Ten on Sunday

1. After Leah's birthday party, I decided it was time to start focusing on Christmas. In my mind, I couldn't start on the season until her birthday party was done and over with. I felt really bad that it took forever to get the tree but the weather wasn't cooperating and we had to wait a couple of extra more days to get it. I usually like to get the tree the first weekend of December usually on a Sat but it managed to rain all afternoon even until the evening. So, picking out in the tree isn't fun and we put it off until we could get it. We decided to go get a tree but it was FREEZING outside like 20 degree weather. We couldn't make up our mind on a tree, we kept going back and forth at the lot. Leroy wasn't to happy about being out in the cold. He finally agreed to get the more expensive tree and once we made the decision. We left with the tree, strapped on top! The tree ended up costing more than what we wanted to spend organically but it's sooooooooo beautiful! I'm not a FAKE tree person, I don't mind spending the cash on a tree. It's part of Christmas but my hubby isn't always crazy about the cost but I couldn't imagine not having a FRESH tree for Christmas.
2. Last year, I completely forgot to pick up tickets for the Bella Vista Winter Carnival. The kids were so disappointed and I almost forgot to get tickets again. Luckily, I read in the paper that they still had tickets left so I rushed down and managed to pick up tickets for the kids. So, we spent last Saturday at the Winter Carnival. The kids had a complete BLAST. I'm always surprised that some people don't take advantage of this carnival. Free crafts, games, food, door prizes, plus the Mouse House is awesome. The kids can pick out gifts for family and friends for practical nothing and they wrap and label all of the gifts for your kids. Plus, Logan and Leah both sat on Santa's lap. A first time, seen they were little babies. Logan asked for a pet hamster and Leah asked for a real turtle. I hope they wouldn't be too disappointed when Santa doesn't bring them a real animals.
3. Another Scheele Family tradition is to take family Christmas pictures infront of the tree. As you can see from the picture Landon was super excited about having his picture taken, yeah right! He used to be such a ham when he was a little boy, now he hates it when I take his picture. I should of included this picture on the Christmas card...hee hee!
4. On Monday, I had a doctor's appointment to confirm that yes I'm pregnant and our little peanut is due to arrive on June 21, 2012! We also found out that we have really crappy insurance with a deductible of $3500 plus it's only 80/20 coverage. So, we will be broke for the next year trying to pay off this new addition to the family. Yes, this is a surprised baby. Do you really think, I wanted to start all over again. It's okay, this summer will be hard with all the kids being home but if I can make it until they all go back to school in the Fall it shouldn't be too bad.
5. On Friday, I went with Leah's preschool class to the VillageHouse Adult Daycare Center to sing Christmas Carols. We had a big surprise, we went got there. Grandpa Scheele was at the VillageHouse and Leah was so excited to see him and be able to sign to him. I know Grandpa was just as surprised to see her. Afterwards, he gave her a big hug and he was so proud to show her off to everyone at the VillageHouse.


6. Christmas Caroling in the morning and Christmas party in the evening made for another super busy day at the Scheele household. We decided it would be fun to invite some friends and neighbors to the party plus it would be a great way to show off the new sun room. Just about everyone that we invited made it to the party which made for a really fun evening. I was so busy, that I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures. We had a huge spread of food, I'm sure that I wasn't the only person to feel completely stuffed by the end of the night. We played games, the kids made ornaments and snowflake necklaces. The pictures below were taken of the kids doing their own version of white elephant game. The adult version was a complete blast and the naught cup full of coal was hilarious. I couldn't of pulled off the party without the love and support of all of my friends that came to the party and helped with the evening. Thank you, each and everyone holds a special place in my heart. Thanks for coming, we need to make this into a new holiday tradition.


7. If one party wasn't enough, I had to get up super early the next morning to join my running group at the square in Bentonville. Surprisingly, I managed to get out of bed but I forgot to defrost the van windows plus I forgot that I was completely on EMPTY. I hate being late, I'm also the early person. By, the time I defrosted the windows and filled up with gas. I was about 15 minutes late. I didn't see anyone at the square. I thought for a complete second that everyone left without me but it turns out that everyone was crammed in Puan's vans. It was like a party in the van, I still bad about making everyone wait for me plus I was the last one to finish running. I can't seem to run up any hills but it wasn't too bad.

8. After our morning run, we decided to have a nice breakfast at Station Cafe and have a white elephant gift exchange but these gifts were super nice gifts! We had so much fun, eating and visiting with each other. I feel so blessed to be part of such an awesome group of girls. We encourage each other to do our best plus everyone in the group ROCKS!!!!! We are always looking for more ladies to come and join us. We're even looking for people who would just like to walk and not run. One of the girls in the group, really encouraged me to keep up running. She managed to run up to the 7 month which I thought was so awesome. She said it made a huge difference in her labor and delivery which is always a great thing to hear. Plus, one of the girls in the group is on the committee for Bentonville Half Marathon and she told us the medals they are giving this year are super cool and one of a kind. So, I'm going to sign up for the half. No, I'm not going to run the whole thing, I figured that I will just do a combination of running and walking but it will probably be more like speed walking...hee hee!

9. I did 95% of my shopping at Amazon.com which was so much easier than trying to shop at the mall. I'm never going back to my old ways, I just placed my order on Thursday and everything is expected to arrive on Tuesday. If you haven't tried it before it's so worth it plus I found a ton of great deals that's going to be saving me money on the long run.

10. This year, we're having a nice and quiet Christmas. We're sad that we will not be having any of my family coming this year but we will have the Scheele's over for Christmas dinner. It's going to be a nice and quiet Christmas but we will be thinking about all of you that we be away from us.

Ten on Monday

1. Once again, I can never figure out how to upload the photos until Blogger.com. Sorry, just look at the pictures from the bottom to the top...lol!


2. Last week, planning Leah's birthday party took way too much of time and energy but it was worth it at the end. Leah had an amazing first birthday party with all of her little friends from church and preschool. Her best friend ended up coming down with a high fever so she wasn't able to attend the party. Too bad, because I planned the party to fit her schedule so she could attend. Anyways, that's life!


