Halloween!

I think I'm finally caught up enough to blog about Halloween! Woo Hoo!

We had such a fun day yesterday. I swear, the holidays keep getting funner as the kids get older. I guess that's the joy of parenthood. The kids decided on their costumes really early this year, which was super nice for me. We found a really great homemade Supergirl costume at the DI while we were shopping for Chloe's Farmer Barbie clothes. Lily was instantly in love and for $4, so was I. Brigham was the hardest of the 3 kids. He was determined he was going to be Batman for a couple of weeks and then wanted to be a knight. I found a cheap knight costume online with free shipping and hadn't started getting his Batman costume put together so I bought the knight one. He was way excited about that for a week until he watched Spiderman with Stanton. That was that and he was being Spiderman. Since I had already purchased a costume for him, I wasn't really thrilled with buying another one, so I called around our neighborhood and found one to borrow from a friend. Thanks, Stefanie! He was so incredibly thrilled about it and we had a very hard time limiting his wear of it! We got lucky on Halloween day and found a fleece Spiderman hat, which he was happy to wear instead of the mask that came with the costume. I was really glad about that because I reeeeeaaaaalllly wanted to see his cute face.

I'm getting ahead of myself. That morning, the girls and I went to Breckin Lamb's baptism. It was so so so nice and made me so happy, again, to have the incredible friends I have here.

After the baptism, we headed to Stanton's office while he worked on a patient. Not 1 hour earlier we had been talking about how nice it was that he hadn't had very many emergency calls lately. Ha ha. The universe wins again.

After that jaunt, we hit Walmart and then headed home to carve pumpkins. It was actually fun this year!

Chloe carved her own and did an amazing job.
Stanton carved Brigham's. Brigham chose a spider, of course.


Lily chose the design for hers and I carved it.

I did mine on the tall skinny pumpkin the kids picked out. It was harder than I thought it would be.
Stanton did his on the huge pumpkin we grew in our garden this year. He drew that freehand (looking at a template we'd downloaded). It looks amazing when it's lit up.


We roasted the pumpkin seeds after and the kids watched a movie. After a nap for the younger 3, it was time to get ready for trick or treating!!! My favorite part. For the fun and the candy. The weather happened to be fantastic last night, which was awesome. That, coupled with the kids' costumes being very friendly to layers underneath them, made for a great night with costumes you could actually see.

Chloe was Farmer Barbie

Lily was Supergirl

Brigham was Spiderman

Cannon was a Bumblebee

And Stanton and I were ourselves in a few short years.

I used to hate dressing up. Like from about 7th grade clear up until about 3 years ago. I don't know what I was thinking! Halloween is becoming one of my favorite holidays. It's so fun to see the kids so excited and it is a total blast to dress up. The best part was how many people really thought we were the kids' grandparents. Even some of our best friends didn't realize it was us at first. It was hilarious. Chloe kept looking at me and saying, "Mom, you look like Grandma Rose." It was totally the grey hair. But what she doesn't know is that Grandma Rose had glasses and hair (minus the grey) just like that when I was a kid! Ha ha.
Seeing me old freaked Stanton out a bit, which I thought was funny. He, unfair as it is, looked really handsome and distinguished in his grey hair.
Our camera battery died before we got any great family pictures, but Dave took some, so I'm going to grab them from him at some point.

We trick or treated for longer than we've ever held out before and had a really fun time. The girls were up bright and early this morning going through their buckets and eating themselves sick. Best Halloween ever.

Conversations

Completely unrelated to the vomit/diarrhea/sugar free suckers episode...
Me: Brigham, stop eating candy, you're going to get a tummy ache.
Brigham continuing to eat: It's awight, I aweady have a tummy ache.

Brigham: Mom, do you know wots of stuff?

Lily: I'm drawing this picture for someone who I like bestest and that's my mom.

