A very interesting post . . .

I haven't blogged in an extra long time . . . Anthony is sitting here on the bed doing work things and i'm here playing on the iPad and am curious if I can blog seamlessly using it. When I clicked in the text field to write something, the iPad wouldn't recognize it as a text field . . . And so i'm typing this in notepad and then we'll see if I can copy and paste it into blogspot. If you see this I guess you'll know I was successful.

Since THAT i'm sure was very interesting for you to know . . .

What else is new in our lives? Hmmm . . . I did laundry today. Yes I did. And not just a little laundry. I did a LOT of laundry. A mountain of laundry to be more exact. I've been dumping the loads of clothes i've washed the past two days in the front living room, waiting for a time when I could sort, fold, and carry laundry up and down the stairs to put away. That time came tonight when Anthony came home from work and could hold Evan. I demolished the mountain! clothes are now carefully folded in everyone's drawer or hung up nicely in the closet. I can enjoy a moment of laundry being 'done' until I wake up tomorrow morning and have to do another load.

Wow I am really on a role of interesting things to write about tonight. I think i'll go to bed (after i see if I can really post this) . . .

Halloween

For Halloween this year, Carter was an elephant, Allison was a Unicorn Cow, and Evan was our pumpkin. We enjoyed going to Anderson Farms in October, and had fun doing several trunk or treats. Carter wanted to do 'race cars' for our trunk - and so his innovative Daddy came up with a race track cardboard thing - complete with a downspout that would 'shoot' out the candy at the finish line. Carter LOVED it! He spent all 2 hours of the elementary school trunk or treat manning the downspout shoot. Seriously - he wouldn't even leave to get candy of his own. I went and got some pizza because the kids hadn't eaten - but he wouldn't even stop to eat. He'd hold his pizza in one hand while shooting the candy down the other. It was a lot of fun.

More Pictures

Photo Shoot

We took our yearly trip to Portair Innovations today. I love how the pictures turned out! Here are some of the highlights . . . .

3 Word Journal

So I've been reading a book called The 3 Word Journal by Randall Wright. In it Mr. Wright teaches an easy way to keep a journal. Our mind are like a computer. Significant experiences are all stored there - we just need the right 'search words' to recall them. Using just 3 words - we can quickly record and later 'access' those memories. Anywho - I've tried it this week. Writing down three words in my all-purpose notebook

So some words from my week . . .

Allison, Sunday, Workbook

So tonight Allison decided that we all needed a Sunday workbook for tomorrow. She went up by the computer and got some printer paper. She stapled 10 pieces of paper together, asked me to get her a pen - and then she went to her room to work. Well she just came down and showed Dad his Sunday workbook. I was amazed! She had drawn a temple on the outside with Dad's name on it - and a tiny angel Moroni (only she told me she ran out of room at the top so Moroni is a little squished). The next page has a picture of the church which Dad can color tomorrow. Next was a 'Spot the Difference' She drew - I think another church building and then 4 other buildings - and he has to figure out what is different. Then she did a word search. She really did it! She wrote some church words at the bottom of the paper . . . but she told me he has to read the words at the bottom - not just look for them in the puzzle because 'I just sounded out the words - I don't really know how to spell them'. And sure enough at the bottom of the paper she wrote . . . 'Tepl' (temple) "Chrch", and "Sakrmint" (sacrament). Then she did another spot the difference . . . but I couldn't quite tell what they were and so I asked. "They are the building on the back of a penny," she said. Oh - and sure enough they do look like the Lincoln Memorial. She ended with a scrambled word puzzle . . . which was a little tricky because she was using phonetically spelled words . . . all scrambled up. But she whispered the answer to me and told me not to tell dad . . . and sure enough all the letter sounds of what she was writing were all there . . . just mixed up.

Anyway - Allison is just such a little joy. She is always coming up with fun activities and games we can do together. Another thing she did today . . . we had some Halloween music going and she started dancing. Suddenly she said, "We need to have a Halloween ballet." She proceeded to get some paper and she made invitations for her friends to come to a Halloween Ballet on Friday. I'm not sure what to do about that . . . we might have our own family Halloween Ballet on Friday . . .

OK . . . one more set of 3 words . . .

Allison, Lion King, What?

The kids were watching Lion King and I sat down to watch it with them while I fed Evan. Periodically Allison would look at me and say, 'What, Mom, What?' I'd look at her a little confused and say, 'I didn't say anything - I'm just watching the movie.' It happened again.

'Mom, what? What mom?'

'Nothing, hun - I'm just watching the movie.'

A little later . . .

'Mom what?'

'Allison - nothing. What do you keep saying that?'

'I just want to know what you're thinking about the movie.'

I realized she kept asking that when the movie was a sad or scary. When Mufasa died. During the scary 'Be Prepared' song. I realized she just needed reassurance. We all need reassurance sometimes.

Random Pictures

Here are some random pictures . . .

5 Years Old

My little girl turned 5 yesterday. She loves the Rainbow Magic fairy books - and so we had a fairy party with the girls from her primary class. It was so much fun! We've done birthday parties before and there always is an element of craziness with it. Whenever we get lots of kids together - that's just the way it is. But this time it wasn't. It was fun, without the chaos. I can tell she's getting older!

So some of the things we did . . .
The girls arrived and King Oberon (Anthony) sprinkled fairy dust on them and they became fairies. They each put on a tutu fairy skirt and wings They then chose their fairy name. The rainbow magic fairies each have a special name like - Bethany the Ballet Fairy or Ruby the Red Fairy. We had all sorts of fairies at our party. Allison the Unicorn Fairy, Shelby the Snow Dog Fairy, Lana the Painting Fairy. Then all the fairies colored the Rainbow Fairies (who had lost their color due to Jack Frost) and then decorated a fairy bag. While they were decorating and coloring I (who was dressed up as Bella the Birthday Fairy) told them stories about Fairyland. When they got done we played a little circle game where I would give them clues and they would guess which fairy I was thinking of . . . and then I pulled out little paper Rainbow Fairies I made and we were playing a guessing game with them when Jack Frost (Anthony) swept in and stole the Rainbow Fairies from before our eyes. He cast them out of Fairyland Castle and hid them in our backyard. The girls then went outside to rescue the Fairies.

We played Fairy Freeze - Jack Frost turned every fairy he touched into ice . . . but the fairies could 'unfreeze' each other. Then Jack Frost gave his hat to different fairies and they got a turn freezing each other.

They played that so well that they earned their fairy wands. However Jack Frost had another trick up his sleep. When the fairies opened the fairy wand box - they discovered the wands missing! Jack Frost had hidden them. The girls then went on a scavenger hunt for the wands. They had to complete a fairyland puzzle, do a crossword puzzle, and complete a 'Spot the Difference' to finally find their wands in the mailbox.

They then made fairy paper dolls and we had cake and ice cream.