3. Leah decided she would like a Hello Kitty party. At the time, I wasn't sure where I would find Hello Kitty stuff here locally but I knew Leroy's brother William that lives in Hawaii could go to the mall there and pick up some stuff for me at the Hello Kitty store. I did find out from friends that Hello Kitty is really popular here and even Walmart carries a lot of items. William sent her a super cute Hello Kitty. This morning, she decided to use her Hello Kitty as a gun! The results of having two older brothers, the poor girl will always be corrupted from them.


4. Here's my little secret in making a boring cake mix taste a hundred times better....just had one instant pudding mix to the cake mix. It will make your cake, so moist and tasty! It's an easy way to improve a cake mix. I really didn't feel like making a cake from scratch or decorate one either. I just made a bunch of cupcakes with homemade frosting. Store bought frosting is NASTY!!!!!! Anyways, I made a signed and it called it "Leah's Hello Kitty Bake Shop"! I had the girls frost and decorate their own cupcakes. The girls loved it! Super easy for Mom and the kids didn't realize they were being put to work.


5. I came up with a couple of party ideas, pin the bow on Hello Kitty plus I created a game that's like magically chairs but I made cat paw prints for the girls to use instead of chairs. We played the freeze dance and the limbo! The girls just had a blast playing party games, dancing, and popping balloons.


6. Leah was so excited to have so many of her friends attend her party. Now, she kept calling her birthday party "her FAKE birthday"! So, on Sunday, she kept on asking when she was going to have her "REAL" birthday party. I was like you already had your party and you are not having another party. She wanted two parties plus she had her birthday party at preschool today! She decorated all of her own cupcakes and decorated them all for her friends at school.


7. I still can't believe my little girl just turned "5" years old. Her little friend told her if she sucks her thumb after she turns five years old. It will "POP" off! So, she went all day long on her birthday not sucking her thumb. She really wanted to suck on it, after church but she decided to slap her thumb instead and she kept repeating that she wasn't going to suck it! I'm so proud of her, she hasn't sucked her thumb so far today, as well. Hopefully, she will be able to break this habit but she already told me that she had an addiction to it...lol!


8. We still don't have a Christmas tree, it started to rain Saturday afternoon and it didn't stop! I really wanted to get one picked. I had it all planned out that we would have it up and decorated on Sunday. It's now Monday, but it's super cold outside at the moment. So, maybe tomorrow we will get our tree!


9. The house remodel is completed. The only thing that is left, is the outside porch needs a ceiling fan but it will have to wait until this spring. I love, the remodel. Leroy picked up a tv stand for the Sunroom. There is a store in Rogers called "Decorate Me" and you can pick up some really good deals. It's like a scratch and dent store. The tv stand is normally sells for $500 and Leroy picked it up for $100. It has a small dent on the back side which no one will ever see. They also have brand new couches that are in prefect condition that are deeply discounted. So, we have the sun room done but now we need furniture but we will have to wait on that. The bank account is running low at the moment.

10. It's going to be a nice and quiet Christmas. I haven't even started any Xmas shopping, yet! I'm really hoping to send the holidays with our little family and just take it easy.

Turning "5"

Ten on Sunday

1. The number one thing about this week is the Sun Room is Almost done. We were hoping to be done completely on Friday but we ran into a couple of problems. A miscommunication between Leroy and James, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the delivery truck pull up with the exact same doors we had last time but without the grids. I wanted French doors not my old doors. So, the whole afternoon was spent trying to sort out the problem and the guys picking up the correct doors. The French doors are AWESOME!


2. The second thing about this week is James is going to take my small bedroom closet and turn it into a pantry. I will finally have a place to store all of my homemade canned goods. No more canning jars under my bed! The carpet guy is coming on Tuesday to install all of the new carpet in the kids rooms, the downstairs room, and the Sun room. I literally spent all day yesterday cleaning out both of the kids rooms. I had to sort thru all of their toys, clothes, and junk. The rooms have never looked cleaner. While the kids are at school, I'm going to be sorting one more time thru their toys and I will be dropping them off at Goodwill.


3. The third thing about this week is we will hopefully be putting the whole house back together. I can't wait for the guys to clear out of the house. I really want everything to go back to it's right place. I'm so tried of all of the chaos.

4. The fourth thing about this week is I'm learning how to sew using a serger. Eunice is once again helping me with Leah's Christmas dress. This year, I'm making her a real dress with a zipper and sleeves. It's going to be the most beatiful dress ever! It's amazing how much faster it is to use the serger when sewing. We will hopefully, be done with the dress on Monday!

5. The fifth thing about this week is the weather is seriously screwed up. It's warm one day and cold the next. I would really like some consistent weather. Plus, yesterday morning while on my Saturday morning run the wind was blowing sooooooo hard. It even reminded me of Hawaii. Sometimes, the trade winds blow so hard you can't even walk straight up becuase the wind is blowing you literally over to the side. Anyways, after my morning run. I was busy showering and getting ready for the day. Well, I turned around and in the corner of my eye, I noticed the huge tree in the backyard was swaying from side to side. I told Leroy that the I thought the tree was going to come crashing down and sure enough it did! Thank goodness, it fell down towards the lake and not up at the house. It could of caused some serious damage to the new addition.

6. The sixth thing about this week is James was telling me how Leroy should go out to the backyard and try to cut down some of the smaller trees to give us a better view of the Lake Ann. Sure enough, now that the tree is down. It managed to take out a huge chunk of the trees. Leroy's going to have to get a chainsaw and cut up the tree that fell downed and all the other trees around it. So, we now will have a better view of the Lake!

7. The seventh thing about this week is I'm back to my old self. It was nice taking a break but I found myself getting really bored. I'm reading a new book called "Rebecca" by Daphne duMaurier. I tried to get into the book a couple of weeks ago but I just couldn't get into it but Eunice told me that she loved the book and encouraged me to give it another try. Somehow, the book made a lot more sense the second time. I'm now, loving the book. It's sooooooooo good!

