November Update

Okay- well, the past few weeks have been crazy busy for me! Between working four jobs, taking care of the kids, entertaining friends, and just living life I haven't had much time for the blog. I also haven't really taken any pictures over the past few weeks, so nothing much there to report. Basically I wanted to say Hi to everyone and let you know that I haven't fallen off of the face of the earth. Hope you all have a great Turkey Day! We are still trying to find our balance in our lives, but things are going well and, for once, we still have $ in the checking account when one of Shawn's paychecks comes in again! So, that is all good! Hope you are all doing well! I will try to be better about posting and finding the time in which to do it!

Abby's Birthday Party

So, today we had Abby's birthday party. We had a bead bracelet making station, a crown making station, and of course, the ever popular pinata- if only we had more than one kid come!This is the money show of when Lucas broke the pinata- sorry that you can see his butt- we try, really we do, but his pants just don't stay up!!!

Lucas, Abby, and Jessica (our one guest) going through the spoils- there were plenty to be had for only the three of them.

Isn't she pretty?

Here is the cake that Shawn and I spent the morning (well, after I got home from work) decorating- I think it came out quite nicely. We wanted to try our hand at making a traditional cake and then covering it instead of doing a unique shape- I'm pretty proud of it for our amateur attempts.

Abby is so much Shawn's daughter- she doesn't know how to make a normal face for a photo!

She had just blown out the candle- just missed it.

Thankfully Abby had a great time with her one friend and I am very grateful that our kids have built in friends in each other. I held it together really well for the party and even when Jessica's Mom came and visited for a bit. Then I shut the door and cried. I know- I cry easily, but that is the way it is! Abby didn't notice any slight- she was totally fine, I am glad that she is young enough not to take it personally. Thankfully we did have a couple of kids whom we had invited come early and drop off presents because they couldn't come- that helped me feel better. All in all, the kids had fun and that is what matters, right?

Field Trip to the Fire Station

So, Abby's preschool went to the fire station on Thursday. We had a great firefighter guy who was fantastic with the kids take them around and show them EVERYTHING! He was really wonderful with them!

He let them crawl into the big truck and see how they ride and get ready for a fire to fight.

He also sat them down and showed them how he dresses up for a fire...

How to crawl around when there is a fire- and where to go...

I thought it was great that he showed them what a firefighter would look like if they came into their house- so that they won't be scared of them.

Then he let them try on the outfit.

Here is Abby "driving" the oldest truck that they had there.Here she is driving the big cool one that the fire fighter pulled out and turned on the lights and the siren for the kids!

They all had a wonderful time and I am glad that I decided to go along as well- I may not have gotten as much work done, but I think that outings like this are both important and fun!

Snow!

We woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow on the ground today! I didn't take this picture until 11, so as you can see, some of it had allready melted, but Abby was very excited to go out and play in it!

Abby's Birthday

So, for Abby's birthday we took her to Build a bear where the built her own kitty! I wish I had remembered to bring my camera with me to see her face when they were stuffing the kitty and kissing the little heart they put inside of it and stuff! I am too forgetful- lately I feel like I can't remember anything! Well, we think she had a pretty good day! She got a big girl bike with training wheels and, of course, the kitty. I was especially shocked at the price- I thought for sure it would be like $40, but it was only $28 after the clothes and everything! Not too bad! Abby came up with the incredibly creative name of "Kitty Friend" Believe me, we tried to get her to come up with something else, but she was dead set on this one...

Halloween!!

Our Beautiful Abby- she was a princess, although I think this dress is more queen like! Her hair was so curly when I took it out of it's curlers- it reminded me of my sister Shelley when she was a child!

Here are the kids together.

Lucas as BumbleBee- last year he was Optimus Prime, but this Bumble Bee is the one from the cartoon series...

The kids had a blast trick-or-treating; Abby really got it this year and despite the cold rain they were running from house to house having a total blast!

You can see that Abby's pretty curls started to come out toward the end of the night- but she didn't care, they were having too much fun! I was especially proud of Lucas- he was really great at saying "thank you" and then we went to this one door where these other kids were trick-or-treating and we heard them say "Happy Halloween" and I told Lucas he should do that from now on and he totally did! "Thank you, have a Happy Halloween!" He is such a good boy!

We spent Halloween up in American Fork with my in-laws which is always fun for us! We had a good time, despite the rain- it is a good thing it was warm earlier that day!