Our "cold" Halloween

Brendan came down with a cough and runny nose in the middle of the week. Eva got it soon after. We had to miss the ward's Halloween party on Friday in an effort to speed recovery for our trick or treating on the 31st. Jason went, dressed as a pirate, in order to hand out candy at our "Decorate a Door" room at the church.

Our town always has an event where the stores on the main street downtown open their doors to give little kiddos candy. We wanted to attend that and go to Shady Lane, a hot spot of amazing Halloween-iness, during the evening. We did it last year and loved it. Bubbs seemed to be doing better yesterday but he woke up in a worse condition this morning. Despite his sickness, he was SO excited about trick or treating (and his Superman costume) that I just couldn't tell him we were going to stay home. So we took an abbreviated version of Trick or Treat on 4th Street.

Actually, Brendan asked to go home because he was tired after we had gone about 4 blocks up the street. When your child voluntarily gives up the getting of free candy, you know he feels bad. Poor guy. Eva, however, seems to be pretty much over her cold but had no idea why she was dressed as a puppy dog and people were handing her candy. She looked suspiciously at the costumed people but happily accepted the candy and tried to convince a few other adults to open them for her.

We decided against our evening festivities which made me very bummed. Sigh.
Well, now on to enjoy some Halloween cuteness.

Starting them early

Such a helper. If only she didn't create such a mess in the process.

A must read for moms

There are a lot of books I like and many that I would recommend but I HAD to let you know about this particular book I am reading. I don't know about you but I feel overwhelmed by housework on a regular basis, even more so now that I have no energy due to pregnancy. We went to the Friends of the Library bookstore a while back for their 50% off sale. Jason and I are SO VERY addicted to books that a sale like this was way too enticing (though not in the budget). Anyway, I picked up "Confessions of a Happily Organized Family" by Deniece Schofield. I think it is great. The section on laundry alone is enough to coax any mother I know to check out this book. It is filled with LOTS of time saving tips and tricks from clutter reducing to creative storage techniques to menu planning. I can't wait to implement some of this stuff, especially when we are out of the apartment and into a house of my very own. She also has another book, which I have ordered - "Confessions of an Organized Homemaker". Can't wait for that to arrive!

The way kids see things

Today there was another big rainstorm here in the afternoon. Brendan told me that the sun wanted to shine and that the rain was in its way. He then let me know that the sun was mad at the rain for not being "a good listener." Funny how children view the world.

Pacific Family Picnic at Discovery Kingdom

Every year Pacific has an event at Six Flags. This year we were able to go. It was a bit of a challenge. Amusement parks with 2 mobile children and a pregnant woman aren't generally the most fun. I couldn't go on any rides (like the mini Jeeps for kids that go 5 miles an hour in one large loop are a real hazard to the fetus, but whatever). Good thing that Brendan is pretty easily pleased when it comes to these kinds of things. He was happy as long as he got to see the sharks and ride on Thomas the train.

Jason's favorite is the big coasters and the butterfly room. I think the butterfly room is neat too since they come right up to you and might even land on you.

He really wanted to go on some roller coasters and luckily, with the company of a friend in a similar situation, he was able to. Thanks Stephanie for giving up your hubby and staying with me.
Eva was cranky due to a missed nap and having to get off any fun ride made her freak out. I can understand. I mean, who wants to stop the fun, right? After a while we didn't take her out of the stroller much since she was one constant meltdown. Here's her newest face - it's her "yucky" look.

Jason promised Brendan that he would take him on the Go Karts ride before we left. As soon as we got up to get tickets, people started departing the ride and they announced that the ride was broken. Talk about a disappointment. Brendan was crushed. Luckily, on our way back to the car, he saw a carnival game that he liked and, after beating his dad at it (nice Daddy let him win) and winning a cape, he was a happy boy once again.

The day thoroughly exhausted me but all that walking is good for this preggo lady, right? The best thing was getting to spend all day with my whole family.

The result

Our wedding day at the Oakland Temple

A family trip to the same temple 5 years later

My Favorite Sunday

So the big day finally arrived. The Primary program was presented in sacrament meeting today. I look forward to this every year and even more so this year, since I have a child participating. The Sunbeam teacher was out of town and asked Jason to sit with the class during practice and the program. Brendan delivered his line very well in the end but let me paint you the scenario of it all.
It's Brendan's turn to go up to the microphone. He leans over it and says in a loud voice, "Family (insert here a sneaky grin at his voice being so loud and ward members snickering) members (insert a giggle and the Primary president prompting him to continue) have important responsibilities (said with great enunciation)." Now there is a slight pause and I can fairly see the wheels turning in his mischievous brain. I can tell he reall, really wants to say something else, anything else. He has no stage fright. I am very grateful that the Primary president was able to take his arm and gently guide him in the direction of his seat before he truly made up his mind to talk about trains or sharks or a clock or something. A few of our friends who know Brendan's tricks met my eye after he sat down to see what my reaction was. I was relieved, though it would have made for a memorable story.
There was the usual dress flipper who almost showed the ward her underwear, the kid that sings too loud and doesn't really know the words and the senior primary kids who roll their eyes during the singing parts. No nose picker this year (I thought for sure that would be Bubbs but I guess he was too busy bothering his dad or swinging from side to side with his arms stuck inside his sweater vest) and no one was too shy to get up. All in all, an adorable program and very touching as they spoke about the Proclamation to the Family. And here's a picture of my big, super wiggly, too-chatty-for-his-own-good Sunbeam.

