Friday, November 15, 2013

The past few weeks...

I guess I am too tired to think creatively at all, so this post has no organization or theme.  But if I get current with my picture documentation I can move on with my to-do list. Here we go.

Rick works with a doctor who got everyone tickets to a UTSA football game. The boys were thrilled, and it turned out to be a really fun family event (despite my prediction that the girls would be miserable.)
This girl was actually quite interested in the game. She'd look for the ball, she knew it was good if the orange guys caught a pass or tackled the other guys with the ball and would cheer appropriately. And then she found some kid's leftover goldfish bag on the ground, and that entertained her for the remainder of the game. (Side note, but this picture has too good a profile to pass up. Faye has announced that she has a baby in her belly. It's a girl, she says.)
Carson was thrilled every time the Roadrunners scored, which luckily was often this game!
Family football fans.
This was the Sunday of the Primary Program, where the kids run the show at church, doing all the songs and talks. We were proud of the boys for singing and saying their parts in front of the whole congregation. 
Our friend and neighbor came to church with us too, and afterwards showed them how to post for pictures.
That's my handsome Rett, who decided that the tie definitely goes in front of the vest.
After the kids do their parts in church, we serve them ice cream during their classes, so obviously this was like the best Sunday ever for them. 
So, back to Halloween. My friend Jan throws a great little party every year for the kids. Isla wore a more comfortable costume for this event than her peacock get up. (Funny that in San Antonio there is no need to wear anything under a costume like this!)
The parade.
And all the kids.
There's my little bird on Halloween night.
She did a lot of the walking from house to house to trick-or-treat. Once she started to go in the street, then paused, looked at the road, and shook her head no-no. She's a good girl.
Someday I'd like to have a husband home while we're getting ready to trick-or-treat. We looked everywhere and could not find those dang little bowling pins to go on Carson's shoes! So I guess he's a bowling lane that just got a strike? I'm sure no one had any idea what he was. Oh well.
And Everett threw aside the pumpkin costume we made for him in favor of fake muscles on a hand-me-down Spiderman costume. 
Sweet Everett did tell me that if it made me super super sad he would consider switching back to the pumpkin. But I knew he really wanted to wear this, so here he is.
While trick-or-treating, Faye told a few neighbors that she was going to "eat them up," like the Enormous Crocodile.

The kids ate a few pieces of candy Halloween night, then I put their buckets up and they were allowed a couple of pieces each day, sometimes as a reward for doing a job or something. I got so annoyed with people asking to have a treat all day long though, that we took a new approach. I gave them a choice: they could keep eating a couple pieces a day, or they could eat all that they wanted right then, and then donate the rest. (The school does a collection.) Carson and Faye wanted to do the binge, and at first Everett chose to save his candy, but once he saw the other two he jumped in as well. So, they ate as much as they could with barf buckets at the table just in case. I was surprised they each only at five or six pieces! And then they willingly gave the rest away, and thankfully all the candy is out of the house. I sort of love how it ended up!

One day I came in to see that Faye had emptied the entire dishwasher all by herself! 
The Christmas decor aisle at Lowe's is one of our favorite places!
The singing and dancing toys are seriously funny.
One day I straightened Faye's hair a little. We called her "straight-hair-Faye."

I introduced the boys to the game of war, and they love it. (This is why I would advise everyone to have their first two kids 16 months apart. You can teach them a super annoying game like this and never have to play it with them again!)

What's on my Head is a much more entertaining game. One day Everett took a long afternoon nap, so he got to stay up nice and late and actually caught a glimpse of his dad! (A rare occurrence these days.) I like this picture because Rick is inspecting his sweet potato fry to see if it's edible. I burn those things all the time!
Rick had a super hard time guessing the ladder on his head, mostly because Everett told him you use it to help you cook. Afterwards he explained that, when he cooks with me, he stands on a ladder. Duh.
Sometimes the mornings are stressful, getting ready for school with Everett who likes to spend an hour eating his oatmeal and doesn't like to put on his clothes or shoes by himself. After we take the boys to school, I like to sit down (eating the leftover oatmeal) and just look at my cute little girlies.
They are pretty fun little girls.
Chick-fil=A sure knows how to celebrate Veteran's Day! We got our free meals, to play with farm animals, win coupons for more free food, jump in a bounce house, etc.
There is a llama right next to me in this picture. Isla stood there staring at the animals for about 40 minutes.
A few people asked me about my five kids. Avianna is with us often enough that I just went with it. 
My Isla is obsessed with shoes! She will try to walk around in any pair she sees, even if it's all she has on.
Today, 75 degrees and beautiful, called for a walk to the park with the kids we babysat! And leg warmers, apparently.
Nothing beats this weather!
Serious little faces, but I sort of love this sisters picture. (Pictures like this where the lighting kind of ruins it also make me want to finally get a nice camera and really learn a thing or two about photography...)
And now we're caught up! On to the next to-do item so I can collapse into bed at some point.  :)