Halloween

Well, this was quite the Halloween!  Aaron was on shift tonight, so we had to take lots of pic's to fill him in on our nights adventure!  Thanks for working so hard, babe!  Here's what you missed out on.

Gracie (after changing her mind SEVERAL times) was Miss Elizabeth Swan.  Not the pirate, Elizabeth, but Elizabeth when she's getting married to Will Turner. (she explained this to me several times, just so I wouldn't get confused and put her in the wrong outfit)

You look SO beautiful Miss Swan!  You're definitely ready for your wedding to Will!

Ava and Hayden spent the first part of the night, deciding what in the heck they were wearing and why. I explained to Ava that she is the cutest little bumble bee in the whole wide world!!!  I then tried to tell Hayden she's the cutest little kitty ever!!!  I don't think they were buying it :)

Oh my, Colton!  Looks like you had a little too much to eat!

Colton:  Has anyone seen my dog???

Colton:  Oh, here it is!!!

Whoa, Cowboy!!!  Simmer down.  We don't mean you no harm.

Why don't you wrangle this guy for a while :)

As you can tell, Dax was SUPER excited to wear his octopus costume.

Taryn and Gracie pose for the camera.  Gotta love good friends!

We're off to trunk or treat, at the church.

                                          

Wow, look who we met at trunk or treat!  That's right, a teletubby!!!  Aren't you the cutest little thing ever!  I especially love your tummy, that transforms itself into a t.v., and plays the most boring 30 second segments and then repeats them again, because the first time wasn't boring enough.

Oh, how cute!  Her Mommy and Daddy brought her tonight.  I can tell this little teletubby is having a fabtabulous time!  So sweet.

Uh oh!  Teletubby's Mommy is telling her she can't have anymore candy!  I don't think she likes that too much.  It's ok, Teletubby.  Looks like your Daddy has some Skittles in his pocket he's saving for later.  Maybe if you flash him those big Teletubby eyes, he'll share some with you, in secret of coarse :)

Hey Colton, you've got something stuck in your nose.

Here's how Ava spent most of the evening.  

Nighty night, my sweet little bumble bee.

Gracie and Mattie had some trick or treating fun together!

Oh, look who woke up!  Good morning, sweetie!  

Well, actually, good evening, sweetie.  

I think she's still not sure what is going on.

There's my Pookie, snuggling her Papa.  

Gracie, Ava and I did a little neighborhood trick or treating and then called it a night.  Logan and Colton stayed at our friends house and played games until 10:00 at night!  Logan didn't have any candy and gave the candy he got to the other kids at the party.  He's not a big candy person.  Colton however, came home with a truck load.  

Gracie told me she wanted to draw a picture of her night.  When I turned back around she was asleep, mid picture.  I guess it's been a long day.  I love you, Bubby.  Goodnight.

After I laid her down, I came back out and looked at her picture.  

I think this pretty much sums up the night.

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween!

Have a Happy Halloween!!!

Have a Little Patience

I just want to give a hypothetical situation, and encourage all to have a little patience if by some weird circumstance you were to find yourself in this HYPOTHETICAL situation.  Let's say you are in the line at Costco, and you're waiting to check out.  Maybe there is a young mother in front of you with her sweet little baby checking out also, and maybe this sweet mother gets all of her groceries scanned and totaled and realizes that she doesn't have enough cash to pay the bill.  Then perhaps she looks in her wallet and sees that she didn't bring any other way to pay her bill.  Then just imagine if you will, this HYPOTHETICAL mother's face turning many shades of red, and possibly she can even feel her face literally burning, and sweat dripping down it, as she has to one by one, pick out an item from her cart to get her total down so she can pay the bill.  Now, if you ever find yourself in this HYPOTHETICAL situation, have a little patience.  Don't ROLL YOUR EYES, and definitely don't SHIFT YOUR WEIGHT FROM SIDE TO SIDE AND SIGH, and seriously don't CHECK YOUR WATCH, as if this women is making you super late for a lunch you have scheduled with Bon Jovi or something. (I like Bon Jovi, that is the only loop hole I could think of that would allow you to be IMpatient)  Anyone who does any one of those things in this kind of situation should be ASHAMED of themselves.  I'm pretty sure, in this HYPOTHETICAL situation, that the sweet young mother, probably didn't set out that day to humiliate herself just to set you back a few minutes, and possibly annoy you a bit.  She probably would have been SO VERY happy to keep her whole cart of items and take them home with her, if this situation were real that is.  So just think about that the next time you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation like this one.  It's probably more uncomfortable for that sweet young mother than it is for you.  Or, whatever, just HYPOTHETICALLY.

Oh and P.S.

If you are in this line watching this happen and you happen to be like a millionaire or something, you should really step up and just buy that young sweet mothers groceries for her, or whatever :)  

Thought for the day :)

Ever feel THIS way!?!  I SO do :)  Enjoy!

Benefit Concert

Last Saturday I went to a benefit concert for Christian, Stephanie, and Doug Kinneard's family.  Mindy Gledhill came from Utah to perform.  She was amazing!!!  I bought two of her cd's.  She has the most beautiful voice and her songs are so inspiring!  She knew Stephanie from high school and had some really nice things to say about Nie Nie.  She definitely gave me a little spiritual uplift. 

Stephanie and Christian's girls, Claire and Jane, came out and sang a song with Mindy for their parents.  They held hands and sang the sweetest lullaby.  Then they had the whole auditorium sing the chorus along with them.  The sweet spirit in that room was overwhelming.  I don't think there was a dry eye in that auditorium.  Once again, I felt so inspired to be a better person. Then they had two tributes with pictures.  One for Stephanie and Christian, and one for Doug Kinneard.  It was so beautiful.

