Field Trip to the Fire Station

I got to go with Cadence's 2nd grade class on their field trip to the fire station last week. We had SO MUCH FUN!! And the best part was that Taya & Bladen could come too. Cadence was excited to show off her little brother & sister to her class. We all just wished Lorien was with us too.

We got to see about 7 different fire trucks & what they did. I didn't realize how much stuff is actually stored on a fire truck. Cadence's best friend Hailey's mom got to dress up in the fire fighter uniform. We all thought that was pretty funny.

We got to walk through the fire station & see all the fun bedrooms, common areas, & kitchen that the fire fighters live at during the week. Then they gave all the kids little fireman hats to wear. Bladen was ADORABLE!!!

But he didn't like the little string that kept the hat on his head. Eventually he took the hat off & didn't want anything to do with it. BUT HE WAS SO SO SO CUTE with it on!

At the very end, they let each of the 2nd graders try to hit a "fire" with water using one of the big hoses. That hose almost picked Cadence up right off the ground. She was so funny to watch. She was more focused on staying on the ground than she was about hitting the fire.

Bladen & Tay liked watching sister fight the fire. And for some reason Bladen was attached to Taya's pink poodle leash the entire day. He's so funny.

It was a fun field trip & I loved being able to go. I love school!

Black Bear Diner

We found the cutest little diner here in Monterey. It's called the Black Bear Diner & it's PERFECT if you have young kids. They brought the kids balloons, coloring pages, teddy bears & all sorts of things. The food was reasonably priced & good & every kids meal came with an ice cream sundae that the kids got to build all by themselves. They LOVED it!! Oh & if you come in on a Tuesday with your Black Bear Diner Teddy Bears, the kids eat free. What a fun place.

The Drama of Tooth Pulling

Oh my goodness! Cadence's top front tooth FINALLY came out the other night. That thing has been loose for MONTHS now. Every single day she would cry & complain that it hurt to eat because of her loose tooth, so EVERY DAY we'd tell her that we could pull it out for her so that it wouldn't hurt anymore. She told us she would rather DIE than have us pull it out. So for the last 3 months, we've waited patiently while she ate like a bird avoiding her tooth at all costs.

Finally she came home from school crying because her tooth was bleeding. I looked at it & she could turn it in a complete circle (which makes me want to throw up). It was DISGUSTING. I told her we HAD to get it out because it was just gross. And of course that threw her into dramatic fit throwing mode. I don't ever remember being THAT scared of losing a tooth. I remember my teeth bothering me SO much that I couldn't wait to get them out. She wouldn't let me near her after hearing that so we waited for dad to come home.

So dad came home & again, she wasn't going to let him pull it. He asked if he could "wiggle" it with his pliers to see "if it was ready" & after about 2 hours of coaxing she agreed. It took 1 second to yank it out. It was hanging by a thread & she didn't even feel it come out. He took the pliers out of her mouth & handed her her tooth & she FREAKED OUT! At first she was crying SO hard that he had pulled it out, but then she was crying because she was SO HAPPY it was out. It took about 30 minutes for her to get a hold of herself & calm down. She started posing for pictures & immediately started on a letter for the tooth fairy. She was happy in the end. (And the tooth fairy brought her a $1 bill & left it under her pillow. She's a rich woman now!)

Being Cute is Hard Work

Poor little man . . . He wears himself out. . . especially while eating us out of house & home.

What Auntie Teaches Us. . .

I just want to personally "thank" Tylee for teaching my kids that it is okay to ride their bikes in the middle of the busy road. (You are in big trouble SIS!) ha ha ha. My kids sure love their Auntie Tylee & so do I!

My little camels

We went out to dinner as a family the other night & Taya just kept drinking & drinking until I thought she'd burst. Since it was free refills, the waitress just kept bringing her more & more. She got to the point where she was drinking 2 cups of chocolate milk out of 2 cups & 2 straws at the same time. Silly little camel.

And once Lorien saw how hard Trek & I were laughing, she wanted to try it too.

Halloween Night

Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, we had to explain to the kids about how to keep the Sabbath Day holy. We allowed them to choose for themselves what they wanted to do & the plan they came up with made this mommy very proud.

They decided that the Trunk or Treat on Saturday would be their actual trick-or-treating for this year so we made sure we got completely decked out for that since we would NOT be wearing our costumes on Halloween. As my kiddos put it, if you can't do it in your church clothes, then it's not appropriate for Sunday. So we stayed in our church clothes Halloween night. But, since we didn't go trick-or-treating, Cadence made a HUGE point that service IS a sabbath day activity & GIVING to people is an act of service. So as a family we decided to sit together as a family on our front porch so that we could GIVE out candy as a family to the kids in the neighborhood.

It ended up being a REALLY rewarding family night. I made a picnic dinner & we ate it on a picnic blanket on our porch while we waited for trick-or-treaters. We talked about our day & taught each other about what we learned at church.

And then we each took turns putting candy in kids' sacks as they came to our door. People thought we were crazy (& mean parents) for "not allowing our kids have their holiday", but I think this was the best Halloween yet. Togetherness is better than anything in the world.

BEST HALLOWEEN EVER!!!

Trunk or Treat

Saturday night was our ward's trunk or treat. We've never lived in such a huge ward before. It was CRAZY how many people were there. And the kids got a TON of loot trunk or treating to the cars. It was a TON of fun!

Everybody looked great & we got lots of nice compliments on our Toy Story theme. I felt SO huge in the potato head costume I made, but everyone loved it so that made it okay that I could hardly move. ha ha ha.

The first activity we did was the fishing booth. Each of the girls won some sticky hands that stick to everything (including hair. . . thank you Taya).

Then the girls competed with each other at the donut eating contest. Cadence & Lorien understood the concept & were HILARIOUS! Taya didn't care. . .she just wanted that donut. So she basically just grabbed it & ate it in 3 bites. Everybody was laughing hysterically at her. Lorien won.

After donuts we played a game of mini-golf & then did a bean bag toss in the primary room. Then each of the girls took turns winning yummy cupcakes at the cake walk. Then it was time for the costume parade & the actual trunk or treating.

They made out with all kinds of yummy candy! I've never seen so many trunks at a trunk or treat in my life. We bought 250 full size candy bars because we knew it would be huge, & we only had 3 left. CRAZY!! We had a ton of fun.

Halloween Costume Pics

We have a WONDERFUL neighbor who offered to take some family pictures of us in our costumes for Halloween. They turned out adorable!!

Halloween 2010: Toy Story 3

Trek: Woody

Dani: Mrs. Potato Head

Cadence: Barbie

Lorien: Bo Peep

Taya: Jessie

Bladen: Buzz Lightyear

Carving Pumpkins

Trek LOVES to carve pumpkins. It's not my favorite thing in the world to do, but because he gets SO into it, I end up getting really into it. We had 5 pumpkins this year, so we let Cadence & Tylee gut them for us. (That's the part I don't like) Cadence LOVES to gut pumpkins. She gets so excited! It's SO cute.

After they were all gutted, we used patterns & taped them to the pumpkins & then poked holes to outline our designs.

All 5 turned out great. 2 had faces on them, Cadence's was a bat ghost, mine was a haunted house, & Trek's was a spider & spider web. They looked awesome on our doorstep for Halloween.