Holiday Week

I'm going to quickly run through the week leading up to Christmas.  We did a lot of fun things, but I don't have the energy to make a separate post about each one, and you don't have the energy to read them.  So for the sake of all involved, here is a quick overview:

Monday:
Jenny Smith and the girls had flown in from Chicago a day or two before.  On Monday, they came over to say hello and to tour our new house.  My girls were still in school, and the Smiths had other stuff to do. They only stayed a few minutes.  In the evening, we met the WHOLE Smith clan (minus David, who would be flying in later in the week) at Big Jim's Burgers in Ogden.  We took up about half the restaurant!  We ate delicious, greasy food, then went over to Kristin and Brian's house for hot chocolate and donuts.  The original plan was to go to Christmas Village, but a windy storm and a sick kid or two kept us indoors.  We had a great night visiting and playing with our family.


Clockwise: Alison, Megan, Ashley, Paige.



Scott, Jenny, Gpa, Gma, David



Bronson found a cool light saber!  He wielded it with impressive skill!  His metachlorians must be off the scale!
 

 Tuesday:
That evening, our girls had a birthday party to attend for a cute boy in our neighborhood.  It was at Chuck-E-Cheese's.  They had a blast and came home with quite a loot!  Meanwhile, Dave and I were finishing up present wrapping, neighborhood gift delivering, and work-related tasks that had to be completed before the holiday. 

Wednesday:
In the afternoon, I helped Alison's class make gingerbread houses while the boys had a play date at a neighborhood friend's house.  That evening, Ali had her first ever piano recital.   It was at our library.  She played two numbers.  She did such a  great job!  You know who didn't do such a great job?  Bronson - at being quiet.  He and Dave spent most of the recital in the lobby.  But that ended up working out really well for us because some teenager was walking out of the library with a nice large nut tray. (You know, the kind from Western Nut company or something?) She said she didn't like nuts, so she gave it to Dave. Woo Hoo!  After the recital, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights for a while. 


Our cute girl!

Thursday:
We attended the 5th or 6th annual Smith Family Christmas Bingo Party.  For the first time, we held it at a church.  It was great - we'll never go back to holding it in a house again.  We all bring a bunch of little prizes, gift wrapped and labeled either "kid" or "adult."  We eat yummy finger foods, then let the games begin!  Everyone goes home with lots of fun stuff and in a super-festive holiday mood!


This is when we're still setting up.  Those chairs would soon be filled with Smiths



The prizes!



This is what a Smith party looks like after we've all decided NOT to have food at it!



Grandpa is always the bingo caller.  This year, Bronson helped.



After the game's over, everyone trades prizes with each other.  Dave was the one running around trying to trade all the kids for their candy this year.  It was funny.
 

 

Friday: 

Friday was a day for cleaning the house, packing the bags, cooking as much food as I could for Christmas dinner, and finishing up any last minute preparations for the holidays so that we'd be ready to leave the next morning.  It was a busy, busy day.  That's all I have to say about that.

Saturday:
We woke up, ate breakfast, packed the van, and headed to Idaho.  On the way there, we listened to "The Christmas Carol" read by Patrick Stewart.  It was wonderful!  The boys were too young to really enjoy it, but the rest of us liked it a lot.  We got to the Gee's house around lunch time.  We spent the day visiting, then in the evening, we had the Gee family Christmas dinner.  Since both Shawn and Kristi's families had in-laws visiting for the holidays and Jodi would be with her in-laws as well, this was our big get-together.  We had a full Christmas dinner with ham and cheesy potatoes and home made rolls and everything!  Afterwards, we had a wonderful concert.  We had lots of piano numbers (seriously amazing!) and singing, gymnastics, saxophone, trombone, guitar, and violin numbers as well.  It was such a great night! 


Nicole sang, "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas"



Evan played the sax - I didn't know he even could!



A super fun piano duet by Grandma and Sue
 

Sunday:
We went to church at our old ward in Lyman.  I can't even describe how beautiful the program was.  Every song and every word was beautiful.  I was so happy to be there.  David and the boys stayed home because Dave "wasn't feeling well."  He really was a little sick, but let's be honest - he would have come if he'd remembered to pack his pants!!!  We had a great time visiting with old friends and neighbors.  I was amazed at how much all the kids in the ward had grown in only six months! We spent the afternoon visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, Suzette, and Aunt Linda.  That evening, Jim, Marilyn and I went to visit Dave's Aunt Marilyn.  Then we drove around for a while and looked at Christmas lights together.  It was such a fun time for me.  Meanwhile, everyone else stayed home and watched "A Christmas Carol" with George C. Scott as Scrooge.  My kids had never seen to before - it was a little intense in parts for Nicki, and the boys didn't watch it at all, but I think otherwise, they liked it. 


