This is Halloween

Our pumpkins:

Thumbelina
Squirt the Head Chef

Munchkin the Sous Chef
ET as Dracula

Costumes at Karate, costumes for school (except for ET losing the note that said to bring your costumes and change into them after lunch), costumes for the church party, costumes for Trick or Treating...if I never have to touch costume makeup again or wash said makeup off, it will be too soon!

We Are Getting There...

I may actually be all ready for Halloween a few days ahead of time. (That's only because ET gets to wear his costume to Karate today so it has to be done by then.)

So 3 costumes are ready and ET's is getting the final touches. Squirt's also needs some accessories.

The buckets are done thanks to this tutorial that is floating around the internet.

The kids are so excited about them. But the best part about them is they stack together! Man I hate those pumpkin buckets! But I used two of our old Easter buckets so we are going to have eat some ice cream before Easter :)

Darth Vader

If you are wondering what croup sounds like....

Pretty much a baby version of Darth Vader:

And it takes forever to go away!

Fickle

Munchkin found Thumbelina's old ballet outfits and decided she wanted to be a ballerina for Halloween. So we found the shoes, and tried everything on to make sure it would fit. Then she proceeded to wear it all day long.

Then she saw me making Squirt's costume and decided she didn't want to be a ballerina after all. She wants to be the same thing as Squirt. Luckily she already has half the outfit so I only had to make parts of it. She would have made a cute ballerina but she also would have been a popsicle by the end of the night.

Sweet Squirt

Not only is she a double thumbsucker, but she has incorporated her feet into her sucking rotation.

Growing Up

The morning of picture day at school is full of instructions.

*Smile good. Not a cheesy smile, a normal one.
*Please don't get dirty before your pictures.
*Don't mess up your hair before pictures.

Aside from Thumbelina looking slightly terrified, I think they turned out well.

I can't believe I have kids this old!

Weekend

In between the puke and the croup that defined our Fall Break, we promised the kids a movie party. Movies parties evolved from hubby working most Friday nights and me not having any energy to deal with the kids after about 6 pm. So if they were good, ate all their dinner and cleaned the playroom, they could have movie party. Movie party is where the kids fight over who gets to pick the movie, spill popcorn all over the playroom and generally have a grand ole time.


This weekend, we rented Imagine That. It was such a good movie. But the best part of the whole movie came today in the form of this paper I found in the hallway:

Translation (because the bottom got cut off):

Their pants were pulled down so everybody could see their underwear which was filled with poop.

Awesome! Out of a whole movie this is the one line that my 6 year old remembers.

More Firsts

You would think that on my 4th kid, I would have been through most everything a kid can put you through.

WRONG!

We had our first trip to the ER Wednesday night. Squirt was a little congested when I put her to bed but I really didn't think anything of it. Then, when she woke up around midnight with a barking cough and labored breathing, hubby freaked out, which made me freak out! So we called our neighbor to come over and help hubby give Squirt a blessing. (Thanks Brandon for not going to bed before midnight and always helping out!) We had never dealt with labored breathing until a few months ago when Munchkin got pneumonia. I called the on-call nurse and she said to take her to the ER. So we called my brother--who had also just gone to bed-to come and sleep here so he could listen for the other kids.

We got the ER about 1 am, where they confirmed croup. Our first bout of croup. Apparently croup is a virus that manifests with congestion and a barking cough. Oh yeah, and there is nothing they can do for it! They suctioned her out (and got nothing) and sent us home with instructions to use a humidifier and tylenol if she got a fever, and let her sleep with her head elevated. We got home and tried to sleep in our bed holding her. I layed on my back with her leaning on my stomach. It was not the best night of sleep. She was so fussy and just plain uncomfortable.

The other kids woke up at their usual time of 6 am. And Squirt wouldn't sleep longer than 45 minutes all that next day. So she was uncomfortable and super tired. We got nothing done that day! Just a lot of rocking, bouncing and walking the floor with her. The weird thing was that she ate great! Had all of her bottles and then some. Ate a ton of cereal--she really likes the squash and sweet potatoes.

