Will at Nine Months

This is my little guy. He is the funnest little dude on the planet. We have so much fun; the two of us. We even have a bit of fun with the rest of the family. It's taken me a while to get this post up and running, but here is the download on Will at nine months.

He weighs 21 1/4 pounds. He is 28 1/2 inches long. He still has a HUGE Charlie Brown head. I guess he's got a big brain, go figure.

He has cut two teeth, and according the doc has several more waiting to poke through any time soon. So far, he has been the only one of our kids to be truly nasty throughout the teething process. He has been so sad and it makes me so sad. I will be so glad when we are done with this so that he stops waking up at night and lets me get some sleep.

He can wave, give five, and likes to give loves. He is generally a very happy and content baby. He fits in very well with our family and we are so glad to have him.

Will loves music and is a dancer. He likes pizza and macaroni and cheese and has learned to drink through a straw.

It's hard to believe that we have just celebrated his first Halloween, soon to be followed by his first Christmas and in January, his first birthday. Time has truly flown with this little guy and I am so looking forward to what life with this little guy has to offer.

Home on Halloween

Don't they look cute? Allie made her own costume this year and is the cutest 50's girl I have ever seen. Jack is thrilled to be part of Lightening McQueen's Pit Crew. Will is merely tolerating his pirate hat and Erin is a pig in a blanket.... sometimes that girl's creativity really comes in handy.

It's Halloween..... sigh........ and I am home by myself waiting for little ones to knock on my door. I don't mind, really. It's better than chasing after my kids in the dark. However, in this moment of relative quiet, I find myself reflective. I've kind of turned into a scrooge about Halloween. Last year, I decorated and went all out like I normally do, and found myself in the worst mood ever as I sent my kids out in the pouring rain to trick or treat. Maybe it was because I was pregnant, maybe because it was raining, but I couldn't wait to tear everything down the day after Halloween. I thought with time, I would get over it, but as we are here at Halloween, I have to say, that I'm just not feeling it this year. I have no desire to haul out my decorations and spookify my house, and boy, have my kids let me know what a crappy mom I am. Nevermind that they all got the costumes that they wanted. We went to Scary Hill (Cherry Hill's Halloween) this year, we baked a Jack-O-Lantern cake (at 535 calories a slice). Nope.... doesn't count. I finally caved this afternoon and bought pumpkins, which my kids fancified with dress-ups. I hate the mess, but Matt is great and will usually do it with them.

Ugghhhh.... so not feeling it. Anyway, I guess here is the run-down of what we did for Halloween this year. Maybe next year, you will see our house on YouTube, or maybe not. Now I just need to get it together for Christmas.

One of my favorite things to do around Halloween, if it's possible, is to go to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in Disney World. Obviously, we don't make it every year, but this year we did. We planned ahead, and the kids dressed up like characters from Alice in Wonderland. Allie was Alice, Erin was the Queen of Hearts, Jack was the Mad Hatter and Will was the White Rabbit. We had a lot of fun planning their costumes. Matt and I were going to go as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, but as the trip grew closer, something had to give. So here are our pictures of our Halloween Party with Mickey.

It should be noted that Erin made her dress. It has a jacket that goes with it, but she wasn't quite finished with it for DisneyWorld.

This party is always lots of fun. There is a special parade led by the Headless Horseman, complete with Haunted Mansion grave diggers and Disney Villains. You get to trick-or-treat around the park and the have DJ's playing music all around the park. It is so fun and I am so glad we got to go this year.

After we got home from Florida, we put up a few decorations and then last weekend, we went to Scary Hill with Alan, Katie & Aspen. We played miniature golf, which takes FOREVER with three little kids and two babies. Then on to the batting cages and the rock wall. Erin and Jack really have a knack for hitting a ball. I think I might see Little League in our future.

Last week was filled with parties; at school, at Grandma's and at church. Friday was one of those days that defines the credo, "motherhood is not for wimps." Matt and I had to be at two programs, a parade and a party all within a half an hour of each other. I have to say, that I will be happy when Erin starts junior high next year and we're back down to two in elementary schools. Man, there's a lot of stuff. Jack's class had a great little program where they sang and dance and told Halloween jokes. It is so fun to see this side of him. He is ALL BOY. With the girls, they have been singing and dancing since they were capable of moving on their own. Jack is pretty much just into climbing and playing video games; he doesn't sing or dance much. So watching him perform with his friends was priceless. Here is the gang (Jack, Landon & Nate plus some random little girl I don't know) after the performance... dang the stupid window was making it hard to get a good picture.

Next, we were off to Erin's Zombie Program. This is a big deal at our school. It's done by 5th graders every year, but because of the MAC program and Erin's curriculum being 5th grade this year, they got to participate. It was really fun. The whole thing is done in black light and is filled with jokes and songs and dancing. So much fun.

Here they are in all their zombie glory. My girl is the tall one in the back.

Here is Erin with Will and her two good friends, Bryn and Tiffani.

These girls are the three musketeers.

Sadly, I did not get any pictures of Allie in her costume parade, but she had a great time and although we didn't catch all of everything in that half-hour time frame, we caught a little bit of everything, and managed to not be total loser parents.

Friday night was Grandma Homer's Halloween Party. My mom has been doing this for the last four years and it has really turned into something we love. It works well because we all get to see all of the kids in their costumes, and we get to chat and eat and play games that we wouldn't get to actually do on Halloween. This year, we roasted hot dogs in Grandpa's fire pit outside and had a lot of fun until it got really cold. This is the only picture we got of all of the kids in their costumes, due to an unfortunate mustard episode.