Grandpa played Old Maid with the girls.

So that's it...that's the week leading up to Christmas Eve.  Pretty fun, eh?  I LOVE Christmas time!  I love being with family and going to concerts and parties and shopping and singing and reading the gospels and everything - EVERYTHING that goes along with it! 

Our Miracle

As I mentioned in my last entry, I lost my camera somewhere on the Frontrunner train system.  I'm not sure exactly where I lost it - I had when we were waiting for the train, and I didn't have it when we were at Temple Square.  That's all I know.  I spent most of the evening trying not to think about the loss, and when I wasn't successful, I tried to remember if our warranty covered losing it on a train.  David was so totally cool about the whole thing.  He told me not to worry about it - it was a camera, not a child.  I was grateful that he wasn't angry, but I was sick about the money and the memories that were gone - we couldn't replace either.

We got home from our outing pretty late that night.  I was cold and tired and sick and very sad.  I got the kids in their beds, then collapsed in my own bed and fell instantly asleep.  Dave was awake for a little while.  Around 11:30 or so, he woke me up.  He said, "Kell - there's a message on our answering machine from (the lady that used to live in our house).  She says that someone called her tonight and asked her if she lost a camera on the Frontrunner. She left the people's name and number for us to call in the morning."  I'm sure Dave was expecting me to be excited, but instead, I burst into tears.  I mean, I WAS excited, but I was pretty overwhelmed by our little miracle.  Talk about a tender mercy!

So, here's the story of the lost camera.  A very nice, honest, kind lady and her adult daughter found our camera at the train station.  They wanted to find the owner, but couldn't find any name or address on the case.  They turned on the camera and started to look at the most recent pictures for clues.  First, they saw a picture of our little family waiting for the train.  "Ohhh!  How sad!  We've got to find them!" they said.  They looked at more pictures.  Suddenly, they found a major clue!  See, just a few days prior to our trip, we just happened to get a Christmas card from our cat, and I just happened to take a picture of the envelope.  They googled our address and found the previous owner's information.  The previous owner happened to keep their same phone number when they moved, so she was able to answer the call and forward the information on to us.  Can you believe how many things just HAPPENED to fall into place?!?!?  I contacted the woman the next morning, and she was more than happy to deliver the camera right to our front door. She was greeted by the most excited, humble, grateful family she'd ever seen!

Temple Square

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Jodi and I made plans to meet at Temple Square in December to see the beautiful Christmas lights.  Friday, December 14th was the day we made those plans come to pass. (That was also the day of the horrible school shooting in Connecticut.  I had spent much of the day in tears, and was especially anxious to spend quality time with my family).

We decided to ride the Frontrunner train to Salt Lake and then take Trax to Temple Square.  The Layton terminal is not far from our house.  We had a great time waiting for and riding the train! Sure, it was cold and rainy, but we wouldn't let that dampen our spirits!  In fact, the kids were all a little TOO excited!  They literally could NOT hold still!  Jodi's family was also riding the Frontrunner to Salt Lake at the same time.  We showed up at Temple Square not too long after they arrived.

We spent some time walking around and "enjoying" the lights for a while.  I say "enjoying" because it's not exactly peaceful for the moms.  You know, we're just laser-focused on trying to keep nine excited kids together, out of harms way, out of the ponds, and out from under the feet of other light-lookers, etc.  There was a lot of stress on the parents' part, but the kids weren't listening to us anyway, so they had a blast. 



About half way through our visit, I realized that I'd lost our camera.  That put a damper on the evening, but I tried not to let it ruin anything.  I'll tell you the whole camera story in another post, but for now, just know that there weren't too many photos taken.  Most of these photos came from Jodi's camera or David's phone.

