Our Halloween Surprise!

Actually, we had TWO surprises!

Nathan lost his first tooth, and Aunt Sara had baby Lukey the same day as her twin sister. (The link is below.)

After we finished trunk-or-treating, it was killing Justin that Nathan's tooth was so loose and he wanted it out worse than Nathan did.

He tied the tooth to a piece of dental floss and with every ounce of his being, he tried to convince and bribe Nathan to tie it to the bathroom door and yank it out that way. Nathan had other plans for the shinny little guy.

Nathan told Justin to tie the end of the floss to his heavy bag of candy. Giddy as a little boy, Justin did as he was told. He lifted the floss gently up a few inches from Nathan's tooth and then BAM!! Nathan dropped the bag of candy and the tooth went flying out.... plink!

Justin was getting footage all night and when the tooth flew out he realized it wasn't on video. Needless to say, the boys put the tooth back in its hole and reenacted the whole thing so that we would have some version of the flying tooth on record.

He was the first one in his class to loose a tooth so his teacher had him do an entry into the "class tooth book." The binder contained tons of stories about losing teeth that we got to read that night.
I noticed that Nathan was using TONS of toothpaste and when I told him to not use so much he said, "Sorry mom, I just want to make sure all my teeth are extra sparkly for the tooth fairy!"


Sara and Melissa made the front page of Yahoo with their amazing story! Love those babies!
http://www.kake.com/offbeatnews/headlines/Twin_Sisters_Give_Birth_On_Same_Day_106541053.html

The Hillan Spooks!

Lots of Halloween festivities this year! On Friday, Justin, Kendall, and I went to Nathan's school to help with his party and watch the costume parade! Fun spider crafts, watermelon brains, carrot eyeballs, colored masks, and soft frosted sugar cookies! His classmates were adorable- all decked out in their Halloween costumes.

Saturday, after some enjoying Mammy's vegetable stew, and getting the boys ready (all 3 of them!) we loaded the dead grandparents up in the Jimmy and had fun at the ward trunk-or-treat! Doughnuts and hot chocolate at the pavilion with lots of great costumes to gwak at.

The boys got too much candy this year! After Nathan sorted it into piles of chocolate- not chocolate, colors, favorites, big and small, they picked out 10 pieces of candy and then the Halloween Witch came and took the rest that night. Whew!

Sunday, we headed up to Stacey and Garrett's for family dinner after church. The food was delicious as always and conversation was flowing from room to room. Mummy dogs and fruit for the kidlets and after dessert we all took a room upstairs and let the kids go door to door, trick-or-treating. It was ALL smiles!

arhhhh!

Justin- A scary, bloody, dead, solider
Nathan- A pirate, he used Justin's old costume he used to wear in high school- we made it fit:)
Kendall- A sweet little spider. His nickname is Kendall Bug, so the costume really fit him!

Try, Try, and... Try Some More.

I feel like sometimes the only things that Justin and I are consistent at is: consistently trying. Here are a few more things I want to add to the list:

1. I will learn how to relax and love it. Everyday, I will stop the chaos and rest for at least 20 minutes.
2. Every single day, I will get down on the floor and play with my boys.
3. I will take care of my body.
4. I will make family dinner a priority.
5. I will do something everyday that will help strengthen my marriage.
6. I will look for the lemon drop in every hard situation.
7. I will work on my attitude.

Mr. Bug's Big Day!

Turning three doesn't happen often around our house. That's why we got started the night before!

Justin and I put the kids to bed and got to work. I wrapped Kendall's presents while Justin hung blue and green streamers in the boys doorway and from every corner in the dining room. The birthday wreath was on the door and Kendall's surprises were ready.

Every birthday we let the boys pick out whatever they want to eat for breakfast. Sometimes it's raspberry cobbler, a pancake breakfast, or a favorite cereal. This time Kendall opted for Tricks with some Hershey's kisses on the side.

The festivities started early! Kendall loved the decorations and the whole family had eaten birthday cereal, sang the birthday song 3 times, and were playing with Kendall's basketball and hoop before 7:30am!


Later that day, we had a pool party for Kendall complete with pizza and root beer!


This is how I envisioned Kendall's birthday cake turning out.

This is the after: I had tons of helpers and after seeing the sparkle in their eyes, I held my breath and the dream of the perfect birthday cake went out the window as I let them have at it poking balloons wherever their hearts desired.

I took another look at the cake just before we cut it and realized that after all my little helpers fixed it up, it became my most favorite birthday cake of all!

Can You Taste Them?

I had a friend recently teach me a very valuable lesson that I'm sure will stick with me the rest of my life.

She was teaching her Young Women's class and started out by giving each girl a lemon drop. She continued on with her object lesson and had them each put a pebble in their shoe.

The girls were then instructed to go and walk up and down the hallway and report back to her in a few minutes.

When the girls entered in the classroom, they were grumbling and complaining about how uncomfortable and terrible it was to have to walk around with such a nuisance in your shoe.

