Our Family of Five

I was disappointed when our church decided to not to have an event on Halloween this year.  I always love getting to see all the kids from church in their cute costumes, and for our kids to get to be seen by their friends and teachers, too.  But since that wasn't happening, we made the most of it by finding lots of other places for them to wear their costumes and get candy, even if nobody really knew them.

 

On Friday night, we went to the bible book store to meet Larry Boy and get a picture, but that didn't turn out so well.  The girls both refused to go anywhere near him.  He was just way too big.  I thought after having been to Walt Disney World and taking tons of pics with all those characters, they would be okay with this, but I guess I was wrong.

 

We left there and went to a fall festival at one of the largest churches in our area.  They had all kinds of games, rides, balloons, candy, etc.  There would have been even more, but it was raining so the outdoor stuff was a bust.  We ate dinner in a giant tent outside.  Ella thought it was cool that we were all standing on a parking lot.

 

On Saturday, we had a nice morning around the house, complete with banana-chocolate chip pancakes made by Daddy.  Then we started our Halloween tour!  We went to a local pumpkin patch and found our way through muddy mazes, went on a hayride, and picked out pumpkins to keep.  After that it was Toys R Us, Walmart, and Border's - all in costume, of course! 

 

Saturday evening, we went back home and did some trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  It was our first time to do this and I think it was Ella's favorite part of the weekend.  Lucy, having not had a nap, was pretty tired and got bored with the whole thing after a couple blocks.  She didn't want to walk anymore.  We went home and sorted all the candy from the day, took out the candy they REALLY liked, and put the rest in a big bucket to start giving away!  Ella and Lucy sat on the front porch and gave candy to lots more trick-or-treaters.  That was fun for them, too. 

 

After a quick dinner, we finished the evening with a quick trip through a trunk-or-treat at another local church and came back home.  We had an enjoyable Halloween, but the next few days were even more exciting!  Check back next week for LOTS of pictures of this week's exciting events!

Yesterday was a busy day!  It began with a third ultrasound of our newest baby girl.  I am 23 weeks now, so the baby is finally looking a little less bony and a little more like a newborn baby.  She's going to continue to get a lot chubbier from here on out!  My mom accompanied me to the ultrasound this time (her first time to see one performed).  It was fun to get to share that with her and for her to understand a bit more of what that experience is like for us.  As always, it was fun to see our sweet, little baby, but more importantly, we were blessed with a shining report of her health and development.  The three areas (all to do with the heart) that they were unable to see last month were easily seen this time and checked out well.  Baby also was very cooperative in showing us her face so we could get some sweet pictures.

 

While we were at the Dr., my dad took Lucy to the library for the Halloween story time so she could go and wear her costume.  I'm sure he was the only grandpa there, but it sounded like it went pretty well.  I was glad Lucy didn't have to miss out and I know she enjoyed flying around the library for everyone in her butterfly costume.

 

My parents, Lucy, and I spent the middle part of the day shopping, but got home in time to get Ella off the bus, change her clothes, and rush off to dance class.  Ella enjoyed showing off her dancing and tumbling skills for Grandma and Grandpa.  When we get home, Jeff and his parents and sister were here waiting for us.  We all enjoyed a Papa Murphy's pizza together and then attended Jeff's Fall Concert at school.  He has three choirs this year, but the first two are small, so they sang together.  The second half of the program was a multi-media event centered around the theme "Freedom is Coming!"  It was probably the biggest production Jeff has attempted to pull of with his choirs since he has been teaching and it went SO WELL!  The students were having fun, the audience was clearly enjoying it, and we hard so many positive comments from everyone afterwards.  Jeff and his choirs should be very proud of a job well done!

 

Ella had three sick days from school last week and I had a cold all weekend, but we are finally on the mend again.  It seems like every family we know has had someone sick recently.  I am thankful our share so far hasn't been as bad as it could have been.

 

I sent Ella off to school this morning all fixed up for her first school picture.  I'm just hoping the kindergartners had pictures early in the morning, that Ella did her best to stay looking nice like I asked, and that the teachers and photographers are kind enough to straighten the kids up a bit before taking their pictures!  Oh, and of course, that she smiles her beautiful smile.   Can't wait to see how they turn out!

Wishing a Happy 39th Birthday to my brother, Todd, and sister-in-law, Lisa, whose birthdays are just 5 days apart in October.  And Happy Birthday to Jeff's Mom and Dad, who also both have birthdays this month!  We celebrated Jeff's parents' birthdays with them at their house a few weeks ago, and celebrated Todd and Lisa's birthdays on Saturday at their house.  It's a busy month for birthdays around here, and we've got three more next month!

