Excited for a holiday!!!

We have been very busy over the last couple of weeks. That is a huge reason I am excited for the holiday break. Here is a quick recap:

-prepare for Cole's birthday (three parties)
-finish up cub scouts for Cole and Cody so they could earn their awards
-Cody's book report
-Cole's state report
-help Morgan disguise a turkey
-reflections
-take dinner to a friend who just had a baby
-normal life craziness: volunteering at the school, dinner, laundry, homework, exercise, Young Women's, etc.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE! He turned 11 on November 17th. I can't believe he is that old. Next year will be a big one. I have been staring at him closely lately and I can sometimes catch a glimpse of his two year old self. It makes me laugh when I see it. We watch alot of home videos of Cole when he was younger. They are the only home movies on tape that are easy to watch. All of the kids have them memorized. They are quite hilarious. I need to send some of them in to Funniest Home Videos. The other kids will have to wait years before they see themselves on home video.


We let Cole take a few friends to the movies for his birthday party. They went and saw the "Dark Knight." Parties are alot easier when they get older. They entertain themselves. Tom was wonderful to take them to the movies. Luckily the movie went to the dollar theater on the day we had the party. They all had a great time!


On Sunday we celebrated Cole's birthday with his cousin Reece who's birthday is on the 19th.


On his actual birthday the whole family went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Cole wanted shrimp(spoiled) and Tom suggested Chinese(inexpensive). Cole shares his birthday with his Grandpa Willie(Tom's dad). So we always celebrate them together on the actual day. Our families birthdays turn into weekend long celebrations. It's wonderful to have so much family that live close. Cole got a bit of everything clothes, a video game, movie and money.


Cole, Morgan and Cody all entered the Reflections contest at the school and they all received a medal and some gift cards for entering. We are very proud!


Cole received his Arrow of Light award in cub scouts. Last month he received his Webelos badge. I still can't believe he will be in Young Men's next year. Pack meeting was held on Friday, Nov. 21st and I gave up my ticket to see Twilight so I could see my sons receive their awards. Tom was planning to go to the High School state Football championship game this night also. The things we sacrifice for our kids! Their definitely worth it!


I am a very proud mom! Cub scouts is alot of work for moms.(he,he) We actually have really awesome scout leaders in this ward and I didn't have to help with much. My boys are awesome!


Cody received his wolf badge. Good job Cody!


I made rolls for a family party and they turned out delicious. I let the dough rise longer than needed and this is what I found in the kitchen.


Cody and his friend Gage in the 3rd Grade Thanksgiving program. It was a cute program. Cody had a part in the skit and he was adorable!


Cole is sitting on his desk at school showing his report on Hawaii. He loves it when his mom comes into his class and takes pictures.(ha,ha)

I've been tagged again...

My friend LaNae has tagged me. I enjoyed learning more about her. It's a great way to learn interesting facts and get to know others better. So here goes...

Here are the rules:

1.Post who tagged you with a link to their blog(http://sixcallsthatsall.blogspot.com)
2.Post these rules
3.Write 10 random things about yourself
4.Tag some friends


1. I love, love, love staying up late. I dread, dread, dread getting out of bed in the morning. I enjoy having "quiet" time late at night. Midnight is bedtime for me on average. Sometimes I'll stay up until 1:00 or 2:00am. Some of you might have noticed that is when I am blogging. I usually can't get myself going until noon. It's a vicious cycle. I have really tried to turn it around. It's hard for me to go to bed at 10:00. I always have things I want to do. If I go to bed early, I still can't get out of bed in the morning. So I give that up and enjoy the late hours.

2. Soda pop and hot tamales....love them!!!!

3. I have an all or nothing personality. When I am in the habit of something, I am almost obsesses with it. I exercise faithfully or not at all. I eat healthy or binge.

4. I love organization. I always have 10 projects that need to get done. I am never bored at home. I get lazy but never bored. I drive myself crazy filling every single minute of my day. There is not enough time in the day for me to get everything I want done. I want to be perfect!

5. I am a perfectionist! That is probably why I can't get everything done in a timely manner.

6. I love to scrapbook! Perfectionist's should not scrapbook.

7. I love my digital camera! I never leave home without it. I take pictures of everything and everybody. At the end of the year I make a CD for family members of the years happenings. Some of them count on me having my camera when they have forgotten theirs. I am hoping to get a nicer camera for Christmas!

8. I am only competitive when it comes to my children. I want them to win and be the best! I get mad at Tom for not helping the kids make the winning car at the pinewood derby. His dad always made him the winning car. At sports I want my kids to win. Like I said before, I get obsessed.

