Halloween

We had such a fun and great Halloween this year. In the morning I had to head to Brandon's school to be a witch for his class. It was so much fun! It reminded me of my "drama geek" days. Those were definitely the days!! Below is the picture of me, yep, it's me. None of the kids knew who I was which is pretty amazing since they all know me. Most of them were scared and wouldn't talk to me. I think my most favorite part was driving down the road. I got the best stares! It was so much fun that I think I'm going to do it again next year!


Brandon and Kendals costumes turned out great! Kendal was a cat and Brandon was Anakin Skywalker. We got Kendal's costume from Childrens Place and my mom made Brandon's. She did such a great job. We headed out to a couple trunk or treats and then went to a neighborhood that we go to every year. It's one that looks like it's out of a movie. It has the big oak trees lined down the street and the white picket fences. We dream about living there someday. So we got there and it was amazing. They had blocked off the whole neighboorhod so nobody could drive down it. It was decorated like you wouldn't believe. They even had mini spook alleys. We had such a great time and got a ton of candy. Which I promptly ate. No I didn't. I'd still be puking if I had. We had a great time and can't wait till next year.

You can't be a kitty without black toenail polish!

Real daddies don't wear pink, they paint toes...

How cute is this!? This is what I found one day when I walked downstairs after a nap (that my wonderful husband let me take). It warmed my heart and made me realize that I'm so lucky to have such a great guy.

She wanted alternating colors on her toes, so some are pink and some are shiny light pink.

$230 Dollars and Two Missing Teeth Later...

This is not a story for the faint of stomach. It's kind of fun to read about but be glad you weren't there to witness it.

About the beginning of October we noticed that one of Brandon's front teeth was loose and his permanent tooth was already up behind it. He's been asking us since Kindergarten when he was going to loose a tooth and the time was finally here! He wiggled it and wiggled it (we weren't allowed anywhere near it for fear we might pull it out) but it wasn't coming out. I told him we could have my dad (Papa) take it out. When I was little, he tied my tooth to string and tied the string to a doorknob to try and get it out. It didn't work, but I thought maybe it could with Brandon. Not a chance. Even his cousins tried to get him to pull it out. One suggested that he bite down on a carrot. He tried, biting down softly, but it didn't work. So his cousin said, "Try again." And then when Brandon went to bite down his cousin pushed on the top of his head. It's the thought that counts, right? So, since no one was allowed to touch his tooth and he wasn't going to pull it out himself I had to take drastic measures, it was time to call the dentist.

We go to a great pediatric dentist. His office is so cool (because that's what matters right?) with tvs in the ceiling and video games they can play while they wait. So we headed over on October 22 to pull out not one but two teeth! I guess they do them both at the same time so they can come in correctly.

This is Brandon's loose tooth with the new tooth coming in behind it. Sorry it's blurry, I was in a hurry. Perpetually late... No surprise there.

The above two pictures are of Brandon laying peacefully in the chair while watching Open Season. Who was to know that as soon as the dentist walked in all heck would break loose.

It was horrible! The dentist walked in and just wanted to look at his teeth but Brandon wouldn't open his mouth. It was full on thrashing, squirming, sitting up, etc. Anything he could do to keep his mouth shut. And this was after he'd been on the gas for about 10 minutes. I felt so bad for him because I knew how scared he was. But his teeth had to come out. Finally we were able to get him to open his mouth so the dentist could look in. Then, he had to have a shot to numb his gums where they were going to pull both teeth (the other tooth wasn't even a tiny bit loose). The dentist is really good about giving shots so the kids don't even know what happened. But that wasn't the case with Brandon. He felt the needle and screamed like he was dying. We tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't stop screaming so the dentist put the gas mask over his mouth so the kids in the waiting room couldn't hear him (they still did). He was still thrashing and trying to sit up so I had to almost lay on him to get him to calm down. He never did, the dentist just grabbed the pliers and yanked. When he pulled his teeth out, blood went flying out of his mouth and I almost lost my breakfast. Then Kendal started crying because she had seen everything that happened. And then it was over. Thank heavens. I think next time I'll have to give him a horse tranquilizer before we head in. I'm kidding! If anyone has any advice for next time, since I'm sure there will be a next time, let me know and I'll be sure to try it.

I want to run many, many miles!

