These two....

Sometimes I really wonder.

How does asking them to clean up their gigantic mess of beads they made turn into "making pancakes"???

Native American Day

I got to help out in Livi's classroom right before Thanksgiving. It was so much fun.

Here is little "New Moon" herself with her craft. I love kindergarten!

Sick........

Found this bad boy in our garage in November as soon as it started getting chilly out.

He lasted one night. The next morning there he was. Ethan was obsessed with his neck breaking and talked about it for days. We won't mention he screamed and ran when he saw it.

It's not easy.......

These pictures are awkward to take, but must be done.

PS. Don't mind my kids disgusting mirror

Someone is enjoying her new ability to read. She's doing pretty great too if you ask me.

Wow....

I walked in on a very serious surgery the other day being performed by Dr. Dover. He had his saw out and was cutting Livi's neck open to remove her tonsils. Rather gruesome.

I was immediately ordered out...could have been a serious lawsuit on his hands.

A Typical Morning

After the kids were off to school this morning I started to do my clean up routine and just had to laugh. I wanted to document all the random things I found so I could remember their crazy imaginations.

We had a pre breakfast Limbo competition going on.

They played doggies..as usual (an everyday occurrence). Water and food bowl. (mini choc chips cause we're out of cheerios, their typical go to dog food)

This morning I was Susie (the mom), Olivia was Morgan (the babysitter) and Ethan was Nathan(the babysitt-ee). Here were the other kids Olivia was babysitting, but I can't remember what their names were. They joined us for breakfast and this baby LOVED the peaches from grandma. She just "thought they were so delicious".

Lastly, after clothes on and teeth brushed I came in to find Nancy Drew and her side kick in the laundry room with the lights off solving a mystery. They were looking for "evidence and clues". I was putting away things in Ethan's room and heard something outside and they were over at my neighbors garage window peeking in with flashlights! They never stop!!

KT & Ky-O

Katie & Kyle (or as Ethan calls him Ky-O) came down for a visit and we had so much fun. They were so sweet to watch the kids one night so Mike and I could go out on a much needed date. They took the kids to Pirate Island Pizza and they all had a blast. The kids were talking about it for days. We celebrated Katie's 23rd birthday while she was here. That makes me feel old!

I think they had just as much fun as the kids!



The Big 23!!

Come back soon!!

Besties

You know the old saying Life's not always fair...well it's not. But that's ok :)

Halloween 2010

The week leading up to Halloween is usually exhausting. Case in point.....

It consists of numerous parties and reasons for dressing up. Luckily we have a great dress up closet since I am a mean mom who makes them save their real costume for the actual night otherwise they would be a filthy mess.

On our way to the library Halloween party.

The actual night we had just sat down to dinner when it started POURING. It was so windy and so rainy we didn't know if trick or treating would happen. Luckily we had a quick break and ran out in between downpours. It was so cold though Tinkerbell changed into her boots and put on a sweatshirt. Oh well.

I made them pose for one quick picture in full costume, but it was so cold this is the best we got.



Luckily they were happy after just doing our neighborhood.



It was late after everything was over and I told them to pick one treat and save the rest for later. I about died when I turned around and Livi was eating pretzels. Whose kid is this??

Like I said....exhausting.

My new favorite of Liv

Probably because this represents her so well right now. The child LIVES outside if I'll let her. She loves to ride bikes with her friends. Last week she was so cold when she came in she tried out one of her Grandma Anderton tricks. She is always telling me these random things my mom teaches her. This one warmed her right up.

Elijah

Matt and Megan's little boy is a MAJOR mama/dada's boy. I babysat him once while they were out and he woke up to them not there. He ran around my house sobbing and looking for them for 15 minutes. It was so sad. Matt got this smile out of him at the pumpkin patch.
But.................

I finally won the kid over and got this one all by myself.

We love when family comes into town!

Pumpkin Patch

Matt was in town and was on his way back to our house to put Elijah down so he stopped and met us there. We actually got a picture of the four of us..a miracle!

The LOVED having their cousin around.

Dear Olivia,

When did you turn ten and into a little diva requesting side pony's and photos like so??
I love the little lady you are becoming.

Love, Mom

Happy Birthday Hot Mama!!

This hot mama had a birthday today!! Love you Kati-perro. Last weekend she was down and we did a little photo shoot with Leah. See the rest of the shots here.

School Carnival

Livi's school had a carnival that they were so excited to go there. We decided to make a night out of it and do dinner there. Let's just say we arrived at 5:00 and left at 7:30 when it ended and we still hadn't visited the food booths. They were having way too much fun and were much too busy to bother with eating. Livi saw this first off and wanted to try it. Honestly I didn't expect her to make it past the first couple of holds. Leah has some in her backyard and let's just say her skills have never been to impressive in the past. She AMAZED me by going all the way to the very top. She was so focused and determined. Where did Olivia Dover go???



Ethan and his daisy dukes doing the slides over and over and over again.

Kate, Livi, and Ginny (They may as well be triplets most days)








The kids are already looking forward to next year.

Tired was an understatement!

The Project: Garage Shelving
Duration: 3 days of dusk to dawn work
The Players:

Mom A: The Perfectionist Cutter

Dad A: Bossman & Master Planner

Mike D: The muscles & work horse

Me: Meal Provider, Trim work, occasional painting (I know, I know!!)

The Before: Your average garage, all pushed to the center


Prep work: Puttying all holes. Ethan liked to help and stay close by the action. Livi liked 3 days of freedom and being able to do whatever she wanted.

During:





The After: Shelves!!!. I still need to go out and take more after shots during the day. We still have a little bit more organizing to do,but for the most part it's done!!!

My parents were coming into town and told us to pick out a project. We decided to do the garage before it got to cold out and we'd been wanting some shelves. We forgot my parents version of "doing the garage", although wonderful, was a little more detailed than ours. Dads version included painting the whole thing, putting up trim between cement and wall board, painting all cement, new work bench that came in 1 million small pieces and had to be put together via flashlight, and LOTS OF HARD WORK.
AN ENORMOUS thank you to mom and dad A. We COULD not have done it without you. We love our new shelves and pretty garage. Now time for the "garage warming party"