What a Night!

Yesterday was Allen's birthday and we celebrated a nice evening together with the kids. He chose pizza and chicken wings from Domino's for dinner and ice cream for dessert. He wrestled with the kids and we watched our favorite videos on YouTube. He said it was a great birthday, until all h-e double hockey sticks broke loose. The kids were in bed, so Allen and I decided to read a little in the D&C, when out of nowhere, Allen jumps out of his chair, practically throwing his scriptures in the air. He said he saw something run across the floor to the side of him, like a big spider. We checked under the other chairs and saw nothing. I thought he was up in the night. Then we decided to look under the couch. Allen lifted the couch and I did the looking. Well, I could see something gray under the couch, but I thought it could be a toy. So I lifted the couch the next time and had Allen look. As I was lifting, he screamed MOUSE, and I dropped the couch and jumped up on the table. We did indeed have a little mouse hiding under our couch. Allen had seen something scurry across the floor and my worst nightmare was now coming true. The little guy didn't seem to want to move from under the couch, so we got into full battle mode. This included calling our hunter neighbor Dax in for reinforcements, grabbing buckets, and a long stick. Dax came over with his air soft pistol and the next thirty minutes consisted of the mouse running from one spot to another in our family room with us screaming and chasing him. His final chase came when he scurried across the kitchen floor with Allen trying to squash him with a stick and Dax shooting him with an air soft gun. He made it safely into the small crevice leading into our dishwasher. That's when we knew the chase had ended. He made it to safety, nestled somewhere inside my dishwasher or the inside of my cupboards. Dax set some peanut butter traps for us and left us alone with the mouse. We blocked off the kitchen with the coffee table and tried to resume our night. We attempted to take our mind off the mouse by watching The Office, but it didn't seem to be all that funny last night. We then tried to go to bed, but neither of us slept very well. We kept dreaming about mice and I was dreading fixing breakfast in that death trap of a kitchen. In the morning, Allen went to check our traps and he then told me the best news of my life. We had caught the mouse in one of Dax's peanut butter traps. He took the bait and was now paying the price for terrorizing us all night. I think I owe Dax a batch of peanut butter cookies. I'm glad our adventure is over for now and I'm sure Allen had a birthday he'll never forget!

The Witch, a Ghost, and Indy!

My parents held their annual Halloween party last weekend. They sure know how to throw a party. This party had everything! There was pumpkin decorating, a pinata, crafts, a treasure hunt, and a spook alley. Hannah decided to be a witch this year. She wants to be a scary witch, but even when she tries to look scary, she just gets cuter. Sorry Hannah, you'll just have to be a cute witch!

Tate hates costumes, so a pillowcase ghost works out well for him. We attempted to spray his hair and paint his face, but he wouldn't sit still long enough to get the complete job done.

Porter makes an awesome Indiana Jones! He's missing his whip and bag in this picture, which top off the costume nicely. We had fun at the DI this year picking out treasures to put in his bag. Indy Jones is always looking for treasures, so that's what Porter wanted. He found a skull, a goblet, a crystal statue, and a tiki at the DI. Thank you DI!

Here are all the grandkids in the leaves. My littlest nephew, Cooper, is laying in the front and is camoflauged in the leaves. He's dressed as Tigger in an orange costume, which blends in perfectly with the leaves.

My brother and his wife made the perfect Napoleon and Deb. It was almost scary how well they pulled that off. Not only were they dressed like them, but they even acted like them. It was hilarious! This picture doesn't show the moon boots though, which was the best part.

Sleeping During Movies

Allen and I thought it would be fun to watch a movie last night after the kids went to bed. We made a trip to the Redbox and neither of us had seen the new Indiana Jones movie so we decided to give it a try. Now I have a real problem staying awake during movies at home. I can't seem to help it, but when the lights go off and the movie starts, I'm gone. I thought I would be able to stay during last night's show, considering the great action found in Indiana Jones. But last night was much the same as all the other nights, I just couldn't make it. I was asleep after the first twenty minutes of the show (sorry Ryan). I don't sleep continually through the whole movie. I wake up every so often to glance a bit of the show, but when I realize how lost I am, I figure I might as well just go back to sleep. As I spoke with Allen after the movie, I apologized for sleeping through yet another movie, and also asked him what happened to Indy at the end. Being a huge Indiana Jones fan, he was very disappointed with the ending. When he told me that the ending involved aliens and a spaceship, I felt no regret in sleeping through the ending. What kind of Indiana Jones movie ends with aliens and a spaceship? Maybe Steven Spielberg and George Lucas became confused with their other movies, but that just doesn't seem right. Anyways, sorry Allen, for sleeping through another movie. I'll try much harder next time!