9. I love concerts. I mostly listen to country music anymore. Tom hates concerts and he asked me the other day why I like them so much. This is what I told him: I like the excitement, I am fascinated by famous people, and I like to be goofy and carefree.

10. I get really annoyed by flaky people. I can't stand it when others don't follow through with things. I think I get a little obsessive when it comes to following through. Don't say it if you don't mean it.

I thought it would be harder to think of 10 things. Once I started thinking it was quite fun. Anyway, I am going to tag Mikelle L., Susan S., Robin W.

MORE FUN HALLOWEEN PICTURES...

MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY - HALLOWEEN!!!!

Tom might kill me for adding this picture. I love to dress up and the costumes I had planned didn't work out in time for our Halloween parties. I had the mullet wig and so we went with it from there. We have seven family members with birthdays in October. This year we had three Halloween/Birthday parties!

I bought this Power Ranger costume two days before Halloween! This is what he went as trick or treating. It was fairly warm, but not warm enough for a wrestling suit.

Most of my hand-me-down costumes require face painting and Cael wasn't about to let us do that. He said he would be afraid to look at himself in the mirror. I found this old wrestling suit and thought it would go well with Morgan being a cheerleader. He agreed so we went with it.

Morgan is our cheerleader. Go Cavemen! Morgan is taking a tumbling class right now and loves it. She is always asking me to watch her do a front hand spring and other tricks.

Cody was Captain Jack Sparrow - he hated this costume and having his face painted. My sister bought this costume on clearance with Cody in mind. I think he looks great! After the costume parade at school, he took most of his costume off and washed his face make-up.

What a good sport! Cole is willing to do most anything when it comes to dressing up. I think he looks awesome as the Joker! I let him keep his hair long for this costume. Tom always does the make-up. Tom actually went into work late so he could paint the kids faces before school. I think it would put me over the edge. What a good husband!

I absolutely love Halloween. It is my favorite holiday! I love to be scared. I remember begging my mom as a kid to rent me scary movies. My mom let me have parties all the time. When I was twelve I had a Halloween party and begged her to rent the first Friday the 13th movie(it was rated PG-13). What was she thinking? I discovered haunted houses in High School and I can't get enough of them. I just love the thrill of the scare. My mom and I go to a haunted house every year(Like mother, like daughter). After I watch something scaring, it doesn't stay with me. I don't usually get freaked out later. I love finding the perfect costumes for my kids. And of course I like to dress up too. When the kids were younger, we usually had them dress up as Halloween characters(vampire, frankie, mummy, skeleton, etc.). Tom is a great artist with the face paint. Anyway, we had another great year! The kids all got way too much candy. Cody was able to trick or treat with his friend Gage. Then he caught up later with Cole and his friends and they were out until about 9:00pm. They only hit half of Harvest Hills(garbage sack full). Morgan went around with her friend Emily and had a great time. I followed Cael and the kids around until Cael was done. He went strong for about an hour. I was surprised how well he kept up with the big kids. When he was done he wouldn't walk another step. I carried him home. Tom was at JHS football game. He didn't get home until about 8:00. When I went trick or treating with the kids, I left the bowl of candy on the porch. It was fun going around and visiting with all my friends. What a great neighborhood we live in! Some friends invited us over for chili after trick or treating. We had a great night!

Food storage shelves stocked for the winter...

Our own apple tree...

Cael helping pick fruit

Grape juice...

I have been doing alot of canning this year. I am glad to see canning season coming to an end. I love it, but it is alot of work. I hate for any fruit or vegetable to go to waste. Tom's family has a big farm with lots of tomatoes. I did salsa this year for the first time. I must say it turned out great. My parents own an acre of concord(purple) grapes. They planted them when we were young so we could learn to work. We pruned, picked and helped sell them as kids. I love the smell when they are ripe. They make the best grape juice. Cael is addicted to it and his teeth are proof of it(he had alot of dental work last year). Last year we ran out of juice, so this year I bottled 90 quarts. My parents also have fruit trees. They had a good crop of peaches and pears this year. I was really excited about that. I wasn't planning on doing applesauce this year, but my younger sister wanted to learn. We actually had 24 apples on our tiny, "Charley Brown" apple tree. Cael was my little helper this year.

Picture tag!

I just realized I have been picture tagged. I think this is a fun idea! Well the picture just happens to be of my four kids. Imagine that! I honestly cannot remember the reason I took this picture. I am a little bit obsessed with pictures. I never leave the house without my camera and take 45 pictures of every event.lol Maybe the reason was that Morgan's hair was curled that day. It could of been last day of school. It might have been pre-haircut for Cole. We let Cole keep his hair long until school ended. So now I need to tag 4 people... I am going to tag Alison W., Christy J., Shelley D. and Kami G. Have fun! (post 4th file, 4th picture)