HALLOWEEN

We had a great Halloween! We went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat, the weather was beautiful. Here in Kenosha they Trick-or-Treat on the Sunday AFTERNOON before Halloween.  That doesn't really work  for a lot of us, so the ward for the past few years has had a Trunk-or-Treat instead. 

 One year I took the kids out to the county Trick-or-Treating. It seemed like we went around forever, and ended up with hardly any candy, and a whole lot of offers for a beer for the parents. It was so weird....The kids come home with a ton of candy from the Trunk-or-Treat, I think we will stick to that for now.

Our kids had fun dressing up. They always do.They were pretty cute to watch get ready, and prepare for the big event. 

Taylor was a crazy Clown, with funky hair.( I think he forgot to smile on three).

McKenzie was a Ballerina. She was loving every moment of the whole dress up thing. Make-up and all!!!!!

Jackson was Black Spider Man (venom).

Brian is always in charge of decorating the trunk. He has won first place for the last few years. Not so this year. I was the judge............His heart just wasn't in it this year!

Jackson helping me go through his candy to pick out all the candy that contains peanut. He is so cute! He thinks if he even touches a piece of candy that contains peanut then he will die.

Over all it was fun. Glad it's over though. I'm so sick of candy!

Family FALL Festivities

This time of  year here in Wisconsin is so beautiful. We love it! One of our favorite traditions has been to go to the pumpkin farm and pick out a pumpkin. The kids always love pulling the wagon around the farm in hopes to find that perfect pumpkin.  

And the search is on.....

Looks like Kenzie found her pumpkin.

Taylor helping Jackson lift his pumpkin onto the wagon.

Got them... The hard part is done. 

Now that the pumpkins are all loaded on the wagon we pull the wagon to the register to pay for the pumpkins. (notice who is pulling the wagon).

It gets better.... The boys are now both sitting on the wagon. Lol !

 The final step in this whole adventure is loading the pumpkins into the van. The kids do all the work on this trip, they just love it.

Some other fun things we did to celebrate the harvest, or this time of year included, Apple picking.(sorry no pictures) An evening with a ton of friends from the ward to a pumpkin farm, which included a crazy hayride in the dark.

 Also, we went with a few families from the ward to a huge corn maze, and then back to their house for a bonfire, and pizza. All of the activities were a lot of fun.

This was a huge slide at the corn maze.

We would watch from the bottom of the slide with a flash light to see when they would be coming down the slide. The kids thought this was pretty fun.

They had all sorts of fun little bikes for the kids to ride around.

The kids just chilling on a blanket beside the fire. Laughing, and playing.
Notice Jackson's eyes in this picture. He was so tired. His asthma and allergies were not doing so well. The poor little boy could hardly breath.
 Brian was sitting by the fire holding Jackson. He crashed shortly after. He was so tired. All the walking through the maze, the slide, and the cute little bikes wore him out.( I think his asthma had a lot to do with it as well).

These are just a few of our favorite things we have done this fall. I wish I had pictures so you could see the colors of the leaves on the trees, they are beautiful. We love to go for drives out in the county to see all the leaves, and changes of the season. I can't even begin to describe how pretty it is. 

Just a Simple Thought....

One of my friends sent this to me and the link is at the end of this post.  As I listened to it I really felt the Spirit, it melted my heart. It helped me reflect on all that others have done for our family. It helped remind me how blessed Brian and I are, and how blessed we have been. Everyone has hard times....... Everyones struggles are different. Everyone handles things different. Not only did this remind me of the financial struggles that we may have had, or have, (we HAVE been in  school it kind of comes with the territory). It helped me to reflect on the times when we have been blessed by a knock at the door, a phone call, or even just a simple smile, or hello. These simple little things warm the heart and can go a long way. It helped remind me that I need to be more giving of myself, time, and all that I've been blessed with. 

We are all going through some hard times as friends and families. I hope that we can all be a little more understanding, and a little more sensitive to others needs. At times like this Satan enjoys seeing the struggles, the hurt, and the pain. Hopefully we can all take a look at our own lives and situations and see where we can give a little more in the simplest ways. Thank you all..... For you have all touched, or reached out to our family, just by being a part of our life. We can not thank you enough.   

Take a moment to follow this link and listen to this song, and message. 

http://www.youtube.com/bonnieegbert

Our Weekend Trip to Michigan

A couple of weekends ago we were able to go visit Brianne and Nate and their cute little family. They were blessing their new baby, "Claire".  We had a good time. It was a really quick trip though. We left Friday after work and came home Sunday afternoon. 

Here are some of the highlights of our trip: ( I really need to learn how to do a slide show, anyone?)

  You all know what a comedian Brianne is.  This was the funniest thing. My dad brought my brothers trumpet for Taylor to learn how to play. Brianne pulls it out of its case and just starts playing away. She did pretty good, (for a trombone player). It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Boy did we all have a good laugh!

Jackson and Dylan eating. They are so cute together. It's so much fun having cousins the same age.

