Halloween 2013

Hey that rhymes!  (It's the little things that amuse me.)

This year we kept Halloween pretty low-key.  Well as low-key as you can keep a holiday where kids get to dress up and collect as much candy as is possible in one night.  We didn't do Boo at the Zoo this year (mainly because we don't have a zoo membership) but we did go to Bass Pro Shops one night and do trick-or-treating there.  It was really small and not overly done, so it didn't feel like a big stress to do that.  We went with a friend of mine and her two kids.  It was fun!



Sorry for the grainy phone pic

Ashten and Sofia

 

Brayden dressed up as a Viking. 

 

 

Logan was Jack (from Magic Tree House - his favorite series right now).

 

 

Preston was the Dark Avenger (kind of looked like Batman)

 

 

 

Ashten was Snow White.  Funny story here: when we went to Bass Pro Shops and trick-or-treated, Ashten wore this Snow White costume, so on Halloween night she informed us she didn't want to be Snow White again because "she had already worn that costume".  Sound like a girl much?  We talked her back into it and she was a really cute Snow White!!

 

 

On Halloween night we went out trick-or-treating as a family.  When they had filled up their buckets Brayden and Preston wanted to come home.  After that I went out again with Logan and Ashten, who weren't ready to be done with all the fun of candy-getting.  Then Ashten was ready to be done, so we dropped her off at home and went back out just me and Logan.  We had SO MUCH CANDY! 

 

 

Last year Chris and I were in the middle of trying to work out and lose weight, so we thought up an ingenious plan to get all of the candy out of the house quickly (besides eating it all in 3 days!).  We paid each of the kids some money for their candy and they all gladly gave it up.  So this year they were expecting that again.  We sold the candy to a dentist's office that buys it and sends it to troops overseas and then we also gave the kids a little and then we took them to the mall where they all picked out a new Lego toy (except for Ashten, who got some new bottles for her baby dolls).  Phew, now that Halloween is over, now the real holiday season can start!

Brayden and the viola

At the elementary schools in our area, orchestra and band start in 5th grade.  Brayden wanted to do it right away and we warned him to think very carefully about his decision because it would mean more time doing something else and less free time.  I will give credit to Brayden, he did weigh the decision carefully and spent time thinking about it seriously, but in the end he did choose to play.  Chris and Brayden went to an informational night where basically all the musical instrument vendors in the area are there and you pick an instrument and rent an instrument, etc.

Brayden chose viola and I am super excited about that because I love the sound of stringed instruments and always kind of wished I had learned to play one. 

 

As we kind of figured, since Brayden can already play the piano, read music, count the beat, etc, he picked up viola fairly quickly.  In fact he was pretty bored the first few weeks of orchestra at school because his teacher was teaching really, really basic stuff and he was far beyond that.  He enjoys the instrument very much though, so I think he will stick with it awhile.

Last week, there was an area-wide orchestra concert.  Brayden did great and the kids sounded pretty good for how short of time they had been doing it. 

 

 

I'm so excited to see Brayden continue to improve!

Matching outfits

My sister gave Ashten a bunch of her daughter's old clothes (still so grateful!!) and one shirt Ashten called her "sparkle" shirt and insisted I had one to match.  I couldn't remember the one she thought she knew I had, but one day it was hanging up to dry and Ashten was super enthusiastic that we should wear them to match the next day.  So we did.....

 

I'll take it now, I know there's a day coming someday when she would be mortified to be seen in public matching her mom! ;)

Sleepy guy

Preston is our kid that can fall asleep anywhere, anytime.  He gets tired and it just doesn't matter where we are or what he's doing, he's out!  He even fell asleep outside during the loud fireworks show this past 4th of July.

Brayden and Logan are getting older and not quite tired and ready for bed when we put the younger two to bed, so we let them stay up and read for a while.  Preston decided he wanted to do that one night, so we obliged, knowing how it would end.  Sure enough, not even 10 minutes later, we came up to find this:

 

I'm thinking this one isn't quite ready for a later bedtime yet!

