Something to blog about

We leave the ward trunk or treat after putting way to much effort into our trunk as well as making  a pot of chicken noodle soup after we watched Emily play a volleyball game and then spent a few hours at Lagoon to then rush home to and get all 4 kids in costume including hair braiding,  dying it red, and painting a cardboard toilet seat.  I say...

Me:  I never want to do this again
Bart:  (surprised voice) Why?  It was fun
Me:  Too much work
Bart:  Just look at it as something to blog about.


So blog here are my pictures of the day I don't want to do again but glad I have something to blog about and make memories with my kids.

As we were leaving the park Bart turns to me and gives me a thumbs up after he reads this sign.  Ha ha so rude but very true!!!

Emily's costume.  Moaning Myrtle.  The walking test of Harry Potter fans.  People either got it and loved it or were confused

Jane read the Pippy Longstocking book this summer and was sold on being it for Halloween.  Did I mention how much fun red hair dye is for moms?  

Thank you my kind hearted boy for being so happy with a costume you can buy at Costco and slip into in no time.  Any wagers how many consecutive years he'll be a star wars character?

The Monkey has returned.  I love this costume so unique, vintage and full of family memories.  

The perfect couple.  Pippy and her monkey (totally Jane's idea)

This was the first year we opted to contribute to the trunk or treat.   The last few years the trunks were all decked out.  This year not so much.   Just ours actually!   I can never get it right.  

Waiting

UEA usually means heading to Teasdale.   For as long as I can remember we've lucked out with nice weather which means my kids get plenty of outside time.  We are often hanging out around the cowboys who are moving the cows from the mountain to the desert.   This year Bentley wanted to have a cousin sleep over so I dropped the girls off in Annabelle.  Sarah said they would head over to Teasdale and take a short stop in Koosharem to load up some of her cows.    As most things cowboy related go a short stop to gather up cows ended up being a full days work.    My girls ended up in the cab of a truck for hours waiting for the gathering of the cows.  For one it was a cold windy day and  my dad told them they better stay in the truck and not spook the cows away.  I told Sarah she should have called me and I could have come and rescued the girls and Sarah just replied "Why? it's not like we never had to do that sort of thing growing up".    It's true we had to do that sort of thing a lot and without any complaining.   I remember waiting in trucks for my dad to finish up chores.  Waiting in the car while my mom ran into Red D grocery store to do her grocery shopping.  (It was legal or at least nobody cared back then).  I waited before and after dentist appointments in a room with nothing more than scholastic children's magazines.   Waiting rather impatiently and most likely hungry while my mombrowsed through jobbers odd lot (i.e. junk store) after a long day of shopping in Salt Lake.    Each year my mom took me over to Richfield for my annual checkup for my leg with Dr. Sodaberg, an orthopedic doctor from Primary Children's hospital.  I don't really know how long we sat in the  clinic but it must have been a while because I still have vivid memories of reading the public health posters about bottle mouth and kids.  I should write the public health department to commend their work because I never could put my kids down to sleep with a bottle in fear of bottle mouth.  I waited at the movie theater for my mom to come back and get us.    The routine was you walked a half a block down the street and called twice without putting a quarter so that my mom knew if she got too hang up calls in a row the movie was over.  I waiting for rides home from junior jazz practice and most every after school activity in middle and high school.  There was no mobile phones so no way to get a  hold of my parents back then to see how close they were.  I just had to hope for the best and stand there and wait.    I'm not sure my kids have ever had to wait for much in their life.  Heck they don't even have to wait for their favorite movie or song to rewind.  So I guess it was a great character building experience for them to be stuck in a cab of a truck in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do but listen to the radio.    I hope it stretched their patience even a little bit.  Here's to hoping we can get through the prayer on the food without someone starting to eat.

The cows being moved from the field by my parents house to the ranch where they would get their immunizations before trekking down to the desert

Shaz

Spencer loves shoes.  He will notice some shoes and with so much enthusiasm say "Shaz".  It doesn't matter whose shoes he just wants some on his feet.  

My other kids at this age were constantly shedding their shoes any chance they could get. I was always so annoyed to arrive at our destination to see bare feet and shoes and socks tossed every which way in the backseat.  I use to go jogging with Emily in the jogging stroller and would often discover one shoe missing when I returned.  After a couple lost shoe episodes I would first take off her shoes and leave them home.   Spencer on the other hand will notice his bare feet go find his shoes and bring them to one of us and ask to have them put on his feet.  It's pretty incredible to me that he always knows where his shoes are.   In one of those hurry out of the house moments I called to anybody listening "Will someone find Spencer's missing shoe we've got to hurry"  Emi, Jane and Aaron ran around the house, I'm sure a little haphazardly,  without any success.  Spencer on the other hand hearing the word "Shoes"  disappeared and a few minutes later reappeared holding the missing shoe and we were out the door "like a herd of turtles" as Bart often says.   Speaking of missing shoes Jane, who has never misplaced anything in her life, is at her wits end always looking for her shoes Spencer has scattered around the house.  I get her frustration as she and I like things in their place and their is nothing worse than frantically running around trying to find a lost  shoe.   We deal though because how can you get mad at such a face!!!

Super Saturday!!!

It's a beautiful Sat. morning in October and Bart is away to New York City chasing autographs.    The kids and I start the day watching Emily play her first volleyball game of the season.

Then we decide to take a trip down to Brooke's house to raid a pumpkin patch her family helps take care of.  On the way there we stopped by "Jaker's Jack-0-Lathern" pumpkin patch in Springville (can't beat the $2 admission fee) and enjoyed a few of the festivities.    

Spencer navigating his way through the toddler hay maze!!

It's hard to get 4 kids to look at the camera at the same time

Hey mom,  take a picture of us way up here.  

Pumpkin patch hay ride.   Spencer is intent on counting the pumpkins just like his older brother Aaron was doing. 

Emily convinced me it would be fun for all of us to go through the big corn maze.  I hesitantly agreed and about half way through the maze had a minor anxiety attack trying to keep all of us together while finding the way out.  It became apparent we were just going in circles and then I missed Bart badly because he's the steady I'll get us out rock we rely on.  The sadness turned into madness that he wasn't there but was doing his stupid autograph thing.  The anxiety and madness kept building until I found a group and decided our best bet was to follow them.   They noticed the trail of stragglers behind them and told me we  foraging our own trail the hell out of here.  I said "Sounds good to me".  And like a breath of fresh air soon we were out!  

Spencer was enamored by the animals and especially liked petting the pit 

We then headed down to Brooke's house and gathered us up enough pumpkins to fill up our porch as well as some for the preschool classroom kids I work with.

We got back right in just enough time to drop off the boys for Emily to watch while Jane and I used some free Real Monarch's soccer tickets that were given to all the Sparta soccer players.    I know nothing about soccer but it's a developing interest with Super Soccer Jane in the house!!!