Pumpkin Time

We picked Dave up from the airport today (yay!), so we celebrated by carving pumpkins tonight. Brennan caught on real quick what to do. He had tons of fun poking holes.

How often do the kids get play with knives? That was Dallin's favorite part.

Spencer was the first one done. He specifically chose this pumpkin with this face in mind. Tyler wanted his face to be "all jaggedy." At one point he told Dave, "I would be so sad if we did this without you." I would be too. And overwhelmed, which is why we waited until tonight to do it.Dallin's first ever carved pumpkin. He's just a little bit proud.The finished product - less than an hour from start to finish! And then of course we had to roast the seeds.

Now we're all ready for Halloween!

Sleep

If there's one thing I can do well it's sleep. I've inherited this gift from my mom, although there are certainly more legendary sleepers in the family than me. My siblings and I were very wise in choosing our spouses - we all married light sleepers. This especially comes in handy when you have children. I'm sure we have all had the experience of only knowing that we nursed our baby in the night because we wake up in the morning and there it is, only later to find out that our husband heard the baby crying in the other room, picked him up and brought him to us to nurse. And then as the children grow up they continue to wake for a variety of reasons - cough, potty, nightmares, or for no apparent reason at all. Every morning I ask Dave how the night was because honestly I haven't got a clue. But with Dave gone, I do seem to be more aware of nighttime noises. I have to close all the bedroom doors and blast the white noise to drown them out. Usually by the time I wake up enough to realize Brennan's crying, he has already removed his pajamas and thrown his sheet and blankets out of the crib. Then this morning I awoke at 6:45 to the sound of feet running up and down the stairs and doors slamming shut. When I yelled out for someone to tell me what was going on, Spencer and Tyler came in my room and said they woke up at 6:00, ate breakfast, got dressed, brushed teeth and combed hair because they wanted to have plenty of time to play before school. They had been running up and down the stairs looking for shoes. They hadn't decided whether they would play computer games or go outside on the swings; since it was still pitch dark at the time, I recommended the computer.

When Dave's out of town...

1. I stay up way too late
2. I have to get up with the kids
3. I forget to eat breakfast
4. I don't always make dinner
5. I run out of fruit in the house
6. I get grouchy (see all of the above)
7. I miss him a lot
I love you Dave!!! Can't wait to see you in 2 days.

The Plan of Salvation

I've been talking to my kids quite a bit about life, death and family over the past couple of days. Their uncle Kevin is the first person they've ever known to die, and it has brought up a lot of questions.

Before we came to earth we lived together with our heavenly parents. They taught us and prepared us to come to earth, where we would be given physical bodies and free agency. We knew that it would not be an easy journey. Trials and hardships would be experienced by all - both the righteous and the unrighteous. But if we remain faithful to our covenants and come unto Christ, we can overcome the trials and be strengthened by them.

When we die, our spirits leave our bodies and enter the spirit world, where we await resurrection and judgement. We will not be alone but will be greeted by family members who have passed on before us. Those who have not heard about the gospel while on earth will be given that opportunity and can choose whether or not to accept it.

Because Jesus Christ overcame death and was resurrected, we will all be resurrected too. Our bodies will become perfect and immortal. We will then be judged by our choices we made on earth. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven of our sins and enter into God's presence.

I know that we will all see Kevin again. My greatest blessing is being married to Dave, with children sealed to us for time and all eternity. I am so thankful for family. As Dave said after receiving the phone call about his brother, nothing else really matters.

Halloween party

Yesterday is a bit of a blur. After staying up late making arrangements for Dave's trip back East the night before, our morning was busy getting him packed and ready to go. Then we got the kids out of school early to take him to the airport. Dallin had his field trip in the morning, so we picked him up from the pumpkin patch on our way there. It was hard saying good-bye. It was like we were so busy getting all the necessary things done that it didn't hit us until we actually hugged and kissed at the airport. Then we came home and got costumes on and cornbread made for the church Halloween party.
The kids have been looking forward to this event pretty much since last year, and it was a good distraction from the emotions of the day. We had dinner there (soup, chile, corn bread and rolls) played games in all the classrooms, including an amazing shooting gallery, and finished up with trunk-or-treating in the parking lot (it's like trick-or-treating, but people decorate the trunks of their cars and hand out candy from them). Dallin is a pirate skeleton. He kept asking, "Am I scary?!" Brennan is wearing the same frog costume all of our boys have worn about this age. Every time he sees it he ribbits.I made Tyler's pirate pants (it was the easiest pattern ever - I made them in less than an hour), he made his pirate vest over spring break when the kids said they wanted to learn how to sew, and we're recycling the vampire shirts they wore last year.

Dallin was going to be just a skeleton, but when he saw that the other boys were going to have swords, well of course he wanted one too.

