Vacation

We went to a new Jumpy place today. I forgot my camera, so I took some pics with my phone. They did not turn out good at all, but that's what I get for forgetting the real camera.





AJ's been on vacation since last Tuesday. Today we found out that several people got laid off at his work. Thankfully he wasn't one of them. He is now the only one doing his job. Probably a good thing for us, more money, but more work for him. He was worried when he got the call, but we don't have to worry anymore, so it's all good.

We have all just been hanging out, taking it easy, sleeping in, etc. It's been nice. He was supposed to be off all this week, until Monday, but he has to go in tomorrow since he is the only one there to do his job now. It's just a half day, so not too bad. We were being lazy tomorrow anyway. :)

Anyway, no other plans for us this week. I'm lovin' it!

Christmas

We had a great Christmas. The boys loved their stuff, and so did Mommy and Daddy. We spent Christmas Eve at AJ's Grandmother's house. It's our family tradition. We came home, set out cookies and milk, and sent the boys to bed. Santa came a bit later. Sam woke up just before 8:00 on Christmas morning. He was up before Avery! Now that's weird! We finally woke Avery up about 15 minutes later and went downstairs. They totally love that part, seeing the tree full of stuff.

Sam got a new guitar (he has been dying to learn), tons of books, some art stuff (he loves to draw), and a few toys.

Avery got tons of Bakugan's (that is all he kept saying he wanted), a Ben 10 watch (we got the wrong one so we have to return it, and some other toys.

They got a few Wii games, a couple of board games, etc.

It was a good haul. :) Of course, we remembered why we were celebrating, and have made sure to teach and reteach the meaning of Christmas.

Lindsay and Fam came over later. We played games, lots and lots of games, the kids played, we ate, etc. Kinley was grumpy cuz she has been sick, but it was a good day.

Yesterday we just hung around, cleaning up a bit, and playing. Tonight is our fun party. We finally found a babysitter. Not free, but at least we found one. This will be the kid's first babysitter that wasn't an adult that we know well. Yikes!

Now, on to the pics.

Before Christmas is CRAZY!

Whew! I am glad that week is over. I worked every day, Monday-Thursday. I did a Kindergarten class. It went well. I was a little worried because it was the week before Christmas, in Kindergarten, with a party looming ahead, and not many planned activities. It all went fine though and we had fun. Man, it sure is hard working though! I had way too much to do afterwards. So I would work all day, then we would have to do some sort of errand after school. Then we would come home, I would have enough time to make dinner, and then I would need to leave and go do something else. Most of the week I didn't get home until after 10:30.

Later in the week I got an invitation to a party I was hosting! Haha! It was for a progressive dinner for our church friends. I had been asked if I would like to help host. I said, "maybe", needing to know more details like a date, etc. Then later AJ got a text asking if we were free the 22nd, but then didn't hear anything again. Then I got the invitation! It all worked out though and went fine. It just added a little more to my already busy week. The party went great though. There were about 40 people who went from house to house. We went caroling between each house. Of course it had to drop to down to freezing cold yesterday, so we were caroling in like 12 degree weather, but it was fun.

I also went to a few parties this week. I did a party for the front row for singing. We exchanged ornaments. It was fun, and some of those ornaments were really funny!

I had an MNO (mothers night out) where we did a white elephant exchange. It was the funniest night. I laughed a ton, and even laughed so hard once, I was crying. Great times!

Friday we had Sam's Christmas Party at school. We did a candyland theme. It went well. Afer that we had to rush home for a party for Playgroup. It was at my house. We got here 2 minutes before all the guests arrived. We had been doing a Secret Santa thing for the whole month and Friday was our big reveal. I love Secret Santa, it is fun. I was definitely surprised by the person who had me. i usually figure it all out in advance, but I didn't have time to even think about it this month.

Saturday we didn't do much. In fact I didn't even leave the house. I was able to wrap some presents, but I still have a ton to do.

I can't believe Christmas Eve is tomorrow! The kids are SOOOO excited. I put some of the presents under the tree on Saturday. Most of them are the ones for other people, but a few are for the kids. Avery did not understand why we couldn't open them right then. I put them under them while AJ and the boys were gone, so when they got home and saw them Avery said, "Did you see Santa!" It was in an awe-filled voice, and very cute. Of course since then it hasn't been as cute, with the constant question of "Can I open a present now?" I told him he wasn't allowed to say that to me today, so he hasn't, but of course he has already managed to "talk" to me about the presents 3 times.

