Our Three Pumpkins

I LOVE Halloween!!! This evening we carved our pumpkins. We spread paper bags out on the kitchen floor. Adrian cut the tops off all the pumpkins and the kids kind of scooped out the guts. Sophie actually did a pretty good job this year with the scooping. But Ben still thinks its too icky to try so he pretty much just watched and well of course that's what Nina did too.

After they were all gutted we got out the power tools...:) Martha Stuart had a great idea to drill holes all over the pumpkins rather than carving. It was great!!! It went so fast and the kids loved "helping" drill the holes. (They really just sat with Adrian while he did all the work - what a nice Daddy.) Sophie's pumpkin has the dots all over kind of like chicken pox. Ben's pumpkin (or Jack-o-lit as he calls it) has a diamond pattern and Nina's has rows of holes. They actually look really cute all lit up - thanks Martha!!

I thought this year I might actually roast the pumpkin seeds for the first time but no luck. Before I knew it, it was bedtime and all good intentions for seed roasting turned to lets just clean it all up. Maybe next year...

Last night we went to the ward trunk-or-treat - sorry no pictures would you believe we forgot the camera - aaaaah! We had lots of fun (by we I mean the majority of us). Adrian and I dressed up as crazy cat people. I bought cat sweatshirts at a local thrift store and we pinned stuffed cats all over us. We definitely looked crazy alright! It was an easy, cheap costume and we won for silliest costumes - so that was fun. Sophie chose to be a witch this year (really cute orange and black witch dress and hat) and loved being in the costume parade and eating the Krispy Kreme donuts. Ben (dressed as Dash from the Incredibles) had a bad night - it was sensory overload for our incredibly shy boy and he spent most of the night crying, poor guy. But oh does he love his Dash costume. He wants to wear it constantly at home. Nina's costume is a pea pod - our little sweet pea. Its a great baby costume since its a bunting and we were glad it was so warm - it was cold and windy!! Sophie stuck it out in the cold and went trunk or treating to as many cars as she could before her bag got all filled up. Ben only went to a few cars, still having a rough time with all the strangers and costumes. He mostly stuck by me, I was passing out candy and every now and then he would say "tic-treat" and I would put a piece of our candy in his bag. It was cute! So all in all it was a great night.

Isn't Halloween the best!! I'll have to post pictures from the real trick-or-treating on Tues. I think I'll go raid the Halloween candy now - that's the fun part of being a Mom at Halloween! :)

My book lines.

Corinne posted a fun book game on her blog, here it is:


I got this idea from from Book Nut. I always love a book related idea

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

"He had always known that business was regarded as some sort of secret, shameful cult, which one did not impose on innocent laymen, that people thought of it as of an ugly necessity, to be performed but never mentioned, that to talk shop was an offence against higher sensibilities, that just as one washed machine grease off one's hands before coming home, so one was supposed to wash the stain of business off one's mind before entering the drawing room. He had never held that creed, but he had accepted it as natural that his family should hold it. He took it for granted - wordlessly in the manner of a feeling absorbed in childhood, left unquestioned and unnamed that he had dedicated himself, like the martyr of some dark religion, to the service of a faith which was his passionate love, but which made him an outcast among men, whose sympathy he was not to expect.

He had accepted the tenet that it was his duty to give his wife some form of existence unrelated to business."

- Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand


Whew, I should win some kind of contest for picking the book with the longest sentences EVER!!! That's what you expect I guess of Ayn. Interesting to think of his social rules reguarding the separation of life and profession like that. I actually haven't read all of Atlas Shrugged. (I really want to.) It was in the drawer of our dining room buffet though so it was definitely the closest. A friend, Carrie, let me borrow it (thanks Carrie) when I was pregnant. I never finished and its a little unlikely that I will at the moment. That's a book that needs some serious time and attention...Guess I should give it back and get my own copy...

Fun book game though!

Counting blessings and following my bliss...

