Family Foto Fun!

I needed a family picture.  Not something fantastic (although that would be great), just something with all of us in it.  So today at church, I asked my friend Lanie if she could snap a shot or 2 of us.  She said sure, and was fantastic enough to follow us home and spend 10 minutes with us.  I had envisioned us all just standing in front of the tree in the yard and getting a picture.  Dan thought we needed to get it taken in the back yard in front of the tree fort.

Here's Marian on the fort.  Joshua had gone AWOL and we were trying to round up everyone and get situated and ready for a picture.

Joshua had gone to get a broom to sweep the leaves off the fort.  Don't ask me what I'm doing here, I have no idea what that face is for! 

Lanie graciously took several shots.  Not the pose I'd have chosen, but hey, we had everyone in one spot and we had a cameraman!  Now if we could get all the kids looking at the camera....

Nice, except for Delaney!  Even Marian has an almost smile.  Okay, Joshua is a bit goofy.

And here is our winner.  You can see every face, even if its not the best face!

Now for something else....

For those of you who don't know, my parents are in the MTC this very second.  Tomorrow they leave for their mission in Nairobi! This means  the only way they will see my children for 18 months is here, for the most part.  So more pictures!  Here are some from this week:

Everyone loves to hold baby.  Even if baby doesn't like it

.

A self portrait by Callie!

Rylee in her bouncy seat.  She prefers this over the swing, but mostly she just wants (nay, Demands!) to  be in Mommy's arms.

This is really a picture of her outfit.  It's the Hungry Caterpillar!

Fun Photos

I realized that I didn't put up any pictures from Halloween itself.  The children refused to all pose together and Delaney refused to get out of the stroller, so here's what I have...

The more cooperative older children.  Joshua is "Desert Indy".  I would not pay the $30 at Target for an Indiana Jones costume, so we put this together and I braided him his whip.  Marian is a cow girl and Callie is the unicorn.

Joshua was thrilled with the idea of having a hairy chest.  You can't see it so well, but I used my eyeliner pen to make scruff on his chin and hair on his chest.  He's showing it off here. 

We went to the park on Tuesday, since there was no school again.  We took a picnic lunch and met my friend Sherrie there with her kids.  They really love this park.  Its all the fabulous sand there that makes it great. 

Marian refuses to smile for pictures!  She's not thrilled to get it taken most of the time either.

Rylee got her thumb in her mouth and I had to get a shot.  She's been slurping on her fists and fingers like crazy.  I am at debating point:  should I encourage the thumb, or try to get her onto a pacifier?  I LOVE that Delaney sucked her thumb and was able to self soothe as a baby, but now she's 2 1/2 and still pops it in her mouth.  The pacifier is good, but they can't put it in their mouth for a few more months.

Joshua built a fantastic castle with walls and everything.   The sand was still damp from several days rain, so it was perfect!

Delaney was quite creative.  She lined up all the cars under the monkey bars and then went across the monkey bars all by herself.  Unfortunately, she reached this point and that's where I had to hustle over to help her to the end! Such a brave and smart kid!

It was a bit chilly, and Callie started the day in long pants.  She went down a wet slide and got her jeans all wet, so she had to change into the spare pair of clothes in the van.  Callie loves to picnic more than the others.  Although, I will say, it was a fairly sandy meal!

 
My cute boy is a good brother. He actually does a pretty good job holding her and has been really helpful.  He was so sweet with her here that I had to get a picture.

I want to mention something totally unrelated now.  In Primary on Sunday all the kids were given a calendar for the month of November and a stack of stickers.  There was also a note saying that they were encouraged to do service and when they served someone, they got to put a sticker on for that day.  I thought this was such a great idea!  Not only do the kids try to be nicer, but us parents start looking for better behavior.  It has been a good motivator in our home.  Marian has been asking for ways to get stickers on her chart.  For a kid who doesn't naturally want to serve, it has been a good tool.  And it has been good for me to look for kind acts from them.  I don't always see the good stuff, but now that I'm looking for it more, it puts me in a different frame of mind and I like it.

My Marian

Yesterday was Parent Teacher Conferences.  I got to meet with both Joshua and Marian's teachers.  I really like Joshua's teacher.  She seems like a lot of fun and like she really understands the kids.  She said that yes, Joshua talks a lot in class,"But he's a boy!"  And he's doing well in class.

I was concerned that Marian might not be on grade level, but her teacher said she was. She is meticulous in the work she wants to do and with the stuff she does not want to do, Marian either doesn't do it, or makes up her own version.  Marian may not do the work, but when she does, apparently it is done correctly. I am a little concerned, because I'm not entirely sure her teacher is dominant enough to deal with Marian.  I am at a loss myself sometimes with this kid, so I don't fault the teacher for being perplexed as to how to work with her.  The teacher told me that when she asked Marian to do something Marian did not want to do, Marian hissed at her.  Am I a bad mother for laughing?

