Talking Up a Storm

Alyssa's vocabulary has exploded lately. Some of her first words were the traditional....Mommy, Daddy, Cheese, Dano (Daniel), Shoe, Baby and BahBah (Bottle) and No (of course). But now that her repertoire has expanded her siblings favorite form of entertainment is getting her to snort like a piggy or woof like a dog.




More of Alyssa's Favorites:
Singing Wheels on the Bus (especially when the mommies say shhhhhh, shhhhh, shhh)
Dancing to Music
Drinking Juice
Eating "naks" (fruit snacks)
Playing with her Pink Piggy Bank
Reading Books
Pushing Buttons (like the computer on/off button, the volume on the cd player and the phone)
Unloading the drawers (especially my piano cabinet)
Watching Bubbles in the Tub

October Happenings

Mr. Potato Head - We let the kids plant half of the garden this year so we grew plenty of red potatoes and (too many) pumpkins. So despite the mounds of weeds, it was nice to find some gems like this beneath the soil.
Emily had a nursery rhyme celebration at her school and chose to dress up as a pumpkin from "Five Little Pumpkins." It was so fun to watch her singing and acting out all the nursery rhymes and alpha character songs with so much expression. Her teacher says she is a model student. She loves school and gets a little frustrated on her "off" days that I can't spend all day doing learning activities with her like her teacher does!
For Red Ribbon week Jacob tried a new 'do for Crazy Hair Day,

Rebecca dressed up for Hippie day. Later she mentioned how ironic it was that they had Hippie day as a part of the "Say NO to drugs campaign. "Aren't hippies known for NOT saying NO to drugs?."

Jared and I actually got (borrowed) a real costume this year for the couples party we went to. He was a little embarrassed after last year when everyone kept asking him what he was with his homemade "Daddy Long Legs" costume.
Rebecca's Halloween Costume Experiment

The kids were a little too anxious to rush over to the trunk or treat next door, so I had wrangle them in for some quick snapshots.




Jacob said as he was heading out the door, "I love having this monster mask. Then I don't really have to dress up at all." I think he also likes it because no one knows who he is. He'd rather remain anonymous in large group settings.

Jacob The Monster... Again:O)

Rebecca as Pippi Longstocking - sadly a lot of her peers have never even heard of Pippi

Daniel - The Knight

Dan was excited to pick out his own costume this year so he saved up his own money and bought it at the dollar store so he could use it all year long.

Emily as Raggedy Anne. I just love her smile! In the kids rush to hustle over to the trunk or treat I couldn't find the picture of Raggedy Anne to do some proper face-painting.

Alyssa the bumble bee

On the first day of November Rebecca, our food blog enthusiast lamented, "I'm so sad that October is over. We didn't make enough fun foods." But on Halloween night I did try to make some "Candy Corn Pizza" from my sister Kara's blog-which ended up being candy corn garlic bread instead.................oh so yummy!

It's A...

(BIG?) BOY!!!!!
Our top 2 names are Joshua Matthew and Jared Benjamin.
I had my 20 week ultrasound this morning and according to the head and organ measurements, I may actually be about 22 weeks along, either that or we're going to have a big baby! So instead of having a St. Patrick's Day baby, we may be having a leap year baby:) . The revised estimated due date is February 27th... but I'm sticking with early March, because at the end of pregnancy feeling like your 2 weeks overdue is not fun!
So I guess I'll be changing out the short-lived pink polka dotted nursery curtains and decor that I finally got around to making after our 5th baby; And trying to round up some baby boy clothes since I gave away all the boy stuff during some low times during my last pregnancy when I was sure she was our last baby. This pregnancy has been so much easier than all the rest, now I'm wondering if I should hastily give away all my cute girl stuff, or keep it just in case:).

Differences

I had a good laugh after parent teacher conferences this week when I read a sample of Jacob's work.
When he was asked to write a story using all of his spelling words here is what he came up with:

"One day Wendel Floyd and Mona were walking home when they tripped and fell in a bucket. They got up and passed out. Then they got up again and said their spelling words smoke, huge, save, life, wide, come, mine, grade. Then they fell asleep. The next morning they got to school and hoped they got their spelling test. The End"

I guess he's inherited some of his dad's love for efficiency :) ! Jacob doesn't like to talk or write much, so I was surprised that his note to us about parent/teacher conferences was more than one sentence... until I read it.

"Dear Mom and Dad,
Thank you for coming to conference.
Please clean out my desk.
Please buy me a pizza and a soda and please get me a book.
Do not listen to my teacher if she said I was being bad.
Can you give me a shake or a donut?
From, Jacob"

A few weeks ago Rebecca ( who could write for hours) was complaining that her teacher expected her to write a one page scary story. "How does she expect me to write a good story that is only one page????" So she typed it up and had me widen the margins, minimize the font and change it to single-spacing so she could fit all of her ideas on one page.

But Jacob and Rebecca definitely have one thing in common... when the phone or the doorbell rings, they don't even budge. For the 2 of them its a fight for who has to get the phone - because no one wants to.

Fall Soccer

Emily tried her first sport this year (soccer) and loved it. Her team didn't win a lot of games but she had a lot of fun

School Lessons... Applied (Unfortunately)

This weekend I walked into my kitchen and found 3 or 4 long rows of mostly unripe/somewhat bruised apples and pears neatly lined up all along the length of the counter. So when I questioned the guilty party she insisted that she and her friend didn't pick any of the apples... they just gathered them off of the ground (which only had 2 apples on it the day before). But after further interrogation I discovered that the apples had a little "help" getting there. Emily just followed the instructions from this song she learned the first day of school.

"Way up high in the apple tree,
2 little apples smiled down at me
I shook the tree as hard as I could
Down came the apples, Mmm, mmm they were good!"

Good things:
Fruit trees w/ a plentiful harvest
A little Warm weather
Being Surrounded by Good Neighbors
Raspberries in our backyard
Apple Breakfast Cake
Sunday Afternoon Naps

Fancy

Emily loves looking fancy. She would wear a dress everyday if she could and she loves having her hair fixed up pretty. She was so excited to pose in these new dresses we found at a garage sale.




Rebecca is quite the opposite. On the first day of middle school she got dressed in some faded jeans and a shirt she's probably had for 2 years. When I asked her "Aren't you going to wear some of your new school clothes for the first day, she replied "Mom, you worry too much about what people think." She insisted that I fix her long, lovely hair in a simple way with NO CURLS because she didn't want anyone thinking she was a fancy girl:) Well, I guess some lucky guy will be happy to have her as his "low-maintenance" wife someday because she's very content with very little.