Now there is a story about this little turtle. Brianne tried sending it home with my kids. My kids have really been wanting a pet. Brianne had the turtle all ready for a long car ride to Chicago, container, dirt, and all. To our kids disappointment we refused to take it. I even heard my kids talking about sneaking it in the van. Didn't work! I was watching the kids like a hawk. So we get this call from Brianne on our way home about the turtle. Its missing.......  

Dad likes to treat us to dinner, especially when Brianne's kitchen is "broken". We had a good time. Between Cassie peeing on the floor, and me thinking it was spilt water, (at first), and my dad being  the funny guy he is, he forgot to give Olive Garden back their pager when we decided we didn't want to wait over an hour to get in. So we are at the other restaurant and the pager to Olive Garden keeps going off. We had to put it in the car it was so loud. After dinner we took it back to Olive Garden. One of those stories that you probably had to be there for.

Grandma entertaining the grand kids.

My Mom and Dad getting lunch ready while McKenzie and I are just loving the moments of holding this sweet little baby. Loving every moment of it.

My handsome brother-in-law in his proudest shirt.  
Oh, and my handsome man suffering from in-law syndrome.

This was a fun trip. We all enjoyed ourselves. Brian and my Dad even got to go to Detroit to the Chrysler, and Ford museums.  Brian was in heaven. You all know how he loves cars. They had a great time. They always do.  

The baby blessing went really well. The spirit was felt so strong. I was really touched by the things Claire was blessed with. She is named after my Grandma who is very inspiring person. Claire is a special little baby, but aren't they all. 

My parents came back to Kenosha with us. We had a fun week. My kids were in heaven. They always get so spoiled when grandma and grandpa come into town. Grandma cooks all our favorite food, and mends my pile of items needing mending. She always gets a kick out of the items in the pile when she comes to my house. This time she had a limbless doll, a decapitated lamb, a strap to a backpack, and a few other random items. The list usually goes on , and on. I REALLY don't like to mend. 

We had fun! My mom spoiled us all. We even got a few additions to our little family.... YES.... we have three little pets. Two Leopard Geckos, and a stinky Hermit Crab. You all know how I really don't like pets. The maintenance to these things is crazy. I have made more trips to Pet-Co in the last week then I have in my whole life. The lady at the store says that they really shouldn't be that hard to take care of. She also informed me that the smell to the Crab will not go away, and cleaning it every three days won't help. I'm definitely in for it.... what have we allowed.   

Mom also made me some blankets for the baby. It was a lot of fun picking out fabric and watching her do all the work. She does a great job. 

We will miss my parents, they do so much for all us kids. They always take time from their busy schedules to help us out when we need them. They usually get out this way a few times a year. It's fun! We will see them again in a few weeks. 

I really need to post more often so my posts aren't so long. Sorry! 

 

IT"S A BOY!!!!!

  YES! You read that right. IT"S A BOY!!! We are so excited! A little surprised.... but really excited! We really thought that we were having a little girl.  We are just praying for a healthy baby. We already have boys and a girl so it doesn't really matter to us what we have.

  The kids were excited as well. We were a little worried about McKenzie. She took it well. She's just glad that she won't ever have to share her room. Another little boy will be a joy to have around. I love my boys!!!

 We had a very LONG appointment with the Perinatologist ( A specialist for the baby). The appointment was over 1hr 45min long. Very long... but very interesting. We learned that, everything "looks" good. We have to deliver the baby at around 37 wks, you all know how I feel about induction.  We have a number of appointments we have to go to during this pregnancy. WELCOME to high risk pregnancy I guess...!  We feel like they are still trying to find answers of why, and what happened with the last pregnancy. We have had to say no to some of the testing that won't affect the outcome in the least.  My OBGYN is very supportive in our decisions, its the specialists that don't always agree. We try to explain that we really put a lot of trust in God and that there are many things that we don't have control over. We can prevent things from going wrong but not birth defects. It is what it is. We will love our baby boy no matter what. Defect or no defect, its still our baby. They just wish they could of found answer's with Junior. If only they had the gospel, and the understanding that we do.

 Brian has given me a few blessings this pregnancy because of the problems that I've been having, especially when we were in Utah. That was a horrible time, but the doctors out that way took great care of me, and had great communication with my doctors here in Wisconsin. We feel great comfort at this time.  

Finding out that we are having a boy made it a little weird, It was kind of a tearful moment for us. However it doesn't and won't replace our precious Junior. We feel very strong about this. I know everyone has their own opinion. I will never forget a blessing that was given to Brian and I by Bishop and Glenn. There were some very wonderful promises made. Junior was a special baby, sent to us for a special purpose. The blessing given by those two wonderful men that day has been at times one of the only things that we have found great comfort in. We feel so blessed.

This has been a long pregnancy so far, (probably because I feel like I'm going on my 14th month of being pregnant) we feel so grateful at this time to be blessed with another pregnancy. We are having so much fun with it. We have grown so close with one another, and to our Father in Heaven through our experiences. We are so excited for the arrival of our baby, and are trying to enjoy the moments leading up to that time.