A few years ago I decided I wanted to run a 5k. I bought the shoes, ran a few times, dragged Derek out with me, and eventually ran it. Then I was done. I ran it, I accomplished my goal, I was done. But not him. He went on to run a 10k, a half marathon, and on October 4, 2008, a marathon. What an accomplishment. I am amazed and in awe of his determination to do something that....big.

He is awesome.
He is amazing.
He is astonishing (as Brandon would say).
He is an inspiration.
He is mine.

Let's pick up and move!!

After a fun day of pottery, we decided to get even crazier! We went to Lin's. Not the crazy part. Tricked you, huh?! We left Lin's. Still not the crazy part! We drove by a house that we like and saw that it was for rent. This is where it gets crazy! (And a little spooky.) So, we drove by this house that we've liked forever. It was built a couple of years ago so it's fairly new. We've always liked it and would have loved to live in it, but it was always a little above our price range. At the time we were paying $775 - I know! Cheap! Who'd want to move?! Anyways, we drove by and saw that it was for rent. We then decided to be really, really crazy and call to see how much it was. We called and found out that the people renting it out were friends of my family. We also found out that the rent was only $50 more a month than what we were paying. So we set up an appointment to see it at 7:30 that night. Our friend said she was showing it to someone else at 7:00 but then she'd show it to us after that.

At 7:30 we showed up and we loved it. We gave her the deposit and it was ours. We decided that since we were living on the edge we'd go for moving in on October 3. Yep, that's the day before Derek ran the marathon. It was all very, very crazy and I'm really only now recovering.

I love it here though! It's two stories and all the bedrooms are upstairs. It's not huge, but it's bigger than what we had before. It's nice to be able to send the kids upstairs and let them play while I'm doing stuff downstairs.

Our ward is pretty amazing too! We moved at the perfect time because they split our ward and we would have been in a different ward not knowing anyone. It seemed like the perfect time to venture out. Another funny thing about this house is that our landlord is the Bishop. Crazy! What's even more crazy is that our first Sunday here we had a meeting with the Bishop. He gave us both a couple new callings. Me, I have the best, most intimidating, scary job of being Primary Chorister. Every Sunday I stand up there hoping they won't laugh at me. I know they're 5 and 6, but they look so intimidating and scary. Derek, he got the fun job of being Young Men's President. He was shocked (to say the least). I think he's going to do amazing. He loves the youth and is excited to be with them. He has some really good goals for the boys and I think he'll be awesome.

In a nutshell, that's our moving story. It was crazy, jam-packed, and meant to be.

Making Pottery!

On September 20th, I had the best idea ever! I thought, "I'm so tired of doing tons and tons of dishes so I think everyone should have their own plate. That way, they can do their own dish and if their dish is dirty they have to wash it before they can eat and then I don't have to wash a million, trillion dishes every day." (Did you know the secret to not having that many dishes in the sink is to do them after every meal? I know!!! Who knew!!! I don't do that. I wash my dishes after every meal so I never have that problem.) Whew! It's good to be back and doing run-on sentences!! I've missed this!

Anyways, I thought we could go to a pottery studio and make our own plates; have them personalized so they would be sentimental and all that. Well, it was a good idea in theory until we got there and I learned that each plate was $15 and there was a $6 studio fee on top of that. So, instead the kids made piggy banks. They turned out so cute! And they made them their own. I love how creative my kids are! They're pretty dang amazing!

I love this picture! I took about 10 of her trying to get her to smile sweetly, but this is my daughter and her crazy, sweet, fun personality. I sure think she's pretty awesome!

What can you say? That's an awesome looking camouflage soccer ball! He did a great job! Still an amazing kid!

After we finished with the banks, which were considerably less than plates for a family of four, we headed to Tai Pan Trading where we picked plates AND bowls for under $5. Can't beat that!

I'm Back!!!

I'm here! Finally! I know it's shocking, surprising, a little overwhelming, and quite possibly a tad bit scary! I know it's scary for me because I have a whole month I have to get through. And you, you have to read about this whole month! I'm sorry ahead of time for putting you through this.

I bet you're wondering where I've been. I could come up with some good stories I'm sure; for example I could use the "I took a trip to Paris and stayed for a month." excuse. But really, I know you're smarter than that. You know I'd never go to Paris, there's too many people and I'd get claustrophobic. I really went to the Bahamas. It's warm there. It was nice. No, not really, I was here. So, read on and you can see the exciting adventures I've been through in the past month.