Rachel's 9th Birthday

Rachel turned 9 on November 24th.  There was no school for Thanksgiving break which she thought was the greatest present ever!  She wanted breakfast in bed so her dad made her chocolate chip pancakes..... and she didn't like them!  WHAT?!  Tye thought they were great, though. :)  So he whipped her up some plain old pancakes and she was happy.  She has been wanting a new bike so that's what she got, along with a new helmet (in hopes that she'll actually wear it!).  I let her invite just a few friends to go see Disney's new movie Tangled.  She had a huge list of everyone she wanted to invite, but I had to draw the line somewhere!  I typically only do birthday parties every few years so this was a bonus for her anyway.  It was fun to listen to the girls giggle and hear the silly things they talk about.  Her Grandpa and Nana Bishop came over for cake and ice cream later that evening.  (Grandpa and Grandma Swensen were in Idaho.)  Rachel is such a joy to have in our family.  She is a sweet, kind and caring girl.  Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Slide Show

For those of you who would like to see the slide show I made for Nate's party, here it is.... (No judging.  It was my very first slideshow/video creation.)

Birthday Surprise

I threw Nate a surprise party on his birthday, November 18th.  I can't believe I pulled it off!!  There were times I thought he would totally figure it out.  Like when he found a file on the computer with pictures of him from when he was a baby until now.... I was making a video slide show for the party.  Luckily he didn't think twice about it, but I had to fib my way through a few other things, too.  My stress levels were maxed out!  It's normal for Nate's parents to take us out to dinner for our birthdays so I arranged with them to make it happen so we could get him out of the house.  We ate, but got done a little sooner than I had hoped.  I had a plan, though. I had something I needed to return to a store and it was in the area so I did that to kill a little more time.  We got back to our house a little after 7:00 p.m.. We invited Nate's parents over for birthday pumpkin pie (at least that's what Nate thought).  They were waiting for us in front of our house in their car.  We all walked through the garage door into the kitchen and SURPRISE!!  It was great.  He had no idea and I know it made his day, if not year!  He was all smiles and so was I.  I really felt like this birthday needed to be extra special.  The fact that he didn't lose his life in the motorcycle accident was reason enough to celebrate big!!  I wish I could have invited EVERYONE, but between mine and Nate's immediate families and some of his close friends my house was full.  We missed those who couldn't make it and thank those who made a special effort to be there.   It turned out to be a really great night!  {Thanks Jess for taking all the pictures.}

 SURPRISE!!

That's a look of "Are you kidding me?  I got wasted." (Nate's words)

Nate said he saw the punch bowl as he walked in, but didn't have time to process the thought because everyone yelled "Surprise!!"  It was perfect.  Yay!

Below:  I'm reading all the nice things everyone had to say about Nate.

He says I tried to make him cry, but didn't succeed...... does this picture prove otherwise???  He says he wasn't.... hmmm.

 

 (This picture was completely dark so this is the best I could do to see what was captured.)

See..... there was a pumpkin pie waiting at home for us. :)

Happy 32nd Birthday, Nate!  I love you!

Is it PDA if it's done in your own home.... in the presence of 40 people?! ;)  Yes, I know.  It isn't the prettiest kiss..... we're working on that.  Ha!

Go Ahead and Feel Sorry for Me....

Really!  You can.  I do. ;)

Here is just a little bit of what Haley does while I am distracted.  {*Sigh*..... or more like *groan*.}

A little desitin (on Eliza's head), a few tums, band-aids.  Where was I???

Don't be confused.  That dirt isn't just sitting lightly on top of the carpet.  She somehow mashed it in really deep, but luckily it all vacuumed out.  It just took a while!

Found ALL these (more than once) inside the piano.  Like INSIDE inside the piano.

This was an accident, but of course it would be Haley who did it.  Ugh!  It wasn't even ours.  Don't worry it was replaced with a spankin' new one.


Okay, these next ones are awesome.  And what I mean by "awesome" is "really NOT awesome".

Why?  WHY???  What could she possibly be needing to clean so badly?

I guess the plus to this is I discovered our tile is not quite level. I've been wanting to replace it.  Now I have a good excuse..... un-level floors are so last week, right?!  Ha! 

There was at least half an inch of water in the drawer.  The two beneath had a little less.  It has taken a week for the wood to un-swell.  We can shut the drawers with ease now.

