Friday, October 30 - Trunk or Treat / Ward Halloween Party

Let me start off by saying that I LOVE HALLOWEEN! It is my favorite holiday! I love all of the food and activities associated with the holiday and this time of year in general! So... you will understand why I'm mad that I have to miss out on all of the fun things going on! I love seeing the kids in their costumes and their excitement for all of the activities they get to participate in! This is the first year that I've missed their school halloween party and parade. It makes me so sad! :O(


Anyways... since I didn't want to freak anyone out by going to the church Halloween party and trunk or treat, I asked Ed to take them! I know he's not as into these things as me, but he understands that I would do it if I could. I miss doing things together as a family... whatever it may be. So, he brought the kids home for a bit to get their costumes and see me for like an hour and a half (they had gotten their flu shots a few days before). The kids got into their costumes and I helped Eden put on some make-up, which she LOVED!!! I drew on some chin whiskers for Oliver and some whiskers and a black nose for Jaren. I had to get some photos of them in their costumes, of course! Then, I got some hugs and good-byes and then they were gone. :O( I miss them soooooo much it hurts.

Hannah Montana (6), Dalmation (2), Shaggy from Scooby-doo (8).

Here's a better view of their costumes!

Ed called me from the party and said that the kids were having fun, but Jaren was ready to leave! He's my only kid that never wants to stay anywhere for very long. At friend's houses, the park, anywhere... it's crazy! Ollie and Eden would stay anywhere all day long!! :O) They had hot dogs, played games, did the trunk or treat, had an ugly tie contest and a best costume contest!

I saw some photos on FACEBOOK of the fun that my friends posted! It looked like they had a ball! :O) I'm sad I missed it, but I'm glad that the kids still got to go and have fun with their friends! (Thanks, Meg and Krista for the photos!)

Oliver during the Trunk or Treat at the Youngblut's.

Jaren staying by Papa's side. True to form as 'man's best friend'...

Haylie and Eden. Such cute girlies!

Friday, October 23 - Surprise GNO

Today was a normal day. I felt like I was getting a cold. Tired as always from not being able to sleep the night before. Ed's at work, kids are at school and Jaren is at G&G Palmer's house. Another lonely day to sit and think about my crappy luck lately. My good friend, Meg calls and wanted to bring me lunch, but I was asleep. She called back later and said she had something to drop off. She came about 5:30 or 6ish with a basket of goodies for me. She said it was the 2nd Shift Survival Kit... since Ed was about to switch from 1st to 2nd shift at work. She knows that I've been worried because of my health, but also because I don't like to be alone at night in our horrible neighborhood. A friend who works for the sheriff's department here in town said that our neighborhood is the worst one in the city now... YAY, US! ARGH!!! Anyways... she began pulling various items out and explaining their significance to me! I got a kick out of the Sweet and Sour gummy bears as I would have some sweet days and some sour days and also the eye patch because I will now have to sleep with one eye open!!! I was DYING LAUGHING!!! I soooo needed a good laugh! Thanks again, Meg... H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S!!!

By that time the kids were all home, but Ed wasn't scheduled to get home until around 8:30. We chatted for a while and then someone else knocks on the door and it's my friend, Jenelle! I'm like... "Okay... what is going on!?" :O) She comes in with some bags of stuff and then puts a casserole in my freezer and some other food and then plops down to give me a foot massage. I opted out of the foot massage as I'm weird about my feet, but she gave me a hand massage instead! They said that they had called Ed and were kidnapping me for a girl's night! Ed was coming home a little early from work so we could go out and eat and chat! A MUCH NEEDED NIGHT OUT!!! :O) We sat and chatted for a while, I got ready and then Ed got home and we went out to eat at Las Margaritas. I could have eaten chips and salsa all night long!!! :O) After dinner, we went back to Jenelle's house and talked for several hours... laughing all the while!!! THANK YOU, LADIES!!! I sooooooo needed a night out to forget about my problems and just LAUGH!!! And THANK YOU, HONEY for coming home early so I could go out! *LOVES*

Tuesday, October 20 - Kid's Fun Fair at School

Tonight I mustered up some energy and took the kiddos to their Annual School Fun Fair. Since I was by myself (Ed was working), Jaren stayed back with G&G Palmer, aka... his 'other' set of parents! :O) I also invited my friends to join us but two of her kiddos were sick so I offered to take her oldest, who is four! I knew he'd LOVE to play the games, but I forgot how much energy four-year-olds have as well!!! Oliver was GREAT and helped me out with keeping an extra eye on Cullan. It was like he was an adoptive big brother for the night! It was seriously so sweet to see how they interacted with one another!

Ollie and Cullan waiting in line to play some games in the gym.

My friend, Brenda, is the PTO president this year and her two boys were sick at home and her husband was out of town so she brought her little girl, McKenzie, who I used to babysit, along with her. She asked if she could hang out with us for the night while she made sure the fun fair ran without a hitch! She even gave us an extra punch card for games for each of the kiddos! How sweet was that?! I didn't mind since McKenzie and Eden are good friends, so they had a ball together!

First, we went to the cake walk and Cullan WON the very first cake!!! We all cheered for him but then he got very shy and didn't want to choose one. I chose one for him which was a green cake with a large spider on top and ran it out to the car so I didn't have to carry it all night long! We walked through the school playing the games, getting tattoos and jumping on the inflatables. They all were having so much fun!

The hockey game. The boys loved this one!

Eden playing a game.

Cullan playing the ring toss game.

We took a break to have pizza or hot dogs for dinner in the cafeteria. It was nice to get off of my feet for a bit! We did the cake walk again and this time... I WON! I've never won a cake at a cake walk! Oliver was the one that drew my number, too!!! HA! This time, Cullan wanted to choose the cake so I let him choose and we swapped cakes later! He chose a green one with spiders all over it! It was funny because Oliver's teacher, Mr. Galloway, made both of the cakes that we chose! ;o)

McKenzie and Eden during dinner. Goofy girls!

