Friday October 31

Happy Halloween!!!!!

I woke up this morning to an email saying that the kids can't have make-up, masks, or fake blood for the Halloween part at school.

Well, there goes Ports zombie costume out the window!

So we came up with an army guy costume last minute.

Turned out pretty cute :)

Oh, I mean manly!

I helped in his party manning a game station.

A game of Halloween Pictionary.

It was fun, these kids are so cute!

After school, I decided we needed to do some family pictures.

The last day of good weather and good light.

I had to take advantage.

And you don't go truck or treating until it's dark :)

Right?

So we got some shots.

Okay, it is way easier to have someone else take them.

So I will do that next year, but for today it was the whole timer run thing.

We got some good shots.

But I am only gonna share a couple :)

Then I took Madi to her friend party, and we got the kids ready for trick or treating.

We made a stop by bubbles first.

Then we took Cassi to meet up with her friends to do some trick or treating.

We stayed in the same neighborhood, then made a quick run to her primary teacher/bishops house and a few in their neighborhood.

Then we came home with the little ones.

Cassi got brought home around 9.

And I will be leaving soon to go get Madi.

It was a fun night for everyone :)

Let's hope that everyone isn't super grumpy tomorrow!

 

Thursday October 30

Today I did a lot of laundry.

And Dad is trying to figure plumbing stuff out.

When Port got home from school, I took pictures for the Edwards family.....Vern and Billy and the boys.

They turned out cute.

Then after the big girls got home from school, Madi and I met up with the Young family and I took their family pictures.

Perfect as always :)

Then I took some bestie shots of Madi and Kara together.

Cute girls.

These two are the best of friends...and I am pretty sure they have never really been mad at each other. 

They are both such awesome girls and amazing Young Woman!

I love that they have each other.

Now, we just need to re-create the photos for the next 20 years, and gather pictures from the last 13 :)

Then make a flip book!

Awesome!!!

;)

Oh, and then they came by to check out the house.

And after, we all went to dinner together at Dickey's.

Good times!

 

Wednesday October 29

The morning started early with Kyra and Avery coming over so we could take them to school.

Kyra made a cute little necklace for Elsie.

Sweet girls :)

We took it easy this morning while Dad rested his back and I did some editing with pictures.....

But then once Port got home, Dad was going a bit stir crazy...and had to get up and move.

They got some cupboards moved out.

I loved watching those boys work together.

It was pretty darn cute.

After school, we started getting ready for the ward trunk-or-treat.

Port went as a zombie.

Elsie was a Halloween ballerina.

Cassi, a purple minion.

And Madi, a pajama lady/lazy person :)

I went as a witch, since I already had the costume ready.

Port tried to convince Dad to go as a zombie.....but then he thought dad's idea of going as a 'pre'-zombie was pretty great :)

It was a fun night with a lot of good friends and good food.

 

Tuesday October 28

So things are going better today :)

Dad still woke up with his back hurting.

He took it easy while I went VT.

When I got home, he was feeling better.

Things are feelings okay, and we got dishes done and the house picked up.

But not any work on the remodel today.

Then I went and did grocery shopping while Brent took the boy and they went and got some insulation to put up in the ceilings in the basement to shut off some areas letting in some cold air.

After school Elsie had Speech and Cassi had guitar.

Our air/heat guy came over to see what stuff to get started on.

He also brought his plumber brother in law to help us with some stuff too.

I got the kids to do their homework and then we had ice cream before bedtime.

There was even a small amount of time that Madi and Cassi got along.

It wasn't very long......but you better believe I got a picture of it :)

 

Monday October 27

There are those days that sometimes it feels like everything is just falling all down on you.

Today is feeling kinda like that.

But the sky was pretty....so that helped :)

Anyway...Dad came home this morning cause he could hardly move.

His back is hurting again.

Thanks to the knocking down of cinder brick the other day :)

But his time is up from the last shot.....so it was bound to happen sooner or later.

