Trick or Treat!

Our kids were so excited about going trick-or-treating, they could barely stand it. At about 5:30 PM, Scott and I were sitting at the kitchen table trying to get them to stop bouncing off the walls for five minutes so they could eat something healthy before going out to collect oodles of candy.

Finally, it was time to go! Scott dressed the little lion, while I painted a green face on the Incredible Hulk. Spider Man was too practical for face paint (why would anyone want to get their face dirty on purpose???), and Anne of Green Gables just needed a few freckles.

Thank you, Hannah, for sending out the costumes for the boys! As you can tell, they were a huge hit!






At about the twelfth house we went to, they handed out full-size cans of pop. Jesse couldn't wait to get his hands on it, and spent the next 10 houses telling us how "thirsty" he was. Finally, he decided to ditch the candy bag and drink the pop instead. Here he is with his friend, Alex, and their Halloween pop. I love the big orange mustaches!

Happy Halloween!

Black & Orange Day

Here are the kids dressed up in their black and orange clothes before school. Brett was supposed to dress up as a Word Detective as well - hence the Sherlock Holmes vest, hat, magnifying glass, notebook, and pen. Samantha used the exact same costume when she was a detective in SK two years ago. The lighting isn't the greatest, but Samantha's shirt really is orange. Scott took Samantha on a Daddy-Daughter shopping date for the sole purpose of buying an orange top to wear with her black capris.

Halloween Treats

I made these Halloween Treat Bags for the kids to give to their teachers tomorrow. They are filled with chocolate chip cookies that were baked in mini muffin tins and decorated with Halloween sprinkles. I used Alton Brown's Recipe, "The Chewy". We have made them a few times now and they really are chewy and so good!

The pumpkin suckers are treats for Samantha's classmates. Brett's class takes turns bringing things in (and he's off the hook until February), and Jesse didn't need treats either, so we only did 20. Samantha helped and I think it took us about 5 minutes to do it together. I can't justify spending more time than that on something that will be sitting in the bottom of a trash can in less than 24 hours.

All the kids are wearing orange and black to school tomorrow - that seems to be the new "thing" for Halloween at school these days. When I was little we always wore costumes to school on Halloween, but I have to say that as a Mom, I'm quite happy to send the kids off in black and orange clothes instead. I will try to remember to take pictures before school, but since that's typically the most hectic time of day around here, we'll see how it goes.

To Cut or Not to Cut

So, Nathan's hair is getting really long. When we actually straighten out the curls, it goes about 2-3 inches down past his neck (at the back). Whenever we take him out in public, everyone thinks he's a girl, no matter how boyish his outfit is. I know it's hard to tell gender on a lot of new babies, but let's face it, he's now 9 months old! Scott thinks we should cut his hair... I'm not sure yet, but I thought it would be fun to take a poll.

Please take a second and vote in the poll called "Should We Cut Nathan's Hair?" in the column on the right. --->

Samantha's Note

Tonight after I put Samantha to bed, I went down to check my email and left Nathan playing on the TV room floor with some toys. When I came up a few minutes later, I found a note taped to his back.


In case you can't see it in the picture, the note reads:

To Mom
I have a rilleye bad hed-ake. Plese come up.
SH.

This made me laugh, as it was just so typical Samantha behaviour. Not only does she love to write and leave notes for people, but she is always coming up with ways to avoid and/or delay going to bed, and also ways to get "checked on" by someone once she is in bed. All it took was a hug & kiss, and the mysterious headache was cured. Imagine that!

Earlier this evening, when she was brushing her teeth, she was examining the gaps in her smile where new teeth are starting to grow in. She pointed to one of the gaps and said, "This used to be my sweet tooth, before I lost it.... Don't worry, it will grow back soon."

When Samantha is happy, she is truly a joy to be around. (When she's grumpy, well... look out). These days she seems to be mostly happy, and I am very grateful for that.

Jordana & Jayna's Visit to London

If you're wondering why I haven't posted in a while, I've been a little distracted...

My sister, Jordana & my niece, Jayna, were here for a visit this past week. We had so much fun! We mostly just hung out, did some shopping, stayed up way too late gabbing (on more than one occasion), and even made a quick trip to Burlington to go to Ikea. Jayna's grown up a lot since we last got together, and it was so cute to see her and Nathan crawling around and playing together! I was very sad to see them leave on Friday.

Jordana posted about our week together on her family blog, and you can read about that here. <-- click

Here are a few pictures of our week:

Decorating Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

Rub-a-dub Dub, Three Cousins in the Tub

(Looks like Nathan & Jayna aren't sure what to think of each other in their bath towels)

Saying Good-bye

What Happens When....

Multiple Choice:

What happens when you leave a three year old and a nine month old alone in a room for 5 minutes while you are fixing lunch, folding laundry, or checking your email?

a. The three year old gives the baby a makeover with a green marker.
b. The three year old stuffs several toys and a soother down the front of the baby's sleeper.
c. The three year old pulls the baby's arm out of his sleeper and slathers it in baby oil.
d. All of the above.

