Happy Halloween!!

We had a great time tonight. We took the kids to the church for the fall festival where they played all the games and came home with a mountain of candy. There must be 20 pounds of candy in their combined bags.... ugh.

The girls were punk rock fairies... and Beth loved her purple hair! I found the leg warmers, wings and crowns at this really fun little craft store here that sells lot of jewelry and costume pieces for less than a dollar. I made the little skirts with some cotton, tulle, and lace, and the girls raided my jewelry and belts for finishing pieces. The leg warmers had people calling them 80's fairies... they were cute, whichever decade they were inspired by... lol

The little boys wanted to be pirates again this year. They also raided my jewelry for accessories... lol. Don't ya love the bushy eyebrows?
Chet's costume was one of my all-time favorites. He was a money tree, and he said if anybody tried to take his hard-grown money he would whack them with a branch. We stapled the play money all over his shirt, and clipped some in his hair, and then I smeared brown eyeshadow all over his face. It isn't in this picture, but his candy bag was an old white pillowcase that we wrote dollar signs on. This costume fit his little banker personality so well! He had a lot of fun!

Matt decided to go as Indiana Jones this year. He made a whip and had rope tied around his belt that you can't see in here. He is a huge movie buff, so he came up with the costume on his own, but I had to laugh at how many of his peers had no idea who IJ is. All the other 80's moms got it, though... lol

Happy birthday little king!!!

My baby boy turned six today... (quiet sobs) He was so happy this morning when he got up... and it made me smile as I remembered how it was when he was born. He was the easiest delivery, and the doctor, the nurse, and Jack and I were all laughing when he was born. I have always said that is why he is so funny... lol... he was born into laughter. Today was no exception. Earlier tonight he was talking to my mom and he told her "School is awesome! My favorite parts are recess, lunch, and second recess!" Spiderman 3 was released on DVD today, and it was the number one item on his wishlist... in fact, he is convinced that they released it today specifically for him... lol. This isn't a great shot, and I plan on taking nice headshots of him this weekend, but here he is. Happy birthday Todd!!

Today is also my Sam's birthday. Happy birthday, Sam!!! She and my brother got engaged over the weekend... woohoo!!

Tonight was the elementary school fall festival, where the king and queen of each grade level are announced. Todd was voted the king of his class, and Faith was chosen as the queen of hers. Kyle only missed being the king in his class by one vote. Here is a shot of my royal children... lol

This is Todd with his queen from his class. All of the kindergarten classes had a queen and king, and all five of each got to be king and queen for the whole grade. They were so adorable!!
This had to be the funniest part of the night. One of the kindergarten kings didn't make it to the festival, which left a little queen on her own. So the teachers set her up with Todd and his queen, and he got to escort them both down the walkway. There has been a LOT of laughing and teasing Todd about his two queens tonight.
This little boy asked Faith to marry him on the first day of school last year, and this year they are sitting together. They were voted as king and queen of their classroom. I told Faith that if by some turn of fate they do end up married, we will make sure their royalty pictures are shown at their wedding... :0)
Apparently, the majority of the fourth grade thought they made a pretty good king and queen, because they were also voted as king and queen of the whole grade. So Faith came home with a crown, and a smile a mile wide. I don't have any great shots of the crown yet, though!

I took this before we left today... my little birthday king needed a nap to get rested up for his busy night of escorting his two queens around. It was such a fun night. (I was playing with a sepia filter on this shot.)

Busy weekend

We had a lot to get done this weekend, but I think we got through it all! Yesterday Kyle and Faith went to 2 costume birthday parties, and Matt had a carwash for his drama club. Here he is trying to get customers into the parking lot. They washed about 30 cars, which isn't bad for a town as small as ours! He went to a haunted corn maze last night as well and had a lot of fun there.

Chet and Faith have been excited about going to Kevin and Debbie's house to pick up sticks. Today we all went over there after church, and most of the younger kids went to work getting their front yard cleared out. Faith got bored and distracted rather quickly and decided to delegate her share to her brothers. LOL... when it came time to get paid for their work, she realized that wasn't such a good idea when she didn't get paid as much as they did! Another lady from church heard about the good job the boys did getting the sticks picked up, and has hired them to come next weekend to get all the black walnuts out of her yard. They will gather them up and then take the walnuts to a farmer market type place that shells them and pays the kids for them by the pound. They are looking forward to that!

