Reformation Party

Trick-Or-Treat

Mac as Iron Man, this picture was taken at about 4:00, he was ready and he wanted his picture ASAP!

 My now 12-year old daughter pulled off the perfect Punk Rocker!

 Capps as Bobba Fett

 Trying to figure out who would win in a battle?

 Only Daegan could pull this warrior costume off, and be proud to do it!  Mustache, inflatable stomach, low pants, etc.  Can you say confident?

 Tavis on the other hand worries about looking goofy.  He wore jeans and a black turtle neck (which he wears about three times a week).  Added hat and gun made him a robber.

 Group Shot, with Daddy with a Flashlight

 And everyone in character!!!

Celebrating a day early!

Mollee has one of those birthdays that gets rushed a lot because it is also a holiday (Halloween or Reformation Day, whatever you desire to call it).  Our life is rushed a lot right now, and I wanted to slow down, so I surprised Mollee with celebrating a day earlier.

The boys and I went to pick this up after school:

 And they knew she would want a balloon, so we set the table and hooked it to her chair.

 She was pleasantly surprised when she returned from soccer.

She didn't even realize what was going on when she and Daddy picked up Taco Bell for dinner, her request.

Presents first - blue and green dragonfly earrings

 A new jean jacket

 A purse and a slingbag

 Birthday singing and candles (and Tavis being a goof)

And the crew!!!

Happy Birthday, Moo!

Somehow, I ended up with a 12-year old?

Celebrate Plate

As we head into our "birthday season", which I start with Mollee's birthday.  I wanted to share this with the history books.  This is our Celebrate Plate.  Whoever is having a special day gets to use it at dinner.  Whether it is a birthday, graduation, goal is reached at school, etc.

I love it!

Chores on Saturday makes me giddy

All week I try to keep the house picked up.  I feel like we aren't home much to mess it up, but it still seems to get messed up.  I rarely have time to do a good cleaning.  Heck, I sweep and I wipe up the bathroom sink, that seems to be it lately. 

So, when I sit down to make a chore list for the kids on Saturday, it makes me giddy.  They are old enough to be doing much more than I require of them, but I am getting better at delegating and training.  We've been doing this a couple months and it makes my weekends so much less stressed.  I make the list, the kids know it has to be done before lunch, it is done and then we move on to whatever other activities we have going on.  Whereas, before, I would ask them to do small things throughout the day, they'd get frustrated, I'd get mad at their attitudes, etc.

Some of us have discussed this and asked me what the kids do - it is always different, but here was my list today:

Everyone - clean up breakfast including loading the diswasher, make beds (which we only do on Saturday) and pick up bedrooms in preparation of being vaccumed - I add this last part, because they know that means if you leave legos or barbie shoes on the floor and they go into the vacuum they are as good as gone, even though you can see them swirling around in the vacuum.

Mollee - Orange bathroom clean up - including wiping up toilet, sweeping floor, scrubbing the tub, disinfecting sink/toothbrush area, etc.  Sweep off front porch and front steps. Vacuum all bedrooms upstairs, the office and the living room.  Put laundry load from washer to dryer when ready.

Tavis - empty all garbage cans and replace garbage bags.  Clean off deck - throwing away trash, bringing books inside, sweeping off leaves, etc.  Pick up living room - removing all toys and putting pillows back where they go, cleaning up games such as Monopoly that have been started.  Bring clean clothes to Mommy's room when dryer is complete.

Daegan - Clean up den - putting blankets back in box, clean up craft corner, put shoes and jackets where they go.  Wipe up downstairs bathroom in preparation of Daddy steam cleaning the floor and toilet.  Clean off school table area - throwing away school papers not needed, returning books to proper place, getting lunchboxes to kitchen for Monday morning, etc.  Clean and organize bookshelf in den.  Clean and organize Xbox game shelf in den.

Capps - Dust living room.  Dust Piano downstairs.  Organize and collect all books that belong on boys bedroom shelf.  Sweep all hardwood.  Help Mommy put away laundry.

Mac - pick up all toys in office (which used to be Mac's bedroom and the closet is still full of toys that get spread everywhere - just to clarify I haven't been playing while in my office).  Get all toys out of kitchen and living room area and put where they belong.  Collect all laundry and bring to Mommy's room.  Help Mommy put away laundry.

Mommy - dishwasher, laundry, dust my bedroom and a hundred other things that don't get listed :)

Daddy - steam clean bathroom downstairs (I have fought the "smell of the boys bathroom" for many years.  Steam cleaning has been the only way to keep it smell free for a few weeks), fix phone situation (we haven't had a working home phone for a few weeks, long story). 

And that is it.  I love making lists, so making this list and having other people check off the jobs is so wonderfully fun!!