At our house the correct answer would be d. All of the above.

(Note the bulging tummy)

(Notice the shiny arm and more marker on the [white] carpet)

Here's a picture of what was actually in his sleeper:

And, finally, here's what happens when I try to blog on a Saturday morning, instead of late at night when the kids are sleeping:

Scott's Eye Surgery

Scott's surgery went well last Wednesday, according to the eye surgeon. Although they sure didn't give us a good idea of how long the recovery would take. Scott thought he'd be back to normal in a couple of days, but his eye is still quite sore. He is going back on Wednesday to have the stitches removed. I get irritated when I get an eyelash in my eye, so I can't imagine having stitches on my cornea for 2 whole weeks!

He had a really nice white eye patch (bandage) on after the surgery, but I didn't take a picture of that, unfortunately. Here is a picture of him the day after with a make-shift bandage I taped on because he was getting tired of trying to keep one eye closed while he was working:


And here's a picture of his eye a couple days after the surgery:


For those who asked about the surgery... Scott had something called Pterygium, which is a growth over the cornea, most often due to long-term exposure to UV rays. He had a surgery to remove the growth. We found this video of a Pterygium Surgery on YouTube:

*WARNING*: This is a very graphic clip! If you get queasy over things like cutting and sewing up eye balls, you might want to skip the video.

Pterygium Surgery <--click here

Mom Time with Brett

This morning while Samantha and Jesse were at school and Nathan was napping, Brett asked if I would do perler beads with him at the kitchen table. While we were making a patchwork quilt pattern, Brett said, "Oh, I get it Mom. You really do love your kids".

This just confirmed something I already knew but often forget - that the one thing children want most from their parents is time.

During lunch I noticed that a plate of brownies my friend had dropped off earlier was looking a little empty. Scott admitted to having a couple, and I asked Brett if he had eaten brownies too.

He replied, "No, I just had brownie one".

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a fabulous long weekend here in London! Pat went home on Friday, which we were all very happy about. She seems to be doing well at home and we will see her again next week when she comes to London for her checkup.

We thoroughly enjoyed General Conference this weekend! We had our big Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday in-between sessions. I think this is the first year we had just our immediate family for Thanksgiving, and I obviously didn't take that into account while cooking this weekend. We've been eating turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn, cranberries, jell-o, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie for the past 3 days... And I made a HUGE pot of turkey soup yesterday, and we still have what looks like at least 10 lbs of turkey in the fridge! I think after turkey sandwiches tomorrow, I will have to freeze the rest for later as we will have hit our turkey limit for a while.

Monday morning we went apple picking - a tradition we started when Samantha was a baby and have done every year since. Someone pointed out that it's actually cheaper to buy apples at the farm in bulk than to pick your own, but we all agree that the fun is in the picking! Of course the apple pies, apple crisp, and applesauce we will be eating for the next few weeks are pretty good too.

After apple picking, Scott played a little football with the guys, and then we played some family baseball outside before bed. It was a fun, relaxing day and the perfect end to a long weekend. The weather has been unusually hot here (it was up to 32 degrees on Sunday afternoon) and although it feels weird to be in shorts and t-shirts on Thanksgiving weekend, it's kind of a nice change.

Here are some other things that have happened in our family in the last little while...

Nathan ate every single food on the table at Thanksgiving dinner and Scott said it must have been the happiest day of his life so far.

Brett is doing really well at his piano lessons that he started a month ago, and is actually learning some French words at school - way to go, Brett!

Samantha has lost 8 teeth now and is starting to read more chapter books on her own. She is also enjoying her Gymnastics lessons and likes to practice writing in cursive.

Jesse's teacher surprises us when she tells us how good he is at school. Not that he isn't good at home, but he does manage to get into mischief almost daily. For example, on Friday we spent $226.28 for a plumber to come over and remove our toilet in order to fish out 3 toy cars and 2 pairs of scissors Jesse had tried to flush down it. Later that night he snuck out of bed and came downstairs with a fistful of coins. He told Scott and I that he was giving us all of the money out of his wallet to help pay for the plumber. Of course, we forgave him and thought he had learned his lesson... until the next day when I found the toilet full of radishes! Lucky for Jesse, radishes float, so we were able to avoid another plumbing bill that time.

Scott left his job at the end of September, and has returned to working at home again. Although it's been great having him around during the day, it's difficult at times because he really doesn't have a place to work (since I converted his old office into a playroom for the kids last year!). He's been rotating from the kitchen table, to the TV room ottoman, to the living room and back. We're working on finding a better solution for the future.

Scott is having eye surgery tomorrow morning. He will have to wear an eye patch afterwards and we have been talking to the kids about it so they know why Dad won't be able play or do things for a couple of days. At dinner Brett said he was worried that with his eye patch, people might think his Dad is a pirate!

This weekend I was thankful for many things... but mostly for a supportive, wonderful husband, and our 4 amazing children. We are truly blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!