This Saturday we have an after Christmas party to go to. It is another White Elephant Exchange. AJ LOVES this and is so excited to go. We have the perfect gifts. Too bad we don't have a babysitter. He is dying to go, so we need to figure out something, I just don't know what. The church girls are already taken. Lindsay is going too, so she is in the same predicament we are, and I can't afford an expensive babysitter. We've got to figure out something though or AJ will die! Any free babysitters out there???

Anyway, I probably won't blog again until after Christmas. So MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope it is a wonderful time for your families!

Snow, Takin' A Chance, and More

It snowed last night, like REAL snow! Tennessee rarely gets snow and when we do it is just a little bit, more like half an inch or less, and it rarely sticks. Well last night Lindsay calls me and says she has been driving home from Franklin for 30 minutes and she still isn't even close to home (it only takes 30 minutes total to drive from there to here). She was talking to me and telling me how she kept sliding, etc. It had rained heavily for the last 2 days and it was colder so I just figured the rain was turning into ice. Then a few minutes later she says something about snow! I had no idea! She couldn't believe I didn't know and told me it was snowing a ton, and it was so thick she could hardly see. That for sure never happens! So we went and looked outside and yep, big, heavy flakes. Our ground wasn't covered yet, though. I went and looked out 20 minutes later and snow was everywhere! It was actually sticking and accumulating! A miracle! The kids were so excited! They went out and there was already ice forming on the stairs. I figured that would mean no school. It did. Anyway, we probably got about 2 inches of snow and it is still there this morning. Here are some pics!







It was still there this morning, but had already started melting by 9am. There was still enough to play in though. So just as the boys were getting ready to go out to play, Sam's friend Riley comes over and asks if they can go to his house. THey have a big hill in their backyard and they were going sledding! I told the boys to at least let me take a couple of pictures before they went. There first time sledding and I had to miss it because I was still in my pajamas! Plus, cold and me do not get along so I might have missed it anyway. :) Anyway, they were there for a while and then Riley's Dad drives them back home and comes to the door. Yes, I am still in my pajamas. Oh well, I found out later that so was Riley's Mom. LOL! Must be a Mom thing! Sam had his first sledding accident. Him and Riley collided and Sam somehow hit his cheek. It was swollen and already had a bad bruise. Poor kid always gets hurt doing fun things!



Riley's Mom did get a good pic of the sledding, or should I say tubing, fun!


So that was our fun night and morning, but it was not the end! After all the excitement about the snow and no school today, it was time for bed. Rewind to last night, by the way. So Sam had just gotten in bed and my phone rings. It was Santa! :) Our city does Calls From Santa every year, where the city workers will call kids and be Santa, Mrs. Claus, or an elf. Last night was there night to call. You should have seen how excited they were! Of course, they totally think he was the real thing, which works for me, because I can easily let them know that Santa will call back again and I will tell him if they have been naughty. Muahahaha! :) Anyway, Sam was practically yelling into the phone, he was so excited. Avery could barely speak! It was too cute. After all that Sam had a terrible time going to bed. He kept coming down and saying, " I can't believe it!" It was funny. Whew!

Now onto the next subject. Sam was sick, if you recall. He finally went to school on Wednesday, but only made it half the day. He finally went to school all day yesterday, and then got a snow day today! He was so sick though, so he didn't have much fun. He also had tons of work to make up, but I think we finally got it all done. At least he is better now. I hope no one else ends up getting it. I sanitized the house like crazy, so we better not!

Wednesday night my quartet came over for rehearsal. We finally have a name and are a registered quartet. We are "Takin' A Chance" We all 4 liked it, so that's what we went with. At least we are named. We are singing at a Christmas party tomorrow night. Our first "gig"! It should be fun. Scary, but fun.

Also yesterday, geez, a lot happened yesterday, I had a photography session. It was fun and the pics look great. Yippee! :)

Let's see, what else..... Oh, um, tonight is AJ's work Christmas Party. Lindsay will watch the kids while we go. They are excited to play with her kids and have been asking since yesterday to go over there.

