Parades,costumes,storytelling and pumpkin guts

Both girls dressed up for school this morning. Abbi had trick or treating in Preschool she went around to the High School teachers in her class and went trick or treating to them. She loves preschool and has lots of fun. There were three princesses, three Cinderella Princesses, very popular a few spidermans too. I should have taken a picture of the back of her head she lets me play with her hair without much complaint, just a few little mom that hurts, are we almost done?.. in the sweetest voice. Her hair and well Abbi was beautiful. She had so much to tell me when I went to pick her up.

Alona's Halloween parade at school was at 12:30. I didn't realize it until I came home to check the clock saw what time that it was and then looked at the paper that was sent home. abbi gets out of preschool at 12:00 we were on our street at 12:15, but stopped across the street cause there was a winder dairy truck handing out free samples. Kacen and Abbi picked out strawberry milk and filled their glasses a few times. They were there to get sales and were very persuasive. Sign up only purchase so much, which you would normally buy at the store anyways and they give you a free cooler and norbest turkey, very persuasive. So we got in the house after 12:30 and I picked Kacen up out of the van and brought him in to the house to use the bathroom, changed the baby and ran right back in to the van, drove to her school in 60 seconds and when there was no parking, parked in the red zone. Went in through the gym and we were there with time to spare. The parade hadn't come through yet :) Alona was skipping and hopping along through the parade and was such a joy to watch.
Last night (Thursday) was the Halloween party at our church. They all dressed up before Abbi got her costume on she decided that she wanted to take pictures in the extra spiderman mask that got handed down to us and they all wanted to take pictures with Jesse. So we have two spidermans one tigger and a witch.


Today a little after 5:30 we went to the school for the storytelling festival many children including Alona have practiced their story for weeks, learn their story in detail, how to tell it, make it better and being critiqued. Alona did a fabulous job, I am so proud of her, there were other children older than she was that were up in front of everyone with their books, looking at it when they wanted a hand in remembering what to say. But Alona, the youngest in her group stood up there, had the longest story of them all and told it so well. A few times she went in to telling a part of her story and realized that she told a piece of it out of order and so she filled it in with another piece of the story that would fit their or added in a creative piece form her imagination and just kept going. She can do some amazing things, especially when she puts her mind to it. I thought that she would need some help or hints, she was silent a few times trying to think of what went next but then she came through with amazing strength! What a great story teller, what a great imagination, she had people laughing at the parts that she told from the story she picked. The way she told it.. I was so glad I was there.

Trick or Treat Smell My FeetWednesday Night Activity with Dad home. First they colored and glittered their little pumpkins and they took out the seeds and carved the BIG one :)

"I just want to scrape the sides, I don't want to get messy"-Alona"Mom, I want to get some pumpkin guts"-Kacen. He was happy to stick his hands right in there.Abbi loved using the utensils but didnt mind getting messy. And was thrilled that she got to use the pumpkin knife.

nom de plume

Mom...Mom...Mom...Kacen got more meat from the package

Mom!....Mom!...Mom!...Kacen got a fork

Mom....Mom....Mom....Mom.....Mom....Mom...Momm, Kacen hid your keys

Mom...Mom...What does p-s-u-r spell?

Mom do we cut on the lines?

Mom is Kacen big?

Mom at church what are we going to do?

MOM!...MOM!!....MOM!!!!

Can I have a different name today?

phrases

I'm getting apples in my body
this is such a nice day

LuNcH bReAk

Paul came home on his lunch break and made the best out of the few minutes that he had with the children! Alona eventually joined in on the fun too.

I'm going to zoom off

a quote from Kacen last night when he wanted to run fast past me!
He has turned three this week. He had a wonderful birthday. It started off being celebrated the day before at Vineyard Gardens in Orem and ended with a trip to Toys R Us and riding bikes with friends.
Celebrating on Wednesday/ Sunday is a way for their dad to be able to celebrate with them and not take a whole day off of work. On Wednesday afternoon while Abbi was still at preschool the Fed Ex man came and dropped off a package at the house. I figured since we were celebrating his birthday that day that he could go ahead and open it. He opened up the flaps to the box and pulled out his present :) Two packages of cars from Aunt Crystal. Arrived here in super fast speed. He opened them and was so thrilled throughout the rest of the day. "These are my super cool cars" he said as we went to go pick up Abbi from preschool. While we were at home and were talking about who sent the present, he said, "that is so nice of her." He wanted to call and tell aunt Crystal thank you, but got super shy once the phone was ready for his expression of gratitude.We met at Vineyard gardens a little after 4:00 and looked through the mini shop that they had up front and walked around the back to "pumpkinland". I was expecting something cheesy being that we only paid three dollars for each of us except Kacen and Jesse, under three is free. And it went beyond my expectations. There were jump houses that led to lots of animals, tunnels, and a wooden jack-o-lantern that Kacen could climb inside and get his picture taken in. Then the corn maze that was great, just the right size for children, not easy to get lost, there were many ways out. Alona took Grandma with her to make sure that she had gone every way possible in the maze, she wanted to experience it all it was great. Kacen thought that is was fun to run away from Mom. Dad took Kacen to the bathroom and he discovered standing up and bubbles in the toilet! that fascination lasted many days :)
Thanks for meeting with us Marts, Kelly and Bud, it really meant a lot!