After a while, we decided that we should try to find some place to eat.  We discussed JB's, not far from Temple Square, but when Dave called, he was told that there was a half hour wait.  We decided to try the food court in City Creek.  Yikes.  After herding nine rowdy, hungry kids across busy city streets and down a couple of city blocks in the rain, we discovered that the food court at City Creek was PACKED!!!  I mean, it looked like an ant hill!  It was wild!  We decided that a half hour wait at JB's was sounding better than a half hour wait in a food court line.  We walked another couple of city blocks and across another busy street or two in the rain with rowdy, hungry kids (some of which were starting to melt down - JOSH!), but we finally arrived at JB's.  I don't think the wait was more than 15 or 20 minutes, most of which was downright pleasant.  We ended up seated in a great big table in the back of the restaurant and had a wonderful time (all except a child or two who continued to melt down, but even that was over once the food arrived). 

After dinner, we all rode the Trax to the SLC Central station.  Then, we had to split ways and head in different directions.  It was fun to say goodbye - over and over again since we were just standing on opposite sides of the platform for about half an hour.  While we waited, David took Josh off somewhere to let him run.  He just ran and ran for about 20 minutes.  The rest of us huddled by the space heaters at the train platform and watched the rain turn to snow.  We got home late, but the kids were in wonderland!  What a fun night for them.  Me?  Well... between having a heavy heart over the shooting, losing the camera, chasing kids all night, and feeling my cold get worse and worse with each passing minute, it wasn't my best night.  Still, seeing how much joy it brought the kiddos pretty much wiped out all the bad stuff.  I hope we do it again every year!

Season's Greetings?

We got a mysterious letter in the mail a week or so ago...



When I first saw it, I figured someone must have let their child address the envelope.  It seemed like strange handwriting.



Then, I got quite a shock to see who the sender turned out to be.



That darned cat!!!  It totally made my kids' day!  They spent a lot of time passing the card around and trying to figure out how she held the pen, etc.  Of course, I went out and got a gift for her the very next day so as to avoid any further letters.
 

Thanks, mom!  What a great surprise for all of us.

Grandpa's Challenges

In November, my 92 year old Grandpa Church suffered a minor stroke.  He spent a couple of days in the hospital, then a few weeks at a nursing home in Ogden.  For a while, things weren't looking too good.  When I went to visit him the first time, his speech was terribly slurred, one side of his body was paralyzed, and he wasn't really able to eat.  He's such a fighter and hard worker, though.  He soon regained some of his strength and speech and within a few days, he was telling us that his physical therapy was a "piece of cake!" (As you can tell, he never lost his sense of humor) Still, he's probably not going to be strong enough to come home for quite some time (if ever), so we're all trying to adjust to this new phase of our lives.  It's been the most difficult for my grandma, of course.  Her whole life has been turned upside down and there are still so many unknowns about the future.  My mom also spends a lot of time with them.  I wish I could do more, but I only get to see him about once per week (thanks to the fact that Josh is terrified of nursing homes and cries like a mad man every time he has to come along). 

One day, Grandpa Church's older brother, Ned and his little sister, Sarah drove up from Delta to visit him.  It was pretty amazing! Ned's 97 or so and Sarah's 90!  Ned is one of the best men I've ever had the blessing of knowing. All the Church's are - they're truly the most loving, fun, warm, happy people I've ever met!  Here is a picture of them in the parking lot of the nursing home before they left. 


Katie, Kristin, Mom, Dad, Ned's granddaughter, Ned, Sarah, Ned' daughter Florence
 

A few weeks ago, he was transferred to the Veteran's Nursing Home in North Ogden.  It's a very nice facility, and we're happy that he's there. He's been struggling with dementia worse than ever so he's been moved to a dementia wing.  At first, we thought that was a sad thing, but it's turned out to be great. They're just better equipped to give him what he needs there.  He's encouraged to be out-and-about visiting other patients, which is what he's been wanting to do all along.  It's hard because he doesn't want to be there.  He wants to go home - to Ogden or sometimes to Delta.  We think that he sometimes thinks he's back in Japan as a POW.  On Friday, he was showing me the fence out the window and telling me that we had to get to the other side of it.  As hard as this is for us, it's got to be hardest of all for him.  I love him so much and wish he could be spared this trial.  I love to visit him.  He's such a kind man, even when he is trying to talk you into busting him out of there. 

Deck The Halls

Josh almost DIED this November having to wait to put up the Christmas tree.  Every single morning, we had to count the days until Thanksgiving - not because he cared about turkey, but because he knew he could decorate for Christmas on the day afterward.  When the day of decorating finally rolled around, he popped out of bed bright and early (WAY too early for this mom, who spent most of the night before hitting Black Friday sales and had collapsed into bed a few hours earlier).  I told him that we wouldn't do anything until after Dad left for work, so Josh kept trying to make David leave.  "Dad, don't you have your shoes on yet?"  It was a funny role reversal.

