To Dress Up or Not to Dress Up . . .

That was the big question for us concerning the ward Halloween party held tonight. We almost never actually dress up. (Getting the kids ready is enough work.) But we got an idea several years ago from some friends (thanks Mary!), and the costumes would work perfectly for us this year. So, we decided to go for it.

("bun in the oven" and the Baker who put it there)

It was a fun way to let the ward know we were expecting . . . and we won "Most creative!" Is it horrible to say that the best part of winning was our prize? When we looked in the bag of choices we both immediately saw a box of Sixletts and knew that was the keeper because I've been craving them for about 2 weeks but we hadn't gotten around to buying any yet. It was meant to be! LOL

And just for fun, here's a picture of the kids just before we left for the party. Matty asked Jossy to pretend to spray him. She didn't really get it, but turned around at least.

The Messy Tradition Continues

It's not that I don't like carving pumpkins. I just don't like the goo, the mess I have to clean up, what it means for the kid's bedtimes, stepping on guts that inevitably fall on the floor despite our best efforts, etc. I really loved doing it as a kid, but maybe that's because someone else got to clean up the mess. (And for some reason as an adult, I've developed a weird reaction to pumpkins. I get a rash anywhere the insides touch my skin. It goes away after a few hours, but it burns. Thankfully, I finally wised up and wore a glove this time.)

For kids who like to get dirty outside, you'd think they would've liked the messy pumpkins
a little more. But alas, they're too much like their mother on this one.

You can see on Matty's face how much he loves touching the goo.
He cleaned out his pumpkin almost completely by himself this year.

After Jossy's was carved, she decided it needed a little something extra.
What a masterpiece!!

The serious carver at work.
Since he was a baby, he's always had such an expressive face.

Our finished pumpkins!!
L to R: Matty's, Jossy's, Mine, Dan's, Mine again
(I had bought extras this year for pictures and just carved one of them in addition to my chosen one.)

Halloween Costume Photo Deal!!!

I seriously may be losing it to do this so last minute, but I had so much fun looking at those finished pictures of my kids that I really want to offer the same thing for my friends!


I had been planning earlier this season on doing some kind of one-day open photo shoot for kids in their Halloween costumes for a bit more money, but after getting so sick the last few weeks I didn't think I could pull it together. Hence this spur of the moment decision and low price!!

SO here's the last minute deal:

TODAY, OCTOBER 28th

Pictures of your kid(s) in their Halloween costume

My house

Walk-ins from 2:00-4:00 PM

$1 per picture up to 3 pictures/kid (which will be e-mailed to you)

So if you have 3 kids and you want 1 individual shot of each of them and one group shot, that would be $4. The money is due at the time of the photo shoot. I don't plan on each quick shoot taking more than 5 minutes, but I have no clue how long the wait time could be. (Like I said, this is completely last minute so maybe no one will come! Who knows!)

The catch is you can't look at my messy house too much. I'm pregnant and have been sick so cut me some slack! ;)

If you're interested but don't know my address, send me an e-mail or message me on Facebook. If you don't have either of those . . . um, guess you'll have to try me next year. :) As I said, this is basically a deal for my friends this time, but you can bring someone else along. Next year I may open it up more.


And if you don't mind, could you leave a comment if you plan on coming just so I know if I should plan on anyone showing up? Thanks! :)

The Fireman and the Skunk

I took some pictures of the kids in their costumes tonight before we carve our pumpkins tomorrow. I was happy I didn't even have to buy anything this year. Matty wanted to be a fireman again (same as last year) and Jossy got to wear Matty's old skunk costume (since she has no say in the matter.) I love saving money on costumes since they're only really for one night!

A Beautiful Fall/Winter Day!

I knew it was supposed to snow last night, but I didn't expect to wake up to this much. I feel like I was just getting to enjoy fall! For goodness sakes, half of my trees haven't even started to change the color of their leaves yet!

