Pumpkin Pickin'

I heard from my friend Laurie that we had a pumpkin farm near our house. The ones we have gone to in the past are far and take a bit of time. Celia and I had an hour before we would need to go to her Kindergarten Class so we though it was a great time to pick a pumpkin. It is a serious business ya know. I love the one that Celia picked. It is perfect for making a jack o lantern with. She also picked a small one that is just her size. I loved the sunflowers and cornstalks, they were amazing, no pun intended.:) I love the fall and the photos taken around harvest time are always so colorful which is one reason I love it. I am going to miss our alone time when Celia goes to first grade next year so I am enjoying it as much as I can now.

We go to Jamba Juice almost weekly, and the gym, and the cupcake store together. Celia is doing a good job staying by me in public, which helps a lot. Celia had to go potty at the farm and they had a cute little blue and white house as the restroom. It only had a sign for girls and Celia said the boys have to go in the grass. It was pretty cute. She is always so aware of her surrounding and comments on things. Her tutor Lindsay changed schedules for her college classes and isn't able to come any more. Celia said she was lost. It was sad then she decided out of nowhere she isn't lost, she got married! Her primary teacher got married and moved and isn't her teacher anymore so she generalized that to her tutor. We sure love having Celia and all our precious children in our family. They make our lives full.~

Halloween Prep~

I can't believe it is almost the middle of October. I do however have some costumes picked out for the kids for Halloween. Emmy assured me she was not too old to go trick or treating and they are able to wear costumes to her high school. Celia and I decorated for Halloween and took out a bin full of our old costumes from previous year. It was fun to dress up with her especially on a rainy day. I love time with just her in the morning before afternoon kindergarten. She liked the muscle Batman costume the best. She did a little shaking/dancing in the hula costume and was a little nervous when I showed her Joseph's old pterodactyl costume. She told me that it was too scary. I did get her to try it on and she flew around the house in it.

Celia is going to be a Harajuku cutie. She looks like a super cute mini geisha. Joe is going to be an army guy and Emmy is going to be a purple fairy. I surprised her with that costume. She reminded me of a fairy because she went into Joseph's room while he was sleeping and gave him half of a curly mustache in purple permanent marker. She also wrote" Emmy was here, I love you!" on Celia's arm. Emmy is like a tooth fairy , but instead of giving money she marks you with permanent purple marker. The costume fits her prankster personality. Spencer is adding to his collection of Halloween t- shirts that he wears all year round for his costume. I am going to be a firefighter. Bri will Probably find something to be right before his work party, which he usually does. He went as Dwight Shroot from "The Office" last year. It was funny and he looked great in those big nerdy glasses. Dressing up is fun to do and all the holidays are great with kids. They get so excited.

Purple Paintin'

Emmy has been asking me to paint her room for about a year. She wanted a dark purple room, but I insisted it would make her room look smaller and finally we compromised on a light color on top and a dark eggplant color to act as a low border in the room.

With Joseph's new room being built and the reorganizing of the garage, the painting project was put off. I finished on Friday and the girls were very pleased. We moved the bunk bed to a different spot in the room. It feels open and nice and smells like a new home. I love the new paint smell in a room.

Now we have three kids rooms that are painted and organized. Now the job is to keep it that way. Emmy is a great girl and we want her to be happy. I'm so glad she loves her room now.~

Fun Little Celia

Celia is so cute. She is a joy to be around and cracks us up with all the fun imaginary play she starts. Tonight she called me on the phone from the one in my room. She said "Hi, Its me Celia bear, and told me to pretend she was a dentist. We talked about brushing our teeth before bed and other things. She told on Joseph for something. I love all her language. She has such a great personality. Being so full of craftsiness she made bathroom decorations while I was on the phone the other day. I Love how its color coordinated and the puff balls were raised up even further by using a cheerio to add depth and dimension. We love to hear her sing and talk about Pierre a lead singer of Simple plan. Celia loves her Halloween costume and her newly painted room. She runs around so smiley and happy. What a joy she is!

Memory Making

We love birthdays around here. Celia and I went and got helium filled balloons for Brian's birthday. Celia insisted she needed a Mylar balloon for her too which I agreed to. Celia and Bri had picked out a cake mix so I just used our round tins I use to make our tall cakes with and put chocolate pudding in the middle. We had a nice relaxing evening at home watching a movie( it was a romantic comedy called "Midway to Heaven") with the family, eating cake and teasing each other. Brian got a nice card and money from my parents and my gift to him is my blog in book form that is on its way in the mail.~I want to capture so much of our family's life in the blog that I have to make the book half way through the year, then make another at the end of the year. I feel happy about having the pictures and my thoughts printed, it feels like finished scrapbooks of memories to me. We all love Brian and are grateful we could celebrate his birthday with him.:) We went out on Monday together, Tuesday cake at home, Wednesday celebrating with his parents. Maybe we can make a week of celebrating him.:) I took pictures and the kids started making faces and being silly and it made for great smiles.

Watching Joseph

Last night Brian, Emmy, Joseph and I went and saw "Joseph Smith and The Golden Plates" in a movie theatre in Rocklin. It was a great movie experience. There were a lot of people there and so many people dressed so modestly, it felt like we were at BYU again.:)

We had refillable soda and popcorn since I hadn't eaten in a while and needed to have a little something. We saw a few people we knew there (Emmy saw her good friend Kimberly Snelson and Shelby Griffiths, Katelyn's sister.) and I really liked being there with the family.

The movie starts in on Joseph's life as he is working towards acquiring the golden plates. I liked the actors they chose and the storyline is true to the historical happenings of that day. I liked the parts with Emma and it was very informative for those who are learning about the early church.

