Marvelous Monsters

This week for preschool we talked all about monsters. We read monster books and made monster faces on little cups and grew grass out the top to look like hair, and best of all we made monster costumes!
After reading, Where the Wild Things Are, we decided to have a wild rumpus. We first made hairy monster legs with pointy claws, and then we made monster masks with sharp teeth. Then we turned on loud music and danced around. Rachel must not have been in the mood to be crazy because she refused to participate... even though she spent all week making her monster costume! Leave it to Jorgan to love every minute of being a monster! He held up his mask, growled, and danced around! Elizabeth wouldn't put her Hairy Monster Feet on, but she did hold up her mask and dance around.
Maybe we'll have to try again tomorrow!

Cleaning out the Refrigerator

Tonight's chore was cleaning out the fridge. These kids were freakin' hilarious... so I had to take a picture!

Trunk - or - Treat

Saturday was also the ward trunk-or-treat. The ward put on a carnival before the trick-or-treating, but we were so tired after the pumpkin patch that we were an hour late and barely made it for the trick-or-treating!
Elizabeth dressed up as Belle. Rachel dressed up as Cinderella. Since we had 2 princesses, we figured we needed a Prince Charming. So we dressed Jorgan in his Sunday Clothes and made him a top hat out of Construction Paper. He was really cute and wore his hat the entire night!


I don't really like the idea of giving the kids a little candy each day... because then I have grumpy kids asking for more candy every day. So instead, we had a 1 time candy chow-down.


We all sat down together and pigged out on candy. The kids thought this was awesome. Once we decided it was bedtime, everyone got a bath and then went to bed. Secretly, mommy and daddy then threw all the rest of the candy into the trash!


Here is daddy and the girls in front of the trash pile of the candy they had just chowed. No worries, half of the pile is candy that Jorgan took one lick of, then handed over to daddy for a new piece. Every one was in candy heaven... and now I don't even have to hear the word candy again until next year!

Carleton Farm

For our field trip this week we decided to go to a pumpkin patch. We chose Carleton Farm because they had several things especially for the kids that were free.


Of course we had to stop by the animals. Not as large a selection as I was anticipating, but Elizabeth did spot some eggs in the chicken coop and a Hen with 2 newly hatched chicks!
I think the highlight of our day was the Pumpkin Cannon. For just $1 you can shoot a pumpkin out of a cannon! Elizabeth thought this was so great! Rachel was too scared, so Liz shot off her pumpkin, and even Jorgan shot a pumpkin. Josh paid an extra dollar to shoot a larger pumpkin out of the larger cannon. We could only see his land because it made a huge splash in the creek! Elizabeth told us that this was her favorite thing that we did the whole day!



Then we took a free hayride! This was Rachel's favorite part of the whole day. This was the first time we got her to smile since we had been there! She is always really nervous when we go somewhere new and unfamiliar.


We did pay the ridiculous fee to take the kids through the corn maze. Luckily, Rachel and Jorgan were still free! They give you a map to follow through the maze and there are numbered posts to help you navigate through. It would have worked great if the maze were boxey, meaning if you just had the choice of turning Left or Right at intersections... however, everything was curvy and at some intersections you had like 4 ways to choose from... ah! I wasn't sure we were ever going to find our way out.


Here is Jorgan riding daddy's shoulders after he was too tired to walk anymore. He really walked for quite a while and loved his turn to be the leader. When Josh picked him up we had to take off his shoes and roll up his pants because he was covered in mud!


Here are the girls leading us through!


Outside the maze there was a large pumpkin next to a large ruler. So of course every one had to be measured!





And last the 3 kids smiling after a wonderful time at the pumpkin patch. Jorgan is sitting on a tractor seat attached to a large milk can. He really wanted to ride the tractor, not the hay wagon behind it!

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home!

This is what happens after Josh has worked several days in a row. The kids want his undivided attention. I had just finished reading Fablehaven #5, Josh was most of the way through and eager to finish before it had to go back to the library. So he thought that he might be able to pay attention to the kids and read at the same time. It didn't work as well as he had hoped... it's a good thing we have such a great daddy!