Poor snow-smothered geranium

The snow wasn't going to last long, so the second Matty got home from school we dug all our boots and gloves out of storage and headed outside to enjoy it before it melted. The kids were so happy to have some snow to play in!

It was great to see Jossy actually play in the snow. Last year she really seemed afraid of it.

Matty built this snowman almost all by himself.
He wanted it in the shade so it could last longer.

Snow angels

Matty was supposed to make this snowman with me.
Funny how it always becomes Mom working solo.


We moved to the backyard to play for a while. Not 20 minutes later, we came back to discover our snowman out front looking a little tipsy.
Matty couldn't handle the suspense of waiting for him to fall, so he helped things along.

Blackbeard and Her Cupcake

Did you know black frosting can dye your skin a little? True story.
Thankfully Blackbeard looked clean shaven again before church the next day.

The Details

Thanks for all the congrats and well wishes everyone!! :)

I've gotten over that stomach bug and have moved on to better ground . . . a small cold! (I'll take it over the other any day!) Being pregnant had nothing to do with feeling so sick from the stomach flu for those who wondered, but it may have made it harder for my body to overcome it. I was getting worse every day (even though I wasn't throwing up after the first day) and had to call for a prescription for some anti-nausea medication because I couldn't even roll over in bed without wanting to die. Then I slept for about 24 hours and food sounded tolerable again. Thank goodness! A week was long enough!

So back to the big question . . ."When are you due!?" We're about 14 1/2 weeks along right now and due April 21st (according to the doctor's due date wheel thingy, which is different from every online one I try, but whatever.) It's been a long couple months keeping this a secret, even from the kids and our families. I don't throw up when I'm pregnant, but I have gotten super, super nauseous and it's really hard to act like you're feeling well in front of people when you are just trying to hold in your cookies the best you can. Up until 11 weeks I was EXHAUSTED all the time, and even 2 quick naps a day wasn't enough to help. (A big reason why there haven't been as many posts in the last couple months.) Then the week before getting the flu I was finally feeling pretty good, no longer nauseous, and able to go a little hungry without having to eat right then. That's why I knew the pregnancy had nothing to do with how bad the flu was for me, because I was over all the "morning sickness" stuff.

I always rent a doppler with each of my kids (there's a story behind that) so we've been listening to the heartbeat since 9 weeks. The kids like listening to it and can hardly wait for the baby to start kicking for them to feel. I had my 12 week appointment and the midwife agreed with me that I was measuring a little large for my dates. (I chart my temps, so I always know exactly when I ovulate and when my due dates are.) Since I was so sure on my dates, she let me have an ultrasound (which normally you only get one at 20 weeks with that office) just to ease my mind that it wasn't twins. It was just one baby, and apparently it's in a hurry to grow up already because it was measuring about a week and a half ahead. No change to my due date though because the difference was under 2 weeks. We asked the tech to peek and see if she could tell the gender. She made a "guess" and showed why she believed that, but the tech wouldn't give us any more confirmation on how sure she was or anything because it was so early, so we'll have to wait and see at our big ultrasound in a few weeks. I'll let you know then if she was right. But at least we got to see our beautiful baby early on, something I've never gotten with the other kids!! It even waved for us.



I love hearing how people shared their news, so here's our experiences this time:

I got to surprise Dan (sort of) for once with a positive test. We suffer from fertility issues (someday I'll blog about our whole story) so we don't get "surprise" babies. But this time I had convinced him I wasn't going to test until the next day, so when he left for work that morning I was able to take a test and surprise him with the positive. I wrote "Big Sister" in huge bold lettering on Jossy's diaper then asked him to change it when he got home. Being that he's a man and notices nothing (rolling my eyes,) he took the old diaper off and didn't even see it!! He threw it aside, I picked it up and said "Aren't you even going to read it?!" He looked at it, got it immediately and said, "Really?!" Just then Matty started bawling his eyes out because he stubbed his toe on our huge glass bathroom scale, so I went to help him with Dan following saying "Are you sure?" I calmed Matty a little and we went back to where Dan had been changing Jossy on our bed to see her playing on our bed with no diaper on yet. One child hurt and crying, another running around naked. What I thought would be a special moment for us had turned into craziness! We couldn't help but laugh and feel sorry for the next kid stuck with us as parents.

