Halloween Preview Week

Our pumpkins 2008

Last week was our warm-up for Halloween this week. Just about every night last week involved something to do with Halloween. Monday night for FHE (Family Home Evening) we decorated pumpkins. The kids had a great time and Jeff really got into carving this year. He did a great job on the scary monster the kids picked out to put on the pumpkin. The cat design was also picked out by the kids and was a new, fun option instead of carving. The kids hammered in little pegs in the design of a cats face and then the pegs light up once a light is placed inside. Really easy and something the kids could all do easily.

Wednesday I had Faith in God Girls. We decorated posters for the Branch Fall Festival which took place on Friday night. The girls had a great time and came up with some very interesting designs for the posters. While I am thinking about it, last Sunday I received a new calling in our branch. I am know the primary chorister. I am a little shocked that I was chosen given my relative lack of experience with music, but I am very excited. It is a fun calling that will definitely challenge me in a new and exciting way!

Thursday night was the Fall Festival at Bayley's school. It is their school's big fundraiser for the year and is a huge event. I felt like the entire month leading up to it they were constantly asking for donations of items to be used at the event. In the end it was a nice event and I am sure the school made LOTS of money. We left Jeff and Trey at home, while the girls and I spent about 1 hour at the event. They had a good time playing a couple of games as well as riding on the hayride.

Kendal and Bayley waiting for the hayride to start

As mentioned earlier, Friday was our Branch Fall Festival. The kids had an awesome time playing all of the games and hanging out with friends. The highlights of the evening for our family had to be the pumpkin carving contest (we won 2 out of 3 awards...great, but I think there was only one other family that entered), the cake walk, the spooky tunnel, and of course donut on a string. The kids loved all of the sweets and got enough to last quite a while.

Saturday Jeff and I focused some much needed attention on our yard. While Jeff was gone moving a new family into our branch, I started the process of trimming our out of control bushes. He finished up later that afternoon while I attended a baby shower. And then once I returned home I mowed the lawn for hopefully the last time this year. Saturday night Bayley had a Halloween Birthday Party at one of her friend's house. She had a great time, but we were all beat by the time we picked her up at 9 p.m.

I loved all the festivities of the last week and the opportunity for the kids to wear their costumes more than once this year. Kendal loves her chicken costume, Trey's lion costume has grown on him (when we first showed it to him he insisted he was going to be a doggy not a lion because he is somewhat scared of lions and lion ROARS!), and Bayley is making good use of a old dance costume by dressing as a Snow Princess. This week however is not quite as busy, which is just fine with us as we gear up for Friday night and Trick-or Treating!

Our Trip to New Mexico

Balloon Festival 2008 (Bayley is waving to the people below)

We made it! We managed to take 3 young kids across the country for a 4 day vacation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Not everything about the trip was easy, but we had a great time and made great memories. Friday we flew out of Birmingham, Alabama and after a short stop in Dallas where we fortunately did not have to change planes, we headed to El Paso, Texas which was the end of the airplane ride for us. Why did we fly to El Paso? Because the tickets were about $100 cheaper per person and the car rental was also much cheaper...an additional 4 hour drive to save about $500 was worth it in my book. Plus Jeff and I were excited to check out the city where we spent the first 3 years of our married life to see how it had changed and to catch up with some old friends. We arrived at my grandparent's house in Albuquerque at about 7 p.m. Friday night. After hellos and a dinner we headed off to bed after a long day of travel and to prepare for an 4 am morning to go to the Balloon Festival. Early morning at the Festival

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to hopefully see some balloons fly at the festival. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and the ascension was cancelled. We were able to walk around the grounds and check out different vendors. There was also a kid's tent where they had activities and crafts for the kids attending the festival. Bayley made a balloon wind chime and Trey and Kendal painted balloons. We still had a good time despite the disappointment of being unable to see any balloons. Sunday was more of the same as far as the weather was concerned so the two days we were in Albuquerque, there were ZERO balloons that were able to take off. Oh well, Kendal noted that we have seen a hot air balloon fly in Alabama before, so it was not big deal.

We did have a great visit with my grandparents. The kids loved seeing the house that their Grandma "G" grew up in and they loved picking vegetables in Great-grandpa's garden, playing with fun toys, and playing with my cousin Hannah's kids Reid and Ava. And of course, they loved "swimming" in the hot tub. We are so glad that we were able to make the trip to Albuquerque to see my Grandpa and Grandma Rogers. We had a great time and made some great memories.