    

If only you could see how clear the ultrasound was. They had four different machines they were using. This is a silly picture that Brian took. 

Brian, and I, proud as can be... so grateful that everything looks good. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. He is such a good man. I am so lucky, and I know it.....
Now this is a weird picture... this is how we told the kids what we were having. We picked them up from school, and gave them each a little treat. They knew then that it was a boy! We were going to paint our teeth blue..... they loved it!

SALSA!!!!

  This has got to be a record for me. Two or three posts in the last few weeks! I'm doing pretty good I must say. I decided that when the kids went to school that I would be better with this. As it is kind of a  "superficial journal" for the family, I'd better keep up with it.

  Anyways, now that the kids have gone back to school I've had some time to do some things that have been on my long list. Things that you can't really do with all the kids and their friends around. 

   I started with making salsa.... It was a lot of fun and really yummy! I made 20 quarts of it. I know that seems like a lot but we have already gone through 2 quarts. We love salsa. Thanks to my good friend Jill we have an AWESOME recipe.     

  

Here is a picture of me right  in the thick of things. 

Here is the finished result (minus the jar we left to munch on in the fridge)
What better meal to try the freshly made salsa on then Taco's.. The kids loved it! They all look like a bunch of pigs. What a charming little family.... HA HA!  
I'm not really sure what my next adventure will be as far as canning. I still have lots left from last year. I really wanted to do peaches but they are impossible to find for a good price out this way. Apples are definitely the hot item here. 
  

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

The night before the first day of school is always a very special night at our house (or at least that is what we try to make it). This year we started off our evening by taking the kids out for dinner, which was way out of the ordinary for us on a school night, but we got an early start so we thought it would be fun.

When deciding where to go for dinner we ran into some really good friends (The Grundbergs) who had the same idea, so we all decided (the kids decided), on a fun place called " Honada". It is a Hibachi Grill. We have never taken the kids to this restaurant before so they thought it was pretty fun. They had only ever heard Brian and I talk about it.

Here are some pictures of our fun evening. Check out Jackson's face and his reaction when the food was ignited. It was so cute (if only you could have seen it in person.....)

This picture is of Nick Grundberg, McKenzie, Josh Grundberg, and Taylor. They were pretty entertained by the chef.

Waiting patiently for their fine meal to be served. ( Pete, Aimee, Nate, Brian, and Jackson)

Aimee and I enjoying one of our many moments together. Making plans for when the kids go back to school.

After our fun dinner, our friends went their way. We headed for home. The kids were excited because they knew what came next.... Yep, you got it..... school blessings.. Our kids think this is such a fun time. Maybe because it's a tradition. I love the spirit that is felt when each blessing is given. What a wonderful gift that we have. How lucky we are. Brian was also asked by some of the youth for a blessing before school. I am so glad that he has that gift to help and share with others.

The first day of school finally came.... September 2, 2008. My kids didn't think it could come soon enough. They were so excited to start (weird kids)! We had a very eventful summer vacation that kept the kids going a lot so I think they, as well as I , were ready for some sort of normality, and a schedule.

Taylor ready for his first day.

McKenzie ready for her first day.

Oh, how cute.... Best of friends at times.

Even though Jackson doesn't start preschool till Thursday, he wanted in the picture. I guess that he is part of the family!

The kids, plus my friend's kids. Ben and Sam Sproul

I tend them before school as well as after school.

Mckenzie, and her good friend Mia Smith.

Taylor, and Brian doing homework on the first day of school......!!!!

(two hours worth)

Taylor and his good friends ( Josh Sproul, and Ronnie Nelson). All his good friends from church are in seventh grade and go to a different school, they came right over after school to play. Only to find that Taylor had mounds of homework. Poor kid!

Finally ..... Jackson's first day!

Jackson with his teacher Mrs. Case.

Jackson and his cute little friend Nate Grundberg, who also goes to the same school.

I felt alright this year sending the kids off to school. I didn't lose complete composure this year. I did pretty good. It's always so hard for me to watch my kids go off to their classes. I think just knowing that they were ready to go back, and excited about it really helped me.

I am so ready for a normal routine. I am excited about getting back into our routine. I feel like every summer we kind of lose our habit of scripture reading I don't know why but it's kind of like we take a vacation from it. I know that's horrible, we just have a lot of late nights in the summer, and our mornings...... That's a whole different story. We just don't fit it in as well as we should. ANYWAYS!!! I am also so excited to work on some projects that I've needed to do for a long time, get back into a regular exercise routine.you know how it goes.

It was so nice the first day, Jackson and I dropped the kids of, went to the gym, and then came home and had some good quality time together. I also got to spend some time playing the piano. I love days like that.

We will try to keep you updated on things. As you all know I'm not one to post everyday, nor do I check posts everyday, but I will try to do better.