Halloween 2007

I didn't have my blog last year so I thought I would get last years pictures on the blog since we had such great costumes. I also wanted to document that Mason set the Indiana Jones trend last year. We didn't get a picture of his back but he had a spider web with huge spiders all over his back. Ellie is dressed as Tinker Bell, Jessica is the Little Mermaid, Jonah as a Clone trooper, Jeff as a super nerd and I was Storm from X-men III. I love Jessica as a red head, however, I like Jeff better outside of his costume. Ha, ha.

Cleaning windows... it's for men.

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. When the temps are high 60's and the sun is shining and I have nothing on my agenda for the day, I find myself deep cleaning the house. It could be something deep in me that wants to clean or it could be that we have been busy going 6 different directions for the last week and the laundry is flowing out of the hampers onto the floor and the dust bunnies have emerged from under the beds and under the couches that the need for a cleaning day is inevitable. We were all cleaning in some area of the house when Mason said he didn't want to clean inside. I said great, go pull all the flowers out of the flower beds in front. (Just the annuals). He was excited to do this, soon I had Jonah join him. After a while, Jonah came in the house and said, "I'm tired of doing girl jobs Mom." I asked him why working in the dirt was a girls job. He said,"It's gardening, and that's girls work." I sent him back outside to pull 10 more weeds just for saying that. When he returned he asked what he could do that wasn't girls work. I was just starting to clean the inside of the windows, as Jeff had just been on the ladder cleaning the outsides of the windows and I asked Jonah if he wanted to clean windows. He grinned and said sure. So Jonah and Jeff cleaned all the windows, even taking out the windows to make sure both sides were clean.
So there you have it, window cleaning is boys work. Ladies, get your boys and hubbies working for you and get those windows shiny.
I have to say, I don't know were Jonah gets the girls jobs vs. boys jobs from since Jeff will do any job willingly around the house. Maybe he's seen too many sitcoms.

Happy Birthday to My sister Lara--27 years.

In honor of my baby sisters 27th birthday I want to write 27 thoughts I have about her.
(Be patient my brain is slow, this may take a while, 27 things is a lot to think about. Ha ha. She was able to think of 35 things for me, but her brain is much younger and more efficient.)

1. I remember the Wednesday she was born. I was so excited to come home from school and find out if I had a new baby brother or sister.
2.I shared a room with her when she was a baby.
3.I carried Lara around on my hip when she was a baby up until she was about 8 yrs old.
4.I taught Lara how to suck her thumb when she was two after mom took her binki away and she was so sad not to have something to suck on.
5. I felt really bad I taught Lara how to suck her thumb when she was still sucking it at age 10.
6.I loved to share things I had learned about the scriptures in seminary with Lara because she could grasp the concept and have a discussion at a very young age.
7.She is a great aunt, even if "She doesn't do ball."
8. While I was on my mission, Lara used to write updates on soap operas in her letters. Julie did this for me too.
9.Lara is a true Romantic. When she was little she always wanted to be a wedding planner.
10. Lara kept a romance going via letters for our sister Julie, even though Julie had no idea about this romance.
11.Lara is a great writer, she is writing a novel.
12.Some of the letters Lara sent me on my mission were so entertaining, usually regarding sibling relationships about burning each other with forks, candle wax etc., that even the Elders wanted me to read her letters out loud so they could enjoy a good laugh.
13. Lara is always up for fun and adventure.
14.She did a pantomime for her talent in a beauty pageant.
15.She has sexy Halloween costumes. (Oh wait, maybe those weren't for Halloween.)
16.She spent a long time with Jonah on his baptism day helping him mark his new scriptures.
17.Lara has modest eyes--she didn't like sharing the bathroom in the morning with sisters.
18.Lara and Justin make a point to have a fun vacation on a regular basis.
19. She saved every neighbors/family's wedding invitations when she was a child and by the time she was a teenager she had stacks of them.
20.Lara always takes great care in how she looks.
21.She can twist any statement into a "naughty phrase".
22.She's not a afraid to change her hair color.
23.She put our little poodle in the deep freezer to protect her from the other siblings. Lara was about 5 yrs old, the dog stayed in the freezer for at least eight hours and lived.
24.She has a real knack for hiding animals in very safe places. I won't go into detail in this one.
25.Lara had the only blue eyes of all five children.
26.She always pursues her dreams.
27.She's passionate about becoming a mother.

Realization

The other day I was frustrated that the kids were leaving their stuff everywhere and the house was cluttered. I started telling the kids to pick up their things, make their beds that hadn't been made for a couple of days etc. I said I'm tired the house always gets so messy. None of the kids said anything, then Mason said "Mom I think you are the only one who cares about clean." Point made. I quit stressing myself out over constantly nagging the kids about straightening and now I just close their bedroom doors. Kids have such a way of being so honest.

The family that prays together stays together.

We snapped this picture the other night after family prayer. For the last couple of years Shiloh will join us in our nightly family prayers. I think he just likes that the whole family is together and he likes to be near us but he is always very reverent. If we kneel in a circle on the carpet, he will sit out the outside of the circle and put his paw on top of Jeff's hand and whoever's hand Jeff is holding.
This night we were kneeling around our bed and Shiloh put himself in that position. The boys put the scriptures in front of him for the effect of the picture.

What is it with 4yr olds and Hair???

Only this time it was my hair. Tonight while I was helping the boys practice their spelling lists, Ellie began to do my hair. She had a comb, brush and ponytail holders. While she was working on one side of my hair, Jessica began on the other. She had the comb and was combing it when I felt her wind the comb. Jeff saw her and said something about the same time I realized what she was doing. You know when you get a round brush stuck in your hair?? This was a flat comb, my hair was wound around it about four times. I tried to unwind it and made it worse. The only option I could think of was to cut my hair. It would be a lock right by my face and would end up being about 1 1/2 inches long. Jeff began to help try to unwind it. We stood in the bathroom together for about ten minutes and realized how funny the situation was. Jeff then had the idea to get some cutting pliers and cut the prongs off the comb to see if that would help. While he went to retrieve the pliers I was able to get the comb out, thanks to Jeff's previous efforts of loosening some of the hair. It all ended okay. I'm not letting the girls do my hair again anytime soon.