Spell bowl

Halloween

Since Emma is getting older and I don't really know how many more years she'll want to dress up for Halloween, I really wanted to do another family theme.  We tried for weeks to settle on a theme that everyone would go along with, to no avail.  I was about to throw in the towel and let everyone choose their own random costumes, until our inspired piano teacher and friend suggested Peter Pan.  After a little convincing, I got everyone on board.

Our cast included:
Emma: Peter Pan
Landon: a pirate
Malia: Tinkerbell
Lily: Wendy Darling
Ryland: the Crocodile
Alan: Hook
Me: Smee

I had fun pulling together everyone's costumes.  I sewed Wendy Darling, Hook and Peter Pan, borrowed the Crocodile, found the Pirate second hand for $5 and bought Tinkerbell.

For our ward trunk or treat Landon wasn't feeling well, so we were short a pirate.  Besides that, I was very pleased with how it all came together.

The next day was Halloween and since I was frantically getting everyone ready, Alan used a coupon I had saved to order a ginormous pizza from a new place.  We could believe how big it was!!

Thankfully, Landon was feeling better and was able to join us for the official trick or treating.  He made a great looking pirate!

Malia LOVED her Tinkerbell costume and looked super cute in it.

I thought Lily made a beautiful Wendy Darling.  We had fun curling her hair and making her look as close to the "real thing" as possible.

Ryland was SO excited for trick or treating and did a great job keeping up with the other kids going door to door.  He said trick or treat and thank you just as well as everyone else.  He was ALL about the candy!

This is the one family shot I got of all of us.  Alan made a great Hook!!

At the ward trunk or treat, people were actually asking to have their photo taken with him, which I thought was pretty funny.

For official trick or treating, we were happily surprised to run into Landon's best friend's family as soon as we got out of our van.  We had a wonderful time trick or treating with them.

All of the kids definitely collected more candy than they expected, including multiple full size candy bars!  Ryland couldn't believe his eyes when he dumped him bag onto the floor to compare and trade with the other kids.  I'd say it was definitely a successful and enjoyable Halloween!

Alan's Birthday

Celebrating Alan's birthday is one of my absolute favorite things to do every year and this year was no different!  I know that I tend to go a little overboard, but what's more important than celebrating your sweetheart?!

This year I invited some of our dearest friends to go out to dinner at our favorite restaurant as part of Alan's birthday celebration.  The restaurant is called Bonge's and it's in the middle of nowhere about 20 minutes from our house.  Our friends Reva and Justin took us there a few years ago and we've been dying to go back, because the food is AMAZING!!!

Reva and Justin as well as Allynn, Dan, Kim, Bryce and Allynn's parents joined us.  Normally the wait to get into this place can easily be hours, but since we had a party of 10, I was actually able to make a reservation.  We had a wonderful evening eating delicious food.  This was the perfect way to kick off Alan's birthday festivities!

The next day I took Alan out for his very first pedicure.  With a few of my other pregnancies I have had a pedicure close to my due date since it is so hard for me to reach my own toes.  I usually go with a girlfriend, but I really wanted to take Alan this time around.

Alan has extremely ticklish feet, so it was very fun to watch him react to having his feet worked on.

Our dear friends Abby and Andy have pedicures together from time to time, so I invited them to come along.  Andy especially loves having pedicures, so I knew that Alan would appreciate moral support from another guy seasoned in this kind of thing.

Alan was a good sport, but let me know that it was a good once in a lifetime experience for him as he's simply too practical to have pedicure more than once.  I can definitely appreciate that, but it sure was fun for me!

As a grand finale to Alan's birthday celebration, we had our family photos taken and then went out to eat as a family at Culver's.  This is Alan's personal favorite place to eat with the kids and he loved it as he always does.

We had a wonderful week celebrating the greatest guy we know!  We love you, Alan!  Happy birthday!

