Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Chris has had to work a few Halloweens, and thus has had to miss the best thing about it; trick-or-treating. So sad. However, the doctor that he reports to this year said that he could sneak away from the hospital for a bit so that he could join us, so long as it was not too busy. Since I was not sure if he would be able to get away, I kept this from the girls. It turns out that he was able to get away, and the girls got the best surprise when he just walked right up to us in the street as we were trick-or-treating. It was a special treat to have him there. Thank you Dr. Goodman for letting Chris join his kids on Halloween!

A pre-trick-or-treating shot. Rachael was the 'Tooth Fairy' this year. She is holding Chief, who was a skeleton. Morgan was a 'Masquerade Ball Ballerina'. She is holding Kate, who was a lady bug. It was fun to see her in a costume that both of her older sisters wore...good 'ol trip down memory lane and what not.

A close-up of Chief. He really was so cute in his skeleton costume. In our neighborhood, some people passed out dog treats as well as candy. He thought this was pretty great.

Beleated Birthday Celebration

Opa and Nana (Chris's parents) came to visit and to celebrate Chris and Kate's birthdays a little late. We left the older girls with friends and went out to dinner. Four adults and one sweet baby Kate. It was so fun! Not only did we get to eat out at one of my favorite places, The Cheesecake Factory, but we got to have real live adult conversation. Uninterrupted. (Well, mostly uninterrupted. We still had Kate, but she is really low maintenance, so it felt uninterrupted.)

Chris had to work on Sunday, but Opa and Nana stayed and spent the day with me and the girls. We had a delightful time, and they had a nice little break from work and all of the extras that they do at home. (Chris is a bit of an overachiever, and he comes by it naturally...) We snapped some really great shots of Morgan and Rachael with their grandparents. (Kate was already in bed.)

Opa and Morgan.

Nana and Morgan.

Opa and Rachael.

Nana and Rachael.

*It is also noteworthy to mention that while they were here, Opa scrubbed my stove top. (I have an old school electric stove with the coils and the metal bowls underneath said coils.) I do not like my stove and would much rather have a gas stove, or even a flat cook top electric stove, but this stove does the job. Furthermore, there are other things on the "Items to Replace" list before the stove. Anyway, I don't clean the bowls as much as I should. Dad noticed that they were in need (desperate need) of some elbow grease, and he used his elbows for about 20 minutes. Thanks Dad for leaving my kitchen better than you found it.*

Autumn Outing

One Saturday this month, rather than be productive around the house, we opted to take a trip to a farm featuring a corn maze and a pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect for romping through a maze. We went with some friends, which made it even more fun for the girls. While at the farm, we enjoyed a corn maze, a pumpkin patch, feeding goats, and a hayride. It was a really fun, much needed little day trip. We may not have been as productive as we should have been, but we made some good memories, which is equally, if not more important when you have a super busy daddy.

Here is Chris modeling the baby sling I made for him to carry Kate around in.

Kate in the pumpkins. She enjoyed crawling all over them.

We came, we saw, we conquered the corn maze. It was a rather large maze which featured a scavenger hunt highlighting key sights from the city. (Pictured are Chris, Morgan, Rachael, and Dave, Abby and Jeana Simpson.)

At the farm, there was a big metal tub filled with dried corn for wee ones to play in instead of sand. We thought Kate might like it. She couldn't stand it, as you can tell by the expression on her face, and lasted about 10 seconds before she very clearly indicated that she wanted to GET OUT. FAST.

So, who hasn't wanted to throw an egg just to watch it splatter at some point in their life? This was a fun idea that had quite the line. You buy a pack of four eggs and then throw them at this ghost. Rachael said, "You mean I can throw the egg?!" The mom in me kept thinking how wasteful this was, while the child within kept thinking how fun it would be to grab an egg and throw it myself. The girls loved it. We had to do it twice. (Pictured are Morgan, Rachael, Jeana and Abby.)

Last, but not least, a little family picture with some pumpkins. I really liked this shot. Aside from Kate looking off to the right, the rest of us actually have halfway decent smiles. In fact, we almost used it for our Christmas card this year. The only problem was that Farmer Bob and Son were in the background with the hayride truck. Dang!

Chris's B-Day.

Chris's birthday falls on the 14th, just four days after Kate. My mom's is the 16th, so October is a big birthday month for our family. Despite working nights and being super busy, we still managed to squeeze in some birthday fun for Chris. A bit of dinner, cake and ice cream, presents, and then off to work he went...

Happy Birthday Chris!

She is 1!!!

Kate had her birthday on the 10th, and is officially 1-year-old. Wow. That was fast. She has been the sweetest baby and has brought so much joy to our family. We had some family come into town for her birthday, and we celebrated with a fun dinner, and the traditional cake, ice cream, and presents.