Well, Dad finally left and we got to work turning our house into a winter wonderland.  I was pretty short tempered, but I don't think the kids even noticed.  They were too excited!  By the time Dad came home from work, our house was completely decorated, clean, and smelling festive.  After dinner, we all sat in the light of the Christmas tree, sipped eggnog and sang Christmas carols.  What a fun way to start off the Christmas season.

I love our new home's holiday feel.

We've never had a mantle before!

Oh how I love our Christmas tree!  It just makes me happy!

These jars are SO FUN!!!  I love changing them out every season.  Aren't the stick-on bows adorable?



And here's how they look on our entry table.

My favorite decoration:  L to R: Josh, Ali, Nicki, and Bronson at 6 weeks old.

Krisitn made me these nativity blocks one year.  It's so NICE to have something the kids can touch without getting in trouble!  You should see the strange ways I find them stacked up sometimes!

Our house came pre-lit.  When we moved in last June, the Christmas lights were still up.  All we had to do was plug them in.

Last Monday night we, decorated out annual gingerbread house. 

Gee Family Gingerbread House 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Idaho this year!  Since David couldn't get any time off, we drove up-and-back in one day, but it was totally worth it.

We love visiting with our family. 

We ate tons of fabulous food.  The kids ate in the newly-remodeled garage.  It was awesome!



Then, we all enjoyed the beautiful weather by going for a walk.  Silly picture, Nicki!



We must have been quite a sight - a whole gaggle of Gees on Highway 33.



We walked to the family farm.  All the kids (and Aunt Sue) climbed up on the haystacks.  Sorry about the dirt on my lens.



Bronson loved getting so close to the cows.  They weren't sure what to make of all of us.  They kept their distance and mooed from afar.



Many, but not all of us.  Nicki's MIA, Ali's the one flinging her arms in the air on top of the stacks. 



The Gee women.  I love those ladies!
 

Dave's Jug of Moonshine

Dave got sick in November.  Really, really sick.  Our whole family contracted a nasty cold, but Dave got it the worst - as usual.  Ever since he had pneumonia four years ago, his colds drop straight into his lungs.  He gets pneumonia (or close to it) every single winter.  This year, it seemed to come earlier in the season, but boy - did it come!!! 

He went to the doctor twice in one week.  The first doc he saw didn't help at all.  She just said, "Hm.  Yep - you're sick.  Drink lots of fluid and use a humidifier."  When that didn't work, and Dave got much worse, he went to a different doc.  This one said, "Man!  I can't believe that first doctor!  When someone has a tendency towards pneumonia, you don't mess around!"  He prescribed a very strong antibiotic and a VAT of cough syrup. 

Look at that beast!  I put it next to a normal sized bottle of medicine for comparison.
 

Dave is very skeptical about cough syrup.  His experience in the past four years is that cough syrup only makes his mucus thinner, which actually makes him cough more.  He vowed to me that he would NEVER take cough syrup again - he'd rather go back in the wind caves than take cough syrup again!!!!  I think that last part was a bit melodramatic, but he was going on several nights without sleep due to his constant coughing, so he had the right to be melodramatic.  The doctor promised Dave that he would LOVE this stuff.  Still, David was very leery when he realized that it was the same prescription he'd been given for the past four years.  This doc, however, made one significant change.  He told Dave, "Now the pharmacy is going to tell you that you can only take 1-2 teaspoons of this stuff.  I want you to take 5 teaspoons."  Well - that did the trick!  If you practically overdose on codeine, you stop coughing and get a little rest - who knew!!!  Thank heaven for that doctor!  I don't know how much more Dave could have taken (or me for that matter - it's ALMOST as hard to sleep when your spouse is coughing, you know).  He took it for about a week, but stopped as soon as possible because it was making him kind of loopy around the clock.  He's almost better now - at least for the time being - and we're stocked up on cough syrup for the next time.

