Our little tape recorder

Last night we were at our Bishop's office for tithing settlement. Lizzie saw a picture of a cornucopia and she busts out with this bit of info.

"Cornucoopias (not copias) are horn shaped baskets filled with the things we are thankful for."

She learned it from watching TV.

What a kid!

Where's Anna?

Here's a little puzzle. Can you find Anna is this picture?

No pics

YET!

But I did figure out how to customize the background. I'm not giving up on the slide show, so keep your eyes open. If anyone knows how to do a slide show and would like to tell me how, please feel free to.

Halloween, Halloween, trick or treat

We had a fabulous Halloween. We started on Thursday with a Fall Festival at preschool. Elizabeth dresses up as a ballerina, real make up and all, which was a big deal to her. Hunter went as the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Tony Romo. We even wrapped up his pinkie finger on his right hand (for those normal people who don't eat, sleep and breath football, Tony Romo is out because he broke his pinkie finger on his throwing hand). Hunter was very proud of his "broken hankie" and he got quite a reaction from everyone when his teacher asked what he'd done to his finger and he told her that he was Tony Romo for Halloween. He had an extra big smile on his face for the rest of the day.



Halloween night was great. Some friends invited us over to go trick or treating with them. They live on a cul-de-sac with 3 houses and we know 2 of the 3 families in the cul-de-sac. We set up picnic tables and had a chili dinner. The dads took all the kids trick or treating and the moms stayed behind to hand out candy. The weather was perfect (in the 70's) and we didn't have to add any layers to the kids. We ended up sitting outside talking until about 10 when the kids came down off their sugar high and started to get really whiny. We had a fun time and the kids had so much fun trick or treating with their friends. We're hoping this becomes a Halloween tradition.

I'm going to try a slide show of Halloween pictures. I think I've got it, but my head hurts now.

P.S. Anna and I were in the car today and she said to me "Momma, are you speaking to me?"

Old ladies make my day

We stopped at Arby's for lunch today. As we were sitting eating our lunch, 3 moms came in with their kids and the moms were all skinny and dressed fashionably. I was watching them thinking how much better they looked than I did and was just kind of feeling bad about myself. I felt a little tap on my shoulder and I turned around to see an older woman with a big smile on her face. She said that she just had to compliment me on how well my children were behaving and how cute they were. She said it was so nice to see such nice kids in this day and age. I just have to say that that woman totally turned my day around. I would so rather have someone compliment me on my parenting skills than on how great I look. I've actually gotten quite a few compliments on my kids over the last 4 years. I've even gotten a few compliments on how well I'm handling them when they're throwing fits. The twins preschool teach accused me of having mommy guilt the other day during parent/teacher conference. She assured me that my kids were normal and were doing great in school (Elizabeth does have problems sharing her new bff, Alexis). So I guess I'm (I should probably include Rich in the parenting success, even if he does teach Hunter such phrases as "sucka fool" which he uses to infuriate Lizzie. Thanks Rich) doing ok on the parenting front and with any luck our children will grow up to be productive, responsible members of society.

Rich and the kids

I came out Saturday night and found Rich dragging Hunter around using the border off his blanket as a rope. There's no denying they're father and son. Goofy boys!













Rich is watching Monday night football, the kids are demanding his attention.

Happy Anniversary to us!!

Well, Rich and I have been married 9 years. Boy, where did they go. Fortunately, it's been a great 9 years and I hope we have many more years to come.

Rich has been so crazy busy at work lately, that I wasn't expecting anything today. He's been telling me that we'll do something in November when things calm down at the firm. So, I was really surprised to find him home at 5:30 (I feel lucky if he's home by 7) with a box of chocolates. Since he was home early he wanted to take us all out for dinner. I, of course had no problem with that seeing how I was having trouble trying to decide what to fix for dinner. We ended up going to Chili's. They have mac and cheese so we knew the kids would be happy. Anna fell asleep on the way and stayed asleep while we enjoyed our meal. I don't know if it was just because it was a meal I didn't have to cook, but the chicken tacos I had we great. Anyway, we ended our meal half way through when Lizzie got sick and threw up everywhere. So, no yummy dessert for us and Rich and I will finish our dinner after the kids go to bed and we get to sit down and watch Survivor.

So, definitely not the best anniversary we've ever had, but at least I didn't have to cook dinner and get my nicely cleaned and moped kitchen dirty.