Halloween in Ypsi

We had a fun Halloween. The weather got into the mid-60s today, which was nice because it's been down in the 40s for most of the week. (I actually saw snow falling at one point.) I'm sure all of the kids appreciated not having to wear coats over their costumes, too.

We invited the Wests over for dinner and festivities. Joe called and suggested I order the pizza we were planning on getting well in advance, because it might be a busy night for pizza. It was a good thing I did, because the delivery guy got lost and even though the pizza place is only about 3 miles away, it took him close to an hour to get it here (that is, an hour to deliver it, not an hour from when I ordered it). But it was still good when we finally got it, so disaster averted.

After dinner, we suited up the boys.



We only took them to a handful of the neighbors, but they enjoyed it.


The temperature was still so nice that we decided to stay outside to hand out candy and let the boys play on the lawn. Our front lawn is covered in leaves at the moment, and they loved it. Simon even tried to help out with the raking.


And of course, Harvey dove right into the pile I made for them.



More pictures of our night can be found over here.

Ward Halloween Party

Wednesday was our ward's Halloween party. Unfortunately, the camera died right at the beginning so I didn't get many pictures. I'm happy to say Addie left her wings on the entire time (although I don't know happy she was about it) but absolutely refused to wear the headband or carry the matching wand I made for her. Several people asked me where I bought her costume and that made me so proud!
This is a picture of her and the other two little girls her age. We took a picture of them last year and it's amazing how old they have all become! She is still pretty young for any of the games or activities that went on at the party, but seemed to have fun wandering around trying to figure out why everyone looked so silly. We're planning on going trick or treating with our friends tonight, so we might have a new post up very soon!This last picture is of my running partner, Corrine, and her daughter Hailey. I put it up for all you Napolean Dynomite fans. They came as Deb and the Liger. Haha!

Harvey's Birthday

Harvey turned One Year Old on Saturday. Seems like this first year has just flown by. He amazes us every day with the new things he's learning. He picked up walking in basically a week, and now he's a pro. Although he's been mimicking words for awhile, he's starting to actually use them without prompting, like greeting someone with "hi", or saying "bye" when one of us goes out the door.

We bought a new camera last week, and I used it to good effect, taking about 150 pictures on Saturday. I whittled that down to the best of the best and uploaded them to our flickr account. Check out that link for the full set. Here are a few of the highlights.


Resting up for the big event


Spaghetti for dinner


Inevitable cake in the hair


Presents everywhere!


Happy Family

Brandee

For Family Home Evening tonight Jason and I wrote a short letter to our cousin Brandee who is having a hard time right now in basic training. We didn't know what to say, so we decided to write her a funny poem. Here it is, I wrote the lines in italics and Jason's are regular. Enjoy!

One night I looked up in the sky
And saw a pie in the sky
I said, "What? A rhubarb pie in the sky?!?!"
A man walked by and said, "You lie, Sky." (Sky's my name.)
It's kind of lame, Sky for a name
But that's what my parents named me: Sky
I saw the pie and fellow walking by, and started then to wonder why
Why, Why, oh Why?
Did I tell that guy a big, fat lie?
Then I realized I didn't; there really was a pie in the clouds.
The End.

camping in Shelby Forest

We went camping overnight on Friday (Jason finally took a tiny break from studying, hurrah!) and had a great time. We forgot the tarp for our borrowed tent, and our pillows, but stayed warm, had delicious food, and told plenty of funny stories. Addie got VERY VERY dirty from falling in the mud countless times, but she enjoyed herself. She actually slept really well in the tent, we were surprised. I had her bundled up in about four layers of clothes, plus 3 blankets, but her toes were still cold in the morning. I don't know how else her cold toes could have been prevented.

We tried something new this trip. I read online that you can use the peel of an orange to cook eggs right on the campfire. We actually didn't have a campfire because all the wood was soaked (probably the most disappointing part of the trip), but cooked them over the charcoal grill. I didn't have any oranges so we used grapefruit instead. They were DISGUSTING, please never make that mistake! The grapefruit taste permeated the entire egg and it was awful. Jason thinks an orange might be better, but I have my doubts. Anyhow, I thought you might find that interesting.

Waldina and the Door

Heather and I attended Hillary's Halloween party last Friday. Of course it was a costume party! That meant we had to come up with costumes, which I hadn't really planned on. So we headed out to a resale shop and a Salvation Army. Rummaging through the resale shop's costume section, we didn't really find anything that struck us. On the way out, Heather spotted a red and white striped, thigh length sweater and was inspired: Waldo! We tried to find a suitable hat, but didn't find one. I did find the perfect circular glasses, but she opted for the 60s style "cat glasses". (I think the rhinestones tipped scale.) So she named herself Waldina, and Waldo's girlfriend was born.

