Pajama Water Party

Every night the kids take one of these filled with water to bed. Do you want to know what else these babies are great for?


Target practice!!!



She shoots...She SCORES!!! (If you can't tell, a stream of water is going into Lana's mouth.)

Or they are a lot of fun just to squirt your kids with and get them all soaked after they are all bathed and ready for bed. I always cause problems.:)

The kids all posing with their soaking wet hair and pajamas. They were so cold, but laughed so hard. They changed immediately after this was taken. I love nights like this when we laugh and goof off and do something fun and spontaneous like that just to catch the kids off-guard before bed.

Her Life of Privilege

Rylee was chosen last week to go to lunch with the mayor. In the school, a few kids are chosen to ride to the city building with the principal and have lunch with the mayor. She was so excited. She definitely lives a life of privilege eating yummy pizza...


...and drinking soda...

...for lunch. It's better than the crummy lunches she always gets from home.:)

See, she is so important that everyone wanted a picture taken with her.;) She thought it was pretty cool to get a picture with her principal, the police chief, the mayor and 'another guy who works there.'

Rylee is rubbing shoulders with the important people. And I am grateful they took the time to make her feel important.

Another Halloween Come and Gone

The kids didn't have school on Friday this past week, so we decided to make some sugar cookies. It's always a hit with the kids, but to be quite honest, it isn't a favorite of mine.




We even had a couple of extra friends join us in our cookie decorating fun. Hey, it's less for me to deal with.:)




Hayden was the only one who didn't want to decorate cookies. I guess it just didn't appeal to him to get frosting all over and eat bunches of straight sugar the way they all do.

Halloween day we carved pumpkins with the kids. This year, we had Rylee and Lana design and carve their own pumpkins.



Rylee was very serious about the whole thing. She's a perfectionist like me, unfortunately.


The girls both wanted to wear plastic gloves to get the "guts" out of their pumpkins. They say it makes their hands itchy to touch it.


Lana with her finished pumpkin. She even drew hair on it with a black crayon. She did a pretty good job for her age and considering the fact that it was her first time carving a pumpkin!

Bill and I had to take care of cleaning out and carving Hayden and Kate's pumpkins. They wouldn't even help us get the "guts" out. Common phrases heard from their little mouths while we were cleaning them out were, "Ew, that's disgusting," and "Ew gross!" Wimps.



Hayden thought it was funny to say, "You didn't tell me you were gonna kill it," from Charlie Brown. He kept saying it from the time we first cut into his pumpkin until Bill was done carving it.



Then, of course, it was time for trick-or-treating. They couldn't wait to leave. (What kid can?) But I was the mean mom that made them stop to get a few pictures taken before they left on their quest for candy.

Lana was a High School Musical cheerleader.

Kate was a princess. But if you ask Hayden what she was, he will tell you she was Baby Peach from Mario Kart. He's a little obsessed with that right now.

Hayden was Luigi. Did I mention that the kid loves Mario Kart?

Rylee was a witch. She was the only one who let me make her costume. She's a good sport to let me experiment with my lack of sewing skills on her.:)

We hope you all had a fantastic Halloween. Now we just need to figure out what to do with the tons of candy the kids brought home.;)

Enjoying the Small Stuff

Like enjoying pudding so much, you just can't help but getting it all over your face,


Or a fort just perfect for reading books, made by opening all of the kitchen cupboards,




Or searching for the "perfect pumpkin," or posing ON the pumpkins,




And trying to lift that perfect pumpkin once you find it,

And teaching your sister to roll the pumpkins instead of lifting them, just like Charlie Brown,

Or deciding it's easier to just pose for a picture with your pumpkin than lifting or rolling it

And then watching in awe as your daddy "one-hands" that heavy pumpkin to the car for you!



We enjoy the small stuff like waking up to the first snow of the season,



And although it is just a dusting we hear Kate excitedly exclaim in a hlaf-asleep voice, "Oh My Heck!" It's the little things like standing on the heater to stay warm as you look out the window at the snow and eat Cheetos for breakfast with your brother.

