Trunk-or-Treat

The 24th was our Trunk-or-Treat. I had gone to Wal-Mart that day and pumpkins were only $2.80 each, so I bought two. I thought it would be fun for Emma and Kevin to carve them. They haven't had much experience with Jack 'O Lantern carving. It's hard to have them here, because it gets so hot that they rot in about a day! Kevin drew 3 pictures of faces on a piece of paper and crossed out the ones he didn't like.

Craig cut off the lid and scraped the insides to the bottom, then told Kevin to reach in and pull out the guts. As you can plainly see from the pictures, he was not too happy about that part of carving pumpkins! I thought he would have fun. Guess I was wrong! Craig and I were totally cracking up.

By the time the carving actually started, he was much happier! He had fun helping Craig, but it was still a little too hard for him. Craig ended up doing most of the carving.

Emma's reaction to cleaning out the pumpkin wasn't much better than Kevin's. She pulled out one or two handfuls, then I finished the job.

Emma also tried her hand at carving, but it was too difficult for her also. She did draw the face, however. I thought they both turned out really cute.

Emma's faces. She kept her best one.

These are the costumes Emma made for her Webkinz. Beatrice, on the left, is dressed as a princess, and Minnie is dressed as a ghost.

Emma's ruby slippers.

And here's our little Dorothy. She even has a basket with Toto, too. She looked so cute!

Steven and Logan went as the Men in Black. If only we could have found some neuralizers!

Kevin wanted to be the UPS man for Halloween. We got a costume magazine in September, and that was all he could talk about. Funny! It was the easiest costume EVER though! Brown polo shirt, brown pants, black shoes, a UPS symbol I printed off the computer, and a brown paper-wrapped box. We got lots of compliments on this one!

Craig dressed up as a BYU fan. For anyone who knows Craig well, you know that this was 100% costume! He does NOT like BYU...at all! He got exactly the reaction he wanted at the Trunk-or-Treat. People were either offended or surprised or both. It was great!
From l to r: BYU fan, BYU fan, NOT a BYU fan, BYU fan!

A reliable friend!

Emma received an award a couple of weeks ago at school. Each teacher chooses 4 students from their class to receive awards: 2 for academics and 2 for character traits. The character trait for October was trustworthiness. Emma received the award in her class for the character trait. It recognized her as "always being a reliable friend." The top picture shows her teacher (with the microphone), Mrs. Garritano, and the principal, Mrs. Siembida, putting the medal on her. She was very excited!

I don't get this...

This is the scene almost every day after school. They want to do their homework wherever I am. I try to stay in the kitchen/family room area so they have a better work space, but on this day I was doing something on the computer upstairs. So here they are with their homework sprawled out on the floor. And almost every day I hear the same words come out of Emma's mouth..."I don't get this." She's in 3rd grade. Lucky for her we still "get" the math she is doing. I'm worried about junior high and high school. I feel like I need to take a class just so I will be competent enough to help them when they need it. The funny thing about Emma is that she really does "get" it. She just reads through the problems so quickly that she doesn't stop to think about what she just read. She has been an excellent math student so far. I hope it lasts. Kevin also excels at math so far. He's just in such a hurry to get on to other things that his work is sloppy. We're still working on that.

3 weeks...

I didn't realize that it had been 3 weeks since I posted last. Typical me...I get really excited about a new project, work on it like crazy, then poop out at the end. I'll try to do better. In my defense, however, I've been busy, sick, and busy. Here's what's new:
Craig--Working hard on his assignment as Scoutmaster for the Stake Aaronic Priesthood Encampment for 2009; Begins tonight as "Enforcer" at Stake Dodge ball games.
Rebecca and George--Nothing much...JUST EXPECTING A BABY!!! (Yay, I'm going to be a grandma!)
Tara--School; Boys; School; Boys...etc. We did get to see her for a couple of days. It was good to have her home; The missionary she's been writing comes home in 6 months. (Can't wait to see how that plays out!)
Steven--Choir concert last week...He had a SOLO for barbershop! He didn't even tell us. We were completely stunned! He did fantastic!; Honor Choir concert last night. Amazing!
Logan--Decided to try out for school mascot...the only boy...in front of 14 cheerleaders and 2 judges...all girls. He won! And...they asked him to help with the stunts. So...he's on the cheer squad. Wait...What?!? He's livin' my dream, baby!!!; FINALLY going to get some rank advancements in Scouts next week. He'll jump from Tenderfoot to Star. Yay!
Emma--Learned how to use a needle and thread last week. She made costumes for her Webkinz from leftover scraps of fabric. One is a ghost, the other is a princess; Growing yet not growing. Just enough to make getting dressed each day awkward and upsetting. (This too shall pass.)
Kevin--FINALLY lost his loose tooth over Conference weekend. He was sucking his thumb (Yes, I know he's 6! What am I supposed to do?) and Logan reached over and yanked his thumb out of his mouth and it just popped the tooth right out. It was hilarious! Now he looks like a hillbilly with one missing front tooth!; Baseball games every Saturday. He's having a blast!
Ruth--Sewing a Dorothy costume for Emma for Halloween. Soon to start sewing for Christmas. Oh yeah...and today's my birthday.
That's about it. I have taken some pictures and intend to take more so I can have better posts, but for now this will have to do. We have our Trunk-or-Treat tomorrow night, so I'll take pictures of the kids in their costumes. I'm excited to see how they all turn out.

Help

Okay, so somebody who knows more about this than I do, I need help. I got the new background okay, but I can't seem to get rid of the old template. Is there something else I'm supposed to do? Or is this how it is if you're too cheap to actually pay for the backgrounds? Why can't I figure this out? Please HELP me!

Just Kevin

This is Kevin yesterday after another particularly rough day. Just happily sitting in the dirt, digging. He started out the day lying to me, which made me mad, then went off to school. The afternoon was no better. At dinner he had a tantrum about what was being offered (baked potatoes with chili and cheese...go figure), and was sent to his room. When I thought he was about to break something up there, I went up to tell him to get showered and get ready for bed because he was making bad choices and he wouldn't be able to go to baseball practice. That really set him off, but I calmly walked back downstairs. No sooner had I started washing the dishes again when he started screaming bloody murder! No lie! I almost thought something was seriously wrong. I went back over to the stairs to find him at the top hysterical because he had a bloody nose. Wow!!! Talk about a freak-out! I helped him calm down, finally, and get himself cleaned up. Then I talked to him about how I was helping him and that all we ever want to do as parents is help him to make good choices and be happy. Truly the Lord works in mysterious ways. His whole attitude changed because of that bloody nose. He was a very humble and repentant boy for the rest of the night. Needless to say, he didn't get to go to baseball practice. I was afraid he would start bleeding all over the place again. Remember how I said "I love being a mom" in that last post? Well...I really do, but some days are just more frustrating than others. Today has been much better so far. Kevin went to school feeling great and so do I.

Notes

A week or so ago I was trying to get dinner ready and Kevin had been on my last nerve. He was just making noise and bothering everyone, so I told him I didn't want to hear his voice anymore. I told him that if he needed to say something he should write it down on a piece of paper. Well, a few minutes went by and then he quietly slipped a paper in front of me. It said, "I Like You Mom." I turned to him and said, "I like you, too, but I don't want to hear your voice. Go play quietly." A few more minutes went by and another note was slipped in front of me. It said, "Mom am Sad." (Translation...Mom, I'm sad.)Of course then I felt guilty and told him he could start talking, as long as he was quiet. Man...how is it kids can do that so easily? One minute they're driving you crazy, and the next minute you want to scoop them up in your arms and kiss their whole face. I love being a mom!