Halloween 2007

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This year the kids and I made wooden grave stones for our yard using the jigsaw Matt and Colleen gave us for Christmas last year. I can't tell you how much I enjoy using that saw! It's so powerful! It was so fun to just randomly decide one boring saturday that instead of organizing and cleaning our eternally messy home we would instead make our grave stones out of random scraps of wood. The kids had a lot of fun painting their own stones and writing things about themselves on them. We all wrote that we were dying on 10/31/2007 which I suppose was just tempting fate to have us all get in a fatal car accident that night (having written down our deaths weeks before) but we managed to survive the night and now have 5 very large tombstones competing for space in our attic. That really was probably one of my favorite parts of this Halloween, but of course there was also the pumpkin carving, ward party, the school party/performance, and actual Halloween night, Not to mention WAAAAAAY too much candy.

That white stuff all over my dresser, that's lotion. I guess it looked a little dry. That's what happens when you think your 2 year old is asleep in bed and really he's not. Actually that is just a very tame incident that Justin cleaned up. He still thinks it's cute enough to merit a picture. In addition to "greasing" up the furniture, he also used some of my perfume that night. Luckily he still knows how to be extra cute when caught doing something wrong.

Here's our smiling baby girl! She is becoming really sweet!

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Here is a slide show Justin put together of his trip to Honduras. We are glad to have him home, if only for a few hours each day. He is now working nights, only 3 more weeks till he's back with us for real!

Well, Justin is in Honduras this week. He is taking health surveys for the government and participating in some free clinics. He's been having a great time. He just called tonight briefly and told us that he has been having a great time. HE says the people are great and his spanish is coming back and he's even dreaming in spanish again. HE got to ride in a black hawk and play lots of soccer and participate in a few clinics.

Meanwhile back at the ranch. . . I've been busy organizing the lonely wives club. A few of my friends had working husbands on Tuesday so we all got together and had dinner together. It was a lot of fun. I've also been frantically painting furniture and vainly trying to save Michelle from violent attackers. Nathan threw a can of pears at her head on Monday to spite me. She is fine, but the whole incident was scary. Of course she screamed, but calmed down shortly after I picked her up. She has a nasty red mark on her cheek, but it never did bruise and as her pupils looked normal I didn't take her in, and she seems to be normal. THe kids also almost knocked over the shopping cart in the grocery store and she would have gone down as well, but luckily I caught her just in time. I accidentally dropped her in her carseat also. Poor baby! She has had an awful week, but she is still doing well and starting to smile sweet but infrequent little smiles at us. We can't wait for Justin to get home on Saturday!

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Samantha, Nathan, Michelle and I went on a mother-daughter campout this weekend. I wasn't going to go because Justin had to work and wouldn't be able to watch the boys, but a friend of mine last minute offered to let the boys have a sleepover at her house while I took the little kids camping. It was kind of last minute, but we all had a great time! It was Joey and John's first sleepover. Joey says they stayed up till 2 am and John swears he stayed up all night, but since they didn't take a nap the next day, I think they probably went to bed a little bit sooner. As for the little kids, we had a great time camping with Vicky and Lizzy SMith and Melissa and her 3 daughters Jenna, Haven, and Leah. We also saw lots of different people from our stake. THe water was cold, but so refreshing in the Texas heat. I could have stayed all day long. I can't wait till our kids are older and we can all float down the river together.

1st week of school 2007

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THe slide show for this week features the first day of school and a photo shoot of Michelle and the little kids including bath time. Well, this was the first week of school for this year, and so far it is going to be a great year. When asked by their mom how their first day went and every other day since Joey has always responded "great!" and John "Boring!". At one point on the first day John even said he'd had "the worst day of his life!" but that was mainly because he found out that Samantha, Nathan, Michelle and I had pringles for lunch and we ate them all. Even though he's had such a "boring" time at school, John has been the first one awake each morning and quickly gets dressed and eats breakfast so he can run to school and be one of the first ones there. Joey and John have started walking this year which has been wonderful! That way the little kids can sleep a little longer and their naps aren't interrupted in the afternoon. It also give me an extra half hour or so to work out or clean or shower in the morning while the little kids are still sleeping or dazed. I love it! The boys love it too. This way they are never late and can leave as soon as they are both ready in the morning. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they have market days at school and they can buy and sell things they made before school starts. They think it is the neatest thing. Samantha started preschool this week too. It was my week to teach and it was great! The class is smaller this year (5 kids) and the kids are all 4 rather than 2-3 like they were last year. Their attention span is sooooo much better! It's great!