8. The eighth thing about this week is I managed to get dinner on the table five nights in a row. It's hard to come up with something everyone will enjoy but I managed to make each night a true success except I made my chicken tortilla soup and the kids complained it was too spicy but I thought it was just fine. It's so hard to please everyone!

9. The ninth thing about this week is I managed to find some super cute sweater at the Salvation Army. I found two super nice sweaters from Banana Republic that are 100% wool and they both look brand new. I also love finding a good deal.

10. Thanksgiving is almost here, we will be celebrating with the Scheele's which is fine with me. I'm really trying to get my act together and start planning Leah's party and everything in order for Christmas. The christmas tree is going to look so nice outside in the sunroom.

Ten on Sunday

Monday:

For the past two months, we haven't been able to have FHE due to crazy Baseball and Soccer Schedule. We were going in a million different directions but that's all behind us, now! So, we decided it would be fun to go rollerskating as a family. Right now, Great Day Skate has a great deal were you can roller skate for $2 and that includes the roller skates. We invited the neighbors to come join us and surprisingly they wanted to come with us.

The kids had so much fun plus on Monday nights they only play Christian music which made for a really nice family event. I didn't have to worry about them playing inappropriate music. As many of you know my neighbor's son has Autism. Devon and Kaitlyn both didn't know how to roller skate. It was truly amazing night. Laura and I helped both of the kids around the rink which isn't an easy task but by the end of the night both of the kids were skating on their own independently. I seriously, almost cried at the roller rink. Truly, inspiring.

Now, the kids want to go skating every Monday night for FHE but I'm not so sure about that because FHE should be somewhat spiritual right. We can't always have fun family activities.

Tuesday:

We didn't do to much on Tuesday, the kids were tried from Roller Skating and I spent most of the morning trying to clean up the house from the day before messes. Later on, I drop off Leah for a play date while I went Visit Teaching. Leah's way to clingy and annoying to taking anymore. She's much happier hanging out with a friend than joining me. We have three people on our list and we managed to get in two visit. We still need to visit the last person on our list, she never called me back to set up an appointment. I hate to harass someone about setting up a time and date. Hopefully, we can get in to see her because the holidays are coming up and we all know how crazy it's going to get and the up next coming weeks. Just thinking about the holidays, giving me an ulcer. I really don't want to mess with the holidays. I wish someone else would just plan and coordinate everything. I don't even want to go shopping, yucko. I'm not a materialistic person. Do we really need anymore stuff?

Wednesday:

Leah's having a hard time, after preschool she's bored and driving me crazy. So, I decided this time to drive her after school to McDonald's for lunch. I'm normally against McDonald's but they have a huge play area which was prefect for Leah. Not too many kids but enough to keep her busy. She keep calling McDonald's...Ms.Donald's...hee hee! Once, we made it inside. She turned around and told me this was her first time ever at McDonald's which is probably true. I felt a little bit bad about depriving her but I really don't care for Fake food. Anyways, I finished up reading an awesome book called "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool which is a Newberry winner. loved it! Leah played for two straight hours and when we made it back to the house she managed to take two hour nap. Heaven for me! So, I'm going to start taking her at least once a week. It's so hard, the weather is turning nasty outside and I hate to have her cooped up inside the house all day long. We both need a break.

I helped out with Activity Day Girls again, it's a great group of girls. I'm really impressed with all of the leaders and the girls are so awesome. I remember when I was a leader last time about eight years ago in this area and they girls were so mean to each other. Every time we meet for activities we had so much drama. It was really disappointed the girls that were the worse offenders were the girls that fathers were in the bishopric. Anyways, the girls in our ward right now are so nice to each other. It's truly amazing, I couldn't believe how respectful the girls are towards each other and the leaders. My only complaint about Activity Day Girls is they only meet twice a month what's up with that the boys meet every week for cub scouts. I really feel it's so unfair but once again I have no say in this because it's up to the higher ups at church. I really hope in future this will change.

Thursday:

On Thursday, the school nursed called which is never a good thing. She said don't worry Logan isn't sick, oh no if he isn't sick what could be wrong! Anyways, he some how managed to bump his with another kids head and some how he managed to fall and hit his mouth on a metal pole. His mouth was awful. His poor mouth, his gums were bleeding bad. I'm keeping a close eye on his teeth. I'm pretty sure his two baby teeth will need to be eventually pulled out. They're already starting to look a little bit discolored.

My visiting teachers came over and we had a nice visit! I have a new set coming to visit which is my old friend "Eunice" which works out perfectly for me. She's going to help me with Leah's Christmas Dress. Once, again! I'm going to be spending no money on the dress. She gave me this beautiful red fabric. Hopefully, we can start sewing the dress sometime next week.

Friday:

After preschool, we headed over to the Sand Park for a couple of hours. Right before we were about to leave I noticed a group of school children walking towards the park. At first, I didn't recognize the teacher but as the class got closer to the park. I realized it was Landon's class. Landon's teacher decided to take the kids for a special walk to the War Memorial because it was Veteran's Day and she let the kids play at the playground for a few minutes before walking back to school. At first Landon was so em brassed but he got over it right away. I'm so glad that my kids attend a school where they have an open field trip permission slip where they can take the students to the walking trail and war memorial.

Friday night, the kids were bored. Kaitlyn the neighbor girl had pink eye so no playing with the neighbor kids. Leah decided she wanted to make her a "Get Well" card which I thought was so sweet of her. She worked on it for a long time, we went over and delivered the card. I know her little friend really appreciated it.

For Veterans Day, I had the kids all make thank you cards for their Uncle Lawrence. The kids did a great job decorating their cards and even Leah managed to write a short sentence with my help.

Plus, it's my little sisters birthday. How cool is it to have a birthday on 11/11 on 11/11/11! I hope she gets my card in the mail soon!