My costume took a bit more work. I didn't see anything at the resale shop or the Salvation Army that I was interested in. Then at work, an idea just hit me. I made the costume myself; built the frame out of PVC pipe, and wrapped it in polyester. I glued the fabric on with hot glue, which worked better than I expected, and was fun to use. A couple cheap felt sheets for the details, and some yellow spray paint.

This picture links to the flickr page where you can see the rest of the photos from the party. We had a great time playing Apples to Apples and snacking. I'm already gathering ideas for next year's costume.

Halloween Party and a New Trick

Yesterday the YMCA in town put on a Halloween Festival, and we went of course. This was the first of 4 parties that we will be going to for Halloween-HURRAY! We borrowed this lion costume from my friend Megan-we got really lucky, it is 0-6 months and it just barely fits Noah. I did buy make-up so I could put wiskers on his face, but didn't do it for this party...probably the next one. Isn't he adorable?

Eric and Noah having a great time!
The girl in pink is my friend Megan's daughter, Venna, and the girl next to her is my friend Kara's daughter Akayla-she was a mouse and I thought it was too cute.
And this is Kara's other daugher, Oakley, and of course, she was a horse..but it was funny when she crawled around because she really looked like one.
Venna wasn't wearing a costume, so she had her face painted like a cat.

Family picture with Frankenstein's monster.
This is our friend's daughter, Olivia...this is how we all felt by the end.

Below is a new trick of Noah's...it is fun now to turn up the music and watch him groove!

Washing Windows

Maybe you already know this, but I did it for the first time today, and it was great! I've always washed windows with Windex and paper towels and hated doing it. It took so long and there always were streaks left behind. Professional window washers use a squeegee, so I bought one and tried it this morning and it went so much faster. I bought some ammonia that comes with soap already in it, and added it to hot water. I used an old torn up sheet and washed the window with that solution instead of the Windex and then used the squeegee to take it off. It works great and the ammonia is a lot cheeper than the Windex, it's also cheeper because I used rags that I can wash and re use again. I also read that you shouldn't wash windows when it's sunny because the heat from the sun makes the cleaner dry too fast and cause streaks, so I waited for a cloudy day. I just thought I'd share my new discovery.

A trip to Priddy Farms

Kari requested, and I delivered- a new Halloween background for your viewing pleasure. I hope you like it!

Here are some cute pictures from our recent trip to the pumpkin patch. We had a great time traipsing through the mud, finding the perfect Addie-sized pumpkin. Adelyn did NOT enjoy the hayride, though, that's why she has a pumpkin up her shirt in one picture. We were trying to make her simply not cry for the family picture on the hay ride. Maybe next year.

This last one is just for fun. We discovered that Adelyn likes hummus. Ok, she doesn't only like it, she LOVES it! I think it's funny because I like hummus, but not many people do, so I'm proud to have a daughter with (my!) good taste. I'm curious now, which of you like hummus, too?

Trebuchet

Thanks Kurt, you former French students are always helpful when I need a word.

Picture tag

Here's our picture for picture tag; I can't wait to see what it is. As you can see, it is the house across the street. After I bought the digital camera I just started taking a bunch of pictures to get used to how it worked. This is one of them. What a fine truck that green one was! To bad it's now in the truck graveyard.

Pictures from the trip

Okay, I finally have a few minutes to post some pictures from our trip up north; hope they're as good as Mom said they would be. The pumpkins are the largest ones we saw there.

October Trip

I was waiting to tell about our trip so that Dad could post the pictures from his camera, but since he's back in school, he doesn't have much time, so I'll just do it. Last Friday he took the day off and we drove to Cadillac, Michigan. It was PERFECT weather, warm and sunny. The color on the trees up North was at it's peak and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We spent the night at a motel on Cadillac Lake and watched the sun come up over the lake. We took a couple of driving tours around Cadillac and then the next morning drove to Frankfort. (Kari and Jim may remember going through Frankfort when we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes.) Anyway, they had a fall festival there on Saturday. We watched the parade and walked around the different food booths. They had a pumpkin weighing contest and later in the afternoon were going to use two catapults (I can't spell the French word, but I'm sure you all know what they're called), to have a pumpkin throwing contest. We didn't stay around for that, although it would've been something to see, I'm sure. The parade was interesting, they didn't have floats, per se, but they did have a "mutt march". People dressed their dogs up in costumes (some people dressed up like the dogs) and walked in the parade. There was also everyone who was running for office walking and shaking hands. Then at the end of the parade was the Clown Band. This is a bunch of men mostly over 50 and up who are from Scottville, MI who get together every February and practice and then spend the summer going around the state performing in clown costumes. They have their own big bus that they travel in and they're pretty good, they gave a concert after the parade. We had a great time and even had a missionary moment. I'll get Dad to post a couple of the pictures so you can feel like you were there. He'll do it later though, you'll have to wait.

