Thanksgiving.

This year we stayed here and had Thanksgiving with my cousin and her family. I was in charge of making the rolls and pie. They both turned out wonderfully, if I might say so myself. I have never realized how long rolls take to make. Its like 4 hours from start to finish.... with a lot of waiting in between. It made me realize why I dont do it that often. The pies were fun to make. I made apple, its tradition! The kids had fun peeling the apples and Luke has a new found appreciation for apple skins. ( Its all in the presentation, isint it?) he spread out a blanket on the kitchen floor and brought the bowl over to him and had a little picnic right there. The funny thing is that before I brought out the Apple-peeler-corer-slicer he never ate the skins. I will have to remember to do this more often. It was fun.
I coulndnt find Luke for a while when it was bed time.. PEEK A BOO! He has discovered under the crib! tHiS kId ROcKs!

Lucky number 7

Elise is officially Seven. I just feel so 30ish saying that. I am feeling more like a Mom than a mommy and I kind of resent that. She wanted a Rock Star birthday cake so this is what I came up with. We found out from the little girl behind us in line at Roberts Craft Store that Hannah Montana's birthday is also on the 23rd. AHHHHH to be seven and think that you are SO SO cool because your birthday is on the same day as a real ROCK STAR!!! We went and got her nails painted. They were all jewled up. We had alittle family party on the 23rd and then on the 24th she invited two friends and we went to Kangaroo Zoo. It was a blast! About two seconds...literally, after getting in the car Vanessa was asleep.Thats just how much fun it was. I totally reccomend this place to everyone. It's a little pricy.. but most things are, really. When Gma and Gpa come to visit we will have to hit this place. Elise got a lot of cool gifts. Among my favs was a coloring book she got from her Gma and Gpa Looker. This coloring book should not be called a coloring book, its entirely in a class all its own. If you have kids (or dont) you need to check this one out. I think they found it at Barns and Noble. Its called Doodles by Taro Gomi. (Yes, it has an Author.) Put this on your Christmas list for your young un'.

This is what it looks like.
BTW I have been wiating SO long to put this song on here. I have loved it from the first time I heard it. Its Elises little song. When she was two we would sing it really loud in the car when we lived in MD. Its called SEVEN YEARS.

Well, Last week I informed Elise that she wil have a dish day where she is in charge of the dishes after dinner. She was really excited. Luke and Vanessa were excited about using the stools and bugging their big sis. I was so proud of her that she did them all by herself. She even filled the dishwasher with soap and started it! My mom and dad came to say goodbye before they left to Mazatlan and my mom noticed some bubbles coming out of the bottom of the dishwasher. We started to laugh. I tried not to make too big of a deal about it in front of Elise. However next Friday she will know exactly which soap goes in the dishwasher and which soap doesn't.

Today Luke Vanessa and I raked up the leaves on our front lawn. We have a few aspen trees that never seem to stop shedding so we took advantage of the crisp fall afternoon. Luke played in the leaves too but he wouldnt hold still long enough to get a good shot. He didnt want me to bury him in the leaves. He thought it was funner to throw them on us. I took a short video of this and then I ran out of batteries. :( Vanessa loved the leaves! When it was time to come inside and wash our hands she had leaves everywhere....even in her nose! When I would bury her she couldnt stop giggling. It was so cute... as you can see. Luke thought it was funner to bang on the trunk of a tree with a stick. What a boy!!

Friday Night- Date Night

Nate works on Friday night and so Elise and I have a standing "date night" every week. All of the babies go to bed early and we are left to have a party. Our party usually consists of popcorn, a good chic flick, snuggling in my bed and a late, 10:00 bed time. Well, last night Elise decided that she wanted to watch Wynn Dixie. Something about Wynn Dixie puts me right to sleep. I have tried to watch it about 5 times and each time the last thing I can remember is Wynn Dixie wandering into a pet shop. So... last night was no exception. I fell asleep and woke to Marcus crying as I hopped out of bed I stumbled over this..............