I have to go grocery shopping today, with BOTH kids. Yuck! I am NOT looking forward to that, but really I better get moving cuz it is going to take so long. It's the only day I can go though because I work everyday next week. It's funny, I worked every day last week, not one day this week, and every day next week.

Anyway, I guess that is it for now. Happy Snow!

Poor, Poor Sam

Sam is Soooo sick! He started feeling sick on Sunday. He threw up that night and had a fever all day. Yesterday he was still so sick. He laid around all day, went to bed, threw up some more, and had a fever of 101 something all day. Last night his fever was 103. This is all with us giving him Motrin and Tylenol. He did sleep all night last night, and is still sleeping, but I felt his head and his fever is still there. He feels TERRIBLE, and I feel terrible for him. Poor kid! Anyway, please keep him in your thoughts. :( I will update more later if I can.

1st Week in December

This first week of December was full of work, work, and more work. I subbed every single day this week!

I also had quartet practice one night, where we tried to decide on a good name for ourselves and failed. One day.....

Friday, I told myself that I was not working no matter who needed me. I even put myself as unavailable in subbing world. I had shopping to do and stuff. Well, as I was eating breakfast my phone rang. It was school. I wondered if they were trying to get my to sub, but what if it was something about one of the kids. I answered. "Mrs. Sweeney, you wouldn't want to sub today would you?", says an office worker. I knew that meant they were desperate because subbing world is supposed to call, not the school. I said, "Nope! I have worked everyday, this is my one day off." She said, "I know but we need you." " I asked who it was for. "Ummm, 5th grade.", said tentatively. "Um, not helping your case, Rose!" I don't like 5th grade, I like the little kids! :) She said, of course I didn't have to, but of course I felt like I did. I REALLY didn't want to though, so I told her to keep trying everyone else.

30 minutes later my phone rings again. School. Oh how I didn't want to answer. I did. She needed me. Mr. Lewis would so appreciate it. Hmmm, maybe I should be getting a nice Christmas Present, Mr. Lewis! Just like always I said OK. It wasn't bad, really. They are just bigger than me! Mrs. Tarpley saw me walking down the hall with them and burst out laughing cuz here is little me, walking with these kids a heead taller. Sigh.... I did have a girl throw up right next to me in the trash can. Ummm, ewww, throw up and I do not get along. Thankfully she was quiet, but I still felt sick. Yuck!

I was going to make AJ take me out to dinner that night, but ended up having to go back into school to help set up the camera equipment for our Breakfast with Santa the next day. Sigh...

The next morning, Saturday, couldn't even sleep in. Got up early to go take pictures for 5 hours of kids with Santa. That wasn't bad either, just tiring, and long. My legs hurt. It went well though. :)

When I got home Lindsay's kids were there. We were babysitting while Lindsay and Den were at some Navy Awards thing. The kids played. Then they watched Kung Fu Panda while we watched Made of Honor. Good movie. :) Then we all wen tot Chuck E Cheese. We had fun. I was tired.

We came home, put our kids to bed, took Lindsay's kids home, then I went to bed. Slept my whole 9 hours (the perfect amount of sleep for me, yea!) and then woke up with the house all to myself while everyone else slept. Now dinner is cooking, we have to go back to church for a meeting with the Bishop, and then it will be Family Home Evening Time. That's a night set aside every week for family time, a church lesson, games, fun, and a treat. Both the kids don't seem to be feeling well, so we will see what tomorrow brings.

This week, I am probably only working one day, because I have a million other things to do since I worked too much last week. I also need to plan a Christmas party for Sam's class. Whew!

Thanksgiving

This was someone's plate at our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. We went over to Lindsay's for the day. We cooked (the boys watched football), ate, planned our Black Friday shopping trip, ate, played games, then ate dessert. Did I mention that eating was involved. LOL!

That morning AJ and Denisee went to help someone move to a new apartment, and then they went to play Turkey Football with other guys from church. AJ locked his keys in his car while they were there, so Den had to bring them back to my house to get keys, take him back to his car, take other guys home, and finally they made it back for Thanksgiving.

