Are you kidding me?!?

I turned on my radio today and what came on? Christmas music. That's right. Christmas music. On Halloween. Couldn't they have waited until Nov 1 at least? This is pretty much the only station I listen to and I am pretty sure they play continuous Christmas music through New Year. I was not a happy camper. Looks like CD's will be making a comeback. I need a new FM transmitter for my MP3.

I am leaving for Utah tomorrow. Wish me luck!

I can't wait for this election to be over. It doesn't matter who you like, there is always some who disagrees. I am so tired of all the arguing and negativity. Neither candidate is perfect and some things are going to suck regardless of who wins. Can't we all just get along? Along those same lines, you aren't allowed to complain about the winner if you didn't vote, so vote! At least you will have whining rights for the next 4 years.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to the best husband ever. To the man who works hard for his family, puts up with my strange eccentricities and obsessions. To the man who would do anything for me, his kids, his family. May your next 30 years be even better than the last!

Go Vote!

Prop 8

OK, so I know that I don't live in California, but I think that this is very important and I have some good friends working really hard for this. If you live in California or know anyone who does, check out this website: http://www.voteyesonprop8.blogspot.com. It's very important that this passes, as it will be setting a precedent for the rest of the country. This is not a civil rights issue, it is about protecting the sanctity of marriage! Anyways, do what you can to help it pass, whatever that may be. Thanks!

Food

Restaurant.com is having a deal where all gift certificates are 80% off. That's a $25 GC for $2. If you haven't used them before make sure to read the fine print. There is a minimum purchase requirement and you can only use one GC per party. Use the promo code pumpkin until 10/31 for this deal.

Devastated.

My friend Karen has her annual pumpkin party today. I have been so looking forward to it. I found a fabulous recipe for swirled pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust. YUM! I stayed up until midnight last night baking and waiting for it to cool. Then, as I was reaching for the plastic wrap to put it away it somehow slid off the stove top where it had been cooling and splatted all over the floor! I cried. All that hard work for nothing. Mike and I did get a bite off the top that didn't touch the floor and it tasted delicious. I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse.

So, I have no idea what I will be bringing to the pumpkin party (the whole point is that everyone brings a dish with pumpkin as an ingredient). I just hope no one was too excited about the cheesecake.

Take me away

Carter's all time favorite song right now is Natasha Bedingfield's Pocketful of Sunshine. He will watch the video on YouTube over and over. He has seen it so many times that he can narrate what is happening on the video while just listening to the song - "this is where they are doing the cool moves...now she is on a flower...". Samantha can now say "I wanna dance. Away." The other day in the car, Samantha was crying and Carter was almost asleep. It came on the radio and within seconds they were both smiling and dancing in their car seats. The point is, they love it. Where this is all going is the other day Carter was in time out and I hear him start to sing as he is crying..."take me away, to a better place, I want to take you away...". I wish I had caught it on tape. It was hilarious. Such drama. Tonight as he was throwing the temper tantrum of his life he started saying "this is terrible" over and over. It's so hard not to laugh sometimes.

God bless America

I am going to be out of town on Nov 4, so I went downtown and voted today. I have been putting it off because I knew it would be a production with the kids and all. But, I bribed them with M&M's and thanks to the nice registrar who loved kids, we were in and out, no problem. I think that it has something to do with having kids, but in trying to explain what I was doing to Carter, I was just overwhelmed with feelings of pride and gratitude that I was blessed enough to have been born in the USA. Regardless of how messed up things are right now, there are people all over the world who give up everything just to clean toilets here. I am so grateful when I think of how I have been blessed with so many freedoms and how much better my children's lives will be because we live here. Go America!

Why...

Why do you always remember to grab your keys right as you pull the locked door shut?

Fall Fun

This morning was so nice outside and we had a lot of leaves to rake. Put those two together and you have a great time jumping in the leaves! Carter was a little anti-photo, but I managed to get one or two.

Future Firefighter

Carter is obsessed with fire fighters - the trucks, sirens, everything. He is convinced that he is going to be one when he grows up. Our neighbor, John, is a fire fighter with Milwaukee Fire Dept. and took Carter on a tour of the fire station today. Carter was in heaven! He got to try on a jacket and helmet, sit in the fire truck and see the lights. He was a bit of a know-it-all, but John was able to show him some cool things he didn't know about. Carter's favorite part was seeing the lights. Samantha's favorite part was just smearing her hands on the dirty tires and wiping in on my pants. Sweet.

Pumkins, picnics and pictures

We had such a fun day today! The weather was fabulous, so we went to pick pumpkins, have a picnic and try to get some family pictures. We stopped by the hospital to see Grandma first. She was glad to see the little ones and Carter was excited to tell her all about soccer and the pumpkins. She is doing better, she should be discharged Monday back to the nursing home for more physical therapy. They had the bed up after making it and the kids loved it.

