. You had to attend one of the activities over the summer, and since Tristan had gone to the closing one with Megan, we figured that counted! Actually, I didn't feel bad at all about going, as they were planning on four hundred people and had maybe 75. They had ordered 100 pizzas and there were soooo many left over! They were going to take them to the local homeless and battered women's shelters. So we ate pizza and treats and then went swimming, at the same pool we did two day ago! Oh, it was so refreshing and fun and then we did the huge water slide that went down the hill. It was super fast and Aiden cried after riding it! Even Alex said, "Whoa." We rode until 9pm, when they kicked us out, and then put all these exhausted kids to bed.

    Tomorrow we are driving, again, this time to Amish country. Danny wants to visit the place that lets you taste 60 different varieties of cheese, and Megan says that she thinks maybe we should be Amish. "They have everything we want. Land, horses, farm animals and gardens. We could be Amish-Mormons. Mormish." If we come back wearing bonnets and skirts, you will know that Megan succeeded.
  So pretty much, Meggie is very silly, the kids are having so much fun playing together, we are hardly sleeping at all and we still have a week left! Ahhh... heaven! 

If Gordon MacRae were alive, he'd have some competition!

Wow! Blogger is letting me put video on here. So before it changes its mind, I am putting on the video of Alex singing at the school talent show. For some reason his music wouldn't play, so after waiting a minute, Alex just started singing accapella. This video is just from our camera, and I don't think the sound in it is very good. Plus, Danny stopped recording right as everyone started clapping, so you miss that satisfaction. But trust me, it was soo cute! The lady backstage had teary eyes and kept saying, "That was just so good. He did such a good job." Maybe they were tears of relief. Anyway, after much waiting, here is the video. Enjoy!

(This is picture is the night he got his costume and took all his clothes off to wear it. On stage he wore other clothes, too. : )