I decided that morning to take Family pictures of us, before we ate. Can you believe that we have never had family pictures done? Never! It makes it hard when you are the photographer. You are never IN the pictures. I don't mind that at all. I hate having pictures taken, but i figured it was about time to get some with all of us. Thankfully, I was able to just throw some matching outfits together, and they turned out pretty good. Lindsay had to help of course,but I am happy with them. AJ came late so we didn't get many with him, but enough so we can finally say we have a family picture. :)

Here is a preview of one of me and the boys.



Avery had a Thanksgiving lunch in his class on Monday. It was nice, and there was lots of good food. I took him home early that day, so he wouldn't have to stay for boring nap time. I can't remember what we did though. Hmmmm.

Wednesday Sam had a Thanksgiving breakfast. Here he is eating from the yummy assortment of breakfast foods.


Friday, Lindsay and I got up (not too early) and went shopping for Christmas. We LOVE going shopping the day after Thanksgiving, and most of the stores aren't bad at all. In fact, our brand new Super Target, which we thought would be insane) was like a typical non-busy day. I try and get everything done that one day, but this year I had trouble, and I still have stuff to get. Darn it. I came home and the boys had gotten out all the Christmas stuff and even decorated the tree. Of course I had to move some ornaments around so they weren't all bunched together at the bottom, but it was nice to not have to worry about the tree, and they had fun. Our house is all Christmasy now and we are all excited. I can't wait until Christmas. I am excited about all the stuff I got for them. I can't believe it's December all ready. I know this month will go by so fast, and it will be 2009! Weird!

I am sure this month will be very busy, actually, I know it is, but it will be lots of fun, and will fly by. Yea Christmas!

***Edited to add*****
I just realized I had my days messed up. Tuesday was Sam's Breakfast, then I stayed all day helping his teacher. Wednesday we went and played with some friends at McDonald's. THen we went to Target, but after that we went to the new theater and saw "Bolt!" All 3 of us loved it. It was cute and good. We had a fun day. :) Oh and that night we had fajitas for dinner. Yum, yum. We had a wonderful day off from school. :)

4x4

I got tagged and thought this was cool.

Rules

1. Go to your pictures

2. Go to your 4th folder and upload your 4th picture

3. Post and tell about your picture

4. Tag 4 of your friends



That folder just happened to be my display pictures for my photography business, Candid Expressions. This is a pic I took a couple years ago. Pretty cute subject. ;)

I tag Angel, Lindsay, Tara, and April.

Books Come Alive

So this week I got to see two books come alive, well kind of. :)

Sam's play was this week. He has been so excited. He has been practicing after school twice a week for the last several weeks. That has been fun, but he was ready to do the play. Before he auditioned, he was scared that he would get stage fright, and he didn't know if he wanted to do it. I told him that he would practice so much, and know his part so well, that he wouldn't have any trouble. I also told him that most likely he would just be a little bit nervous, but maybe not at all. So the day arrives and he wasn't nervous at all, just excited. He did a GREAT job. He remembered all his lines perfectly, was loud enough, and just did so good. Him and his "brothers" were the stars of the show. Everyone loved them and they were the funniest part. The story was about the Big Bad Wolf going on trial for all the bad things he has done, like eating people. Sam and Pig #1 were the dumb pigs, and the 3rd pig was the smart one. THe principal played that pig, so that made it even more fun. They performed the play on Thursday night for the parents, and then on Friday afternoon for the students. After school, when we were walking down the hall, a million kids were calling to Sam to tell him that he was so funny, and that he was cool, etc. He was a star. Later he told me that he wants to perform a play every day in front of lots of people! LOL! I guess we found his calling. I always knew he would love to act. He never did get nervous at all, and did great. Yea Sam! Here are some pics of his acting debut.






On Friday I got to go see Twilight. A brand new movie theater just opened in our fine city that same day! So we went to the new theater, which is NICE, and got to see the opening of a brand new movie. I am cool! LOL! Anyway, the theater is really neat. The ticket sellers are actually inside behind a counter, instead of in a booth behind glass. It makes it nice that you can actually talk to them like real people instead of through a speaker. The inside is really nice, and it even has a fountain in the middle of the lobby. The stadium has cool seats that are like rocking chairs, and the screen seems like it is right there in front of you. I loved it.