She carefully listened to all the complaints and when the girls were wrapping up their gripe session, she said very quietly, "How was your lemon drop? Did it taste good?"

AHHHH! How many times in life do we focus on the pebble and not the lemon drop? I am so guilty of this and have since made a goal to try and always taste that lemon drop- even if it is hard.

*I thought this would be such a good FHE lesson when the boys get a bit older.

It's A Razzle Dazzle Day!

As we were getting ready in the boys bedroom this morning, we noticed a full rainbow over the mountains. The colors were so vivid against the dark gray sky. A storm was brewing and by the time we were in the car driving Nathan to school, we were dodging falling limbs and a blizzard of leaves.

When we got home it was raining so hard against the panes of the windows that they shook and vibrated with the wind (totally need some new windows but it has a nice effect- HA!). It smelled like fall, it looked like fall, and it felt like fall.

There was only one thing Kendall and I could do. Ignore the puzzle pieces all over the hall, the unmade beds, and clothes strewn over the living room...it was time to bake some applesauce muffins!

Kendall stirs and I pour, then we switch until all our ingredients are mixed together in the big pink mixing bowl.

Our mid morning snack was ready for Nathans arrival.

The rest of the day was filled with visits from our besties, a dentist appointment, Mammy's banana pancakes with buttermilk syrup, A Halloween movie with the kids, chocolate caramel apples with witch sticks, country fair candles, reviewing our roasted pumpkin seed recipe, Halloween books with the boys on the couch and in my bed, cousin Nat and the kids dropping by, and chats in the parlor-wink, wink!

I am loving this fall.

Nathanism

"Mom, today at lunch, Joey gave me a vanilla tootsie roll, so.... I traded him my carrots!"

The boys got to pick out some pumpkins from Mammy and Papa's pumpkin patch. After much deliberation three were selected.

Nathan loved them so much, he thought they needed to watch a show with him. I walked in and they each had their own chair. The only thing missing?....popcorn!

It's Been A Long Day...

And sometimes you just can't quite make it to the couch.
So pull up some carpet and and sprawl out and if your lucky your older brother will jump back and forth over your head barley missing it.

I Always Knew This Day Would Come.

I just didn't know it would come so fast. Nathan has been anticipating the start of kindergarten all year!

To get everyone excited we read fun stories every night- The Kissing Hand, The Night before Kingergarten, Miss Nelson is Missing, and other fun books.

Nathan carefully selected what he wanted to wear the week before and put in his request for his "first day of school breakfast" -yellow scrambled eggs and toast.

The big morning came and he jumped into his clothes, wizzed around the house in his back pack, gobbled up breakfast and sang songs with Kendall.

We headed up to the school and he marched up to the spot where his class lines up. He was pumped! Kendall and I stood back and gave him air high-fives and thumbs up over and over. We were his cheerleaders. Nothing but enthusiasm from us.

Then it happened.

The bell rang and his teacher came out to get the class. Nathan looked back one more time, his face bright and cheery, a big splash of sunshine. Then the doors closed.

I was excited and happy for him and then a sting of hurt came over my body. When those doors closed, I knew he was in someone else's care. Someone I didn't even know. I had hoped that I taught him enough and that he would thrive on his first day of kindergarten.

And the black tears came. And my Jackie O sunglasses disappointed me. I already missed him and I had a huge gaping hole inside me.

I needed to feel better. So I called my mom and she cried with me and then I called Justin and he laughed with me. I felt better.



Kendall and I arrived at the school 25 minutes early. We played the "guess what Nathan did at school" game and passed the time. Pretty soon the other parents started to come and before we knew it the bell rang.

I LOVE these pictures! Nathan was 2nd one out of the school. He was running, yelling, "I LOVE my new school, I LOVE my new teacher, I had a BLAST!!!"

My worries melted away and my big gaping hole was filled with the best feeling!

Here's to a great year of Kindergarten learning, fun, and growth!

Mrs. Lawrence

October Weekend Kickoff!

We got to watch my friends four kids for the weekend. The kids became instant friends and we enjoyed watching their football and soccer games.

We filled the weekend up with Alvin and the Chipmunks Halloween special, mummy suckers, shooting hoops, making black furry spiders, creme brulee french toast with buttermilk syrup, mummy, witch, vampire, and ghost finger puppets, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, tons of Junnie B Jones stories, girly hairdos, 4 stubbed toes, sidewalk chalk, coloring pumpkins, and a surprise welcome home for the parents.

(Nathan, Lizza, and Jack)

These three played this game on the skateboard all afternoon!


These two became fast buddies after discovering they had many things in common- one being their dirty faces!


Kendall quickly got his first crush on Navy! He followed her everywhere and the best part? She let him! She was so sweet to him and read him about 50 books.

You can't have ice cream sundaes without a little squirt of whip cream. That's a rule at our house!

(Jack, Nathan, Maggie, Navy, and Kendall)

We had so much fun with these little darlings!