We told Matty about the baby coming during an FHE lesson one night. It took a while for him to get what we were saying (because we were hinting too much) but once he got it, the first thing he asked was "Can I be there when it hatches?" LOL "Um . . . .you can be there to see it in the hospital after Mommy has it." Luckily he was satisfied with that. No need to explain how it "hatches" yet.

Telling my parents was quite the ordeal. We had Jossy wear a cute new shirt that said "Big Sister." We wanted to see how long it took them to notice. Jossy LOVES new clothes, so she went right in and immediately pointed out her shirt to Grandpa and then Grandma. They both commented on the cute birds pictured but said NOTHING about the words on it! It didn't even register! HOURS LATER, I finally had to say something because we'd be leaving soon, so I said to both of them, "Aren't you going to read her new shirt?" My dad said, "I did read it. I thought that was a funny shirt to buy." He finally got that we bought it on purpose to tell them something, but my mom still seemed confused because we weren't outright saying it. I went to pull up the sound of the heartbeat I had recorded on my phone so she could hear it and then maybe get it. She said to my dad, "Shhhh, Vern! I think they're trying to tell us something." He said back, "They already did!!" It was then that she got it. WOW! Didn't think it was that hard to figure out a shirt. ;)

Since Dan's family lives hours away, I decided to have copies of our recently taken family pictures printed to their local Walmart and included the ultrasound picture in the group. Then I called my mother-in-law and told her that I had sent some new family pictures for her to have and she just has to pick them up at Walmart. I told her she's going to love them so she should get them as soon as she can. She got them that day, but didn't call me til the next. She said she didn't get it right away, but my sister-in-law had seen the pictures and when she came to the ultrasound one she said, "Oh they're pregnant!!" I should have put the due date on there so that my mother-in-law would know it was a new baby and not some old picture I had accidentally included. She wasn't sure why it was there til her daughter said.


I think that about covers it!

More Randomness

I was surprised how many people said they liked my last random post. It sure is an easy way to say what's on my mind, and there's been a lot lately. So here's another one with a few random pictures thrown in as as well. (Don't worry, I won't do another one for a while after this. Wouldn't want anyone to get sick of them.)