Pumpkins! Carter changed his mind at least 3 times on which one he wanted and Samantha went from trying to pick them all up to trying to sit on each and every one of them. I absolutely love this farm that we went to. They have apples as well and so we had to grab some. I came home and made apple pies. Soooooo good. I love the fall. If only winter didn't have to follow so closely.

One of the few occasions that they are touching and neither of them are screaming. I didn't even ask for this...

And we did get a decent family shot (thanks Kara, awesome timing!). Carter struggles with smiling and Samantha was being a stinker most of the time. I need to invest in some head-swapping software.

Pump it Up

There is a place in Waukesha called Pump it Up. It is full of huge blow-up toys. The other day I was watching a friend's little boy and after going crazy in my house all day, we decided to head over and burn off some energy. They had a blast. Samantha has to be the toughest little chica that I know. Her favorite thing was the huge slide. This slide is probably 20 feet high. I had to go with her because she is too little to climb up by herself, but as soon as we got to the bottom, she would point to it and say "Deees!" (that's please in Samanthese). Anyways, we had a blast and we were all exhausted. Win, win right?

Samantha trying to keep up with the big kids:

Sammy B

That is what Carter has started calling her. I love that he came up with his own nickname for her. If you have spent any time with me and my kids, you know that I have about a million nicknames for them. Samantha has Sammers, Sweet Pea, Little Missy Moo, Samarama, Sammy Poo, Stinky (it's really a term of endearment for a lot of people in my life), Princess, Baby Girl, and anything else that happens to pop into my head at the time.
Anyways, whatever you call her, she is so much fun right now. If I could bottle her as she is right now I totally would.

I went in to get her up the other morning and found this:

We just happened to get 2 packages in one day and Carter had the idea of making a robot out of the boxes. Samantha took over and walked around in it for a good half hour.

This, though, I could do without. I don't think Carter even knew what time out was at this age. Samantha not only knows, she knows to stay there until the timer goes off. I guess I am doing better at some things. At this rate, our 9th child should be perfect.

I'm leaving on a jet plane

I just booked our flight to Utah! It was totally last minute, but Northwest has some great prices on their tickets, so me and the kids are going out to Utah the 1st-9th of next month. So all my Utah friends let me know when we can get together!

This made my day

Free Shirt

Click here for a free swedish fish tee shirt.

Could be good...

I just found out about Freepeats. It's a website where you can go and post gently used baby/kids stuff and others do as well. The great thing about it is that it is all free. It just started here in Milwaukee, and if you sign up by the 15th, you get free lifetime membership. After that, I think it's somewhere between $5-$15 to sign up. Like I said, it just started, so there isn't much posted yet, but eventually there could be some good stuff. I think it's worth checking out. They do have them in other cities if anyone else is interested. Go free!

Quick Question

Does it make me a bad mom if both of my kids have ear infections (Carter in both ears) and I didn't know about it, or does it just mean I have really tough kids? I think the latter. I only found out because Samantha had a well-child visit today and Carter asked the doctor to look in his ears. Otherwise I would have been oblivious. Tough kids, right???

Catch up.

It has been a while since I have posted. Somehow I manage to keep caught up on everyone else's blogs but mine. Anyways, here's a recap of what we have been up to:

Carter got his school pictures taken. He came home and informed me he didn't smile at all. "The guy said we just had to sit there." Fabulous. What more did I expect?

I have been taking a less than informative photography class. There are about 10 of us in the class. 4 of us have more than point and shoot cameras. One woman actually opened her brand new camera the first night of class. Do you really need an 8 week class for a point and shoot? Really? Maybe. Last time one lady asked if she needed to turn the camera on to get to the menu. Next week we start taking pictures. Luckily I am taking it with a friend. Otherwise I would be licking my camera batteries just for the entertainment factor. I am hoping that when we actually turn the cameras on things will get better. I'm not counting on it though.

Mike's mom isn't doing well at all. She is in a nursing home full time now and they have started hospice care. It is sad, especially when the doctors out here had filled us so full of hope for her recovery. We have an appointment on Monday with the hepatologist just to ensure that we have exhausted all options. We are trying to get loose ends tied up and make sure that she is comfortable.

I would say that winter is about 75% here. We are wearing socks around the house to keep our feet from freezing, the kids are wearing their footsie pajamas, and I busted out the down comforter. Just last week we were wearing shorts. We must have offended the weather Gods.

Carter started soccer. He was totally pumped up about it and was talking up how fast he was, passing everyone else. Mike told me that he passed 2 kids-both of them had just turned 3. Apparently Carter got my physical prowess. Sucker. The coach is tough. After this week, if anyone touches the ball they have to do laps. I love it.

My sister is coming out for Thanksgiving! I am so excited. It has been almost a year since I have seen her, too long. I am still trying to convince her to move out here. Something about the winters...

Anyways, nothing really exciting. Just life. I am looking forward to General Conference this weekend. Between my kids and the nursery calling I get very little adult spiritual interaction. Here's hoping the kids behave...