Thanksgiving Delivery!

Anyone want to deliver papers for us tomorrow morning? Its only 187 papers! We will write you out a route list! Any takers?! Happy Thanksgiving!!

A little bit of everything!

Well some of these pictures are alittle old but when I took the parade pictures off and saw them I had to do something with them!!

Lacey has started flipping her plate and whatever is left on it over her head and then playing with her hair when she is done eating! Not fun to clean up! this particular night we walked into the kitchen with spaghetti noodles in her hair. Let me tell you those are not the easiest things to get out of hair

Dylan decided to go trick or treating around town as a football player. We went a couple times this year and most of the time he was batman but Bryan was excited for him to wear his Bears jersey! If you haven't guessed we are Bears fans in this house! He also likes to sneak out into the hallway to fall asleep. Sometimes I don't even know he is there untill I go to bed! It surprised me how quiet he can be when he wants to be! Atleast I know it is possible!!

These were when we raked leaves the first time! Abby and Dylan loved it and I practically had to drag them inside! Lacey on the other hand was not thrilled at all by playing in the leaves and took every oppourtunity to escape when they arose! She crawled across the yard, across the drive was and down the sidewalk before she would stop and turn around! it was really funny!

these are from the second time we raked leaves! It was cold by the time we actually got them up and out of the yard!

Festival of Trees Parade!

Every year around Thanksgiving there is a Festival of Trees out here. It is held in a Downtown Convention Center. People sign up and very elaboratly decorate trees, mantles, stockings, doors, and ornaments. They have a huge room full of Gingerbread houses. Everything can be bought. It is really cool. It is kicked off by a parade. It is the largest helium balloon parade in the midwest! The kids got a kick out of it but man it was FREEZING!!! It was about 25-30ish degrees and WINDY! It lasted about an our and when it was done the feeling in my fingers, with gloves, and my toes was pretty much nonexhistant!

The kids were awesome! They didn't ever really seemed fazed by the seriously uncomfortable weather-they just kept asking for food! They sounded like we never fed them! Anyway the parade was filled with tractors (of course it is a must have!), bands from the local high schools and troups from some of the dance studio. We even had Miss Iowa! And of course the balloons! The one sad thing was that since it was so windy they weren't able to have the ballons fly very high so that was a bummer. The parade was even complete with a sleigh pulled by Deere. And no before you laugh at me and think that I don't know how to spell remember where I live! We are in John Deere country out here! The sleigh was pulled by John Deere tracktors! It was totally fun! Unfortunatly that was one picture I didn't get, sorry!! They had on troup of

batonists(?) or baton twirlers which ever(!) and the poor girl in the front she must have been freezing!

New Moon Movie!

Hey for those of you who haven't heard Summit Entertainment has annouced that they are moving forward with plans to film New Moon! So that is very exciting and something to look forward to!!!

The Movie!

Well the day finally came! I went out with a bunch of girls for a Girls Night out! It was so much fun! There were eight of us who had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse-which one of my total favs! Just can't get enough of the rolls, those of you who have been know what I am talking about! I was in charge of getting the table and ended up sitting at a huge table by myself for like 20-25 minutes till everyone got there! When I called for call ahead seating they said that I should get there as soon as possible for a group that size so I was just down the street and thought I would be able to go check in and get a buzzer thing and be good to go. So I get there and they are like well we have a table open if you want it-so I was like well if you don't mind me sitting there for 20 minutes by myself then I will take it so there I sat! The timing worked out great after everyone got there we ordered, ate, and went over to the theater, everyone had pre-bought tickets so we just walked right into the theater! Looking around at how packed the theater was my friend said it best I think! She said "I don't think I have ever been in a theater with so many girls!"! It was pretty funny to listen to all the teenage girls while watching the movie!

I of course loved the movie! It was filmed at little weird, I would have rather seen it filmed with a still camera but I can't change that! Then you have to remember that is was a huge book and they can't possible make the movie exactly like the book! And it is really hard to go from a first person pov in the book and try to put it into a movie! There are some things that i wish they they had kept the same like Bella escaping Alice and Jasper at the Airport, I liked that part. And I thought they needed to develop the bond between Bella and Edward alittle better-it moved from "hi" to "your a vampire" to "i love you and i will die for you" alittle fast, and I thought they could have done more on Alice's visions and Jasper's mood control! But hey you can't have everything right! It is one persons view and take on the book!

