Halloween....kindergarten style

Bria had a Halloween party at school today. She has a blast! She came home with a whole bag full of candy and her face painted. She was very proud that she won the eyeball game. They also played other games and did several arts and crafts. Oh...to be a kid again!!

Cake o'Lantern

It seems like cake decorating shows are all the rage on cable TV these days. Between Food Network, TLC and WEtv, you can almost always find one to watch. Our favorite is Cake Boss on TLC - it's basically the Mafia meets cake decorating. It's very entertaining. Anyhow....with all this cake tv watching, I've been wanting to learn to decorate cakes better myself. The best way to learn? I say....give it a try! The first cake I made using fondant was kind of a mess. You could see every lump of the un-smooth cake. I didn't roll the fondant out thin enough. The list goes on and on. But this last attempt was, I think, a little bit better.

I got the idea to make a pumpkin cake from here. Then, I called my sister who is a cake decorator and got her fondant recipe. It was so easy to make - and so much cheaper than the expensive store bought version. And this is what I came up with.....not to shabby, I say. Now, after all that work, I don't know how to bring myself to cut it. Better have Dave do that - men are much less sentimental, right?!?

It is really much bigger than it looks in the picture - it took 2 whole bundt cakes! Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes it is actually pumpkin cake.

Trunk-or-Treat

We went to the annual trunk-or-treat at our church the other night. But, being Idaho and cold, we did it inside the gym instead of outside. The kids absolutely LOVED it!

Bria is a pro by now. She went from person to person as quickly as she could collecting her loot. Max is a little bit more of an instant gratification kind of kid. He excitedly showed me each and every treat as he got it and if I had not been right by him, he would have just sat down and eaten each one right away.

Stay tuned for Max's real Halloween costume. He was Thomas last year and thought he wanted to be again, but at the last minute changed his mind. So, he'll really be something different for Halloween.

Free Photo Booth

This is HILARIOUS!!! It's always good to have a laugh.

2 Months

He is 11 lb 5 oz already!!!

Big brother, little brother

We have had a lot of people comment on how much Logan looks like Max. Today, I went through some of the pictures of when Max was a baby. Yep. Definitely related. (Max is on top, by the way.)

School pictures

We might only have one child in school, but we got multiple school pictures this year...since, of course, Dave also works at a school.

So far, Bria really loves kindergarten. When she gets home from school, I ask her what she did all day. She always replies the same: she played on the monkey bars at recess, lunch was good, Dominic got in trouble (poor kid!), and (fill in the blank) happened on the bus. Hmmm. What happens during the large chunks of time in between those small events is a mystery. She never can seem to remember. Thank goodness for parent teacher conference! Bria has started early phonics reading already. At parent teacher conference, her teacher said only 5 kids in her class have been able to start. I'm sure a lot of that is because she is one of the older kids. But, of course, we are really proud of her. She brings home a few pages to practice every night and is really loving it.

Bria has made friends with a little girl named Katelyn (sp?) in her class. She really wants to invite Katelyn over for a play date. I said, "Bria....how am I going to invite her over." "Hello!, mom. Just call her up!" "But, I don't know her phone number." "It is 4738 - that's her dad's cell phone. You can ask him if she can come over." "Right...." I told Bria to go back to school and find out what all SEVEN numbers are. Still haven't heard back from Katelyn, though. Maybe this play date will never happen.

All Aboard the POTTY TRAIN!!!

He finally did it!!! After trying and giving up and trying again and again. And, giving up again and again. And once again re-trying. After a month and a half of really trying hard. He finally got it!!! And just in time, too. I was just about to go completely crazy!

So, two down. One to go. Not that I have any intention of even thinking the words potty train for quite some time.

That darn toy has been sitting on top of our fridge for MONTHS waiting for Max to finally get potty trained and earn his Potty Train! And, he has enjoyed every minute of finally being able to play with it.

Very Thankful

I was reading an article in the Reader's Digest called "Life is Better with a Gratitude Attitude". It's really cute. The author tries to find things he's grateful for in every day life. Anyway, that got me thinking about all the help we have received since Logan was born. We've had lots of help when all of our kids were born, but we have especially been taken care of with Logan. I feel like I need to make a list of thank yous! I don't think everyone I list actually reads our blog. And this is by no means a replacement for an actual thank you card (those are still coming...I promise!) But, I can't just let our gratitude go without me somehow documenting it before my tired brain starts to forget.


Thank you to Lynn and Shirlee (Dave's parents) for being there the day Logan was born. I love having family so close! Thank you also for the cute, cute outfit for Logan and of course the diapers. You can never have too many!

Thank you to my mom for coming all the way up from Albuquerque to go to Logan's blessing and staying to help me get adjusted. I wish you lived closer so that we could see you more often! Thank you to Mike for letting you come and taking care of all the kids at home while you were away.

Thank you to Andrea and Monty and your whole family for taking care of Bria and Max while we were in the hospital. They love your house.

Thank you to Brittany for taking Bria after school on her first day, for the cute gift - we love the cute cow snuggle blankie and the fuzzy socks. But, I have to say, the bath salts are my favorite. Thank you also for letting the kids come play as often as you do to give me a moment's break.

Thank you to Scott and Jessica for the darling outfit and the yummy grilled pizza right after Logan was born.

Thank you to Tyson, Jalim, Ann and Aubri for driving all the way up from Utah to come see Logan. It's so much fun to visit - we wish you would come more often.

Thank you to Macy for all the hand-me downs. They are such a lifesaver!!

Thank you to Melissa for bringing a dinner 7 weeks down the road. It was so yummy and a much needed break from making dinner myself!!

