Day #8: Halloween was a success!

We celebrated the epic holiday of Halloween by paying homage to my mom's heritage: We all dressed as skeletons.
My girlfriend took a picture of our family with her FAR NICER camera than mine, and I expect to have those photos tomorrow to share with you. But I'm sure you'll remember our pics of Boo at the Zoo. Same thing, more makeup.

We attended our ward Trunk-or-Treat and on the way home, passed our neighbor friends and this whole troop of children. Not wanting to put anyone out of their comfort zone, we immediately turned around so James and I could join them!

I have never seen a child so excited about Halloween. Including myself when I was young enough to be a trick-or-treater.
J RAN to every. single. home. whether they had their porch light on or not. At one house, that did NOT have a porch light on, but it DID have a door open, James stood there talking through the door to the person on the couch inside who was, I'm positive, desperately trying to ignore my 5 year old. To their everlasting credit, they did come to the door and explain to the hoard of children now gathered on their tiny doorstep that they did not have any candy, and they were sorry. It was sweet how all the kids kindly said 'thank you' then DASHED off the porch to the next house- presumably to make up time.
There was one house that was handing out a brilliant treat: JUICE BOXES!!! All the kids with us cracked theirs open ASAP- it was refueling time. But that meant J needed to go potty while we were out.
Another house, whose owners I had never met before, opened their house to my little 5 year old to use their potty. Bless them to high heavens for their generosity. I would have had a hard time keeping J from just dropping his pants and using an obliging bush as a latrine. Thank you thank you thank you house on Briarwood dr. You know who you are.

And the candy. Oh my. My boys did Boo at the Zoo, the 3-ward Trunk-or-Treat AND traditional Trick-or-treating. We. Have. Candy.
Honestly, we threw most of it out- you know the stuff: Jawbreakers, gobstoppers, pixi stix, starburst. The stuff tough to get out of teeth.
But our Reeses peanut butter cup pile was staked 10 high. Full size. Guess who's keeping those?
And we now have as many dum-dum's as the bank.
My favorite treat was a tiny bag of swedish fish! Who GIVES that anymore?!! I loved it.

And I'm thoroughly looking forward to next year's Dia De Los Muertos!!!

Day #7

Still no photo.
It's sunday- no buying batteries.

but I had a little interview with James during Talk-about. Here it is:

Q: James, what did you learn about in Primary today?
A: I learned about Jesus God and the Temple. And there were some kids and I told the girl with the big fish.

Q: I know Sister Friest gave a lesson today. What did she talk about?
A: I learned about the knee fights.
Q: knee fights? Oh! The NEPHITES!
A: yes, the knee fights and how they (sound effect, like swords, maybe?) did that.

A: I love Thomas S. Monson. He's my favorite prophet.

Q: What did you sing in song time today?
A: I love to see the Temple and the best one.


There it is. He learned about knee fights. age appropriate.

Day #6: the day the camera died

It's true. She ran out of batteries this evening, JUST as I was attempting to take a picture of the boys outside.
James is still wearing his Spiderman costume, thankyouverymuch.
And Oliver is just as cute as a button.

But a funny story.

Every night, our bedtime routine is executed with exactness. James will have it no other way! The funny thing is that James has added a part to the schedule: the talk-about.
In this segment, he talks about anything he wants to, and the listener is just there to listen. Sometimes he talks about what he wants to do, and that can include anything on any day in any year. So, for example, sometimes he talks about stuff he DID when he WAS 6. Welp, he's not 6. Not even close. He loves to talk about whatever is his obsession at the moment. Currently, he's talking about skeletons and spiderman. Tonight, in fact, his name was "SkeletonSpider". But if he actually SEES a skeleton or spider he's absolutely TERRIFIED. I'm not sure what to do about that- I'm not really sure anything ought to BE done about it. He's just got some fun ideas.

Tonight's talk about was a story.
He said:
Tonight's story is about a Man who had all bananas, and a skeleton by Dr. Seuss.
Once there was a man who had all bananas and he ate them. And a skeleton. The End.

