Halloween Weekend

I really enjoy Halloween and this weekend has been one on-going party. The celebrations began on Friday. I volunteered at Austin's school to help with their Halloween party, I did a little face painting. Thank goodness the kids were only 3 & 4th graders and didn't really care that I have no previous experience with face painting. The kids did have some eerie requests though; one boy asked me to paint a bullet hole on his forehead with blood dripping out of it, however, most just wanted stitches across their face with remnants of blood. Later that afternoon the boys got dressed up and I took them to the local nursing home for their annual event. The weather was beautiful and I was able to get some good pictures of the boys in their costumes. We nicknamed Andrew "Bones" and Cameron played the werewolf part well. Austin chose to be a scary ghost this year so I nicknamed us, the house of horror.

Saturday afternoon I took the kids as well as Taylar & Jordynn to the Children's Fair at the high school. I was really impressed by it! So many vendors were there and most of them had great activities for the kids. Later Saturday evening was the trunk-or-treat in the church parking lot. I like to dress up for Halloween as well so this year I bought a cheap costume from Walmart and walked around as a Vampire. It was great having Spencer join us. He got home from hunting in time to come out with us. He, unfortunately, doesn't quite share the same enthusiasm for dressing up in costume as I do. Oh well.

Seeing as the actual holiday fell on Sunday we opted to not go trick-or-treating this year in the neighborhood and just stay home and pass out candy, and the boys loved it! We also finished our Halloween Harry Potter Movie Marathon that we started on Friday. Happy Halloween everybody!

I am so proud of Cameron!

Today I received a letter in the mail that brought tears to my eyes! It was a letter from the Superintendent at our School District Office and was addressed to Cameron. Inside was a letter that said, "Congratulations! You have been selected for the Superintendent SCORE award. This award is presented four times during the school year. SCORE stands for Students Can Often Reach Excellence.

The November SCORE award honors students who have demonstrated their leadership, citizenship, or service to the school and/or community. Enclosed is your nomination that was submitted by a staff member who describes your wonderful qualities.

The really touching part was reading the nomination form submitted by Cameron's teacher, Mrs. Miller. Here is what it said:

"Cameron is an outstanding kinder. He has excellent citizenship. Cameron chooses to be safe, respectful, and responsible each day in our kindergarten class! Cameron is such an exceptional role model to the other kinder boys in our morning class. I am very proud of Cameron for being an extraordinary citizen at McBride."

As a Mom, how could a letter like that not bring tears to your eyes? I ran upstairs, hugged Cameron, shared the letter and news with him and told him how proud of him I am.

Mr. Independent!

I got it guys...No really, I can get it...

Okay, I give up! Thanks Cameron!

What a day!

This morning while I was taking a shower Andrew came into my bathroom, crying, saying he was bleeding. Sure enough somehow he sliced his finger and my mind started racing wondering what instrument I would find when I went downstairs. So I bandage him up, wiping away the conditioner that started running down my face, and forced him to stay in my bathroom until I could rinse completely off. Once we started descending down the stairs I saw lying at the bottom landing my large Pampered Chef knife, out of case. Seeing it lying there on the floor made me count my lucky stars that all he got was a little slice and didn't lose his entire finger. I have yet to find a sharper knife! Why Andrew sought out this knife is beyond me, but apparently he is too smart for my "kid proof" drawers now. I'm just glad he's okay.

A couple of hours later Cameron's bus came by to drop him off after kindergarten. The bus driver hands me a large garbage bag and starts to tell me how Cameron got thrown up on today by another classmate during school. I take a good look at Cameron and notice that he is wearing new pants and a sweater. He said his teacher has some extras in her class and that his clothes and backpack are in the bag. Let me tell you, I was scared to death to open the garbage bag because I didn't know what I was going to find! Luckily, the school was kind enough to wash off any gross stuff, but the smell was less than pleasant.

A few hours later, I returned from a lunch date and found a message on my answering machine from Austin's school. Seriously, the health room was calling! Apparently, Austin threw up at school and needed to come home. I swear the health room has got to be on a first name basis with Austin. After his bee sting incident, losing 2 teeth during school, a couple of minor injuries during recess and now this. I don't think my day could have had any more surprises waiting for me. Despite all the drama, it was actually a really great day!

PUD Spaghetti Dinner

Last night we attended the annual PUD spaghetti feed at the fairgrounds. We don't usually think to go, but we always really enjoy ourselves when we do. Cameron entered their coloring contest and won 2nd place for the kindergartners. He won $5 cash and was pretty excited about that. I love this event. The PUD hires caricaturists and although it takes forever waiting in line to get your kids drawn, it is well worth it! They always turn out so adorable. It's definitely a great family event.