This is not the first time she's cut her circulation off with hair elastics, but I hope it's the last.

I give her credit for putting it on the plate and not all over the carpet or something.

And to end on a sweeter note, she wanted her drink to "arrive alive" while she rode in Tye's booster.

Halloween Festivities

To kick off our Halloween fun we went to our ward fall carnival October 22nd.  The kids had so much fun.  Rachel missed it because she had a birthday party to go to and Nate was on a "business" fishing trip.  He had signed up for the chili cook off so I had to make his chili.  After two runs to the grocery store, I finally got it done.  I dropped it off a half hour early, but didn't see anyone in charge so just left it on the table.  By the time I got all the kids ready and Rachel to her party we were 20 minutes late to the fall carnival.  Everyone had their seats and were in line getting yummy chilies and soups.  I had my hands full with a stroller and trying to carry hot bowls of soup for Haley and Tye..... forget about me.  I didn't even get a chance to get myself anything.  Good thing my kids didn't eat well so I could have their leftovers. :)  All the tables were full so my nice neighbors squeezed us onto theirs.  {Thank you Nettesheims!}  The best part was my chili didn't even get touched.  Not one person had any.  It didn't get entered into the contest because I wasn't there to tell anyone.  Ha, ha!  It was one of those days that you can't really wait to climb into bed and hope for a better tomorrow.... and dream about crock pots of chili!!  No really, it was a fun evening and we have lots of chili in the freezer for a rainy day. :)

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We had a family party at my parents house October 23rd.  The kids dress up.... the adults not so much.  We used to, but no one really does anymore.  A few showed up in wigs or something simple over their clothes.  I guess we're just a boring bunch.  We had yummy soups and the kids played games, trick-or-treated from room to room and watched The Adventures of Icabod and Mr. Toad - minus Mr. Toad. We skipped right to the headless horseman part.  I don't even know who Mr. Toad is.  Apparently when I was a kid we always skipped to that part too.

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Nate helped the kids put a foam pirate ship together a week before Halloween.  It was a little more time consuming than I thought it would be when I bought it.  One hour and 20 minutes to exact.  They had a good time.  (Haley changed into her swimming suit halfway through... don't ask, cause I don't know!  She's just been putting it on out of the blue lately.)

Eliza hung out under the table for awhile.  Probably trying to eat little foam pieces that would fall to the floor.  She was pretty fussy that night and kept wrinkling her nose.  I caught a few on camera....  

 

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We had more yummy soups and carved pumpkins for  f.h.e. at Nate's parents house October 25th.  Nate's dad grows enough pumpkins for all the grand kids.  Nate was out of town {surprise, surprise ;)} so ThAnKs to all who helped me gut, trace, and carve 4 pumpkins (labeled below along with all the cousins' pumpkins).  Always a fun night!  (Minus the gutting.  I hate gutting pumpkins!)

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The kids had their annual Halloween parade at school October 29th.  Kaden hardly looked at us and all I ended up with was a picture of the back of his head.

Tye smiled at us as he approached.

Then hurried on his way.

Rachel did about the same as Tye.

Zoom!  And they're gone!

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Finally Halloween..... sorta.  Since October 31st was on a Sunday, the 30th had to jump in and take one for the team.  BUT it was cold and rainy so we ended up doing the trick-or-treating in 4 phases.   {Phase 1} I took the kids out with 3 umbrellas and we made it to 5 houses before we came back home.  About a half hour later it mostly stopped raining {Phase 2} so we went out again, but this time with coats on top instead of jackets underneath the costumes.  We made it through 10 or so houses then back to the house.  {Phase 3} Nate then took Rachel, Kaden and Tye out for a bit, then {Phase 4} I took Rachel and Kaden to a few more houses around the ward.  They got plenty of candy and said they had a fun Halloween.  That's all you can wish for, right?

 

 Kaden- Darth Vader | Tye- Iron Man

Rachel- southern belle | Haley- witch | Eliza- lamb

 

Let It Snow!

October 27th we woke up to about 4 inches of snow so naturally we played in it!  It melted fast, but Tye, Haley and their friends had a great time.  Poor Rachel and Kaden had to go to school.  They didn't think that was very fair, but whose life is???  Around these parts snow doesn't cancel anything!