The movie was good, but I had heard it was better than the book, which wasn't true. They, of course had to leave a lot of stuff out, but they also changed some things, which I didn't like. Also, the characters weren't like I pictured them at all, so that made it not as good. Overall, I liked the movie though, and it did make me want to read the books again.

Anyway, I am excited that we have a new theater, and there are some really good movies coming out, so I can't wait to use it more frequently. Too bad, movies are so expensive! At least gas is cheap again!

Late, Late

Geez, how time goes by!

I can't even think of what we have been doing lately that I haven't had time to blog. Weird. I have been working A LOT more, so I guess that's most of it. Working takes too much time! LOL!

Nothing much happened last week. Just normal stuff like haircuts, PTO meetings, etc. I did chaperone a Lock-In at school on Friday. THe kids loved it! Me, not so much. Some of the kids were terrible! Mostly it was the older ones too, the ones who should know better, so that made it worse. Grrr, darn kids. At least my children had lots of fun.

I have been reading the Twilight Books, also. I am on Book 4. They are good, I always love series of books. I am going this weekend to see the movie. Yea!

This week is Sam's Play Production. We had a terrible time figuring out a costume for him. We couldn't find pig noses or ears ANYWHERE. Argh. Finally someone had a nose they let us borrow, but the ears are still giving me a hard time. I can't wait to see him in the play though. Too bad we don't have a video camera.

I really can't think of anything else to write. I just wanted to at least post something so people wouldn't wonder if we died. Talk to you soon!

Weekend Festivities

The weekend was fun! :)

Avery loved his class party. It's the first one they had this year, so it was exciting for them. They sang us some songs, did some activities, and ate TONS of food. :) Here is Avery having some fun!




Sam's party was a lot of work, and it was crazy trying to get from Avery's party to his, but we got it all taken care of, and I think the kids liked it. I was all frazzled so it didn't seem to go as well as I thought it would, but the adults said it did, so I hope so! Here he is doing a couple of the events.




My camera died just after it started, so I didn't get many pictures. Argh! :( They both had a great time at school that day!

Then it was Trick or Treating Time!

We met up with Lindsay and her bunch, the kids she used to babysit, and a family that lives in our neighborhood from Sam's class. We got a TON of stuff, and it was all really good chocolate stuff, hardly any junk candy. Woohoo! We have a great Halloween neighborhood. Here are some pics from the night.







One of Avery's teachers lives right outside our neighborhood. She told us to come visit her while we were out. So we went over there, and her daughter answered the door, but she wasn't there! She had taken her younger daughter out trick or treating. Avery was DEVASTATED! HE cried and cried. So we walked around through her neighborhood a bit and then on our way back we saw a group of people go into her house. So we ran up there again, and thankfully it was her, and she was home. So Avery goes up there, and then won't say a word!!! He was so sad when she wasn't there, but freaked out when she was!! It was pretty funny. She gave him lots of candy, and he ended up talking a little bit, but he was very strange. Weirdo!

On our way back to our house, a lady stopped us, said she was freezing and wanted to go in, and dumped the rest of her bowl into Sam's bag. Then we stopped at our neighbor's house, and they gave them both a ziplock bag STUFFED full of candy bars. They lucked out!

It was a great day!

Saturday, we worked outside on the yard and winterizing the pool. Boring stuff. Then later in the afternoon we went to a birthday party at a Laser Tag place. The boys loved it, and yes, that includes AJ. Here they are being weird at the party.


After the party, we went out to dinner at my favorite place, Jason's Deli, with our neighborhood friends. It was great, yummy food and good company. ;) We stayed there FOREVER just talking. We found out that we are all the same age, got married the same year, and have just about the same age kids, and we live in the same neighborhood. Crazy! Good times!

