For some reason, the pictures I took today were all in the bathroom. Good and bad.
Good:
Clean kids. I like clean kids.
Bridger making good use of Lysol wipes.
5 words that I hate to hear: "MOOOMMMYYYY! Someone clogged the toilet!" (I especially hate those words when Dave isn't home. Plunging the toilet is clearly a man's job.)
Bed time is usually a long, multi-layered process.
Well, really, only with Ellie.
We have to read a book. For the last few months, it's been Junie B. Jones. We're running out of them! I don't know what we'll do when we've read them all.
Then we talk about her day. She'll tell me some weird little things that happened that day. Tonight she told me about how Gisella likes to touch her hair when it's straight. Luckily, Ellie's hair is rarely straight.
We hug and kiss and I turn out the light.
That's when the fun starts.
Various commands or statements are yelled:
"MOM! Bring me a sippy cup with chocolate milk. Extra chocolatey."
"My leg hurts!"
"My elbow hurts!"
"Where's Dad? I need him to lay with me!"
"Can I come out and tell you something?"
"What's for hot lunch tomorrow?"
"What is the meaning of life?" (just kidding)
Tonight, I was sitting in the family room with Tanner, giving him a spelling test. Ellie yelled,
"MOM! I need you! My chin is sweaty!"
We laughed. And ignored her.
Love her.
It was a good night.
Everyone came home happy.
Even Dave. He took them trick-or-treating this time. I stayed home and made beds and answered the door. We didn't have very many trick-or-treaters tonight. We have way too much candy left over. Dave is going to take it to church tomorrow for his priests. Thank goodness.
Here's Woody:
Next we have Jessie:
Then there is Wendy (from Peter Pan):
And lastly, the one who is hating to have his picture taken lately, Tiger Woods:
A couple more...
After they got home, they dumped their candy and made their piles. Good candy / Bad candy. Some people's piles were much smaller than others.
Bridger opened a few pieces of candy, licked them, then threw them away. He got two bags of popcorn that he insisted we pop immediately. He sat on the couch and watched a few minutes of Potter. The king.
Brynley is very selective about her candy. Her favorite things this year were pretzels and a full size Hershey's bar.
Ellie kept everything. She's eaten plenty tonight, too. Gag.
These two were more than happy to watch the end of the baseball game. Tanner and my mom have a little rivalry going right now. T wants the Yankees, my mom wants the Phillies. The loser has to wear the other team's shirt. Tanner is feeling pretty confident right now.
We put the kids to bed at 10:00. Then we roasted up a batch of pine nuts and ate them all. Delicious. A perfect end to our Halloween. AND we get an extra hour of sleep tonight! I hope someone told Bridger about that.
It's 9:26, Halloween morning.
We just had bagels for breakfast.
The house is a huge 'ole mess. I should be cleaning. Right now. Don't want to.
We're debating if we're going to get out of our jammies today.
I'm thinking no.
The three big kids are looking through the Toys R Us catalog right now, making their Christmas lists. I'm making them. Tomorrow is November 1st!! Pure craziness. I would LOVE to have their Christmas shopping done today :)
Bridger is in his room reading books. I'm pretty sure he needs a diaper change. Stinkyness is wafting out of his room.
We might carve pumpkins.
Or we might just watch Annie all day.
I think it's safe to say that I'm excited for Halloween to be O.V.E.R.
Bring on November. I love November.
It's probably my favorite month.
Anyway, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
Ahhh, school pictures. I was just cleaning up my room and was about to file away this year's school pictures... and thought I'd post them really quick. Why do I even buy them? We give a copy to the grandparents (so they can file them away:), and the rest go in their school file. They are always so lovely.
I can't believe we've had FOUR of these Halloween parties.
This year it was at our house.
And it was pretty dang fun.
We ate (scones, caramel apples, peanut butter fingers).
We karaoked (mostly Scott & Jared karaoked).
We played a game (What's Yours Like?)
We laughed. A lot.
I think we should have dress-up parties every month.
1. Last week, Dave was gone. Out of town. Park City. Just in time for cold and snow! He had a conference for work. I sent our faithful old camera with him in hopes that he'd take a few pictures for me of his adventures. I always love looking at pictures on our camera that I didn't take! Last night when I uploaded them, there were some of his room (which was particularly gorgeous) and some of his lovely surroundings. I was jealous.
2. Thursday afternoon, Tanner hitched a ride with Tod to Salt Lake. I love Tod.
3. Dave, Pop, and Tanner spent Friday playing golf and eating yummy food. I was jealous again. (Just of the food, not so much of the golf). They played Bonneville, the course that Pop grew up playing on.
4. Saturday morning they went to conference. Saturday night they went to the Priesthood session. Dave always planned to take Tanner to his first Priesthood session live and in person. They both had a great experience.
5. Meanwhile, here at home we were having our own fun. Bridger has a very tough decision he is trying to make right now. It's probably the first hard decision of his little life! Who should he be for Halloween? Buzz or Woody? Woody or Buzz? I got both costumes, thinking we'd bring them home and he'd try them on and pick one. Ha. He just wants to change costumes every couple minutes.
(By the way, this afternoon we went and saw Toy Story & Toy Story 2. It was great fun! My only complaint is, why don't they make 3D glasses for little kids? The glasses are HUGE and there is no way they'll stay on for longer than a few seconds. He had to watch blurry movies. He didn't seem to care, though. He sat on his booster seat with his popcorn and Nerds and said all his favorite lines with Buzz & Woody and sang all his favorite songs. We might have to go again :)
6. I love Conference weekend. Love it. Conference seems to come just when I feel like I'm falling apart. When I'm feeling like a bad everything! I love to soak in all the words of encouragement, wisdom, reminders, and love. I hope the messages soak in REALLY deep. My list is long of things I know I need to change and do. I'm also grateful for the pause button on the DVR. It took us a while to get through each session with all the little distractions and requests. ("Mom! Bridger is coloring on the couch!" "I need a treeeaaat!" "Brynley won't play with me!")