Then ET started throwing up Thursday night. He feels fine during the day and throws up a few hours after going to bed...usually right after we've gone to bed!

So now is probably not the best time for visitors...unless you like this sort of thing!

YUM!

We cooked a turkey on Sunday.


I had to come home and pump during Sunday School and it smelled sooo good! We made mashed potatoes, gravy, corn and a pumpkin cake. It was fantastic!


Why did we cook a turkey in October when we are going to have another one in November? Because our freezer is too full of breastmilk and the turkey was taking up too much room.

And By Some Miracle...

Usually, if all the kids are home, ET and Thumbelina (being so close in age) make up a ton of games to play with which Munchkin cannot keep up. I am not sure if they plan the games that way or it that's just how it happens. But Munchkin is always the third wheel.

This weekend, ET was so consumed with the computer that the girls played together without any fights for a good long while. (Now this 'good long while' may have been 20 minutes, it may have been 2 hours, it was so nice to have no fighting it seemed like an eternity!)


I didn't even care that their playing involved taking every single one of their gajillion CareBears outside.

And then the one day that I had to actually go into the school instead of just dropping off, Munchkin, of course, dressed up like this:

Needs Vs Wants

Hubby's work gives us insurance. This insurance comes paired with a Flex Account. This is basically money that comes out of hubby's check before taxes that we can use on medical and dental things. (We usually up the amount into this and his 401K at the same time as his raise so we see no difference in his take home money.)

Most years we have leftover money on this account. Last year, ET got Transition Lenses in his new pair of glasses and hubby got 6 boxes of contacts. We usually have to find something to use up the rest of the money because you have to use it by the end of the year.

This year, we had Squirt. Squirt demolished our Flex account. She was born the middle of May and the card was empty by the end of May. We hadn't even gotten all the bills from having her yet.

(Having babies is expensive!!!)

So this year, there is no extra money.

But next year...

So hubby and I are putting together a list of wants that we can get done with this extra money. You know like teeth whitening, braces, putting the girls back where they belong, laser hair removal, Lasik, etc.

Too bad we couldn't use it on barely health related items...like a treadmill or a gym membership or babysitters for date night.

Spirituality

I have been slacking lately.

And that slacking makes me short with my children.


I totally missed the General RS Meeting, and the subsequent airings on TV last week. We didn't watch Conference on Saturday. But we did DVR it. Sunday we made it mostly through one session. We played BINGO, which worked fantastically last conference but it really didn't hold the kids attention this time. So for the afternoon session, we mostly ate candy and shushed the kids. I can't even remember a single talk.

I am also working my way through the Book of Mormon. I set it up to read it in 90 days and I am on Day 98 right now. I have been on Moroni 6 for over a week now. I just can't finish it. I was reading every morning when I pumped because I was all alone. It was so peaceful and such a great way to start my day. But lately, the kids have been waking up within minutes of me. The first few days I tried to keep reading but the kids would talk to me and I would lose my place and become frustrated.

So this week, I am staring fresh. I have every session of Conference DVRed, including the RS session. My goal is to watch at least a talk a day. I am also going to finish the Book of Mormon tomorrow. If I can't do it in the morning, I will have hubby take all the kids to Karate so I can finish it then. Then I will start over. Everything just goes so much better when I take the time to inject a little bit of the Spirit into my day.

A Whole Week?!

I haven't been sick. I haven't been too busy. I just haven't done it. So here is some of our last week:

Halloween bandannas from Aunt Rachel: Except you have to call them handkerchiefs--but say the chief part like you say Fire Chief. Too funny!

Squirt is a rolling machine. Except she can roll to her stomach but not back to her back. She freaked out for the first 3-4 days, but now she can handle it for about 15 minutes before she cries for help.

Finally we can do ponytails!!! Me and Thumbelina and Munchkin can all do ponytails now. It takes wet hair, clips and hairspray but dang it-we can do it. And once Thumbelina got over the trauma of looking "bald," she really seemed to like it.

I am so glad tomorrow is Saturday!!!