Saturday:

This wasn't a fun day for me, at all. I really wanted to go shopping but the kids didn't want to go anywhere. They kept saying why didn't you go shopping while we were at school. Leroy spent the day with a friend attending a Gun Show in Tulsa. So, I spent the whole day at home. I wasn't happy and I was soooooooo bored. I really couldn't get into anything. I did managed to make homemade pizza and cookies. The girls (Leah and Kaitlyn) helped me in the kitchen. Kaityln didn't know you could make cookies and pizza from scratch. So, I spent a lot of time watching old movies on YouTube from the 1950's and stuffing my face with pizza and cookies. I'm sure my waist line will be expanding from this!

I thought at first I would enjoy a nice quiet Saturdays,again but now I'm bored out of my mind. I'm really having a hard time pushing myself to do anything that requires brain power. I'm being so lazy but I can't seem to push myself into doing any productive maybe next week I will do better.

Sunday:

We attend church in the Afternoon, the kids are busy playing with their old train set and I'm busy blogging. I guess, I should pull out my scriptures sometime this morning. Once again, not motivated.

Ten on Sunday

1. I felt my very first earthquake in Arkansas last night. I'm an early bird, I can't seem to stay up past 9:00 PM no mater what night of the week it is which explains why I was in bed so early when the earthquake happened. I was soundly asleep when I noticed my bed was vibrating and shaking. It was the weirdest feeling ever. It completely woke me up from my sleep. I wasn't sure at first if I was dreaming or if I had really felt an earthquake. I decided to roll over and check the clock. So, this morning I logged onto Facebook and a lot of my friend had posted that an earthquake did happened around 10:57pm in central Oklahoma. It's crazy to think we could feel the quake all the way here.

2. The other time I felt an quake was in my grandparents home when they used to live in San Jose, California. I hope these earthquakes don't become a regular thing.

3. Thursday afternoon, as soon as Logan made it home from school. He told me that he was really close to reading a chapter book. Logan started this school year barely being able to read and now he just finished his first chapter. Okay, it's an easy reader chapter book with lots of pictures but it's still consider a chapter book. It's about thirty pages long with three chapters! It's called "Hi! Fly Guy" by Tedd Arnold. The little guy worked on the book for two days, he was so proud of himself. I even caught him yesterday trying to read another chapter book all by himself. This book is a really hard chapter book but I know he can do it. It's called June B. Jones and Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Park. The best part of this is Logan decided he wanted to read a chapter book and he did it all on his own.

4. Logan's soccer coach is a super generous person and he threw the whole team an end of the season party at JumpZone. He paid for the whole party plus siblings and he had pizza and cupcakes. He even passed out huge goodie bags for all of the kids on the soccer team. We ended up bringing the neighbor boy with us to JumpZone. He crashed the party as well but Logan's coach didn't mind at all. You know me, I'm always have a couple of extra kids with me...hee hee! Anyways, the party was a ton of fun expect for the part when we couldn't find Logan anywhere. Andrew kept saying he couldn't find Logan, well we started to look for him and it turned out he had a bloody nose and his coach was taking care of him in the bathroom. Logan's coach told me that Logan refused to tell him whether he came with his mom or dad. They didn't know where I was so they just took care of the problem. I felt really bad about this but nothing I could do about it. Anyways, the people in our area are super nice and generous. I need to send a note to his coach thanking him for the great party.

5. On Friday night, We went to the Toyland Celebration at the Bentonville Downtown area for some family fun. We invited our neighbors to come join us. Landon decided he didn't want to go and decided to spend the evening at our other neighbor's house down the street. He was really upset when he found out they were giving away free toys. Yes, you read it correctly! Free Toys, yippee!!!! I didn't know they were giving away free toys until we got there. It made up for the crazy insane long lines and mobs of people everywhere. All of the vendors set up booths of all the latest toys and a majority of them gave away free toys. Definitely, going to make sure we go again, next year.

6. Yesterday, I decided it would be the prefect day to take the boys to Tanyard Creek. Originally, Logan wanted to go with Andrew but Devin came home a few minutes before Andrew arrived at our house to go to Tanyard Creek. Well, Logan started to play with Devin and he decided he didn't want to go to Tanyard Creek or play with Andrew. Oh, talk about embarrassing position to be in. I told Logan he couldn't change his mind because Devin was home now from hunting with his daddy. So, I ended up taking Logan and two of his friend to Tanyard Creek. I'm always a little bit nervous about taking Devin anywhere because he has Autism. He only freaked out once at the very end because he fell down and got his hands dirty but once we got them washed off in the water he was fine. It's really pretty down at Tanyard Creek. I really wished now that I had brought my camera to take pictures. The Fall leaves are really pretty right now!

7. The kids had a blast Trick Or Treating in the neighborhood. I'm starting to freak out again about the upcoming holidays. It's bad enough trying to deal with Thanksgiving and Christmas but I have to plan Leah's birthday party. Last year, we just invited a couple of families to come over and celebrate her birthday but she wants a real party this year. I really want to do the same thing as we did last year but I'm not sure if she will be happy with that idea. She already has the party list made up of all of her friends. The boys party is always easy to plan because we just have a pool party every year but that doesn't work with a December birthday.

8. Leah failed her eye screening. She might have a possible vision disorder. I hope this doesn't mean anything maybe she's near sighted? I really don't want to waste the money on a visit. I might just wait until she's in Kindergarten. She isn't walking into walls or anything.

9. The sunroom is getting closer to being done except for a couple of finishing touches we should be hopefully done next week.

10. I'm busy working on knitting up some hats and I still need to finish up Logan's scarf. I'm not doing to much at the moment. I'm just trying to relax and enjoy life at the moment. I have been doing way to much running around this Fall.

Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween

2011

• Costume confusion, I managed to sew two costumes for Leah. The boys couldn't make up their minds what they wanted to be for Halloween. They're past the point of me deciding what they will be but they couldn't come up with anything. A week before Halloween, the boys decided they wanted to dress up as Harry Potter but it was too late to get any accessories. All I had were the boys old Harry Potter costumes from a couple of years ago. The boys didn't seem to mind only wearing dress shirts/pants with just a cape. Well, they were okay with it on Friday for the ISD Fall Festive and Trunk or Trick at the church. The boys decided they didn't want to dress up as Harry Potter on Halloween. Landon decided to go as Babe Ruth from the NY Yankees. Logan went as a Zombie! Leah decided she didn't want to go as a Red Princess again so she went as a Zombie Witch.