After his echo where they used the jelly lubricant:
Brigham: That was jewwy mom.
Me: Yeah, it was! Do you think you'd like a sandwich with that jelly?
Brigham in a "no-duh" voice: No, dat's not samwich jewwy. Dat's heyt suygy jewwy!

After asking Brigham if he was several different names that weren't his own, each time answered with, "No, I Bigham David Ayyen"
Me: Oh! You're Brigham David Allen?
Brigham: Yeah!
Me: Boy, you're persistent.
Brigham: No, I Bigham David Ayyen!

Stanton was eating real maple syrup on a spoon when Brigham asked if he could have some.
Stanton: You probably won't like it.
Brigham: I pobady wiw. Tastes it. In an "I told you so" voice... I towd you I'd wike it.

Chloe was watching me draw and cut out shapes for the Advent Calendar I'm making...
Chloe: Well, you're not a good colorer, but that's the best coloring you've ever done.
When I went to write that quote down, she got really offended. She's not a fan of us thinking things she says are "cute." To her that equals "babyish." Sorry, kid, but they're gettin' recorded.

Also, some little blessings I want to remember:
Our furnace hasn't been working and the part needed to fix it didn't come in before last weekend (which happened to be really cold). On Sunday, Shaynna showed up on my doorstep with a space heater and a promise that more would be coming. The Boyles were there not a half hour later with 2 more. Just enough to heat the kids' rooms. It was such a relief and we were so grateful for them.

That same Sunday I happened to be having a complete melt down with the kids. I was so frustrated with them and the weekend mess and was about the crack. I went into my room and prayed for strength and patience -- it was one of those sincere and fervent prayers. I got up and felt like I should just tackle the mess, so I got to work. About 45 minutes after my prayer, and as the house was just about cleaned up, Joe, Nate (Day), and Jaden (Wursten) showed up at the door asking if the kids could come play with them. They took the 3 older kids for 2 hours to play in the leaves at their house. Again, I was so grateful for a sincere answer to an honest prayer.

Cardiologist Check-up

I took Brig down to Primary Children's on Thursday for his check-up. Everything is looking fantastic. He's still on his Enalapril and Aspirin for a few more months, but more as a precautionary measure than anything else.

Dr. Everitt wanted a full echo, but didn't think Brig needed to be sedated. The echo tech gave Brigham a few suckers to keep him still during the procedure. They were working so well, she had me go get a bunch more. I figured they were fine, as they were sugar free. They were great and helped him be still for the entire 45 minute echo....no small feat for a 3 year old.

On the way home, Brig started to complain that he didn't feel good. I took him to McDonald's for lunch thinking some "real" (using that term very loosely here, I know) food would make him feel better. I knew something was terribly wrong when he passed his Happy Meal and toy back up to me saying, "Actuwawy, I don't want anyfing to eat." We were on the freeway by then and within minutes he had tossed his cookies all over himself, his carseat, and the van floor. We pulled over at a gas station and I got things cleaned up as best as I could (it's amazing to me how we just kick into mom-gear and deal with things like that when really we should be in a ball crying). I wrapped him up in a jacket of mine and put him in Cannon's car seat. We ran to Ann's house to drop some things off to her and she was so kind to give me a cup of 7-up for Brig. I made the mistake of letting him drink the entire sippy cup at once and within moments, he had thrown up on Cannon's car seat and the floor around him. At that point it was just 7-up, so I made a judgment call and just drove home that way. He fell asleep as we entered the canyon and slept the rest of the way home.
We got home and I asked Deyette (Stanton's accounts manager who kindly tended for us while I was gone) if she'd stay while I got things cleaned up. I put Brig down for a nap and started getting the car seats taken apart and in the washer. I came in from the garage to find Brigham on the leather chair in the living room. I picked him up and diarrhea squirted on the chair, the floor, and me. Aaaah! I put Brigham in the bathroom with a directive to "NOT MOVE!" and changed and got to work on the chair and floor. I'm really grateful for leather -- I was able to even use anti-bacterial spray cleaner on it. The floor came clean quickly, thanks to the awesome Urine Digester product from Don Aslett's.
Back to the bathroom to check on Brigham, who was on the toilet, diarrhea pull-up on the floor (leaking) and poop on the toilet seat. Got him cleaned up and in the tub. Disinfected the toilet and the floor. Back out to the kitchen/living room to finish cleaning up and throwing things away. Got the carseats taken apart and in the wash and cleaned the chunks out of the van. Called the car wash place to see if they could clean it -- they couldn't until the next day. Grrrr... Thankfully it was just sorbee lollipop vomit (with a little milk mixed in -- yum). It didn't have that horrible vomit smell. I left the doors of the van open and decided I'd just take it in the next day. Again, one of those snap judgment calls. I'm really glad I did. They were able to clean the carpets like I'd only dream of and the whole van is so nice and clean.
Brigham had diarrhea for a few hours after that and once the sorbital and isomalt were out of his system, he was totally fine. Note to self: one (two max) sugar-free suckers at a time...not 12!!!!

