Latest happenings of our lives

We haven't had any crazy happenings going on here, but every once in awhile my kids say or do things that I think, "this needs to go on the blog." So, without further ado, here's the latest with my family:

Carter: Every successful businessman or millionaire needs to get their start somewhere. Carter's happened about a week ago. He was supposed to be out helping Bo rake and gather leaves. Instead he comes in with a tin lunchbox full of leaves and asks me what one I like. Looking at the leaves, I pick one out, to which he replies, that'll be 78 cents. !! I put it back and told him I didn't want it that bad. hahaaa. If you think the story stops there, you're wrong. He then pulls a dollar and 25 cents out of his pocket and says that some of the neighbors bought some leaves! Seriously. My kid went around our little cul-de-sac selling LEAVES. And two poor saps took pity on my child and bought some, one even giving him a dollar.

Oh, can you imagine my embarrassment??? Oh my goodness. I told him no more selling leaves. If he wanted money, he could work for it here at home and I'd pay him. His response? He doesn't want money from me, he likes selling to the neighbors.

I told him that he needed to make cookies or something then. Now he bugs me all the time to make cookies. (picture me smacking my forehead)

After earning the money, Bo and I sat down and taught him about tithing. Yeah, he wasn't too keen on that. Maybe that'll stem his business ventures for awhile. I'm such a supportive mom. haha

Megs: Megan would now like to be called "Princess Cinderella." Or sometimes it's "Princess Megan Cinderella." Yesterday she even went so far as to say I should call her "King Megan Super Girl Princess." She tells me that I can be "Princess Long Hair." (Rapunzel). Thanks Meg. Flattered, really.

She also goes around dressed up in her Cinderella costume, crown and all. And if she can't be found in that, you better believe it's just because she's upstairs changing out of her footie pajamas only to put on another pair. She LOVES those pajamas. I had to buy two extra pairs because she wears them so much.

This princess thing has actually been wonderful because now, anytime Bo and I want her to do something, all we have to say is, "Princesses do..." and she does it! It's been WONDERFUL.

Example: "Megan, princesses ALWAYS have their hair combed and looking pretty." Bam, she's letting me style her hair.

"Megan, princesses ALWAYS are charming and polite, they don't whine and kick." Good behavior, check!

"Megan, princesses ALWAYS help clean up, they love having a clean house." And out pops the real Cinderella.

Repeat with meals, brushing teeth, you name it. Works like a charm.

We love that girl, and as cheesy as it sounds, she really is our princess.

Derrick: I'm thinking this kid is going to have that all or nothing personality. He used to maybe crawl up a couple stairs and then just stay there. Last week, however, he just decided he was going to climb to the top, and away he went, like a pro. Not cool. He thinks it hilarious and can now be found scrambling to the stairs, squealing and laughing, a huge grin on his face. I know I should get a gate, but I really don't want to mess with the drilling holes, the suction cups taking off the paint, and so on. Super vain, I know. So now pretty much all of us keep our eyes on the that little boy, and Bo and I are constantly hearing the "Mooooooom, Derrick's on the stairs!"

Derrick is also pretty much done with baby food. He wants finger food, and he wants it now, thank you very much. He loves sitting around the table with us and eating what we are eating. He thinks he's so cool, the bomb-diggity. That's right. Bringing it back.

So that's it. That's been us for the last week or so. Bo has this week off again for Thanksgiving. Bo's dad, Kevin, is visiting, and later today our cousins and good friends, Dave and Sydney Heslop and co., are coming! We are excited for some yummy food and good company. Now.... who wants to make me some yummy food?

And because no blog post is complete without a picture, here's one of the kids with some friends at the museum. They are pretending to be dinosaurs sitting in a nest.

Our first snow!!

It snowed yesterday afternoon!! Oh my goodness, my little Texans were SOOOO EXCITED. They were jumping up and down and squealing with enthusiasm. They both ran and got on their brand new snow coats, put gloves on, and were out the door in no time. They would've put their snow pants on too, but I told them it wasn't snowing that bad. :)

Unfortunately, for them, it only snowed for about ten minutes yesterday evening. There was snow on the ground this morning, however, and my kids wanted to go out and make snow men like crazy!! As it was only 7 in the morning, I wasn't about to let that happen, not to mention there maybe was enough snow to make an inch tall snowman. They were only able to be persuaded not to go outside by the promise that there would be more snow in a couple weeks, and then they could play to their hearts content.

The best part about this whole snow thing, though, was that Bo gave the "go" for listening to Christmas music!!

Soccer season is over

Carter's first soccer season has come and gone. He had such a fun time playing this year. You could totally see a difference in his playing skills from the beginning of the season to the end.