Adam

My little sister's son, Adam, turned 8 yesterday.  He is non-verbal autistic.  You have NEVER seen a more handsome, brilliant little kid in your life!  Both Katie and her husband, Scot (who is typically the most funy and sacastic human being on the planet) wrote such beautiful posts on facebook about their happy little boy that I asked her permission to post them here - I want to keep them in our family history.  And I also want to share this amazing family with you:

Katie's post:

It's miracle time at our house again! Tomorrow, Adam will turn 8 years old! When I first held my tiny 2 pound baby eight years ago, I had no idea what we had in store. Most days are so hard and the emotions that accompany raising a child with special needs are not always pretty (anger, frustration, hopelessness, jealousy, sorrow, fatigue), but somehow the love, joy and triumph is so much the sweeter because of our difficulties! I'm so thankful for the times when I'm given glimpses of the amazing individual that my son truly is. Our lives would not be complete with out our Adam! Now if we could only get him to stop licking everything he sees...

Scot's Post:

 

Warning: Sappiness alert. When someone posts a sappy, religious, offensive, etc post, I typically skip it. I am warning you right now that you might want to skip this one cause it might contain sappiness as well as being long and boring. So here we go:

 

 Happy birthday Adam! 8 years ago, our lives were forever changed when Adam was born 11 weeks early, weighing 2 ½ lbs. For those in my church, the 8th birthday is somewhat of a milestone. They can at that age choose whether or not they want to be baptized. (For my non LDS friends, in our belief, one of the reasons that they wait until 8 is that a little child is not capable of sinning because they don’t fully understand the difference between right and wrong. They may know that they are not supposed to do things but they might not understand why and so God would not hold them accountable. It would be unjust to hold someone accountable for something if they don’t know the difference between right and wrong.) Although as we get older and understand these things, we are still human and we may make wrong choices. That is where baptism comes into play. We also believe that people like Adam will never know the difference between right and wrong and so there is not a need for baptism because he does not purposefully make wrong choices.

 So while the 8th birthday is a milestone for most in my church, it is somewhat of a bittersweet moment for us. Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy for my friends when they post pictures of their 8 year olds on their big day. In fact, I envy them. Although we are not supposed to envy, I’d be lying if I said that I do not envy those with “normal” lives and children. I am also very happy for the knowledge that Adam will not be held accountable for the things he does on earth. I also know that we are truly blessed by having him in our lives. But in the LDS “showing empathy culture”, it really doesn’t help to hear things like, “you must be really special people to let the lord give you someone like Adam”. With that type of reasoning, the lord must really trust someone who is gives birth to and raises a “Crack” or “fetal alcohol” baby.

 The other thing we cringe at is things like “I don’t know how you guys do it”. Do what? We don’t really know any difference. This is our life and we are happy. I’ll be honest, I would love to be able to watch him play sports or go on a vacation as a family. Heck, I’d love to be able to go to the store as a family. I’d obviously like to be able to save money instead of pay $1000 for anesthesia just to get his teeth cleaned or instead of buying new blinds that he’s broken every month. Have you tried to buy diapers for an 8 year old?

 So now it sounds like this post is just to complain and it’s really not. With all of the issues that we might have, this is what our little non-verbal autistic 8 year old boy gives us:

 - He gives us the gift of having someone who is always happy (Even when he shouldn’t be).
-He shows us unconditional love and trust.
-He shows so much joy in the simple things. He’d rather play with a plastic hanger or cardboard box than a video game or a phone.
- We have been surrounded and blessed throughout his life with great teachers and friends who watch give him the love and attention that he needs at school and at home.
-He was blessed with an unbelievably amazing mom and a wonderful sister who often gets overshadowed because of his needs.
-He hums and sings the entire time he’s awake.
-We have learned so much and been able to feel so many different emotions (both good and bad) that we never would have had with a “normal” life.
-We have learned to shrug off things that you have no control over or that you can laugh at later. (Like the old people that give him the evil eye when he turns the lights off at church or when he ducks his head underneath the table at a restaurant and comes up chewing a piece of gum that he didn’t have before that.)
-He’s very healthy even though he only eats cheerios and salty crackers.
-It's important to stop and lick the roses.

 One of our friends with a special son of his own summed it up perfectly when he said “although I never sign up for this type of experience again, I wouldn’t trade the experience we have had for anything” Thanks for the great experience Adam. Thanks for teaching us not to take life so seriously. We love you.

On A Whim

Sunday, November 4th started out like any other Sunday - aside from the fact that it was daylight savings and our boys woke up pre-5:00 am!  We ate breakfast, got ready for church, put dinner in the crock pot and lounged around a little.  Then, at about 9:30, David said something crazy to me.  He said, "You know, I'm feeling kind of impulsive, but it probably won't work."  Of course, I was intrigued by this introduction, so I asked for more information.  He said, "Well, my dad picked up my allergy drops for me this week, and I was thinking we could drive up to Idaho and get them."  That was all the encouragement I needed!  I'm not sure if Dave expected me to react to his impulse so strongly, but we've all been missing our Idaho family so much - especially on Sunday evenings, so I was all for it.