In the end, I still figure maybe the ends justified the means. Dr. Everitt was able to see very good pictures of his heart function and I have a really clean van. :)

Kindergarten Carnival

The older kids at Chloe's school put on a Halloween Carnival for the Kindergartners every year (during the school day). This is in place of the traditional parent-run class party. I think it's a cute idea.

Chloe liked getting to wear her costume to school, although she wasn't thrilled that people only thought she was a farmer, not farmer Barbie. She was good to get over it, though. And dang, she looked so cute. Special thanks to Jordyn for lending Chloe her boots for a couple of weeks.

Lily wore her costume to preschool the day before but I didn't get a picture.

Pumpkin Walk

Pumpkin Walk is one of the highlights of my year every year. I think it's the same for Stanton and the kids. The weather was really nice the night we went, which made it even more fun.

The theme this year was Commercials. There were two I was really hoping would be done -- I wanted a "Help, I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!" scene and a "Mac & PC" scene. I got one of my two wishes. There was a very cute Mac and PC scene. Some others that we loved were the "Stuck on Band-aid", "Michael Jackson Pepsi", "7-Up Taste Test," and many, many others. The scenes are always so clever.

The kids were fantastic...well, mostly. Brigham is in that 3 year old phase. You know, the "helplessly independent" phase? Yeah, that would be him to a tee right now. I had to carry him on my shoulders the entire time because he was determined to get himself lost otherwise. Stanton pushed Cannon in the stroller and he was so content we didn't dare get him out for any pictures. We were right. We got him out at the very end to see the witch and he would not get back in. Luckily, we only had to get to the car.
Cannon was not sure if he dared look away from the witch. Brigham was mesmerized by the pumpkin unicycle rider swinging back and forth across the ceiling. Lily wanted to wear her princess nightgown and since she was willing to wear pants under it, I didn't stop her. Chloe cooperated.

Chloe/Max
Lily/Max
Brigham/Max (perfect face, right?)

Red Ribbon Week

Chloe had her first Red Ribbon week last week. She loved it and yesterday when we were at the store she saw a man smoking. She was heart broken and asked us why he would do that? We were giving her the usual explanations and then she decided, "He must not have had a Red Ribbon week when he was in school."

She loved Pajama Day and Hero Day and School Spirit Day, but especially Crazy Hair Day. I can see myself loving this day every year, too.


She loved that her teacher said she looked like a flower garden.


This was her picture of what she would do instead of drugs or other harmful things. She chose taking out the recycling. Yeah, I wish she were that proactive about chores. At least the concept makes sense!

Corn Maze

No, we didn't take the kids. We meant to, but that was the day Cannon got hives and also it was raining. Maybe next year. What we DID do, though, was send Stanton to scare people on one of the haunted nights. Jim's neighbor owns the maze and gets people to do it every year. Stanton loved it. Two highlights were making one guy fall down out of fear and another guy do karate moves at him.

He totally looked like a prowler in our garage. Can't remember what he was looking for....

