Dinnertime

I made sweet and sour chicken for dinner. I must say it is a tasty dish and I really like it. I also haven't made it in a while. I pulled it out of the oven and Callie looked at it with disgust.

Callie: Eeewwww, what's that?! It looks gross!

Me: Its vomit. I barfed in the pan and cooked it.

Callie gave me a funny look.

And she had seconds.

Fall Fun!

Dan had a buddy who brought fresh caught shrimp up from NC and Dan got himself some. He had to prep them for consumption though. They do not start off looking like they do when they arrive on a plate at a restaurant!

Here he is with his favorite specimen.

That was one BIG shrimp!

We had the ward Trunk or Treat on Friday. I lost nearly all the pictures from it, but here are the few that survived:

Rylee is wearing my wig. I was trying to distract her, as Dan had left her with me and then gone off to collect candy with whatever offspring he could locate. Rylee was angry that I wasn't holding her.

Her sisters came to her rescue, but she was still disgruntled.

Ah, placated with a lolly pop! We won't discuss what sort of a mess THAT made!

The leaves are finally turning colors and falling down. We only have a small tree in front, but the wind was kind enough to blow all the neighbors leaves into our yard. What fun!!

We raked them into a pile and Delaney and Rylee had a lot of fun. Delaney liked to jump in them.

Such a cutie pie!

Rylee enjoyed herself thoroughly. Of course, she just loves being outside. Having leaves to play with was an added bonus.

I love this little rake. $2 on clearance at Target! And Delaney thinks it is just her size.

"Wheeee!" says Delaney. "What?" Says Rylee.

I did finally get around to pumpkin carving on Saturday. I only got 2 pumpkins this year and it worked out nicely.

Callie and a shirtless Delaney claimed one and did a decent job of cleaning it out.

Oops, no picture of Marian, but she did a good job on the other pumpkin, It was nice to finally have actual helpers this year! I made them choose simple designs and we ended up with a ghost and a heart. All had fun!

Our favorite neighbor brought over some Halloween goodie bags and the kids ended up with Vampire teeth. What fun!

I love Callie's expression! She was so funny! Delaney had trouble getting the teeth in, and she had trouble with the proper expression.

Marian liked the teeth so much, she wore them most of the day. It is leading to some slurred speech.

I love these girls!!

Her Mother's Daughter

I'm sorry the first 2 pictures are so blurry. I was cracking up, trying to hurry, and I didn't have the camera on the right setting. You get the idea though!

Sleeping Beauties and Fingers in the Pie

Callie was sick all week long. She was so pathetic and oh, so cute. She was roasting hot and spent most of the days laying on the couch or my bed. She liked for me to make her a nest of pillows she could snuggle in.

Mostly I set her up in front of the TV and let her watch cartoons all day. She would watch and nap and watch and nap. Here she is, fast asleep in her nest of pillows. She is almost back to normal now. She still has a stiff neck from sore, swollen lymph nodes on her neck.

I didn't go out much this week because Callie couldn't go out. I got wrapped up in my Quiet Book making and occasionally left Delaney to her own device while I was working. I was nearly finished the other afternoon and I looked up to see Delaney, falling asleep in the computer chair!

The poor little pickle had just conked out right there. I was afraid she was going to fall off, the way he head would nod down and jerk. She was too cute!

And Rylee.. ah, non-sleeping Rylee. She is working on growing some back teeth. She has very swollen gums as her molars think about making an appearance. This translates into not much in the way of napping, lots of night waking, and not staying asleep once she is asleep. This day she finally fell asleep after much grumping, but I had to leave in 15 minutes to go to an appointment. Sigh. I just lay her on the couch while I got everyone else ready. Then I took a picture.

And the last picture has nothing to do with sleep. We had the missionaries over for dinner and I made Chocolate Truffle Pie for them. The whole evening was kind of a comedy of errors, but it all began earlier that afternoon when I saw Delaney sneaking away from the refrigerator....
Little Stinkpot had been scooping out pie with her fingers! The evidence was on her chocolatey face. Grrr. Yes, we still served it and yes it was delicious.

Top 10 Excuses

Its been what, a week since I blogged? Since I like to post 2-3 times a week, that's a bit of time off for me. I know when my family and friends don't blog for a week, I miss them. In case you have missed me, let me give you my top 10 excuses for why I have not blogged:

1. I HAVE blogged. I just did them all in my head and they never actually got written down.

2. I get to deal with a lot of things and currently, Joshua is having issues with the mysterious case of the hives. He has been breaking out in them every evening. I guess he is allergic to bedtime. Actually, my best guess is an allergy to the new laundry detergent, but he sure is itchy all the time. Here is a picture of what he looked like last night:

3. Rylee has been having some intestinal issues that have given her such diaper rash that it has blistered and currently looks like raw hamburger. Poor kid is not happy about that. I changed 6 poopy diapers on her yesterday and it looks so painful. To make things worse, (or perhaps the cause?) she is working on her first molars. She has 2 painful swollen gums that feel like squishy blisters. Poor kid.

4. I'm tired. Rylee's teeth growing is a painful process and she is waking up a lot and when she does fall asleep, she expects me to be her human pacifier, and when I say no, she wakes up and cries. Not much fun.

5. I am the mom. I have lots to do and lots I want to do. Good thing I have cute kids!

6. Callie is sick. She's been a little off since Friday with a fever off and on. She went to school yesterday, because she'd been fever-free since Sunday. Unfortunately she came home from school burning up. Aargh. She is quite roasty-toasty today, so she's home from school curled up in a nest of cushions. She's a good sick kid.

7. I discovered a series of books. Darn Goodreads! One of my friends had reviewed a book on there called "Gone" by Michael Grant and I had to check it out at the library. I have been completely sucked into it and I am half way through the sequel. I really hope it isn't a trilogy, since I cannot afford to neglect everything much longer!

8. Halloween is coming. The kids must go through the box 500 times to decide what they want to be and to see how they will look in it. Plus, I have some duties to do before the ward Trunk or Treat. I have done about half of what I need to, but I still need to set aside an hour or 2 to get it all done. Here is Rylee, trying on Callie's Cat ears.

9. I'm unmotivated. The effort of kicking Delaney, or Joshua off the computer and sitting down to write is too much work for the paltry thoughts I have.

10. I am still in Quiet Book Heaven! I now have acquired the coveted pattern book (thank you Ebay!!) and I am almost done with Camden's Christmas present! It is so fun and so darn cute, if I may say so myself! Check out 2 of my favorite pages:
I like the Noah's Ark a lot. There is a plastic piece on the top of the boat so you can set the animals in it. That's where Noah and the horse and giraffe are. The animals all fit into the pocket of the ark. The skink and the hippo are my favorite animals! (The fish are just for fun and do not come up off the page.)

I think the house is adorable. Okay, not that it is well done, but because the door and 2 upstairs windows open. What is behind them?

SO cute! We'll leave the upstairs windows as a surprise for Miranda!

And those are my excuses.