I did totally love when Edward to Bella to his house-that was so funny! And while Emmit didn't look quite like I pictures him he did portray him like I thought he should be! I also liked the part when Bella brought Edward home to meet Charlie! So I will totally be buying it when it comes out and totally waiting for the next one!

Reading Radar?!

I decided that I would reread Twilight in anticipation for seeing the movie on Friday because after reading the series it was hard to remember where exactly Twilight ended! So I gave myself a talk and told myself that I could read it if I didn't get tunnel vision this time! Usually when i read a book it is all I want to do so i wasn't going to do that this time, I was going to read it slow and enjoy the story! Well that didn't happen! I opened the book to the first page and before I knew it I was closing the back cover and putting it back on my bookshelf. My eyes slid over to New Moon and my fingers itched to read it. So I pulled that one down and read it-I couldn't help myself! Not reading the rest of the series was like watching half of a movie and turning it off! I couldn't stop in the middle of the whole story!! So now I am half way through Eclipse-kinda defeated the purpose of reading only Twilight right?! I put forth a concerted effort to not let everything fade into the background-I kept up with the dishes and laundry so that is good right?! Bryan on the other hand is never all that thrilled when I pick up a book! But thankfully he puts up with me while I read and I love him for that! However that being said he has this incredible annoying "Reading-Radar"! I can be reading through the low-impact part of a book in silence but as soon as I get to an excitingly-fantastically-gripping-switch-your-sitting-position-read-way-to-fast-and-have-to-reread-because-you-read-too-fast-with-anticipation-and-didn't-really-understand-what-you-read passage----he starts TALKING!!!

He asks me questions and how to spell things and telling me stories about things that happened at work and school! How does he do that?!! How does he know when I am getting to one of those points?! I really try to be calm and helpful especially when I am in the middle of a book that I have already read before but man! It drives me crazy! And the funny thing is is that his radar has no distance limit-I can be starting a good part and he will call-just because-which is really sweet and I love when he does that so I can't get mad at him!

Oh well I guess the reading radar is the price I have to pay if I want to read! But does it have to be so annoying? Isn't there a price I could pay that wouldn't interrupt me?!!

Have you ever...?

Have you ever been looking at something really quick on the computer and heard a shout out by your daughter for you? I was checking my email and I hear Abby say "Mom! Lacey is eating white butter from the cooking stuff!" I was like what?!

Have you ever walked in to the kitchen to see you 13 month old with both hands in the crisco, yes I said crisco, and have it all over the floor and on the sleeves of her shirt!

Have you ever backed away and said "No no no don't touch me!" to your baby as she crawls, very quickly considering all the crisco on the floor, towards you?

Have you ever slipped on crisco while attempting to grab your baby and trying to wash off globs of it in the sink?

Has you ever had your 4 year old try to be the family photographer while you are washing the baby's hands? Have you ever had a better morning?!!

Astronomy and Fruit

We were in the car going to the store yesturday and the sun was shining and there were only a couple clouds hanging around with the moon in a beautiful blue sky. Abby was sitting in the back and pipes up with this! "hey Mom-the sun looks like lemonade and lemons and the moon looks like a watermelon!"! It was so cute! It is fun to see her learning and using her imagination like that! When we got out of the store it was dark and I heard lots of "hurry it's dark I am sacared of the dark!" Then she asked the question of why it got dark so we had a very simple astronomy lesson! I thought it was fun! I can't wait for her to be old enough to pick out constellations!

Scrap'n Fun!

Because my link to my scrapblog was taking so long to load up I changed the link. It now goes to my page on scrapblog.com. So now for those of you who look at them you won't have to wait all day! It is one of my total favorite sites! But be warned it sucks you in and before you know it you have lost a couple hours! It is a lot of fun and they even offer printing now! It is totally free and if you end up joining make me a friend!!

A Change of Song!

In honor of Twilight coming out in a few weeks I decided to have "Bella's Lullaby" playing! It is just beautiful and actually sounds like what I imagined it sounding like! Kinda funny! If anyone knows where I can get the sheet music let me know! That would be awesome! I hope you all like the song!