This is my beautiful Mamma and her two sisters, Kristie and Patty Poo, and their cousin Mary Neilson (Christian's mom)  Mary told us that Christian was able to come home that day.  She told us about Christian being there when they unwrapped Stephanie's face. She said Stephanie looked around until she found Christian, and smiled.  She said, he smiled back and told her how much he loved her.  Then she told us how much harder Christian has been working at his therapy and in general.  He is determined to get better for Nie.  I am constantly inspired by their ongoing love story.

Logan was my date for the night.  I was really glad we got to share that awesome experience together.  He tied some yarn around his wrist that he got off of some Nie cookies we bought.  He told me he was going to keep it on his wrist until Nie gets out of the hospital.  I'm so thankful for Logan and his sweet heart.  I think that is a great idea, buddy.  Thanks for thinking of it.

This is Ava towards the end of the night.  Her dress got all wet, so she was down to her bloomers and her headband.  Luckily her Papa was snuggling her close to keep her warm.  I think she was pretty much ready for bed at this point, what do you think?

This was definitely a night I will always remember.  I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to be a part of this great event.  I've made new commitments to be a better mother, wife, friend, sister and daughter.  I hope one day, Stephanie especially, can know how many thousands of lives she's touched.  I think anyone who's heard their story, is a little better person because of it.  

If you'd like to read a GREAT article written about Stephanie and Christian, click here.  It will be well worth your time, I promise :)

Ava Bean

You'd think I was obsessed with my kids :)  A friend of mine is starting a photography business and asked if she could use Ava to take some pics for her website.   These are some of the pics she took of Little Bean.  So cute!  Thanks so much, Kim!

(p.s. I'm not cheating on you Julia, you're still my favorite chick with a pic! Hee hee, that rhymed :) 

Pic's From The Big Birthday Bash!!!

MY BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN!!!!

Julia took the MOST BEAUTIFUL pic's of my kiddos!!!  How will I ever decide which ones to blow up!?!  Seriously, they are ALL so perfect!  Thanks Julia for being SO SUPER talented!!!

Here are a few of the pic's from the kids photo shoot

Football in the Ghetto

So we showed up at Logan's football game today..................it was on 2nd Street and McDowell....................mmhmm.  I had 7 kids with me, I like to pick up strays.  Anyways, the kids saw this big statue thingy and asked if they could run over and see it.  I could see a couple of homeless guys laying at the base of it so I said, "No, you guys need to stay with me, there's a couple of hobos over there."  Then I looked to my right and there were two homeless ladies sleeping right by my feet.  "Um, kids, no one is allowed to leave my side, everyone hold hands and make a chain, I don't care if you look stupid, HOLD HANDS, everyone, now."  Ok, I didn't make them hold hands, but I definitely thought about it.  We got to the other side of the field where we were going to sit, and I looked around to see probably twenty or so homeless people all around us, and two cop cars driving right through the park on opposite sides, just making constant circles.  Oh ya, this looks like a GREAT situation.  So glad I have seven heads to keep track of.  I heard the 'F' word more times in the hour and a half I sat there, than I think I have heard my whole life combined.  All I could think about was getting everyone back in the car and driving back to my little bubble of happiness.  

Oh ya, and Logan played AWESOME!!  Here's of pic of him in action. 

 GO LOGAN!!! 

(this story is not yet over, oh ya, there's more, scroll down, you'll see)

Ava Bean had fun, too!!! Go Big Brother!!!

When the game ended, we loaded up, all 8 of us, and headed for home sweet home.  We just got out onto McDowell Rd and the car in the lane to the right of us (headed the same direction) decided to switch lanes..................without looking.  

HE HIT US!!!

  So now I have 7 kids, in the middle of the road, in the ghetto, in a car accident.

This just keeps getting better.  I could see a guy, of a different ethniticity :), was driving the car, and there were a couple of other adults in the car and a kid. Then about 10 seconds after it happened, a cop car pulls up and escorts us to a nearby parking lot to work this out.  The police officer just happened to be right there when it happened.  He told me he saw what happened and he would be my witness, (I think he had a crush on me, so I took off my wedding ring............... just until I was sure the witness report was written out, geez, calm down)  So the other guy SAID he had ins but didn't have a card, so, my sweet police officer friend said he would get on his PERSONAL cell phone and confirm that the other guy had ins.  He would not rest until I was taken care of.  See, the ring idea is lookin' pretty smart now, huh.  The cop went to his car to check out the other guy, and all of the sudden the officer gets out of his car, very quickly, and grabs the guy from behind and cuffs him!  I know he was trying to impress me and all, but whoa, he didn't have to go that far.  He totally pats the guy down and puts him in the back seat.  He yelled at the girlfriend to stay back away form the car.  Then he came over to assure me of my safety.  Ok, so I got my ring out and put it back on, Barney was freaking me out.  Finally, my officer got all the insurance info from the other driver and gave it to me, along with his personal number in case I need anymore help. (J/K)  So, with a screaming baby, two sets of twins and my QUIET, LAID BACK boys, we were back on our way home, tapping our heals, with our sparkly red shoes, chanting, there's no place like home.

Haley and Ava could hardly contain themselves, with all the excitement! 

Oh, and in case you wondering, SUV beats little car.  My front bumper has paint scraped across it and is a little out of whack, his ENTIRE front side of his car was dented in.

THAT'S RIGHT, SUCKA!!!

Oh, and the best part was when, Colton, was telling my dad the story of our night, and he told my dad that there were HOMOS all over the park..................ha ha ha, I calmly corrected him, hobos, buddy, hobos.  Gotta love, Colton.