Happy Halloween

So the kids headed back to school last Tuesday after a 4 day weekend that they really enjoyed.  Jackson came home with a fun reward-a ribbon for making the A honor roll for the first quarter.  Third grade is the first year they get letter grades so we were very happy for him.

Jackson also had a great talk with us the other night.  He approached Andrew and I and said he had decided he wanted to get baptized.  He had talked about it before and that he thought he would do it when he turned ten.  I guess he changed his mind and is ready to do it now.  We talked to him more about what baptism means and how important of a decision it is.  He was totally on board with all of it.  He even got a little teary-eyed when Andrew told him that maybe he should wait a bit.  Then Andrew felt bad-he just wanted to make sure he understood that it wasn't a decision to be taken lightly.  The next few weekends are kind of busy but we hope to find a weekend to do it soon. 

Wednesday morning didn't start out that well-a lot of whining on Ellie and Lincoln's part.  I had finally had enough and seriously told them that if it continued they would not be trick-or-treating the next day.  A little later, Lincoln started saying, "Mom, I am so happy.  Did you see my smile?  I am so happy."  I guess his attitude changed :-).  While Andrew was home for lunch I ran to Wal-Mart to pick up some donuts for Jackson's class and a few other things.  When I got home Miles had dumped the big box of blocks and was at one light switch at the kitchen while Bennett had the stool from the pantry at the other.  And one when turn off the light while the other turned it back on, back and forth, back and forth. 

Later that day I was working on the treats for Jackson's class for their Halloween party.  You can only bring store-bought treats so I just got the donuts and put the vampire teeth and candy eyes on them to make monster donuts (I think it was a Pinterest idea).  While I was working on them, Miles was playing with the phone, talking on it and I heard a voice on the line-he had called my mom.  They had a wonderful conversation-he did recognize her voice though :-).  We also had a little surprise that afternoon.  There was a knock at our door and as Lincoln opened it, Alex was running to his Gator and took off.  Lincoln told him hi but was confused why he left.  Then he noticed a piece of candy on the door step.  A little later Alex came back and told us he booed us-he just wasn't very sneaky :-).  That night we had small group and one of the sitters from Truman surprised Andrew and I with our medals from the Homecoming 5K (she works in the alumni office).  They finally emailed me back about the mix up and said they would fix everything and mail us our medals.  I guess Callie said she could just bring them to us.  So we had to get a picture with our first (maybe only) medals :-)

 

We finished up small group in time to catch most of the Cardinal's game.  It was a sad night though as they lost the World Series.  Everyone says we have a good chance next year though.

Thursday was Halloween and we had some excited kids.  I made some extra donuts for them to have for breakfast-might as well start the day off with extra sugar, right. 

 

I worked on getting the kids outfits ready during the morning.  It is kind of fun to see them all lined up.

The weather wasn't too great for Halloween since it rained all morning.  Lincoln had a little party at school, but it was earlier in the morning and they didn't have parents come help.  I helped out with Ellie's school party, so I dropped the twins and Lincoln off at my parents while I did that.  Ellie gave me a big hug when she saw me come into the room. 

 

When I picked up the other kids after the party, Miles had a cut above his eyebrow that was bleeding.  My mom said that when I left, I had probably just got down to the end of the street and both of the twins pooped and Miles fell down the stairs.  Sorry Mom.  It was a small gash but his eyelid and under his eye are a little black and blue right now.  We are sadly hoping for a small scar so that we have a easy way to tell the twins apart. 

So we headed home and put the twins down for a nap.  Lincoln and I worked on finishing up stuff for that night including repairing a pair of chaps he got for his birthday from Granny and Papa with some safety pins and ribbon-it wasn't the prettiest but it worked.  Jackson and Ellie had Little K after school so Andrew picked them up from there and we got the kids all ready to go. 

 

Our church was having a big Trunk of Treats but the kids didn't want to go (they actually had around 1800 people).  They wanted to do some real trick-or-treating and they wanted to do it at my parents' neighborhood.  So we headed over there, had some pizza and headed out.  It was kind of sad how many people had their lights off though.  It really frustrated my mom.  I wasn't sure if it was because the high school football team had a district game that night in Kirksville or if people were just being no fun.  We did meet up with the LaBeths while we were out.  We went around the block and Miles and Bennett just weren't very excited about it, so Andrew took them back a little early.  And Jackson was done after we went around the block, but Ellie and Lincoln wanted to go up to the next block so my dad said he would take them.  And Jackson actually seemed okay that he didn't end up with that much candy-I was okay with it too. 

