Come back for more

There are lots of posts between these 2 that are waiting in line to be written. Time hasn't been on my side lately. They will be here soon.

Halloween 2010

Halloween this year was calm and relaxing that I almost wish Halloween was always on a Sunday. Then we don't have to build the excitement all day of trick or treating, rush through dinner eating only a few hurried bites then wandering the streets in the cold trick or treating, only to come home to sort, trade, argue over trades, trade some more, struggle to get kids in pj's and bed.
But how my kids would NOT like it if Halloween was always on a Sunday.
It's fun for them to dream of their costume and to pretend to be someone different for a few hours. Luckily our school does a Halloween parade, and our church did a party with trunk or treating and we went to a senior center for their party, so they got to wear their costumes multiple times and they did get some candy.

Simeon wanted to be La-Daien Thomas a former QB from the San Diego Chargers. He stuffed his jersey with pillowcases to make them look like he had shoulder pads on.


Corrine was a Hawkeye Cheerleader. She wore this to the Hawkeye football game that we went to a few weeks ago. Her bangs are now long enough to be pulled back into pigtails


Ammmon was the hardest to get to decide on a costume this year. He changed his mind many many times. One time he decided to be a Jedi and wear the robe Simeon wore in Kindergarten, but he didn't have the correct clothes to wear under it, so he was ONLY going to wear the robe. I vetoed that one!! After watching how to train your dragon, Ammon wanted to be Night Fiery. We already had this red dragon costume from Dance Marathon. So he decided to he would be Nightmare.



I saw this cheerleader outfit this summer in Boone of all places. (Boone is near the Hawkeyes rival team.) I didn't get it then and couldn't find it here in town for a while. She loved shaking her pom poms, and walking around in her skirt. She looked so sweet and small in it.


On Saturday we went to Grandma Smiths to trick or treat. She made each of the kids little Halloween bags for their goodies from her. She even made one for Corrine's' American doll.



On Halloween the kids got dressed up to go see Great Grandma Riddle and show off their costumes. On the way out a nurse stopped them and gave them all a couple of pieces of candy.

Our baby dolls

It's been so fun to see the girls playing together lately. Both are VERY into baby dolls. They dress them (Corrine's job), they push them in strollers, take care of them, play with them and love them. When Corrine was this age she was also very loving and caring for her baby dolls, and I've been told when I was young I was also very into baby dolls.

bouncing their babies


Should rides for their babies


Babies up high


One of Rebecca's 1st words and a word we hear many times each day is "baby", and it always gets a smile on her face.

This make me smile

I'm not sure why but this little lego car from a Toys Story lego set puts a smile on my face whenever I see it around the house. Rebecca has been carrying it around the last few days, so I've seen it in lots of different places.

Holding tight

Rebecca has gotten into holding her beloved toys for long periods of time. Today when I went to put her down for her nap, she DID NOT want to give up her puppy and giraffe little people animals, so she went to bed with them. When she woke up, they were in her hand again.



Her hands are so little, but they can hold so much.


I love to watch her growing and figuring out her likes and dislikes.

How to make a jack-o-lantern

The annual carving of the pumpkins was on the agenda for Family Home Evening tonight. Johann got a phone call an hour before asking him to help move someone things from a moving van into a storage unit, so off he went. (We've frozen hands while carving pumpkins that have sat outside in 40 degrees for days.)

Simeon wanted to make a vampire pumpkin. He did most of the drawing of the face and cutting himself. He was also the kiddo that broke the most saws while carving his pumpkin. He didn't want all of his guts out so they could be used as part of the affect of the vampire. Simeon had no fear of the guts and was very encouraging to Rebecca to reach in and touch it.


Corrine decided that she didn't want to cut her pumpkin this year, but rather draw on it. She choose to draw Ariel on it with markers. It took her a long time to color in all the black on the face and the red hair.


Ammon wanted sharp teeth on his pumpkin and upside down triangle eyes and nose. He had me draw the face, then he went over it with the poker. He was concentrating so hard on getting the pokes right on the lines I drew. He again this year wanted to wear gloves to clean out his pumpkin, and once he had those on-he was digging right in. He on the other hand didn't want ANY pulp or seeds left in his pumpkin.