Halloween Festivities

Something truly disturbing is happening to our house.  A few weeks ago, we woke up to find that something had dug up the front lawn.  We decided it must have been a dog and left it at that.  Unfortunately, the lawn is getting worse.  Something is pulling up chunks of it.  I think it may even be crows.  I don't know what to do about it!  Fresh dirt clods appear daily.

This is the sad lawn.  It use to be so beautiful, and now it looks like this.  Ug!

School today had "Crazy Hair Day".  I colored Joshua's hair blue for him. He loved it! And it did wash out.

This was just too cute.  (Its the skeleton at the chiropractor's office.)

See, no more blue hair.  Joshua did his own pumpkin this year and did a surprisingly good job of it.  And Callie cracks me up!

Delaney is sad because I said no candy before dinner.  Could she BE any cuter?!

The Ward Halloween Party was tonight.  Rylee was a corn on the cob!  She was very good and slept through most of it.  And she was proclaimed the cutest.

Joshua was a Pirate and he won this jar of candy corn for guessing closest to how many there were in it.  (316, I think!)

After trick-or-treating through the building, Callie and Delaney sat right down to devour their loot!
Yep, there was  even a pinata there tonight!  Go Marian!

She was a cowgirl, but left her horse in the car.

The cutest little unicorn is telling me not to eat her candy.

And here is my littlest cutie.  She is getting bigger every day!  She is 5 weeks old now.

Fun at the commissary

Today I took my 3 youngest girls to the Commissary with me.  I thought it would be a good day, because payday isn't till Friday and its drizzly out.  I figured it would be pretty quiet shopping today.  Perhaps part of the problem is that we didn't get out the door till after 11am.  I had a friend stop by and we visited for 45 minutes, and then my neighbor dropped by with Halloween donuts!  Hard to complain when its good reasons that keep you home.

The commissary was busier than I expected.  Mostly it was retirees.  I honestly don't mind it being busy, I just mind the oblivious people, and it was full of them today.  I know that I try to keep my cart out of the middle of the aisle, and if I need to scan the shelves for what I need, I'll pull off to the side and keep out of the way.  Nope, I didn't see much in the way of situational awareness and courtesy today.  I saw a lot of blocked aisles, a lot of large bottoms bent over checking out stuff for long periods of time, and I saw a lot of slowly meandering couples aimlessly wandering the floors, seemingly to look endlessly for something.  It was a bit annoying.

I did get my chuckle for the day though.  We had cleared a particularly crowded aisle, and Delaney was howling because I wouldn't let her out of the cart, and we came upon the next aisle, which was empty.  Empty, but for the woman blocking the way into it.  She was standing directly in the center of the aisle, looking vaguely down it as I pulled up behind her.  Again, Delaney was crying (loudly!), so she couldn't miss that we were right behind her.  I waited.  She didn't move.  I waited.  She was still there.  I decided to squeeze past her, so we sidled to the left, where there was just enough room for the nose of the cart to fit.  And then, yes!  We could move by her.  She evidently saw the desire to ram her in my eyes, because she actually gave ME a dirty look and a very rude "Excuse ME!" (the kind that really means, "excuse you, ya jerk!").

And I had to laugh.  Here she was, blocking the aisle, and she's mad at me for squeezing by?!  I suppose I could have loudly shouted "excuse me" before we tried to get by, but I figure everyone should be polite enough to be courteous of others in the store.  I am.  And if I am in the way, I smile and beg their pardon.  I can be nice!

We made it though the chaos and got all our groceries. I only had one elderly lady tell Delaney to stop jumping in the cart and express concern that she'd tip it over.  That was a new one for me.  We did have the usual concern from the old ladies as she climbed all over it, and she spent a few minutes "riding" the cart, with one leg draped on each side of the cart. I figure if she falls, she'll be more careful next time.  I am not going to spend the entire time trying to keep her sitting quietly.  I spend too much time doing the minimum of it, and I don't need the exercise in futility.  In case you were wondering, I do smile and politely thank each person for their concern.

So that was my day.  And since Rylee slept cozily in the front pack, she has no desire for an afternoon nap, unlike her mother who would LOVE to go lie down for a bit!  And now I shall end this with a few pictures of my darlings.

So cute when she sleeps!  Actually she's not sleeping- she's playing "possum".  You can tell from the ninja hands.

Dan had to pull out his dress blues for a funeral detail and Joshua tried on part of it!

Here is Callie's chin.  She bashed it pretty good and has been quite concerned that people would notice it.  She's quite embarrassed by it, so I have assured her that no one can even see it.  Don't tell her otherwise, please!

Crusty, open eyes, and she is so cute! Her baby acne is getting better, but still a little icky here.  She's still adorable!