Addie's Halloween costume

I made Addie her costume this year. She is supposed to be a fairy, although she isn't wearing her wings in these pictures. I love it! I think it so puffy and frilly and pretty, I am quite proud of myself! I especially love the long ribbons down the back.

update from the Hairs

I came on here to post and was pleased to see so many new posts from the rest of you!

Jason and I finally discussed when we would come out for Christmas, and since Heather and Kurt wanted to know so they could plan, here are our plans. We will drive up Monday, the 22nd, which will take all day. We will stay until the morning of Wednesday, the 31st, and then drive down to Columbus, Ohio to spend New Years with Jason's brother. Then we'll be home on January 2nd. We'll be in Michigan for a little over a week (if that's ok with Mom and Dad).

I had an appointment today to see how far along my pregnancy is and to confirm the pregnancy for insurance/Medicaid purposes. I am 6 weeks and 1 day, putting my due date tentatively at June 7th. There is some bad news for me, however. I told the nurse I've been training for the half marathon and she said that was great and that I should keep it up...whew! Well, once they gave me the ultrasound she saw that I have a subchorionic hematoma, basically a sac of blood that is attached to the gestational sac. She said it's nothing to worry too much about, but that I should refrain from all high-impact activities so as not to "puncture" or "disturb" the blood sac. If it ruptures there is a greater chance of miscarriage. She said once I see my doctor they may advise differently, but until then, I CAN'T RUN. Grrr. I went 7.4 miles on Saturday and was so proud, so for now that will have to do. I will keep walking, though, I won't give up completely!

Jason's worried about the hematoma, so we're thinking I might go see a doctor before Medicaid gets approved (it could take up to 45 days!) so I'll keep you updated.

Thanksgiving!!!

I counted today, and there are only 37 days until we leave to drive to Michigan for Thanksgiving...that's only a little over 5 weeks!!! And then only 3 weeks after that until we come back for Christmas!!! Holy cow!
We are soo excited, it's going to be so fun to see all of you that live in Michigan and to have Noah "play" with his cousins-at least he can move around now. Eric is hoping, Dad, that we have lasagna for dinner on Thanksgiving (he really likes that our family does non-traditional things), and I am hoping to help, Mom, make an apple pie completely from scratch...well as much from scratch as we can do. Are there any outings that we want to plan on doing as a family? What are fun things to do in Michigan? I have completely forgotten! We will be there for a week and a half, so there will be plenty of time to do things. Mom, we were thinking of leaving at night on the 18th and just driving while Noah sleeps-but that means that when we get there, he'll be wide awake and we'll need to sleep, would that be okay? Would you mind hanging out with him while we slept? Like I said, it's just an idea.
AWESOME! (Think: Jimmy, Beauty and the Beast) This is going to be good.

Charlie's job

Charlie starts teaching this Thursday. He went today to shadow the teacher he is taking over for. She is going to be the math intervention person for K-6 in the district once Charlie takes over. He wants to see how she runs her classes and get the book(s) so he can start preparing. He is going to try to keep the classes structured as close to what she does as possible since the kids are already so far into the school year. He might be able to change to more of his own style after the semester changes, if he gets new classes then. We still aren't very sure how it will work out quite yet.

I will be sending the paper work to our realtor this morning so she can turn in our offer on the house I mentioned earlier. We want to get the ball rolling and see how willing the bank is to work with us. I'll keep you posted.

We had a surprise party for one of my good friends at our house on Friday night. She had no idea until she walked up to our house and saw the balloons we'd hung for decorations through the front window. Charlie had wanted to hang something over the window so she wouldn't see them, but we didn't. Now I wish we would've. It was a fun party. Not many people came, but it was probably better that way. I love planning things like parties. I haven't given a surprise party since my senior year in high school. It was fun planning it and trying to keep it a secret.

