This is Halloween

FREE CANDY! What could be better? The day finally came and it came too early. Samantha had to be to school an hour and 15 minutes earlier than usually. Mornings are not our thing so this was a huge task. When I woke her up she said, "I have to go to school at night?". Halloween was also my first room mother school party. I have been nervous about this event since this is our first child in school. It went really well and all the kids were great! We had some games, a craft, stories and a parade. I think Sam liked seeing me at school because she kept saying hey mom! She did look cute dressed up as a clown however, next year we will pick a costume without a wig....it itches!

Dave still wasn't feeling well so he spent the morning at the doctor. Where in my over exagerated opinion he had he middle section of his finger removed. So the pain from the removal combined with his lingering inless made him sicker than I have seen him in our eight years of marriage.

Sam's school over, Dave's finger on the mend, now off to Will's school! Samantha and I joined Will at his school. Before trick-or-treating this was the highlight of Samantha's day because instead of an hour party he had a 3 hour party! Will was so cute to take her hand and show her where to sit and get her snacks. I was so proud of them. His teacher said "They get along so well..that must be so fun." I wish they got along so well all the time! We played outside, danced, ate, painted, went to the library for a story, had a parade and sang. No wonder he is so tired when we comes home from school. He looked so handsome as police officer Will.

You would think that would be enough excitment for one day. Yet the best was yet to come the free candy! The kids kept asking when they could go trick or treating since I told them it was after their schools. They were pretty restless but who can blame them. When we couldn't contain them anymore and off we went trick-or-treating. They were running at first, then it went to walking, next Will gave me his bucket to carry, after that Sam kept wanting to take her wig off, soon they started in on I'm thirsty's and then we were home. Through the whole event Ben sat cute as ever in the stroller and hardly made a sound. He can be such a good baby sometimes! The end results...way too much candy but lots of fun!

After we got home Sam sat on the porch and called Trick or treat to all passers by and handed out the candy. She was cracking me up as I listened to her from inside. She would say things like your costume looks great, you guys have a great Halloween, and be safe. Our neighbor was teasing her and kept coming to get candy from her. She came in the house and got a magnadoodle at one point and I thought she was just getting something to play with. I then noticed she had written "NO CORY" (the neighbor's name) on it and placed it in the window!

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays but pumpkin carving is my least favorite part of Halloween. Those of you who know me will know why.....it is way to messy. However, once you have children you just have to take a lot of Prozac and go at it.

Dave is the master pumpkin carver in our family but he was sick on this day so he wasn't feeling the pumpkin carving love!

Samantha and Will had chosen how they wanted their pumpkins carved on the computer earlier in the week. Samantha wanted a scary pumpkin and Will wanted Thomas the tank.

Samantha did great. Dave helped her get some of the seeds out and taped her pattern on and off she went. She did such a great job. I was very impressed. Yet another talent that comes from her Dad!

Will took some seeds out of his. I taped the pattern on and off I went. Will kept saying "Mom, I do it. I strong." I kept saying "Just a minute Will". In the end. I carved Thomas the tank and Will watched.

After the kids were hosed off and asleep for the night my wonderful husband very politely set me straight in my over parenting of Will. Thus, the next morning while Sam was at school Will carved Ben's pumpkin all by himself. He was so proud of himself and I was disappointed that I had taken that opportunity away from him. Thanks Dave for pointing out how we can help our children gain self confidence.

The pumpkins all looked great and Samantha even made a point to carve one for Bob the pet fish. We were just missing one from Dave. Last year he did a barfing pumpkin and the kids loved it. This year he didn't even feel well enough to make sick pumpkin.

I am thankful for my family

I was reminded once again how quickly life can change and how I need to take every opportunity to appreciate my husband, kids.and other family members. My cousin was in a car accident that resulted in the loss of her child and injured herself and most of her other children. Thus my kids have gotten away with a lot the last couple of days.

I was cleaning up the bag of potato chips Ben dumped on our floor and kept hearing a horn honk. I was asking myself who keeps honking their horn. It was my Ben honking our horn with the car keys and probably irritating all the neighbors. He also managed to push and empty box over to the kids desk crawl onto the box then onto the chair and then stood on top on the desk and scream for someone to get him down!

I asked Samantha and William to take somethings up to their rooms. Samantha walked by me and said "I look like the dump". Today as we were walking in the house after putting Will on the bus and she said "I am so proud of that big boy for riding the bus and not being scared". Samantha also let us know that she is not popular. I asked her what popular meant and she said when you have a butler. Poor kid I don't think she will ever be popular.

Today was my first day volunteering in Samantha's classroom. It went well except for when I heard Sam tell some boy wearing a BYU T-shirt that her Dad says you shouldn't like BYU!

