Happy Halloween

This was the first, and prehaps only, year that we have had a costume theme. Once I thought of it, I just had to do it... It is hard to think of a theme for 6 people - especially that everyone will go along with. But it was well worth the effort - we all LOVED our costumes! Can you guess who we are?



Some of the wrong guesses for our costumes we got while out 'trick-or-treating' were:
Mom's costume - "You don't know what you are?"
Samuel and Hyrum - "Baseball Players"
Anna - a "Mushroom"

The correct answer: We were all from the video game Mario Bros.
Mom - "Power-Up" box
Dad - Piranha Plant
Evelyn - Princess Peach
Samuel - Mario
Hyrum - Luigi
Anna - Toad

Another fun thing we did this year was to make Halloween Pillowcases for the kids. I let them pick out their favortie material and then made them into pillowcases and personalized them.









The idea is that they have a festive pillowcase and then take them off to use as a trick-or-treating bag!! They LOVED picking their own material and then having their own pillowcase. Every once in a while, Hyrum will just randomly come up and tell me: "Fanks for making my piwocase Mom, I wuv it!" (written how it would sound coming from his sweet mouth) - - Your Welcome Hyrum, I LOVED making it for you!!

Moments That Make Me Smile

The other day I asked Hyrum to set the table. So he is going around the kitchen gathering everyone's cups when he comes to Evelyn's (which had ice water in it) and he grabs it and puts it in the sink! (AH! We don't need more dishes...) So I ask him why he put it in the sink instead of on the table and he said: "It was slobbery!"

Moments That Make Me Smile

Tonight is Hyrum's "date night" with Thayne, so I put the other kids in bed so they can have quality time together. Hyrum decided he wanted to play Mario Kart. So while they are playing, Samuel - conviently* - wonders down (*he hasn't got out of bed for months... 'funny' that he would when Hyrum is playing Mario...) So I help Samuel with his problem and as I am, Samuel offers his unsolicited advice: "When I played Mario Kart, I stayed on the road and won 1st place!" to which Hyrm replies: "Samuel, now go to bed!" - - - Hyrum, who knew you were so witty!

Moments That Make Me Smile

On Sundays, I usually hold Anna or Hyrum on my lap. This past Sunday, I was holding Anna when Hyrum wiggled himself right off the bench and bonked his cheek on the book holder attached to the bench in front of us. I handed Anna to Thayne and thus Hyrum ended up on my lap.

Hyrum is just one WIGGLY little boy. Sunday I wore a skirt that was a little past my knees (I call those "short skirts"). Wiggly little boys and short skirts are not such a good match. I feel like every few seconds I am pulling at my skirt to make sure I'm still covered :)

Well after wrestling with Hyrum for a while I told him my legs were tired and to go sit on the bench by himself.

That lasted for maybe 5 minutes - He came up to me and said "Mom, are your legs still tired??" ...Then he said "see they're cold!" (Hyrum had explained to me earlier that day that he likes cold things - this may be why he always chews Lion's tail - if it's wet with slobber, it'll be cold...) Anyway, so he touches my leg and tells me they're cold - I guess he thought if my legs had time to get cold they shouldn't be tired anymore! Or maybe he wanted to sit on my lap again because it was cold... Whatever his logic - I thought it was adorable and I let him back on my lap - so it worked! ;)

I think I'm just a sucker for cute words... and I think Hyrum knows that. Last night (in the middle of the night) he wondered into our room to go potty and after hewas done, he said wanted to snuggle with me. Thayne said no, so I told him he could come give me a hug. As we were hugging Hyrum says: "Mom, I just want to keep snuggling you, because I Love You!!" It was sooo sweet! But I still sent him back to his bed... He can't always win ;)

One more note about Hyrum's fettish with hot and cold. He tells me about every week at church that his feet are hot! I think having to wear nice sunday shoes and socks makes his feet hot - my mom and I both can't stand having hot feet, so I can relate, but sorry Hyrum, you'll have to endure 3 hours of shoes while we're at church!

Moments That Make Me Smile

On Sunday, Samuel's teacher asked us to make a list of some of Samuel's talents for part of the lesson and bring one to share with the class. We made the list and Samuel brought one of his Mario drawings to show everyone.

When I picked Samuel up, his teacher said that the way they presented it was like a guessing game. So they would go down someone's list and the kids would guess who they were describing.

So the first talent for Samuel was 'drawing' and Samuel said "Oh, it's me!" The second one was 'telling the truth' to which Samuel replied: "Nevermind, it's not me!!"