Jack and Andrew thought it was sooooo funny that they had the same costume. After dinner, we played Trick or Treat Hide and Seek, and Halloween Bunco. We made caramel apples and watched the Cardinals win Game 7 of the World Series. The kids got to color and watch a special Halloween show. It was so much fun.... the only thing that would have made it better is if Greg, Sarah, Lizzie and Abbey could have joined us. Maybe next year.

Saturday night was our party at the church. Too bad for me that I don't have pictures and too bad for you that the internet doesn't have scent capabilities. The kids Trunk-or-Treated around the parking lot of the building, making sure to stop at Brother Carlson's trunk.... he was grilling up hot dogs for his treat. What a fun idea; one our Grandpa Homer could definitely get behind. It is so fun to see what creative and festive folks we have in our ward.

After the Trunk-or-Treat, we moved inside to eat a dutch oven dinner made by some of the church folks. There were prizes awarded for the best dishes, but I really don't think there was a bad dish made. It was so fun. It's on nights like these that I feel so blessed to live where I do, with such great people.

That brings us to tonight. I am sitting in the front room, listening to Oingo Boingo and trying to get caught up on the happenings of the last month. I am hoping that next year finds me more in the mood to celebrate things that go bump in the night, but until then, I will wish you all a Happy Halloween and the hope that you don't wake up to smashed pumpkins in the morning.

Like my costume?

Speak Now

Oh, it's been so very long! Have you missed me? It's crazy that October is nearly over. We have been very busy with things (mostly fun things, for sure) but it has been awhile. One of the fun things we did during the last part of September was to take the girls to Taylor Swift. Over the course of the last year, we have all become fans at our house and the girls got tickets to her concert for their birthdays. Remember this???

Well, on September 28th, those birthday tickets became real. We dropped the boys off at Grandma Homer's for the night and took our girls for a night out on the town. They both donned their Taylor Swift tee-shirts that I had gotten the "fan club exclusive" on and we took them to dinner at The Melting Pot. Now you have to know, I happen to love fondue anything! Matt, not so much, but he took one for the team this night.

The girls LOVED it! It was so much fun to try different things and the dessert was heavenly. I almost have Matt convinced he should take me back "just because."

After dinner, we were off to the concert at the Energy Solutions Arena. The stage was fantastic and I loved the way the show progressed. It had a very upscale, magic show/circus vibe. There were trapeze artists and awesome lighting and fireworks. Her costumes were many, and fabulous and MODEST, which thankfully, the girls noticed. She sang most of the songs from her latest album and a few from the past. I was amazed to notice that my girls knew almost every single word.

Going to this concert with the girls was such an awesome experience. Not only because we love her music and the concert was wonderful, but the whole evening gave us such insight into the lovely young ladies our daughters are becoming. As the girls have gotten older and the little boys have joined our family, it has become harder to spend time and do things with "just the girls." On this night, I was taken back a bit to when the girls were both little and we had so much fun with them.

I was also impressed with the progress we've made as parents with our daughters. Not impressed like "aren't we awesome parents?" But impressed by how much we have changed because of them and how much they have changed for the better in spite of us. They are such good girls. They are nice, they are funny, they are smart and they have the whole world ahead of them. I am so excited and so honored that I get to be their mother and be on this journey with them. There are times that I feel like giving up, and heaven knows I give in more than I should, but I hope that by the time these sweet girls are old enough to strike out on their own, they, themselves, understand and appreciate their full potential and that they realize how special they are.

At the end of this night, Taylor did a song that I had listened to a bunch on her CD, but I'd never really thought about much. It has a line in it that just grabbed me:

"It was the end of a decade, but the start of an age."

It really made me think that the time I have spent over the course of the last ten years raising and trying to train these girls is about to pay off. I am so excited to see what the future brings with these girls. They have the whole world at their disposal and are so ready to seize their future.

When You Imagine, Time Becomes Timeless

It's no secret, we love Walt Disney World. We truly go more than any one family should, but it's soooo fun. During the first couple of weeks of October, we got to go to Florida and spend time with some of our favorite family and friends. Will and I went for two weeks and had fun with Grandma, Greg & Sarah and family, and our buddy Travis, his boy Beckham and his mom, Sharon. In the middle of the week we were joined by Ben & Shanna and their kids and then toward the end of the week our Daddy and brother and sisters joined us. We did lots of fun, and this post promises to have lots of pictures. Sorry if you're put out by the pictures, but we had so much fun, we just had to share.

First, you have to know that we are members of the Disney Vacation Club; Disney's version of a timeshare. It's awesome because that means we get to go often and when we get there, they tell us "Welcome Home." I love this. Disney truly goes out of their way to make us feel at home.


We spent our time in Florida doing lots of fun things; going on rides, eating at new and exciting restaurants and partying Disney style.

Here is Will waiting for the bus on the first day. It is really early, especially considering the time zone change.

We ate at some great restaurants with some of our favorite Disney characters.

We ate at some really fun restaurants, courtesy of the Disney Dining Plan (post about that and my diet coming soon.) One of my favorite things about Disney World is Epcot. The World Showcase part of this park allows us to try all kinds of food. We ate lunch in Mexico, Norway, Japan and France. We had dinner in Germany and oom-pahed and danced to the polka. Add Epcot's annual Food and Wine Festival and we got a taste of just about anything we could imagine. We even got a visit from Remy.

One of the funnest things that we did this time was go to the Pirate League in the Magic Kingdom.  Here all the kids got a chance to be transformed into buccaneers.

Here you see Jack and Allie taking their pirate oath and below is the whole motley crew getting ready to go for a ride.  I love my kids, and I love that they will still humor me and do fun things like this.

We had so much fun in DisneyWorld this time... did lots of fun stuff that left us hungry for more.