So Dad went to the doctor to have it checked and they made the appointment to get in for his shot in the back.

I went and helped in Porter's class from 10-12 then when I got home, and pawned Porter off on Stacia, I took Dad in for the shot.

That took a good chunk of the day.

We got back just in time to pick the girls up from school.

We went and grabbed Port from Stacia's house after that.

Stacia was so sweet and had made some potato soup for my little family.

Which was so sweet, and really just what I needed.

I'm not sure what they would have eaten otherwise.

Cause I need to go grocery shopping.

Which is what I am gonna (try) to do now that the little ones are in bed :)

After that, I went and took some pictures.

Which is great....but I am also WAY behind on getting people their pictures!

Mostly my stress is coming from the absolute disaster around here!

No dishes clean....homework unorganized....laundry everywhere, even though most of it is clean, it is still unsorted and everywhere!

(This is NOT a desperate plea for help.....that in fact would completely stress me out a million times more!!!!!  I'm just venting here!)

I think I am just thinking of the things coming up in the next few weeks that I have to do....and also all the house stuff.

I also have a hard time with getting the kids to get their homework done.

Mostly the little two.

How do people get their kids to do homework!!!!

They just want to be done with school stuff when they get home.

Elsie is always so tired, and they have started sending home an extra math sheet for her to do each day, which I think is great.....but just another thing!

And Port.....still having a hard time recognizing the letters.

He gets the sounds of the letters usually, but can't name the letter.

Seems a little backwards to me.

But I do see him trying harder to pick out letter and sound out words to spell.

I just want to give them the help that they need....I just don't know if I am doing a good job.

ANYWAY.......

I sure hope this shot helps Brent.

It's different then the other ones he has had, not as specific to one certain area....more of a general spot.

It should do the trick, but he isn't too sure he is liking the lack of relief he is feeling right now.

Anyway.

Thanks for letting me vent.

I am sure tomorrow will be a great one.

Really, I am sure it will be.

I think I am just over-tired right now with a lot going on.

Tomorrow will be great :)

 

Sunday October 26

It was the Primary program today.

Bummer that dad had to miss it.

I just LOVE primary song sang by children.

There really is nothing better!

They all did great.

I could see all three of them from where Madi and I were sitting, and made sure they could see me smiling at them too :)

I could tell that Elsie was nervous, but also excited.

She sang her little heart out.

her teacher told me afterwards that she had to stop watching Elsie, because she (her teacher) started crying every time she looked at her cause she just looked like such an angel :)

She did.

Her cute little mouth is so fun to watch when she is singing out so loud.

It came time for her speaking part, and she did so great.

Very clear and loud.

Perfect.

Cassi sang awesome.

She is one of those voices that you can pick out when they all sing together.

I tell her that you can tell a difference when she is singing or not.....

The kids around her are encouraged by her singing, and they all sound so great.

She has a beautiful voice and I love to listen to her sing.

She had a longer speaking part, and she did a great job too.

Then it was Port's part.

He was pretty nervous all morning.

Not sure if he could do it....saying he wanted to stay home.

But I just told him that it's not a big deal, and he would do great.

He knew his turn was coming up, and he saw me smiling at him, and he was getting brave to do it....

Then the mic got passed to him, and he looked straight at me.....and completely forgot his lines!

The look on his face was hilarious!

Complete deer in the headlights.

His teacher whispered to him his line, and he said it with a big smile, happy to be rescued.

It was the cutest thing.

I do wish they sang more songs.

There is a fine line when it comes to having each kid with a speaking part and also get a lot of songs in.

Like I said, I am a sucker for kids singing primary songs......but the little speaking parts are sweet too.

It was a very good program and I definitely felt the sweet spirit and had tears in my eyes.

After church we just snacked and hung out.

Porter made himself his own Lego set, with (water stained) instructions included.

He made some cool sets, then took them apart, and drew how to put them back together.

Then he got a box, put the illustration on the front, and added the instructions inside.