• My neighor Laura added the lastest touches to my kids costumes. She had a huge stack pile of Hair Paint Spray and Costume makeup. She did a great job with all of the kids hair and makeup. All of the kids came away looking great and this is how the Zombie idea came about. Check out the Slideshow...The kids managed to make some great Zombie poses.

• If I haven't stated before I live on the best neighborhood ever, okay the traffic on my street is crazy but it's really the only downfall of my neighborhood. Ms. Laura set the kids up with Makeup and Hair. My neighbor Ms. Jennifer gave each of the kids Trick or Treat pumpkins filled with tons of stuff like bubbles, play-doh, pencils, and tons of candy. The kids also received three bags of treats plus a dollar bill for each one of them from Mr. Larry down the street.

• The Trick-or-Tricking hadn't even started and the kids were already loaded up with treats. The kids started off walking around the neighborhood but Leah started to tired out way too fast so we went back home and I decided to drive the kids around the neighborhood instead of walking. The kids made out like bandits. We were the only ones trickortreating and everyone literally gave the kids handsful of candy.

• The neighbors were really sweet last night, a lot of the elderly neighbors are lonely and they loved seeing the kids in their costumes. We had to go inside their homes and visit with them plus a lot of them wanted to take pictures of their adoptive grandchildren. Plus, I found out one of the neighbors called my kids "waterbabies" because their always outside with the waterhose on...haa haa.

• Half way thru the night we stop off at one of Landon's friends house and we picked up Andrew to go Trick or Treating with us. This was his very frist time ever going door to door he had so much fun but he made us skip a couple of houses becuase he got into some trouble with the neighbors kids. The last house we spot off at the lady was in her pajamas so I told the kids it was getting too late out to go trickortreating so we called it a night.

The holidays are a lot of work for Mom but in the end it's worth all the stress and effort. I know the kids don't appreciate all of my hard work but at least they will have lasting memories that will last them a lifetime. I'm so tired, but it's time to clean up from all the fun!

Ten on Sunday

1. Sorry, no pictures! I hate trying to upload photos on this blog. It takes forever and my patience level is running low at the moment. I might upload some pics, later on! Plus, we attended Stake Conference last Sunday and it threw off my whole Sunday schedule. I really enjoyed being home for the whole afternoon. I still hate this afternoon church business, please don't come onto my blog and tell me why you love it. I hate when people do that on my blog or Facebook page. Seriously, I'm really getting tired of this but what can I do...delete people? I might just go ahead and do it!

2. The past two weeks are a blur at the moment. Soccer season finally finished up, yippee!!!!! Yesterday, I had nothing planned and it was AWESOME! For the past two months, every Saturday I was super busy from Sunrise to Sunset! I don't mind being busy but it was starting to feel more like a taxi driver then a mom! I started off the day, meeting up with my friends. We haven't seen each other in about two weeks in I needed my fix! I love them, it's so nice to have friends you can truly trust that are my true friends. The love me no matter what, I can't stand fake people, if I catch anyone using a super big fake smile and super cheery voice when talking to me it's a sure way to make me run to the other corner and have nothing to do with you. Someone at church keeps acting super fake towards tome...I'm really getting annoyed with this individual, if she does it again to me. I might have to call her out on it. If you want to be my friend then pull me a side and ask how I'm doing. I swear, the level off fakeness at church is ridiculous. I know who my true friends are at church that care about me and my family.

3. Okay, I'm off my rant back to running with my friends. The rest of the day, we spent at home doing nothing. I was trying to enjoy myself but I started to get really bored. So, I loaded up the kids plus the two neighbor kids and we ended up to the park. Afterwards, I wasn't up to cooking dinner so we went out for dinner. The food didn't agree with me so well and I ended up going to bed early.

4. The rest of the week, Leah and Logan had their very last Soccer games on Monday night. Yeah, no more Soccer until Spring time!

5. A couple of days ago Landon fell off my friend's retaining wall and loaded super hard on the pavement. Leroy rushed Landon to Urgent Care for x-rays and stuff! It turned out his wrist is sprained not broken. Baseball season is now over for Landon but they will still have one last game for the season but he will be missing it.

6. Leah learned out to knit using a loom. I have pictures but I'm too lazy at the moment to upload them.

7. The kids attended a ridiculous amount of Halloween celebrations on Friday. Leah's preschool class went Trick or Treat at the Town center in the morning. As soon as the boys got off the bus in the afternoon we headed down to Leroy's work for a huge Fall Festival plus trick or treating which we spent close to three hours eating yummy funnel cakes, bounce houses, plus carnival games. After that event ended, we drove right over to the church for a Chili cook off (all the chili I tried were gross) I will remember next year to stick with the Mac and Cheese only. The night ended with Trunk N Treat! I thought I was going to pass out by the end of the night from pure exhaustion. Oh, I spent majority of the time by myself with all the kids. Why does Leroy always disappears?

8. The sun room remodel project is still not done. I'm really starting to lose my patients with this project. I want it done, hopefully this next week.

9. Logan's parent teacher's conference went better than expected. Logan's a great student and his writing skills are Proficient. She told me that she has very few students in her class that are Proficient. Logan's writing skills are really good which doesn't surpise me because his always writing stories at home. Landon's parent teacher's conference went really well, also! Landon is one of her top students for the whole class. His currently doing 4th grade work. According to her, Landon is PREFECT!!!! She wished all of her students were just like him.

10. Last weekend, Leroy signed up the boys for their first gun shooting competition. I know, I'm starting to sound a little bit redneck. Leah and I attended for part of the day, I'm really proud of my boys. They did a great job!

Anyways, I'm not in the best mood at the moment. I'm going to go back to bed and get some more sleep.