Brennan loved the candy he got from trunk-or-treating and got quite irate when we wouldn't let him have certain things. So far he hasn't had any allergic reactions.

I LOVE the vest I made for Spencer. It's faux leather, and it looks and feels way cool. It was also totally easy - no buttons or zippers or sleeves or any of those hard things. I also made his pants.

Have you ever seen cuter pirates? They really get into the role.

Kevin, March 20 1970 - October 23, 2008

Kevin, Dave and Alicia 1975

We got a phone call from Dave's family last night. His older brother Kevin just died in a car accident. Kevin is the 2nd from the left here at Mary's wedding. I think this is the only time I've seen him dressed up. He loved sports - his teams were WVU football, Washington Redskins, and the Caps (ice hockey). He knew just about every stat there was about every sport. He had three children: Chase,

Trinity, age 3

And baby Kevin, 15 months old.

We are so grateful for the time we had with Kevin. We were able to visit with him when we were back there last month. He was always so laid back and happy with a contagious laugh. I loved his little chuckle.

Good-bye Kevin. We'll miss you.

Getting ready

I'm one step closer to being ready for Hawaii - I now have bright red toenails. My friend gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure recently, and I figured this was the perfect time to use it (thanks Joddy!). Less exciting things I've accomplished this week: reserved a rental car, scheduled flu vaccines for the kids, finished Halloween costumes, fed the missionaries (the best beef stew I've ever made!), went visiting teaching, wrote a letter about Tyler's bully to the principal, ordered a wedding gift for my cousin and organized clothes for the kids (some winter clothes from the basement and a bag of clothes from a friend - this is such a never-ending process for me! I love hand-me-downs, but it forces me to traige and make room for them in the dressers right away, or else they make a mess all over the house until I go crazy enough to do it). Dallin is especially excited about the orange Hawaiin shirt he got from the bag of clothes. He's worn it two days in a row and wants to wear it on his field trip tomorrow, but it's dirty and too big, so I've talked him out of it.

Change is coming

Well it's official - Dave gave his 2 week notice at the hospital yesterday. Let me explain. When the hospital started having major financial problems 10 months ago, they closed the urgent care center here in our town where Dave worked and laid off everyone who worked there except for 2 people - Dave and the office manager. So although he still had a job (whew!), it meant more commute, and it didn't seem too financially stable; so he got another part-time job doing family practice 10 minutes away. It's been working out great - he does one long day at the clinic an hour away, 2 short days on the R.V. with the hospital's mobile health unit in rural communities (which he has loved), and 2 days in the family practice office. But then last month, out of the blue, someone called Dave about a job in pulmonology. She's the office manager there and used to work with Dave at the urgent care center. Dave was mildly interested, but then right after that the hospital informed him that they would be ending the mobile health unit and switching him to workman's comp all 3 days, one hour away. So he looked more into the pulmonology position, and they offered him the job. We fasted and prayed about it on Sunday and both received confirmation that this is the right thing to do. So he'll work for them 3 days/week and keep doing the 2 days of family practice. Even though he'll only be working 24 hours/week at the pulmonology office, they're going to pay 100% of the family's health insurance. Ironically 10 minutes after he called to accept the position, a doctor he met last year (when he was looking for employment) called to offer him a job working in the urgent care center he is re-opening. That was interesting. The next 2 weeks will be very busy for both of us as we get ready for Halloween (I've been sewing costumes for 2 days and I'm just about done), prepare for our trip to Hawaii, and do all that needs to get done for the job change. My to-do lists are just too long.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Someone from church was handing out flats of strawberries for free because they were leftover from the food bank and would have gone bad if not eaten immediately. So we enjoyed sweet delicious strawberries all weekend, including strawberry shortcake for dessert last night. Then I made strawberry freezer jam with all but the last pound. I don't know if you've ever made it before, but it is SOOO easy and SOOOO yummy. It took me less than an hour last night to make one batch. It tastes fresher and much less sweet than regular jam. Here's the recipe:

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4 cups of crushed strawberries (about 3 lbs)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 packet of Ball Freezer Jam Pectin (I get it at Wal-Mart in the canning section)

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First rinse strawberries and remove stems. Then proceed to rinse three more times by putting them in a big bowl, covering with cold water and draining. Dry on paper towels. Mash them in a big bowl using a potato masher. Mix sugar with pectin, then add to strawberries. Mix for three minutes. Ladle into clean jars, leaving 1/2" space at the top; serve immedately, refrigerate up to 2 weeks or freeze up to a year. Label with the date. Makes five or six 8 ounce jars. Put on biscuits, toast, sandwiches or over ice cream. It is so good!

