Yucky Sick

This past month Mike has been rotating in pediatrics. He has enjoyed it- but has not enjoyed what has resulted from treating so many kids with the flu. Yep- Wednesday he came home complaining of a horrible headache, a fever and loss of appetite. He has since not left the house. He has been pretty sick with awful body aches, a congested head and cough. The following day on Thursday, I lifted up Collin and threw my back out. Really painful but nothing funnier looking than a big pregnant lady walking severely crooked.
Today was Samantha's primary program, she worked hard and had her part memorized so of course she was majorly disappointed when she woke up with a fever and couldn't go. Then to boot it was also my week to teach in R.S.- luckily the education counselor was so understanding and took over the lesson for me.
Now all 4 of us are sick, not at all fun- but we're making the most of it- we'll just chalk it up to making memories.....especially since we have not been able to do some of the Halloween fun that we had planned- there's always next year!

Yummy Haunted Houses

I mentioned before that I was going to try and start some new traditions- especially now that we are so far from family. At Christmas time I LOVE decorating gingerbread houses- we never really did that as a family as a tradition growing up- but I just loved the few times that we did do it. I have seen in the stores the pre-packaged sets for Halloween houses- and so I thought PERFECT now we can do it twice a year! (Although at Christmas Mike has made me promise that we do "real" gingerbread instead of the grahm cracker way, hmmm... guess I better learn how to make gingerbread)

It was such a fun night- we all had a blast- Samantha did more dancing in the kitchen to the music we were listening to than decorating her house- and Collin ate more candy than he put on his house- but no matter- we made some good memories and started a fun tradition.

Making scary faces....

The Finished product

A picture of me.....

Lately, Samantha has been really concerned about being left behind, getting lost or taken etc. It's funny because when I was a little girl I was the EXACT same way- but more so. I was ALWAYS worried about being kidnapped- I looked out for vans without windows because those were perfect for taking kids. I didn't like going to the mountains because that seemed like a good place to take kids etc.- I know, I worried ALOT- heck I still remember in our kindergarten carpool CJ's mom saying "Amberlee, you worry way too much for a 5 year old"but to my credit- I inherited it- I have a nervous Mom and Grandpa (it's a running joke in our family)- so it only makes sense that Samantha is the same way. (poor kid, not something I necessarily wanted to pass down)
Anyways, the other day we were in the grocery store and Samantha says to me: "Hey mom, I have a good idea." me: "what's that?" Samantha: "When we get home, I am going to paint a picture of you so that when we go out, if I get lost I can show someone what you look like so they can help me find you!" It brought tears to my eyes- for 2 reasons
1-what a sweet thing to think of
2-I can only imagine what the finished product would look like given my current "condition"

A Cake and a Campout

A Cake

Halloween has always been my least favorite holiday, Fall is my favorite season by far- but I don't like the holiday that comes with it. I decided to make the most of it this year- and try and have a good attitude for my kids as well as start some fun traditions. I've made a list of things to do and to start out the kids and we went to the store and they picked out what Halloween candy they wanted as well as a cake and frosting. We were going to make an orange cake and decorate it- simple- but to little kids they were so excited. We then went to the movie store and rented a couple Halloween cartoons to watch while the cake was baking and cooling.

Now I had already decided that I was going to control myself and let the kids do what THEY wanted as far as the decorating went. I admit that in the past when my kids have done projects I have tried to "sway" them in the direction that I think they should do things-(a mean mom)- but not anymore.

The kids had a blast and they were SO proud of the way the cake turned out.

A Camp out

From the first few weeks of living in our house, Samantha and Mike have talked about having a camp out in our backyard. Well, because of our time in Utah and then Mike's hectic schedule this past month- our warm weather has gone. (plus if you ask me- I, for sure wasn't interested in having a visit from the groundhog, the squirrels, or the skunks that frequent our yard- and yes I know if we were camping in the mountains we would have the same visitors- but it just seems different when it's in your own yard)

So we decided that we would just set up the tent in our living room and make the most of it! Well the tent quickly turned into air mattresses instead.-either way the kids were happy because they got to sleep in the front room with mom and dad. Of course a night at the Taylors house would not be complete without a little Star Wars.

We all slept well- except for Mike- so all in all it was a great night-possibly to be repeated?!