November Fun

I had big plans of going to one of the pumpkin farms here and getting the kids awesome pumpkins, but then we everyone throwing up and John have surgery that all went out the window. When we finally did get around to carving pumpkins it was already November and all we had were little ones that our friends Jon and Elise had let the kids paint when we went to their house to visit. The paint had peeled off so voila tiny carving pumpkins. 

I just realized that since I didn't take pictures when we went to visit those guys, I didn't blog about it. Well they are friends we have from MSU and John actually officiated their wedding. They visited us once when we were in Austin and they were in Nebraska. Well then they moved back to Michigan and we thought we would never see them again, but surprise now we are back and it was so fun to get together with them. They live on the other side of the state by Ann Arbor, so it is a bit of a drive, but totally worth it.

And next we have yes a lovely picture of King's butt. I just had to document his recent obsession with his own behind. He insisted that I take this picture and also take a video. I am not sure how long this will last, but for the sake of him making friends, hopefully not too long ;)

The kids had November 13th and 14th off for parent teacher conferences. I had mixed feelings about this, because my teachers did their conferences earlier in the week after school and I did not like have 2 days off like that so close to Thanksgiving. I would much rather have just had all of Thanksgiving week off since we always travel. Would it really be that big of a deal to make the days off later in the month? Especially since they aren't really used for very many conferences? Anyway, the kids of course didn't mind at all. We got our first real snow that the kids could play in and I was afraid that this was going to be the start of a nasty winter, but luckily it was just a one day thing.

The kids love playing on the trampoline in the snow and I love seeing Conrad going flying all over the place. I repeatedly tried to pull him off, because I was sure he was going to get launched off the side, but he refused to be moved and luckily managed to stay on the trampoline the entire time. 

The kids were super excited about getting to go to Steak n Shake. As seems to be the case a lot of the time when it comes to restaurants, I did not share their enthusiasm, but I have to give that place credit for being the only sit down restaurant that provides enough activities to keep my kids in their seats the entire time.

After Steak n Shake we went to check out the bounce house in the mall. I hadn't really gone into the mall before it was actually pretty depressing. There are so many empty stores and nothing in the food court. The kids liked the bounce house, but they really need to work on some logistical things there since the closest bathroom was on the other side of the mall. Not the best idea when you have a bunch of kids who don't always give you much warning before they are about to pee their pants. Luckily, someone has bought the mall and is trying to revamp it so here's hoping it will be getting better soon.

Happy Halloween

Of course we had a bunch of Halloween activities this year. We kicked things off with our church's Trunk of Treat. We searched pinterest for some cute cupcakes to bring and came up with these Frankensteins. King and Conrad just kept say in high pitched voices "They are so cute!"

The Primary Presidency was in charge of the event and since I am the second counselor that means I spent a lot of time running around like a crazy person and didn't get any pictures of my kids or John and I. Luckily, one of activities was a photo op so we were able to get some pics after all. (Not sure if I blogged about this before but a couple of weeks after we moved here we got called into the Bishop's office to receive callings and I honestly thought they would be really small since no one knew who we were, but to my surprise I got called into the Primary Presidency. It's been a blast although I am still trying to memorize the names of all 100 kids. It's huge).

I have to say that I was pretty proud of John's and my costumes. The track suits were a sweet steal at a church rummage sale. 

King had a Halloween party at school, but unfortunately this is the second year in a row he has missed it because a stomach bug has hit the house. October must not be a good month for us. This year it all started when we got a call from the office at school saying Netta needed a change of pants. I assumed she had maybe peed her pants, but when I got there she informed me that she had farted and poop came out. Lovely. So we took her home and within hours she was throwing up and then that evening I started puking and then to top it all off King woke up in the middle of the night blowing oats. John was having eye surgery later that week so he couldn't risk getting sick, which meant I got to clean it all up. What fun! Luckily, by Friday everyone was better so Halloween wasn't completely ruined. Well it was somewhat ruined for poor King again because it decided to turn freezing cold and start to hail/snow. We went downtown to Trick or Treat at the local businesses right after school, but King was freaking out about the cold so we didn't last very long.

I wasn't sure if Conrad would like to use Netta's old Baby Jaguar costume, since King never did, but he is obsessed with it. In fact, when he saw me writing this blog post he insisted on putting it on again. (Poor runt Conrad. Part of the reason King never wore it is that he grew way to fast)

After freezing our butts off we headed to Qdoba for dinner. Another place that I don't really love, but we end up eating at a ton. The older kids were allowed to wear their costumes to school, but for some reason 1st grade and under were not. Netta was not a fan of this so of course we had to find one of our costumes that was enough like a regular dress that she could still wear it.

John was at home in an ambien induced coma during all this fun. Halloween morning he got PKR, the newer form of laser eye surgery and he basically had to sleep all weekend. I would joke that he had the easier weekend, but really the ambien didn't work very well for him and he was in a lot of pain. Luckily, the surgery went well and he survived that weekend and now he is finally free from glasses and contacts!