Jack o'lanterns

I usually dread making jack o lanterns each year with the kids because Alan and I are normally the ones who cleans all of the pumpkins while Alan carves them,  The kids primarily just direct us. I'm not sure how this started, but it has been our routine.

To my complete surprise, this year was very different and I loved it!  All of the kids, minus Emma cleaned out their own pumpkin and then helped each other finish.  Even Ryland had his arm in his pumpkin pulling out the insides.  It was wonderful!

Emma's never been into getting messy, so she opted to paint her pumpkin this year as to avoid the entire cleaning out the pumpkin experience.

After the pumpkins were cleaned, we sorted out the seeds.  Ryland loved this part and was actually really good at it.

Not only did the kids clean out their own pumpkins, but they also designed, drew and cut out their own pumpkins with very little help from Alan and I.

Even Malia carved some of her pumpkin.  I was very impressed!

Ryland, after noticing the other kids carving, took it upon himself to go into the house and find his own carving mechanism.  He came outside with a corn poker (not sure about the official name) and then proceeded to poke holes all over his pumpkin.  He was very pleased with himself, and I didn't really mind because he was being very careful with his little yellow poker.

Here is Lily's finished cat.  She was very pleased with herself, as were Alan and I.

And here's Landon with his finished jack o lantern.

All of the jack o lanterns looked great lit up later that night.  I am hopeful that this is the beginning of a new era for our family and that from now on our kids will be cleaning and carving their own pumpkins for years to come!

Malia's Art

Our baby isn't here yet, but I love that Malia is already including him in our family artwork.  :)

Alan's new office

Alan and Jonathan opened a second office on the west side of Indianapolis a few weeks ago.  The office is in a stand alone building that used to be a podiatrist's office.  The building has a waiting room with a separate receptionist area, a conference room, three offices, two bathrooms, a storage room and a kitchen.

For weeks Alan had fun shopping for second hand furniture and accessories for the new office.  I had fun helping him pick out paint colors and coordinating everything that he bought. We loaded everything he bought into our garage and waited for our big moving in day.  Eventually the day came and the kids and I had a lot of fun helping him get everything set up.

The waiting room is especially nice with new green furniture, nice lighting and lots of books for clients to read.

I love how everything came together, especially since the majority of what Alan bought was second hand.  He and Jonathan alternate days that they work at this office, but I know that Alan is loving his time in this beautiful new place.  He and Jonathan are hopeful that with this new location they will be able to serve a lot more clients.

Way to go, Emma!!!

Emma finished her first ever cross country and if you ask her, it was the last.  Silly girl!  Little does she know that Alan and I think this is just the beginning.

We had a great time attending her meets as a family and cheering her on.  Ryland loved cheering for Emma's team, yelling, "GO, FEESHERS!" for everyone, regardless of what team they were actually running for.

As an aside, now that cross country is officially over, Ryland likes to pretend that he's on the team.  Our downstairs is perfect for running laps, so Ryland lines us all up on the couch as his cheerleaders and asks us to yell, "Go Fishers!" as he runs around and around.  It is currently one of his favorite games.

Emma REALLY did not appreciate us signing her up for cross country, but she really did improve as the season progressed.  I'm sure it had nothing to do with me offering random incentives, like donuts, a brand new book, etc.

Her running time leveled off for a few weeks during the middle of the season, but for the last three meets she actually earned personal records.  In fact, she beat her previous PR by almost an entire 2 minutes in just one week!

She was excited at one of her first practices to discover that a girl she met at girl's camp was also on the cross country team.  Emma and Taylor became fast friends and often encouraged each other through their tough runs.

I know that Emma did not exactly love her cross country experience, but I know that it was good for her.  She did something that didn't come naturally to her, improved at it and stuck it out.  She met new people and as an added bonus, I actually think the running improved her health.  Her allergies which are usually really terrible during this time of year were SO much better!  We're giving Emma a little break right now, but hopefully we will get her running again soon.  :)

Random Happenings

The other day I realized that the house was a little too quiet and that I hadn't seen Ryland in a little while.  At that point, I had a strong feeling that something was up.  I asked Malia to go check on him and her response was something like, "Wow!  He is covered in ink!"

