Happy Halloweeeeeeen!

Five little pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, “Oh my, it’s getting late!”

The second one said, “There are witches in the air.”

The third one said, “But we don’t care.”

The fourth one said, “Let’s run, let’s run.”

The fifth one said, “Isn’t halloween fun?”

The Woooo went the wind and out went the lights.

And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

My halloween memory – Mom didn’t like us going trick or treating because she said it was like sending your kids out begging.  So she made us learn this little poem and recite it at a few doors in order to get candy.  That’s how I remember it anyway. 

Well, I am about 90% which feels so much better after not being able to breath for a week.  Unfortunately, Rosie has it worse in the form of a dry cough, Serra developed symptoms last night, and Brian is miserable with a severe sore throat.  He has come home early (around 3pm) and collapsed the last two days.  We are keeping an eye on Rosie but she seems to be sticking with the cough and not getting any worse.  May we all not keep passing it back and forth. 

Of course, I needed pictures of the girls in their costumes for Halloween, and of course, I can always count on Rosie to not want to participate.  In anticipation of this I picked up some devil horns to go with her angel costume.  She is usually quite an angel but has a devil streak in her that can throw us for a loop.  I think her costume is perfect for her this year.  Serra is a snow queen this year.  Anything would have worked for her as long as it involved a pretty dress and sparkles.  I didn’t make their costumes for the first time ever this year due to the swelling and numbness in my hands.  This is my second halloween being great with child and I am going as a pumpkin as you can plainly see.  No padding needed. 

And for those out there with dress up boxes.  I went to Party City looking for a specific item today.  Not really the best day to go as everyone and their dog was there completing their costumes for tonight.  Anyway they had a clearance bin with miscellaneous costume items…hats, capes, dresses, etc…at ridiculously low prices.  So I chose a few items to add to the the kids dress up box.  Serra ripped off her costume as soon as she got home from school and has been prancing around and switching it up every other minute ever since.  Good times. 

And we are going trick or treating, but only in our small neighborhood.  The kids pulled in quite a haul last year in just our little community so we are going to leave it at that…and they will not be reciting any poems it would take too long.

 It’s 4:30AM and I am sitting here at the computer trying to breath.  I developed a cold yesterday and it is definitely keeping me up. 

Good news:  999 pictures, 310 pages later, I finished our “trip” scrapbook.  I used blurb.com and was able to download it Saturday.  I have been working on it since August.  It took several hours to download and actually three different tries as something kept interrupting the connection.  I am so glad Brian did a running narrative on Xanga.  It was a life saver in deciphering many of the pictures.  I expect to see it in the mail in a few weeks.  Thanks Mom for showing me that website.  I have fallen sadly behind in the scrapbook department and the trip was a major mental block for me.  I figured out we took on average nearly 40 pictures a day for 30 days.  Now I can go back to 2005 and try to get caught up on the rest of everyones books.  It is the one major goal I have before critter #3 makes an appearance.  Maybe I can get lot’s done in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. 

We have been so busy with church and work around here lately it seems like Brian and I are hardly living in the same house.  We coordinate with each other every week who needs to be home which evenings with the kids while the other is off doing one thing or another.  Work has been nuts for Brian and when I get home in the evenings or if I am already there he is back in his office working until the wee hours of the morning.  Something’s gotta give but I’m not sure what at this point. 

I don’t encourage a nap for Rosie as she tends to stay up until 11pm or later if she gets even a small one.  But sometimes she just gets really tired during the day and puts herself down.  I found her on my bedroom floor one afternoon while I was working on the trip book.  She pulled the little accent blanket off my bed, found a doll, and packed a bag for dreamland.  I thought it was way too cute.  Sorry the next are so small.  They were taken from a photographer in our wards website.  He takes a lot of pictures for our ward.  Brian participated in the pie eating contest.  He had to pick it up because it was FROZEN.   And there is me finishing the 5K last week. 

Sorry for the delay.  Conference preparations got the best of me last week.  So since last update.  We have had a few doctors appointments, dinner with the motorhome crews, and General Conference. 

So the baby is now 24 weeks and I love to get to this point because now no matter what happens the baby is viable.  Not that we are hoping for an early delivery by any means…it’s just comforting to know that if for some reason I had to deliver earlier the baby has a good chance.  I have been feeling a lot of movement.  I’m with Amy Jo on the baby judo thing.  Sometimes it feels like the baby is doing a routine or something.  Serra and Rosie find great pleasure talking into my belly button.  We did the scheduled 21 week ultrasound with a maternal fetal specialist and got some great pictures. 

I had to close my eyes during a crucial moment in order to keep the surprise a surprise.  The doctor spent a lot of time looking at the heart since that is his specialty.  He went on and on about how perfect it looked and how he could use the images in a conference he was doing that week.  Even when we were done I came out of the room and he was gushing to an ultrasound tech about the perfection.  I think in his line of work he sees a lot of problems.  Everything is in perfect order as far as he could tell which is always nice to know.  The baby is nearing 2 lbs at this point and a little ahead of schedule but that is to be expected as Brian’s child.  I still feel good but am expanding daily.  At least it feels that way. 

We have a bit of a running problem with Mo.  Well we have a lot of running problems with Mo, but one of them is his tendency to lick the couch frequently.  It is totaly gross and it really irritates us.  Serra did an illustration of the licking culprit on the ottoman with Brian yelling at him to stop in the background.  I thought it was pretty funny.

A funny Serraism:  I was reminded by Jeff and Maren that I hadn’t posted this story.  A few months ago I was downstairs with the girls in the morning getting breakfast cleaned up.  Serra was sitting on the couch and declared that something stunk.  I noticed it as well and figured Mo had gotten something stinky on a blanket.  I took the blankets upstairs for a washing.  A little while later, Serra with a disgusted and slightly worried look on her face, said,”  Mom, there is something that stinks in here and it’s following me.”  I started to sniff around her and realized she was the stink.  Apparently she had neglected to bath a few vital parts during her last bath.  We are sure to remind her now when she is in the bath to get those parts.  Speaking of Serra…she bit into a breadstick Friday night and started complaining that it hurt to take bites.  I asked to see her teeth and sure enough, one of the bottom ones has a wiggle.  She was not sad anymore and shows everyone she runs into (including complete strangers) her new loose tooth. 

We had dinner with Roger and Judy, Martin and Randy from the motor home days a few weeks ago.  It was fun to catch up and visit for a few hours.  Serra took on the picture taking role for a while and here is what she got.  OK so I took the last one. 

Saturday morning Gary’s family, Jeff and Maren and Dallas arrived slightly after conference started.  However, with the handy DVR technology we were able to start when ever we wanted.  It was a great weekend and I was impressed by several talks.  I will look forward to reviewing them again.  The kids played hard both days and there were tears shed by my eldest when cousins left and when she went to bed.  Apparently Christmas is way to far away before she sees them again.  I agree but the next few months are bound to be super busy with all the holidays and I wasn’t willing to make any promises at this point. 

There is some major beating on Uncle Jeff going on.  And yes, that is Rosie where she crashed Sunday afternoon…Right next to the treat table.  That kid can sleep anywhere.  I wish she would more often. 

Here we have Rosie getting rides from Serra and some conference fun. 

Here are my girls enjoying some scripture time with Daddy and as my light test models at a recent shoot.