Happy Halloween!!!

Well another year has gone by and it was time to make the costumes. Last October, Matt and the kids decided what we should be for Halloween and the idea was talked about all year long. About the end of August, I decided I had better get started with the costumes so it wouldn't be so stressful. I was really stressing over sewing the satin material and wanted to get it out of the way early. I set down and worked on the dress for Clarissa for a few days and took it at a pace that I could enjoy it. I was excited when it was done since I defined this particular costume as a huge stepping stone in my sewing abilites. I have made pj pants for the kids for the past 12 years, halloween costumes for the boys that seemed to be pretty easy and tried my hand at making skirts and matching applique shirts for the girls. After finishing the dress I took a break since I had my parents coming in so Matt and I could go to Mackinac Island.

There was this really neat thing that happened with the other costumes. I went to Jo-ann's to buy the material and while waiting in the cutting line, I meet this really neat lady. She asked what I was making with all the different colors of fleece. In talking with her, I learned that she wanted to make the same costumes because she had 7 daycare children. After us talking some more, she informed me that I had talked her into making the costumes for her daycare kids. Before I left the store, her and I planned on getting together to work on the rest of the costumes. Boy was I relieved!! I was wondering how I was going to make the kids costumes without patterns and little did I know that Heavenly Father would put this lady in my path at the store. After my little vacation with Matt, I went over to her house and she had already made a pattern for all the parts we needed. She is AMAZING!! In the 5 hours I was in her house, we talked and got to know each other. We both kept mentioning what a blessing it was to have run into each other. A little lesson for both of us in listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. She does not share my same religious background, but she strongly felt that the Holy Ghost prompted her to go to the store that evening at 8:30 when she is normally bringing her day to a close. The same goes for me. I am usually in the middle of putting kids to bed and going to bed myself at that time of evening.

Long story short, the kids loved their costumes! We went to our church ward pary on Friday night and our family tied with another one for the Family Theme catergory. Many people asked how Clarissa ended up being the Princess instead of Abby and our answer was, "We will reuse these costumes in a couple years when Abby will fit into the dress."

The only thing that did not happen was the kids didn't get to go Trick or Treating on Saturday. Matt and the boys headed up North to work on the cabin to meet a deadline and didn't get back until 8:30 p.m. The silver lining is that the kids don't have that much candy to eat. Yeah!!!

We hope that everyone had a great Halloween with their cute kiddos and have a great fall.

Christmas Eve Traditions

One of the traditions we have done for Christmas is to give the kids matching pajama pants on Christmas Eve. We have done this tradition for about 8 years. Since we have added the girls to our family dynamics, I make the boys match and the girls match.

The past couple of years we have added the tradition of exchanging names within the kids. They sure have a lot of fun deciding what to get each other. The ones that end up with the girls have a lot of fun because the girls get so excited about anything and we currently don't have nearly as many girl toys as we do the boys ones.

We had a lot to get accomplished today, but it was a very enjoyable and memorable day.

First Day of School

I can't believe it is finally here. The first day of school!!! The boys were so excited to go back as were Mom and Dad--especially Mom. This is a pretty exciting year for a couple of the boys. Danny is now going into 6th grade so that makes him go to the Middle School. Jake is in the 5th grade and Aaron is in 3rd. Caleb is in afternoon Kindergarten and he is so excited. What a crazy year this will be. Danny leaves for school at 7:05 am, Jake and Aaron go at 8:30 am and Caleb catches the bus at 11:50 am. That is just the pick up schedule. They get home at 3:15 and 4:30 pm. I am trying to figure out when I am supposed to get anything accomplished with juggling bus schedules and naptimes for the girls. I guess I will eventually get into some kind of routine. I do know this, the house is pretty quiet. I love it! =)

Sleepy Kids & the Nebraska Sunrise

Early on Sunday, July 6th, Matt and I were switching drivers when I looked back at the kids and saw how sound they were sleeping. I thought to myself how often little things go by in our lives and we don't bother to capture them on camera. I decided to grab the camera and take these pictures.

At the same time I noticed how beautiful the sunrise in Nebraska was so I asked Matt if we could pull over to take a picture of the sunrise. Again, how often does something occur and we don't take a moment to enjoy it, kids or our Heavenly Father's beautiful creations?

First Blogging Attempt

Well, we finally did it. We have followed everyone else in the world and decided to start "blogging". After many attempts of trying to send weekly or monthly e-mails to family and friends to update them about our family, we took the final leap. Here it goes!

The month of May has been a whirlwind. Spring is synonymus with baseball at our house. This year we will have 4 boys playing on 3 teams. Danny, #8, is on the LA Dodgers, a Kid Pitch team. Jake, # 11, and Aaron, #2, are on the Seattle Mariner's Coach Pitch team. Lastly, Caleb, #5, is on the Royal Sox T-ball team. We basically live at the ballpark during the week. We love once the game starts. It is a bit crazy trying to get everyone out the door on time.

It is really fun to see Danny play pitcher on his team and watch him grow in this capacity. He seems to do really well under pressure! He also plays a pretty mean shortstop and outfielder as well. So far this season his team is undefeated. They have played 4 games and have 6 to go.

Jake and Aaron are enjoying playing together on their team as well. It is really fun to see how they have grown up since last season. Jake continues to develop his skills. He is becoming quite an accomplished first baseman. He is so easy going and tends to learn things at his own pace. He doesn't sweat the small stuff and get so excited when he completes a good play. Aaron continues to play really well. He is a natural.

Caleb is quite entertaining on the field! Despite repeated practices teaching him to run to first, he ran straight to third base on his first hit. His second attempt, he ran to first and then halfway to second decided that he had plenty of time to reach the base so he proceeded to drag his feet the rest of the way. Which resulted in an out. Did this bother Caleb? No. He loves playing with the other kids in the dugout. He also likes his dad being the Coach.

Meanwhile in the bleachers, Mom and the girls cheer all the boys on at the games. Most recently, Clarissa and Abby have found that dirt is quite enjoyable.