Malia has been known to cry wolf or rather exaggerate at times, so I sent Lily to confirm and her response was pretty much the same.  Ryland had definitely made a mess!

Even with two witnesses, I still thought that he had maybe found a pen or even a marker and drawn all over himself.  No big deal.  He had actually found an ink pad in the craft drawers, torn one up into tiny little pieces and in the process, rubbed it all over himself.  He really was covered!

Covered and very happy!

Thankfully, after explaining to him that ink pads were NOT for decorating himself or the house, he was ready to get cleaned up.  I let him soak for a while in the bath, so most of the ink came off with a gentle scrub.  The carpet and walls did too.  Phew!

In other news, we are just about 32 weeks pregnant.  Last week before going to see the doctor, I let Malia take a few photos of my pregnant self.  (She LOVES taking pictures!)  I am feeling good, though for the first time ever I have gestational diabetes.  Yikes!

Basically, that means that I have to be a lot stricter about my diet and check my blood sugar four times a day.  My poor fingers are getting pretty sore!  I am choosing to look at this as a blessing, since these are definitely habits and lifestyle changes that I will benefit from even after the baby arrives.

We still don't have a name for this little guy.  For some reason I feel a lot of pressure to pick out the perfect name.  If only everyone would just support my Norbert choice!  Just kidding.

We have some contenders, but I definitely do not feel 100% about any of them.  Hopefully, by the time he is born, we will know what his name is.

While the older kids were at music lessons the other day, these two cuties and I spent the afternoon enjoying the great outdoors.  We walked around the neighborhood, enjoyed the fresh cooler air and treasures like "wishes"/ie spent dandelions. Malia enjoyed racing Ryland around in the stroller while I followed behind them.

During our walk, I was reminded of the days when it was just Emma and Landon at this age and how much fun we had just going for walks, enjoying nature and spending simpler time together.  This is definitely something that I need to do more with my littles, as they are only this age for a short time.

Lily was finished with her lesson when we arrived back to our music teacher's house, so she helped Ryland and Malia hunt for bugs and flowers.  Here they are looking at a ladybug.  All of three of the kids were seriously fascinated by this bug.

Then Ryland had fun running down a hill over and over again.

And for their grand finale, the kids took turns racing each other up and down the street in the stroller.  I am so grateful for these littles and for the innocence and excitement that they bring to my life.  These are the moments that I wish I could bottle and keep forever.  

Uncle Afif

On September 24th, my dad's eldest brother Afif passed away at the age of 82.  I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet and spend time with him last year when Emma and I visited Tarshiha.  

It was amazing to me at that time, that although we didn't speak the same language and had never even met before, that he had an overwhelming love for us that was evident in all that he did during our visit.  It showed most prominently in his eyes.

 I loved spending time with him and felt an instant connection to my dear uncle Afif.

Uncle Afif (the only one above not in black) was the oldest of eight siblings, all shown here except for their beloved brother Abdullah.  

When Emma and I were in Tarshiha, I cherished the time spent with my aunts and uncles.  It was instantly obvious to me that the love between these brothers and sisters was stronger than any I'd ever seen before.  It truly was a beautiful and rare thing to witness.

Uncle Afif and his wife Nohad were so kind to us and we will never forget the time that we spent with them.

On our last full day in Tarshiha, I was collecting addresses and family history information in my journal.  Uncle Afif didn't want to be left out, so he asked me if he could write something in my book.  I happily handed over my journal and what I found was the above note.  It was his gift to me.  I'm not sure exactly what the intended message was, but I do know that it was focused on love and that in itself means so very much to me.

I know that Uncle Afif will be truly missed by those here who love him, but I am certain that he is grateful to be relieved from his pain and so happy to be reunited with his parents, sibling and all those who went before him.  I love you, Uncle Afif and will miss you until we meet again.