After wards we went to McDonalds, had a burger, let him open his present that we got him and sang Happy Birthday and had cake. There were quite a few little boys drooling over his new geotrax train they wanted him to open it there too! It was a little awkward opening presents at McDonalds with everyone looking. Kacen had the greatest time though! He wanted his train opened there. We just had to put it together right when we got home.

In the morning we had a little Birthday planned for him with four other young boys that he enjoys playing with. There were two Thomas games set up and ready, Paul painted and decorated boxes for a bean bag toss game in to Thomas trains and I stayed up and made a Thomas poster for pin the whistle on Thomas and make Thomas the train sugar cookies for the boys to decorate. There were four different train tracks set up on the floor waiting for the boys when they arrived at the house. I tried to get their attention to play the games and decorate the cookies... It kind of went like this,
Me: Boys do you want to play the game?
Boys: We're just playing trains!
and that was the answer to about each thing that they were asked!
They had such fun playing together. Kacen had his first real taste of friends and playmates at his own house and since then has been asking for his friends to play with him!
After we picked Alona for school we headed to Toys R US and with the collective birthday monies from Grandma Price, Grandma Wood, Papa, aunt Laura and help from Paul and I, Kacen got his first bike! He loves it, and now Abbi and Kacen can both ride bikes at the same time instead of taking turns with her bike. Paul put Kacen's bicycle together when he got home on Kacen's birthday and when Kacen woke up it was waiting for him. He was so anxious to ride it, it was hard for him to wait until the girls were off to school. But the moment that we got home from dropping Abbi at preschool he asked if could ride his bike. I went around with him telling him I was going to catch his smile and he rode laughing and giggling and trying to hide it.

creepy crawly

the kids made their own spiders :)

My Boys

Jesse in the exersaucer.
He is getting so very big, so very fast. He now says Mom-muhh, he did tonight when he woke up and was sad. He just started blowing bubbles, so sweet and makes such cute baby talk. All of this in the past five days. He actually started getting a rash underneath his mouth from being so giggly and bubbly :) He now wakes up in the morning and talks in his crib for a good twenty minutes before he decides that he is hungry. And we just lay there and listen to his sweet sounds. I know that if I get up he will want to be fed and I want he sweet noises to be heard for as long as he doesn't remember he's hungry and he seems to remember when he sees me or hears me moving around.
I play if you are happy and you know it with him and he cracks up when I raise him arms to shout hooray, when he claps his hands and especially when he stomps his feet!

We were having lunch earlier this week and Kacen brought his trains to the table. I looked at him and he had put his trains in his soup bowl.
Me: Kacen, are you having train soup?
Kacen: uh-huh

I poured the soup in the bowls, Abbi came and saw what was in there while it was cooling. "When that cools that I am NOT going to eat it!" The green coloring of the soup totally through her off. Kacen on the other hand is my little man that will eat almost anything, even his sisters with their distaste to foods will not throw him off course. He ate that split pea soup and ate it up good. Spooning the soup on to his toasted tuna with cheese he devoured it up happily.
Kacen started potty training the first Saturday in October, so it has been almost two weeks and he has gone the past four days with not a single accident! He is doing so amazingly well, I am so proud of him, so happy and such a great accomplishment. He even goes through the night dry which was the first great happy thought when starting out. He woke up dry that first Sunday morning and I knew that that was the greatest thing one of the Biggest signs that he was ready. We didn't have to worry about night potty training just day time. We had two days of mostly bare bum, hope his sisters weren't too traumitized ;) That really helped while running to the bathroom and him experimenting and finding out when he needed to go. It was a rough go at first, in fact he didnt get going no. 2 on the toilet until the beginning of this week, such a relief when that finally happened. The trick to getting him to potty train is making it fun. Seeing who can go potty first, putting lots of cereal in the toilet, letting him choose whether he wants to use the "big" potty or the "little" potty (the potty training one).