I was also lucky enough to receive a exclusive Samantha McLay updo. She said I look fabulous like I just got my hair done in Mexico. First of all she has never been to Mexico so how would she know what you look like when you get your hair done in Mexico and second I have had my hair done in Mexico and it took half as long, hurt half and much and I wasn't embarrassed for people to see me!

Ben is the star of the show for Samantha and William, most of the time. They are both so protective of him and being the youngest myself, I know he will never grow out of this. Samantha and William turned an empty box into a bus for Benjamin and they pulled him from bus stop to bus stop all morning. They drew a stirring wheel and windows on the sides then gave him a drink and dumped some food in it for him. He was pretty content to play their little game for awhile!
We haven't had good luck with pictures the past couple of months. Samantha had her school pictures taken and when they came back she looked like she was going to do some serious bodily harm to someone. Two days before retakes she cut he forehead. On the morning of retakes I tried to put makeup (yes I do own some) on the cut. It started to bleed and I couldn't get it to stop. I resulted to paying them to airbrush the cut! We are going to have family pictures taken and Samantha took it upon herself to stamp her and the boys with a blue stamp all over! While I was scrubbing it off Will Ben opened the screen door and escaped into the backyard and would scream if you went near him to bring him in. The neighbors were probably looking out their windows to see if they needed to call child protective services.

Will cracks us up with his singing in the car. He tells you what song to stop on and then tries to sing along. It is pretty entertaining. Dave says it is pretty sad when at 4 he sings better than his mom! We think that Will might be the only child that asks to go to sleep. This starts around 7, earlier on school days, and makes the last hour and a half of his day really long for his parents. You have to keep him distracted or he will whine for sleep! A kid after my own heart!

Here We Go Again

I might just have on mommy goggles but, I don't remember Sam and Will being into everything like Ben is. You can't turn your back on this cute little butterball for one minute. Today with in an hour he had emptied a cupboard filled with papers, a container of Lego's and put bubble bath in the toilet. In between hitting Will with any object he could find. I fear for the terrible twos. When he was in the womb I called him Lucifer because of all the problems he was causing me...I am beginning to think I had divine intuition!

Ben started to crawl down the stairs this week which just gives him more skills in getting away from me. He also started standing on his own and pushing a push toy around the room. He walks with the toy to his destination then stands on the toy as if it was a stool and yells until you help him get down. I don't know how our ears are going to survive two LOUD boys!
Samantha just had a break from school last week and I was thinking it was good because she kept asking when she was going back to school. I thought maybe she would get over her not wanting to go to school. I was wrong. Her first day back was Tuesday and Monday night she got out of bed, came down stairs, and told Dave and I that she stayed up too late at the Halloween party and couldn't make it to school the next day. I have resorted to telling her that if she doesn't go to school her Mom and Dad get put in jail. If anyone wants to donate to her future counseling fund feel free!


Samantha always wants to have friends over after school. I think she would invite her whole class home with her if she could. This evening I asked her to return some things I had borrowed to a neighbor when she returned she informed me that she had invited them over for dinner!

Samantha also wants to ride her bike every night after dinner which has been hard to do since school started and we have to get her in bed early. Tonight she helped with the dishes so there would be time for her to go outside. She did a great job and I loved her excitement over washing dishes. I hope it lasts! She also cleaned her room and bathroom today! She put Pledge on every surface she could find. If you go in her room anytime soon be careful it is really slippery!

Will has also been out of school and did not want to go back. He doesn't have excuses he just says "I don't want to go!" During the summer we took Wills training wheels off of his bike and he did great for a couple of months. Then he crashed, I made him get up and ride again so he wouldn't be scared, which he did but the next day it was a no go. I go tired of him not riding his bike so I put them back on and we lifted them up so they don't touch the ground....don't tell him! In the picture below he wants everyone to see how tricky he is with his leg on top of the castle!Will is into saying the days of the week in his conversations and it cracks me up! He will say "Mom...on Saturday we go to Grandmas and get a treat and on Tuesday Abbey sleep over." He played at his friends house this week and when I went to get him he said just three, four, five minutes. I am so proud of him for using so many words!

Harmer Halloween

We had the annual Harmer cousin Halloween party. The kids were so excited. I told them we would leave for the party after lunch and after Ben's nap. Ben didn't cooperate very well and took an early nap so that left a long time for the kids to ask "Mom Ben is awake when can we go"!

It was a good "test run" for the Halloween costumes. Samantha chose to be a clown this year so I got to practice my make-up skills. Does anyone know a professional make-up artist who will make an early morning house call on Halloween? I am afraid if I send her to school with my make-up skills she might get made fun of! Good thing her Dad has big muscles! She did look cute with her face painted, costume, wig and shoes on!


Will chose to be a police officer although, at times he wants to be Spiderman which is last years costume. He looks so cute in his police uniform and hat. One of our greater costume finds!