 

Also, several odds and ends pictures this week.  Things have been going pretty well around here, for the most part, with the one downer being Ella having her first three sick days.  Whatever she had, it was mild, thankfully, with no vomiting or diarrhea.  Just fever, chills, sore throat, runny nose, and coughing.  The fever lasted less than a day, but the runny nose and cough have continued longer, causing us to continue keeping her home.  I'm hopeful that she will be ready to go back tomorrow.

 

More pictures of the baby coming next week!

We had such a nice weekend! Jeff and Ella didn't have school on Friday, so we left Thursday after school and spent the evening and most of Friday with Jeff's family.  I didn't get any pictures there, but we had a nice time and celebrated his parents' birthdays, which are both in October.

 

Then Friday evening, we met my good friend, Audrey, at her home for pizza and dessert.  I met Audrey when I worked at NCSA in college.  She was already retired, but still worked there part-time in the same department I was in.  When I started my teaching job, Audrey's home was just a couple blocks from my school.  Audrey had begun working on a genealogy and family history that she hoped to one day publish and give to all her children and grandchildren.  She had compiled the information and started writing, but needed help with the computer end of things.  So we worked out a deal where I came to her house after school for an evening every other week.  I proofread and edited her work on the computer, helped answer questions, and fixed various computer problems that arose, and in return she paid me $5 and fixed me dinner.  It was a great set-up for both of us!  We both enjoyed the company, she was glad to have help with her book, and I was treated to a delicious home-cooked meal by my adopted grandmother.  I got to know her and her family history very well during the years I helped her and she mailed me a finish copy of the book after I moved.  Even though it is not about my family, it is quite a treasured keepsake to me.

 

After dinner, we went to Chris and Cheryl's house where we stayed the rest of the weekend.  They are both good friends from college.  Cheryl and I lived in the same house on campus for a few years and Chris and Jeff roomed together in the guys' house next door, as well as in an apartment later.  We were all in each other's weddings and have stayed in touch over the years since college.  They have two kids now, Nicholas and Harmony, so our friendship has continued to grow and change as we've gone into a different stage of life.  Spending time with them was the highlight of our Homecoming weekend.

 

And speaking of Homecoming, that is the main reason we made the trip this weekend.  Saturday was our University's Homecoming football game and celebration.  We didn't go to the game, but enjoyed spending time at the alumni festivities hosted by the houses we lived in during college.  Each year, the houses have focus years for the alumni and this year, the focus was 1995-2005.  We saw lots of people from our time there, some we knew better than others, but it was fun to see what everyone looks like now and see all the cute little kids they produced. :)  I don't know when we'll ever make it back again, but I'm so glad we went this year.  Jeff and I couldn't help but reminisce about all the fun times we had there and how thankful we are to have had those experiences.  Now we just have to remember that when it's time for our girls to leave the nest!

The big news in this week's pictures is our celebration of Ella's good behavior at school.  Her teacher has a behavior system in place where each child brings home a ticket every day - green (good), orange (warning), yellow (better shape up!), red (bad news!).  Thankfully, Ella has only brought home one orange ticket, and we later found out 22 of the 26 kids in her class got an orange ticket that day.  Not sure what happened, but it somehow made us feel better that it was a group thing.  Ella wrote an apology to her teacher and got a warning from us that if she brought home another one, there would be discipline!

 

Anyway, if the kids get 30 green tickets (which takes 6 weeks at best!), they get to pick a prize from the treasure chest.  Ella chose a pink, glittery bouncy ball.  Her teacher encouraged parents to use these tickets at home as well and give incentives and rewards.  We often take away and give back green tickets based on how she acts and obeys.  We decided that for every 15 green tickets, we would let her take her lunch to school.  This is pretty exciting for her - she has a Hello Kitty lunch box and LOVES to use it!  And for every 30 tickets, we get to go out to a restaurant (our choice, of course, depending on our coupons!).  Well, she hit 30 tickets for the first time last Thursday, so Saturday night, we decided our special dinner would be pizza at this very cool, indoor miniature golf and games place.  Ella and Lucy had both earned a free round of mini-golf there from the summer reading program at the library.  This seemed like a great time to use them!  We hadn't been golfing in a long time, so Ella didn't remember much and Lucy didn't remember anything.  The longer they played, Ella started to get the hang of it, but Lucy...it was really just her goal to put the ball in every hole, regardless of how it got there.  She wouldn't listen to advice on how to hold or swing the club, nor did she follow any silly rules about where to start or how you're really not supposed to pick up the ball and move it with your hand.  Oh, well, they both had a great time, and Jeff was really impressed with the pizza.  He couldn't stop talking about it!  It was definitely a fun, family night out and I look forward to another reward dinner after the next 6 weeks of school!