Ten on Sunday

1. It's truly amazing how different each of my children are from each other. Poor Logan is stuck in the middle of Landon and Leah. I have been working hard on trying to help Logan to become his own person and help him find his own special skills and talents. Last week, I noticed he was working really hard all by himself writing in his notebook. He was really really short sentences about random things. Anyways, he started off this week writing and illustrating books. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of his first book but it was called "Snowman" and it was about a snowman that melts! We stapled the book and he gave it to his teacher as a gift. It wasn't the next day and Logan started another another book. His next story is called "The Three Seeds" and it's 16 pages long. Landon told me that it's a circle story. It's a story that goes around and around but it's a little bit different each time. I was really surprised that the book is about three seeds and only one of the seeds survives and grows into a flower. Leroy wants me to take his book down to Kinko's and get it bound for him. So, who knows maybe Logan will grow up to become an author?

2. My neighbor invited us over for a Halloween Party at their house which required all of the quest to come dressed up. (I really wanted to throw my own Halloween party but sadly the Sun-room is still not finished. The workers took a week off and hopefully, they will be back at it soon. I'm so ready for it to be done!) My neighbor spent three weeks planning the party. She had her whole house decorated and had a ton of really cute ideas which I might have to go ahead and steal from her...hee hee! Leah decided to go to the party dressed as a Princess Ballerina and the boys wore their old Harry Potter costumes.
3. Soccer season is coming to an end, very shortly. Logan played soccer once before when he was about four years old but he never really played. He would just lay on the field and watch the clouds. He begged me to sign him up for the Fall but after the first game he told me he didn't want to play soccer anymore. Too bad, I already paid the money and I told him he had to finish up the season. It's been a rough season for Logan. He was complaining about how he hasn't made a single goal all season long. It doesn't help that he has to sit through all of the Leah's games and watch her make one goal after another. Well, I told him he has to get aggressive and just go after the ball. His coach and I have noticed that he always backs off from the ball during the games but his strong during the practices. Logan decided to step it up and he went after the ball. He didn't give up and he managed to score a goal not just one goal but two! After his game, Logan couldn't wait to see his daddy to tell him the news. Oh, I almost forgot, when Logan made his first goal his coach was so excited for him. He went over to Logan to give him a high five. So, what did Logan do? He took off running and his coach was chasing after him trying to give him a high five. His coach was so proud of him as well!
4. I'm going to make these Ritz Spider treats for the kids to share with their soccer friends. I'm going to be busy this week trying to get geared up for Halloween.5. I love my new running group that my friend Sennet set up. We didn't have too many people show for yesterday's morning run but I still managed to have a good time. It was just me and one other girl that I didn't really know at all but we decided to go ahead and run together. It turns out she grew up overseas in West Africa which I thought was really cool because my parents are serving a mission in South Africa; not exactly the same but close enough.

6. We managed to run six miles in under 59 minutes. It's really nice to run with someone because you can push each other. I thought for sure, I was going to pass out at the end. I haven't had that good of a run in a couple of weeks.

7. The new running group is always having new challenges which are the prefect thing for me. I'm really not that good at setting goals for myself. The first challenge was to complete 1000 jump ropes which I did but it took me about 45 minutes. By the time, I was done it felt like I just finished running six miles. I had no idea how intense jumping rope can be...holy cow! It's hard!!!!!!!!!!!!1

8. The other challenge was to complete 250 sit ups! I completed this challenge in less than 12 minutes. I did a combination of sit ups with and without using a five pound weight. It's been three days and I'm still super sore! I need to do more sit ups!

9. Leroy's driving my new car, I'm not surprised this happened. He know claims he drives more than I do with the kids. So, I'm back to the van! Oh well, I should of know better. He claims, he will give it back to me to drive once it's completely fixed and repaired but I'm holding my breath on that one!

10. Landon attended his first Student Council meeting. The Student Council is organizing a special Veteran's Day assembly down at the Memorial at Lake Bella Vista. The student council members have to make cards to pass out to all of the veterans that will be attending the special program with the students from Cooper Elementary. Landon's really excited about being on Student Council and hopefully, it will be a positive experience for Landon serving in the community. I never served on a student council so this is all new to me and I'm so proud of my son for being elected by his class mates to represent his class!

11. I'm not sure what's going on this week, I still need to sit down and figure it out. Every week has been jammed back, I can't wait for November to get here. No more sports, but Leroy wants me to sign up the boys for martial arts again. I'm not sure if I really want to commit myself to that again but we will see!

Ten on Sunday

1. I did get a chance last Sunday to write up my list of weekly events. We always try to take the kids to church to watch Sunday morning's general conference which meant a lot less free time before heading to the chapel. Attending church really helps to invite the spirit and we all agree we get more out of conference.

Flashback memory: I remember my first time living on my own in Hawaii and living in my first off campus housing. I remember waking up General Conference morning and being surprised to find my roommates in their pajamas watching conference. I was completely shocked. I always thought people in Utah watched conference at home in their church clothes. I always thought it was disrespectful to be lounging around in your bed clothes. I don't judge anyone that does this but I thought it was the strangest thing ever. So, we keep up the tradition of attending only one session at church because that's all that I can handle with three kids.

2. Logan is making some huge progress at school. I found this sheet of paper pinned to his wall next to his bed. I'm going to try to read his journal entry to you and it will bring a smile on your face. Plus, I caught him this morning writing sentences on a piece of paper this morning. Just a couple of weeks ago he could barely read sight words and writing sentences he couldn't do it.
"Hermit Crab"
By Logan S.

I like cats and dogs. I wot a hermit crab so badle I im saving up my mane and my bruther mone and I ife I do no get the hermit crad at ul I will not be happe nevr evre ugun ur I will mabe will be happe cinuv happe and I will.

Okay, translation:

I like cats and dogs. I want a hermit crab so badly. I'm saving up my money and my brother's money and if I don't get the hermit crab. I will not be happy never again. I will be happy if I get my hermit crab.