Rebecca love "pups" aka pumpkins. She was so cute sitting in her highchair with her pumpkin in front of her. It was fun to watch her reaction to the pumpkins being cut open. She was cautious at first, staying back and looking in as best she could. Then when she touched the wetness of the pumpkin she wiped it off. She thought the seeds were fascinating. She'd stare and point at them. Later she was picking the seeds up off the floor and putting them on the table. After we gave her the scoop she was more adventurous to reach her hand in.






When Rebecca was done cleaning out Simeon's pumpkin she found a pair of feet that looked perfect for "tick tick"-tickling.



I love looking at lit up jack-o-lanterns. It's a little bit of magic and memories from my childhood mixed together.

Rebecca's friend Nathan

Today was our last day watching Nathan. He's come and played with Rebecca for the past 7 weeks while his regular babysitter was on maternity leave.
Rebecca was always excited when her "friend" came over to play. She'd run to the front door, squeal with excitement then take off for the top of the stairs. She knows we usually head down to the basement to play.
Rebecca would follow Nathan around playing where he played. For the most part he tolerated her being right in his face, but not always.



They both LOVED playing with the pompoms and could spend half hour making their hands, faces, feet, and stomachs disappear and re-appear. This would produce lots of laughs from both of them. It was alot of fun to see Rebecca interacting with Nathan, and the back and forth between them.


Rebecca really enjoyed having Nathan at our house. She had a friend when all the big kids were at school.

The Purest Love

To get a hug from Rebecca is to be embraced with the most pure love ever!

Hostess Cupcakes

Growing up I remember my dad eating Hostess cupcakes. I even remember where they were in the kitchen. They weren't in the cupboard with the rest of the food, but rather in another cupboard across the kitchen by the cookbooks where a few other sweet treats were also.
I have eaten some in my life, but have never really been into them. The other day I saw them on sale at Hy-vee and had a craving for them. I had to have a Hostess cupcake.
So today I bought some of those chocolately, creamy filled, chocolate covered with white swirled goodness to enjoy. As soon as I opened one, Rebecca pounced on me. Begging for a bite. I gave her one small piece and she pounched on me again for more. After another small piece or two, I gave up and gave my chocolate goodness to her. (I went and got myself my very own one and ate it in the kitchen where she couldn't see. I feel so sneaky for admitting that!)



She was in chocolate, creamy filling and white swirl in the chocolate frosting on top heaven. She sat and ate the entire cupcake (minus the crumbs on her, the chair and the floor) and wanted more.



She discovered sweetness and she isn't going back!

The Toilet

The kids bathroom toilet had 3 strikes against it-so it was time to go. We were excited to teach the kids how to replace a toilet. I know that sounds funny-but we truly were. We had just pulled ours up and put it back down when we painted our bathroom and I learned that it really is not that hard to do and it's a skill they may need one day.
The day we got the new toilet the kids came home from school, saw it in the garage and were so excited. It was a new toilet and we had excitement!
Johann set to work with the kids to get the old toilet out. We had 1 hour before our next thing going on-enough time. We disconnected the hose, emptied the bowl and tank and were onto the bolts. The 1st one came off easy, the 2nd was was a different story. The kids all took a try, Johann took a try, I took a try-20 minutes later and the bolt hadn't moved. The kids were DONE with this toilet teaching time and were out the door playing.
We tried pliers and wrenches, hammers and saws. NOTHING WORKED-the bolt was so rusted (one of the strikes against the toilet to begin with).
We called a few people looking for a different type of saw. We got ahold of Mike who had one, but it was at his sons house and the blade was dull. Johann went back to work trying more things to get the rusted bolt off.
Half hour later Mike showed up with the saw, and a new blade. I love people like that who go out of their way to help someone.
Johann tried the saw-but it didn't work. So he went for a hammer. This time he was going to break the toilet base to free the bolt. But the porcelain was stronger then we thought and the hammer didn't make a mark.
At this point we were on the verge of calling a plumber. This was something we did not want to do because it was a simple toilet change, and we should be able to do it ourselves.
Johann went in one more time, and came out a few minutes later and said "It worked!" The rusty bolt was finally free!!!
By now it was past the hour we had to get it done and we had to rush out the door, so the toilet sat, unhooked from it's chains of rust.
The next day Johann and I, while the kids were at school, finished the toilet in no more then 20 minutes and called it done.

The old toilet-well it got sent to the garage to wait for it's ride to the dump.

Fast forward 3 to 4 weeks. The old toilet sits in our garage looking sad and out of place. It really needed a trip to the dump-but time wasn't on it's side.