Elizabeth's Broken Arm

Last Thursday we were making beds after we had just washed all the sheets. We were almost done and I asked Liz to get her teddy bear and her blanket up onto her bed. Not paying attention to her, she tried to take them both up the ladder at the same time! Teddy bear in one hand and blanket in the other, she only made it up a couple of steps before she fell straight backwards.
Now Elizabeth is one that really freaks out when she gets scared, so her complete dramatic screaming session was not a surprise to us. Unfortunately we were not too incredibly sensitive to her pain... which we feel really bad about now... She told me that her arm really hurt and so we sat her down and put ice on it and figured she would be fine after a little attention.
We had plans to go to the temple that night so Josh make shifted her a little sling gave her some tylenol, and we made the decision to still go. The health insurance from Josh's work doesn't start until November 1, so we also didn't want to rush her to the ER for bumps and bruises since we really can't afford an ER visit!
When Elizabeth woke up the next morning her whole arm was swollen and she still didn't want us to move it or touch it. So Josh decided he would take her to his ER and get an x-ray. Good thing he did because she has a non-displaced fracture, meaning that the bone is cracked but not out of place, right above her elbow. At the hospital they put her in a splint and she said that she felt much better after that.
Today I took her to an orthopedic where they put a cast on her. Bright pink as you may have guessed... Luckily she only has to wear it for 2 weeks.
Here's her x-ray... I could only tell because the dr showed me.. maybe you'll have better eyes!


Here she is feeling much better after having her arm stabilized.


Here she is with her pink cast. It's so heavy she has a hard time picking up her arm!

What I Saw in the Backyard

You may think it's silly that I'm posting something as ordinary as this, but I haven't seen many birds other than dirty pigeons before. I spent my whole life in the desert of Las Vegas, remember!
I was doing some dishes and out the window I see a robin on the lawn. Elizabeth and I had read a poem about a robin earlier that day so I called her to hurry so she could see this bird in the backyard. When she got to me we watched this Robin snatch a worm right out of the ground and slurp it down. Elizabeth was pretty impressed.
As I continued to watch out the window I noticed that there were several other birds hanging out on the roof of the shed. So I snapped a picture of these 2 blue jays. Well, I hope they're blue jays anyway... I haven't ever really seen one before, but that's what I imagined a blue jay would look like.
There were quite a few out there, and my only hope is that they were eating the spiders... I won't be excitedly snapping pictures of those!!

Turtle Bread

Elizabeth's teacher sends home a recipe each with having to do with the letter they are studying. Last week they talked about the letter Tt, so she had a recipe for Turtle Bread. Luckily it's not bread made from turtle, just bread made to look like a turtle. Elizabeth was super proud of it and it was delicious!

Seattle Temple

For our field trip last week we thought it would be fun to take the kids to see the temple. They only really know the Las Vegas Temple, we took them to see the Salt Lake temple last year for Christmas but only Liz remembers it, so we thought we would help them get to know a new place.
Here are Jorgan and Rachel sitting on a bench together. It's amazing how you can go to a special place like the temple and the kids who just spent all day arguing were best friends all afternoon!


Here I am with the kids. Josh's new goal is to make sure and take the camera from me sometimes so that I can be in some pictures too! It's not my favorite goal, but it is good to help my kids remember that I was there too.


Here are the kids sitting together at the very front. I just think temples are so beautiful! I'm sure the fact that the entire place is covered in beautiful flowers, trees, and grass help too!


As we were walking around the grounds we spotted this little trail that led into a little forested area. So we took the trail and found that it was just a beautiful wooded trail. There were a few benches and this little water basin thing that I couldn't keep the kids from splashing in! It must be a quiet place for praying and meditating. Good thing there was no one there thinking because despite our discussion about being reverent... well you'll see later...


Here's my little man. He just gets cuter and cuter every day!