I still can't believe that I won a cake! I was like, "I'm cravin' me some cake tonight!!"

In one of the rooms they had a "Musical Petting Zoo" which the kids LOVED! They had an array of instruments laid out for the kids to try. They all loved trying the violins!!!

Oliver getting a mini violin lesson.

Eden trying it as well!

"Hey Mr. Tambourine Man... Play a song for me..."

Ollie trying to play... hehehe...

I'm glad that I was able to feel well enough to take them so they could have fun. I feel like they've been missing out on alot with me feeling crappy all of the time. I'm glad we went! It was a really fun night!

Celebration of My 31-ness!

English

Happy Birthday!

French
Joyeux Anniversaire

German
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!

Greek
Eytyxismena Genethlia! or Chronia Pola!

Hawaiian
Hau`oli la hanau!

Hebrew
Yom Huledet Same'ach!

Italian
Buon Compleanno!

Japanese
Otanjou-bi Omedetou Gozaimasu!

Klingon
Quchjaj qoSlIj!

Navajo
bil hoozho bi'dizhchi-neeji' 'aneilkaah!

Norwegian
Gratulerer med dagen!

Portuguese
Feliz Aniversario! or Parabens!

Russian
S dniom razhdjenia! or Pazdravliayu s dniom razhdjenia!

Spanish
Feliz Cumpleanos!

Swahili
Hongera! or Heri ya Siku kuu!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25th - Since Ed worked on my actual birthday, we celebrated the day before! He took the day off of work and so we celebrated by going to lunch at the Isle of Capri Buffet. My favorite thing there was a spinach salad with craisins, slivered almonds, strawberries and some sort of poppyseed dressing. It was DIVINE!!! We took Jaren with us since it was during the day, but we had fun! After that we went shopping for a bit.

There were no movies out that we really wanted to see and since my back had been hurting alot lately bowling or any other physical activity was out of the question. So Ed took me out to dinner. Can you tell we love food? :O) Anyways... we were going to go out to eat at Texas Roadhouse, but the wait was about 65 minutes and I was starving! So, Ed suggested we go to Montage on the parkade. He had never eaten there before so I thought that was a great idea! :O) It was nice to eat at a little fancier restaurant, but holy smokes was it expensive! YOWZA!!! We got some chips and a monterey jack & poblano cheese dip for the appetizer. It was okay. I liked the other cheese dip I got there before lots better. Ed got a southwestern chicken breast entree with garlic mashed potatoes and I got the cashew encrusted rosemary chicken with lime dipping sauce and corn pudding. It was pretty good, but the dipping sauce was nasty. For dessert we split a chocolate souffle which was DELISH! Ed wanted to see if I could get a dessert for free, but he didn't want to ask because he didn't want to sound like a dork. He told our waitress that it was my birthday and she just said, "Oh... Happy Birthday!" When she left, Ed was like "That didn't turn out the way that I hoped it would!!!!" WAH... WAH... WAAAAHHHH... :O) We had a really fun time together! Thanks, Babycakes!!! I LOVE YOU!!!


SATURDAY, September 26th (My 31st Birthday) - This morning Meghan, her sister and mom picked me up for a day of scrapbooking in Traer! We were there from 10:30 am - 4:30 pm and I LOVED every minute of it! We got to scrap in a store called Scraptopia and could also buy what supplies we liked. I went a little crazy... I mean... who wouldn't in a store full of darling papers and embellishments!!! :O) I'll have to take a photo of the layouts I created! We chatted, ate, laughed and scrapped and it was GREAT! Thanks, Meg! I sooooooo needed a scrap day! We need to get together soon for another girl's night of scrapping!

"Maybe HE's Born With It... Maybe It's Maybelline!"

Bear letting Lulu apply some make up to his cheeks!

Bear and Lulu

"Pretty in Pink!"

Jaren 'the tongue' Palmer

Lulu's own application!

Little Toady

September 14 - Today Meg, Krista and I took our kiddos to George Wyth to let them play. We packed lunches and let them go to town on the playground equipment. I even found a little toad by the drinking fountain. The kids LOVED it! We had fun letting him go... "Bye Toad!" :O)

Messy Magoo

Little friends (Tui, Kael & Jaren)

The Birdie! This is especially for you, Gram!!!

The kids LOVED looking at the little toad we found, especially Kate! I think she wanted to take him home with her!

Up close and personal...

Labor Day BBQ with Ed's Co-workers

We were invited to a BBQ with some of Ed's co-workers from John Deere for Labor Day and had a really fun time! It was probably the last get-together with them since Ed will be getting different position soon. It's been fun getting to know them and we'll have to still go out with some of them every once in a while! Thanks, Melissa!!!

Joshlin & Jaren. Sweet legs there, Bear! We took off his pants since it was really hot out that day!

Cutie girl! She is so dang cute and LOVES Dora!

Abby and her little man, Jett. What a doll!

Jaren and Eden playing on the hammock.


Eden holding Jett. She's such a little mommy!


Joshlin and Jaren playin'.


Oliver displaying Jett for all to see! HA!

Two cutie boys, Jett & Jathan!

Joshlyn kept sitting with Melissa... too cute!

Jaren as a puppy dog...

Jaren petting the cute doggy... Thank goodness for Benedryl!

I LOVE this picture! I can envision a cape on Jaren... Doesn't he look like a superhero!?! HA!

Hickory Hills Picnic with Takoda

Jaren's diaper sliding down his leg!!

Good friends, Takoda & Ollie

Papa & Bear