Trick or Treat

It's Halloween! Well, kind of. It's October 30th, but since Halloween is on Sunday this year everyone in our neck of the woods is trick-or-treating tonight. It's cool and rainy but the kids (and Jay) are perservering and out begging for candy as I type. This year we had Harry Potter, Princess Tiana (from The Princess and the Frog) and Anakin Skywalker (pre-Darth Vader). Here they are:

We've had a crazy week. We started with the stomach flu. Always fun, the stomach flu. Everyone but Jay was felled by it this time but at least it happened pre-Halloween this year so no one missed any festivities. Tessa had a party at dance class on Tuesday, there was a carnival at Cub Scout Pack Meeting on Thursday night (and Henry got his Bear award - yay!), and all three kids had Halloween parties at school on Friday. There was lots of fun to be had in Hyde Park and we enjoyed it all.

The kids were pretty hyper today in anticipation of the big night. Luckily we were able to layer everyone up with jackets and hoods and Jay has an umbrella in one hand and an iTouch in another, trying to keep everyone dry and check the Ute football score at the same time. Never let it be said that we don't spend quality time with our children!

Happy Halloween!

Walking with Pumpkins

I went with Tessa's preschool class to the North Logan Pumpkin Walk this morning. It was really fun! The theme this year had to do with Animation and they had lots of cute displays, including Finding Nemo, Dr. Seuss, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Polar Express, and The Princess and the Frog. Not that I got any good pictures of them - I was busy sheparding 13 preschoolers around. I did get a few pictures of Tessa, though.

Miss October

I wish I was better about taking photographs. Not just quantity, but quality. I typically remember the camera for most major events in our lives and manage to get pictures of what is going on. But I wish I was better at it - more artistic, more creative. Creative, I'm not. I blame it on my left-brainedness. I am super-organized and can do calculus like nobody's business, but my sense of color and what looks good is lacking.

Luckily I have a wonderful friend and neighbor who more than makes up for my lack of creativity. She has enough for both of us. Anyway, she took some pictures of Miss Tessa last week. Here are a few of my favorites:

Just thought I'd share.

Rock On!

Henry got to Rock the Halls at school yesterday. What, you may ask, is Rock the Halls? Well, as a reward for getting a certain number of AR points (AR = Acclerated Reader, where the kids take tests on books that they read and earn points for their correct answers), he got a medal and was able to run the halls of school with the principal. Clear enough? No? Here, I'll show you:



So about 500 students and teachers lined the hallways of the school while music played on the intercom. As the principal and the honorees ran through the halls, everyone clapped, cheered and danced to the music. It lasted less than 30 seconds. But it was fun. It is probably a little more crazy when more kids earn the award, but as it is the first AR period of the year, only 6 kids in the school qualified to Rock the Halls. Still, we're proud of Henry for being such a good reader. And for Rocking the Halls like a pro.

Dear Tooth Fairy

William's teacher called me yesterday. Can I just say that I hate it when I see the words Public School on the Caller ID. Who is sick? What's wrong? Did I forget something? My heart races a little bit while I answer the phone with a tentative "Hello?"

Anyway, she was calling to let me know that William had lost a tooth a school in a fairly traumatic fashion. It was knocked out while he was playing at recess. I'm sure that this happens all the time, especially in first grade. This tooth has been loose for a really long time and frankly I was glad to hear that it had come out. She did want to warn me about his reaction to this event, however, because she found him in the hallway sobbing with blood streaming down his chin. He wasn't hurt but he was incredibly upset because he couldn't find the tooth. And no tooth meant no visit from the tooth fairy.

Good first grade teacher that she is, she helped him clean up and told him that he had options - the easiest and best being to write the tooth fairy a note letting him know what happened. Our neighbor Melissa told him that the same thing happened to her when she was a kid, which perked him up and had him talking all evening about how "Melissa got some money when she didn't have a tooth so I'm sure I'll get some." Melissa also told him that if he felt someone checking out his teeth overnight to pretend to be asleep - that it was probably just the Tooth Fairy verifying his story.

So, before bedtime, I wrote the following note:



And guess what? It worked! William walked around waving his 2-$1 bills like a fan, showing us all that the Tooth Fairy came through. He also said that he felt the Tooth Fairy checking his tooth. I don't want to say that my son is making up stories, but I know for a fact that the Tooth Fairy didn't touch his mouth while leaving his reward. Just saying.

Lucky Number 13

13 years ago today Jay and I were married. I was going to post some pictures and realized that we don't have any on our computer - 1997 was before the widespread use of digital images, at least for personal use - so I went through our wedding album and scanned a few (which is why they all have a band at the margins of the picture).

We were married at the Salt Lake Temple. It rained all day long so we don't have any pictures outside the temple, but we got some nice shots at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. They let us walk from the temple to the JSMB via an underground tunnel that no longer exists (I believe it's a parking garage now) so we wouldn't get wet.



We had our wedding reception at Caffe Molise, still one of my favorite restaurants in Salt Lake City. We chose Caffe Molise because it has yummy food, a great downtown location, and some sentimental value - we had our first date there in June of 1996. Our wedding cake was carrot cake and it was delicious.



Eventually the rain stopped and the sun came out, allowing us to take a few pictures outside. The other picture we have outside is of a homeless guy serenading us on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. We listened politely and Jay gave him a few bucks to move along so we could take this picture:


It's fun to remember our wedding day, but a marriage is so much more than a wedding. I am so thankful for a wonderful husband who loves me and our family. Even though we haven't had the easiest year, I'm grateful that we had each other. We made it through together. I guess that's what marriage is all about.

B.I.N.G.O.

I have a love/hate relationship with General Conference weekend. I love the obvious things about it - getting to hear uplifting talks from LDS church leaders, listening to beautiful music from the Mormon Tabernacle choir, having "church" in front of the TV in my jammies on a Sunday morning. The hate part (and I use the term loosely) started around 9 years ago. What happened 9 years ago? Jay and I became parents.

Being a parent complicates General Conference. When you have babies and toddlers, it seems next to impossible to hear more than snatches of a few talks. Now that our kids are older, we want to encourage them to pay attention and learn something from the speakers. However, there are four 2-hour sessions of Conference. That's 8 hours of church over two days. It's wonderful and we love it but it's alot to ask for the kids to listen to all 8 hours of General Conference and take away much more than irritation from it. So we compromise.

Saturdays are a little more laid-back. We don't make them sit down and listen to Conference. We cheated a bit this year and took the kids on a drive to Brigham City for milkshakes during the afternoon session. The results were mixed - they liked the milkshakes but didn't love driving 40 minutes to get them. Still, we listened to Conference on the radio.

The Sunday morning session is the session that we all watch/listen to as a family. To make this more palatable for the kids, we buy them treats and let them play Conference Bingo, where they put an M&M or other candy treat on a square on a Bingo card (squares include things like Family, Prayer, Jesus, Scriptures); when they get a Bingo, they get to eat the treats. This activity gets us through a good part of the session and encourages them to listen to what is being said. The Sunday afternoon session is iffy - the kids might be around and half-listening, but Jay and I try keep in on and watch/listen to it.

They seem to be slowly getting better about sitting and listening to General Conference. Jay remarked that the Sunday morning session seemed to go more smoothly this year and that the kids seemed to listen to the speakers more. I'm not sure about that. But if we keep plugging away, hopefully as the kids get older it will get easier. Until then, we'll stock up on M&M's every October and April. Whatever works.