Halloween

Annie and Brookie were devils.

Brayson was a booby monster.

Ellie was a spider.

Visit to see Grandma Snoopy

Last weekend we took the kids in their costumes to see Grandma Snoopy.

This is MY great grandma. The kids' great great grandma. She just turned 91 years old this week. :)

Our scary faces. Grandma was growling but it doesn't look like a scary face to me.

Hay Maze

We took the kids to Paul's Patch to play in their hay maze.

They had so much fun playing and finding their way through the bails of hay.

Pumpkins

Silly girl stuff

Annie, Brookie and Ellie snuggling up on the couch. Annie stayed there and snuggled with Ellie until she fell asleep.

Saturday mornings after a girl's night slumber party with all of the cushions from the couch.

Brooke's Haunted House

Menu Plan Monday

Our breakfasts will be eggs, peanut butter toast, oatmeal.

Lunches will be sandwiches, noodles, leftovers & soup (yay for cooler weather!).

Monday ~ Black Bean Lasagna

Tuesday ~ Tortilla Casserole

Wednesday ~ Tomato soup & grilled ghosts

Thursday ~Breakfast Burritos

Friday ~ Halloween Carnival at school

Saturday ~ Trunk or Treat at church

Sunday ~ Dinner at Mom's

My Big Girl

Ellie is getting so big.

She's getting so independent.

She watches her sisters get ready for school and wants to get herself ready too.

See her pretty hair?

And the sad little sidewalk burn on her nose.

Story time

In Brayson's play pen I always have a book in propped up for him to look at. I try to get ones with bright colors or lots of contrast. Actually, we've done that with all of the kids. Just turn the page every so often.

Brooke thought it was boring to have to look at the same book all day long so she offered him more options.

She took out the book I had in there and added 3 of the ones she likes instead. Sweet sissy.

See how much he liked it. :)

Grandma's Glasses

Grandma has lots of different pairs of glasses. They are in all sorts of places around the house.

Ellie looks so cute with them on. Too bad we can't hide everything from her.