Voted!!

Well one nice advantage to living in a small town is being able to walk to our voting place! This afternoon was absolutely beautiful so when Bryan got home from work we decided to go for a walk. We took a stroll through all the fallen leaves, voted. Another advantage is while we got over there at 4 o'clock a time you would thing would be really busy and have long lines, we walked right in, got our ballots, filled them in and put them in the machine! No waiting here!! Then we went across the street to the local grocery store and grabbed some things for dinner and where on our way home! Another fun thing about small towns is after we got done voting and crossed the street a guy pulled up to the stop sign and said "Congratulations kids! You just participated in your first election!", obviously he was talking to the kids not Bryan and I! I thought that was really cute! So a couple points scored for the small towns today!!!

Is this November?!

We are enjoying 75 degree weather today which is just amazing for a November day out here! Totally not normal! But in no way am I complaing seeing as how it is suppose to only be in the 40's by the end of the week! So I think all the house chores will have to wait alittle longer so we can go outside and take advantage of the gift of a warm autumn day! Who wants to clean when you can be outside anyway right?!!

Catch Up!

First off HAPPY HALLOWEEN! It is my most favorite holiday! Not really sure why but I just LOVE it! These past couple weeks have been really jam-packed so I haven't been able to post much so here goes! Bryan's birthday was on wednesday so happy belated birthday wishes blog style to him!

He turned 30 so I threw him a suprise party that I had been planning for a very long time! It turned out so awesome! The best thing was that I actually suprised him which is really hard to do! He had no idea! Of course some white lies had to be told in order to pull off the suprise, I had to explain the sudden decision of my sister and her family to all of a sudden visit from Oklahoma and my parents from Ohio! The party was a Harry Potter theme and you might roll your eyes but HP is a big thing at out house, Abby even likes to listen to the books in the car! and it gives you so much to work with as far as party planning goes! I made badges and everyone was sorted into houses. I have a friend who has the sorting hat so I was able to borrow that to put the badges in! I have to give a huge thanks to Bryan's parents who planned the main game-Bill made mauraders map and a huge scavenger hunt outside all across the yard. Each group had their own map with an x and an arrow that they had to match up to a map at each of the 6 stations and it would tell them where they had to go next. How he kept them straight and going to different places I will never know! They collected lines to a riddle I made up and once they figured it out they had to go find what was there. It was awesome!

We also had our Primary Program a couple sundays ago. The kids were fantastic and Abby, being a new sunbeam and her first program was alittle timid but got up there and said her lines-loud and you could even understand them! I was so proud of her! She wasn't so sure about things during the rehearsals so I was alittle unsure of how she do-but pleasent surprise she did awesome! For the past couple years we have started doing an "after-party" for the kids as a thank you and a stress reliever! We did a survivor theme this year. I made a survivor logo for the primary program and made buff for all the kids (for you avid surivior fans who spy the mistake in the buff layout-I had it the right way but when I flipped the image to print on the transfers it went alittle wacky and obviously I didn't catch it!. When they came in we told them "You survived the program can you survive this?!" We had games and relays that all centered on the program and the songs they learned. They had a blast! While my family was here we decided it would be fun to let the kids go trick-or-treat at the mall-in theory it sounded fun. We got in and I thought (I THOUGHT) Bryan was watching Abby and Dylan while I was putting Lacey's wings on, I got up and looked around and said "Where is Dylan?" It is amazing how incredibly quick shear panic can hit you. Byran said "I don't know" I was like "what do you mean "I don't know"?" I mean we had 5 kids and 6 adults! I started frantically turning and looking calling his name, trying not to start crying. We couldn't see him anywhere. I look at Bryan and he and Eric were laughing-they were laughing-not excatly good timing on their part. I mean really is my son being kidnapped a funny thing?! Then I hear my sister say "there he is". I almost sat down and cried. I know that might sound a little melodramtic but that mall was completly packed and he could have been anywhere because obviously noone was watching and knew when he took off! Anyway he was down the hall looking around, not the slightest bit worried and when my sister brought him back over he looked like "hey whats up" . Two-year olds.