It was so cute I had to grab my camera and snap this shot. This little lady is such an easy load. She turns seven on the 23rd and I cant believe it! She seriously is growing up right before my eyes. I was looking at pictures of when she was younger and I seriously dont know where the time has gone. So, cheers to my lovely lady who is "inside the box"

Mi Hermana

This is my sister Emily. Right now she is Hermana Haws. She is on a 18 month, LDS mission. She is serving in Santa Monica, California but she is in the L.A. California mission. I miss her so much. We are tight, her and I. We have a lot of fun together. Before her mission she was over at my house everyday. She gets home either the end of this month or the beginning of January. After she gets home she is going strait to BYU Idaho. The song that is playing right now is one that reminds me of her. She is very musical and can play several instruments... but her love is the viola. She plays this so beautifully on her viola. Auntie Em doesnt even know Marcus and she left before the twins turned one. On her mission she has grown so much, in so many ways. I cant wait to see her.. this sister of mine!

We had a very busy day on Halloween. The kids woke up excited to dress up. Elise could hardly contain herself. Vanessa was so excited to be a "print-ness" (Princess). And Luke well, he woke up sick! Fever and all. We kept medicine in him but he pretty much stayed in bed all day. Elise had a costume parade at school and Vanessa got lost in the shuffle. I found her tagging along with Elises class. She thought it was great! I was very relieved to find her. I loved going to the parade. It wasn't seeing the kids dressed up but seeing how excited the kids were to dress up. I don't ever remember being in a halloween parade when I was growing up. This was such a fun thing for the kids! I saw my friend there and she said this was her 23rd halloween parade. Her youngest out of 5 kids is in kindergarten and she was there to watch her. I dont think the magic will ever run out. I do not understand people that don't like Halloween.

After the parade we took Elise home and started getting ready for the Chili cook off at the church. I made a bunch of Chili and got the kids ready for Halloween. I say that with ease but in reality it was hard work. I had to convince Vanessa to wear a shirt under her costume beacause it was a cold outside and I had to convince Luke to not take Vanessa's costume from her. He decided that he wanted to be a print-ness too. I finally got him to be excited about being a print-ness "helper" ( he was Sleepy the Dwarf and Vanessa was Snow White ) This worked. Although he wouldn't let me put on his hat all night and that was the cutest part of his costume. I was just glad that he felt good enough to have fun. Vanessa had a hard time at this party. There were several kids that had masks on and she would not let go of me. I had some of the kids take their masks off to show her that it was a costume but that didn't do much to ease her shrieking every couple minutes.

After the Party we went to my grandma Jackies to trick-or-treat. She was excited to see us. She lives in a retirement center and I dont think they get a lot of trick-or-treaters. Luke had so much fun here. Grandma took us into the great room where there were a lot of elderly people in a big circle. The idea was to go around the circle and trick-or-treat to each person. Vanessa and Elise did wonderful and Elise was so cute with the elderly. Luke melted my heart. He would go around to each "grandma" and say "tick-tee" (trick-or-treat) and then he would reach in his candy bucket and give them one of his candies instead of them giving him one. Everyone got the biggest laugh out of this. About half way through he started doing it the right way. He is so cute. Spending a day with Luke and his cute personality really makes think he could swoon any person in the whole wide world. Elise loves my grandma. I think it has something to do with her swimming pool and grandma letting her watch endless hours of Hanna Montana when shes comes to visit. HMMMM.... whatever works?

Nate had to work the rest of the night so I was on my own with the kids to visit grandma Vicky and grandpa Jay. I was completly worn out. Grandpa Jay gave the grandkids a super duper big candy bar... like the kind that are HUGE that you use for baking. He gave us one for Marcus too... Hmmmm... I wonder who will eat that one?

All in all the day was great and the kids had so much fun. They are still wearing thier costumes around the house and chomping on an occasional treat. I loved Halloween but I am glad that

IT ONLY COMES ONCE A YEAR!