Happy Halloween!

Leah is a ninja, Samuel is Iron Man, and Audrey is Jessie. They had a blast and we are still hungover on candy!

Christmas Traditions

I love the traditions of my childhood and I am enjoying passing those traditions on to my children. And of course, establishing new traditions in my own home. Here are some traditions from my childhood that I am passing on to my children:

We always got a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve before bed. This year I sent my kids down to get their PJ's on and they were amazed that new pajamas had "magically" appeared on their beds! It was fun to play Santa's advocate.

On Christmas Eve, after a Family Home Evening lesson with the account of the Savior's birth in Luke 2, we always played board games, had a fire in the fireplace, and ate goodies. It is such a cozy memory. We did that this year as well. We taught the kids how to play Sorry and it was so much fun to play it with them now that they get how! What a fun age!

This Christmas we also discovered the magic of "The Polar Express" with children who truly believe. We discovered how much fun it is to get gifts for our children and help them pick out gifts for one another. It was fun to decorate Christmas cookies and have a game night with friends.

Other traditions include a dramatic reading of "The Grinch," and coffee cake for breakfast on Christmas morning. Everyone stays in their pajamas all day long, right? It was so fun to watch the kids go from one new treasure to the next all day. Audrey looked like she really wanted to just roll in the piles of wrapping paper all over the floor...that paper looked so TASTY!

The kids received so many fun and thoughtful and generous gifts: Hungry Hungry Hippos was the request of choice from Santa (Whew! That was only $13!). The kids also got nerf guns, new gloves, new coats and shirts and pants and socks, Build-a-Bear stuffed animals from a secret Santa, books, coloring books, puzzles, and so much more! I got some new kitchen items including a scale, new silverware and Chris got me a dock for my iPod! I suppose my new haircut counts as a Christmas gift as well. I am one step closer to being back to my original hair color. Oh yeah, and Chris himself installed a new (used), WORKING, and free dishwasher for me on Christmas Eve! I love having a dishwasher again! And I thought on a new budget, we would be having a simple Christmas.... Not so! We are too blessed!

This week at our house

Halloween in a nutshell

Here is our unruly bunch. Leah was the most proud and the most practiced Rapunzel since Mandy Moore. And Samuel was a cute little pirate named Jake. All we are missing is the cowlick. Audrey was my little Dalmation this year, as was Samuel when he was that age. I am pretty impressed with myself for sewing Leah's and Samuel's costumes, the Jake vest I made without a pattern. I did Jake for $0 and Rapunzel for about $15 (except for the hair...that was pricey). I also did a couple comissioned costumes this year--pictures coming soon, but that is why I didn't have time to make a costume for myself. Oh, well, it was fun, and we have 365 days to get ready for next year....



At our house we have the law of candy consecration, which means that all Halloween loot goes into one candy bucket from which all can pick their one peice after dinner. This serves a couple purposes: it helps us monitor the candy, it eliminates posessiveness and "fairness" of who got more tootsie rolls or pixie sticks, and most importantly it give the grown ups equal access to the candy.

Poduncadick 2011

We survived Poduncadick! August 11-13, 2011 (Perseid Meteor Shower), Strawberry Reservoir, Utah.

5 Popes

7 Duncans

5 Fosdicks

2 Days

3 Tents

6 Adults

11 Children

Lots and lots of dirt

We had a blast on our camp out where the children truly relished in the dirt. We pitched our tent at probably a 30 degree angle, amidst trees and stumps, but managed to sleep pretty well owing to our 2 inches of memory foam. Fun, not as relaxing as I had hoped, but I did manage to finish a book. Audrey was the easiest--she slept all night twice, and managed to stay quite cheerful and comfortable in the 80 degree days and 40 degree nights. It helped to have so many willing baby holders. We had only minor injuries and one potty accident. The kids tried all day to catch a pot gut, but in vain. We enjoyed the campfires and board games, french toast and fajitas, shooting stars and full moon, surprisingly decent flush toilets and most of all the company of fun friends. It was really nice to leave my iPod behind for two days and never look in a mirror once or brush my hair. I was the only one to get a lobster red sunburn, lucky me. It took a full week to clean up all the gear and I lost track of laundry loads at about 7. It was a great experience and I'm already looking forward to next year's camp out.

Some photo highlights:

Audrey's Baby Blessing

Audrey was given a priesthood blessing by her dad in church on Sunday, July 3. One of my favorite parts of the blessing was when Chris blessed her to be "physically and spiritually triumphant." It was a special day for all of us! We were very blessed to have family and friends join us for the occasion: Grandpa and Grandma, the Stansfields, the Coombs, Aunt Sue and Uncle Jess, Aunt Janet and Uncle Grant. Audrey was so beautiful in the little green dress that I wore for my baby blessing nearly 28 years ago. (Can you tell who is who?)

Celebrations, Part 1

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We are so glad to have Grandma and Grandpa visiting to celebrate with us. After iPod Scrabble wars, we started off the weekend celebrations by attending the Best Neighborhood Party ever, with tons of food and sweets, fireworks, volleyball, movie, and good friends. The kids loved the sparklers and glow sticks, and even Audrey was mesmerized by the fireworks.

On Monday, we enjoyed watching the kids as they enjoyed the parade, (while I not so discreetly wished I could have been selling otter pops at $.46 profit each.)

Then we did sparklers at home and had root beer floats. That's American tradition at its best!