SMILE AWARD

Keara was a big old sweetheart and gave me this wonderful, but undeserving award.
The SMILE AWARD

Rules associated with this award:
The recipient must link back to the awards creator...... a student in Texas:
(http://www.thebabblingsofmere.blogspot.com/)

You must post these rules if you receive the award.
You must choose 5 people to receive the award after receiving it yourself.
You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award, as posted by Mere. You must post the characteristics of a recipient. You must create a post sharing your win with others. You must thank your giver.
Characteristics for the Smile Award: Must display a cheerful attitude. Must love one another. Must make mistakes. Must learn from others. Must be a positive contributor to blog world. Must love life. Must love kids.
5 Awesome Bloggers Who Qualify for This Major Award!

1. Kyla. I got an awesome package deal when I married into this family. She inspires me to be creative, to be organized, and to love the time I spend with my kids. She has always treated me like her sister, and is so patient with my cabillion questions that I have about everything crafty. I wish she didn't live on the other side of the country...

2. Crystal. Also part of that great package deal. She was my best friend when I was one lost and lonely soul in Provo. She gives awesome advice, and can always find the positive in any hard situation. She keeps me level headed, and is so great at getting me to laugh at myself and my silly parnaoias. Also wish she didn't live on the other side of the country.

3. I have a two in one...Keara and Cassie. They are part of the reason that I love living in Iowa. They always make me laugh, have helped me through this crazy transition of having two kids, and have kids that love to hang out with mine! They provide me with much needed adult conversation almost every day, and I love spending time with them! They have such great attitudes, and also inspire the inner crafty goddess in me :)

4. Liz. Where to start? She has been through so much, but still manages to be there to bring me out of my bad days. She can make me laugh by saying two words, and keeps me sane. Even when she's struggling she is providing service to others. And she shares my twilight obsession. :)

5. Cindy. My first friend out here, and someone I have loved from the moment we met. She is hilarious without trying to be, and is a good calming influence. She's done a great job of trying to fatten me up with her delicious desserts, and inspires me to try new things. Our lives have become increasingly crazy this kast year, but I know I can always turn to her in times of need.

I love all of these women, and could add ten more to this list...

Candy Anyone?

I think we had too much of a good thing this month. I think the final count was five Halloween parties/trick-or-treating. If I never see another piece of candy it will be too soon. Banana has had an absolute blast though. Tonight after trunk or treat she was asking me if we could do it again tomorow. Um, how about no? We need to have a parade or party so we can get rid of some of this candy we are floating in here. It really has been a fantastic fun month though. We love the holidays here, and there were so many fun things to do. We had some fun parties with friends, a couple of trick or treat outings, and a fun party at our dancing classes. I wish I would have taken some pics of the cute girls I teach. They got to do a little costume parade, and Banana showed her independence when she came into my classroom by telling me to get away, this was her party...She does not like to see either of her parents when she is doing her thing...(nursery, dance class, play dates with friends). So here are some fun pics. Enjoy.

Hannah and her buddy C at our friends' awesome Halloween party!


Trick or treating at the mall. It was a madhouse. Luckily we got there right when it started. By the time we were done it was just one gigantic line winding all of the way around the mall. Hubby and I had been talking about getting this shirt for Banana for a while, it says "Chatterbox for President." And at Gap they were giving away stickers instead of candy, and look at the one she got! Her dancing party. The parade was so fun to watch. I'm glad Hubby was there to take some pics because I was teaching. She wasn't too excited to see him following her around either...Too funny. He said that when he took this picture she told him to stop following her.


Look at that beautiful Iowa sunset...Trunk or treating was pretty fun. And it was 60 degrees! The missionaries had a fun fishing tent set up, they are awesome! People really decked out their trunks, and I am mad I didn't get some pics. I think that about covers our Halloween festivities. Have a great night!

A Little Plea

Any volunteers to come and teach this adorable baby girl that it's possible to sleep longer than 40 minutes at a time alone, in her own crib...Me and my sleep deprived self would be forever grateful.

Great News!

Just wanted to let you all know that my awesome hubby passed Part I boards!! Woo-hoo! Love you babe!

Cutest Thing You've Ever Seen

Let the Candy Binge Begin

Here's a little preview of the Halloween festivities around here. We had our first trick or treating at Palmer the other day and already have a bag full of candy! There are two trick or treat parties this weekend we are going to, and a few more next week...all of our candy will be donated to a good cause. Our trunk 'r treat party at the church. I think I just barely threw out the leftover candy from last year, so I thought that it might be a good idea to try and get rid of it on Halloween!

Cinderella and her "CinderPrince"
Finals are upon us again, and so far so good. We are so ready for this tri to be over. It's been a pretty stressful one for both of us, so there will be a collective sigh of relief at our house on Thursday :)
Just a question...At what age did your kids pick up on sarcasm? Miss H has it down. And has too many one liners for me to remember. I've been trying to write them all down, but I can't keep up. The other day she informed me that I was being so 'noying. Actually our conversation went like this:
Me: Miss H, please don't throw that book.
Me (again):Miss H please.
Hannah: Seriously mom, you are being so 'noying,,,
Me: Silence, then uncontrollable laughter.

And yet another hiarious moment:
I was running up the stairs from the laundry room because I could hear screaming children, and made it almost to the top, lost my footing and face planted into the stairs.
I hear Miss H come running yelling to see if I'm ok...She gets to where I am, sees me sprawled across the stairway, and says, "Oh mommy, this is so terrible. It's just too terrible..."
I loved it! She has such a sensitive heart, which comes out every once awhile amid the sarcasm.
Good luck to all of our friends out there going through finals! And especially to their wives!

Warning: Picture Overload

This post is mainly going to be about playing catch up with our pictures. We have had a fun month with lots of fun family time! We started it all off by going to the pumpkin patch. It's the same one we went to last year, and Miss H LOVED it! I loved it this year too. I had a much more enjoyable time this year, seeing as last year I had a bad case of morning sickness. I love this time of year. Probably my favorite as far as weather, and it kicks off the holiday season, which if you know me and my family we love! Miss H has had a blast making all of her cute Halloween crafts, and playing outside in this gorgeous weather. Who ever heard of 80 degrees in October...in Iowa? Dad is busy getting ready for finals and it is so exciting to say we are HALFWAY DONE!! Only one more tri until he starts clinic, and we will be on our way! Woo-hoo!

The hay ride was great!
Miss H picked out the tiniest pumpkin she could find!! There was no convincing her to get a big one. That was fine with us! Less to carry around...
It wasn't really a "corn" maze this year. It was actually a "sorghum" maze, but it was the perfect height for Miss H and I. No claustrophobia this year!!
Pumpkin painting!

She had a good time playing with all of the seeds. That was my fave part as well when I was a little kid!
Dad busted out some serious tools to tackle this pumpkin! Our kitchen has horrible lighting, so our magic fix...his head lamp.
Cinderella's castle. We thought it was fitting because Miss H is being Cinderella for Halloween. And we're always homesick for Disney World...

One of my favorite projects! She calls them her silly spiders and their names are Daddy and Grandpa...not sure if there is some sort of hidden meaning :)

Her "silly" ghost. Everything is silly as far as Halloween is considered. I think it helps her to not be freaked out by everything if we just call it silly. (Ignore the post dancing/tumbling class hair...if we had a shot of mine it would have looked the same!)
And finally..."Boyfriend Chris" came over for dessert the other night, and he got roped into playing this game with Miss H. She thought it was great to be tossed back and forth across the room...I'm sure the grandma's are having heart attacks right now! I'm pretty sure they probably worked off the dessert they just ate!