A Spell

It's official. Halloween is here. Hurrah! Somewhere between 2006 and 2007 I fell in love with Halloween. It never used to be one of my favorites....but somehow it's squirmed it's way into my heart. I loved everything we did last October. We had so much fun. I love getting the kids dressed up in costumes to trick-or-treat and going to Schnepf Farm for the Pumpkin Festival. Yes, there is definitely a dark side to Halloween but there's also the smell of mulled cider, the colors of fall (or at least the prettiest colors my 99 cent "fall foliage" can provide) and the warm glow of pumpkins grinning at night....there are haunting moons, a sense of wonder and excitement, a sense of tradition, full of color, candy and laughter........or perhaps just maybe.....Halloween has cast a spell on me.

Hunka Hunka Burnin Love

Ok, so at some point you're supposed to get used to your kids........but it just hasn't happened with Wesley. I can't get enough of him. Every time I see him my heart melts and I race to get the camera. He is my love and I will be so sad when he goes to school and I won't see his face all day.

The Most Boring Day Ever

Monday was the first day of Fall Intersession. Intersession is a 2 week long break kids get from school that occur throughout the year. Generally kids are pretty stoked about it. I on the other hand am not. It has always been very hard for me to keep Sienna entertained, stimulated, challenged and out-of-trouble. It is exhausting. During intersession, I try to fill the day with activities for the kids as well as one-on-one time with both Sienna & Wesley. So here's what we did:

A.M. Cartoons and play with Wesley (normally can't do because the Bus picks-up Sienna early)
Play in a Kid Center with tons of toys and other kids at gym (Mom's in Yoga)
Straight home and to the pool to go swimming and eat lunch
P.M. 2:00 Mom is finally eating her breakfast (Wesley is napping)
*Sienna's one-on-one time with Mommy*
Do a FHE packet together (pick a cute lesson with props, story, game etc.)
Read a book and "play dollies" (my least favorite thing to do)
Movie time (Sienna picks a movie to watch while I eat, sleep, clean etc)
Halloween art projects with Mommy

And while we are doing cute crafts together Sienna says,

"This is the most boring day ever."

The Most Boring Night Ever

Boring must be a running theme this week. Monday apparently was "the most boring day ever." Wednesday I'm afraid fared no better. At night when I put Sienna to bed she said,
"I don't want to go to sleep... it's boring."
Of course I laughed. I told her that sleeping is great and it's one of my favorite things to do.
Bored expression remained.
"Why don't you count sheep in your mind and see how high you get- then you can tell me what number you got to in the morning."
She was momentarily appeased...or perhaps confused....either way I split.
So a few hours later I went in to check on her and found her like this. Only Sienna could find a way to sleep without being "boring."

Monkey

I think I've mentioned before I have a lot of silly nicknames for the kids....lately Wesley has been "Monkey." It just perfectly sums up his antics lately. He's mischievous, and silly, and climbs on everything. He's playful, lovable, and gets into everything. Of course just calling him "Monkey" would get boring so I call him "Monkey Doodles", "Monkey Pie," and "Monkey Bum."
Sienna I usually call Pooh Bear, or Goo Goos, or Sienna Bear (although recently she put in a request for "Bear Cub").

But then I thought, "Hey, my life is complicated enough....I'll just call them "Monkey 1 & Monkey 2."

I'm not for sure, but I think this was a lazy Saturday morning after breakfast. The kids are so night and day together- they play and giggle and are little cherubs from heaven. Then bitter enemies hours or minutes later. It drives me bananas! But.....here's one of those sweet moments.

Forever

Conga came to visit. Conga is my 6'1 baby brother whose real name is Matt. My nickname for him is Bubba and he calls me Goose. But when Sienna was little she couldn't say "Uncle"....what it sounded like she was saying was "Conga." And it stuck. Sienna absolutely adores my brother. On the day he left I found her under the kitchen table. She was crying. When I asked her what was wrong she said, "I want Conga to stay forever."

2

I love when my brother comes to visit. He has such a great sense of humor. He helps me laugh and it's fun to see the looks on his face when he lives a day in my life. I think that's partially why my brothers and sister come to visit- it renews their zest for life and helps them appreciate everything they have and everything they don't have- kids!!
It was cute to see how Wesley interacted with Matt this time. Wesley's so aware now and he is all-boy.

3

So it's always a bit of a struggle to get my brother to church with me.....usually I succeed with a potent combination of pleading & bribery. But this trip I got him there fair and square! While playing SkeeBall at Dave & Busters we made a wager....if Matt won he didn't have to go to church with me....and if I won he had to. Look out! There may have been a little divine intervention since I lost every previous round...but I won the one that counts! So long story...here's Sienna with Conga on Sunday afternoon.

Here's a picture of the kids receiving a more urban education.....

And another picture of Sienna "torturing" Matt...he does not like to pretend play which I can relate to- I don't like it either. But it is her favorite thing to do next to coloring/crafts.

4

Outside of Toys R' Us....it's too hot to get into the car.

One of Matt's "things" are his "pounds"...ya know where you make a fist and bump it into someone elses. Well, the kids love it when he does this-they think it's hilarious. So here's Wes on the floor with Matt's glasses giving him a "pound." The Sunday after Matt left we walked through the chapel doors and were greeted by our local missionaries. When they leaned over to shake Wesley's hand he refused and gave them a "pound" instead! We all busted up laughing!

Still "gutter punks" because at 111 degrees it's still too dang hot to move. Note Sienna's ga-ga look at Conga.

Well, I think it's safe to say WE LOVE YOU Conga! Come back soon!

Linger Longer

I am up to my eyeballs in photos, papers, pens and posties. I am trying to work on my photography business. I have so many little things going on right now I am literally going cross-eyed. I am doing a makeover on my web site (thank you Miriam) and I am going to become a partner with another woman doing some cross-promotion with our businesses (will explain later). But I stumbled on this and had to linger. I am so lucky I have this handsome boy in my life.

Grapes

Wesley's always cracking us up with his antics. This is his new way of eating grapes....like it's corn on the cob. It's quantity over quality for this big guy!

Zoom Zoom

Sienna and Wesley pretending to drive cars. They are also wearing our 3-D classes from a movie we had seen the night before. They got a kick out of those. This clip was taken a couple weeks ago, but it cracks me up.....not so much what they are saying but that Wesley copies every single move Sienna makes.
P.S. Yes, it really is that hot....it's so hard to keep their clothes on them! Plus Wes is always making a mess so his go off pretty early...and Sienna has never liked wearing them!

All Dressed Up

And nowhere to go in this one horse town!

One uber lazy afternoon....waiting for the sun to melt and fall out of the sky.