Thank you to Mary and Damon for the blanket and the cute blanket sleeper.

Thank you to Robyn for bringing papa murphy's pizza. Dave grilled it - it was yummy!

Thank you to Michelle and Tom for the darling outfit and for driving all this way to come to Logan's blessing. We were sad you couldn't stay for lunch!

Thank you to the Ritchies for the homemade pizza, the diapers, and all the fun.

Thank you for everyone who brought us dinner - The Reis family, the Lenz family, the Seeley family, and the Staiger family.

Thank you to all the nice ladies that Dave works with for the cute clothes and the Walmart gift card.

Thank you to the Gutierrez family for dinner, lots and lots of hand-me down clothes, the baby gifts and all the cookies.

I'll probably have to come back and update this post because I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

A Little Note

On Saturday, our nephew Michael got baptized. Afterwards, there was a lunch at their house. Our kids always love it when Dave's family gets together. There are cousins galore to play with. While we were there, Bria had one of her older cousins, Lexi, help her write a cute little note to Max. Lexi also helped with some of the artwork....although Bria still did most of it on her own.


The note says:

Dear Max,
I want to clean your room tomorrow! Your a sweet brother. I love you! I want to play the wii with your tomorrow! What do you want do with me tomorrow?
Your Sister,
Bria

I especially love the exclamation after "I will clean your room tomorrow". Too bad it didn't actually happen. Max was so pleased to get his own letter from Bria.

On a related note, Max has finally decided he likes to draw and color. Bria has always loved to, but Max really has never even tried. His pictures are simple, but he works very hard on them. Most are different circle items - pumpkins and monsters seem to be a favorite. For the monster, he draws a circle with a bunch of legs. I found this picture lying about the house. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I'm just happy he is finally drawing!!!

9 Years

I absolutely can't believe that we've been married for 9 YEARS!!! Where did the time go?!? Well, okay...I guess we did have 3 kids and moved several times somewhere there in the mix. I just can't believe that so much time has gone by. But, there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not head over heel in love with my most perfect match.

Usually our anniversaries are a huge deal. Every year we go over the top. It is a celebration of our marriage, after all. We have a tradition of going to the Anniversary Inn. We've been every year - either in Logan or Salt Lake. We even stayed on our honeymoon. This year is the first year we haven't gone. Can't leave a newborn overnight. Not that we'd even think about it. So, this year we celebrated a little early and went to Las Vegas. But, for our official anniversary, we went to the movies and dinner on Saturday night. We went to see The Truth About Lying. It was cute. Then, we finished off our night with a trip to Cafe Rio.

I still can't believe it's already been 9 years!

It's too early for winter!

One week ago, it was a perfect 80 degrees. But, this is Idaho, and as we all know, summer only lasts for a moment. This morning, we woke up to a small blanket of snow. So, today I packed up the kids and headed to the store. We obviously needed some winter gear. As I was pulling into the parking lot, I glanced at the thermometer in the van....36 degrees. And it was noon. One week. Sigh.... It's going to be a long winter. At least the kids look cute in their new coats!

The tooth fairy

Bria is on a mission to lose all of her teeth by the age of 6. This is already tooth #3 and she has a few more loose. The problem is that the tooth fairy has encountered some rather strange and unfortunate luck in our house.

Tooth #1: Bria placed her tooth under her pillow in a small sandwich bag and went immediately to sleep. After a while, I "went to check on her" in the middle of the night. She is a very light sleeper. As I was "checking" to see if the tooth fairy had removed the said tooth from under Bria's pill0w, she woke up only to be disappointed that it was only mom and not the tooth fairy. While grasping the very-noisy-in-the-dark sandwich/tooth bag behind my back, I very sweetly told Bria to go back to sleep...it was just me doing my nightly sleep check. The next morning, Bria came running upstairs telling all about her midnight encounter with the tooth fairy. I think she was more asleep than I realized in the middle of the night and apparently got me and the tooth fairy confused with each other. Silly girl!

Tooth #2: Bria lost her second tooth only days after the first. After her encounter with the tooth fairy the first time, we were well prepared this time. The tooth fairy now visits our kitchen window....far away from our light sleeping Bria. The drop off went down without a hitch.

Tooth #3: For the past month, Bria has been working on her loose teeth. She's been anxiously planning the visit from the tooth fairy. Last Saturday night, she was over visiting her cousin Morgan. Morgan, too, has loose teeth, and as the older cousin was showing Bria the ways of tooth losing skill. The string and door slamming method was her preference and she was trying very hard to show Bria how to do it on Bria's tooth. When that didn't work, she tied the string around her own tooth and asked Bria to slam the door. Not surprisingly, it pulled Morgan's tooth out.
Well, Bria was still trying to get her tooth out, so she desperately went to her dad and asked for more help. A pair of tweezers and a good stiff pull later, Bria finally lost her tooth. Last night, we put it in the kitchen window and things should have gone pretty easily for the tooth fairy. But, alas. We seem to have many toothly adventures in this house. At about 6 o'clock this morning, Bria quietly walked up the stairs only to find an untouched envelope still in the kitchen window. Thankfully, she can't tell time and came into our room to find out if it was the middle of the night still, or if it really was morning. Middle of the night. Definitely. Go back to bed. The tooth fairy did some pretty fancy moves and made a quick drop off....just in time for Bria to come upstairs in 30 minutes to again see if morning had come. Thankfully, she had. But, in the hurried process, didn't leave the pack of gum that Bria had requested. Oh, well. It probably won't be long until she has to make another visit.

The Many Faces of Logan