This particular picture made me laugh. After they had the tarp full of sticks, they would drag them into a deeper part of the forest and unload them there. I love how they are all pointing in a different direction as they try to decide which way to go!

Somewhere along the way, Kyle found a walking stick, and apparently they bonded. Kyle put his walking stick on his shoulder and carried him around with him for a while as he worked. He actually thought this was really funny, but for some reason wouldn't laugh and giggle about it as I took his picture.

Beth has decided that Debbie is her BFF. Today Debbie blew up a bunch of balloons for her and she spent a while first just playing with them and then coloring on them with a magic marker.
Earlier this evening we had a birthday party at the church. It was so fun! There are twelve tables, one for each month, with birthday cakes on each. We all sat at the table for our birth month. Some months, esp July and September, had really full tables, but apparently April is a pretty slow birthday month because it was just one of the 3 year olds from church and I at our table! After everyone had cake, we auctioned off a bunch of pies. The money goes to help out our food bank and community dinner programs. The auctioning was hilarious. Kyle was enthralled with that table full of cakes and pies and cookies, and say up front the whole time. At one point he decided he really wanted an apple pie, and started bidding on it. That got everybody laughing again... it was just a really fun night all the way around.

Another thing we did tonight is called "Pounding the Preacher." It is an old tradition in these small areas to welcome new pastors by bringing them a pound of dried food... a pound of rice, a pound of flour etc. So during Sunday School today some of the ministry leaders went around to the classrooms and organized the pounding for our new pastor and his wife. It was a fun way to surprise them, and an interesting tidbit of history to learn!

There is a couple getting married next weekend, and they were being teased today about the tradition of "Shivering the Groom." That is where they are interrupted on their wedding night, the groom is dunked in the pond, and then has to push his new bride around the square (that would be the heart of the town for all my city-dwelling pals... lol) in a wheelbarrow. Hey Jesse and Sam... would you please consider coming here to get married so we can do this??? :0) Just picture the fun photos we could get!

These are some blueberries I found today on Debbie's property. I hope my berry bushes start blooming next year. I would love to walk out my front door and be able to pick fresh berries for home-baked yummy stuff.

Hi there

This is the last week of football, soccer, and cheerleading! Can you hear my sigh of relief through your computer screen? Todd has an interesting approach to kicking the ball.

I caught this one of Kyle while he was guarding the goal during his game. I love the little waves of hair on the left side... such a little boy thing!

Beth was having fun just being goofy every time I pointed the camera at her.

Today was a busy day with two birthday parties, a fundraiser carwash, and a youth group trip to a maze. have some photos to show tomorrow night. Tomorrow we have church, are going to Kevin and Debbie's house to eat deer steaks (Jack is looking forward to it, I am leary... lol) and then heading back to church for a church birthday party where pies will be auctioned off and everyone will eat birthday cake.

I shot this picture the other day. The sun was going down and I liked the way it was shining through one of the trees in our front yard.

This is why I was outside shooting in the first place. Kyle found these strange mushroom clusters growing in our yard. They all grow off of one large stem type thing. I have no idea what kind of mushrooms they are, but I thought they were pretty interesting looking!

just an update

I don't have any pics to share tonight... just wanted to post a quick update.

Last week we were told we needed to take C to St Jude's, but his counts have stopped falling so those plans are on hold again. We are waiting for his medical records to get here, and then we will be able to get the referral we need to take him there. All of his bloodlines are down right now, so he still may need to go the other Children's hospital to get platelets. However, since those didn't fall again this week, it may mean he is starting to make some again. So basically we are in a holding pattern... waiting to see what his counts do, waiting on paperwork, waiting and praying he stabilizes again very soon.

Everybody has caught some stomach bug that is going around, so it has been a yucky weekend so far. It started with K on Wednesday night, and everybody is taking a turn. ick.

Football season is almost over, and I think soccer is nearly done too. I love watching them all in their sports, but I am always so glad when the seasons end and we get some time back for other stuff!

F was voted as queen of her class in the fall festival, and T is the king in his class.... I think it is so cute! The festival is next weekend, and I can't wait to get the pics. Thank goodness the viral ick is making its rounds this weekend instead of next!

I am not feeling great, so I am going to go sleep now. I did some digi scrapping today when I didn't have much energy to do anything else. I will get it posted in a day or two.

Talk to you soon!