Busy,busy morning, just dropped Sophie off at school and Benjamin off at preschool. Another mom commented "Gee you have your hands full" as I was carrying Nina (crying) in her car seat and trying to usher Ben and Sophie into the preschool to drop off Ben. Nina cried the whole time ( she' starting to not like our morning driving schedule ) but when I brought her inside she calmed right down and is now asleep where I put her down -- in her car seat by the front door. Now there is a strange calm in the house. I can't imagine what its going to be like when they're all in school. What am I going to do with myself ?!!!=) Probably have a party!! Read books, actually do house work and run errands with out the need of snacks, sippy cups, and diapers with me at all times. Endless possibilities....

BUT...I'm hearing the song "Count your Blessings". I do love where I am in life right now and I feel incredibly blessed to have my family. I love kissing boo boos and reading story books. I love singing songs and watching the kids interact with each other, sometimes like friends and sometimes not so much... I love riding in the car with the kids singing along to Laurie Berkner songs. I love it when Sophie tells me my chicken noodle soup is better than anyone else's. I love it when I'm in the grocery store with Ben in the cart - he makes hilarious comments on the things he sees and gets so excited about every isle. I love watching Adrian rough-house with the kids. All the emotions of being a mom are a wonder. How is it possible to feel them all at the same time? The love, fatigue, worry, joy, patience and impatience, frustration, warmth... Its amazing.

I guess its easy to wax poetic when you have a quiet house :).

And that's the end of that, Nina's waking up and its time to start in on the diaper changing, feeding and running errands... But after this few minutes of reflection I feel ready to enjoy it. I really am following my bliss.

BRUSH TEETH!!!

Tonight Sophie was in the bathroom the same time I was putting Ben to bed and in my hurry of trying to get him to bed before Nina started crying I interrupted his normal routine. Oh the horror....

Here's how it goes on a normal night : change diaper, pajamas on, read book, brush teeth, drink of water, prayer, kisses. And I guess all this is firmly implanted in Benjamin's psyche in this precise sequence. Well, tonight went : diaper, pajamas, book, prayer, song from preschool,( "once there was a chocolate.. chocolate .. chocolate..once there was a chocolate..tall..tall..tall..."- I bet you can guess the rest) and kiss. I found out the gravity of my mistake when Ben just lost it. Major melt down. I couldn't even understand what he was saying. Tears and drool all over his pajamas. Then I understood, it was "BRUSH TEETH!!!!".

Once I figured it out and we were on our way to the bathroom it was all fine. He had a nice teeth brushing, drink of water, kisses and off to bed. No problem, like the last 10 minutes hadn't even happened. So my question is: do you think he's going to be a dentist or a control freak? :)

A Tale of Two Zucchini Breads

This afternoon we decided to make 2 different kinds of zucchini bread, regular and chocolate (yum), and that is were our story begins....

It started out easy enough with a beautiful vision of teaching math through measuring and wonderful family discussion, but ended in 4 lovely loaves of zucchini bread, screams, whines, a few tears and the inevitable time-outs. Yes, Sophie and Ben have really entered the whole "I'm not touching you " phase of sibling rivalry.

But there were golden moments too..

Ben has learned how to make a scary face. We don't know if Sophie taught him or if its from his new favorite movie Nightmare Before Christmas. The face is of course accompanied by a "AARRRR!" Its hilarious!

There's Sophie enjoying the fruits of our labor (above). I think she put enough butter on the bread to leave teeth marks when you bite it. Sugar, chocolate, and butter..mmm...you can't get much better than that.

SUPER NINA! She loves being held up like this and she's getting strong, lifting up her head and holding out her legs.

All the kids are in bed now.

Though Nina is still fussing a little. Adrian is with her but it sounds like she wants to eat again. Is there a growth spurt at 3 months? She has been eating all day!

The wonderful smell of cinnamon is still wafting through the house and there are a ton of dishes to be done so I guess that's the end of our zucchini bread story.

First Post

Well here we go...I'm entering the intimidating and exciting world of blogging. Let's hope the learning curve isn't too steep. Its really late so I don't think I'm going to get down to the nitty gritty but I wanted to post just to mark the occasion. (And to see if I did it right.)