Just a few months ago he would cry hysterically if you would put him on the toilet and tell him to go. He still does not like the idea of going but it is not so much drama and much more fun. I am glad as each day goes by, as he catches on to the concept more and more, as he learns to go to the bathroom himself when he feels that he should and am happy to see him grasp more concepts as time goes by.

Wrapping it up

Thanks to my Eldest daughter for her wonderful picture taking skills.. I can now show that I have figured out the moby wrap in my own way. I didn't use the book this time. The moby wrap is very intimidating it looks very complicated and scared me. But it is much easier than I would have made it out to be. It took me two minutes to get him in there. I also found a pretty cool way to carry him forward facing too. Looks like I am good at this baby wearing stuff after all. Happy that I now have two choices with my bjorn and the moby :)
"Wearing" Jesse gives me more freedom to do things like dishes, vacuuming and cleaning up the house and not leave him unattended while needing to get these and other things done. It also makes for a much simpler walk with two to three other children in tow. And frees up my hands while needing to hold Kacen's and Abbi's hands while crossing the street. Baby wearing is a great invention that I am enjoying very much.

Run moose, RUN!!!

Spur of the moment we decided that this past Wednesday would be a good day for our family trip up the mountains to see the pretty fall leaves. We saw more of the beauty of nature than we had planned. We drove for a good twenty minutes up windy mountains and drop offs of the edge of them, through canyons and we were still in search of Cascade Springs, our destination. We came along a car parked on the side of the road taking pictures, I saw what he was taking pictures of. A huge rack, and then attached, a moose! Paul stopped the car and everyone that was awake was able to get out and see. There was not one, but two moose standing up off the road in the trees. The first was maybe thirty feet up in the trees, not paying much attention to all of the on-lookers that had stopped to take a peek.

Then just a little ways up the road a moose jumped in front of the van from the right side and ran in front of us for a minute and ran to the left side into the brush. We were trying to get the camera out in time to catch him running in front of the van but caught him running into the trees.
Right before the turn off road to Cascade Springs there were three fawns huddled together. They were moving away from us. So sweet, so amazing that we were able to see all this wildlife on our trip.

We made it to Cascade Springs!

I wanted to take a picture of them by one of the cascades. Right after this picture Alona was jumping around and jumped right in to the water. Thank goodness I had extra clothes :) She was quite cold.

While Alona was getting changed. I made good use out of the time I had with the other three children. I continued on and took pictures with them. Abbi's version of saying cheese does not include smiling.. it is a wide mouthed Cheese at the top of her lungs :)

Beautiful scenery along with the amazing wildlife
Great and much shorter drive on the way down.
It was a wonderful trip.
Thanks for the inspiration Michelle :)

Do all these and you will be happy

is what Alona says about the rules that she has set.

having a harder day than most doing everything by myself while Paul sleeps the day away. Though I don't know why, no different than any other Sunday or other day really besides no church, no where to go. Stuck in the house, trying to watch conference, take care of the kids and house. Adult company is missed, a place to go is missed and many other things, sad...
I am eating to much trying to cover the sadness, anger, loneliness. The children are driving me crazy and we are all very stir crazy. But by the time that we are able to get out it will be too dark and cold.

ten o'clock session

Who's knocking on my door!

Alona got a cow hat from her Grandpa on her second birthday and Kacen has put it to use again. So glad that another child has found it fun and is playing with it. Abbi was ringing the cowbell and Kacen would ask who was knocking, so cute. Today is General Conference and with that we don't have to be at church tomorrow. Being at home is giving me the opportunity to try yet again to get Kacen acquainted with the toilet. He is doing really good today so far. Though he is running around with no pants on and that does help a LOT!

I loved Elder Bednar's talk about consistency with your children. The personal affirmation he gave that it is important to keep doing all those right things: scripture study, prayer, family home evening. In the midst of it children can be very difficult, to quote Elder Bednar on some of his experiences "he's breathing my air", "he's touching me". I know we have had many experiences like this and it makes it very difficult to enjoy the lesson, to feel the spirit and to have a desire to continue another lesson the next week when it will most likely procure the same results. I am glad that we all keep doing all of these things, to bring consistency into our children's lives. I look forward to seeing the rewards from this.