-I've been sick. Super sick. Everyone else in the house got over the stomach flu in a day or 2. Not me. It's been a week now.
-Meds may finally be helping, but the drowsiness is unacceptable so I can't take them during the day.
- I like feeling drugged for one nap so I can sleep really well. Then I'm sick of it.
-I'm so thankful for kind neighbors bringing in meals for my family. I think the kids had about had it with cereal or macaroni every night.
-Actually, they probably didn't care as much as I did for them.
-I hate having Dan miss work just because of me.
-He doesn't mind as much.
-I think I might be starting to feel better, but I also thought that on Sunday.
-I was able to hold it together enough today for Dan to go back to work. That's progress.
-While waiting for him to get home, I let the kids go play outside. I laid on the couch and listened. When it got too quiet, I went looking for them. Thankfully they were still right outside the door.
-Not so thankfully, they had decided that coloring with green crayons all over the stucco was an appropriate outdoor activity.
- Mr. Clean eraser doesn't take crayon off stucco.
-Scrubbing with soap and water only does mildly better.
- Sometimes 2 Tylenol just isn't enough.
-Matty has a lot of homework, or at least it seems that way to me. I'm glad he gets so excited to do it, but I get sick of it.
-I love the beautiful fall colors everywhere.
-I hate that it means winter is coming.
-We've been passing 3 separate viruses around this house. (Is it Spring yet?)
-I'm tired but can't sleep. I think I've slept too much recently and my body is protesting.
-I love sleeping in freshly cleaned sheets.
-Matty needs to be on a debate team when he gets older. That or work as a lawyer. He's really good at dragging out explanations.
-Jossy needs to be on the drama team. As the queen.
-I wish that low-rise maternity pants would actually stay up.
- I'm supposed to teach RS this week. I'm still hoping I feel well enough to do that.
- I would love to cut my hair but I have no idea what to do with it.
- I'm not very adventurous.
- I should be in bed right now, but Dan's run to the store for us so I'm sitting as sentinel at the kids' doors.
-Oh, how I wish they would just go to sleep!
-I've been keeping a secret but I can't keep it forever. It's starting to tattle on itself despite my best efforts.
-I really hate keeping secrets, whether it's my own or someone else's.
-But don't worry if you've told me something in confidence, I've kept it that way. My word is very important to me.
-My house has gone to pot the last few months. I care and don't care at the same time.
-I can't get through an episode of Biggest Loser without crying. It happens every season.
-I prayed recently to have more joy in my job as a mom. I think that's why the ability to be a mom was taken away from me this week (since I've been so sick,) to make me appreciate it more.
-I need to remember not to pray for stuff like that.
-I think if you're pregnant you should be exempt from all other illnesses. The one condition is hard enough, don't you think?
-Yes, I'm trying to tell you something.
-Yes, I want to see how many people actually read through these posts all the way. I like to be sneaky like that.
-I really don't like a lot of attention. Some is good, just not a lot. My husband has been warned that he better remember that when I turn 30 next year.
-How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
-After Googling that question, it seems the consensus is between 600-800, depending on the size of mouth and amount of saliva. Interesting.
-What would I do without Google?
-I worked so hard and lost 25 lbs earlier this year. It's difficult to watch that come back on, no matter the noble cause.
-I once had a friend tell me she could tell Matty was an only child (which he was at the time) because his face was always clean. I now understand that remark.
- I really should go lie back down. This stomach ache is killing me.
- I think I'm about to find out who really reads my blog.

Even in Ohio

An excerpt from our conversation after family scripture study tonight:


Me: "Heavenly Father helps everyone because all of us our His children."

Matty: "Wait . . . so are you a children too?"

Me: "Yes, I'm a child of God, too. Everyone on Earth is a child of God."

Matty: "Even in Ohio?"

Me: "Yes, Matty. Even in Ohio."


I don't know why Ohio was singled out like that. It sure made Dan and I smile though.

(I sure preferred that question to some of the other random ones he asks me that I'd have to have a doctorate in nuerology or the like to be able to answer.)

The Gift of Love

Today has been . . . long. I'm exhausted from taking care of everyone and not sleeping. I tried to nap on the couch this morning while Matty was in school but only caught a few minutes here and there since Jossy is always asking for help with something. I'm so tired I barely want to eat. I just want some sleep!

When I told the kids it was time for lunch today, Matty requested grilled cheese sandwhiches. I thought, "Crap. That will take more energy than PB&J." He was working on cutting out something from a piece of paper he didn't want me to see, so I left him to his work and went downstairs to make lunch.

As I was buttering the bread, Matty came down and said he had something to show me. I was so tired and didn't want to be making lunches anyway, so I turned exhausted to see what it was. He handed me this:


He said it was love for me, because that's how much he loves me. I gave him a big long hug, really appreciating being loved for a moment. I needed it. It was the perfect gift.

I think that's why I was able to finish making those grilled cheese.