Even though it was damp and cool and the neighborhood was 1/2 dark, I would still say it was a successful Halloween.  The kids had fun and we didn't have any major meltdowns.  But the next morning, the cold I had been trying to fight off by taking Zicam finally took over.  So I was kind of moving slow.  I did manage to go through the kids candy and throw away stuff I knew they wouldn't want and bag up a some of the other to put in the freezer for later.  Then I was talking to Kaitlin about Ellie's old coats for Lola and decided I would go through the next batch of Ellie's clothes for Lola too.  There were many other things I had planned on getting done that day but it was fun to look through her old clothes.  I told Kaitlin I would take out things that I thought she wouldn't like-out of style, stained, etc., but there really wasn't that much.  I thought it was all cute-little girls clothes are so sweet.  So Lola has a lot of clothes coming her way.  Hopefully the sizing works since they are both fall babies.

While I was working on that, Lincoln asked if the twins could come upstairs to their room.  We have a gate at the bottom of the stairs so the twins hardly ever get to go up there.  He was so excited to have them play up there and shared his toys with them.  It kept them all entertained for a while, especially since he let them each have a couple pieces of his Halloween candy-oops.  There were brown and red stains smeared across the white little kids table up there and the kids' faces.

 

Andrew and Jackson were out early Saturday morning for youth deer hunting.  I got my annual picture of them from the vantage point of my bed.  They look just as tired as me :-)

And later that morning Ellie left with my parents to head to St. Louis.  My parents gave some of the grandkids tickets to see Beauty and the Beast at The Fox.  The show was Saturday evening and they all stayed at Sara and Ryan's.  Ellie said she really liked the show and had a fun little trip to St. Louis.

So Lincoln and the twins were stuck with me for the day.  I had them play downstairs while I tried to run on the treadmill.  It wasn't a great run with my cold and I just ended up with a headache and short of breath.  The kids had fun destroying the play room though.  And Lincoln decided to be a fireman and slide down the "pole".

 



Then we went on a little adventure to Payless without a stroller to corral the twins.  I had to get shoes for Ellie for a wedding next weekend.  The boys actually did pretty well and spent a lot of time sitting on the benches, so it was a successful trip.  Andrew sent me pictures throughout the day of he and Jackson's adventures.  They didn't see much or get anything except for a hornets nest.  I guess they saw a big hornet's nest up in a tree and Andrew decided to get it down.  So he climbed up in the tree and almost had it out when he noticed some hornets come out of it.  He thought it had been cold enough that there woudn't be any in there.  Well I guess it distracted him enough that he fell out of the tree-yes he fell out of the tree.  He got the nest though and some injuries.  His ribs are hurting him quite a bit (he said he was hoping to help me put up our new basketball backboard-the one we have right now is coming apart and the company actually sent us a new one for free which is awesome-but he didn't thing he would be able to lift anything since it hurt so much).  So he came home and soaked in a bath for a bit. 

I did my grocery shopping after dinner since I wasn't sure if I would be able to go on Sunday.  Since I didn't have the kids with me and I didn't have anywhere else to be, I took my time and looked around at stuff for Christmas and Ellie's birthday party.  As I was finishing up Andrew actually called me to make sure I was okay since I usually try to make my trips quick. 

 

 

Andrew and Jackson headed back out Sunday morning for some hunting.  I was very grateful for the extra hour of sleep since I wasn't feeling that great.  The kids actually slept in too.  Andrew sent me a text during the morning of Jackson and his deer.  He just got a doe this year but Andrew said it was a great shot.  Even though hunting isn't my thing, I'm glad they get to spend this time together.  They both enjoy it and have a lot fun with each other-it is some great bonding time.  We'll see how it works with three more boys in the mix...and Ellie who says she wants to go during youth season next year.

 



The hunters got home in time for us to get to the second service at church.  Our church was celebrating it's 5 year anniversary for the Kirksville campus so the head pastor from Quincy was there.  After the service they had a lunch for some of the volunteers.  My parents got back to town about that time, so they dropped Ellie off at the church.  They had childcare for all the kids while the adults ate lunch and listened to some speakers.  Then they had some of the people there tell their stories of how the church has affected them-there were some very powerful stories.  I'm glad we were able to attend and celebrate.  And when we got home, Andrew headed to the office.  I put on Monsters' University for the kids hoping they would crash, but it didn't happen.  Jackson tried to work a bit on his first big project-a heritage project.  He had to find out the different countries his family came from and now he has to either dress up himself or a doll in clothing from that country.  He chose to do Cherokee Indian since his Granny has a little bit of it on her side.  He found a list of different items the Cherokee wore and then was looking for pictures of those items.  I didn't even really think about it until he said, "I'm not wearing one of those."  He was searching for loin cloths-oops.  That night I had made chicken and noodles in the crockpot.  I thought it was delicious but the kids weren't fans.  Andrew grilled up some deer steaks though from Jackson's deer and they all loved it, even Miles and Bennet, especially Bennett.  Andrew was a proud dad!

I almost forgot this picture-can't forget the pumpkins.