He also made a display, which was not for sale, to put in his room.

But his room is now his own Lego store named "Lego's with Porter".

His display has plastic over it, like they do in the stores.

I didn't get a picture of that, but I will do that tomorrow.

Cause it is so dang cute :)

He's a smart kid, and creative.

I made some cookies and then we headed to the fire station to see daddy.

Dwaine, one of the guys on his crew, is changing stations.

So it was the last time with them all together.

He sure has a great crew there.

They are all pretty tight.

So I thought it was cool that they asked me to come and get some pictures :)

We weren't there for very long, but it was fun to see him for a little bit.

*****

Just a little side note.

I was touched today by a remark from a lady in my ward, and I wanted to write it down to record it.

After Sunday school, I was walking down the hallway towards the YW room, and a sister reached across the hall to grab me and said  "I just want you to know that I am inspired by you."

I looked at her with a bit of shock in my face, and ask her why?

She just smiled and started walking more down the hall, then turned to me and just said "I think you are such a wonderful Mom."

What a compliment!

But, also.....what??????

This is a sweet older lady that I have had maybe 2-3 conversations with, but always smile in passing.

I don't even know why she would think that of me.

The only think I can think of is maybe she was sitting by me during the primary program...maybe.

Maybe saw me communicating to the kids with thumbs up and smiles......

I don't know.

But I decided two things.

How absolutely sweet to, out of the blue, tell someone something like that.

Something that can completely turn their day around.

I need to be more like that.

And the second thing......

Possibly this was a reverse psychology thing, and she is trying to encourage me nicely to be better :)

But I need to live up to what she thinks.

My kids deserve an amazing mom.....and I need to work hard to give that to them.

Anyway, it was sweet, whatever the reason she said it :)

 

 

 

Saturday October 25

We spent the day knocking down more walls.

Got the living room/kitchen opened up.

Things went pretty good.

I love how it is opened up.....looks just how I imagined it.

So you know what's cool.....when my man tells me that he can finally see what I have been talking about.

But even cooler is that he even started to knock down walls before he understood what my 'vision' was.

I kinda like him......a lot :)

We all worked together today.

Elsie played mostly outside with Mater....but later in the day she played in the bath while we knocked stuff down :)

Cassi went to her friends house for the evening.

And Port, Madi, Dad and I stuck to pulling walls down :)

Until Port got sidetracked and started making an Optimus Prime with scraps.

Oh, and I have to give props to the dump truck.

She sure has pulled her weight around here :)

 

Friday October 24

Lots of pictures today :)

I went with Porter for his Kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch.

It was a nice day.

The weather was great, and the ground wasn't too wet.

And the sky made for pretty pictures :)

He and I had a fun time together.

*****

When we got home, dad had already started on the demo inside the house!

I am so excited for this part.

I love being able to physically see the space open up.

I am also excited for everyone else to start to really see my 'vision' :)

When I tell people we are knocking out the walls to the three rooms in the back to make a family room, I get weird looks.

But it is all coming together.

And I LOVE it!!!!

Everyone got to help out with the demolition.

Port had so much working with dad :)

I know I have said it a million times, but I love when those boys work together.

*****

Madi babysat at the Morgan's for a little bit before Carley got back from dance.

She took Cassi with her.

So Dad and I took the little ones and got some Carl's Jr. for dinner.

Cause we were breaking walls down....no time to make dinner!!!!!

Then when the girls got home we sat down to watch a movie together.

We wanted to just watch the BSU vs. BYU game.

But Port wanted to watch the movie badly.....

We told him he wouldn't cause to was gonna be so late.

But he said he would.

Anyway, Dad pulled the TV from our room by the door so he could watch the game and the movie at the same time.

Port lasted a long time......he tried really hard to stay awake.

He just had such a big day today....lots of energy used :)

He was cuddled up with dad, and went to sit on the floor so he could stay awake.....but he just couldn't do it.

Gosh darn he is cute :)