and then we got some candy

This is before I went through it and threw away the most obnoxious candy, especially the bubble gum. And the next day I offered them a nickel for each piece of candy. Not a lot of takers, but some. I let the candy linger for about a week and then it was gone. We have to detox before holiday treats!
Brooklyn was Cinderella, and wore the dress I made her last Christmas. I made a few accessories, like the headband and choker. Brighton was a waitress, and I found her cute costume idea at family fun. It was a big hit. Logan wanted to be a cowboy, and we had some things in the dress-up bin so he wore that. Same thing for Spencer. Cute kids!

The pumpkins!

James got out his dremel and carved this impressive dragon. This has been my favorite so far, he did a really good job on it. It took about four hours! All in all, I think we had a successful Halloween. The kids went to three separate trick-or-treating events, and then we had a Halloween homeschool party with some friends.

Moving on to the next holiday!

in which we did some stuff.

Riding the overpriced train at the zoo. Fun!

Playing with some watercolors that Grandpa Bliss sent. My kids love to paint. And draw, cut, color and glue. Which is why this is the art table, a small table in the kitchen dedicated just for projects. They have all their supplies close at hand. We go through a lot of paper and markers in this house, for sure.

a new post!

I blame Pinterest. Seriously.

It might be slightly sad how much I think about my house. Maybe even 75% of the time. Could that be right?!? I'm not very good at decorating or coming up with ideas of how to move things around, but that's where Pinterest comes in handy. And I'm slowly figuring out what my style is. I've decorated with freebies and hand-me-downs for so long, that I really didn't know. And when I got in this house I just decorated the way I always have, and then wondered why I didn't like it and it didn't feel like "me". It was because it wasn't! And the house is so fun to think about, and we feel so blessed to have it. We have the most awesome backyard and we love having so much space. Even if we have to do some creative budgeting to make it all work.

This time of year is a busy one for me, because in addition to holidays I also have 3 birthdays thrown in the mix. And add in there a new baby. And I usually hand make several gifts for Christmas/Birthdays, so I'm trying to get that all done now while I still have the energy. Right now I'm feeling pretty productive! I sew for about an hour a night, otherwise I'm stripping paint off of cabinets.

Baby is growing, kids are growing, and life is good! We just got family pictures taken by a good friend who managed to make it look like we are just a super cute happy family that she just happened to follow around and take pictures of one day. (see pic above) Love!

I am homeschooling, and that makes my morning super busy. Brighton goes to public school for the specials, which is gym, music and art. She loves it, and I love that I can see her school from my driveway and she walks to and from by herself. She's gone for about 45 minutes a day, except for when she manages to sneak into the library and I have to go and fetch her. I'm glad that she likes it and is getting to know people. Brooklyn is officially in Kindergarten this year, which is not that different from what we did last year. Logan and Spencer always join in and work on something when we're doing school, or for the most part play with cars or balls. Those two are such boys. :)

Sometimes I feel like a homebody because I spend so much time with my family, but you know what, I love it! A bubble isn't bad, is it? I have the church and my family, and the occasional outside things. I just organized a block party for my neighborhood, (which turned out awesome, I am the coolest person on the block. :) And we have nice neighbors!) And I'm also teaching MJ Thriller to a few ladies in our ward to perform at the Trunk or Treat. Crazy fun!

Sorry, this is a sort of a christmas card type catch up! I promise to just post pictures next time and not journal at all! :)

The project that started (a) school

We started the school year learning about animal classifications: Reptiles, Amphibians, and so on. This is one of our craft projects for Fish week. I got the idea from here, and the kids have LOVED it! All week they've been adding more and more fish. We ran out of paper plates, but the kids figured out that they can just make a circle from a paper and use that.

I'll try to start posting more often. I have my energy back, and so now I've been working on the house again, fixing little things and trying to figure out how to decorate it. So. Hard.

And I've discovered Pinterest, so a lot of time spent there. :) Hope you all had a fun summer!

Treasure Hunt

A few weeks ago we had the kids go on a treasure hunt, finding clues to help them figure out a special secret.

They found a baby bottle, baby socks, a pacifier and a baby spoon.

Their guess was, "Uuuh, maybe that maybe a baby was coming to visit?"

Well, they're half right... :)

Poop Problems

Something else that has occupied much of my thoughts lately: Poop. And Logan.

Logan has had a bowel issue for about a year. He always got constipated about monthly and would have really painful bowel movements. When I potty-trained him, he just didn't want to poop anymore because he associated it with pain. It took me a while to figure out he had a problem other than potty-training troubles. By then his bowels were pretty impacted and stretched out. Which led to encopresis (you can google it if you want to), which basically means impacted bowels to the point where he can't feel the need to have a bowel movement because he's so stretched out and so poop just starts leaking out and he can't control it.

Super. Fun.

And I feel like this problem has led to other behavioral problems. He is so much more sensitive and unhappy than he used to be. And unwilling to try new things. And going to the bathroom has become a constant problem between us as I try to be patient and not get upset with him for constantly messing his pull-up and not wanting to go to the bathroom. I miss my sweet boy!

I took him to the Dr and he prescribed Miralax as a stool softener, which I don't think was a good idea. He has no control over his bowels, and it made his poop so runny that he would have big accidents all over. Outside. Playing with friends. :(

This problem has been hard for me because I don't know how to fix it. I have a new game plan now, which involved an enema to clean him out good, a low dose of Miralax to keep him from getting constipated, and a sticker chart for reminding him to use the bathroom. Actually, that's only half of it. My treatment plan also involves chiropractic adjustments, essential oils, change in diet, massaging his intestines to keep his digestion moving, and reflexology. And perhaps getting his energy tested if things don't start improving. And then maybe voodoo. :)

This problem usually takes months or years to clear up, so wish me luck! And please, if you've gone through this before or have any ideas that might help, please share!

End of School

The kids wanted to study Mexico before we started school break. I think mostly because we could have a fiesta at the end. :) Which we did, complete with pinata! This is after we studied the temple ruins at Chichen Itza.
We built replicas out of sugar cubes, which was messy, a little sticky and a lot of fun! Now we're on break for the month of June, and we'll probably start up again with school mid-July. Or whenever I can get my act together. Meanwhile, we have swim lessons and I'm trying to figure out when I can squeeze in teaching piano. But if I can get that figured out, then James would be able to quit Best Buy and we'd have him around a little bit more. Time taken out of my day, a little bit more for me to do, but totally worth it!

Oh, side note. So I figured out where my pictures are on this oversized computer, and now I'm thinking maybe the problem is that I don't take pictures anymore. The last ones I could find were from Easter. :) Hmm, I'll have to get on that!