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?

Great Book!

I finished reading this book last night and thought I would let all of you know how great it is. For those of you that have read it, you'll know what I'm talking about, but for those who haven't it really puts it all in perspective. If you're anything like me, I go through phases where I feel like staying home and being a mother is not all it's cracked up to be. And then there are other times when I love it and wouldn't change it for the world. This book helped me to realize that this is where I need to be and I am lucky to have the opportunity to stay at home and raise my children. There will always be good days and bad days, but being a mother is the most important thing in the world!

Business Travelers

This morning I dropped Allen off at the airport for his business trip to New York City this week. Although he has taken many business trips before and I'm sure there are many more to come, I still hate it when he has to leave. As I pulled out of the airport, I felt that pit in the stomach that I know won't go away until he returns home. I have tried to put my finger on this feeling many times and I still can't quite figure it out. It may come from knowing that he will see places of the world that I will never see, go to nice restaurants that I could never dream of going to, or simply the fact that I hate being apart. So as I was driving home from the airport, I decided that there must be positive things on my end that I'm just not seeing yet. So I thought about it the whole way home and came up with a few reasons why business traveling may not be so bad after all.

1. I can sleep on Allen's ultra-comfortable pillow.
2. I can have McDonald's for every meal if I so choose.
3. I can catch up on all my old episodes of Jon & Kate Plus 8 that I can't watch when Allen is
home because he can't stand the sound of Kate's voice.
4. He always brings home great souveniers for the kids.'
5. I can hog the entire bed if I want.

If anyone has discovered any more great reasons why it's great for your husband to be out of town, please share. Maybe someday, the pit in my stomach will go away, but until then, I will try and make the best of it.

Did we really go to the fair again?

It's that time of the year again. It's the one Saturday of the year that we pull out the halter tops and the oversized belt buckles and make our way to the Utah State Fair. I'm not sure what it is that compels us to keep attending the fair year after year. Maybe it's the redneck in us or that little bit of white trash that we just can't seem to let go of, but whatever it is, I continue to find myself at the fair year in and year out. Let's face it, where else can you blow $75 in two hours on mechanical bull riding, pony rides, the big yellow slide, very unsafe carnival rides (don't even get me started on carnival workers, "carnies" as we call them), the chance to see a 5000 pound steer, and the world's junkiest souveniers. Every year as I bake in the hot sun as we walk through the pig arena, trying not to lose my lunch, I wonder why I keep putting myself through this torture. Yet somehow, as we are driving home and discussing the days events, we realize we've had a great time together and we just can't wait for next year's fair. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something great about the state fair.

Binky Boy!

So my binky-addicted son is now trying to squeeze both of his binkies in his mouth at the same time. About a month ago, his first binky was falling apart, so I bought two new ones. Big mistake! Now instead of just breaking him off the first binky when it fell apart like I should have done, I'm now going to have to break him from two instead. I knew that I would have to pay for my laziness eventually. He thinks he's pretty funny though when I go to get him out of bed in the morning and he's got two shoved in his mouth. If only he would put other things in his mouth, like food!