HAppY HaLLowEEn!

Happy Halloween! We had a lot of fun last night Trick-or-Treating. It was pouring and the wind was so bad! My Mom came to sit at the house with the baby because Nate was suppose to go to work at 5. It worked out that he didn't need to go in til later and I'm so glad that he got to go with us.

Right after 5, Tucker's friend Emma came to the door, our first trick-or-treater, and asked if Tucker wanted to go around the neighborhood with her and her big sister. They were both standing there soaking wet and freezing! Tucker wanted to go with them so he bundled up and out the door they went. (Side note: Tucker was Link for Halloween, Emma went as Zelda. HeHeHe!)

Nate and I got the other to ready and went out in the storm. We broke 2 umbrella in the wind and were so wet by the time that we just made it down our street and back, that we ended up coming back and putting some more clothes on and going out again.

Norma was so funny. She loved running from door to door, yelling "TRICK-OR-TREAT!" She was so cold but she loved it! Thad would have had more fun going with Tucker but did really good going with his little sister. They waited at the door til the other got there and they took turns knocking. We really made a hall on the upper neighborhood. When we got to the lower part, their buckets were so full that they couldn't carry them. It was starting to rain really hard again so we just walked home, not bothering to stop at any other house.

I was getting worried because we hadn't seen Tucker while we were out and he wasn't home yet by the time that we came home. He made it home soon after with just as much candy as the other two.

Nate headed out to work and Thad and Norma helped me hand out candy while I feed Kate her dinner. I told them to be very careful about only giving one piece of candy out. I was worried that we would run out. Not ten minutes later, they came in telling me we were out. What? I asked if they just gave one a piece out. Thad said, "I did, but they all had two bags."

Hope everyone is coming down from their own sugar high, I'm afraid it will be days before my kids do. Happy Halloween! Now on to Thanksgiving and then, Christmas! I love the holidays!

"Pumpkin Head Harvey"

Things worked out last night so that we were able to carve pumpkins as a family. Nate really tried to talk me into just letting them draw faces on them like last year but the kids were so excited to be carving that we went with the messy way. It was awesome! None of them wanted to stick their hands down inside the pumpkins. I told them if they didn't want to get their hands dirty than they didn't get to carve it. Only daddy and I would get to carve. So they got their hands in and pulled out the gross stuff. Nate and I drew the faces on for them with their input on what they wanted and let them go to town. They all did so well! I helped Norma with the little cuts but she did the rest. I was very impressed with how well they all did without much help. And the pumpkins all looked great!They did not want to be touching the guts at all. But they all ended up taking a deep breath and diving in. Oops! I just remembered seeing this picture of Thadd that he was suppose to count how many seeds he took out of his pumpkin when he carved it for school. Oh well. Too late now.
I was so impressed with Norma! She did so well on her own. She is the one who was looking forward to carving the most. Now we know that she can do so well there won't be a question about doing it next year.
Thadd is just like me. Has to have his tongue out to do anything that detailed. It comes from Grandma Thomas. She couldn't cut with scissors without her tongue out.
Tucker said that his nose is the one that he did on the pumpkin they carved at school. Everyone got to draw shapes for the different parts of the face and his nose won. He was very proud that something he drew got picked.
Can you guess who's is who's? :)

Trunk or Treating

We were able to go to my parents Trunk or Treat this year. They had to have it a week early and it has really messed with us. I want to be taking down the Halloween things and listen to Christmas music. :)

Here are the kids in their costumes.

Tucker is Link from the video game, Zelda. I tried so hard to talk him out of this choice. I asked him if he really wanted to wear a dress. He did. My Mom had this pattern for a Robin Hood costume that I made for him. Nate spent hours making the shield. He got the leaflet from out of the game and made it to look like the one that Link carries. Tucker LOVES it! He walks around with the sword and shield all the time, fighting bad guys.

Thadd is Dry Bones from the video game Mario Bros. It is a skeleton dinosaur and so we just did this as a skeleton. He loves it. I was very pleased with my artist job for his face and he thought so too.

I thought he was holding his hands so we could see it in the picture, nope, they were wet and he didn't want them touching anything. :)

Norma has gone through a few things she wanted to be. She started out wanting to be a ballerina. I can do that. I was going to make her a tutu and get her some slippers. Well, we had to run to Target for something and she saw this witch costume. She immediately changed her mind to a witch and since it was only $7, I told her a witch was great!

Kate is a kitty cat! Nate bought her is costume at Costco months ago. He wanted to get a 3-6 month size and it took a lot of convincing to get him to get the 6-9 month one. We should have gotten a 12 month. She is cute in it though and for once in her little life, she can wear it.

Here is the picture I took of Tucker on his picture day. We didn't get school pictures this year so I took this on my own. It took a little work to get him not to make faces at me. Thadd was sick the day of his school pictures so when he has his re-takes I'll put one up of him and take one of the girls that day too.

This picture was just too cute not to put up. My Mom and Dad found these shirts for the girls, a pirate one and a cowgirl one. My brother was giving me a hard time about Kate's head band, or brain squisher as he calls them, so I put this one her. I just love it! It's the background screen on my phone. :)

Kate's new blanket.

I had to write about this blanket. If you don't want a sob story, quite reading.

