Up to our eyeballs in Halloween madness

Last week, we had the school carnival and the trunk or treat. It was so nice just to let the kids run off with their friends. Jim & I got to hang out and have some quality time. Next year we will be pushing a stroller :) I am enjoying the freedom this year.

Halloween week is always a little crazy for us. I usually get the kids costumes waaaayyy in advance, because my attention is quickly turned to all the different activities that they each have. 5 different school parties means alot of baking, sending in goodies, and "parent-helping" at school for me. I love this time of year, though. My kids never disappoint in the costumes they choose. It's always fun to see what they decide to be. Their little personalities crack me up!

Have you ever seen a cuter Tinkerbell? Thanks to my mom for buying this costume for her for Christmas. I had people stopping me and asking if they could take Diddy's picture, just because the costume was so pretty. Of course, Dylan loves all the attention.

Brookie was a witch for the school carnival. She changed her mind for the trunk or treat, though. I guess that's one benefit of having a ton of kids. I have a bin full of a hundred costumes to choose from if they change their mind at the last minute. You name it, we probably have it.

This is about as scary as I would let Lincoln get. He wanted something scary this year, and some of those costumes are just plain evil looking. He was fine with this, though.

Trunk or Treat. Brooklyn is a farmer riding a chicken and Blake is a rapper. It cracked me up to see all Blake's friends in those cute little witch, pirate, and bumblebee costumes. Then there's my child who wants to be a rapper. She called herself "Twenty-fi Cent"

Taylor is on the right. She is the Travelocity Gnome if you could not tell. I'm pretty sure that she will be the only Travelocity Gnome out trick-or-treating this year. Her goal every year is to make sure that nobody else has the same costume as her. She has been Elvis, she has been Abraham Lincoln. I love her random costume choices.

After the trunk or treat, the kids organized all their candy on the kitchen table. They spent 2 hours bartering and trading their candy with eachother. It was really cute.


Diddy tried a Warhead. She didn't really like it. You have to at least give your kid one Warhead when they're little, right? The faces they make are priceless.

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope we see you out Trick or Treating!

I am loving...

spending the mornings with this little girl. She is so sweet and cute, I just want to eat her up! We get to hang out every morning while Brooklyn's at school. We do all kinds of fun things, like go to City Stop and Target. She helps me with the laundry, and we watch cartoons. I love the time I get to spend with her.

Homework is very serious business :)

Today, we were at the store and I put Diddy in the shopping cart, and she looked at me with a mad face and said, "Why do I always have to sit in the BABY SEAT?!" I told her so I could reach her to give her lots of kisses. She seemed OK with that.

Keeping it real

Remember how I'm trying to keep it real? Well, this is as real as it gets. Jim has officially moved out of the bedroom. He has a really soft, cushy air mattress in the loft. He waited as long as he possibly could to move out, but it is impossible to sleep when you have a pregnant wife that snores so loud. We have been married long enough and had enough kids to where it's just not that big of a deal. Even though, it makes me feel awful for him. I calculate that with 6 pregnancies, he's probably spent at least 3 years of our marriage sleeping on the couch. Poor guy! So, here's the conversation with the kids...

Kids: Hey Dad, how come you are sleeping on that air mattress?

Mom: 'Cause your mom snores like a lumberjack.

Dad: No, 'cause your mom snores like a lumberjack being attacked by a bear!

Ha, ha very funny.

Drumroll please....

Look at this face. It makes it all worth it.

Here lies...

Roxy

We enjoyed having you part of our family for a short time. Even though you were extremely aggressive and violent and we never really could get you out of your cage. Your biggest accomplishment in life was knocking up Yoda, our other hamster. We could've sworn you were a girl. Thank you for entertaining the kids by eating crackers and running in your wheel. You will be missed...by the kids.

We buried Roxy on the side yard. Each of the kids threw a scoop of dirt on him, and said their goodbyes. There were crocodile sized tears from Lincoln and Blake, and alot of questions about resurrection... "Can Roxy be resurrected to our family?" I know. Bless their little hearts.

Redrock with our Czech friends

A couple weeks ago, our Czech friends came to visit us. Jim served his mission in the Czech Republic and met this amazing family. We have kept in touch over the years, and they send Christmas gifts every year. They spoiled the kids with gifts this time. They have come to visit twice, now, and Jim & I were able to spend a week with them in Prague when Brooklyn was a baby. Anyway, the kids took the day off from school and we headed up to Redrock to look around. We had fun being tourists in our own town.

Diddy didn't like that.

The kids weren't really cooperating with the picture taking, but I got them to pose for one group shot. I didn't realize that I got a nice sharp picture of the rocks behind them. I promise I'm a better photographer than that. I just had to post it, cause I thought it was funny.

So, I haven't been posting much lately, 'cause there really hasn't been anything very exciting happening. I have decided that I am going to just start posting the everyday stuff. Even if it is boring for everyone else. This blog is a record of my little family, so we are just going to keep it real...