Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from…

Super Star Hannah Montana

Toothless Batman

Angry Woody, who just wants a sucker.

And a Minnie Mouse who would not keep her ears on. 

Our Garden

Our garden is in and it is a much better showing than last year.  Now if those darn birds would stop eating the seeds, and pulling up my onions, we might be able to enjoy the fruits of our labors.

We planted in 2 areas this year.  Here is our list of veggies we are hoping will grow.

• Carrots
• cucumbers
• Red, yellow, green peppers
• Jalepeno (I’m not sure what I will do with these but it will be fun to see if they grow)
• Broccoli
• Onions
• Peas
• Beans
• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Garlic
• Tomatoes

Wish us luck!!!

Busy little girl

Emma is one busy little girl.  This is what happens when I turn my back for less than 30 seconds.

Emma grabbed my flat iron and burned her little thumb.  Her thumb was swollen for a couple of days and finally the blisters popped.  She had a raw thumb for a few weeks, but after much prayer and doctoring it healed perfectly. 

Happy Birthday

3… something.  All I have to say, is that is quite the flame. 

For Kirk’s birthday he got to see a much better movie this year,  “Inception”. Last year our only choice ended up being “Julie and Julia” and Kirk was a little bummed that was his “birthday movie”.  (Our disclaimer is that Emma was tiny and had to come with us and that was the only time that worked).  Both years we have shared the theater with only one other couple.    This is one of those times we are grateful for Kirk’s out of the ordinary work schedule.

Labor Day

Man, life sure is busy and there is rarely a dull moment around our house.  I have been trying to keep up on the laundry, clean the house, finish Halloween costumes, plan a Halloween carnival,  start Christmas, prepare for homeschool (starting tomorrow), and start a new calling in Primary (1st counselor-again :)  So here is a quick catch up of the past few months.

We had a great Labor Day week with these cool people. 

Hot zoo and and cool splash pad

Diamondbacks game

Jacob’s first birthday party

Rub-a-dub-dub, three kids in a tub

Awesome cousin time

The new me!!!

Before:

After:

Kaleb’s response was “Mom you look new”.  I will take it as a compliment :)

Our new favorite book

 

Katelyn and I have started reading the Little House on the Prairie books and are loving them.  Katelyn reads them a lot faster than I do.   From start to finish she is done in 2-3 days, it takes me about 2-3 weeks. 

Some of  the reasons I love them so much:

Children obey their parents like their lives depend on it.

Mary and Laura can play for hours and hours without any toys.   (Unless you are lucky enough to get the bladder of a pig, blow it up, and play with it like a balloon. )

The children were so happy to get a candy cane and penny for Christmas.

All of their belongings can fit  into ONE wagon.

This is their schedule:

Wash on Monday

Iron on Tuesday

Mend on Wednesday

Churn on Thursday

Clean on Friday

Bake on Saturday

Rest on Sunday

I think we just might try it :)

Thanks Kim for the inspiration

Finally Finished… well almost!

Technorati Tags: Crafts

This is my version of a felt playhouse for the kids.   (It fits over our card table)

A couple of months ago I saw this awesome post and thought this was the perfect idea for Carter and Emma’s upcoming birthdays.  Especially because after 4 kids it seems that we have every toy that Target and Walmart sell.   I was so close to finishing it by their birthday but ran out of time and ended up safety pinning it together so they could play in it.   Finally after many months it is sewn together and just needs a couple of finishing touches on the accessories. 

 

The front door opens along with the mailbox and they can pick apples off the tree.

The flowers were the only thing not made of felt but they do slide in and out of the grass so they can pick flowers too.

Their garden will soon have carrots in the ground that they can harvest along with the potatoes, and corn.   The basket opens so they can collect all their veggies in a safe spot.

Last but not least is the barn.  The big barn door flips up so they can slip out the “back door” of the playhouse.   The eggs come off and soon their will be a felt chicken perched in his coupe, and a cow and a pig in the side barn. 