*LOL*

**My rebuttle is that Samuel really does try hard to tell the truth - even when he knows he made a wrong choice. I really admire that in Samuel - apparently humility is another of Samuel's talents ;)

Labor Day

Carrie, John & Family were able to come down for the weekend and celebrate Labor Day with us! Of course the best part of a holiday is good food - here's what we did this year:


For breakfast we had banana bread and cinnamon rolls...



For lunch we had steak and chicken kabobs... everyone assembled their own to their liking - we tried a few different things on the kabobs, we liked the green peppers, pineapple and onions...



I don't know if I'd put the mushrooms, tomatoes, or zucchini on kabobs again... the zuchini was nasty, the mushrooms were dry and weird, and the tomatoes were too squishy - I LOVE cherry tomatoes - but I guess I like them raw - not BBQ'd... We also grilled Banana Squash and we did like that!



To top it off, we had a fruit pizza that looked so beautiful it was almost sad to eat it!

Overall, a very successful, yummy holiday!

One of These Things is NOT Like the Others...

These are the yogurts that were eaten at lunch by Hyrum, Samuel, Anna, and myself... Could you guess who ate which yogurt?


Out of all of these, I could probably only pick out Hyrum's. He loves to chew the erasers off pencils, he loves to bite pens. The other day i found a little plastic snake with the tail all chewed up...


He stills puts everything in his mouth - he especially loves the squishy plastic Polly Pocket dresses and accessories, he spills milk on the table and then thinks it's fingerpaint, and apparently he's not done with yogurt until he has destroyed his cup! That yogurt cup has H-Y-R-U-M written all over it!!


Hyrum you are a messy boy, but I LOVE YOU!!

Farewell Ol' Friend

When we took this carseat out of the car (because Anna is big enough for her forward-facing carseat), we realized that we didn't need to keep it anymore - and yet I can't bring myself to throw it out!!


This is the carseat that Evelyn, Samuel, Hyrum, and Anna all came home from the hospital in. All 4 of my kiddos used this carseat till they were at least 6 months old (The boys weighed 20 lbs. at 6 months and I just couldn't carry them in the carseat any more. I started to notice that I was getting bruises on my legs and realized it was from helping to lift the baby carseat up into the car or up into shopping carts...) Evelyn used this seat for about 10 months and Anna used it till she was a year!


I am so sad to get rid of this carseat. I guess it's mostly the memories attached to it, but it does have some cool features... it attaches to a matching stroller and is very cushy as far as carseats are concerned... *sniff, sniff* Why are we getting rid of it?? Sadly, it has reached it's 'expiration date' (something about plastic weakening after 6 years)...

The only 'positive' from throwing it out is that if we have more kids, I guess I get to go shopping! :)

Playing with Food

So one day, this was before school started, I found this trail of food/kitchen utensils laid out throughout our house. It started at the bottom of the stairs...


Went all the way up the stairs, wound it's way throught the hallway and into Evelyn's room.


It was fun to follow the trail and see where it ended up. Evelyn was the one who made the trail. She said she made it for Daddy...

Mischief Maker

Anna is really into walking now. Last week she started practicing more and more - particularly at night time. Now, she must be feeling more confident in her abilities because she has decided to become a climber.


This is where I found her Monday morning (August 30th)... This was only one of many times she decided to get up on the table that day! Does she have to look so pleased with herself?!

She also LOVES to unravel the toilet paper, and the paper towels, and she can wiggle her way out of any shopping cart seatbelt - no matter how tight I make the seatbelt!! She is a little Houdini.

And she has shown great scavenging skills. She is great at finding leftover food as a snack in the afternoon...


and apparently she know where we keep 'the goods!' - if you can't see from the blurry picture (it's hard to catch her in action - she's getting faster...) she has a bag of jalepeno cheetos in one hand and a bag of blazin buffalo ranch doritoes in the other! She must be looking to spice up her life! (P.S. I LOVE that here tongue is sticking out too!)

Grackles, Reindeer, and Us?

So Thayne and I have a long-time standing joke - really it's more a bad-habit. When we get into a 'discussion' about something and one of us thinks we are right, we stick our noses ever so slightly up in the air... It's not even like we try to do it, it just happens. Thayne says that I have always done this and that he picked it up from me, but it just looks so natural when Thayne sticks his nose up, that sometimes I wonder if it's not the other way around. Either way, we have fun pointing it out when we see the other doing it... and I have to admit it looks so snooty - I hope I don't do this subconsciously everywhere I go or to everyone I meet!


Well, here in Texas, we found a bird that displays similar tendancies... These birds are very common in our area - they are called Grackles.