I love to hear his stories- they crack me up and I just want to sit there with a paper and pen to transcribe everything he says. But I'd have to work on my short-hand and I've just not got the time for that. So it's very luck tonight's story was so short. Sometimes he tell such fantastic stories that I can't keep the characters and story lines straight. Maybe he'll be a writer. Or a mechanic. Yes, I need a good mechanic.

Please accept my apology for no picture tonight. I hope the story makes you smile.

Day# 4 and 5

Question: What do you do when you're all dressed up as Spiderman and have no where to go?

Answer: You go to Boo at the Zoo!!

Okay, okay. We didn't just FIND him all dressed up with no where to go. Confession: I dressed him up AND told him where to go.

So, that first part may have been a fib.

Maybe.

Boo at the Zoo is a great celebration! It's especially good when you remember your zoo membership card (which I didn't do) and it's even better when they FIND your membership on the lists just in case you didn't bring your card (which they didn't).

I DID remember to bring my "Early Bird" passes though!

Just the fact that I had those I think saved our night.

And by the way, they STILL didn't find our Zoo membership on their lists, and actually told me that we didn't have one for the entire YEAR! Too bad we went to the zoo EVERY WEEK during the season. But they still took our money.

Can you tell I am nursing a small grudge here?

But to make a long story short, we got in, we went through, and we arrived home having consumed only 3 pieces of candy between the three of us.

I call that a success.

The boys. 

And one with the mommy. Please excuse the tired eyes. It's been a long week.

And Spidey, in the flesh.

Advice for my future self: come up with costumes that can be WARM. We might all go as Polar Bears next year.

Yes, that's a great idea.

The Hubs on the Radio

BIG NEWS!!!
Drue is on the radio this morning!!!
Thank you to NET Radio (our local NPR station) for having him on your Friday Live program, interviewing him AND playing his music!!!

We love NET!

Day #3: Biggest surprise ever

I have been keeping a secret from James for weeks. And it has a whole lot to do with one of his favorite people in the whole world- Drue's mom, Grammy.

I've known about this visit for a couple of weeks and it was STILL a surprise to me when the day actually came. 

But I have been carefully plotting this afternoon for all of that time.

I picked up Grammy and Papa in Omaha this afternoon and we rushed home so Grammy could come to school with me and pick up J.

I carefully placed her in the spot where I normally stand, I stood just to the left of her and waited. And waited. And waited. 

Of course, J's class was the LAST one out.

But it was priceless!!!!!!

He saw us both, looked at me, then her then back to me, very unsure of what was going on. I'm pretty sure he thought he was hallucinating. 

Then he looked at me and back at her (again!) and back to me with a dawning realization.

It wasn't until the third try, and with a small wave and "hi James" from Grammy did he allow himself to believe.

This photo is of him beginning to say "Hi Grammy"

 Look at how excited this boy is!! HIs smile was just HUGE! And he couldn't believe she was really there until he for a big hug!!!

 Here's my James and Grammy- he is just so happy she is here. His teacher saw how happy he was to see her, she even came up and told me she got a little teary-eyed.
And I'll admit I did too.
Alright, I got a lot teary-eyed.

Just the look of pure joy on my boy-o's face was worth the wait. Here's to a few days of heaven.

to be continued...

Day #2: Egg nog

Egg Nog is...

 is...

 Delicious?

 Yes! Delicious!

 Hey, I need a picture too!

 Check out my light saber.

I am trying to find a way to successfully upload video I've taken of our family to ANY video hosting website. Perhaps because I am such a video rookie, no site will WANT to host my films- and hey, I may not blame them- but I need suggestions now. The suggestion box is now open. Tell me how YOU do this.