Emmy wanted to know why all of the actors had crooked teeth, lol. We talked a lot about the olden days and I think she was happy to be born in this time period. We went to In N Out after, so yummy. It was a great early birthday celebration for Brian. He said this was best movie on Joseph Smith he has seen so far. I'm glad we were all able to go together and that we could support this movie effort. We bought the DVD and maybe there will be another part of Joseph's life portrayed soon.

Weeknights

Brian and I think its great to spend time with our family. Even though we have scheduled time away from our kids for work or church service, we make a point to play games with the kids, have dinner together, sing, read together, and be around our fabulous little ones.

Getting ready for dinner involves the kids helping cook, set the table, and clean up. It is a lot of work to get them to help, but I think it is worthwhile for all of us. Last night we had the missionaries for dinner and Celia stirred the taco meat and felt like she cooked the whole meal it was cute. She helps me cook a lot with her tutors, at 5pm they ask if Celia can help with cooking anything we we all hang out in the kitchen together. Joseph and Emmy alternate who makes the salad and the drink a lot, and who sets the table. Spencer swings quite a bit, but often helps with cooking too.

Celia loves her Daddy and demands to play Plants vs. zombies on his computer. She thought his engineering hat was just her size.:) Not everyone is thrilled every time, but I think doing what we can when we can to teach our children the importance of family togetherness and the gospel is worthwhile and a fulfilling experience.

The Haven of Hidden Falls

Joseph was cute telling me "Its my only Day off!" as I offered to take him hiking with me on Friday. My hiking group the Roseville hikers has been going each Friday for a month now. I was excited to hear about a waterfall hike, since that's one of my favorite things to do, but the kids were out of school. Merlene our sweet respite worker that we have had for 7 years on and off was able to come and watch Joseph and Celia while I went hiking. It was close by in Auburn. It is very peaceful to be out in nature and I knew it was what I wanted to do with my time off. Or is it a time out from responsibilities and worries. Something about being in nature, finding water, and returning home fills my cup. Even though I was with others and some of them had their children, it was nice to just ponder and take in the sounds of the stream, falls, and cool breezes. It was a hot day and we hiked down so the return was hiking upwards. It wasn't too difficult(3 miles a little rocky), just enough to feel like it was great exercise and relaxation.

Rocket Man

What young boy doesn't love to shoot off rockets!? Joseph was able to make a rocket and shoot it off for cub scouts last week. He is a webelo now, that means we've been through two books so far in cub scouts.:) I got pinned at our last pack meeting and its a great time seeing Joseph earn badges and arrows and belt loops for good things he does in scouts. We carpool with the neighbors and its a great social event for Joseph to go to each week, although he likes to stay home and watch netflix or play videos games sometimes too.:) I think he will be happy later on for going and appreciate all he learned and also the friends he made by being part of this great group.

Spencer's Saturday Swim

Spencer went to his first Deacon activity for church yesterday. We went to the pool party for his quorum. Spencer insisted I go in the water with him. He was loving all the water, splashing around and participating in playing sharks and minnows and submarine. They had brownies and chips and soda(Spencer's kind of food~) and he sat pretty well during the devotional until he got up out of his chair grabbed a handful of lays chips out of the bag Jarret was holding and then threw what was left of his brownie in the fire pit then sat down quietly again. Brian and I just giggled and no one seemed too put out by it.:) They were happy to have him there and so was I. Its great to include Spence and he really does love being around the typical developing kiddos.

I'm glad his new medicine has been working well so he can go out in public and little more and that he sleeps through the night again. I expect he will be doing even better in no time.:) Emmy watched the other kids while Brian and I went with Spencer. I think it was a great experience for Emmy to babysit and for Spencer to have mom and dad all to himself too!

My Daughter's Question.

Emmy approached me while at the dining table eating my cereal this morning and asked me, What were we doing on 9/11? Also, What do you remember about it?

Well, at first I started by saying we woke up and since I had three little ones we turned on the TV to watch some PBS and saw the shocking footage. My friend Lisa had called me to tell me about what had happened. I remember talking to friends and family on the phone a lot that day. I told Emmy of the planes and their involvement in the attack.

So many memories flooded back to me like the weirdness of no planes in the air, of how surreal all the footage was, how vulnerable we all felt, and how it seemed unbelievable that this could happen on U.S. soil. I tried to explain how I felt and what I witnessed as the breaking news came forth all that day. I was holding it together pretty good until I said there was some good and amazing things that happened too.

I described how heroic the emergency responders were, how the fire fighters went into the buildings to rescue others as its impending collapse was imminent. I talked about our motto United we stand, about the prayers for the families that lost loved ones, the support for a long time after in rescuing those trapped and giving to those in need spiritually, physically and emotionally. I love that our nation came together to fight terror. It was a unifying thing that happened that day.

What happened that day was memorable, a nations tragedy and the great strength that rose out of it. I am glad we have safety precautions in our public places now because of what we learned. Immense gratitude, patriotism, awareness of evil, love for others, charity, and heroic acts were realized from this terrible tragedy. I am glad Emmy has always been very patriotic and concerned with current events. She loves the flag and I wanted to take a picture of her by our today.

We sang all three verses of the star spangled banner in church today. It was very beautiful and moving. I am grateful for good people, for this land of the free in which we trust GOD. My heart goes out to those suffering and hope that we can all heal and be better because of our unified strength. I am excited that we as family members are interested in each other's past. I love geneology and learning about my ancestors and went on with them. It made me really happy that my daughter wanted to hear what I felt about this historic day.