On the way home, Sam suddenly started spitting and making strange noises. We looked int eh back seat, and he had that glow stuff from INSIDE a glow bracelet all over him, in his mouth, EVERYWHERE!! AJ slammed the car off the road, we jumped out and started pouring water all over him and in his mouth. He was trying to crack it some more and it broke and sprayed everywhere, including in his mouth. It tasted horrible, and smelled horrible. Thankfully we had water bottles in the car. He was freaking out and crying, thinking he was going to die. We cleaned him up the best we could, and started going again. On the way home his hands started going numb, but we made it and we washed him all off. We had to wash his hands, and scrub them with a toothbrush 3 times before we finally got it all off and the smell went away!!! I hate those things, and now I hate them even more. I told the kids they have to throw those things right in the trash any time we get them. After that they both thought anything that was green were toxic chemicals. We teased Sam that he was going to turn into a mutant ninja kid. Anyway, that was our exciting weekend. Things should actually slow down for us, at least for a week or two. :)

Fun Times

It's been a fun-filled week for us. Monday and Tuesday I subbed, and we did our normal routine on those 2 days, for the most part. Wednesday, the kids went to school, and I went shopping for the party supplies for their class parties. I ended up going to 4 different stores that day to find everything! Sam had play practice after school, we came home, he did homework, and I fed Avery. Then we went to the Trunk or Treat at our church. We had a chili dinner (Avery doesn't like chili), played some fun games, decorated cookies, and then trunk or treated. The kids all thought our trunk was scary. LOL! It's amazing what a few spider webs, a flashing strobe light, and a scary music cd will do. Anyway, it was lots of fun, and the kids loved it. Some pretty funny costumes too. :)

Yesterday the kids got out of school early. Once a month, they get out half a day for a teacher planning day. It's weird. Anyway, we went and met some playgroup friends at McDonald's. Avery LOVED playing with these 3 boys that he has known for a LONG time now, but never really has played with!! Kids are weird! He has known them and seen them pretty often for like 2 years, but they were alwasy shy around each other and pretty much did their own thing. Well, this year all of them have started some form of school, and I guess that is what they needed because they played like they were best friends yesterday! It was funny and cute. He can't wait to play with them again. Sam played Hide and Seek with one of his playgroup friends, and then he actually recruited other kids, that he didn't know, to play as well. He doesn't do that either. It was a day of new things for them! After that we went to Wal-mart to try and find the last things I needed for the party. Once again, I couldn't find everything. No where in this town had any pumpkins! I knew I was waiting too long, but I didn't have time because I was working so much, but who knew pumpkins would be completely gone! Anyway, I drove to one pumpkin patch, they were closed up, then drove to our favorite place, and thankfully they had a few left! We came home and I started working on the fun snack for the parties. It was supposed to take 15 minutes to make the snack, but I needed 2 batches, so let's say 30 minutes. Ummmm, over 2 hours later and I finally got done! Argh! I HATE making things like that. Why do I do it? It looked easy though, and I knew it would be yummy, but for real! 2 and a half hours for something that will take them 2 minutes to eat. I did that for thanksgiving last year and the same thing. If it can't be done on the computer then I shouldn't do it. I am not crafty! Stupid Goblin Grub! Sam tried it, and he LOVED it, so at least it tastes good. Anyway, we were planning on going to the Trunk or Treat at the Y, but the stupid treat took so long that we didn't make it. :( The kids took a bath, I put them to bed, and then got to work on getting all the party stuff ready. I had to clean out the pumpkins, YUCK, find another game (cuz I never could find parts of one of the games)and get organized. AJ had a meeting after work last night so it was just me and the boys last night. Oh yeah, and I did all that work for the stupid treat and then ran out of gummy worms. The package said I would have 25 worms in each bag, so I got 2, which meant I would have 10 EXTRA worms, but no, they didn't even have close to 25, so I had to have AJ pick some up on his way home. Stupid treat!

This morning I finished getting everything together, and I am excited to do the party now. Last night I wasn't! They are going to love it though! Thankfully, this year I just had to plan and organize Sam's party. Avery's teacher's are doing everything for his. What in the world am I going to do next year when I have to do two though?! I go all out for them, yes I am weird, and I know I don't need to, but I do anyway, so trying to do two, most likely on the same day, is going to be insane. Oh well, I guess that is what I thrive on. I am an organizer/planner/do it yourself person. At least I can take a load off their teachers for that little bit. :)

Anyway, we are doing a Halloween Obstacle Course for Sam's class. I think it will be our best party yet. Yea! We have had most of the same kids in his class every year, so each year has to be new and different. :) It will be cute seeing Avery's class doing stuff too. Well, it's just about time to go, so I better get off here for now. I am sure I will post pictures and more fun stuff in the next few days, since it is Halloween after all!

