Tessa and Carson sitting in a tree….ok, in the hallway at daycare. 

Every morning as Tessa walks in the door, Carson says, “Hi Tessa” in a very sweet, loving tone.  Tessa replies in the same tone, “Hi Carson”. 

Many of the high school students (that work in the day care) have mentioned how cute Carson and Tessa are together.  They are “joined at the hip” so to speak. 

When you ask Tessa about Carson, she starts to whisper and giggle saying, “he’s my boyfriend”.  And from what I hear, Carson feels the same. 

Tessa says that they plan to get married when they grow up and they want to have a ball pit at the wedding.

I saw this comic strip and found it to be first, really funny, and second, really true!

Being a psychology major in college combined with my experience working with people with disabilities, I used to think that I knew a lot about being a parent.  I would see mothers in the stores with their screaming children and I would judge them.  “My children will never act like that”, I would think to myself.  Or, I’d see little kids running around with bare feet on dirty floors with stains on their shirts and runny noses and I’d think “not my kids, never”. 

So there I was on Saturday night, sitting in the germ-infested McDonalds playland with two bare-footed, runny-nosed kids with stains on their clothes and messy hair and feeding them greasy chicken nuggets and fries.  It occurred to me that I am not the mother that I thought I would be.  They have worn me down. 

But, I think that every parent must think, “my kids won’t be like that” before they have children, or no one would ever procreate.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my children dearly, but OH I’m so tired.

Nate has begun an exciting career in wrestling.  Ok, I don’t know if it’ll become a career, but he really likes it…and he’s pretty good at it!!

He had the opportunity to sign up for “little Vikes wrestling” sponsored by the high school wrestling team.  He had his first “match night” last night.  He did a fabulous job and I was so proud of him.  He is pretty strong for a little guy.  He has two more “match nights” if anyone’s interested in coming!

When I was in Kindergarten, I won first place in the Reflections contest…something I’ve always been very proud of.  I had high hopes that Nate might follow in my footsteps when he had the opportunity to enter the contest this year. 

I bought him a canvas, some paint, and let him “go to” it.  He did a great job and he’s very artistic, in my opinion.  I love his painting and I really thought that he had a shot at winning something.

Much to our dismay, Reflections is not what it once was.  They used to separate the entries by grade so that the students only competed against their own age group.  They don’t do that anymore.  Nate had to compete against 6th graders and needless to say….he is not moving on to the next level.

But….he’s on my top level.  Good Job Nate!!!

The earth has been lucky to have Joey in it for 30 long years now.  That’s right….Joey has hit the big 3-0. 

Not only is Halloween the day that Joey was born, it was also the day that we had our first date…11 years ago!  I met him when he was a mere 19 year old baby. 

We were supposed to have a party up at the cabin for Joey and his uncle who is turning 50, but unfortunately the party was canceled due to illness and a canceld plane.  I didn’t really have enough time to plan anything really special for his 30th…and I feel kind of bad. 

Tessa and I tried to make the best of it and made him a birthday cake.  Then, we took him out for Chinese food (his favorite) and went home to carve pumpkins for the night.  Then, we finished the day at Katie and Jason’s. 

Even though, it seemed like an ordinary birthday, I hope that Joey knows how much I really do love him and I’m glad to have him.  I really would have had a party if I’d had the time!

My kids are getting to the age where they are starting to care about trick-or-treating….which was kind of fun this year.  Up until now, they only have wanted to go to a few houses and be done.  This year, they did a few blocks and would have done more, but the little Tessa was done.  (She’s still not feeling it)

We started by going up and down Main Street in Bountiful and visited each of the stores.  Later, we joined Katie, Jason, & Averi at their lovely new home in Roy.  We trick-or-treated in an actual neighborhood….which was refreshing in a world of “trunk”-or-treating.  We started pretty early, so many of the people were not home….or they were at the trunk-or-treat. 

The kids had a lot of fun regardless.  Nate was darth vader, accompanied by his “daughter” Princess Leia aka Tessa. 

Averi made her debut as a spooky vampire and she looked dang cute….with black hair and all.

After the treats, we headed back to their house for some taco soup, birthday cake for Joey, guitar hero, and movies.  It was a fun time.

I have been very fortunate, as a working mom, to be able to have my kids in the same building that I work.  I get to bring them to school with me every morning and every now and then I get to see them during the day.  This will really come in handy for breast feeding in just 6 to 8 weeks!

Today, the whole pre-school class came to visit me!  They adorned their hand-made witch masks and sang a cute witch song to me.  It was super cute.  Then, Tessa showed them the way to my treat jar and passed one out to everyone. 

I guess that if I have to be a working mom, at least I have about the best job in the world for it. 

Ok, so it wasn’t really a “battle”, but because of my competetive nature and always feeling compelled to be the “best”….I made the best scarecrow.   I asked, and everyone agreed….mine was the best. 

Oddly enough, my dad thought that the children were going to help with these, but in the end it was the adults that finished them up.  I have to admit that Tessa helped me with quite a bit of it, though.  Here are the other (loser) scarecrows:

We’ve gone without Papa Lee for many years, and now that he’s back….the festivities have begun. 

When I was a kid, my dad always went to great lengths to throw fabulous parties.  This Halloween was no exception.  He went full throttle and the kids had a fun time and were spoiled rotten. 

First, I have to say that I can’t remember the last time that my parents dressed up for Halloween, but they did this year.  They were Elton John and Kelly Osbourne…very cute.

The house was all decked out for Halloween and Dad had made really cute little place settings for all the kids, complete with their own personalized halloween coloring book and treat bags.  They played some really cute games (winning A LOT of prizes) and then we finished by making some awesome scarecrows.  Afterwards, the kids enjoyed PB&J sandwiches in the shape of bats and carrot sticks while the adults had some taco soup. 

Thanks for the party mom and dad!  The kids were happy to party with you this halloween!

We helped Kris celebrate her birthday by letting her and Bob take us out to dinner and give us free tickets to the Dinosaur Park.  I love her birthday. 

The Dino Park was all decked out for Halloween and the kids had a lot of fun!  They got to trick-or-treat, look at all the decorations and dinosaurs, watch a magician, play on the playground and even make slime….which Tessa called Dinosaur boogars.   Thanks for the fun time, Kris & Bob!