Randomness

- A stomach bug has been going through our house. I'll be happy when it's gone for good. It sucks.
- Listening to my kids cry or whine in their sleep scares me now. It used to mean a bad dream, but now I'm on alert that something in their stomachs might be returning. Ugh.
-I totally cried watching the first Chilean miner reach the surface tonight. I was so happy for him and his family! I wish I could stay up all night watching the others.
- Dan missed a work trip this week because of the stomach flu. I'm sorry he got sick, but I'm glad it meant he would stay home. He was busy with a conference last week and we missed having him around.
-Matty missed picture day at school today because he was sick. Good thing there's a makeup day.
- After giving Matty a SECOND bath by 8 AM this morning because of . . . issues, I went to give him some new pajamas and found him asleep in just his underwear on his floor. He was too tired to even get dressed. I gave him a pillow and blanket, and he sleep for hours like that. Poor kid was really feeling rotten!
-The best part of my day today was weeding the flower beds with Jossy. She's never been so helpful and focused on that task for more than 5 minutes, but she helped me close to an hour. It was actually fun!
-I desperately need a "No Soliciting" sign. I finally taped a piece of paper on my door tonight after yet another unwanted visitor rang. I'd love one in vinyl that you stick on the door. (Anyone know where I can get one like that?)
- I didn't want to sleep in my own bed last night with Dan throwing up, so I slept on Matty's floor on the couch cushions. That kid moved so much in his sleep and makes so much noise I got maybe 2 hours!
- I'm a very light sleeper if you didn't guess.
-I'm really sick of washing bodily fluids out of clothes and sheets. YUCK!
-I wish I could afford to just throw that stuff away.
- I'm grateful I have a washing machine and dryer that work no matter the time of day. It would stink if they said to me, "It's 2 AM and you want us do to what?!"
- I think it would have to be 2 AM for a washer and dryer to talk to me.
- Sometimes I think my blog is pretty boring. But then again, sometimes so is my life.
-I sensor myself a lot on the blog. I try to be real, of course, but I hold back on a lot of things. Maybe one of these days I'll get brave and talk about some issues I've wanted to for a long time.
- When I read some of your blogs, I feel truly inspired by the mothers you are. I wish I were more like you.
- I need to remember to plant fewer annuals next year. (I think I had over 100 this year.) The less I plant, the fewer dead plants I'll have to pull up next Fall.
-Matty just woke up because of a pain in his foot. I told him some of the miners have been rescued and he got a big smile on his face. He's been worried about them. I love that kid.
-Now I just really wish he'd go back to sleep. I'm worried 5 hours of naps today is going to make that hard. :(
- I love my ward here, but I miss the closeness I had with so many friends in our last Branch.
- Dan made a HUGE mistake forgetting something very important last week, but I wasn't mad like I would have been in the past. A sincere apology was enough for me. I must be growing up! :)
- I love to sleep, but I hate going to bed at night. The peace and quiet of night is too appealing. Of course the next morning I almost always regret it.
- I probably go to bed around midnight or later on average.
- My house and kids basically got ignored for 3 days while I read the Hunger Games series last month. Honestly, I'm not a fan. The whole concept really disturbed me and it was hard to get over.
-I found Jossy asleep in her bed tonight hugging a stuffed giraffe. She doesn't normally cuddle like that as she sleeps, so I thought it was really cute.
- A caterpillar followed me into the house today on my pant leg. I had Dan take it back outside where we lost track of it. Now I feel bad because we could have kept it for the kids to watch change.
- Tarantulas, foxes, raccoons, rattlesnakes, deer. . . . why did I think living on the mountainside was a good idea again???
- The real reason I'm writing this post is because I can't stand my own picture being at the top of the blog from that last post. ha ha

What Happens When You Blink

Almost exactly 2 years apart

My Pretty Girl

I keep a stash of candy to use when photographing kids, and today Jossy was asking for some. I told her she had to get her picture taken if she wanted any, and she happily agreed. She even let me pose her this time, a first!!

I didn't wash her face. I didn't get the wrinkles out of my backdrop. I didn't even get the lighting on the right setting. I had a little girl who was willing to let me take her picture but ONLY if I was able to do it quickly. (Thank heavens Photoshop can fix some of my problems!) I'm glad she at least had her church dress still on. Here are just a few of my favorites from the 10 minutes she was willing to sit:







She looks so much older to me in these pictures. How is my little baby allowed to grow up so fast???

Even if I never took another picture for anyone else again, all my equipment would still be worth it to me just so I could do this kind of thing for my own family.