If you ask Carter his favorite thing about the season, he'll tell you it's the trophy that he got. Yep, he's pretty proud of that thing. Right now its smack in the middle of our mantle, for all to see.

Carter, you totally rocked out there. You were such a great soccer player! You were great at sharing the ball, kicking the ball, scoring, and cheering on your teammates. If you ask me though, I think you were REALLY good at playing defense. You are so fast at running across the field and blocking those kicks! We're proud of you!

Man, that kid of mine sure is a cutie!! (Mine's the blondie in the brown pants.) hahaa.

Trick or Treat!

This year Bo had to work for Halloween. Bummer deal. Thankfully we had some friends who took pity on us and invited us to join their little Halloween party. It was great!

We ate dinner and played, then headed out for some good ol' fashioned door to door trick or treating. One friend, who has kids the same age as me and was also without her husband that night, went around with me to the houses. The rest of our party group were full of older kids who wanted to go a little faster, so they went in a different group, and I don't blame them for ditching us. After about a half hour of trick or treating the little girls, Meg and Eliza, were tired and wanted to go back to the party house. I opted to stay with Carter and Jackson, and together we literally took off running, trying to get as many houses as possible. Phew! Lets just say that Meg maybe had an inch deep of candy in her bucket, and Carter's bucket was FULL.

Oh yeah, Meg decided she wanted to be "Princess Cindalella" for the party, instead of the fairy godmother that she was at the zooboo.

Darth Pumpkin

This is just a quick shout out to my wife's mad skills as a pumpkin carver. I let Carter pick out 2 patterns for us to carve from a Google image search for pumpkin patterns. I was gracious enough to carve out the 2nd pumpkin, while I let Cassidy have all the glory of carving Darth Vader. Her pumpkin, by the way, won the "I would have quit a long time ago" award at the ward Halloween party.

ZooBoo

We went to the Indianapolis Zoo during Bo's week off. Of course, since I'm all about all things fun, we hit it during ZooBoo hours, which meant the kids got to wear their costumes and go trick or treating there.

We went with our good friends, the Humphreys. Have I mentioned them? I'm sure I have. They are first year EM residents too. We love hanging out with them.

As can be expected, we had lots of fun. You know, I don't think my kids even really looked at the animals, they were too into the candy and Halloween fun! Oh well. We go there enough, I suppose. I hope they realize how good they have it! Why when I was a kid.... hahhaa.

This will definitely be a tradition.

Notice Carter's pose. Notice he has a pose in almost every picture. That kid. He cracks us up.
Best friends!

We had to take a picture next to this section. Carter and pirates, well they just go together.

Cute girls!

Carter and Luke. The girls would have nothing to do with the lion.

Derrick knows how to work it. He gets to sit in the nice ride and enjoy the treats.

Check out Carter's racing position. The kids are "racing a cheetah." You start at the front and get a couple seconds head start, and then lights above light up, indicating how fast a cheetah is. The point is to get down the track as far as you can before the cheetah/lights catch up to you. My kids love it.

See the lights above Meg? Yeah she didn't get far before the lights caught her. She's so cute though!

I am in love with that boy. Such a cutie. Bridget--- I know what you are thinking.

Running around an obstacle course

My babes. Carter is giving us a bad guy look. I hope.

The Pumpkin Patch!!

Honestly, one of the things that got me most excited to move up here was the thought that we would actually get to go to a real live pumpkin patch. Seriously.

For the past 5 years of living in Texas, yes it was 5 (we lived in Temple, TX for a year before starting med. school), we had not once gone to a real pumpkin patch. All the pumpkin patches we had around us were fake! We're talking a church grassy area with hay bales and meticulously placed pumpkins. I've gotta say, for someone who grew up on a farm, seeing a "pumpkin patch" like that and showing it to your kids, well it was just plain embarrassing.

But not this year baby!! This year my kids got to see that pumpkins actually grow in the fields! I should have worn my bibs. Okay, I don't really have any... pathetic. So anyways... we had a lot of fun. The kids loved picking out their little pumpkins, playing in the straw maze, jumping off or sliding down the huge hay pile, and being out in the fresh air. They had a "dinosaur" that ate/squashed pumpkins. Carter LOVED watching it. Meg wouldn't go anywhere NEAR that area. They also made a slide out of an old combine (for you non-farmers, a combine is a tractorish machine that cuts down crops. Think the bull from CARS), which was a big hit with my kids. You'd better believe I told my dad all about it. I'm thinking of introducing that idea to ML. :)

We had tons of fun. It will definitely be a repeat, or at least going to a real pumpkin patch will be one. They have lots of farms around here where you can go pick your own pumpkins, apples, raspberries (remember old post?), and other things. So maybe next year we'll try a different farm. Either way, we're loving it.

Going on a hay ride out to the field to pick us some pumpkins!