My mom quilted this blanket for Kate. Isn't it beautiful! I don't know if you can see the kitten on the yellow side. This blanket has my emotions and memories on over-drive today. I have a quilt just like this only in red. This pattern is from my Grandma Thomas. I'm not sure if it is from her mom or not, I'll ask my Mom. I love my blanket. Most of my newborn pictures are on that blanket. It makes me feel my Mothers love for me when ever I see that blanket. I feel my Mothers love when I look at the ones that she has made my babies. This blanket also makes me sad. My Mom had bought this material when she knew that we were having the baby that we lost. I saw it in her room the day before we found out that we were losing the baby. I laid Kate on the quilt this morning and saw the two babies that would have been laying on it by her. I have had a hard week thinking of those babies. I know that Heavenly Father knows what we need and what we can handle. I know this. I know that I had to have the miscarriage for a reason. I know this. I also know that I can feel sad about this. It is part of the healing. I will always have a hard time whenever I see twins, I will always have a hard time at Spring Break and I'm afraid that I will always have a hard time around Halloween. I am so grateful to my Mom for making this for my sweet Kate. I hope that she will love it as much as I do. I hope that she will sleep with it for years, take naps on the floor with it when she is 9 and wrap her babies in it and know that it is a hug from Nana.

SEP's

I wanted to write about the boys' SEP's. They are both doing so well! Tucker is doing well in his reading. He is reading in an above 4th grade level but he doesn't like to branch out from what he likes to read. I only likes to read funny books and nothing else. I have bribed him to read Harry Potter. Of course his math skills are above and beyond anything. He has passed the 4th grade math in just the first two months of school. His teacher wrote on this paper, "Tucker is awesome! He is a hard worker and a great example to everyone. He always has a positive attitude." He was asked to write a note to his mom and dad and this is what we got:Now, in my defense, I know that homework is only suppose to be half an hour. He knows that I know. This comes from him not finishing his story on time, it was 2 days late! I told him he needed to work on it til it was done because it was already late. This was his second assignment that he had not finished on time. And I was in the right making him do it longer. His teacher said.

Thadd is doing amazing! He is also doing amazing in math. He passed his pre-test with 100% and they only expect 40% for the first of the year. He is on track with his reading, spelling and his writing is out of this world! He loves to write! He will write in his notebook on his free time and make up stories. The paper that his teacher's showed us he had written so much that it went onto the back of the page. He just loves to write. We asked about his tan-trums and they looked at us and said, he has tan-trums? That made me feel so good! To know that he is doing so well with that at school. So then I worried that he was being to shy and they said no, he always has his hand in the air and loves to volunteer. There were just two things he needs to work on. His speech, which he was tested for and because the state is so hard to get speech kids excepted, he is on the boarder line and didn't make it. So we need to be practicing at home. The only other thing is making friends, and he is working on that. He is just so shy.

I am so proud of my boys. They love school and do so well. I hope that this can be a life-long love. I know that it won't but I can always hope. :)

Nate's mission

During family home evening last night Nate said something about his mission. The kids were confused and asked if he meant Gearld's mission. They had no idea that their Dad had served a mission. So Nate spent half an hour looking for his mission pictures down stairs and then we spent the rest of the night looking through them. I wanted to share a few that we found.

This is from before he left on his mission. This is of Wayne and Norma Powell. Nate just happened to have made Grandma Norma's banana cake for our FHE treat and it was wonderful to show Norma her namesake. The kids all remembered Grandpa Wayne and said that they missed him. We were able to tell them that they were in Heaven together now. I was so excited to see this one! I love Elder Holland and so see that Nate had his picture taken with him so so cool!

The rest of these pictures are of Gram's. I have heard so many stories about Gram's. Nate just loved this little old lady. She was never baptized but she let the missionaries live in her apartment that was attached to her house. And every night, the missionaries had to come and sing her hymns before bed.

I loved listening to Nate talk about his mission. There were some stories that I had never heard and some pictures that I have never seen, ( he wouldn't let me put some up:) ) and it was so good to hear him tell his boys how important missions are and I'm so glad that my boys are wanting to serve a mission when they grow older.

I'm drowning in fabric!

I wanted to show you all of the fabric that I happen to be drowning in at the moment. And half of these projects need to be done in time for Christmas. I can't wait though and have started cutting out all the patterns. Cutting out is the worst part for me so if I can get them all cut out then the real fun can start. ;)

These are the jammies I'm making for Heather's kids for Christmas. I love sewing and it really is an outlet for me to just get away. So don't look at all of this and think I am crazy, (although you might) but I am having a ball and can't wait to get sewing!

These are the ones I'm making my kids for Christmas. I've got a really cute nightgown pattern I'm using for the 3 big girls and a pattern I've made a lot of for Norma for Kate, and then I'm using the pattern I just finished making Kate 2 outfits out of for Lily's.

These are for a diaper bag and carseat cover I'm making my friend that is having a boy in January. The outside of the diaper bag will be brown too. Love these! She told me cars or frogs and this is what I found.

This is for a new dress for Norma for the winter. I haven't made her a new dress in 3 years! So the one she has to really short. I know that I'm going to have to put it away before she notices that it is gone because she loved it. I hope she will like this one just as much. I don't need to make Kate one because our good friends Jared and Tara gave us a very pretty yellow one for her that will fit perfect come winter. Thanks guys!

These next few are for some dress and outfit patterns that I bought for my cousin Harmonie over a year ago to do for her girls. She is doing photography and took some really cute pictures of Kate that you can go and see here. So this is some of the fabric that my Mom, Kathryn and I picked out to make for her. There are quite a few patterns to go with them all. I am hoping to get some outfits for Norma and Kate out of some of these too. :)

And it wouldn't be a post without some new pictures of Kate. She is growing up so fast! This is her new smile and I LOVE IT!!! She knows that she will get a laugh from me whenever she does this.

And last of all, I put a picture of Kate and her brothers last time so this time I will show you what goes on all day while the boys are at school. Norma plays with Kate's toys and Kate just watches and loves that Norma is on the floor with her. Kate is getting very mobile now. I'm pretty sure she will be crawling before Halloween.
Oh how I love my kids!