Movie Night

Last night Emily and I made popcorn and snacked on the Nutty Bars she just had to get at Walmart. As you can see, we didn't do a great job of taking pictures of ourselves!

Bye, Auntie Emy

We're so sad that Auntie Emy has to leave tomorrow. We've had a great weekend! The kids snuggled with her before bedtime and watched Elmo's World. We'll miss you, Emily!

Picture by Chelsea

One of my former 2nd grade students, Chelsea (who is now in the 8th grade), played around with the pictures of Grace and Lily in their new princess dresses and put them in this bounce house. Good job, Chelsea! I hope the girls don't think they're getting this for their birthday.

A Trip to the Lake

We took Flat Stanley with us to the lake this afternoon.


Look at my beautiful, skinny sister! I love having her here.


The boys enjoyed throwing rocks into the water. Caleb got a little too close to the edge for this mommy.



We drove out to a beautiful lake today. Emily wanted us to take her "to the wilderness," as she put it. She really wants to see moose. Unfortunately, we didn't see any. On our way out of town, we stopped by Starbucks and had peppermint mochas in Red Christmas Cups! Yeah!!! Peppermint mochas taste so much better in those red cups.

A Day in Spokane

After our trip out to the lake, we went downtown to show Emy the red wagon slide, Riverfront Park, Whiz Kids (Jared's favorite toy store) and then we had dinner at The Spaghetti Factory.

Princess Grace, Princess Lily

Auntie Emy came bearing gifts! The girls love their new princess costumes! Emy and I are going to take the girls out for coffee this morning. There's a little coffee place here in Spokane with a great children's corner.


I had to steal this picture from Emily's camera!



Here we are enjoying breakfast this morning.

Emy's Here!

We picked up Emy from the airport this afternoon! Yeah!!! She'll stay all weekend. The kids have big plans for her. We stopped by Sonic on the way home. Jared was excited to show Auntie Emy how they bring out the food.

For more pictures, go here

Caleb

Caleb just said to me, "Mommy, you're gorgeous. Do you like being gorgeous?"

Boy, I've never really thought about it!

It's Too Quiet!

Not that I'm complaining, but it's very unusual in this house. Here's what the kids are up to:


Jared and Caleb are playing fort up on their bunk bed. No girls are allowed. That's probably why it's so quiet in there!



Gracie is playing tea party with her doll again.


And tech savvy Lily has both Leapsters, the Leap Pad and all of their cartridges out on my bed.

Ten Things I Don't Do

I hope I don't shock anyone out there, but here are 10 things that I don't do:

I don't scrapbook
I don't make my own bread
I don't (won't) diet
I don't take vitamins
I don't knit or crochet
I don't can fruits, vegetables or jams
I don't garden
I don't want to homeschool
I don't dust
I don't know what to write for #10

Now I tag Emily, Stephanie and Brooke

Time Change

Does anyone have advice for helping my kids adjust to the time change? Their new wake-up time is 5:30.

Giving Thanks

I'm very thankful for the time I was able to spend with my friend Emily in Seattle this weekend. I'm also thankful for Emily. I love having good Christian friends. Visiting with her was like a breath of fresh air! We went to bed early, slept in, shopped, ate, visited friends, went to her church, drank coffee, and sat and talked at a beautiful park overlooking the Space Needle.

I'm thankful for my children who were so happy to see me when I got home. Caleb has been catching up on hugs and kisses since I've been home. He pats my face and tells me that he missed me. He said, "Days we didn't talk; today we'll talk." Jared told me that things weren't the same without me.

But Phil wins the prize! I can't thank God enough for the wonderful husband He's given me. Phil took such good care of things while I was gone. The house was clean, the kids were clean, he took them to church and out to lunch by himself, he made blueberry muffins on Saturday night like I always do so breakfast is easy on Sunday morning (I almost bought blueberry muffins for them, but decided he might just feed them Cheerios), and he also fixed the car because it didn't pass the smog check last week. I took the car in this morning to get it checked and it passed! Good job, Phil.

We had a "drive-thru" kind of morning: drive-thru smog check, drive-thru bank deposit, drive-thru McDonald's for our picnic at the park, drive-thru car wash, and, since I was on a roll, drive-thru Starbucks! How could I resist? It was right across the street from the car wash. We ran all of these errands in the car! Mothering 4 small children has never been easier (I think).

Sleeping in Seattle

That's what I'll be doing this weekend! My wonderful husband is sending me away for the weekend to visit a dear college friend. I'll pick Phil up from school this afternoon and then he and the kids will drop me off at the airport. As far as the kids go, we've sweetened the deal by telling them that Daddy will take them to Sonic for dinner after they drop me off. Jared is excited about the new November toys in their Wacky Packs. They're supposed to be little cars. Caleb is hoping his car will be yellow.

As a side note, Jared has been frustrated with his sisters this morning. They're following him around the house destroying everything he's trying to play with. He just said to me, "Mommy, I wish all of your children could just start out at [age] 3." Interesting thought!

A few minutes ago, I caught Lily on my bed trying to stuff her jammies into the bag I'm taking to Seattle. Cute, cute, cute!!!

So Far, So Good

Phil has a very long day today. He left the house at 5:30 this morning and won't be home until 7:00 this evening. This makes for a very long day for the rest of us, but the Lord has blessed us with a calm morning and a beautiful sunny sky! It was still 40 degrees outside at lunch time, so we'll save our morning walk for this afternoon.

I spent the majority of my morning in the kitchen--first, putting stew in the crockpot for tonight, and then just sitting on the kitchen floor with the kids. We had tea parties, played dollhouse, Play Doh, cars, Lego, and fed baby dolls. I got a kick out of Lily! She escaped into her room and came out in high heels and her baby's diaper bag. I followed her around the house with the camera, because it's so sweet to see this side of her. Gracie has always nurtured her dolls, but Lily has always chosen to play with her brothers or help her daddy fix things around the house. She snuggles her baby doll now, feeds her in the little high chair by spooning imaginary food into her doll's mouth and rocks her while singing "Rock-a-bye Baby."

Happy November!

I can hardly believe November is here! My girls will be 2 soon! Caleb received his Cubbies uniform last night at AWANA. He's very proud of it.


The boys were given even more candy at AWANA last night. Here they are going through their bags before bedtime.


We have a bit of a dilemma here. My kids have really enjoyed playing with my empty Starbucks carton, but look at it! I've repaired it many times with Scotch tape. I guess I'm going to have to buy another 4-pack. In fact, one for each of the kids would probably be best, don't you think?