Discoveries made about Kate on her birthday:

1.) She prefers chocolate cake to vanilla.

2.) She loves ice cream.

3.) She loves clothes. I kid you not. She loves clothes. She got toys and clothes for her birthday, and showed the same enthusiasm for both. She 'Ooooooohed' and 'Ahhhhhhhed' and held the clothes up to her little body. I think we might be in trouble with this one later...

Here are some fun pics of Kate's big day:


Giant cupcake birthday cake. Chocolate on the bottom, vanilla on the top. Mmmmmm. Birthday cake.


Kate as we were singing 'Happy Birthday' to her.


Mmmmmmm. Chocolate cake.

CRAZY

Sorry all. Things have been, well, crazy. -I say that like I have been the most consistent of bloggers and a two week absence is unusual for me. I am trying. Just when I was getting into a blogging groove, life got even busier. Chris has been gone a lot. We have had three family birthdays that I have been getting ready for. We have also had company twice and gone out of town once. In addition to these things, I have been getting in touch with my inner Martha and crafting and sewing. Will post about it later. Too tired, and writing about it is making me more tired. G'night.

Spirit Week: Day IV

Day IV: Hippie Day. The girls were excited about this one. They shot down some of my suggestions, which I must say would have made them look more hippie-ish, but this is about them and not me, so whatever. We had fun with it, which was the point. Here are the shots:

Spirit Week: Day III

Day III: Wild, Wild West Day. No dice. Girls opted out. Day IV is Hippie Day. I think they want to try that one. Stay tuned...

Spirit Week: Day II

Day II: Pajama Day! Everyone's favorite day. The kids get to wear pj's to school. How cool is that? -In case you are wondering, no, I did not let them wear the pajamas that they slept in the night before.

*Day III is 'Wild, Wild West Day'. Not sure if the girls will participate in that one.

Spirit Week: Day I

It is Spirit Week at school! This means that each day there is a theme that the kids get to dress along with to show their budding school pride. It also means that they get a piece of candy as they enter the school if they participate.

Day I: Mismatch Day. Kids get to wear things that don't match. It is a pity this was not around during preschool. This would have been many a day for Rachael, as she dressed herself. I kid you not, there was a two week span where she wore the same striped pants, under a plaid skirt, and rounded out the whole ensemble with her fuzzy pink boots. (For the record, she changed her shirt and underwear. Other than that, I washed the pants and skirt. A lot...) Anywho, kids also get to have crazy hair, or wear a funny hat. Cool.

Morgan is sporting one tennis shoe and one boot. She also has her shirt inside out and pretty funky hair.

The hair. Pretty fun, eh?

*Rachael opted out of mismatch day. She now cares if she matches. Sometimes. (Actually, she is going through a phase where she really worries what other kids think about her. How sad is that? She was worried that she would be the only one in her class looking mismatched. That and she did flat out did not want to participate in this one.)

General Conference Crafts

Last weekend was General Conference. Ahhhh, Conference Weekend. For you non Mormons out there, this is something that happens twice a year, and it is a big deal. The prophet of our church, along with our other major leaders speak to us, counsel us, and give us direction and words to live by until the next Conference weekend. These conferences occur on the first weekend of October and April respectively.

Anyway, technology being what it is today, allows us to stream talks via internet. This means that we get to stay at home and listen to conference. Such a treat. Since there are several general sessions to listen to, we have started a tradition of doing crafts while we listen. We color, do puzzles, play with play dough, do special conference packets, and during at least one session, we work on our stitching. This is by far the girls' favorite activity during conference. 'We get to SEW!' We are starting out small here, but it is fun to watch the girls come up with little sewing/crafty projects. Here is what they came up with this year:

Morgan made a pillow and a cape for her American Girl Doll, Elizabeth.

Rachael made a sleeping bag for her Zhu-Zhu Pet, Patches, and an ornament for Daddy. Chris and I helped Rachael out a bit with the stitching, but she came up with the design all on her own.

*I made some curtains to hang up in our office. Technically speaking, I made these after conference was over, so I did not include a picture in this post. Furthermore, are just your basic curtains and are simply not as cool as what Morgan and Rachael came up with. =)

And That's What You Call 'Ironic'

Because she has been teething and sick and teething some more, Kate has not been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks. For the past two nights however, she has slept great. Hooray!! The only thing is, Morgan has been sick. So Kate's first nights sleeping through the night in a while, I have been up 3-5 times each night with poor Morgan. Boo and Hiss for illness and Morgan's utter discomfort. (She had to miss 3 days of school this week.)

*In true surgeon fashion, Chris said that he wondered if Morgan might need her tonsils out. This was only the 5th week of school and already Morgan has missed 5 days and come home early twice. Hmmmm. I wonder if he is on to something there...