(We load up on snacks. Things we don't usually have in the house. While we were at Costco Saturday evening, we couldn't resist the big bag of pistachios. We also got some chocolate chip muffins, plenty of chips, and we made scones! If they're eating, they're quiet.)
(Conference Bingo was taken very seriously. Very.)
(Ellie did really well during the morning session of conference. She loved the little packet we printed from Deseret Book. She liked the page where you were supposed to keep track of how many times you saw flowers, or necklaces, or "spankies" (hankies :). The second session, she kept asking if she could change the channel to Spongebob.)
(Tanner was only home for the second session. He is getting old. It's really weird. He even took notes. I glanced over during Elder Holland's talk and read what he wrote: "Amazing. He talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Powerful. I'm speechless." That's pretty much how I felt, too!)
7. The kids didn't have school today. It was so nice. Bridger was the first one up this morning at 8:00. Thank you very much. Tanner had an orthodontist appointment and then we went to lunch and then the movies. A perfect day off.
8. Someone STOLE one of my wreaths off the front doors. Can you believe that? They were both there this morning, and then one was gone this afternoon. Who steals wreaths? And why only one? I'm annoyed.
1. After I picked Tanner up from school this afternoon, I took him and Bridger to get their hair cut. Usually, Dave just cuts Bridger's hair at home. It's always an event. An event filled with screaming and many tears and Bridger rubbing hair into his eyes, making them swollen for hours. So, I figured we'd give the barber shop a try. Tanner went first. Bridger sat on my lap and watched. He was intrigued by all the different piles of hair on the floor. "Who's hair is dat?" "Dat Tanner's hair?" "Dat the man's hair?"
When it was his turn, he sat right down and didn't move. The barber put a fish cape on him that covered his whole little person. Just his little bare toes were poking out the bottom. He'd look over at Tanner and I and give us a little half smile, then look down. Cute boy.
Tonight while we were driving home from dinner, he reached up to touch his hair. "MOM? My hairs all gone? I want my hair." A few tears. When he's tired, he touches his hair. Poor boy misses his hair. But he sure looks cute.
2. Last week, Bridger and I went to Target. Surprise, surprise. He is loving the Halloween aisles. That was our first stop. We had to spend a few minutes looking at the "scary guys." He had to push all the buttons on all the decorations. Next stop was the toy section. Only one aisle, though. The one with the big huge dinosaur in the clear case. You can push a button and the dinosaur moves and roars. He's totally intrigued by this thing. After the dinosaur, we checked out the clearance end caps. It was our lucky day. We found a Cars lunch box. He grabbed it and yelled, "MY PURSE!" Ha. I told him it was a lunch box. Purses are for girls. When Tanner got home, Bridger showed him his new treasure. "Tanner! Look at my purse!" Tanner made sure Bridger didn't call that thing a purse again. It's now a "wunchbox."
3. Bridger is holding strong to his king status around here. He pretty much always gets what he wants. Take for instance the popcorn bowl. It belongs to him. He'll usually share with Tanner. Everyone else gets yelled at and pushed away. Proof...
4. Despite all of my worries and lack of faith, Bridger is a champ at sleeping in his bed. We put him to bed and he stays there! He puts his sippy cup on his bed, pushed back to the wall. We sing songs (Old McDonald, prayer, I Love to See the Temple, I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ, and Called to Serve. He won't let me change any of it. Sometimes we add in an extra song at the end. How Much is that Doggy in the Window is his recent favorite). Then he tells me "Door open." And that's my cue to leave. As long as the door is open a little bit, he stays in bed and goes to sleep. Amazing.
It's time for someone to come home.
Bridger found this picture this morning and carried it around for a while. Moping.
"This Pop. This Grams. I wanna go ranch. MOOOOOMMMMM!"
I think it's like this every year. We do pretty well until October comes, then it's just time for them to come home.
We miss you, Pop & Grams :)
Tanner:
Tanner had a little surgery to remove a baby tooth and expose the permanent tooth that was cutting off the root of the tooth next door. He got to go to sleep for it and everything! I was so looking forward to when he woke up and all the crazy things he would say. Well, he woke up and said nothing. Nothing except, "I'm hungry." (He had to fast all day... didn't want to miss school, so we had to schedule it for late afternoon). We got french fries and a slush from Sonic on the way home. He never felt an ounce of pain. So weird. I filled his prescription for lortab, he took one because I made him... and that was it. He was playing basketball and doing his thing that night.
Brynley:
Last week Bryn ran for Vice President. Fourth & fifth graders can run for office. She was allowed to make 4 posters. Nothing more. No passing out treats or flyers or anything! What kind of campaigning is that? So Friday was the big voting day. We had many chats about winning and losing and how it all didn't REALLY matter. She agreed. Until SHE LOST! Then she was heartbroken. When she got home from school, I opened the door and she fell into my arms in a heap. So sad. She cried for a few minutes and then just wanted to go watch TV in my bed. Dave called to talk to her. I heard her say, "It's ok. I'm over it." Sob, sob, sob.
Ellie:
Ellie had her first set of spelling words this week.
like, come, what, my, for, the, have, you, see, look
We studied and studied those words. Seriously. Hours.
So Friday, she comes skipping in the house with a big smile on her face,
"I got a "D" on my spelling test!!!"
At least it wasn't an F.
We're over achievers in this family :)
Bridger:
Bridger got a new putter and driver yesterday. The boys went golfing for a couple of hours. Dave said he liked the golf cart more than the golf clubs.
