My Favorite Holiday

Okay, so who am I kidding, Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday, but I am trying to embrace it rather than resent it.  I am good at being a Halloween party pooper, but with the help of pintrest I was a little more festive than usual.  I guess you could say that I am holiday challenged.  It isn’t just Halloween.  Since I am so holiday challenged I have to celebrate the little things.  I was really proud of myself for making ghost pancakes.  Cute, don’t you think?

The best story this Halloween comes via Andy.  He has been praying for weeks for a Green Power Ranger costume.  He says, “thank you for letting Ethen (his cousin) come over and bring me a Green Power Ranger costume.”  I looked at all the stores and there were NO Green Power Rangers.  About a week before the big day I checked Amazon and Ebay and Green Power Ranger costumes were around $70.  Josh decided to put it on FaceBook.  His friend who “never gets on Face Book” happened to respond.   She lives here in Cache Valley and the costume she had fits Andy perfectly.  She only has one boy so she sold it to us for $12.  AWESOME!  Andy has only taken the costume off for baths.  He loves it.  Although we were trying to answer his prayers it really did take divine intervention.  It was a tough one.  

He wanted to be like his cousin Ethen the Red Power Ranger.

The biggest shock of this Halloween was the fact that I dressed up.  I should have gotten in the group picture with my kids.  I was “the queen”.  Not to be confused with a queen.  Unfortunately I am the queen that weights on everyone hand foot and finger.  I don't think I sat down the entire day.  I did get a picture of me with Johnny, the puppy.

Caleb had a Halloween party last weekend.  He is at the age where he is beginning to care what other people think.  My sister Connie helped him come up with an “Army Guy” costume.  He was excited about it right until someone teased him.  He refused to go as an army guy to school on Halloween.  I had all kinds of fund ideas for him, but he thought they were all dumb.  He ended up as a cowboy on Halloween.  It’s too bad kids can’t just be nice to each other!

I think Cara and Ali were the cutest witches in town.

In fact, I am pretty proud of my cute little crew. 

We ended up having a full-blown house full of family for the evening.  The weather was beautiful and we always enjoy hanging out with our family’s.  All in all, Halloween wasn’t that bad except for the piles of candy. Even looking at all of that candy is enough to make me sick!  Sometime I wonder if I will ever get all of the sticky spots from little fingers all wiped up!

Andy is either a photographer or a good old thief.  Almost daily I find a bunch of pictures on my phone of random things he has photographed.  Most of them are of him and look very similar to the one below but every once and a while he captures a few other people. 

Andy caught this picture of Ali.  I am potty training her this week so she wore a princess outfit just in case she had an accident until the evening when she and Cara wore the darling witch costumes that my mom made them last year. Potty training is going quite well.  I think she would be accident free if I would take her more often.  I forget that she is just learning until I see an accident.  Fortunately she has been "poop trained" for 6+ months so we don't have those accidents.  I wasn't up to potty training her when I was preggo and then I didn't want to train her in the summer because I didn't want to deal with her playing outside and not wanting to come in to go.  I was planning on training her in September and then my dad died.  She has been ready for a long time so it isn't too bad for either of us. 

Andy also captured this beauty of Johnny.  I like it because it reminds me how John's tung is often out.  He is perfect in every way except for the drool factor.  He has begun soaking himself in slobber.  It is quite disgusting.  I think he may be sporting a bib for the next year or so.  He is finally giggling, but still not rolling.  He loves to be talked to and talks back.  He is so attentive to all of the hustle and bustle around him.  He is such a joy.

Josh's sister Christina had her first, Rory, this summer.  He is about 8 weeks younger than John.  This was the first time they got together, on Rory's blessing day.

That day we also thought we would take a family picture.  Isn't it a beauty.  Classic!
Since I'm a mind reader let me tell you what everyone is thinking:
Josh: "Hurry and take the dang picture."
Me: "Shoot me now" or "when did I become the mother of five uncontrollable kids?!"
Caleb: "I'm sure I could get Cara to scream."
Cara: "What you want me to hold still?  Impossible!"
Andy: "Johnny, stop crying for the picture."
Ali: "I think I saw a kitty I've got to get out of here."
John: "I'm hungry! Doesn't anyone hear me?"