I decided that until you can tell us what you want to be for Halloween you get the costume left overs so Ben is a frog! He also looks so cute in his frog costume. It doesn't even bug him so he just crawls all over dressed up too bad he can't say ribbit.

Samantha and William each won at Bingo and picked a bag of candy. I love it when they have sugar overload on our 30 minute drive home. Samantha loves her cousins but tonight she was in love with Tyler. She talked about how cool Ty is all the way home. Our kids are so lucky to have so many older cousins that are so nice to them and let them join in all their fun! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the party.

The Blog Return

Our video card went out on our computer and for the first time in eight years of marriage I really missed the computer. Another one of my wonderful husbands great qualities is his computer skills because of which I get to blog again!! I think things like this happen so that I am reminded of the great man Dave is because I take him for granted often. Thanks babe for fixing the computer!

Needless to say a few events have passed since my last entry. I had a girls night out with my friends from high school which was so fun. We made a promise on our senior trip in Mazatlan that we would get together often as our lives went on. That didn't happen but, we are going to be better about it. Mindi brought pictures and we loved to be reminded of our outstanding fashion and crazy adventures. I also went to lunch with my parents, sister-in-law and sisters, except Lisa, for Heidi's birthday! It is hard to get everyone together because my sisters are all really busy but, it is fun to see them for 30 minutes! It is also great to spend time with my parents! I still don't know how they raised 6 kids. I struggle with my 3.

We did some fun things as a family this past weekend. Sara and Abbey came to visit, which we love, and we went swimming and had our annual trip to pumpkin land. It was fun to go swimming since we haven't been since early September. Samantha was her fishy self and had bright red eyes 30 minutes into the adventure. She doesn't like goggles and obviously doesn't like to shut her eyes under water as well. Will is getting a little more daring in the water but still likes to stay where he can touch. He made me so happy when he told Dave he had to go potty while we were swimming. Ben was not feeling well so he wasn't his crazy self. He still had us laughing a couple of times and made a couple of girlfriends with the lifeguards.

Each year we go to pumpkin land to get our pumpkins. This year it wasn't as fun for the kids as it has been in the past so it might be the last year. We did have fun though. We went through the corn maze and found the secret word. Then Dave wanted to sell the secret word to people as they entered the maze. We made it through the chickens and bunnies without getting bit except Dave he got bit on purpose. The kids loved the jump house and I was glad Abbey was there so she could climb up and help Will do the last part of the climbing wall. The kids also loved the pumpkin slide and the playground. Dave suggested Will slide under his legs as he went down one of the slides and Will looked like he got shot out of the cannon and landed right on his bum a few feet away from the slide. Then it was through the lighted alley which has Christmas lights, Thanksgiving lights and Halloween lights, Dave and I think they are stretching it, and off to pick the pumpkins. I told the kids they could only pick one they could carry. They needed a little help understanding that they needed one that they would sit up right and we could carve a face on, but overall they did great! Since then Will has asked if he can cut his pumpkin several times. I am afraid if I turn my back on him he is going to cut his pumpkin himself.

A few things that stand out in my mind from the weekend are Samantha saying "oh great there are spanish people in there" as we approached Baskin Robbins. Will saying sit because it sounds lke sh**! I admit that we do ask him to say it often becasue it is so funny. Ben trying to help fold laundry but instead dipping Will's underwear in the toilet. I love my cute family!

Go Will!

I am married to an amazing man who has so many great qualities. One of which is being a great Dad. He has taken Samantha on Daddy dates ever since she was 4. They are the highlight of her month and asks almost everyday if it is time for her to go. Since Will just turned 4 and is potty trained he got to go on his first Daddy date. He was so excited and had the evening planned. He wanted to go bowling, to the jump place and get a hamburger without cheese. The date usually consists of one activity and dinner so he choose the jump place. When he came home he was crying because he did not want it to be over and wanted to go again the next day. He was so proud of himself for doing flips!Will also earned his skateboard by doing so good on going potty. He was excited to pick it out. He choose a Spiderman one and has being playing with it all morning. He told me he was going to learn to do flips on it. I think he has being playing a little to much Tony Hawk on his DS. Now Ben wants one and is always right by the kids as they "practice" their tricks. Ben is the one who is going to end up with stitches because he won't stay away from the flying skateboards.I said earlier that Samantha had a count down to her school field trip. Well, that ended as soon as I told her I was not going. I do a lot in Samantha's classroom and figured that I would let other moms have a turn so I don't appear to be an overbearing mother. Anyway, in her 3 years of school I have gone on every field trip with her and she never hangs on me so I figured she would do fine. After she found out I wasn't going neither was she. I finally talked her into going because one of her friends mom who she knew was going. But she cried all night because she was so scared to go. I talked her into it again this morning and she wasn't very happy about it but she is there right now and I haven't had a phone call to come get her!