For those of you who remember my friend Amy, from high school, I'm happy to report that she got married on Saturday. She is that last of my friends from high school to tie the knot. I'm so happy she finally was able to. She's been with her, now, husband for about 8 years now. It's about time they finally made it official. She was beautiful and the wedding was nice. They had the same song sung at their wedding as what Jana sang at Kurt's, Ave Maria (I think). It was a fun reminder of Jana's rendition. Most of my friends made it to the reception. It was fun to catch up with them. Carolyn is expecting her first baby on the 24th of this month. She's having a boy but won't tell anyone what the name they've picked out is yet. I'm happy for her. Her baby might share Harvey's birthday.

We had a full weekend, and it's not going to get any better for the rest of this month. We're holding on to the seat of our pants and hoping to make it through.

Tag Game

So we have lots of folders of pictures in our My Pictures. So I went to the 7th folder and picked the first picture in the folder. This was that. Then I thought I should to the 7th picture in that folder. Then I thought that I should do the 7th single picture in our My Pictures. So here they all are.

This is a picture of Makayla in the giant bubble exhibit at the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum. This was the trip that we took when Kari and Eric came out in August last year. Heather and Kurt are in the back ground.

This is Jaxson at the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum at that same trip. He is playing a giant pipe organ instrument exhibit.

This is a picture Heather sent us of Harvey. Isn't he cute?!?!? Look at that great blanket of Mom's.

What a fun idea to get us all to post. We should do it again.

Tag - you're it!

This is a picture of Kurt and I the Christmas of 2006 at my Grandma Mather's house. I am holding up a sticky note pad from Disney in the shape of Cinderella's glass slipper. My hair is also au natural. I miss not having to dye it. Kurt is sporting his winter's beard.

Our tag contribution

I broke the rules a little bit...the pictures in Eric's My Picture files weren't of us-they were ones I got off the internet...so I went to an EFY file and took the 7th picture. Isn't he handsome? Dancing and breakin' it down and stuff. This was our last session of EFY. And the weird part is, I made that sign. It's crazy how things turn out.

picture tag for the whole family!

We've been in a posting lull lately, so, to remedy this crisis, I urge you all to participate in a picture tag! Go into your My Pictures file and post on here your 7th picture, whatever it may be. My friend had me do this on our blog and I thought it was fun. Hop to it, your 7th picture! Here is ours, these were gingerbread houses we made a few years ago at Jason's parent's house.

Charlie has a job!

Charlie finally has a job. He'll be working at Beecher High school in Flint. We aren't sure when he will acutally start because he has to be officially hired by the school board, but the school offered the job and he accepted. The school board is more of a formality-type thing, but until that is taken care of he can't actually start working. We are excited for him to have a job, but not very excited about the school that he'll be working for. It's a pretty rough, inner city school, with some rough and tough students. It's also going to be for 7th and 8th grade math. Charlie doesn't really like middle school either, but he thinks he has a good chance of getting into the high school next year. They have a pretty high turn over rate for teachers because the school is so rough. I will for sure get him some pepper spray to carry and I joke that I might have to get him a tazer gun as well. I know the Lord will watch over him though. Now we can move on to buying a house. We have one picked out. Now we just have to get a mortgage for it which might be trickier said than done with the way the market is now.

the cat is out of the bag

I found out two days ago that I AM PREGNANT. Whoa. Jason and I decided to leave the birth control behind at the end of August and, apparently, it didn't take much time for this little one to come along. We had decided not to really try and if we weren't pregnant by January than to worry about it. It (obviously!) didn't take that long. I'm guessing I'm only about 3 weeks along, so it's all very very new (and probably a bit too early to really be telling people, oh well).

I've been feeling fine--tired, a bit crampy, and often lightheaded when I stand up--but besides those minor things, just fine. I don't anticipate much difficulty, pregnancy with Addie was a breeze compared to what other women deal with.

I still plan on training for and running the half marathon in December, I just hope this doesn't make it more difficult. They say you can keep going as long as you were exercising before, so I don't anticipate any problems. Hopefully this will help me keep my weight in control throughout the pregnancy. Oh, and I'm NOT looking forward to finding a doctor, etc. Ugh. I hate making phone calls and scheduling appointments.

The best part, you ask? We're not going to find out the sex of the baby! With Addie I didn't want to find out and Jason did, so we flipped a coin, I lost, and we found out we were having a girl. This time, to be fair, we're not going to find out and I am really excited about the surprise!