You should always be prepared!

I found out on Sunday that you should ALWAYS be prepared, and it doesn't hurt to follow the promptings of the spirit either. ;-)

I'm the Education counselor in Relief Society, which means that I'm over the teachers and music. I know I should ALWAYS read the lessons ahead of time and really try to remember. I skimmed over it on Sat. night, but nothing in depth. During sacrament the teacher for that day was released and called to Primary. I got nervous and asked her after sacrament if she was still teaching. She looked at me wide-eyed and surprised and said, "No, I was released." Apparently, the bishopric member who released her told her not to worry about teaching yesterday. That would have been fine if he had told me or the RS president so that we could have gotten a substitute!!! Great! Guess who gets to cover things like that? Yep, it's me!!! So, off to my car during Sunday School for a quick lesson preparation before RS. Fortunately it was a lesson from the Joseph Smith manual where there are study/teaching questions at the end of each lesson.

The lesson went fine and everyone was sooo good to participate. I am soooooo glad that it is over! Now I know that if I have any question about the lesson, I'm going to call the teacher and double check things. Also, if the spirit is nagging at me to read the lesson, I ought to read it more thoroughly and definitely call the teacher!

It's also my turn to teach Dec. 7, so unfortunately for the sisters, they get me again in just a couple of weeks. Oh well. Hopefully it will be another 3 months before I have to teach again!

I knew we had too much Halloween candy!

I knew all that Halloween candy would rot the kids' teeth. ;-)

Tonight Jacob finally lost his first tooth. My kids got their teeth late, they grew in extremely slowly, and they lose them late. It's hard being the only one of your friends who hasn't lost a tooth yet. His tooth has been pretty loose for a while. (In fact all of his front teeth are loose. I feel a certain Christmas song being sung a lot in our future.) Travis worked on his tooth last night, but it just wouldn't quite come out. Tonight Travis pulled and almost got it. He told Jacob to work on it just a little more and Jacob pulled it right out. He was sooooo excited. He wants to show his tooth to his best friend Kyle tomorrow, so we're waiting to put it under his pillow. I love how you can see the excitement in his eyes.

Way to go Jacob!

Which Twilight Female Are You?

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

I took the short little quiz and found out I'm most like Esme. I really like Esme and I guess since she's the mom, that's pretty much me.

Who are you most like?

Maddy's Special Day

Last month Maddy got to have her "Special Day" with Daddy. He took her to High School Musical on Ice. Maddy loves all things theatrical. When she watched HS Musical 1, I asked her, "Do you think high school is really like this?" (referring to all the singing). She chuckled and said, "No, but I WISH it was!!!" She was amazed at how they changed the scenery so smoothly and how they shined pictures and colors on the ice to go w/the scenes. She loved every minute of it.

Here she is very excitedly anticipating the show!

Travis has let the kids pick a souvenir from their special day. What to choose, what to choose? She decided on the stuffed megaphone and has been very happy with her choice.

She also got a HS Musical hat w/ cotton candy in it. It didn't quite fit over her buns.

It fit Travis better. ;-)
Here are a couple of shots from the show.

They said that Troy looked exactly like the real "Troy". The other characters were pretty close.
Ryan and Sharpay

The first half was HS Musical 1 and the second half was HS Musical 2.

With getting to see HS Musical on Ice 1 and 2 and then getting to go to a birthday party to watch HS Musical 3, she's had a very "Musical" month.

The BIG Night!

I always try to make sure that kids actually eat their dinner before they start shoveling in the candy. This year I tried "worms on buns".

They were a hit, especially with Ally!
It was hard to get anyone to hold still and look at the camera to get their picture. This was the best I could get before they all left.
Ally went to a couple of houses with the kids, but mostly just hung around with me passing out the candy - or should I say sampling the candy.
She also enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with me from behind the wall.

Here is our crew after their buckets became too HEAVY to carry. Apparently Bryson even talked Payton and Maddy into carrying his bucket towards the end. Travis's rule is that he won't carry your bucket, if it gets too heavy, it's time to go home.

Halloween was bitter-sweet for Maddy. Payton, her best friend since preschool, was moving the next morning. Payton got to come Trick-or-Treating with us, so at least they got to spend every last minute that they could together. We'll miss you Payton. Fortunately she's moving close to my sister, so we'll be able to visit her in the summer.

Halloween was exceptionally warm this year and Jacob and Ally had hoods on their sweatshirts and Bryson had that HUGE head on his costume. When I went to pick him up from preschool, he was just in his regular clothes and said he had gotten too hot to keep his costume on. This was how sweaty he got walking around outside on Halloween night. It looked like he had just gotten out of the tub. Poor guy.

Well, all the kids made a haul. Lucky for me, our dentist will give the kids a dollar for every pound of candy that they bring in to him on Friday afternoon. He mails the candy he collects to the troops abroad. My kids will even part w/ candy for money and are actually looking forward to turning in part of their loot. Me too! None of my kids have a huge sweet tooth like me, so I usually end up throwing away at least half of their candy anyway. At least this way it's not around tempting me!

Pre-sugar overload

All the kids had school Halloween parties. Bryson had his on Thursday. Here is a picture of some of the treats they were going to be having. They also had pizza, so hopefully he didn't only eat sugar.

Here are Maddy and Jacob on Halloween before school. I think they look pretty great, or should I say spooky! I let Maddy pick the color to spray her hair. It turned out pretty good.
Here is Maddy and her teacher. Her teacher is a "Charlie horse". Pretty clever!

The kids were also celebrating red ribbon week. There was a parade of classes and banners as they went to an assembly. Maddy's table got to carry the banner for her class.

Here is Jacob joining the parade.

They all had a fun parties and got a big jump start on the sugar overload on Halloween night!

Trunk-or-Treat

Our ward had a Trunk-or-Treat last Wed. The kids were so excited to start the Halloween festivities! Here is the Tasmanian Devil (aka Bryson), Maddy the wicked witch, Jacob the bat and Maddy's black Ally cat.

I had to change Ally's diaper during the party and when she saw herself in the mirror she couldn't stop laughing! Fortunately she laughed at Maddy too and wasn't scared of her green face.
Here is Maddy's friend, "the color green" w/ Ally cat and the witch.

The boys enjoyed the face painting and the cake walk. Maddy was kind enough to do the cake walk a 2nd time so that I could have a cupcake too. Maybe she's not so wicked after all. ;-)

The kids had a great time and were even more excited to go Trick-or-Treating in just a couple of days!