Friday Night

Friday night was a party, I tell you. It was Aaron and Marrisse's last night here, and mom came up for dinner (dad was working). We left all the kids (except Katrina) at Kristen & Nathan's house with Christopher and Jonathan babysitting, and we went out to dinner at a fun restaurant downtown. We ate yummy food, visited, laughed, looked at art, and taste-for-tasted each other's desserts. When we got home it was very quiet - the kids were all upstairs watching a movie. So we left them alone and watched the movie Next downstairs, which some of us had already seen but liked so much we wanted to see it again. We didn't get home until almost 11:00. The kids had so much fun staying up super late with their cousins watching 3 movies in a row. It doesn't get much better than that.

random updates

Spencer's class went to the dump today. He was so excited about it. Afterwards they had lunch at the park where he said his first word. Remember that, Jen? He kept pointing to the ducks and saying "duck!" over and over. Then he had a duck-themed first birthday.

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Tyler has a bully in his class. Tyler isn't very big, and the bully is. He even punched Spencer in the stomach one day at recess - for no reason, he just walked up to them and punched them both. He keeps getting in trouble, but that doesn't stop him from picking on Tyler.

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Dallin went to the high school homecoming assembly during preschool today. He was all excited about the candy, the bear cat mascot, the stomping and the cheering, but he said the music was so loud it hurt his ears.

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Brennan went visiting teaching with me this morning and absolutely loved talking to her pet bird and eating grapes growing in her backyard. Now that I'm the visiting teaching coordinator at church, I'm trying to be better about doing my visiting teaching.

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I bought really cute, incredibly comfortable shoes today. The fancy shoe store downtown was having a huge parking lot sale, and I figured I'd take a look since I only had 1 kid with me. I have wide feet and I'm cheap, so I usually hate shoe shopping. But these fit me perfectly and were $86 on sale for $29, and I really needed comfortable black shoes for church. I wanted to buy more, but Brennan was done shopping.

Family Visits

One of the best parts about living near mom and dad and grandpa is that family comes here on vacation. Aaron and Marrisse and their 5 kids are visiting this week from Utah. Here's my sister-in-law Marrisse and their youngest, Katrina. This is Caleb, the one boy with 4 sisters. He's almost 3.

Since the kids were off school yesterday, we went with them to the pumpkin patch. Kristen brought 6 of her 7 boys plus a friend. It wasn't as crowded yesterday as it was on Saturday, but we sure filled up the hay ride. There were 21 of us, after all. And dad was off work, so he came too.

Here's Aaron (3rd oldest in my family) with Caleb and Maggie, age 7.

Hannah, age 9, is their oldest. She was born right after Kristen's twins, Alec and Braden. Peter snuck in there too.Sophia is 5 and just started Kindergarten. My mom was just saying that they have 4 grandchildren starting school this year - Elizabeth, Daniel, Sophia and Peter.
So I think I've had my fill of pumpkin patches for the year. Dallin is going there for a field trip with his preschool, but I think I'm good.

Saturday, part II

After we left the pumpkin patch farm we decided to stop by the beach. After all, we had come so close, how could we not drive another 5 minutes to take a peek? It was a little cool and we didn't have our beach stuff with us, so we just walked down the pier. As far as piers go, this is one of my favorites because there are fun things to see.
The fishermen had just dumped a bunch of fish scraps over the edge, and the seals and birds were going nuts.

I love pelicans, especially when they're eating
They sure weren't afraid of us - the boys even got to touch one.

Then we went down below the pier and saw where all the seals hang out. They were swimming around all the poles.
It looked really cool down there, but it freaked the boys out when they heard cars driving up above us. I love the view along here.
And anchors are always fun to climb. It was an awesome day.

It's that time of year again

We celebrate Halloween the whole month of October around here. It's a close second to Christmas for my kids, as far as favorite holidays go. On Saturday we went to our favorite pumpkin patch/hay ride/animal farm/vegetable stand/hay maze/ice cream parlor. We go there at least once every October. We usually like to go during the week, since it's always so crowded on the weekends, but this was the only day Dave could go this year.

We started out doing the hay maze. We didn't get lost in there too long this time, so that was good. And they have green hair because there was a green tarp on top to prevent people from peeking over the hay to find their way out.
Here we are on the hay ride. Brennan is quite excited about the tractor.
The hay ride took us out to the pumpkin patch. Actually there were several pumpkin patches in a row, so we chose the one with the most pumpkins, obviously.

Check out that perfect pumpkin. They already knew what shapes they wanted before we got there, which made choosing fairly quick and easy.
Sometimes we had to redirect them to ones that weren't rotten.
Brennan kept calling them "balls!"
I had to take this picture quick - that pumpkin is heavier than it looks!
Once we had them all picked out, we headed back to catch the hay ride.

After we arrived pack at the barn, we were all famished. So we ate our picnic lunch. Then we got treats at the sweet shop - candy for Brennan... And ice cream for the boys. They wanted to taste Brennan's candy, but we said "No way!" There have to be some things that only he can have.