It took about an hour for Dave and I to figure out all the details and prepare for the trip (you know, packing snacks, rearranging a few things for church, making sure Dave's parents would be home when we arrived, setting up the DVD players in the van, etc.).  We didn't tell the kids because we wanted it to be a surprise, but they could definitely tell something was up - we don't usually pack an ice chest and set up the DVD players to go to church.  They were super excited for whatever was happening.  We went to sacrament meeting in our ward, but came straight home afterward and changed into more comfortable clothes.  We told the kids our destination after sacrament meeting (although the girls had pretty much figured it out on their own).  They were dancing and high-fiving and giggling all the way home.

We hit the road shortly after 12:30.  We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Gee's house at about 4:00pm.  We had packed our crock pot full of food in the ice chest and set some Rhodes rolls on a tray to rise while we drove, so we brought dinner with us.  Soon after dinner, the cousins started arriving.  What a great night!  We were so happy to be there again.  We were lucky enough to come on the night when many of the grand kids performed the musical numbers they've been working on for Festival.    Wow!  They are all getting so good! 


Grandpa's lap is the perfect place to listen to a cousin concert!  L-R: Nolan, Abram, Grandpa, Josh, Bronson (who was also on Gpa's lap a few minutes before this picture was taken).



Eli and Bronson getting acquainted.



Kristi, Amy, Ali on the floor, Maddie and Abby.
 

It was just like old times:  cookies and ice cream, kids gunning around in dress-up clothes, skits being worked on and performed, political discussions between the adults, and plenty of laughter.  I hardly saw Nicki and Isabelle - they were downstairs having fun, I  suppose.  We didn't want the night to end, but it did.  We left around 7:30 pm, pulling into our driveway around 11:00.  The kids didn't have school the next morning, so it was okay to be up late, but poor Dave had to work.  All four of the kids fell asleep in the van on the way home, but Josh had a hard time getting comfortable, so I had to sit next to him for part of the drive.  It was a crazy, impulsive thing to do, but we all thought it was TOTALLY worth it!  In fact, Nicki said, "We should do this every Sunday!"

Time Capsule

When I was in 5th grade, our school buried a time capsule.  It was  HUGE deal!  I remember very well how much thought we put into the things that we wanted to preserve for 25 years.  We wrote letters to the future and took pictures of ourselves.  We had a huge ceremony on the day we sealed it.  I was chosen to recite the Preamble to the Constitution at the ceremony.  It was really exciting. 

Well, 25 years has come and gone since I was in the fifth grade!  Last month, the time capsule was opened at another huge ceremony.  This time, I was unable to attend due to conflicts with my girls school schedule.  I was VERY sad to have missed it!  I read a newspaper article about it, and I could see several of my old classmates there.  Bummer!  Luckily for me, my sister still lives close by (her kids attend the same school we did) so she was able to pick up my letter and picture. 

Wow!  What a looker!  Dave is one lucky guy!

Dear 2012, I'm Kelley Smith.  I will be 35 in the year 2012.  I want to be a scientist.  When I become a scientist, I will study volcanos.  What do you want to be?  How many languages do you speak?

My typical school day starts at 9:00.  We have Business, Reading, Spelling, and recess.  Then I do math, have lunch, recess, story, Social studies, recess, art, and go home.  Sometimes we have field trips.  A few days ago, we went to a State fair.  Do you have field trips?  Kelley
 

I am anxiously awaiting a response from 2012.  After all, I asked some specific questions...but so far, 2012 has not written back.

Halloween 2012

We had a great Halloween this year, but I didn't do a great job of photographing it.  Sorry about that. 

First off, Nicole dazzled us with a Halloween concert on October 30th.  The whole 2nd grade put it on.  They performed for their classmates in an assembly that afternoon, then again for their families in the evening.  It was really adorable!  They sang fun, snappy tunes that I'd never heard before, and each class performed a poem as well.  I may be a little biased, but I think Nicki was the cutest one there.  Seriously, she really boogied!  She was very animated and engaging.  She was dressed up as a black widow spider this year and each time she did the actions, it would make all her legs dance along.  It was funny to watch.  She was right on beat the whole time and she just seemed to be glowing up there.  I couldn't be prouder of my little performer.