A few weeks later our neighbors were having a garage sale. On Friday in the midst of talking with them we found out they had wanted to rent tables but the price to get them was too high and I offered our truck to them. They also told me they were renting a dumpster to get rid of the rest of the stuff. I told them I would gladly pay them to put our toilet in their dumpster.

Saturday afternoon our neighbors offered a deal. Use of our truck for space in their dumpster. WE JUMPED at the deal! They got to take some things to Goodwill, we got to get rid of the toilet without driving to the dump.

So now our old toilet is in it's final resting place-the Iowa City Landfill, and I can open our garage without a toilet looking out at me.

My sister told me an old toilet sitting in the garage is the stuff real life is made out of, and I think it's true. Real life isn't always full of charm and smooth sailing. It's also full of leaky toilets, rusted bolts, glad it's past moments, lessons learned and moments you want cemented in your brain, because you survived them. Life is full of these moments, and it's funny how it can take a toilet to make you see them.

Self Incriminating

I was going through the pictures on my little camera (that's what I call my regular digital camera and the big one is the nice new one) and came across LOTS of random pictures that were taken by one of my cute kiddos. I had my suspicion of who the photographer was, but when I saw this picture taken by this photographer there was NO WAY they could deny their role in these pictures!



AMMON ELI SMITH is the photographer. This didn't surprise me the slightest because he LOVES to take pictures and he can gt some good ones. Today's were very random-very random-like the garage door sensor and the neighbor setting up their garage sale.

Prepping dinner-Tomato Bacon quiche


Dad in a dust cloud as he edges the lawn.


Rebecca looking at something on the ground. For some reason the way she is standing is just adorable and so her.


Dads truck


The garage sensor in all its glory.


Pillsbury Dough Boy Cookie jar. This belonged to Great Grandma Smith. Ammon had been very curious about this cookie jar, so it was sitting on the counter rather then on the fridge.

Randall Park

On the way to the pumpkin patch we passed this park. I'd always wanted to stop and play at it, and today was the day! It was a gorgeous day to play at the park and for most of the hour + we were there we had it to our selves.


Ammon really wanted to go see the flags on the horseshoe area. On their way back I snapped this picture. I love how it shows the kids as they are. No posing, no smiling for the camera, no getting ready. You can see Ammon kicking the sand with his feet, the way Simeon's holding his right hand-I can tell he's thinking about something and he's doing it with his hand, and the way Corrine's hair blows when she walks.

Joy of childhood caught in the moment. I am so in love with Ammon's dimples. No one else has them and they are so priceless.

This was posed of Simeon. He's growing up so fast. He'll be double digits this spring. He is getting more mature, responsible and so much smarter. He doesn't like getting his picture taken very often, so I take advantage of it when he does.
This park had the nicest sand I've ever seen at a park. It was light gray, small and consistent pieces and it was well wonderful to touch. I know it sounds weird to talk about the sand-but really it was great sand. I wished i could have bottled some and brought it home for our sand table.
Anyways the 3 older kids LOVED the sand too. The started digging in it and they ended up with a volcano with 4 tunnels connecting (or almost connecting) underneath it. They spent nearly an hour digging the tunnels and perfecting their volcano.



While the 3 older kids were playing in the sand, Rebecca decided that she did NOT like the feel of the sand under her feet and she froze. She squatted in the same place for a good 5 minutes. She wasn't crying, just squatting there looking around. After I realized she wasn't moving because of the sand we went off to play elsewhere.

The top of the dinosaur slide was a "safe" place to be. She could watch her siblings play in the sand, but she didn't have to touch the sand.
After going down the slide she showed just how much she disliked the sand by trying her hardest to get her feet up out of the it. I found this so amusing since just a few weeks back she was happily playing in some sand at home-but it was with her hands, not walking in it. I tested it later on by setting her standing up in the sand and she did then want to be picked up and wouldn't walk out of it.



Rebecca is very into showing off her body parts. I love how she pulled her ears out as far as she could get them and that she has to lift her shirt all the way up to point to her stomach. This stage is so much fun!



After all the sand playing it was no surprise to have sand all over them. They were laying down reaching their hands in the tunnels as far as they could.





Today was one of those "Wish I could bottle it days" and open it back up and relive this day when the chaos of life starts to get too much. This was one of those days where the joys of childhood and the joys of motherhood collided and made for some AWESOME memories! This is one I'll look back on and smile everytime. We need more days like this.