A Mother's Advice to her child

My friend Melanie provided this just in time for me one day. I saved it and have read it a few times. Take a minute and read it. It's worth the read.
1
Be Generous.
With your time, your money, your heart. If, on my best day, there was a single lesson I could hope to impart to you, this would be it.
2
Root for other people.
We all tend to envy other people's successes. It's not intentional; somewhere in our DNA it seems to be programmed that for every success for someone else, there is one less success for us. For every book published, there is one less book we will publish; for every baby had, there is one less baby for us to have. Of course, that is illogical. Fight off those thoughts; there is an unlimited amount of potential for everyone in this universe. Championing others is kind, and even more, it's a display of optimism that will seep into you and color your view of this life.
3
You don't have to pretend you know something if you don't.
It's okay to just say, "I don't know." You can't know everything!
4
You are the wellspring of your own hope.
No one (besides your mother) will be more invested in your emotional well-being than they are in their own. Joy is not something gifted to you by other people; it's an outlook on the world that you have to cultivate independent of friends and lovers. Daughter, if I could give it to you, I would, a million times over, but the truth is that you are singularly responsible for your own happiness.
5
Live alone for a period of time.
I love living with you and your father; I also cherish the years I spent living alone. You shouldn't go from being someone's daughter to someone's wife to someone's mother without first being someone yourself. Living alone will allow you to discover who you are when no one is watching, what you need to get through a day, and ultimately that you are a capable, independent woman.
6
If you marry your first love you will miss out on the exquisite pain of a broken heart.
7
Talk to strangers.
Teaching you to fear strangers would be cynical. The generosity of unknown people will ease your burden on many occasions. Instead, I want you to learn to gauge people’s intentions by listening to your gut instincts and recognizing subtle cues. Confidence in this skill will allow you to avoid the aberrant persons you encounter and embrace something much more common — the kindness of strangers.
8
Be where you are.
Try not to think about where you need to go next or wherever you just came from. This is more difficult than it sounds, but work at it. It’s important for your head to be present in the place where your body is.
9
Unless you're playing a game, there’s no point in keeping score.
Running a tally of who gets what in life will only frustrate you and annoy everyone else. It serves no purpose; the way life’s benefits and hindrances are doled out will never make any sense.
10
Ensure that the “bad” things you do are the result of your own choices.
You are doubtlessly going to engage in some unhealthy, unwise or otherwise questionable behavior somewhere along the line; this is part of learning your limits and establishing your comfort zone. Please have enough self-awareness to at least make the choice to participate, rather than floating through life getting swept up in whatever trouble comes your way.
11
If you test people, they may fail.
Friendship, love, and family don’t hinge on any single success or failure; you would do yourself a disservice to administer litmus tests to things as labyrinthine as love and affection.
12
Acknowledge inequity.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in The Declaration of Independence "All men are created equal." Today, we interpret “men” to mean “people,” but at that time “men” was not intended to be inclusive of women, or even of men who were not white. Inequity existed 200 years ago, and it still exists today. Don't let anyone tell you that everyone gets a fair shot. Be sympathetic to the disadvantaged and work hard to include them.
13
Create a sense of family wherever you are.
Find people to love and love them unconditionally.
14
Try not to wait eagerly for people to finish their stories just so you can tell your own versions that more directly involve you.
15
Pursue more than just the things you are good at.
You will be told at a young age what your talents are. Enjoy the compliments, but don’t accept them at face value. You don’t want to walk a narrow path; attempt things you aren’t comfortable with and uncover skills or proclivities you didn’t know you possessed.
16
Everyone is a hypocrite.
Hypocrisy is not the blanket failure it’s made out to be; we all act in ways that conflict with the image we want to reflect or the values we want to embody. Try not to pigeonhole people with expectations; be forgiving of this inconsistency, both in yourself and in others.
17
You will get good at anything you practice.
Everything gets easier the more you do it, good or bad, so choose your habits wisely.
18
If you don't have the money to buy an extravagant gift for someone special, bake!
19
Discipline in your mind; extravagance in your heart.
20
It is possible to be both pretty and smart.
They don’t always go together, certainly, but one thing does not preclude the other. This goes for you and also for people you meet.
21
There’s a science to everything.
22
Every time you rescue someone else, you rescue yourself a little bit.
You will have occasion to save people: to throw a life preserver, to present an opportunity, to alter a destiny for the better. Seize these chances. Reflect your best, most giving characteristics. Rescue yourself from tedious inward focus: These are your opportunities, too.
23
The measure of your goodness is not the amount of love you receive.
It is the quality of the love you give to others. It takes a long time to learn this lesson, maybe more time than most of us have.

Fun with food

Our 'Goblin Legs' needed to be prepared the night before and marinade in the 'bloody sauce' until the next night.

I had the girls helping me pour in the ingredients.

Brooke asked what they were so I told her they were goblin legs.

That kid.

She was so disgusted.

She threw her hands in the air and said "I'm done with this!" Then climbed down from the stool and walked out of the kitchen.

Hahahaha! I couldn't do anything to get her to come back.

Then for dinner the next night, we sat down at the table and I could tell that she was still grossed out at the thought of eating them. For Heaven's sake. They are just chicken legs. She didn't eat them. She tried a bite only because daddy made her. But she didn't eat them. Ha!

We have had a mummy meatloaf (that didn't turn out as planned but still fun for the kids).

 We each made a yummy mummy pizza.

And had pumpkin pancakes.



My Parents

I really have no words for this except, I love you guys.

Apparently he likes chocolate...

Ellie and I were cleaning up the other day. Brayson was hanging out in his swing. Ellie had to have a cookie. I have her a little chocolate cookie for helping me so well. While I was finishing up, she was reading books in the family room.  When it was time to get Brooke from school, I had to change Brayson and get him in his seat. There was brown crumbs on his nose. Strange. He had chocolate on his face.

How did that happen? Duh. I asked Ellie if she had shared her cookie with her brother. Her answer? "Yep." Just as innocent as could be. He must have liked it though. I never heard him cry. That's my boy. :)

Homework

I hate homework. I've never been very good at homework. Luckily, Jason is a smartie pants. When the girls are older and have trouble with homework, he will be able to help them out.

For now, I'm able to help.

But I still hate it.

Brookie doesn't like it either.

The two of us sat at the table for an hour just to get a day's work done.

Miserable.  She has such a hard time staying focused.

Even when I thought I had taken away every possible distraction.