Tuesday we headed back to El Paso to catch our flights back to Birmingham. While in El Paso we stopped and visited with the Waymans (Jeff's singles ward bishop while he was in El Paso), then we drove around and checked out our old neighborhood and the first house that Jeff I owned. It was fun showing Bayley where she was born and where she spent the first couple of years of her life. It is sad that she doesn't remember anything about El Paso, but we do have a lot of good memories. We didn't get back into Birmingham until 10 pm, so by the time we got home we were pretty exhausted. We were grateful that the kids behaved most of the time and that we had no flight issues!

The rest of last week Bayley had off for fall break. We didn't do too much, but that was just fine with all of us!

Bayley did get her cast off and is slowly but surely regaining motion in her elbow. The orthopedist told us to give her about 4 more weeks for her to regain full range of motion, but if she has any problems that he would send her to physical therapy. We are hoping that we will be able to avoid therapy and that her elbow will loosen up on its own.

Friday night Heidi and Eden were kind enough to come over for cookie decorating. My kids had a great time and took ownership of the cookies they decorated. I have such great friends who are always looking out for my kids and I! Thanks Heidi and Eden!

Well, it is back to the grind. I think we are all ready to get back to our normal routine. We had a great break but it is time to get back to business as usual!

Kendal showing off her soccer trophy

The Not-so-Free "Free Day" at the Zoo and Weekend with Grandpa Thornton

Grandpa and Trey

Yet another week has flown by and I will quickly try to hit the highlights. Last Monday was Trey's first session of speech therapy. The therapist will be coming to our home once a month for in home therapy. Before we started she explained that she usually plans about one hour, but because this was his first session he would probably only last about 30 minutes. After about 3 minutes of being shy and refusing to look at the therapist, Trey quickly warmed up. He loved it! He was totally involved and excited for over 45 minutes of therapy and play. Not only will he be working on his speech but they also integrate other areas of learning that will help him in the long run. Since his first session, we haven't noticed any dramatic improvements in his speech, but he does continue to try.

Last Wednesday we planned a trip to the Birmingham Zoo. The day trip had been on my calender for over 3 months, after a quick search on the Internet found that October 1st was "Free Day" at the Birmingham Zoo. So I told my friends, offered to car pool and was very excited about the free activity. Upon our arrival to the zoo first thing Wednesday morning I approached the gate and asked if it was Free Day at the Zoo. To my astonishment the lady at the window said that no it was not a free day at the zoo. I explained to her that I had seen the day advertised on the Internet and was pretty sure that it was a free day at the zoo. She was not believing me so she called her supervisor to the front office. He came and once again refuted my claim that it was supposed to be a free day at the zoo. At this point I was getting a little frustrated because I knew I had seen the day posted on the Internet. Well, I finally talked the supervisor into letting me show him on his computer the page I had pulled up. I pulled it up and he said that is an old link and the free day at the zoo was actually offered in 2007. No where within the posting about the free day at the zoo did it have the year posted, however if you scrolled further down the page there was some reference to the year 2007...I didn't hence the confusion. I felt somewhat vilified after at least showing him that I wasn't lying and that there was a page out there like that, but all I got from him was a "that's why you shouldn't do searches like that" and you will have to pay full price if you want to come in. We paid, the zoo wasn't that great, but the kids had fun. I learned a lesson or two out of this experience, but it still stinks!

The only picture I have of the kids at the zoo...the battery ran out...just one of those days

Jeff's dad, Daryl, came into town Friday to spend the weekend with us and to go to the race at Talledega on Sunday. Have I mentioned that we love visitors? We took him fishing Friday night and then enjoyed the beautiful night around a campfire roasting smores. Saturday we headed to the lake where we helped out at the lake house and then went jet skiing for a couple of hours. It was a gorgeous day, but we were pretty beat after a long day. Saturday night he took us to Chick-fil-A for dinner, which we LOVED! Sunday we enjoyed conference while he was at the race. We had the missionaries and some investigators over for the last session of conference and then dinner. The kids loved having other kids around during conference and surprisingly they behaved better during that session than they ever have. Maybe we will have to try inviting other kids over again in April??? Monday before Daryl left we ate lunch with Bayley at school. It was nice to see him and for the kids to get to spend that much time with him. They loved it!

Tuesday was Kendal's last soccer game. It was a short season, but a fun one. She was a lot of fun to watch. She didn't score a goal, but she did have opportunities! She is just fiesty enough to be good at it if that is what she decides she wants to do.

Tomorrow Bayley gets her cast off and pins taken out. We are excited about the cast coming off, but a little nervous about how she is going to react to the pins being taken out. I'll have to remember to document how it goes.

Friday we leave for Albuquerque, New Mexico to see my Grandpa and Grandma Rogers. We will be getting there in time to see a little bit of the Balloon Festival which is definitely exciting. We are also looking forward to spending some time with my grandparents who we really haven't seen much in the last 5 years. The kids are going to love it! Hopefully we will have lots of pictures to share!