Since John was out of commission I had to find a way to stay at home and pass out candy while still letting the older kids trick or treat. Luckily, we have great friends from church who live like 2 doors down. The mom Laura is my friend and visiting teaching companion, they have a son Ryan who is EZ's age, they have a daughter Amanda who is in between Netta and King and their oldest daughter Heather babysits for us. Laura was kind enough to take EZ and Netta out with her kids. King absolutely refused to go out in the cold again and I wasn't going to make her deal with Conrad out there, even though she is great and she said she would have. 

Fun with Visitors and Few Random Things

We were lucky enough to have 3 of my sisters come to visit between the end of September and the middle of October. It was a bit like running a bed and breakfast and totally worth it. Rachel and her husband Robert came to visit first and sadly I don't have any pictures of us together, but it was with them that I discovered Grandpa's Cider Mill. While we lived in Texas, if anyone asked what I missed about Michigan, I always told them fall and cider mills. I especially missed the cider donuts from said mills and Grandpa's Cider Mill did not disappoint. They have a cider bar where you can taste different samples of their 20 some flavors of cider and of course they have amazing cider donuts. I ended up eating a ton of donuts between all the visitors and I never got sick of them. 

My next set of visitors were my sister Meghan and her kids. Her husband was going to Utah for a wedding and she was stuck at home alone with all the kiddos, so it was a perfect weekend to come visit. I kept joking that I loved having a "sister wife" here and I really did. It is nice to have another adult in the house to talk to while you are doing all the mundane chores and what not. While they were here we decided to hit up the local corn maze. It actually had a lot of fun activities in addition to 3 mazes. The kids loved racing around the course on these peddle cars and even Conrad and Timmy got in on the action with some help from Uncle John.

We tried really hard to get a picture of all the kids together and we basically had to give up hope of getting one where everyone was smiling and just go with everyone kind of looking at the camera.

We were able to do 2 of the 3 mazes. We probably would have abandoned ship after 1 but the older kids were so jazzed about doing another. 

Each maze had a little puzzle card that you filled out as you went along. This definitely helped keep the kids engaged, even if they all insisted that we fill out each one of their cards which kind of drove the adults a little crazy. During the second maze, Lucy announced that she had to pee right in the middle of it. There was no way to get out in time so she had to go in the maze. The poor girl had been wearing one of Netta's old leotards and I guess she doesn't know the old pull the crotch to the side trick because she got butt naked to take her pee. Amazingly she wasn't fazed by the cold and I am pretty sure no one but us saw her.

The weather was chilly, but still nice enough for a trip to the beach. The wind had blown the sand around so much that it had buried one of the benches. 

While I was hanging out with Meghan, John and the boys went further down towards the water and John got these amazing pictures. I gotta say our kids are so stinking cute and the backdrop was so amazing. I am jealous of how well John's phone takes pictures. I am counting down till I get to upgrade.

Basically the minute Meghan drove off with her family I headed to the airport to pick up my sister Katie and her kids. King was all over baby Kaelyn. He still has a soft spot for those little ones. I really enjoyed having the babies in the house, but I have to admit that it did kind of confirm to me that I am not interested in having anymore of my own. I think we already have enough on our plate.

We went back to my new favorite apple orchard and again the kids played so much doing the extra activities that we didn't actually pick any apples. Somehow I managed to get a ton of pictures of Conrad and Noah smiling, but almost non of King. In fact I am pretty sure it took some mild threats to get the last pic here. You would think that you could count on the older child to smile at the camera, but no.

Katie and I also got to go to the women's craft night at church. It was a lot of fun and we made some sweet stuff. I have never been a huge crafter, but since moving here I have gotten on Pinterest and I have done a couple different projects. I joke that it's out of boredom and I don't mean to insult those who have always loved to craft, but really there isn't as much to do here so I have to find some way to fill my time and try and challenge myself. Plus, there aren't as many places to shop so sometimes you just can't find what you want. 

Now, on the to the few random things. Netta also played soccer this year and she had a blast, but not from the actual playing soccer part. She was much more interested in making friends and after every game she would tell me the name of her new friend on the other team. She also really enjoyed kicking all the mushrooms she found on the field. After one game she came to me crying because she hadn't scored a goal, but she had literally spent the entire time kicking mushrooms. I really think that's not the best choice if you are keen on scoring a goal. She is loving dance and is asking to take more classes, so I am not sure how long lived her soccer career will be.

October was the schools Walkathon fundraiser where the kids pledged to walk laps at recess. Parents could come and walk with the kids and so we went once a week to walk with the kids. For some reason King got mad at me for taking him there every single week so he would just sit on the side and Conrad and I would walk with Netta and EZ. Conrad would also play on the playground and he always had a following of little girls wanting to help him. I got this picture of Netta during one of our visits and I think her outfit sums up her personality perfectly.