On Halloween morning, I forced everyone to down a big bowl of "grown-up oatmeal" (aka not instant flavored stuff).  Then, I made the girls do their 20 minutes of reading before school.  Finally, we put on their costumes and I drove them to school.  The first thing they did that day was march in a Halloween parade.  Parents were invited to attend in the gym.  We had a great time watching all those adorable kiddos strut their stuff.  Nicki was her usual self, giving everyone high fives as she passed by (which was really funny with all those extra arms).  Alison was Lady Liberty (by the way, thanks to Katie and Megan for letting us borrow both girls costumes!) and she was a big hit.  Moms kept stopping her so that they could take her picture. 

The boys and I came home and got to work cleaning and getting ready for that evening.  They both took naps so that they'd have enough energy for trick or treating later.  Around 2:00 in the afternoon, Dad surprised us by coming home for the day.  I had asked him to arrange his schedule so that he could get off a little early, which he did, but then lots of people canceled or rescheduled for one reason or another.  Hooray!  We took the boys over to a nearby park for a while, then picked up the girls from school.  The weather, by the way, could not have been more perfect for Halloween!  Warm, clear, almost-full moon (that night) - it was super!

We had our traditional dinner-in-a-pumpkin feast, but this year I added a twist.  I made orange and green rolls that looked like little pumpkins.  CUTE!  After dinner, we got everyone dressed up and ready to go out.  Dave and the girls were a little sheepish about going out so early.  They wanted to wait, but I told them we had too much to fit into one night as it was and sent them out.  It was about five minutes to six.  As soon as they left, the neighborhood came alive!  We had a lot of trick-or-treaters!  It was so fun to look out the window and see so MANY little families walking around.  What a great little neighborhood we have for kids.  I stayed home and cleaned up the dinner dishes between trick-or-treaters while David took the kids around the block. 

Things started out well for our little crew.  Bronson even said "teet teet!" at each door for the first little while.  Then, we had a slight mishap that sent things downward.  I specifically told Dave to avoid any houses with "dummies" in the yard because all too often those dummies are really people that jump out and scare little kids.  I also specifically told him to be sure to go to Ali's piano teacher's house.  I guess he couldn't do both things at the same time because there was a scary werewolf at the piano teacher's house that jumped out and scared the tar out of Nicole!  Josh and Bron were also reduced to tears. After Dave got them away from that house, they ran into a "zombie" roaming the sidewalk right next door.  That proved too much for Nicole's nerves.  She vows she will never trick-or-treat again.  Bron needed to hide in daddy's shoulder the rest of the evening as well.  Those spooky people should really wait until it's a little later at night so that the young kids can go in the daylight and not be traumatized! 

Anyway, the crew arrived home from their neighborhood rounds around 7:00 pm.  Then, David stayed home with sleeping Bronson and manned the door while I took the three older kids over to my parent's neighborhood.  We arrived just as the cousins were starting to trick-or-treat.  We joined up with them and hit all the houses in their circle.  Its so much fun to get all those kids together and watch them go!  Talk about energy!  Nicole, still shaken up by her last experience, opted to stay at Grandma's house and answer the door.  She had fun visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Church and Uncle Brian as well. 

We didn't get to stay very long since it was a school night, but we sure had a blast while we were together.  I carried my camera everywhere we went, but never took a single picture.  Way to go, Kell!  Well, just so you know, Payton was a bat (and he kept hiding in the dark, then swooping over and attacking his cousins), McKenna was a Gypsy complete with a glowing fortune telling ball, and Megan was a cranky morning woman in a  robe and curlers with cold cream on her face and a frying pan in her hand.  She was worried that after "Tangled" came out, the frying pan might be considered a weapon and she would not be allowed to bring it to school, but they let it slide.  Josh was absolutely bubbling over with excitement.  He kept chattering away to everyone about how he was Batman---muscle-y Batman! And how cool Payton's bat costume was and how much candy he was getting and how fun it was.  He was so cute!

This year, I offered to buy any candy the kids don't want for a nickle a piece.  I figure any small victory is better than nothing.  I'll keep the ones I like and toss the ones I don't.  Each girl sold me back 20 pieces (but they still have a LOT left) and Josh could only part with 2 things, but that's okay with me.  That boy burns a lot of energy!!!