Busy week

Sunday after church we headed to Indy for dinner with my family. We wanted to squeeze in some family pictures since I waited too long and my friends were booked. Next year I'll have to schedule earlier! You live and learn! Luckily, my mom was more than willing to take some for us! (Thanks mom!) They turned out really good and I can't wait to see the prints I ordered! We had a great time with my sister and brother and their families, too! The cousins love to spend time together!

Dylan was the STAR of the week this whole week, which meant that he got to bring a poster about himself in on Monday, he got to bring snacks in every day for the week, and he got to bring a show and tell every day. I let him pick out the snacks he wanted to bring, so we ended up doing pretzels, animal crackers, pumpkin muffins, goldfish crackers, and rice krispie treats. It was fun to see what he wanted instead of just picking for him. He felt special all week and was telling the teacher how excited he was to bring snacks for everyone. How fun it is to have a kindergartener!

Friday for date night, Ricky was having another computer gaming party, I met my mom at the nail salon for pedicures! Heavenly! I love getting a pedicure and spending time with my mom! After the pedicure, we spent the last few minutes shopping! My next favorite thing! I think I could shop all day long and still not be tired of it! Kids make it hard to get things done, especially when they start remembering things! I guess that's what good friends are for! My mom offered to take the kids for the night (I mean, who doesn't want to spend the night at grandma's house!) so I enjoyed a quiet evening to myself! It was so nice!

Saturday, we were invited to 3 parties! How fun! I went to a baby shower in the morning (yeah for girl time!) then we headed to Indy for my best friend from high school's boy's birthday party. They had the party at Monster Mini Golf, and the kids had a blast! Since the kids were at my parent's house, Ethan stayed and took a nap. It was a TON easier to not have him there! There were tons of kids and we would have spent the day chasing him instead of having fun! Dylan and Lauren loved playing golf and the arcade games. Lauren was even putting by herself about half way through! We didn't make it back to the third party, but we stayed at my parent's house for some pizza and games.

Today is a relaxing day from the busy week. Dylan stayed at grandma's again, so I have to go get him as soon as the other kids wake up. Ethan has been sleeping for 4 1/2 hours and Lauren for over 2! I am enjoying some quiet time as the holidays are fast approaching and I know things are going to get crazy! Ricky also had to work today, as he will most of the week. I am thankful he gets Thanksgiving Day off, but will have to work very early on Friday and Saturday. The joys of retail shops. I am also thankful that he has a job to support our family. Thanks for all your hard work, hun! I love you!

Reading time

Life is going crazy around here. Ricky had 5 days off of work and we spent them babysitting and sick. I got the flu and felt dizzy and achy all weekend. I was very grateful to have Ricky home to take care of the kids for me. So far, no one else has gotten sick. Now that Ricky is back at work, I am trying to recover the house from the long weekend. I think it will take me all week, but that's the joys of being a mom!

Last night, we went to a Family Reading Night at Dylan's school. It was really fun to learn different ways to incorporate learning into life. The kids got to make a little book to take home, which was a big hit. I'll have to get a picture of it when Dylan is all done with his. It's called, "The Lion." It's nice to know that the school is trying to get families involved in the children's learning. Dylan had a great time, as always, and got to show off his work in the hall.

We were supposed to get our family pictures taken this past weekend, but getting sick threw us all off. Now I have to find another time to get our family pictures taken for our Christmas cards. Speaking of, I am having a little dilemma with myself. I have made our Christmas cards for the past 4 or 5 years, but am debating on using a service to just make a card this year. What are your opinions? I'd love to have some feedback! Thanks!

Happy Halloween!

I love holiday, any reason to celebrate is great for me! Halloween is no exception. We started the day by making orange pumpkin shaped pancakes with green stems. The kids really like them and they are fun to do! After breakfast, we had some friends come play, since their mom was going to get their minivan! She decided to join the mom club by getting a minivan! It was a little busy with 6 kids (5 of them were 3 and under), but we managed to make it through the morning. After lunch, I had to make some phone calls to try to get our water heater to work again. (It has been going out about 2 times a year since we moved in! Not fun when you want to take a shower and wash the dishes!) We then headed over to Lauren's dance class, since it was Monday. After class, we went to Papa Murphey's to get a pumpkin shaped pizza for dinner. It looked really good and it totally goes with the holiday! While the pizza was cooking, I got the kids dressed for trick-or treating. Here are the best shots:

My little giraffe.
Iron Man 2, he would correct you if you just said Iron Man!My Barbie Princess again! (She loves to dress up and decided last minute to be this again instead of Cinderella.)
My three little cuties!
Look at that yummy pizza!

We went over to the church for the trunk-or-treat and the kids got to walk around with their friends, Kiah and Evan. They had so much fun together! I loved seeing all of the kids' friends costumes! Everyone is so creative!
Lauren had to hold my hand (probably because there were so many people around) and I had to hold onto Ethan so he didn't run off! Ricky was passing out Glow Bracelets at the car until they were gone, then he joined us! I guess I need to get lots more next year!
Ethan and his friend, Gabby. I thought it was too cute that they were both little animals!