 

Freezer jam

I get more and more brave and willing to try cooking new things in the kitchen the older I get.  Starting last fall, Chris and I got more serious about eating healthy versus eating cheap and easy.  It has made a difference in how we feel and look and we want our kids to grow up eating healthy too, so it has to translate to every meal and snack.  Slowly, over time we have cut out more processed junk and added more fruits and veggies and whole foods.  I am by no means an expert in it and I still enjoy my chemical-laden creamer with each morning cup of coffee, but for the most part we eat less sugar and more fruits and veggies. 

I decided to try my hands at making some freezer jam.  My grandma always used to make real jam and give me a jar every time I saw her, and since she passed away last summer I have really missed that.  I wasn't quite ready to do the full canning process, so I started with freezer jam.  It turned out really and the kids like it and it's only raspberries, sugar and pectin, so it's all good!

And my cute helper made all the difference!

 

Little computors

Sunday afternoons are our family time/homework time/football watching time/learning AWANA verses time/rest time.  Since Brayden and Logan are older and further along in school, they usually have more homework.  Brayden usually types up his spelling sentences on the computer, so Preston and Ashten got out their computers and "did homework" too!

 

These two laptops are really old ones that don't even work anymore.  The blue one that Preston has doesn't even have a built-in way to get on the internet!!  And the black one is missing a few keys and is cracked on the side.  But we are too lazy to destroy the hard drives so we can really get rid of them, so most of the time they sit on top of our dryer and the kids play with them every so often.

 

My Little Pony

For the past year or so, we have been doing dates with the kids one-on-one with just one of us.  Each month we do a different kid/adult combination so they each get 3 dates a year.  They really look forward to this time and will plan for weeks what they want to do on their date.  Ashten's date with Chris was in September and instead of going out to eat or going to a movie or something, Chris decided to take her to Build-a-Bear and let her make a My Little Pony.  She loved the experience and still sleeps with her pony every night. 

 

The only downside to this little pony addition to our family is that Ashten wanted to add some music to it and the song is getting just a little old!  Haha!  Here, so you can join in on our listening misery pleasure as well:



 

 

The only reason she even knows this song is because sometimes we rent Just Dance 4 from Redbox for family night.  This song and Call Me Maybe are her absolute favorites on that game!

Preston and Legos

Preston really loves to play Legos and he is really creative with them too.  When he gets a new set, he builds it using the directions, but inevitably they get broken or taken apart and then that's when the genius begins.  Preston is very innovate with his legos, building houses or ships with all kinds of cool "features".

 

"Ethiopia"

 

Ashten got this doll for her birthday and she loves to play with it.  She calls the baby "Ethiopia" and people are always shocked that she even knows that country name.  Then I have to go ahead and explain that we are adopting from there, and then they understand.  I wonder if "K" will want to play with this doll someday?

I'm loving.....

Dark blue nail polish (and my favorite coffee mug), I'm into all the dark nail polish colors right now. (Pardon the messy manicure)

This yogurt I found at the grocery for only 40 cents!  It's yummy and only 60 calories!

A new wreath for the front door that yours truly made!!

New Africa artwork for the bare basement walls, again made by yours truly (hmmm, I'm noticing a pattern here, I must be getting crafty in my mid-age!)

New winter clothes for Ashten given to me by my sweet sister and niece.  Cool story here: so a few weeks ago I was going through Ashten's clothes and realized she actually had very few clothes for winter and those that she did have were mismatched and nothing I could really make an outfit out of. All of her clothes are hand-me-downs, which I am so grateful for, but sometimes you only get one piece of an outfit or just a bunch of clothes that the last kid didn't like as much so they didn't get as worn out and were still pass-down-able.  I prayed that God would provide some winter clothes for Ashten since we couldn't really afford to buy her a new wardrobe for fall/winter. And He did!!!  My sister was getting rid of all of my niece's old clothes and said that I could look through and take whatever would fit Ashten.  Now Ashten has an abundance of cute and stylish cold-weather clothes. God sees and God provides!!)

Insanity. I really have a love/hate relationship with it, it makes me skinny(ish) and it's good for me, but it's hard and there are just days when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to do it.  Chris and I are back to working out daily after our schedule got really off during the summer basement remodel project and the start of school. I love that time with him working out and getting fit, he's such a great encouragement to me when I just want to keel over and die quit.  And I really need to lose some weight again, sigh, why can't it just stay off for good?  But man, if I never have to do another power jump or level 2 drill again, I wouldn't lose any sleep.

What are some of your favorite things right now?