Halloween

 Toothless from 'How to Train a Dragon'

 A robot - after trying out the green dragon, Thomas and wishing for Lightining McQueen ... it was a good compromise.  It's actually a costume my brother wore 25 years ago - one of the missionaries at church commented that he had worn that robot costume as a kid!  Ha! 

 The unicorn --- finally smiling because Toothless was so kind and traded his toothbrush with stars on it for the toothbrush she got with dinosaurs - honestly I think he was just ready for her to stop whinning ... aren't we all?!?! 

And the garden gnomes - or the travelocity gnomes ...

The trunk or treat and carnival was tonight at the church - the kids got WAY TOO MUCH candy, J.D. and I had to duck through most doorways and everyone was up too late, but it was a fabulous way to celebrate Halloween - Master S even thought is was better than trick or treating!!!  We'll see if he says that tomorrow night ... Happy Halloween!

sneak peak ...

J.D. and I are actually going to have costumes this year ... due to a couples only Halloween party that requires them ... if you know J.D. you'll understand that this is a huge step for him ... and I guess for me too, I love dressing my kids up, I always run out of time for me ... hence the short blog post ... I've got to get our costumes made!  If they turn out I'll post pics ...

One Crazy Weekend ...

It started out feeling fallish ...

And then quickly got warm ...

 Grandma came for a few days!  Yeah!!  We love it when Grandmas (and Grandpas!) visit :)  We squeezed in as much fall fun as we could possibly fit into four days ... I think we succeeded in exhausting everyone, but I agreed with my mom that it was all worth it!  She got to eat lunch with Miss Lilly & Master S at school.   We finished the Christmas shopping she had to get done while here, and checked out a really cool toy shop just a few minutes from the house right here in Brownsburg.  If you haven't been there and live close by you need to!   http://stores.lincolnwoodtoys.com/StoreFront.bok   We picked up the kids after school for a little IMA gardens tour.  Here they are by their numbers ...

 We attempted to get some cute pics ---

 Isn't it gorgeous here?  It has been a very DRY fall, but it is still so beautiful.  While my mom was here it was almost like we watched the leaves change colors right before our eyes.  And the weather was just perfect ... gorgeous blue skies, and almost too warm. 

 I thought this was a great Halloween picture ... on the bones at the 100 acres of the IMA.

 On Saturday we headed to Appleworks -- a fantastic apple orchard / pumpkin patch that goes all out for the Fall celebration.  There were train rides, a big slide, pumpkin patch, hog roast, live music, a place to picnic, lots of apples and this year there were tons of people!  Apparently when it is nice outside people like to visit this place (we came when it was 30 degrees and windy - freezing cold last year ...)

 Kids picking their pumpkins ... they had to carry them this year, so they all decided smaller was better than having to drag them out to the car.

 After Appleworks we got in the car for Brown County State park - one of my most favorite places in Indiana (so far ...).  This is the covered bridge at the entrance.

 A pic of one of the many beautiful vistas ...

 We took the kids on a hike, called 'the Discovery Hike'.  There were little numbered signs with a guide that you read at each sign to tell you what to look for, specific kinds of trees, interesting topography, listening for animals or looking for their homes etc.  It was the perfect length - the kids loved it and the colors were again, gorgeous!

 After Brown County we tried to go discover some of Nashville, IN, but I think everyone else in IN thought it was a good day to be there too, so we headed out to Martinsville and had some Steak 'n Shake instead -

 Master S got out his new golf clubs to show Grandma his awesome swing!  He started taking gold lessons from a local kid on the high school golf team - and he loves it. 

We also picked some of the last of the produce from the garden ... the cantaloupe was small, but it sure was tasty ... perfect for one or two :) 

  All three of the children cried on the way home from the airport when we dropped Grandma off today --- I think I had a few tears too, Thanks for coming Grandma - we miss you!  Next time ... bring Grandpa!

Family Pics

I have a really wonderful friend - she takes really great pictures.

Thank you Kasi!!!

Here is just a sampling ... there are so many that I like - every single one is a favorite!

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly!

I am a realist - I tend to focus on the reality vs. the ideal, which makes for some difficult moments at our house, mostly because reality often-times does not include focusing on the positive and ignoring the difficult ... a trait that is helpful when raising children.  This weekend offered several examples of that - it started out GOOD, it rained, finally (yeah!) - a horseback riding birthday party that Miss Lilly was invited to (so fun!) and the announcement of a temple to be built here in Indianapolis!!!  I'm still so excited about that one.  The temple is an extremely important part of our religion, and we moved about 6 months before the Oquirrh Mountain temple was finished in West Jordan.  That was probably one of the hardest things for me to leave behind in UT - we could see it from our neighborhood as it was being built.  It was so close!  The closest one here in is Louisville, KY.   So that was definitely a good thing about this weekend.

Now for the BAD -- Because of the rain I got to go stand in it at a soccer game -- cold, wet, rain and mud everywhere!  Also, it was general conference weekend.  Twice a year instead of going to church we have the opportunity to hear from the leaders of our church via General Conference.  We watch it on the internet here.  Something that I look forward to - but always seem to have way to much to do to actually enjoy it.  Since I work a lot of Saturdays I tend to over pack them when I'm actually home and this was no exception.  Add to that a lack of planning on my part to keep my children entertained and I ended up feeling more frustrated than uplifted.  But, I've set some goals for the next one in April, some things are going to change ...

UGLY!  And I'm really not kidding here.  There are a few words I could use to describe this:  itchy, nasty, gross, ugly, frustrating, disgusting - all of these words would describe lice.  Miss Lilly has had it once before from a Santa hat from Walmart when she was 2 1/2 years old.  I'm not sure where she got it this time, but it invovled a very late Saturday night, 14 loads of laundry and counting, several baths, at least a few shampoo treatments, several hours of combing and nitt picking, a paranoid mamma itching her head and asking J.D. to pick through her hair every few hours, and some definate personal questioning - how did this happen?  why Miss Lilly?  are we not bathing enough?  I try so hard to keep things clean, am I not clean enough?  I know logically after reading countless things on the Internet and in my nursing books that it has nothing to do with cleanliness ... but how can I not think about that?!  This morning she asked in her morning prayers 'please don't let there  be anymore bugs in my hair'.  She also said, 'Momma, I'm so sorry I had bugs!'  I assured her it was not her fault ... it is just something yucky that happens to people.

So much in life is just that - something yucky that happens to us.  I've been thinking a lot about that lately, there is so much we don't know about each other's lives.  Good, bad and ugly things that maybe nobody else knows or can recognize in us.  Sometimes the good stuff is just as hard to not have people know about as the bad stuff is for people to know about.  We really have no idea what other people are going through, even if we think we know them well.  There are certainly things about me and my life that seldom few, if any know.  I love that quote, 'let us be kind to those around us, for we are all fighting a hard battle'.  I don't know who it is from, but I need to make that my mantra and remember that daily, if not hourly in the people I come into contact with.