Spaghetti anyone?

Disgusting, I know. This is the only way I can get Connor to eat vegetables...turn it into "spaghetti." Although he wasn't too thrilled with his pea spaghetti last night. He likes green bean spaghetti better. Don't you wish you could eat dinner at our house?

Beauty Parlor

Connor loves to play with Savannah's brushes while I do her hair every morning.Now everything with a handle is a brush...

...utensils being the current favorite.

Cleaning up...

For mutual on Wednesday we had a surprise birthday party at our house for one of the young women. I decided it was time to finally take down the decorations. Connor was in crepe paper heaven.

Connor, M, and Savannah made a "choo-choo train" and spread the mess all over the house. Lucky for me they were very excited to clean it up too.

Seussical Musical

Last night was Jacob's 2nd Grade musical. He seemed to have fun and they did great! It was a Dr. Suess theme. Savannah loved it because her favorite book is Green Eggs and Ham and they had a fun song for that one. Jacob is in the middle on the top row.

Crazy weekend!

I don't normally document quite this much, because I know it's boring to the majority of you who read this. But occasionally it's nice to do for our "journals." So bear with me...skip to the pictures if you get bored.

Saturday:

1:30am - I wake up worried about my parents hiking the Grand Canyon. I have done this before a few times as a day hike (all the way to the bottom and back up in the same day) and know how hard it is. My mom is not a hiker, so naturally I was worried. I figure they're probably not out yet (it's only 11:30pm in AZ) and go back to sleep.
4:05am - I wake up from a dead sleep. The alarm has not gone off for Dallin. I had set it but not actually turned it on I guess. So I wake Dallin up and inform him he has 10 minutes before he has to meet his group to go down to Galveston and help with the hurricane clean-up. While he gets dressed I check my cell phone messages. There is one from my dad. My mom got really sick and they're sleeping on the trail (in like 30 degree weather) for a little while. The ranger station told them where some sleeping bags are stored that they use later on. Dallin leaves and I go back to bed...can't fall asleep for an hour.
6:30am - Get up and get the kids all ready for our busy day.
8:00am - Talk to Mom and Dad...they're still hiking but getting so close to the top.
8:30am - Leave for Jacob's soccer game in Austin
9:00am - Jacob has his first soccer game and did a great job! His team won 8-1 so he was thrilled. (Dallin had the camera so I'll take pictures next time.) Zach & Savannah entertain themselves well and Connor actually watches the game from his stroller.
10:00am - Jacob has his second soccer game (with a 3-minute break in between) and is pretty tired. The whole team is exhausted. They put out a good effort though and lose 2-4. Connor still did well because I gave him his blanket and pacifier (we need to get rid of that thing soon).
11:15am - Soccer games are done and we go through the drive-thru at McDonalds.
11:30am - We arrive at the stake center to set up for the youth stake dance. It looks great. Connor is getting pretty tired and not too happy.
12:45pm - We get home and put Connor down for a nap.
1:00pm - Dallin calls from Galveston. These are a few of the pictures he took. He said that things are still horrible there. People are living in horrible conditions. They helped a family pretty much gut out their house because nothing could be saved. All appliances and most all of their personal possessions were hauled out to the street. Sure makes you grateful for all you have...

You can see the mold on the wall where the water was...

3:00pm - I take a shower and bathe all of my kids. I get everything all ready for church the next day and feed the kids dinner.
6:30pm - My friend Ish comes over to watch my kids for the evening (thank you, thank you, thank you!!!). I leave for the stake dance. It was a tri-stake dance so much bigger than normal. The youth had a great time. It was a swing theme, which I loved. We used to go to swing dances when I was in college.
9:00pm - I think Dallin got home around then.
10:45pm - I get home from the dance, talk to Dallin a little and go to bed.

Sunday:

6:00am - I get up and get myself ready and the kids mostly ready for church.
7:15am - I leave for Ward Council (a meeting I have to go to once a month).
9:00am - Dallin arrives at church with the kids.
12:15pm - I leave for home with the kids.
2:00pm - Dallin gets home. He has to stay after church to count the tithing and such. We take turns napping and then have dinner.
6:40pm - I leave for a youth fireside. It was awesome...but I sure am exhausted from a crazy weekend!!!

The kids love having Daddy home and this is usually what playtime turns into...

Today the boys still had off school. We had some new friends over to play. The oldest boy is on Jacob's soccer team. They also have twin boys that are in kindergarten, and one of them is in Zach's class. In the afternoon we went to the park with the Benoits and got the kids nice and worn out. The boys had fun throwing rocks in the creek.

Connor's new favorite thing is baskets, of any kind. He sits on them, in them, under them...he loves them!

Mad Libs

Life just doesn't seem to slow down much lately. But we're still trying to have some fun too! The boys had early-release yesterday and have a 4-day weekend. They'll go back to school on Tuesday. So this morning we went for a walk on our favorite trail with our friends the Palmers. Jacob and Alex rode their bikes and Zach ran along side them. Zach is not a big fan of bike-riding...he'd much rather run. Connor was upset that I didn't let him out of the stroller but we didn't have 2 hours to walk at a Connor pace. The kids had a great time.

So my kids new favorite thing is Mad Libs. Remember those from when you were a kid? I found a "jackpot", as Zach would say, at Half-Price books in the kid section. I got Scooby-Doo Halloween and Teen Titans. They even had Dora. Nowadays they even have some that Jacob can do on his own. They have a list of words for each category that you can choose from, so you don't have to think of your own adverbs and such. My kids think they're hilarious and I think it's good for they're eventual writing skills. Maybe it will also use up one or two hours of our next car ride to Arizona...

Stay tuned for a busy weekend. Tomorrow Dallin is going with a group of men to help clean up after Hurricane Ike in Galveston. He leaves at 4:15 am. In the meantime Jacob has his first soccer games. Yes, he has a double-header for his first game. And I get to make Connor sit in a stroller for 2 hours straight...wish me luck!

Oh, and this is for the sake of our family journal. My parents are hiking the Grand Canyon as I write this. I used to hike all the time with my dad and Dallin has come with me a couple of times. But this is my mom's first hike, anywhere, except for girl's camp I think. They're going all the way down and back up today, so they just have regular backpacks. I hope they make it out safe! Good luck Mom and Dad!

Marathon Kids Kick-Off!

Today our family went to the Marathon Kids Kick-Off. It was at the University of Texas in the soccer & track stadium. The boys have already been running towards their 26 miles but were really excited to attend this event. Jacob got a fever on Thursday and has been sick. He woke up feeling better this morning, but still had a slight fever. So he got to sit in the stands and watch today instead of run.Zach coming on to the track with Dallin...

Zach and Daddy after their first lap...

They only did a lap and a half today and then got a cool water bottle. Zach is a great runner. He ran 6 laps (a mile and a half) the other night while Jacob was having soccer practice. And it only took him about 15 or 20 minutes.

"I just be a ballerina again!"

I sewed today...thanks for the inspiration Melinda.

Savannah wants to be a ballerina again for Halloween, but doesn't fit her stuff from last year. So we made a new tutu that will be fun for the dress-up box as well. She picked the color of course... Yes, amazingly enough this is not the brightest pink they had at the store.