We also had a trunk-or-treat at our church, which Bryan managed to lose Dylan after each trunk they went to! Dylan would come back to me after each trunk and try to get more candy and looking over his head you could see Bryan holding Lacey turning in a circle trying to figure out where he had gone! Good thing we were just in the parking lot!

So between planning for the Primary Program and party (forgot the camera), Bryan's party (camera died), cleaning for family to come, family coming, family bringing a flu bug that ran through 4 of the 5 kids and me (only adult to get it-what does that mean?!), cleaning up from the flu and all the Halloween fun around it has been limited down time! But it is good like that!

Kid Drama!

The kids had to have their iron checked today and if you can believe it Lacey, the 1 year old, was the best one!! Abby started crying the minute we walked in the room and that set Dylan off who was crying but didn't really know why. It was just a finger prick! Lacey didn't make a peep and only got mad when I was holding her hand so a band-aid could be put on it. Dylan was next and I had to pry his arms apart to get his done and then he just stood there and cried-loudly. Abby was off screaming in the corner of the room so I took the opportunity to talk to Dylan. I basically told him that there was no need for him to be screaming like that and I was sure his finger didn't even hurt anymore and don't scream just to scream and to please stop because the whole office didn't want to listen to him cry! So He stopped and started and then finally stopped and I moved onto Abby. By this time she was yelling "Let me out of this room" and was trying to crawl under the chairs so I couldn't get to her! I got her onto my lap and pulled her hand out so the lady, who was laughing, could stick her finger and get the sample which only took about 30 seconds! If I wasn't totally and completely embarrassed it would have been very hysterical!

Six Years Ago..

we were tying the knot in the Nauvoo Temple! It was a very very cold and very windy but thankfully a bright and sunny day! It was seriously cold! Everyone was putting coats on between pictures! But the cold did nothing to dampen the exciting spirit of the day! It was a wonderful day and there isn't anything I would change about it! It was perfect! I was going through some of our pictures and it was hard to make myself narrow it down to a couple because they are just so much fun! I was lucky enough to have a friend take our engagement, wedding and reception pictures and because it was her first wedding she took tons and tons and tons of pictures! Which worked out for me because I don't think there is a minute that wasn't captured in a photo! We were able to be married in Nauvoo the year it was opened. It will always be special to us because we have been able to spend so much time there together. We attended one of the dedication sessions while we were dating. It was funny because the session we were in was all about eternal marriage and families and we were sitting in a sealing room! We were also able to go do a couple sessions on dates before we got married and Bryan purposed outside the temple too. So I always have a couple flashbacks that make me smile when ever we go down there!

I am very thankful to have Bryan in my life. He can be maddening sometimes as any good husband can be but he does an awful lot for our family and I love him for it! He is an awesome dad and I love to watch him play and laugh with kids! Love you tons Bry, Happy Anniversary!!

Who are you?!

I got this quiz from a friend and I must confess there were a couple questions that I had a hard time picking an answer so I took it twice! The first time it said I was Esme but I like the second result better so that is what I am posting!
Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Washer spill over!

O.k. to make me feel even worse about not getting laundry done because the washer is broken-Abby decides to get sick! She decided to throw-up all over her blanket, which is the most important thing in the world to her and solves any problem. So we get her cleaned up and she looks at me with her big sad blue eyes and says "can you clean my blanket for me?" I felt so horrible! Here she totally doesn't feel good and running a high temp and all she wants to do is snuggle up with her blanket and can I clean it for her NO! Darn washer! So Nana to the rescue! My mother in law who is fantastic drove up to our house to get her stuff is going to wash it and bring it back tonight for her! What a lifesavor for both of us! It would not have been a very good night trying to get her to sleep with out the all important blanket! Thanks Jenny!

Darn Washers!

How sad and pitiful if this line of clothes?! My washer decided to stop working right in the middle of a cycle! It was full of water that wouldn't drain and wouldn't even spin!!! So out came the clothes! I rummaged around downstairs for some rope to rig up a line of sorts. So the clothes went up soaking wet in hopes that they will dry enough before the rain comes so I can throw them in the dryer to finish drying just so I can put them back in the washer when it is fixed to rewash them because the didn't get totally washed the first time!! The worst part is is that I only had one load of laundry left and it all was going to be done!! Totally not cool!!