The Halloween fun begins

Witches, wolverine, and vampire - oh my!Lexi's pre-school had an early Halloween party. She wanted to be something scary this year! How'd she do?

Finally Feels Like Fall

First day of wearing sweatshirts to school

Playing with the inside goo of the pumpkin

showing off scary jack-o-lantern faces

Halloween rice Krispi treats ( although Jared says I ruined them by putting chocolate chips in them - some of the kids agreed )

Yep - feels like fall! Happy Day!

INTIMIDATION!!!!!

ENOUGH SAID

Lexi's saying of the day

Playing outside coloring the playground with sidewalk chalk - hearing Jadie crying-

"Mom I just didnt want Jadie to color the same place that I was coloring so I just rolled her around a little bit"

So my question is : what does "rolling around a little bit" exactley mean?

CRAZY DAY

SO today is crazy day at school- this is probably the kids favorite day. maybe because its the one day they dont have to worry about me making sure that they have matching clothes :) Raden refused to cut his hair so it would be long enough to cut into a mohawk - a now yearly tradition - and Bailee loves to do crazy things with her hair too

I was told this morning by Raden that we couldn't cut his hair until after his football game on Saturday - nothing says intimidation better than a mohawk!  I think this is his staredown face

After they got on the bus I turned my attention to the younger yahoos and saw this - gotta love the lazy-still in pajamas-crazy hair- dirty faces mornings

And just in case you missed it the first time .....

On a side note- who knew that the greatest words ever to my ears would be " mom go pee"  - WHOO_HOO!!!!!

Fall Break!!!

We didnt go too far from home during fall break because Jared was working but we had a great week just doing things close to home



We first went to the Red Rock Park and took a lunch with us and  had a picninc after the kids wore themselves out on the playground

We  were able to see Disney On Ice and had great seats thanks to a friend that got the tickets for us -

We then went to Apple Annies with some friends for the first time and went throught the corn maze. The kids got pretty good at finding their way through - there were stops throughout giving clues on which way to go

Along with the pumpkins and produce they also had these huge sunflowers that you could cut for $1 a stem. We ended up getting some Kettle Corn and an apple pie - who can go to Apple Annies without taking one home? We had it for dessert Monday night with vanilla icecream- worth the drive out there just for that !

We of course had to pick a couple pumpkins to make some scary jack-o-lanerns

On the way out we stopped at Apple Annies Orchards and let the kids pick some apples to take home. We also left with some apple butter and apricot jam. We were told that the best time to go to pick fruit is in September when they have peaches,apricots, pears, and lots of different types of apples

Then to finish the afternoon we stopped for lunch at this fun resturant in an old railroad car.

I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR !

When Mom is away....( or not paying attention)...

...the girls will play!

Not bad for Jadie's first time painting her toenails by herself!

Some Random pics

These girls love to play together outside - their face expressions pretty much sum up their personalities :)


Bailee got a recorder for her music class and they start to learn how to play them after fall break - let the fun begin!


Raden made this cool Christopher Columbus hat and telescope in school


We have family movie night every Friday - and Jadie always hogs the popcorn



And now that the weather is finally cooling down the kids can actually play outside more.

General Conference

"And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which King Benjamin should speak unto them" Mosiah 2:6



This is the second time that we have pitched the tent up in the family room during General Conference and it is becoming a fun tradition. Complete with homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast ~

Question for the day

Sitting at breakfast together -

Raden - "Do rats have ear drums?"

I actually thought about that for a second before saying yes.

Painful Piano Lessons

Okay - so after two years of trying to teach my oldest daughter to play the piano without any success I finally caved and am paying a piano teacher. It has been working out great because she likes it, I am no longer involved and she has some accountability to practice ( i guess I don't count as accountability) HOWEVER - what am I supposed to do when this happens:

Me - do you need any help? ( after hearing her teacher say at the last lesson that she need to ask me for help if she needed it)

B - No

Me - okay ( and go to my room to finish folding laundry)

5 min later

B - MMMMOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

Me - do you need help?

B - YYEEEESSSS!!!!

Me - you can keep the beat by counting 4 : 1...2...3..

B- I DONT WANT TO COUNT TO FOUR!!!! I DONT NEED YOUR HELP!!!!

Me- (dont say a word just walk away)

30 sec later

B- MMMMMOOOOMMM - I NEED HELP!!!!!!!

Me- ( sit down next to her) how do you want me to help you?

B- I DONT KNOW -

Me - (start to play the song so she knows what it sounds like , w/o counting)

B- I DONT WANT TO HEAR YOU PLAY THE SONG - (and covers her ears)

Me - okay - you dont have to play it fast, you can start slow and then get faster after you learn it

B- I DONT WANT TO!!!

Me - ( now I am getting frustrated so I leave - again)

Long story short: after 20 more minutes and a couple more back and forths and hearing her get more frustrated and start to take it out on the piano keys I suggest that she needs to go take a break and calm down and she has a complete meltdown complete with doors slamming, hitting walls and shutters, arm slapping( her slapping mine as I close the piano)and yelling. So now she is sitting outside until she decides that she can be respectful to me and the house ( Can you tell I'm still frustrated)


Ending - she just opened the back door and said " Mom I am ready"

Me - Can you be respectful to me and the house?

B- (says nothing - just gives me the mad eye look and slams the door)

Uuummmm - Okay- so now what?