Also, by way of explanation, tonight was the first time I've ever let James try Egg Nog. I've traditionally hid it in the back of the fridge so NO ONE- not even Drue- may drink my Nog. But for some reason, I've decided to become a bit more charitable regarding the dispersement of my coveted drink. And tonight was the night.
Step one, let J see the egg nog. His reaction "eww.... what is THAT!?"
Step two, let J smell the egg nog. His reaction "ugh...(wrinkles up his nose)"
Step three, get J to taste the egg nog. His reaction "..."
It was love at first taste.
He GULPED it down then asked for seconds. And when we told him no, asked to finnish D's drink. And when we told him no, asked to finnish MY drink.
He loves it.

I am glad.
He needed a taste of this before the holidays!

A new idea

I have been searching for a reason for this blog. My dear friend uses a blog to find the joy in everyday moments, and I love to read it. She has taught me so much about what a blog can do and what a powerful tool it can be. She is funny, insightful, poignant, and deliberate- all qualities I desire but seem to lack.
This little corner of cyberspace has been mine for a while now. My mom calls me often and begs for more updates- but most often I feel that what I have to say is nowhere NEAR interesting enough to even be considered reading material. Like my comments about life are banal. Boring. Common. Whatever.
But I have found a purpose. A logos. A reason to write.
For the next little while, my reason for this blog is to conduct small video interviews with my children, husband, myself (that should be interesting), and/or post a picture of a sweet/funny/ordinary thing my family does EVERYDAY. It's a project to bring the dispersed of my family close together for a season.

So, here we go:
Day #1

Tonight, we carved pumpkins in preparation for Halloween. The boys thought it was so much fun. Oliver was laughing so hard he was snorting. Cackling even. I wanted to get video of that but I was up to my wrists in pumpkin goo.

And for some reason, my video is not uploading to neither Blogger nor YouTube. I will try again tomorrow. 

But for the sake of a picture from today, here we all are with the 'Superman' pumpkin

Starring: (from left) "Skel the Skeleton", the superman pumpkin with a frog candle inside, Oliver without pants- it was a nice night, and the mama (me) wearing a hat on my frizzy-unwashed-barely-braided hair.

To be continued....

Kind of random collection

One day, James came out of his room wearing the following: His Nebraska cape, the helmet D made for him form a milk carton (it's supposed to be a star wars pilot helmet, but that's not readily apparent to me either), his woody-without-a-head shirt, a pair of Oliver's pajama pants, and carrying a small rolled american flag. He called himself Nebraska Man. I called it hilarious.

Oliver's version of Nebraska Man is a bit more subdued. He's such a calm little dude.

 Where is Oliver? (He actually said that- it's why I took the picture)

 Peekaboo! (Again, verbatim)

Mustache Sundays

I got a little creative while using my eyeliner, as I was applying my "war paint" as my father likes to call it, and the boys were in the right place at the right time. Behold:

The mustache lives! They thought it was awesome. I thought it was awesome. We all loved it. And now, whenever I pull out my eyeliner, my boys line up to get their mustaches. I guess there are worse things to do than draw on your kids with eyeliner:)

Today was awesome.

 General Conference edifying and uplifting- we actually took our kiddos to the church to watch the first session! It was a resounding success, thanks mostly in part to Nicole Leafty- mine and my son James' favorite primary teacher. She sat with us and we love her!

James made an appropriate comment while watching the choir sing.
"Look mommy! Some of them have brown hair, some have blond hair and some have gone hair!"

"Yes son, yes they do:)"

October

coming up:
Halloween.

James has been planning his halloween costume for months.
He'll be Spiderman.
Big shock, I know.

I don't know if I'm ready to have Spiderman wars this month. I can already feel the stress. Here's how this will go:
J: I want to wear my Spiderman costume!
Me: Not just yet. It's only October 1st. You can wear it on October 28th for Boo at the Zoo, and on October 31st for Trick or Treating.
J: But it's OCTOBER!
Me: Yes it is.
J: I WANT TO WEAR SPIDERMANNNNNN!
Me: You may wear Spiderman at the end of the month. It's still the beginning.
J: SPIDERMANNNNNN!!!!!

Lather, rinse, repeat.

October is one of my favorite months, but maybe not this year.

Pray for me.