A nice sister leaving the temple offered to take a picture of our family. Thank you!


Here's Josh capturing something we are not used to... Seasons! The kids were so excited to see so many red leaves, they had to pick up every one and show them to us as if it were the only leaf on the ground. Yet, there were thousands! Elizabeth also spent her time collecting acorns. We've never seen those before either!


Here is the view from the back of the temple. In case you can't tell, there is Jorgan, Rachel, Josh, and Elizabeth as the tiny little ants at the bottom.


And this is where the discussion about being reverent went out the window! Thanks daddy! I'm not sure which Heavenly Father prefers at His house. Quiet reverence, or joyous laughter. Maybe it depends on where you are in his house.



You can't leave the temple without a picture of the angel Moroni. The amazing thing about this picture is that you can see the blue sky! We've had quite a bit of blue sky lately. It's been wonderful!

Pike Place Market

Josh has been working a lot this week! He had today off and then has to go back tomorrow. So I wanted to do something fun together since we would only get him to ourselves for 1 day. Since we've been talking about our senses, Josh and I planned a hunt down at Pike Place Market on the waterfront in Seattle!
We printed a guided walking tour off the internet so we would know the coolest places to go on our hunt, some historic facts, and some fun things to see that we might miss if we weren't looking for them.
The girls each had a little notepad to draw pictures of the things that they saw. They were so cute walking through the market drawing as they went!


Here is Elizabeth riding "Rachel the Pig". (we did not name her... that's what the tour said she was named) She is a bronze piggy bank... there were tons of people taking pictures of her and the tour said that she collects thousands of dollars in change each year!


We stopped at Pike Place Fish next. We tested out our sense of smell here... the girls were not too enthusiastic about the fishy smell! Here is Josh trying to get the girls to touch a live crayfish. They wouldn't come near it!


So, as a last resort, he tried Jorgan. He wasn't wasn't going to touch that thing either! Pike Place Fish is fun, because when someone orders fish, the guys start yelling and throw the fish back and forth. Things were a bit slow and so the employees started throwing these huge salmon back and forth. Well, unluckily, the employee on the street completely missed the fish and it landed with a huge thud right on the sidewalk! It was pretty funny... and pretty sad at the same time... what a waste of a yummy fish!


As we continued down the street we visited all sorts of vendors. Josh bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for $5! If you could see the tons of gorgeous flowers there you would never buy expensive ones from the florist again!! This next picture is of Liz and Rachel pointing out letters on the wall outside a little restaurant.


Next was a vendor for Chukar Cherries. They had delicious chocolate covered cherries. Luckily their motto is that you need to taste things to see how wonderful they are. Yes! Chocolate covered cherries for everyone!


The market goes on for a very long time! The end of the market had more breakable displays, so we tried to move the kids quickly through the rest so that we wouldn't have any accidents with something we didn't want to pay for! As we came out of the park there was a nice grassy area overlooking Elliot Bay called Steinbrueck Park. So we took a rest here!


It was nice to take a break except that the park had half a dozen homeless people sleeping in it! So we tried to stay contained in one little area. The next picture is the kids watching the boats go by in the bay.


Since parking is limited and we were only allowed 2 hours to park, we had to start heading back kind of quickly. So maybe next time we can stop at the little art gallery.. or the little Turkish shop to try Turkish Delight! But for today just a short stop for Ice Cream Cones! Yah!! Jorgan had his everywhere... and he would not accept assistance of any kind. So he had to be thoroughly wiped down by the time we got to the car!



What a fun day! We should do that again soon!

Fun for Fall

This week we have been learning about our "senses". So far, only sight and sound. So yesterday we went on a nature walk to observe how things are changing for fall and to find cool things! When we got home we glued all the things we found onto construction paper to show our adventure.


I let the girls do their own gluing... which was a little bit dangerous because at one point I had to leave the room with Jorgan... only for a second... and when I came back Rachel's page was practically covered with glue! Oh, well... she was able to get every single thing she found onto her page!