16 years!

Mollee's Cheering Section!

Church Picnic

I forgot to post anything about the church picnic.  I didn't have many photos, but I'm going to stick it here, so I remember to add more later.  Maybe?

Productive Week!

Sometimes it stinks when Jason is waiting for another job to start, but sometimes it makes for a lot of home projects to get done.  Of course, no pay, but work done. (picture me holding my hands out like scales tipping back and forth).  But it is awesome to have Jason home and getting to eat lunch with him everyday!!

So, it has been one of those weeks.  The productivity (all by Jason and our buddy, Shone):

• Yard work - grass cut, branches cut out of tree that needs to come down, and grass planted
• House painting completed (remember we started that 2 years ago?)
• Front porch rail painting almost completed (ran out of paint and it had to be special ordered because Jason is very particular about his oil paint)
• Major garage clean out - tons thrown away, many things listed as "free" on Facebook and retrieved, and room for the frig to be moved to the garage
• New frig (Pops and Mimi's old one) picked up and moved into the kitchen 

(side story about the new frig) - as you can see the freezer is on the bottom and the frig is on the top.  It is supposed to be easier because you don't have to bend over to reach things in the frig.  Unfortunately, the kids can't reach the drawer in the frig (where the cheese sticks hang out) and other things - trying to work out a new place for things.  But to have a frig in the garage will hopefully cut back on running to the story every day for two gallons of milk.

Next productive week for Jason - I hope to get my new china hutch fixed (glass broke in the move from Mima's house).  Jason is afraid of the expense because it has to be cut to fit the window (think ornate archway).  We have had two china hutches for way too long and I'd love to get my living/dining room area organized with only one hutch.

Also, I can't to get my office painted and the toddler bed put away.....

Thanks babe for all your hard work!  Just for that, I'm letting you have all day Saturday to play Xbox.  :)

Meet Eragon!

I innocently went to Wal-Mart this morning to get a few groceries.  Daegan went with me.  We came back with groceries and this:

Meet our new Betta Fish.  Daegan named him Eragon.

Can you guess what book series he is reading right now?

Haunted House

I've never been to a haunted house before, but Tavis got invited to go with a friend and his Dad tonight.  He said it was "awesome"!!  They got this picture as a souvenir.

Thanks Matt and Jacob!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Left this on Mom's table this morning,

before I knew she was spending her birthday in the ER with Grandpa J.

Thankfully, they sent him home saying it wasn't pneumonia, but he had a nasty virus.

I know it was a long day, but Happy Birthday, Mom!  Thanks for all you do!

Tuesday Folder Preview

Every Tuesday, the Elementary School kids are supposed to bring home all their work from the previous week.  For some, this is fun.  For others, this can be painful.  Yet, for one (oldest boy), not to name any names, this is the first week I've seen any of his.

I'll probably share more of Mac's later, but here are some samples:

This assignment was draw a picture about the book "Ping" and try to spell the title.  Love it!

This one was draw something with pumpkins - he chose to draw someone "karate-chopping pumpkins" (love the eyebrows).

Capps' class has been working on writing letters and writing journal entries.  Here is his journal entry about Fall Break.

The word that Mrs. Rulon circled and couldn't figure out was "terrorizers" - a favorite game around here!

I didn't quite know what to pick out of Daegan's pile to share, and I know this is hard to read since it was written in pencil, but I love the comment on the side - "Watch out for run on sentences".  That boy lives in a run on sentence!

 Tavis had drawings on ALL of his papers, thought I'd share this one!

Mollee doesn't bring home her papers anymore, but I do get to see some from time to time.  I also have access to all her grades (instantly) via the internet.  I will say that she was practicing her flute tonight and I was pleasantly surprised!

Mollee's Locker

Stopped by to put a note in her locker.

Wasn't as messy as I anticipated.

 

(Of course, most of her belongings are in her bookbag working on future chiropractor visits)

Buddy Walk 2012

Our annual October outing to the Buddy Walk.  This year it changed locations to accomadate the growing crowd.

 

Riding the trolley to the field

Waiting for cotton candy - we were the first in line and it took the guys some learning to figure it out.

Our shirts represented five different years!!!

They wanted everyone (and they were expecting 1,000?)



to get on the steps of the stadium for a picture. 

It was interesting chaos.

 

Apparently, Daegan needed to shoot some bad guys during the picture?

And the walk was fun, thru downtown!

There was also a rowing competition going on at the river, couldn't resist taking a picture of this when we passed it!

It was nice not to have to take a sippy cup or a diaper bag or extra underwear or a stroller this year - but it did end like this again:

Eating pizza in the stands

Balloon Release for Down Syndrome Awareness!

Fun, fun!!