3. Right Choice Corn Maze, do I really need to say anything about this place. It's awesome and it's super cheap. Go with a group and get the group rate of $4 per person and you get to do everything at the corn maze. The best part of the event: spending time with my baptist friends plus with my daughter! I'm really enjoying this time with her. She will be going to big kid's school next year and this time is so precious even though she's driving me crazy most days. Also, the new attraction at the corn maze is this huge jumping pillow....it's like a trampoline but only cooler! The best part of the whole day!4. Soccer season is in full swing which is a good thing because I'm getting tired of spending all of my Saturday's at the soccer/ball field. Leah's coach came up to me yesterday and told me that Leah's the best player on her team. At first, I thought the coach was just saying that to be nice. I didn't believe her at all. Leah's the youngest player on her team plus it's her first year playing soccer. Leah's coach told me that she's has some awesome skills. She's always going for the play, she's a strong kicker, and she has amazing control of the ball. I'm so proud of my little girl. I always knew my daughter was special! She's going to do amazing things with her life! Go, LEAH!!!!!!5. Landon was invited to attend a birthday party for a little girl in his class at the local roller rink. It's not as big as Roxy Wheels but still a ton of fun. I decided to bring the other two kids. I know they weren't invited but I figured I would just pay from them to go roller skating party. Well, not to many kids came to the party and the mom let Leah and Logan join in the party. It turns out, the birthday girl's younger sister is in Logan's class at school. Annabelle's mother and I were laughing about it. How often does it happen that siblings are all in the same classes. A couple of years ago, they use to have free roller skating on Monday nights but they did away with it and we hadn't been back since. The kids were so excited to be skating again. Landon tried inline skates for the first time and he loved it. He hardly felled down at all. Logan stuck with traditional skates and he was landing on his butt more times than I can count on one hand. By the end of the night, he wasn't falling down as often. I tried traditional skates with Leah but she just couldn't figure it out. She we went with the preschooler skates and she loved it.

Leah skating around by herself, no she wouldn't let me help her.
She's Ms. Independent!

Limbo time, check out Logan's bright orange skates! Plus, do you see Leah in the line trying to do the Limbo!

Air Hockey, I love this game!

6. House remodel is coming along nicely. Check out the photos!


7. I'm training for another half marathon. It's a couple of weeks away, but I'm already worrying about it that reminds me I still need to sign up for it. Of course, my arches are killing me again. Why can't I run long distances without any pain. It's more of a nuisances than anything else. This happens every single time. I might head down to Rush Running and see about different type of inserts.

8. Leroy just set up his man cave downstairs. He bought a stupid flat screen tv. The kids enjoyed watching Lion King 3D last night in the man cave. I'm really not pleased about this purchased but I'm going to try to keep my mouth shut about it.

9. I'm working hard on digital scrap booking. It's really addicting but it's soooooo much faster than regular scrap booking. I'm trying to work on a calendar, all about me journals for the kids for xmas, and a couple of scrapbooks from Halloween past events.

10. I'm still working on Halloween Costumes for the boys. I still have no plan in place, we might end up purchasing costumes for them. It's not as fun, as dressing up Leah!

Well, I can't think of anything else going on but this is just a short overview of our past week as a family!

Ten on Sunday

1. I caught Logan reading his scriptures all by himself during sacrament meeting. I couldn't be more prouder of my little guy. His reading skills are really improving, the past of couple of weeks we have seen big changes. Tonight, after dinner Logan even asked if he could read more verses. Talk about shock, my son use to hate to even try to read one little verse is asking for more which makes my heart want to melt.

2. Logan also did a really good job during the Primary program. Last year, he refused to say anything but this year he did it. He needed help from his teacher reading his part but he did it! His teacher came up to me after the program and she told me how proud she was of him. His teacher promised him if he got up to the stand and read his part he would receive an extra treat. So, Logan managed to walk away with three extra treats.

3. All three kids took part of the primary program; I was sitting way in the back and I could barely see any of my kids. Poor Leah kept trying to move to the side to get a peck of me from the stand. She did an awesome job, I couldn't hear her very well when she was up at the stand reading her part but she did it and that's all that matters. She did a really good job singing as well.

4. Landon yesterday at his baseball game suffered an injury but he managed to stuck it up and kept right on playing. I'm so proud of him. He was up at the base getting ready to hit a baseball when it some how managed to hit him in the arm. He teared up but he kept right on playing. He even managed to make a run and score a point for his team.

5. Leah and Logan had soccer games as well. I managed to spend three hours at the soccer field and two hours at the baseball field. Talk about long hours supporting my children's interests in sports. Leah's really good at soccer but she tires out easily. She managed to kick the ball into the goal and score a point for her team. She almost had another point but the ball stop right in front on the goal. She didn't realize the ball wasn't all the way in to count for a point. She just stood their waiting for everyone to cheer and was confused it didn't count. The other team managed to steal the ball back and they scored a point. Logan still thinks soccer is boring but he did join in every time and played really hard. He almost scored a goal a couple of times but at least his trying.

6. I managed to finish up a lot of little projects around the house. I finally got around mailing off a ton of thank you and birthday cards. I'm almost done sewing a pinafore apron but I messed up the shoulder strap and I need to fix it. I'm working on knitting up another scarf. I have lots of time on my hands watching all of those games.


7. Leroy pick me up a car to drive. The van is costing me way too much money in fuel. I'm driving the kids around to three different games and practices. Plus, it's just me and Leah during the day. I don't need a van when it's just the two of us. It's a VW Jetta TDI diesel but it's also a standard. It's very different than during a Honda which is what I'm use to driving. I finally got behind the wheel on the way to church. I have it worked out but it's going to take some time getting us to plus I can't wait to start saving some serious money on fuel.

8. I'm currently working on building up some miles in my running. I managed to log in 17 miles this week alone. I'm really hoping to run in a half marathon sometime this Fall. This week, the kids will not be at school Mon or Tue this will be throwing off my week. I might not be able to get in that many miles but we will see how things go.

9. The sunroom/porch is coming along nicely. They will be putting in the windows in this week.

10. General Conference is coming up this weekend, I can't believe it's already time for conference. Where has all the time gone!

Ten on Sunday

1. This weekend turned out to be nice and relaxing. A series of thunderstorms rolled into our area which was a nice surprise. I need to pay more attention to the weather forecast. All three kids games were canceled due to the "wet" conditions. So, this weekend turned out to be great for me! The kids didn't seem to mind, either! All the running around; has left everyone exhausted.