One thing I kinda forgot

When I am pregnant my internal thermostat is way out of whack. For example. It is 61 degrees right now and I am in a T shirt and pants with no shoes on, and I am sweating!! I also sleep with the fan on me and no covers. It's crazy. I had been looking for some maternity sweaters lately, realizing that I didn't seem to have any from my last pregnancy (a winter baby). I was wondering how I got through the cold season last year. Now I remember why I don't own any maternity sweaters - I don't seem to need one. My poor kids will be so bundled up inside the house because I can't bear to turn on the heater. Guess I need to be looking for kids' winterwear. :)

Western Railroad Museum Fall Festival

A while ago, we stumbled across a miniature railroad museum in Richmond that we had to stop and take a look at. While we were there a volunteer told us about another railroad museum fairly nearby. We have been meaning to go but this was the first weekend that we had time for it. It turns out that it was also the first day of the Fall Festival at the Western Railroad Museum in Suisun City (near Fairfield). It was truly an awesome family event. We rode an old time full-size train 15 minutes to the pumpkin patch. This was an old train restored to working order but still with vintage advertisements in the cars and an old air horn. Bubbs was in heaven.


One of the advertisements on the railroad car walls. I should have taken pictures of more. They were very entertaining - from how to cook cabbage, to what tea to serve to snag a man, to invitations to donate to Easter Seals.

As we arrived at the pumpkin patch we saw that there was a hay fort, a bouncy house, hay rides, food, live music, a petting zoo, carnival games and something called "pumpkin chucking", which Jason immediately declared he MUST do. He had a ball launching small pumpkins at target boxes using a rather large rubber band contraption.

Brendan adored the HUGE hay fort with inner rooms and tunnels.


Eva liked the games and would have stayed petting the bunny the whole time if we'd have let her. It was also her first time in a bouncy house and I had to enlist help in getting her back out as she kept shaking her head at me and telling me, "No!! Jump, jump."


I enjoyed the hay ride, complete with corny Halloween jokes from the conductor. It was TONS of fun and all the profits went to benefit the railroad museum and the Fairfield Rotary Club. Too bad we didn't know about this before now. We would have gone every year. A great family day!

A Dating Tradition

One of the first dates Jason and I went on was to a cornfield maze in Arizona. That first time we made it out in such record time that we felt a little gypped. We have been able to attend one every October since, with varying degrees of being lost and exit times of varying lengths. This year took us the longest, I think. We ended up using the map (we wanted to try it on our own first). Then we headed over to Denny's for a late night hot chocolate to top our evening off. It was a great date. I am sad that we may not be able to continue our October dating tradition in the future. Who knows if they have cornfield mazes where we will go.

Big girl

I was thinking today - it's hard to believe my baby is 20 months old and that by the time she is 2, she'll be a big sister. Where does the time go?

What a talk, what a book!

Jason here. So GC gets more and more interesting as the kiddos get older. It is pretty hard to get into things when you are trying to separate the kids, amuse the kids, clean up after the kids, keep the kids from killing themselves, etc.


I know that I shouldn't have favorite speakers, but I confess that Elder Holland always comes through every time. His, for lack of a better word, AWESOME testimony of the Book of Mormon instantly became a conference classic and reference material. That talk will be replayed, in this house at least, quite a few more times. Just last night a friend and I were talking about things and matters of faith came up. My thoughts were that in all the bickering between science and religion, I never felt threatened I would lose my footing because of the Book of Mormon. It really is a most marvelous thing. Reading it for the first time ten years ago changed my life, and to this day it still has a magical, transcendent aura about it. That book has power. To me it is the best proof that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ. I used to kind of shy away from the statement that Joseph Smith made about how the BOM was "the most correct book... and that a man could get closer to God by abiding by its precepts than any other book" because it would somehow tick Bible believing folks off. Then I realized they are going to be ticked anyways, and that I shouldn't worry or make any apologies for an entirely correct statement. I really do have strong feelings about the Book of Mormon, and hearing Elder Hollands wonderful testimony sent shivers up my spine.

During his talk, Elder Holland talked about how the arguments against the BOM have been show for what they are; pathetic attempts to explain the unexplainable (save one explanation). A lot of the scholarly work done on the BOM was done by the late Dr. Hugh Nibley. If you really want to expand your horizons on just how intricate and truly special the Book of Mormon is, I would refer you to Lehi in the Desert, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, and Since Cumorah.

Responsibilities

Brendan's part in the Primary program is to say, "Family members have important responsibilities." We have been practicing with him. Today at dinner he repeated it after me and then said, "Mommy, in families we have responsibilities." I told him that he was right and said that one of his responsibilities was to clean his room. I asked what Daddy's responsibility was and he told me, "To be a tooth doctor." Then I asked what my responsibility was. He paused for a minute and then replied, "To take a bath." What do you say to that?