Yeah, I can see why someone would do kung fu moves on him....

I'm an Awesome Babysitter

This is Shaynna's baby Brenner. He was at our house the other day and while I wasn't paying attention he found the markers. It wasn't hard -- they were all over the table.
By the way, is he not adorable?

Cannon the love of our life

This little person is so fun and so cute. He's growing up so much lately. He is getting better about playing with the kids, but only on his terms. He still screams at them whenever they invade his space.

He's getting a new tooth, his hair is curly beyond belief, and he's starting to say a few words here and there. In short, we absolutely love him and love that he's the baby of our family.

I caught him doing the dadadada-finger wagging thing the other day.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Coloring his heart out at Stanton's office. He can be seen in this sort of position multiple times a week.

Oh my goodness, I just want to eat him alive, he's so cute.

Cannnon is a total tease and loves to get a reaction from Stanton and I. He is always running away from us and laughing all the way.

Around Here Lately

We've been doing stuff, really. And since I'm home from church with the boys this week in hopes of keeping our household H1N1-free, I'm planning to use the time as Family History time (you know, blog my guts out).

A few happenings:

Cannon got some crazy bad hives two weeks ago. The biggest one on his leg was about 2 inches in diameter.
We never did figure out what caused them, although we suspect it might have been the Sudafed we'd been giving him for his cold.
He had a rough week, as he fell and skinned his nose a few days prior while we were getting family pictures. Thankfully, it didn't get red until after we were done with pictures.

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We had a fun yard clean up day at Dave and Judy's and Grandma A's houses. I stayed home with Cannon in the morning while Stanton took the other kids over. I went in time for lunch (of course) and helped pick apples. It was the "off" year for the trees (on the on year we always do apple cider), but we ended up picking 37 5-gallon buckets off the 4 trees. It was crazy. We took 10 buckets home and made applesauce. Chloe stayed up late one night and helped me do about 15 quarts from apples we got from a neighbor. It was so much fun to work one on one with her. She's a good kid.

(I don't know if I've blogged about any of our applesauce this year. Anyway, I did 7 quarts from apples from my friend Abbie's tree, Chloe and I did 15 quarts from our neighbors, the Stevenson's tree, and Stanton and I did 49 quarts from the apples on Grandma's tree). We are totally burned out of canning. Oh, I also did 12 quarts of chili sauce for Dave and Grandma. Yeah, I'm seriously sick of canning. I tried to get rid of our tomatoes, but although several people expressed interest, no one actually came and got any. Next year we are only going to plant about 3 tomato plants. We waste so many every year. I did do about 20 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 30 quarts of tomato juice, though, so hopefully we're good for the year, especially considering that we still have about 20 quarts of spaghetti sauce left from last year.
While I was canning.....
They were playing. This picture was taken before they really got out of control. The garage was a mess.

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Other stuff to come.

Conversations

Brigham after pooping on the bathroom floor: I pyooped on da floh, Mom and dat was so so bad. I so so sowyee. I won't ever do dat ever again.

Brigham asleep, when I went down to pull his covers up before I went to bed: I wuv you, Mom.

Brigham after snuggling with us in bed in the morning, decided to get out and go do a puzzle, but before he did, kissed me on the cheek. That gave me joy for the rest of the morning.

Cannon whenever he walks by Stanton: Hi! Then he just keeps walking on his way.

Brigham at Shaynna's: Saynna, I don't wike dat dohg. Wiw you put him back in him's cave?

Brigham the next day, wanting to go back to Shaynna's: Mom, can I go back to Saynna's?
Me: Not today, remember, she's still babysitting that dog.
Brigham: But I wike dat dohg now. Can I go back to Saynna's?

Cannon is a total tease lately. He loves to mimic me pointing my finger while I'm reprimanding the kids. He shakes his pointer finger and says, "Da Da Da Da Da" and then looks at me with a huge grin on his face.