They do this all the time and it always makes me smile!


Last year, we got some wrapping paper that made me laugh out loud! The reindeer look so concieted and snooty don't they?? I shouldn't encourage or justify my behaviour just because I've found these other examples - - But it almost makes me feel as if Thayne and I aren't the only ones - that we're not alone in our snootiness...

...Then again should I be putting myself on the same level as and comparing myself to birds or better yet: reindeer on wrapping paper?! ;)

96

So I had this great debate with myself whether to wait till 100 or post at 96 - - obviously 96 won. 96 what?? My cousin "S" gave me the idea because she does a monthly anniversary post. One day after reading her post, I wondered how many months Thayne and I had been married... on the 21st we celebrated 8 years, which is 96 months!


So our wedding was just as digital cameras were coming out so all of our pictures are prints and our scanner isn't working for some reason, so these 2 pictures are pictures of pictures :)


Last year, as I was at a friends house, I saw their wedding pictures and thought, wow, they look so different than their wedding photos... when will that happen to Thayne and I... The answer - It has begun! We are growing old together and not even realizing it!!

As I flipped through our wedding pictures, everyone looks so young! I guess time flies when you're having fun, and Thayne, the past 8 years have been a blast! Love You Baby!

Moments That Make Me Smile

So Samuel, Hyrum, and I were sitting around the table having a snack when Samuel tells Hyrum: "Santa gave us lots of presents instead of coal, because he FORGOT we were NAUGHTY!!" I had to laugh!! Don't really know where that came from. We weren't talking about Christmas and the last thing they did before snack was play Mario... Oh, well. Samuel, I love you, you are so clever to make such an observation!

Also wanted to share a random fact with y'all. The other day I was emptying the dishwasher (it was a full load) and as I put the silverware away I noticed that out of all the silverware in the dishwasher, there was only ONE spoon. How random...

Moments That Make Me Smile

During scripture study one night last week we were each taking our turn saying something we learned and for my turn I had made a comment about the Godhead. Wondering if my kids knew the three members of the Godhead, I asked them if they could name them. Evelyn and Samuel got Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and I was trying to help Hyrum with the third by saying: "Who helps us feel bad when we make a bad choice?" to which Hyrum said: Uh... Grown-ups?!" LOL. Thanks Hyrum!!

Texas Motor Speedway

On July 22nd, our good friends called us and told us about a special family night at the Texas Motor Speedway. It sounded awesome: 2 for 1 coupons, free parking, $1 hot dogs,and kids 5 and under were FREE... but we couldn't go - Thayne was working late that night. So our friends, knowing that Samuel LOVES race cars, offered to take him with them!! Lucky Boy!!


Samuel, Nadia, and Joseph standing by a 'my size' race car!


Samuel, Nadia, and Joseph by a 'real' race car (BTW, Samuel's favortie color has been green for years... but because of his recent fascination with Mario Bros. Wii, he suddenly loves red and blue - because those are the colors Mario wears. Samuel even tries to get Hyrum to like green now because Hyrum likes Luigi who wears green. He has even asked for a blue plate at dinner when he was given a green one!! *GASP*)



Dinner and a show for Samuel - $1



Spending time with friends - Priceless.


Samuel making his 'signature' silly face... and I can only imagine he had to have made his 'signature' silly noise *B-L-U-H*

I am so grateful to our friends to are so generous and considerate to think of us!! Thanks guys!! What a night!!

P.S. Even though they got Smauel home around 11:00 PM, Samuel was up at his normal 6:30 AM!! He didn't miss a beat!

Great Grandma & Great Grandpa Pratt & The Trents

While on vacation we were able to stop in and see Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Pratt (Erica's Grandma and Grandpa).

We sat and all played together for a little while.


The kids always love playing with Grandma and Grandpa's stuffed dog collection.


Anna seemed more interested in paper... Maybe she needs more fiber in her diet??


After wrestling with the dogs for a while, the kids needed a change in scenery, so we went to one of the bedrooms. When we first walked in I noticed the sheet in the room and thought maybe it just didn't get put away yet (a lot of my laundry takes days to get put away!)...


Not so! Grandma had planned on us coming in here to eat some cookies she made us!!
I was so impressed that she had everything there and ready for us! Way to go Grandma! Although my kids did manage to get crumbs on the carpet still even with the sheet there... Takes talent to be so messy ;)


We all loved the cookies!!


While we enjoyed cookies in the back, Thayne and Grandpa got a chance to talk. I bet it was more calm than the back room...

Not long after the cookies, the sugar kicked in and so we headed over to Thayne's sistes's house (Lisa, James, and family)... They had moved into their house only 3 days before we got there!