New Pictures

It has been a busy month, full of activities and events.

On Sunday, Jack and his friend Josh took our little boys and Josh's little boys fishing. Todd claimed every fish he helped haul in as his own, so he decided he had 7 fish.

Kyle did reel this one in all on his own, but he didn't much like holding it in his bare hands. I imagine he will get used to it if he keeps on fishing. He had a blast, as evidenced by the dirt he is coated in from head to toe!Football season is almost over for Matt. Tomorrow is his last home game, so I am charging the camcorder to get some footage. He wanted me to take his pictures the other day, but he didn't want to smile at all. It isn't cool for football players to smile, I guess... lol.

I did get him to grin in this one a little.

There he is in the middle tackling the guy with the three on his jersey. I kept my camera focused on him everytime he was on the field, and the two times I had to look away are when he tackled the opponents who had the ball... sigh. I was actually surprised to see this one show up on my image upload because I didn't remember taking it!

I was shooting some shots of the boys playing soccer when I looked to my right and saw Jack coming towards me with Beth happily chasing behind him and laughing. It isn't great lighting, but I love how happy she looks!
There's my little miss sunshine again!
Kyle and Todd are both playing soccer this season. This was their first game last week when the kids didn't have their team shirts yet, so I am looking forward to this week's games so I can get some with the team jerseys. This year Kyle has been much more aggressive about getting in there and getting to the ball.
This is Todd's first official sports season, and you would think he had won the lottery he was so over the moon about it. The little guys are my favorite teams to watch... they are all so cute!

Here is Todd's coach high-fiving him right after he kicked the ball in the goal. Go Todd!

This barn caught my eye. I want to enrich the blue sky behind it since the cloudy overcast made it look white, and then hang it in my kitchen I think. I love old barn buildings!

I just couldn't get a sharp shot of this busy bee because he wouldn't hold still for me, but this one came the closest. I was glad to see him. There was a huge shortage of pollenating honeybees this year, and nobody is really sure what happened to them all.

This beauty is getting ready to head south with all his other pretty colored pals. The birds are really starting to squawk in the trees again as well, so I know the migration process is really getting into the works. The trees are all changing too... I can't wait to take new autumn pictures!

Here is a caterpillar who just hasn't metamorphasised yet. There were about 8 of them crawling around on this errant weed, so we left them and the weed along.

Chet and Beth both had their birthdays this month, turning 11 and 4. Beth loves frogs (which is okay as long as she keeps them outside and doesn't set them free in the house anymore) so she had to have a froggy cake. We had about 25 kids over for their party, and it was actually pretty calm considering how many there were!

I am going to take a new headshot since the sun was right in his eyes in this one. He is getting so big!

This bear was a 25cent yardsale find that has become one of Beths best friends. She can't shove him all the way in her backpack, so he hugs her all the way to school. She loved going to preschool on her birthday. Show and Tell was all about her, and they had cake and played games.
Chet found her a frog for her birthday, and again, it was in the house. This one didn't get to escape, though. After pics we set him outside to hop home.

Here are Faith and Beth playing with the birthday girl's sidewalk chalk. They like to trace each other on the cement.

Faith has been chearleeding this season instead of soccer, and she seems to have found her calling in life. She absolutely loves it, but that is no surprise.

Matt went to Homecoming two weeks ago, and decided to go to the game with his school spirit. He washed it off before the dance, and then had a lot fun at the dance. He taught himself a dance called Soulja Boy by watching it on YouTube to be ready for Homecoming. I am so glad he isn't shy about getting out on the dancefloor!

And this is just a random shot of a happy little Todd. We were at Debbie and Kevin's house for dinner, and he really enjoyed exploring around their pond and having Kevin take him for a ride on his 4-wheeler.
I think the majority of the worst of the stressful situations have been dealt with, but you never can truly tell anymore. I love my job, though, and school is still going well. I have been working at home and plowing through my Algebra lessons so I can take my final next week instead of waiting until Christmastime. That will leave me more time to complete my comp assignments, which have been the hardest thing for to get through. I love to write, but finding the time to sit and write thoughtful well-written pieces has been a challenge!

Chet has a new doctor, and he is talking to St. Jude's about getting him there for some new treatment programs they have for his disease. We won't know much more about it until we are there and talking to the specialist, but it is the most exciting news we have heard in years... and possibly the scariest.