Our Halloween

We love Halloween around our place!  Each year I look forward to finding out what my kids want to dress up as (sometimes with intrigue, sometime with fear of what I have to come up with).  This year I didn't have to make any costumes!  Hooray.  I really do love making their costumes, but didn't have the passion or the energy for it this year.

Matthew really wanted to be Spiderman.  It just so happened to be a very popular costume for 3-year-olds this year.  His cousin Adam, and his good friends were all Spidey as well. I love his muscly suit.  Much to my relief, he was thrilled with it! He wore a huge grin, every time he had it on. Last year I couldn't even get him to put his costume on at all.

Matt and Adam as twiner Spideys.

 Nathan wanted to be a solider.  Our next door neighbor came through for us with an awesome real deal US Army uniform.  He was bummed that he and his friend didn't get the chance to make a trailer into a tank to ride around on for trick-or-treating.  He always thinks big!  I guess ya gotta dream.

 Sarah's wanted to be a cowgirl all year long.  It was nice to not have her as a princess again! She already had the boots and hat (which somehow didn't get in any pictures.)  I'm pretty sure I wore that vest when I was little.  She made a beautiful cowgirl!

 Little Abby didn't have an opinion on a costume, but liked being an indian (a costume my mom and I made for Sarah years ago).  She would tell everybody, "indian," though it sometimes came out sounding like "idiot." When I brought up the idea of having an indian to go along with cowboys, my kids didn't get it.  I had to explain to them that we used to play cowboys and indians all the time when I was a kid.  Nowadays... cowboys and Native Americans just doesn't have the same ring to it.

 I love that smile!

 We had a fun Halloween carnival at the church.  I borrowed one of my mom's costumes, and went as Ben Franklin.  Rob was in Oregon helping his mom, so I tried giving him clues on the phone of who I was dressing as.  It came down to something like, "yeah, I'm wearing a sexy costume, if you like fat bald guys..."

 Since Rob was gone, my dad agreed to go to the carnival with me and the kids.  He was a life saver! He still looks great in his Air Force flight suit, though he couldn't find his "Top-Gun" glasses. My dad is the best!  Thanks!!!

 Abby insisted on carrying both her and Sarah's pumpkin buckets.  This is one of my favorite pictures of the night. On to the next house!

 She absolutely loved trick-or-treating!  What a concept. I look cute in my costume and say trick-or-treat, and people give me lots of candy!  A few nights after Halloween, I heard Abby call out in her sleep, "Want it, more chocate... more chocate." This girl loves sweets.

 Thankfully, the rain quit before we headed out trick-or treating. What a fun night! Nathan went out with his friend Spencer and his mom, bringing back WAY too much candy. We all got way more than we need.  I charged my kids too high of a candy tax, and now I need to have a standing date with my treadmill! 

Our Day with a Snort

*As a side note, in our family a snort is an excavator. We love the children's book Are You My Mother, by PD Eastman. In it, the little bird thinks that an excavator is his mother, until it snorts at him and he calls it a snort.  Technically I think it's a steam shovel, but looks like an excavator.  Anyway... my kids have all grown up calling them snorts.  I think it's cute, but I know that someday they are going to embarrass themselves by calling it a snort in front of their friends.- sorta like when I was little and didn't know that it was just my family that knew about bobbly-knobs (known to the rest of the world as ponytail holders with balls on the end- remember those? yeah).

So... we had a problem at our old house with water leaking into the apartment in the basement. This has been an ongoing problem for years.  We'd tried several different solutions, but after a while when it rained we'd get another call from our tenants saying that there was water in their bedroom again. Rob ended up having to cut the driveway and dig down 8 feet to the bottom of the foundation to seal the foundation again.  The only way to do it was to rent a mini snort.  We had it for 24 hours.  Twenty-four hours of joy on Rob's face, and many, many projects completed that would have taken much longer by hand.  Rob said several times, "I gotta get me one of these."

After fixing the problem at our old house, he took it home to see what he could get done. He moved boulders out of our garden, tore down dying aspen trees (why cut them down when you can just knock them down, roots and all?!), and built up islands... He worked as fast as he could before his 24 hours was up. We'll just keep it in the back of our minds that a mini snort is on his wish list. someday...

I got to try it too, but had to stop myself because I was tearing up the grass too much. It was so cool!

Fun Run Stampede

Though this happened way back in May, I wanted to include it in my blog catch-up.
At Nathan's school, they put on a 5K Stampede.  We had just taken Sarah to a clogging performance, and got home just in time to get to the school for the race.  We had to hoof it pretty fast to get to the school in time, leaving Nathan with a side ache- before the race even began.  We had barely caught our breath, when they started the race.  Nathan's side ache came back, and he fought it the whole race. Nathan's friend Spencer ran with us. At the end Nathan was struggling, but Spencer wouldn't go ahead. He said, "a good scout never leaves his friends behind." It was very cute.  Matthew and Abby had a great time riding in the stroller, cheering on the boys.  It was really fun, and a totally different experience than the 5K at his old school.  This Stampede was a lot smaller, and lower-key. We had people riding on 4 wheelers up and down the road, checking up on the runners.

 Spencer and Nathan are waiting for their names to be called for a prize in the drawing. Spencer's big brother won the whole race, and got a really cool prize. Fun times!

Can't Do Everything

Over the summer, I came to the realization that I can't do everything.  I never really had the illusion that I could, but at least I felt that I got some things done.  I went through a period where I felt that just keeping our heads above water was all I was capable of.  I struggled with getting the kids to and from school, football, soccer, helping with homework, weeding the garden, harvesting the garden (and actually using all that I picked), laundry, laundry, laundry, clipping fingernails and toenails, doing hair, scouts, spending time with my husband, potty training Matt, doing the dishes, keeping the house from total CHAOS, playing with the kids, shopping for groceries, canning, getting the kids to do their chores, helping build  the shed, exercising, cooking dinner... and BLOGGING.  I had to let some things slide.  Dinner, often times ended up being chicken nuggets from the freezer, or pizza from Little Caesars. Matthew is still not potty trained. Clean clothes can mostly be found in the laundry room, not in closets and dressers (sometimes folded, sometimes not).  Lots of produce from the garden went to waste because I didn't get to it.  My floor didn't get mopped very often.  And... I haven't blogged in months and months.

Things seem better under control now, as life has settled down a bit. So now, where do I start? Rob says to start where were are, but I don't know.  I want this to be a journal of our lives, and not skip over whole seasons. I'll get caught up one way or another.  Hold me to that ok?!  The task seems overwhelming, so I'll just have to plow through it.  I don't have the energy and brain power to be witty or clever. I've wasted enough time agonizing over that. So watch out, (hopefully) here come a plethora of posts.