Sensory Overload...

...In a Good Way!

This past weekend, we dehydrated a bunch of apples. Talk about an awesome weekend!

They Looked so nice as they soaked before we peeled them.

We all Looked amazing in our pajama glory as we prepared the apples bright and early in the morning. Okay, Bill and the kids look great. :)

And check me out. Boy am I a Sight for sore eyes, or what!? I look amazing since I wore a hat the night before and thus have the ever-amazing hat hair, which is definitely worse on a girl than a guy. But oh no, the fantastic Looks don't stop there. I made sure my pajamas don't match either, just for your giggling enjoyment. Hey, I was tired the night before and was too lazy to change my shirt. So sue me.

The apple peeler/corer/slicer is always amazing to Watch.

The kids all had to take a turn trying out the apple peeler/corer/slicer. Good thing they all Look so darling!





They thought it was so fun to See the long, continuous apple peels.


We all thought it was funny Watching Lana using her peel as a jump rope.


See how pretty the apples are as they take a little bath in pineapple juice before they are put in the dehydrator!



While the apples soaked for a minute, some of the kids munched on the long apple peels. Lana threw hers away after she used it as a jump rope. Kate apparently thought they Tasted so yummy that she had to shove the whole thing in her mouth as fast as she could.

I then got the joy of Touching all of the stickiness as I fished the apples out of the juice to place them on the racks. But the girls wanted to help sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar on the apples.

See how pretty they look!

And what do you do with the leftover apples? No, you do not throw them away! You fish them out of the pineapple juice, sprinkle cinnamon/sugar on them and Eat them!!!

So, about a dozen Sticky hands and one VERY Sticky floor later, we have two dehydrators full of apples ready to go. (Thank you, mom and dad, for letting us borrow your dehydrator. It sure makes it go faster to have two dehydrators going at once!)

The best parts of the whole process is something I can't take pictures of. Have you ever Smelled what apples, soaked in pineapple juice and coated in cinnamon/sugar Smell like when they are drying? It is the yummiest Smell ever. It is the perfect fall Smell! It reminds me of being a kid and how excited I was for those apples to be dried so I could dig into them and Eat them!

The other thing I love about dehydrating apples is the Sound of the silent hum of the dehydrators. There is something so soothing about it. We did several batches of apples over the weekend, and my favorite batch was the one we did over night. I loved Hearing the hum of the dehydrators as I fell asleep.

There is something so comforting and nice about dehydrating apples. It brought a fall feeling to our home and was something we enjoyed doing together as a family. We will definitely be making this a fall tradition.

Picture Day

Today was picture day at school for the girls. But since I am a horrible mother and decided not to buy the dorky school picture package, I took pictures of them before they left for school and promised to blog them so we wouldn't forget what they looked like for picture day.

Notice how much alike they look. Lana really wanted to look "like Rylee" because she thought Rylee looked so pretty. So we did a similar hair-do and similar color shirt.

My two blue-eyed beauties!

Lana doesn't like to just do normal smiles. She cheeses it and poses like crazy. Any natural smiles we capture are purely candid shots. I wonder what her picture will look like in the yearbook?!

This Girl...

...Is so obsessed with cutting EVERYTHING!!!

Her fingernails.

She really will sit there and look for nails to cut. There are many days when I go in to her room to get her up from her nap and she is sitting up picking at her toe nails, just looking for nails that need to be cut. Why is this so fun?

And her hair. Ugh.

She cut her bangs - TWICE - within a week. What a turd! She is now my lovely baby.

And before you say, "Well, duh, you stupid mommy - just put the scissors up," I just want to say, "I HAVE!!!" She has little helpers. They are ganging up on me in their little plots. Heaven help the poor baby sister who can't get into the scissors because mommy is so mean. Never fear, sweet little sister. We will save you. You will not be deprived of the joys of childhood...

Aren't they sweet siblings? I have raised angels. :)