2. Friday night, my friend "V' offered to take the kids to Fayetteville to the mall for a special Razorback Fest. The only one that wanted to go to the event was Landon. Let's just say that Logan was super jealous that he didn't go with them. Landon came back with a ton of free razorback products plus pizza and candy. He managed to drink two cans of Coke which he realized he might get in trouble for drinking some much Coke in one night. So, he decided to have a Diet Coke, instead! Yikes, he was so hyper that I didn't think we would ever get him to go to bed. Landon also was able to get everyone from soccer, gymnastics, baseball, and basketball autographed all of his posters. Next year, we will all go together.

3. Our freezer stop working again, this happened over the summer. I thought maybe it was related to the hot weather but it did it again. I had to cram all of the food from the deep freeze to the fridge/freezer in the kitchen. I could barely get the door on the freezer to stay closed. Luckily, a friend of ours called me the next day and offered us their deep freezer because they will be moving overseas and they wouldn't be able to take it with them. Well, managed to get the freezer to our house and Leroy informed me that our freezer was working again. So, I'm going to craigslist it and hopefully someone will take it. I will not trust it again.

4. Let me back track a little bit, Leah and I went shopping at Aldi's. We picked up a big tub of ice cream and we hurried to get it inside the freezer in the garage. As soon as I opened the freezer, I knew something wasn't right. The food in the freezer was about half thawed out. All of my fruit that I picked over the summer was somewhat thawed out. I thought that my only option would be to throw all of the fruit out but it seemed wasteful. I decided not to put it back into the indoor freezer due to lack of space plus all of the fruit would just clump together into a big mess. So, I did the only thing I could think of which would be to canned the fruit. So, I manged to make close to 11 pints and 12 half pints of strawberry blueberry jam. We know have about 100 jars of jam and jelly but that's okay! Hopefully, we wouldn't have to can any more jelly for a couple of years...lol!

5. Monday night, all three kids had something going on sports wise and at three different locations. I wasn't sure how I could possibly get everyone where they needed to be but it all worked out at the end. I was really surprised to learned the next day that my best friend tried to call me because she saw my post on facebook about the transportation challenges and she wanted to offer to drive some of the kids for me. Talk about friendship, she's awesome. Luckily, Leroy was able to meet me at the ball field and it all worked out. It's so nice, to have people that are willing to help you out just for the sake of being friends.

6. The house remodel is coming along nicely. The deck's roof is on and Leroy will be doing the electric wiring of the deck and sun room. We had a guy come out and give us an estimate. Let's just say it was crazy expensive...the guy wanted $900 and we already priced out all of the materials. It's only like $150 for the materials. It's just wiring a ceiling fan and three outlets. Luckily, Leroy's uncle is going to help me with the job and we will save some money. How hard can it really be?

7. We're also planning on replacing the carpets in the house. We found two super nice remnant pieces for the kids rooms but nothing for our bedroom. It's way too big of a room and they don't carry remnants in the size we need. Too bad, it's going to cost a lot more money then we wanted to spend but we will have to keep our eyes out for some good deals. I don't want to go the cheap route. I want some high quality carpet that will last a long time. Plus, we found a remnant piece for the sun room. It's a high quality commercial outdoor carpet. It's a little bit more then what we budgeted for but it's way to nice of a deal to pass up.

8. I finally decided to learn how to make tutu's. It's amazing all of the things you can learn from You tube. I already made two tutus. One for my niece and one for my daughter. I'm going to make Savannah my niece a little ghost outfit with a matching black and white tutu. Leah's tutu is multi colored tutu and I'm going to make her a nice watch outfit. Seriously, the no sew tutu's are super easy to make. I'm talking less than 30 minutes you can have a completely finished project. Pictures will be coming...in the future.

9. Logan sold a grand total of 18 coupon books. I'm so proud of him, he would get on his bike after school and go door to door selling the books.

10. I still didn't make the grape juice. I ended up getting distracted with the fruit jam maybe if they still have grapes I might make some homemade grape juices but I'm worried it might be too late. If it's too late, I might go ahead and buy a bushel of peaches. Freeze some peach slices. I really like using frozen fruit in my fruit smoothies.

11. The rest of the week, I will be driving the kids around and working on cleaning up the house. I'm just trying to finish up all of my unfinished projects and working on finishing up some books that I checked out from the library. 

A is for Apple

Once again, Blogger.com will not allow me to move the pictures around. So, they are completely messed up and not in order. I don't have the time to try to fix it so bear with me.

Leah's growing up way too fast, plus she's bored at home without her BFF Kailyn. The girls used to play all day long together but that all changed a couple of weeks ago when her BFF started fulltime preschool. Leah's having a hard time adjusting. She's not use to having to play by herself which isn't a good thing for me because I can't seem to get anything done around the house when she's home from school.

Leah asked if we could play school this morning which I decided to just give up any hope of getting the house clean and set up preschool at home for her. When the boys were home, I used to always have school time with the boys with lots of crafts and science projects. I think part of the problem is I kinda got bored with it but I'm really ready now to do it again with Leah. This should help her with her boredom and help us create some wonderful memories.

So, we started off with the letter "A"! I pulled out my Melissa & Doug Alphabet puzzle and we worked our way thru it. Leah knows a lot of her letters but not all of them. The next thing we did was read a book called "More Pies" by Robert Munsch which is one of my boys favorite children's author. If you haven't listen to his audio tapes your missing out. The stories are so good and funny. The boys still enjoy listening to them. After reading the book we made an apple pie.

While the pie was baking in the oven. We read another book about the letter "A" where the little boy goes around filling his box of things that start with the letter "A". So, we found our own box and we went around the house filling our box with goodies that started with the letter "A". Leah loved it!

We still had time before the pie would be done, so Leah work on a handwriting sheet. She did a really good job plus she recognized the letter "A" is in her name.

On Thursday, we will work on counting using apples and animal crackers!

Ten on Sunday (pics)