Halloween Fun

Between the Halloween carnival at Kimballs school, the ward Trunk or Treat, and actually Halloween made it seemed like it lasted for 2 weeks this year.  And we made the most of it!

The kids all got their faces painted at the school Carnival.  

Kimball stayed "in character" the whole time, and Tod decided to join her.

Here's the whole crew.  I keep trying to embrace the "home-maker" part of being a stay at home mom, and made 2 of the costumes this year.  

What do you do when your son says he wants to be a "bad guy" for Halloween?  Cut out a felt mask, and buy some electrical tape for a white shirt, and make him look like this!  The red juice on the shirt is optional. 

 

 

The kids got more candy than I should admit,  (may or may not still have some up in the cabinet as I'm blogging about this in Feb.) and were very happy about it.  But I tried to be a good mom and ration how much they could eat. We had a great time!

Happy 4th Birthday JACK!

 Time flies when you're 4.  Jack is obsessed with Angry Birds, and is actually very good at the game.  So, for his 4th birthday we made sure to feed the habit, or enable his obsession. 

He loved his ballloon and presents.

Really, he's just a happy boy!

The cutest 4 year old I know.

Every once in a while, I manage to make a cool cake.  Google has the answers for everything, including good tutorials on how to make an AWESOME Angry Bird cake.

 He couldn't wait to dig in, and kept asking, "is it time yet?" 

Finally!  He got to eat one of the birds off of the cake.

This little boy, who is the oldest boy in our house is such a funny guy.  He can be very stubborn, but can be so sensitive and can have his feelings hurt pretty easily.  He loves to build things, especially with his blocks, and can be found lining up every single toy car we have in a nice neat row.  He loves to ride his bike, which he learned to ride w/o training wheels a couple of months ago. He loves to play with his big sister, and is just starting to play with/tolerate Tod.  I sure love this boy and am so happy he is our oldest son!

General Conference Weekend

I may have mixed emotions about General Conference weekend with 4 little kids.  I love listening to the prophet and the apostles, but actually getting to listen through the background noise of these kiddos can be kinda tricky.  So, here's how we tried to manage.

I know lots of people have "Conference Weekend Doughnuts" that they all make at home.  We decided that is an awesome tradition, but we are more than happy to let Krispy Kreme do the work for us.

And during the break in between sessions, we hiked around the mesa by our house. 

Trying to keep up with Kimball and Jack was a challenge as they sprinted up the nearest hills they could find.

We finally caught up with them.

Tod enjoying some water and shade after chasing Kimball and Jack.

Danny and I taking a leisurely stroll on the not so steep hills.

It was a great conference, with some new announcements about mission ages that just took my breath away.  It was hard not to get emotional and very excited about the new missionaries and how the work is "hastening."  Kimball will not ever know what it's like to have to wait until 21 to decided to go on a mission. 

My Life has Changed FOREVER - Kimball's 1st Day of School

Every year on the Sunday night before school started, my dad would walk around the house half singing/half chanting "It's a school night, it's a school night" and make sure all of us kids knew how excited he was that we were going back to school.  For the first time, I got to sing that song.  I kept saying this is the beginning of the rest of my life.  Here are a few pictures to document Kimball's first day.

She was excited to pick out an Angry Bird shirt for her first day.

And then her cute Hello Kitty backpack, which she liked more than the Disney Princess one. I was shocked.

For her, the kids meet at the little playground area, then line up and their teacher comes out and gets them.  As she was lining up, she saw other parents giving goodbye kisses, and she promptly yelled "Mom, I need my kiss."  Can I love this girl any more?

I was trying to not be a complete stalker, but I really wanted to get pictures of Kimball in her classroom, so I conveniently offered to help bring in some of the bags of supplies.  I beat the kids to the classroom, so I caught this cute shot of them walking in their line, into the room. 

And one last one on the carpet. Yep, welcome to the rest of my life. I didn't cry (which is a miracle for me). Kimball was too excited and I didn't want to do anything to take away from that. I hope she'll be just as excited next year for all-day school. I'm so glad they break us first time parents w/ half day kindergarten.

She came home very content and said she liked it.  She did say that some girls cut in line and she cried, but the teacher told her to be in the back of the line to make sure everyone stayed in line.  Nothing like giving a little bit of authority to cheer her up.  Woo hoo for Mrs.Orr and looking out for my little girl.

Summer Activities

 Summer Activites have included....

Brotherly bonding.

One morning while I was teaching swimming lessons, I came home and found this. Kimball converted the Danny's room/guest room into her room. She didn't forget a single detail from moving her book shelf, bringing every pink blanket and neatly putting all of her stuff animals on a chair.

 Jason's work got group tickets to one of the baseball games, so we packed up the kids and had an adventure. We thought it would be fun for them to see a real game.  Needless to say, they were more interested in the snowcones and their free hats.

And, the grassy area by the outfield where they could run around.

A friend from our ward was very generous with her pool this summer and let me teach swimming lesson there, and let us come over and swim as a family on occasion.

Danny discovered the joy of a floaty.  He was so content to sit in this ring and kick around. Don't worry, he was fully supervised.

Swimming Fish - Videos

As an old swim instructor, teaching my kids how to swim has been very important to me.  Here's how the effort has worked out so far.

Danny and Tod getting used to the water.  Tod (2 1/2 years) just adopted the "no fear" mentality of his big brother and sister, which means we have to watch him very closely.

Danny (13 mos) is a champ, and isn't afraid either.  Of course, he was born under water so there's no excuses for him.

Kimball (5 yrs) coming down off of the water slide. She isn't afraid of much, which has made it easy to teach her.

Jack (3 yrs) is ever following Kimball everywhere, even down the water slide.  I love how hard he will work to keep up with her.  He is such an amazing little boy.

Kimball Turns 5!

Yes, Kimball had a birthday!  I can't believe how fast this little girl is growing up. She is such a joy, and so pleasant.  Right now, she loves swimming, and princesses and all things pink and purple.  She loves to play with her brothers, and loves making new friends.

 Birthday morning, she had a table of presents and balloons.

 The crown went on immediately.

As did her new dress.

 Jack decided dressing up was fun too, and decided to join Kimball by putting underwear on his head, then his pirate hat, complete w/ socks for gloves.

Kimball asked for a princess castle cake, and this is as good as it got.

Blowing out all 5 candles at family dinner.

Happy Birthday Kimball Anne!  We love you so much!