At the Farm

Andrew and Joe went on a fun preschool fieldtrip to Carver's Farm. Fieldtrips are always fun, but it was especially exciting that Daddy got to go on this one! Here's Andrew in the cornmaze and holding his "colorful" corn on the cob.

Here's the group as the got instructions at the pumpkin patch. Notice there are three little boys (Andrew is one of them) in yellow shirts with no coats? Well, those were the three that were in Joe's car :-) Apparently, he was a little distracted when loading them up at school and forgot one little detail...coats! It was a very cold day, too! The kids survived and all the mom's got a chuckle out of it, not all that surprised based on their husband's behavior. One of my friend's (who was not there but heard about it from the teacher at her child's fieldtrip the following day) commented that at least he didn't forget any of the kids!

On the hayride...notice he now has a sweatshirt! Joe went back to the van and found some sweatshirts that were stashed away, but the other two boys didn't want to wear them. In all fairness, one of them was for Abby and it was bright pink, so I can't really blame the kid! 

Here's Andrew selecting a pumpkin...not quite sure what that face was all about :-)

Just playing around with some friends! 

Andrew came home with several pumpkins and gourds and made sure to share them with his brother and sister. They were very excited that he brought things home for them and he was obviously pleased that they appreciated his gifts. It was very cute!

Her own sense of STYLE

Abby always wants to pick out her own clothes, she definately has her own ideas on what she wants to wear! She always prefers skirts/dresses and wants to wear these boots with EVERYTHING...even when it was still 90+ degrees outside!

You can't see it very well in this picture, but she was also wearing my chunky silver necklace and a flower in the back of her hair. She is such a girlie girl, I love it!

Lessons from Primary

Last night, while Sam was doing his homework, Andrew was helping me do some chores. I sent him to put something away in his bedroom. He ran off to do it and on the way back I heard him say, "Oh no, the hall is dark and I walked down it!"

I reminded him that it's okay because he's not afraid of the dark. But he was quick to explain, "But MOM! In primary I learned that I should ALWAYS walk in the light! Remember?!?"

At least he's paying attention, even if he hasn't grasped the full meaning yet!

My big helper!

I've been doing LOTS of canning this year. It takes a long time and had to be timed just right so that I would have enough processing time before having to go and pickup up the boys from school at their respective times. On this particular day, Andrew decided that he wanted in on the action. And to my surprise, he was actually a huge help!

He had fun skinning the tomatoes and playing with the "slime" that was left in the sink...

Then, he got to squish them into the jars for me. At first he was a little timid about the squishing part, not sure if that's what I really wanted. But then I showed him again and he got into it! Notice how soaked is shirt is, even with the apron!

 We had a fun afternoon working together and he was so proud of the jars of tomatoes that he helped me produce!

Everyday Angels

I just wanted to take a minute and record some tidbits about my day. It was not the best...not the worst by any stretch of the imagination....but things certainly didn't turn out the way I'd pictured. Joe's gone this week, that always makes everything harder. Plus, I've been sick for a couple of days, like most moms (that I know) I was putting off calling the doctor because I thought I could fight it without medicine...no time to take myself in and make all necessary childcare arrangements...you know the drill. Well, I woke up this morning feeling MUCH worse. I got a call from my parents at about 6:45 A.M. saying that Dad was on his way over the fix Andrew's bike before going to work. (that's another whole saga that I won't get into but suffice to say we've been riding bikes to school everyday and Andrew's bike has been having major issues!) When he arrived, he fiddled with it for a few minutes, diagnosed the problem, and said he would take it with him and bring it back in the evening once he could get the needed part and get it fixed. I felt hugely greatful for that, it's been such a huge headache!

As the day went on, I finally decided to call the doctor (with some coaxing from my mom). Long story short, I couldn't get in until after I'd picked up Sam from school. My angel of a neighbor (we consider her our adopted Grandma) came over at a minutes notice to watch the kids for me. Two hours later at 5:30, as I was driving home from the pharmacy, antibiotic in hand, I was thinking about the fact that Andrew had soccer practice in half an hour, nobody had eaten dinner yet, and the meeting at the school that I was supposed to be at was starting RIGHT NOW. (That's not even counting the fact that I was already skipping out on the YW's board meeting and activity that night because of everything else going on!) Amidst all that, my Mom called and "gave me permission" to miss the school meeting and offered to take Andrew to practice for me. ("Chari, you're SICK, you are allowed take it easy!!!") When she showed up, she had Andrew's bike all fixed and ready to go.

Now that all the kids are in bed and I have a second to reflect, I'm just so greatful for people who love me and are willing to help. Nothing truely profound happened, there was no big crisis, but when I needed help, there were people to turn to. I seriously don't know what I'd do without my amazing support system of friends and family. I like to record "real life" days on here sometimes, just to remember that those days happen too...and we survive! But, tonight especially, I'm thankful for my real life angels.

All grown up!

Today was an important day at our house...

Abby's first pigtails!

I was so excited about it and so was she (although you can't tell from the picture!) She walked around all morning patting her head and saying, "Oh, so pretty!" I actually took her to Joe's office just to show him, it was that exciting to me! I think he thought we were pretty silly :-)

Her favorite place to cry...

The last few months Abby has found a favorite place to go when she's upset. If she just needs a good cry, she heads to....

Andrew's bed!

It's kind of random, but very cute! She'll just burst into tears, for whatever reason (she is a GIRL afterall), take off running, and dive into his blankets. Then she buries her head and just cries it out. I figure that it's the most accessible bed in the house (she is still in a crib) and so that makes it her favorite refuge. We all need some place like that, right?