Happy Halloween!

Fun Website for Kids!

Go check it out. :)

Moshi Monsters

Halloween Has Begun!

I know, I know, it's been too long. Oops!

I subbed a lot this week, and just didn't have time.

Last Saturday we got the boys their costumes. They have been dying to wear them and yesterday was their chance. Every year our city holds a Halloween in the Park day. We have gone every year since Sam was 2. We love it! It is our favorite thing that Smyrna does. It's a big festival thing where all the kids dress up, and there are a million booths set up by different companies in Smyrna. Each booth gives out candy, some have games, some have contests and many give away lots of free stuff. Yippee! They also have a hayride, inflatables, food, a haunted hay ride, costume contests and more. The boys couldn't wait to go, but we had a fun birthday party to go to first.

It was their friend Isaac's birthday, and he had his party at the park. I was freezing the whole time, but the kids were fine and had lots of fun. They even got to hit two pinatas, and Sam tried white chili for the first time and loved it. Avery ended up getting something thrown at his eye right before we left, and he cried and cried forever. It really hurt him. :( So we had to leave a bit early, but they were excited to come home and get ready.

Here are some pics of the fun.


Here are the boys in their costumes. We had TONS of comments on their cuteness and cool costumes. :)


Harry Potter Sam


Yoda Avery


With Taylor on the hayride.


Sam with the coolest costumes. He LOVED getting a picture with these guys, especially when the big, scary one grabbed his head! :)

We met up with Lindsay and the kids played and had fun. Then Sam decided to enter the costume contest. He didn't win (all unique, home-made costumes won), but he thought it was cool anyway.


We ate dinner there, and then stood in line for the haunted hayride. The kids played frisbee while we waited in line (yes a free gift we got from one of the booths) and they made some new friends. Although one of them thought Kinley's name was Kimberly. That was pretty funny.

Anyway, we all LOVED the haunted hayride. It was a great way to end our fun day.

After that, the kids weren't tired of each other so we went to McDonald's and let them play. It was a long fun-filled day!


Now, let me tell you what terrible thing happened to me this week!

I teach Relief Society once a month at church. (Relief Society is a meeting for just the women in our church. We also have Sunday School where all the adults are combined together, and Sacrament where the whole family meets and we hear from speakers as a congregation.) Today was my day to teach. Well, Friday I opened my lesson to finish it up, read through it, and get everything printed up and ready. I had worked on my lesson for 6 hours at this point. Well, I printed all my assignments and quotes out, and got everything ready. It was getting late, so I decided to read through it the next morning instead of doing it that night. I left it all there and went to bed. The next morning I got up and I realized my lesson wasn't up on the screen anymore. I asked AJ what happened to the computer. He didn't know. I tried pulling up my lesson and it was gone! Apparently the computer had done an update during the night and it had closed my window and made me lose everything! The worst part was that I had printed everything else I needed for the lesson, except the actual lesson! It was TERRIBLE! I am a planner, I can't do things at the last minute. I don't even know how!!!!! Also, I was going to be gone all day, doing all that fun stuff with the kids, and I couldn't back out of that after I promised them, and it wasn't their fault. So anyway, I had to do my whole lesson over at 11:00 last night. Of course I couldn't remember everything, so it cut my lesson short, but I did it today, and I had enough participation that I ended right on time. I was totally freaking out though, and it was terrible, and that better never happen again!!!!!

Today they also did a Primary Program during Sacrament (Primary is what we call the children's classes). All the kids sat on the stand and sang and had parts to learn. Avery looked bored the whole time and didn't sing a word, but he did great on his part, and even had it memorized. Sam did great, adn knew his part well as well. It was all very cute. :)

Anyway, that was our weekend. I am subbing a lot again this week, we have the class Halloween Parties, a church Trunk or Treat (it's tons of fun if anyone wants to come let me know, it's on Wednesday), Halloween Night, and then another birthday party on Saturday. Fun for us!