Corn Maze

We took our annual trip to the corn maze Saturday afternoon. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we couldn't pass up an afternoon in the sunshine. My sister and her family went with us and the kids had an absolute ball (until an injury occured, explanation coming). The corn maze itself was fun, but the funnest part was the big, giant slide. I don't know how many dozens of times the kids went down the slide. Tate was also loving the slide until he decided to turn around at the bottom and try and climb back up. At that moment, the next group of kids was coming down the slide and before we could get to him, they completely plowed him over. He emerged from the pile with a horrible bloody nose. We thought his nose was broken. It was bleeding so bad and had a nice lump across it. To make a long story short, our trip to the corn maze was cut a little short. We took Tate home and he looked terrible. His face was a mess and he was miserable. I expected him to wake up Sunday morning with two black eyes and some bruises, but amazingly enough, he looked great and hasn't had even other troubles. Looking back, it seems like Tate gets hurt quite a bit, but he's definitely not afraid to jump in and try all the things the big kids are doing.

Home-grown Pumpkins!

This year we planted our own pumpkin plant in the garden. It was a long shot that we would actually be able to make something grow in our garden, but surprisingly enough, the pumpkins grew a ton. In fact, towards the end of the summer, they began to infiltrate the rest of the garden, cutting off all life to my poor onions. Our pumpkin crop this year yielded us eight pumpkins. They are almost all perfectly shaped and cute as can be! The kids had a great time watching them grow, and then the reward came yesterday, as we cut them off the vine, and took them for a nice wheelbarrow ride to the front porch for decorating. There is nothing like the reward from knowing you grew something yourself in your very own garden!

Frightmares Fun!

My parents took all the grandkids to Frightmares at Lagoon today. They've done it for the past few years and it's becoming a fun UEA tradition. Lagoon is so much fun at this time of the year. It's decorated cute for Halloween, the crowds are smaller, and the weather is so perfect! Hannah is becoming quite the roller coaster enthusiast and will try tons of rides now. Porter is not quite tall enough for the big rides, but getting too big for the little rides. He loves Dracula's Castle and even won his first stuffed animal ever on "Break the Plate". He stepped right up and broke 2 out of 3 plates. It was so exciting to watch his baseball windup and his perfect aim at the plates. Watch out major leagues! Tate was content on the merry-go-round, making horse noises the entire time. What a great day!

My Little Scholars

I felt it necessary to post some of my children's schoolwork. I am so proud of their hard work so far in school this year. Hannah may have finally realized that it's okay to do good in school, as well as have fun. She's previously been more concerned with the social aspect of school, rather than academics. But so far this year, she has aced all of her spelling tests and was even awarded
"Scholar of the Month" for her class. Now that's an award I didn't think I would ever see for her. Not that she wasn't capable, but she just hasn't been all that concerned with her schoolwork thus far in her career. Porter is also doing wonderful and has also been getting 100%'s on his spelling tests. He's always been a bit of a braniac, so this is really no surprise to Allen and I. Either way though, I am very proud of both of them. I know it's been hard for them to switch schools and start over, but they have both been tremendous and are doing great in their new school.

The Throw-up Bucket

The throw-up bucket at our house has been well-used in the past couple of weeks. That dreaded feeling all started early last week when I heard that awful sound in the middle of the night when you just know your child has covered all the blankets, sheets, and sometimes walls with the throw-up. In Tate's case, he just happened to throw-up on the one night that he actually ate a good dinner, and Allen just also happened to be out of town. No sooner had I cleaned up the first round of pizza chunks, when the second round came. Because I only had one set of hands, I threw all of the soiled laundry into the tub to be rinsed out at a later time. I changed Tate and held him until he fell asleep. Then I rinsed out the blankets and pajamas, left them in the tub and crashed for the last few hours of sleep for the night. He felt much better in the morning, but I still had to face the mess of laundry in the tub. I also knew that my chances were great that the other kids would get the bug as well. We were fine for a few days, and then I heard the sound again, this time it was Porter. Thankfully, he is my best thrower-upper. He always makes it in the bucket and then just moves on with life. So he was easy. Then it was passed to Hannah, who is not easy. She moans and whimpers and then screams when it's coming. She should be the easiest by now, but is the worst, by far. To make a long story short, the throws-ups seem to have thankfully left our house and I can finally catch up on my laundry. I'm still wondering though, why does all of this happen in the middle of the night? No one ever throws up in the middle of the day. Why is that?