This project definitely took a lot longer than I thought it would but once I started I just had to finish!

Emma and Carter love running in and out and playing peek a boo through the doors and windows!

School is in

Today was the first day of school.  Katelyn is a 3rd grader and Kaleb is a 1st grader.  Wow, where has the time gone.  They were both so excited to start school again which helped me not be quite so sad.   We took them to school and Carter cried when they left for the playground (he wanted to play too).    

We also planted a new tree in our front yard so every year we can watch our children and tree grow.

Last Day of Summer

The kids have been hoping all summer long that we would need to drain our pool.  Well the time had come, and what better way to enjoy the last day of summer than sliding and playing in a 1/2 full pool.  I have to admit that Kirk and I really enjoyed the shallow pool too.  The kids are begging us to keep it like this :)

Summer science

Who doesn’t love cool science projects.  We checked out yet another wonderful science project book from the library and I dug out my preschool science projects notes/books from college. We spend the morning in the kitchen having a great time. 

I remember this science project from my high school days.  You put raisins in water and vinegar mixture with some baking soda and watch the raisins dance and float to the top and drop down.   My science teacher told us that they were some strange species of bugs that she had found and then when we least expected it, she ate one.  I thought it was disgusting, but now I think it is hilarious.  By the way Kaleb and I both ate one.

This is Carter’s own experiment… how many spice containers can YOU stack???

 

Six! Way to go Carter. 

Zoom Zoom Zoom

In an effort to find some fun INDOOR activities we have starting  making paper airplanes. We checked out a book from the library and found this great website www.funpaperairplanes.com  So far we have folded about 20 different kinds.  Some definitely fly better than others but we were surprised with how many airplanes you can make out of a piece of paper.   What great cheap fun!!!

(great form Kirk)

Note:  I know I said indoor activity but we had to try them out in the open skies, so we waited until 7:00 pm and braved the heat.   Emma and Carter were thrilled to finally be outside.

The Perfect Pet.

 

Katelyn has waited all summer long to get her fish.  She had to wait until we got back from vacation and then the aquarium we bought was missing the filter so we had to wait another couple of weeks for it to come in the mail.  She has checked out every “How to care for your fish”  book at our library (literally) and knows far more than Kirk and I about fish.  She bought 2 common goldfish because “they are a good start for beginners” and “goldfish are social animals and it is cruel to keep one in the tank by itself” (from the words of Katelyn).   Unfortunately one of her fish died a couple of days later.  Katelyn informed us that he had ich (a fish disease).  We looked it up and I am pretty sure she was right.  WOW, she is one smart kid!!!  And yes, you can call  animal rights activists because we have only one fish in the tank right now :)

On the road again

After staying in the Redwoods for a couple of days we were on the road again, Seattle here we come.   The Northern Coast of CA was absolutely beautiful.  

Do any of you Goonies fans recognize this?

We drove through Oregon and played at a wonderful park and also found out that it is against the law to pump your own gas.  As soon as you pull up to the pump an attendant is waiting- great service!  We finally made it to Seattle after 13 glorious hours in the car, just in time to make the last part of Josh’s b-day party. 

We spend one morning in Seattle. We ate lunch at Ivars and fed the waiting seagulls our leftover french fries.  Apparently Carter was still hungry after our french fries were gone so he went to the table next to us begging for food and a nice lady shared her french fries with him (just a little embarrassing).

 

We went to the Puget Sound aquarium and saw some great marine life. Anni was watching the seals swim and mentioned that she would Love to have one of those for a pet. 

They had an awesome touching pool, and a great octopus.

 

Look at all those suckers! (meaning the octopus, not the Smith’s)

The otters were so playful and fun to watch.

We have decided that Seattle has the BEST parks ever.  The kids could have played here forever, and did I mention the weather was absolutely beautiful. 

We asked the kids what their favorite part of the vacation was and they replied “playing with cousins”.