It was fun to see their family (we hadn't seen them since I was pregnant with Samuel 5 years ago!!) It was also cool to be one of the first to see their new house. The room the kids thought was the coolest was 1,500 sq ft of pavement. They had bikes, scooters, and other awesome things in that room. Every time we went in that room, Anna would kick her legs because even she knew it was awesome!

We only got to stay the night there and then we caravaned all the way to Utah with them!

Our Lil' Princess Anna Turns One!!

Saturday, July 31st, Anna turned one!! It's hard to believe it's been a year!


We had a lot of fun on her birthday. I think there was something in the water, because 3 friends had birthday parties - so we party-hopped all day. It was fun. And the 2 parties that Anna went to were both 'splash' parties - which was nice since it was over 100º!


This year, I've tried to make the kids a special shirt for them on their birthday. Here is a close-up of Anna's... I gave it to her when it was mostly done... I had to finish some stitching after she had worn it and after she went to bed - but I did finish on her birthday ;)


This was not Anna's first taste of sweets, we made poor Evelyn wait till her birthday to try cake!


You might think, based on this picture, that Anna is a dainty eater... and she is! I'll give her 1/4 of a graham crakcer, and she will pick it up and nibble at it till it's gone. Which is nice because her big brother Hyrum, will shove, what seems like a half a sandwich in his mouth, and try to swallow it whole! - - yes, even still!!


I just love how she pinches off little pieces of food to get one tiny taste at a time... such patience (sometimes**)

**Sometimes, especially with yogurt or other spoon-fed foods, I can't shovel them into her mouth fast enough... if I stop for a second to give myself a bite of food, she will SQUAWK!


Just because she is a dainty eater doesn't mean she doesn't know how to make a mess!


Oh Yeah... can you see the slobber, mixed with cake, mixed with frosting??


Anna LOVES this chair - which is actually Evelyn's. We just barely got them out of storage (aka - a dark corner of the garage) a few days ago - and it happened to be during Anna's nap when we brought them in the house. When she woke up and I brought her downstairs she lit up! She crawled up to Evelyn, stood up next to Evelyn and the chair and SQUAWKED!! She demanded that Evelyn get up out of the chair so she could sit in it!!

Since Anna was born, we've never had little chairs out for the kids, so I don't know why she was so fascinated with them, or how she knew how to climb up and sit on one so well!! Anyway, because she loved it so much, I knew it would be the perfect place for her to sit to open her presents. She even grabbed this package and was trying to open it...


She didn't have great success... So we opened it for her and she loved this book so much she wouldn't put it down - even as we continued to open other presents!


If you look close, she's still holding the book :)


She got a new car seat which she seems to like climbing into - but not being strapped into!! Go figure...


Afetr opening presents, it was bath and bedtime and she got to wear some new jammies! I LOVE them - they are white with blue polka dots, a sparkly picture of a castle, and the best part - it has a tutu (taken off before bed - of course)!!


And this was the day after her birthday... After church, I let her wonder around the kitchen and look what she found!! 2 suckers and a tootsie roll from a party bag... by the time I found her, she had already goten through the wrappers on both suckers!

Here are a few of the things Anna can do now. When she was 10 months, she started folding her arms for prayer. We'll say "prayer time" and she'll just fold them! SOOO cute - she did it on her own too!

Also the day she turned 10 months, she took her first step! Thayne and I were so thriled we Cheered and Clapped... and that scared her!! She fell to the ground and cried. On our vacation, she started standing all by herself - as in not even using something to pull up on... Since her first step she has taken one step on a couple occasions... TILL YESTERDAY!! Sunday August 1st we will count as the day Anna learned to walk. She took about 8 steps in a row!! Then she walked to me - then sat, then walked to Daddy - and sat, and then walked to Samuel... It was amazing... it must have been her time!!

Also, look at her 2 new favorite tricks...


She likes to do push-ups instead of going to time out! Just kidding! But doesn't it look so impressive? Well, prepare to be amazed (or disappointed) she does this when she needs to poop! :)


Her second trick is quite impressive too! Our cupboards have child proof locks on the inside... but they still open about an inch (if you look at the picture, the cupboard on the far left is open but 'locked')... Anna will reach her little arm inside the cupboard (yes the one 'open' but locked in the picture) and unravel the roll of paper towels! AHH! Luckily she hasn't grabbed anything more dangerous like poison... (Since the paper towel incident, we have moved the poisons further into the cupboards more out of reach of skinny little baby arms!!)

Happy Birthday ANNA!!! We love you!!