Party week

So, this week was party week for us. The kids got invited to a Halloween party on Tuesday. They got to wear their costumes, decorate cookies, and listen to fun stories.


Robert's dream came true as he got to be "The Hulk" this year for Halloween. He swears that he is stronger than Superman.


Later that week Isabelle got to go to a princess birthday party, and got to be a princess again! She was so excited to wear sparkley princess makeup this time!


Saturday was our 9th Annual Halloween Party. I always get a little nervous about how things will go, but it turned out great!:) There was a perfect amount of people, we filled up the living room, and didn't have to extend into the kitchen. Although we would have loved if everyone could have come! We had lots of fun games like Jeopardy and Mafia and got to know lots of little known facts about everyone there. Here is some pics of the cast of characters that arrived. It was fun to realize that one of the couples that came, the Bjorns, have come to more of our parties than anyone else. They came in Provo, Oregon, and now in Washington!






I wish I would have taken more pictures at this point. But our drink was red and we had eyeballs floating in it and a green ice hand. We also had cookies that looked like witches hats and monsters.

If you weren't sick of pictures yet, here is one I took on Sat. They had a deal at Old Navy if you brought your kids in their halloween costumes, so I was conned into taking the kids to the mall. (It was not a great deal), but the kids had lots of fun at the mall play area! Oh, and in this picture, the kids really are trying to shoot spiderman webs at another kid there.

Pumpkins and Auction (last week)

So, sorry I didn't write last week. These past two weeks have been pretty busy for me.

So, last week, I ended up going to a pumpkin patch 3 times! I went on Tuesday with Robert's school field trip, on Thursday with Isabelle's school field trip, and then again on Saturday as a family outing! We have plenty of pumpkins at our house now.

I was really sad, but when I got to the pumpkin patch with Robert, I realized that I didn't have a memory card in my camera, so I couldn't take any pictures. But, Robert got to see animals, have a hay ride tour through pumpkin head people that looked like superheros, the 3 little pigs, even Elvis!

For Isabelle's trip I got to take Austin, so that was really fun. They got to feed some animals. Isabelle just laughed as the goat licked the oats off of her hand, she loved it!

She also had no fear scaling the hay pyramid. It was cute to see. They got to pick out their own pumpkins and both Austin and Isabelle picked out the very first pumpkin they could see and were then ready to leave. Austin had a little harder time holding his than did Bella.

On Saturday we got to meet up with Mima and Papa to get our pumpkins in Canby. There were so many activities for the kids to do there! They had animals, mazes, bounce houses, and a pony ride. We wanted the kids to go on the pony ride, because most of the time Robert is just not ok with animals. But, he actually went very willingly and loved riding the horse, ok so it was a pony.
Isabelle would wave to everyone the whole time she was on the pony. People were asking how she knew to do a perfect parade wave!
Austin had a great time as well. Here are some more fun pics from the pumpkin patch....


They had some huge produce there. We found some giant apples, as well as the award winning pumpkin for the year. It was like over 1,400 lbs!

Later on Saturday I was in charge of a YW silent Auction to raise money for girls camp. I was so nervous that wouldn't make much money. But, luckily it went very well. It was during a ward birthday party, that we combined with the Spanish Branch, and did a thank you to our old bishop. The whole activity was kind of a mish mash of whatever, but I think that helped our auction. We ended up earning over $700, which means we don't have to earn any more money this year!!!

Week away from Rob

So, this week Rob was in California doing some training with his base company there, Grizwold Filtration, so I felt a lot busier.
On Tuesday we had a p.j. reading night at the school. I let Robert pick out a book and we got to hear a Halloween book by a local author, so that was way fun.

We got Robert's school pictures back this week. I think they turned out cute, but Robert didn't like them 'cause he doesn't like the shirt! Oh, well.


Robert has been doing really well in swimming. It was so fun for me to see him swim across the pool a number of times (width of course) and doing knee dives. He totally enjoys swimming completely immersed! I am so happy! That was my favorite growing up.


Poor Austin, he wants to be in the pool with the other kids too. He pulls out his swim suit as we are getting ready to go, and wants the goggles on too!


Of course we can't leave Bella out! She is doing great on her stomach swimming. She will swim out to her teacher about 4 feet from the steps, but she will not float on her back! When I work with her in the tub she will, but not for her teacher!


I got to volunteer at Robert's school this week. It was great for me to see the kids that he would talk about and how they interact with each other. I love that Robert gets so happy to see me there. I also like to see how his class is run and to help Robert excel the best I can.

I started up on Facebook this week. That has taken up probably way too much time, but it has been so fun! I have found friends that I have been wondering about for years! It is so cool to have friends from all different times in my life all in one place that I can find out what they are up to all the time. I have been amazed at the amount of people I could find on there. What an awesome tool!

Unfortunately, Rob will be gone about half the week this next week. Hopefully these trips will slow down soon! He is going to Las Vegas and then Seattle. Good thing I have friends who are willing to help out!

P.S. Here's one more silly pic...

Conference and Princesses, and Halloween

Today we had the traditional conference breakfast of farmer's breakfast that my mom always did for us when we were young. I have since added cinnamon rolls too. It was funny because Bryan and Debbie called up to tell me that they always do the cinnamon rolls I make on conference as well now!

Conference was awesome. I have been worried about a lot of political things lately with the bailout bill and the upcoming election, so I was sure that the leaders would touch on something political, but they didn't. It just focused on us being more Christlike, charitable, and becoming one with those around us and showing them we care. It helped me to realize that the most important thing for me to worry about right now is other's needs and just to work on growing myself. Things may get worse politically or otherwise, but all we need to worry about is if we are working on the path that Heavenly Father and Jesus set for us. In the eternal perspective, the other things will work themselves out in HF's plan.

So, on with things less spiritual.....

I put up Halloween this week and the kids have just been loving it. They give me half the joy of just putting them up.


I might be going a little crazy with the hair thing. But, Isabelle had a friend over and I just had to do their hair matching. Don't they look like princesses!


Later on this week they had a princess day at the library. I had to take Isabelle, the princess that she is!! They told princess stories, made purses and magic wands, face and nail painting, played put the kiss on the frog and had pink cupcakes. What more could a little princess want.
Robert came too, but of course he didn't want to be a prince, he is a Super Hero!

Afterwards Robert got to go to a friend's party at JJ Jumps. It was nice that both of them got to have a fun party on the same day. Robert is getting much better at reading and writing. I started making him read to me for 20 min every day and at first he really hated it. But, he keeps getting better and better every day I feel. I think he is starting to enjoy it more.

Austin has surprized me at how much older he is acting lately. If I do Isabelle's hair, he goes for the hairspray and wants me to do his too. If I am taking someone's picture, he wants me to take his too (hence these pictures). He puts away his own trash, and he loves to help me cook. He loves just being a part of things. He also loves books and playing ball of course. He also loves to hand us our shoes. Rob thinks it's just to be helpful, I think it is because he wants to go somewhere.






So this is silly but.... I had a day I thought my lunch looked really cool, so I took a picture.....