She's a smart cookie. See those letter A's.

Wonderful job.

Look what she snuck in there.

Do you have any ideas on how to keep homework positive??

Pals

Buddy

Goulish Menu Plan Monday

Halloween is my least favorite holiday of the year.
I am a chicken.
I hate getting scared.

 And lots of things scare me.

I'll tell you a haunted house story another time.

That being said, Halloween is one of my favorite times to have fun with the kids.

Here is our menu for the week.

Breakfasts will be eggs, peanut butter toast, oatmeal, breakfast sandwiches and burritos. I have no idea what order though.

~ Sunday ~ Goulash

~ Monday ~ Goblin Legs

~ Tuesday ~ Mummy Meatloaf

~ Wednesday ~ Witch Brew

~ Thursday ~ Pizza Mummies

~ Friday ~ Swamp Creatures

~ Saturday ~ Spaghetti and Eyeballs

Are you having fun with food during the month? I wanna know.

Worst. Day. Ever.

Normal morning.

Exactly 2 weeks old.

8 lbs. 14 oz.

Big sisters are off to school.

Mommy, Daddy, Ellie and Brayson hop in the van and head for the doctor's office for a 'routine procedure'.

Mama and baby wait for AN HOUR for the dr to see us. Poor little guy. He had no idea what was coming.

To be 100% honest, neither did I.

I mean, I knew how the procedure was done. I knew how to take care of it (for the most part). I knew the pros and cons of getting it done.
What I wasn't prepared for was how dang emotional I would be about it. Seriously? Geez. I thought I was going to hyperventilate when he took him from my arms and walked down the hall with my innocent perfect little man. The 20 minutes he was gone was the longest of my life. I needed to hold him. I knew he was crying and miserable. I knew that he needed me too. They brought him to me quickly after they were done.
Then the dreaded... I had to change diapers. I cried at every diaper change. In fact, I cried just thinking about the diaper changes. Guilt I tell you. Pure guilt. And Jason was NO help. He laughed at me every time. Rude.
I don't know how you mamas with baby boys did it. I was a mess for days about it. Thanks to my bestie and sister in law for listening to me be insane with worry for the next week and a half.
I'm pretty sure that he has forgotten all about it. As for me? No. I don't think that one will ever get out of my head.

C02

It was almost 4:00 in the morning. I was tossing and turning on the couch with a huge pregnant belly. My girls all snuggled soundly in their beds. Jason was 20 minutes away at work.

I hear the sound of an alarm clock chime. Then it stopped. I heard it again 30 seconds later. Still trying to figure out what toy was probably making the noise, I went to investigate. I wobbled downstairs just in time to hear it again but much louder. I was close. 30 more seconds. This little contraption that we have had up for years. The carbon monoxide detector. Oh crap. If that's going off, there is c02 somewhere. Call Jason. No answer. Panic. I woke the kids up and took everyone upstairs. I opened the front door and laid everyone inside by the door to get fresh air. What now? How do I make the thing stop beeping? How do I find whatever is making it beep? Try to calm the girls down. Call Jason. No answer. It's 5:00 now. Text everyone I can think of that won't hate me for texting that early. No one knew what to do either. I kept checking kids making sure no one was getting sick. We stayed there by the front door for what seemed like hours. No one was feeling funny. Annie had a sore throat the night before and was still a little yucky. Here comes Jason. It's 6:30.  His thinking was that it was just the batteries but maybe we could have someone come check just in case. I didn't call 911. I didn't call emergency services. I just called the dispatch. I told them it was not an emergency but that I would like someone to come check. Not 10 minutes later...

2 police came to check on us first. 

 

Then an ambulance and fire truck showed up.

 They had Annie in the back of the ambulance just to charge us $200.00 make sure she was ok. (I joke but really am thankful they could do that)

 After the firemen checked out the house and determined it was safe, we went inside. The cause, they said, was probably from something outside that seeped through our vents and it was long gone.
They also said I did a good job at getting the kids to fresh air. :) No fail! Whew.
I am kinda happy that we had this happen because now I know what to do if there really is a problem and I'm alone. Plus... I now know that just having the monitors for fire and such isn't enough. Find out how they work. :)
We had a very lazy day the rest of the day. Poor little Ellie never did get back to sleep until way after lunch.