Young Women Camping Retreat

Back in June we took the Young Women on an overnight camp out to Fort Stevens State Park. Tent camping at the coast anytime during the year is risky, but it worked out great for us. No rain, not even drizzle, until literally the minute before we had planned to pack up and leave. Our Ward has such a great group of Young Women and I feel so lucky to be in among them.

Our journey began late Friday afternoon when we all met up and started our way for the beach. Once we got there we set up camp and then drove to Seaside for dinner. We ate at Bar Harbor Pizza and then found a candy shop on the promenade before we left. When we got back we had our Standards Night presentation and some great questions were asked by the girls.

Bedtime was perhaps the most exciting. We had a practical joke played on us by a handful of young men from the Seaside Ward. After a humorous, yet scary display of seeing someone "perched" outside of our tent, our tent collapsed on us at 1:30 a.m. and the guys ran off. No one could sleep after that.

In the morning after breakfast we broke up into groups. The walkers and the cyclists. The walkers went to the beach to play for the day, while the cyclists rode to a bunch of the tourist sites around. After a few hours we all met back up for lunch and then headed home. It was a really fun time with such great company. I got a kick out of the car ride home though because the girls crashed and were drooling and sprawling out all over each other. Good times.

New Beginnings

This has been an exciting back to school year for us as Cameron has now reached the dear ol' age of Kindergarten! He shares such enthusiasm for going to a big kids school, it's adorable to watch. Austin on the other hand has now switched schools and has headed into his 3rd grade year. In our neck of the woods our school district does things a little differently than others. We don't have the typical "neighborhood schools" that house K-6. What we have are 3 elementary schools and each school is dedicated to certain grade levels; K-2, 3-5, and a whole school for the 6th graders. It's kinda weird, but it seems to work. Unfortunately this means that Austin & Cameron will always be at separate schools from each other. The good news is, both have landed awesome teachers this year and I am excited to see the growth that each one of them makes.

A Stinging Mess

Last night Austin had the unfortunate experience of being stung by bees, not just once or twice, but 7 times! It happened at the Cub Scout Pack meeting in the back of the church. Of course he wandered into the wooded area, where the boys have been cautioned to stay away from, but they are boys and unfortunately, sometimes, they have to learn the hard way. Grayson was also victim to the yellow jackets and came away with 3 of his own. Poor guys! Thank goodness we had so many well prepared Scout leaders there to help us remedy the situation.

So this morning I lathered Austin up with Hydrocortisone cream and sent him to school with a note to call if he had any issues. One hour later the Vice Principal called and said Austin was itching like crazy and needed me. I pulled him out for the day and have been pumping down Benadryl every 4 hours and rubbing him with cream. Sadly, the affected areas don't look any better at all.

Live and Learn

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one out there who feels like they are always playing catch up??? And why, when I know how hard it is to catch up, do I let myself fall behind??? This is me!

This past year I have had a really hard time with balance in my life. Then of course there's something monumental about a lack of balance in one's life that leads to a lot of unnecessary stress, and I have definitely felt on overload. Back in the beginning of August I made the decision to leave my part time job and put family first. Not only is it gratifying to be home in the evening with my family, but it's amazing how much time I feel that I have now. So there's no excuses now why I should always feel behind.

It recently hit me how much I miss scrapbooking and blogging. Blogging to preserve my thoughts, and scrapbooking to showcase our family pictures. I am disappointed that I have let so much time pass in doing something I love so much to do, but hopefully lessons learned means wisdom from making the same mistakes again. Hopefully!

Road Trip to Utah

I love a reason to travel and so when I found out Ryan was getting married in Utah, all I could think about was, Road Trip!!  Spencer was not able to take off more than a couple of days so I opted to drive with the kids early so we could spend some time with my parents in Utah.  I invited Caylin & Megan to go with us to which they were very excited.  The first day we drove as far as Meridian, ID and spent the night with our friends, the Cluff's.  It was so much fun to see them and their two little girls they have had since moving away.  The following day, Sunday, we arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.

Each day we spent in Utah was a blast!  We went to a kids waterpark called, Cowabunga Bay.  After leaving the waterpark we had to track down my absolute favorite ice cream joint in the world called, Iceberg.  I think the girls were pleasantly surprised when they got to experience Iceberg shakes.  Other activities include; spending time with my sister, Brittany; a visit to Wheeler Farm; a family BBQ; swimming at the community rec center; movie nights; a picnic in the Canyon; and of course all of the fun events involving Ryan's wedding.  As much fun as all of these activities were, I must say that two of the highlights of the trip include; Spending time with my brother Cory who happened to coincide his visit with mine; and going on a special daddy-daughter date.  My Dad and I went through a live session in the Salt Lake Temple together, a first for me.  That was a special thing to do with just him.  Spencer flew into SLC on Thursday afternoon and then he drove us home on Sunday.  This road trip was so much fun, I really was bummed when it ended!