If you laugh at anything Cannon does (hitting his head, falling down, clapping, dancing, anything), he'll do it over and over and over again.

Me answering any random question Lily already knows the answer to...
Lily: Did you mean _________?
Me: Lily, what did I mean?
Lily: I know, you mean what you said.

Chloe's been a real delight lately. She is so mature that I rarely catch her saying anything really off the wall humorous. I've been really happy, though, with how she has been trying to reason and listen when we're giving her some counsel. She still struggles, but she's improving so much. She's been my little buddy lately and I sure love her.

Me after Stanton walked back to the bedroom from the kitchen: I was hoping you were in there doing the dishes
Stanton: I wanted to, but then I remembered I had all those bills to pay. I'd rather be doing the dishes. Do you want to pay bills while I do the dishes?
Me: No, I'd rather you do both.
I did the dang dishes. He paid the dang bills. Okay, I'm "doing" the dang dishes. Slowly...with lots of breaks.

Chloe actually read the cereal box this morning. It was so exciting, as I remembered how I loved that morning ritual (I find myself still doing it, in fact).

Brigham hunting after a fly: Mom, I found him! Wiw you get the shoo fy? The shoo fy don't bodder me?

Chloe has been taking Cannon outside every day to jump on the trampoline. It is so adorable to see them out there together. He loves to be with her -- when it's just her. He's still pretty scared of the lot of them.

Brigham put on his knight halloween costume...
Lily: Oh, Brigham, you look charming!

After church, Chloe had some candy that I told her she could eat...
Chloe: No I can't. My teacher said I had to eat it after I got home.
Me: But I'm the mom, so I can give you permission to eat it even if your teachers say no.
Chloe: No, Mom. Moms are here making a measuring gesture at about shoulder level. Teachers are up here making a measuring gesture way above her head.

We've been heavily discussing the possibility of getting chickens in the springtime:
Chloe: I'd be delighted if someone gave me chickens for my birthday.

Lily's First Day of High School

One of the great girls in our neighborhood, Allison J., invited Lily to one of her classes for an hour. It was some sort of play observation thing. I couldn't help but say yes -- I mean, who wouldn't want to observe her? It's an informative, entertaining, and blessedly uplifting experience to observe her every day.

She had such a fun time. Thanks, Allison.

I'm in a phase of really loving and enjoying most every minute with my kids and can I just say how very much I am loving it?

Conversations

Brigham in a taunting voice, seeing an older boy riding a purple bike: You wideen a gewl bike!
The next day he insisted on getting his toenails painted with the girls...

Brigham pinched his finger in the stool.
Me: We should give that chair a spankin'.
Brigham: But it don't have a bottom, though.

Me: singing I Love to See the Temple to myself while the kids were doing something around the table. I finished and didn't start again.
Chloe: Mom, will you sing that again? It makes me feel holy inside.

Brigham approximately 17 times a day: Mom, can I have peach wedder (leather)?

During General Conference:
Lily: Who's the Lamb of God?
Me: Jesus.
Lily: Who's the Lamb of Jesus?
Me: There isn't really one.
Chloe: Yes there is; it's us, Mom. We're His sheep and sheep are the same as lambs.
Out of the mouths of babes.....

Lily and Brigham were blowing their "horns" (funnels).
Me: The next person to blow a horn gets it thrown away or has to go downstairs.
Brigham blows his horn.
Me: Okay, Brig, you choose. Garbage or downstairs?
Brigham: Downstairs. He didn't go.
Me: Guys, I really want to hear Elder Holland's talk. Please stop.
Chloe: Mom, if you want to listen, then just stop talking, okay? Just ignore them.
Any guesses how many times she's heard that line? And she's right.

While coloring in her Hello Kitty coloring book...
Lily: Mom, did Hello Kitty's mom and dad die?
Me: I'm not sure. Why would you ask that?
Lily: Because I wondered.
Me: But why would you wonder about that?
Lily: I just wonder about things I don't know.
That clears that up...