When we got home, Dylan wanted to go around to some of the neighbors houses, so we headed off while Ricky passed out candy at home. Dylan was really into it!
Lauren and Ethan were just along for the ride! I think Ethan only ate 2 suckers, while Lauren ate just a few too many pieces of candy! Oh well! That's what Halloween is all about!
The next morning, we dump the candy out on their laps! How fun! (I was only a day behind on this, so not quite all of the candy made it there!) Dylan was quite proud of his bucket that was full! Ethan was being goofy, but cute!We had a great Halloween and I love building our traditions as a family! Happy Halloween!

The start of Halloween

We have had a busy week! Tuesday for moms and tots at church, they had a little Halloween party. I took the three little ones and they had a blast. Lauren liked seeing all of her friends dressed up, too. They did a cake walk, bean bag toss, pin the nose on the pumpkin, and find the ghost. It was really cute!Thursday was Dylan's Halloween party at school. I was grateful to some friends for watching my kids so I could help out at the school party! I had a great time and it's so neat to see and meet the kids in his class and a few parents. They played hot potato with a gourd, ring toss with a Witch's hat, and they made a skeleton and a fall place-mat that will get laminated. Lauren also had a little Halloween fun at her joyschool. It was a fun-filled day!This is one of Dylan's friends from class, Mason. Dylan talks about him all the time!
Friday, we had a Halloween playgroup at our house with some friends that I hadn't seen in a while! It is always fun to catch up with friends! The kids made ghost suckers and foam letter/shape cards. They had a great time playing while I chatted! There were almost 20 kids and they all played so well!
All the beautiful princesses!
Friday afternoon, we played with stickers! And then made mummy dogs for dinner! Yum! Dylan had fun wrapping them for me. What a big helper! Saturday night, we headed over to the corn maze. It was Awesome! It was a little chilly, but everyone had a blast! Ethan only fell a few times in the mud puddles! Boys will be boys! He loved running all through the corn!
Dylan and Lauren had a blast running through the corn, too! Dylan and Dad even enjoyed throwing the corn kernels at each other! They had a pumpkin patch there, too! Too many pumpkins to choose from!
Look at my little cuties!
It was a perfect family activity! We had a great time and can't wait to go again next year! I think next year we will rent a camp fire spot and make s'mores and stay for the evening! It was great! After the corn maze, we headed over to our friend's annual Halloween donut party. The donuts were amazing, just like every year! (they are home-made) They have a new kind called the Baconator, which is maple icing with bacon bits on top. It is surprisingly tasty! The kids were beat by the end of the night, but it was well worth it.

October fun

Last Tuesday, the kids and I got to go to a pumpkin patch with moms and tots at church. They scheduled a trip to a Purdue lab that grows pumpkins and we are allowed to take some home for free! How awesome is that?!?! It was rather muddy, but still fun! Dylan was sad that he missed out, but he got to go on a field trip to a pumpkin patch earlier this month with his class at school. Life isn't always fair! We are hopefully going to paint some this week, and carve another one before Halloween. Dylan carved the one from his field trip, but it fell over outside and the face got smashed. Bummer!Last week, Ricky had to work late so the kids and I made a band. Dylan made a guitar, Lauren made maracas, and Ethan made a tambourine. It was so much fun and the kids rocked out on the couch for an hour! It is amazing what paper towel rolls and old beans can do for you!
Ricky and I got to go to the temple this weekend. It's really exciting to talk to the kids about it and they understand where we are going. Thanks to a great family from church, we have worked out a babysitting swap for all day on a Saturday. It is working out great and the kids really enjoy spending time with some friends, while we get to attend the temple.

Lauren is such a little singer. She is actually pretty good, too! I love how Lauren sings "I love to see the temple" all the time! It is so precious. She decided that she doesn't need naps anymore, although some days she really needs one. The other day she went upstairs to get her pink blankie (she won't sleep without it unless she is exhausted!) and laid down on the couch and fell asleep. I guess she was really tired that day! So precious! She has such the little personality. While waiting in the car, she convinced Ricky that she had to go potty. She went in just to tell me that there wasn't any potty. She has already started the manipulations.
I have been trying out new recipes lately. Some have been really good, others just ok. It is really fun to experiment in the kitchen. I love to bake, but not so much on making dinner. I have been trying to get into it a little more now with a family of five. I am also trying to be creative and use some of the ingredients I have in my pantry. I think it is going pretty well. I really enjoyed the cake batter truffles best. I just really like cake batter! Yum!

Another day, the kids and I made a car track out of masking tape. (Did I tell you I have joined Pinterest and have found some rather useful things on there! It can be addicting, but I think it's worth it in finding fun things to do!) The kids played so nicely for over an hour until Ethan woke up and started messing up the track. What can you do with an 18 month old?Dylan is really enjoying school. He is learning so much and picking things up so fast! He is already reading and has improved his writing skills in just the past 2 months! I am so proud of him! He came up to me the other day and said, "I feel left out." I was a little confused since I was sitting on the couch watching the kids play. He explained that it was because Lauren was doing dance class and he said that he wants to do karate. I don't know where that came from, but I guess next semester Dylan will be doing karate while Lauren goes to her dance class. I had no idea that he was interested in karate, but ok! I love my Dylan!

Ethan is just getting into everything! He wants to do everything that the big kids do. He climbs much more than my other kids ever did. He is starting to talk more and I can actually understand some words! He started the mommy-clingy stage, by not wanting me to leave him anywhere. If he sees me leave, he throws a fit (or his pacifier) and after a minute or so he is fine. It is so weird for him to act like this since he has always been so easygoing. I hope it's just a phase for him!