Fun Run

Yesterday was Sam's Fun Run. I was worried about him, since he does have pneumonia right now, and told him it was ok for him to walk, and that it didn't matter if he only got 5 laps. Well, he gets out there and I remind him, but he says he wants to run. He ran the first lap, got back to me, and I could tell he was already dieing. He needed his inhaler, so we did that, I told him to walk, but no, he takes off running again. Argh! Anyway, everytime he came around he looked worse and worse and was having a hard time, but he kept saying, "but I want to keep going, I want to run!" Anyway, he had to rest a couple more times, walked a little bit, but he mostly ran. He did 25 laps!!! That is the most he has ever gotten, I think, all with pneumonia. Crazy kid! We had to do his inhaler again after he ran, but he was doing much better after several minutes of resting. He was very proud of himself, even though he freaked me out. LOL!

He also re-auditioned for the school play and he made it, again! :) He is the 2nd Little Pig. It is a comedy about the Big Bad Wolf going to Trial. He loves his part and is SO excited!

I have been at school all day, every day this week, plus doing a lot of work for the PTO when I get home at night. It has been a crazy, stressful week, but thank goodness it is over. Now, today, I will be playing catch up. My house is a mess and we have NO food. I go shopping once a month, and I was supposed to go last week, but it was Fall Break, and I can't take both kids because I have to push two carts through the store, etc. Since I didn't go last week, we are an extra week behind. For real, we are totally out food. I HAVE to go shopping today. The other night I tried to make 3 different things, before I finally found something that I could scrounge together to make a meal out of, and even it had to have 2 different types of noodles, because I didn't have enough of one kind. LOL!

Anyway, next week seems much more calm. The next 3 weekends are filled with Birthday parties. Halloween is coming, and I have nothing ready for that, not even the kid's costumes!

OK, I better got make my shopping list!

Fall Fun

This week is Fall Break for us. Yes, we get a whole week off from school in the fall. Interesting, I know, but the kids love it.

We didn't do anything on Monday, at least I don't remember if we did. :)

Tuesday we took Sam to get his shot. We have decided to get his shot here in Smyrna so we don't have to do the 35 minute drive each week. We will miss the people at our allergist, the kids LOVE them, but it is getting too much to drive that far, especially when Sam gets so car sick. So we said goodbye to all of them, they were very sad, but we will see them for his allergy check-ups. :) Then we went to get the boys haircuts. It was POURING rain, and it took us forever to get there, but we made it. We haven't had rain for a LONG time, so the skies made up for it for two days.

Wednesday our best friends, Julie and kids, came up to visit. The boys had been waiting for days for them to come. All 3 of them are best friends with the 3 of us. They moved an hour away this summer so we don't get to see them much anymore, which is sad. :( Anyway, we spent the night playing and watching Presidential stuff. LOL! They spent the night, which was fun.

Thursday AJ left early in the morning for a long camping trip. We played some more in the morning and then took the kids to McDonald's. It was a terrible McDonald's so we didn't stay long. Then we went to the park by our house for a little bit. There were wasps EVERYWHERE. and you know how much I LOVE wasps. Um, NOT! We didn't stay long there. :) Then we went to the Pumpkin Patch. Lindsay joined us there, so it was just like old times. The kids had lots of fun, and I finally took some pictures. When we left there Julie and the boys had to go home. They left, we ate dinner, and then my quartet came over to practice. We learned 2 new Christmas songs and worked on our other 2 songs. It is going well. I just wish I didn't sing so loud! They always have to tell me to be quiet! I don't try to be, I just sing! Sigh....

Today we went with Lindsay to the zoo. We saw some other friends there that I hadn't seen in a while, so that was nice to talk to them a bit. Hi Angel! :) Again we got bombarded by bees and wasps. Yuck! Why can't they just pollinate without having stingers and being scary?! LOL! We stayed for 4 1/2 hours and then ended up going to Lindsay's for an hour. Nothing much tonight. The boys have been playing the Lego Batman game, and loving it, but it is due back tomorrow, so they are busy playing that. :)

Anyway, the boys loved Fall Break and it has been pretty relaxing, which is a good thing, because next week is BUSY! We have a thousand things going on at school, all of which I have to find volunteers for. Ahhhhhh!

Here are some pics of our Fall Fun!