Metal Mouth

Emma got braces last week. We went in for a routine check-up as she has had an expander for a few months. Dr. Hughes looked at me and said, "Well, she is ready for braces, let's get them on." Emma and I both gaped at him.... right now? They run a really smooth operation over there at Hughes Orthodontics...We especially like Dr. Hughes magic tricks. They had her outfitted in 15 minutes flat. Emma was sooo excited to get them on and to see everyone's reactions. She chose Mediterranean blue for her bands. She enjoys using all the little tools and gadgets they have given her to make sure her teeth stay sparkling and clean. She has made this whole process very fun. I am glad she is not feeling self conscious or embarrassed about it.. in fact she has made braces downright COOL.

I'M BAAACCKK!

After Xander's birth I took a nice extended break from most computer related stuff except for email and an occasional peek at facebook. Life is busy with 5! Xander is a high needs baby very much like Samantha and Emma were so I am rarely able to sit down for more than a few minutes while he is awake. Between him and little Lizzie I am lucky to even get to the bathroom or get a bite in these days hee hee. I am gonna try and get back to blogging as I enjoy it so much and have missed my time doing it, plus it should motivate me to get back into taking pictures! I have been terrible about picking up the camera lately.

I am gonna start with our recent Halloween festivities. Halloween was a crazy crazy day for us! Sam had tennis, Emma had her soccer game, we had a branch activity and then stayed after to help clean the church. We had some friends over for Halloween dinner and then met up with the neighborhood families to go trick or treating. I had to chauffer Sam down to a neighborhood closer to her school so she could go trick or treating with her friends. It was very busy but very fun day!
Carving fun. The girls all created their own designs, I thought they did a great job!

Helping Mandi with a tricky spot.

Mandi's poor jack o' lantern ate something disagreeable with his tummy, he threw up all over our table. UGH!

Dad and Emma hard at work.

Lizzie was more interested in coloring and eating candy than playing with pumpkin guts.

Finished products. Sam's pumpkin is a house with ghosts peeking out the windows and around the doors... the picture doesn't do it justice. There are so many little details right down to little eyes. I don't think I could create such a good design on my own.. way to go Sam! Emma's has a ghost, a bat, a sliver of a moon and a BOO (picture also doesnt do hers much justice.) Mandi's is a spooky face saying BOO!


The dessert I entered in the branch dessert contest... it won first place. Fortunately it tasted much better than it looked!

Playing games at the church....

Our delicious halloween feast consisted of ground up goblin guts in toadstool caps, fried ogre skins, bloody brains, witches fingernails and dragon scales with vampire brew to wash it all down.

I didn't make it outside to get a group shot of everyone taking off to go trick or treating. They had a really good time this year going with all their neighborhood friends.

Lizzie was a wee witch. Originally she wanted to be a lion but it was 72 degrees outside on Halloween and much too hot so this was a nice back up costume that I made for Mandi when she was 3.

Mandi was a ghost. I made a hood to go with this costume but she lost it during her school parade.


Sam and Emma were both Vampires. Emma wanted to dye her hair black. Wow did she look different! She really liked it until it was time to wash it out... it took us almost a half hour to get it out of her fine blonde hair and off her body. While drying off she looked up and me and said "Mom, that was really fun.... I NEVER want to do it again!"

Sam looked beautiful and glamorous when she headed out with her perfect hair, pale skin, lovely long lashes and stylish boots. She was a "twilight" vampire thus the lack of fangs and black hair. I wasn't able to get a shot of her before we ran her down to her friends house. It rained and drizzled and was quite windy during trick or treating so she doesn't look quite as polished in this "after" pic.

I never got a group shot of everyone but I know a friend did so I will have to poke her about it and see if I can get a copy. It was a delightful and spooky night. We LOVE Halloween... BOO!

Emma's Birthday!

Last Saturday was Emma's birthday. I can't believe she is EIGHT! We celebrated by going on a jungle safari/scavenger hunt at Fort Hunt park. Safari Sam and Jungle Jack (Dad) did an excellent job leading us on our adventure! We saw lizards and frogs and monkeys and panda bears to name a few, all harboring a stash of goodies nearby.
At the end the girls finally found the the site of the party
and a giant treasure box!
It was really fun especially as we had the site set up in the middle of the forest with no one around. The weather was very cooperative and we were even able to find an Eagle nest although the Eagles were quite shy. The nest was very high so its hard to see in the picture..
We had a yummy jungle cake for the grand finale. Not only does our camera do poorly with photographing things that are far away, it is also known to run out of battery at the bat of an eye even if we put a new one in that day. Sadly I did not get a picture of all the kids with the cake or the fun they had moving the animals around on the cake. Needless to say we are way overdue for a new camera, this one is nearly 6 years old. Hopefully we will find something we like before baby #5 makes an entrance. Anyhow back to the birthday cake: Emma thought the party was great fun, she enjoyed her presents, especially her new bike! Her old one was way too small for her. I think she is even more excited for this weekend however, when her Grandpa Kendrick and Grandma Terry come to stay for the weekend and she gets baptized!

Emma's Birthday is coming up this weekend. She is all about the jungle, rainforests and being an explorer. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age. Pink and dolls OUT, sports and the great outdoors IN. We are going to have a Jungle party at a forest-like park and go on a letterboxing expedition and a scavenger hunt among other things. (Wish me luck with the cake.. ugh!)
She designed her own invitations and this is what she came up with for the front.
I think its pretty hilarious.

Photo op

A friend of ours is taking a photography class at Gally. She wanted to come do a photo shoot of the kids for an assignment. She was kind enough to burn me a CD with all the photos she took. She is doing a great job!
Here are some of my faves:

Lizzie kissing the baby (well now, with this being pregnancy #8, my belly is no longer Hollywood smooth and perfect.) O.K., so the belly not so cute, but hey that face!!

Noodles Noodles Noodles! (She will eat these for every meal if we let her.)

All clean

Sisters! (Sam was in Iowa at the time so we missed her in the shots, ah well.)
We tried and tried to get Lizzie to join Emma and Mandi but at this point she was too tired and grumpy.

Off to conquer the world...

Samantha and her Odyssey of the Mind team are at the world competition this week! Click on the Odyssey of the Mind logo on the right to check out their blog. They plan to update it daily so we can follow along with what is happening.

Spring Fun

We have had a fabulous spring! The main highlight is a visit from my parents (Grandy and Papa.) Billy originally arranged for them to come at Christmas as my Christmas present. It was going to be a surprise for all of us. Unfortunately my father had a heart attack shortly before they were due to come. We are all so thankful he is doing well now! We changed their tickets so they could be here during the girls spring break. We didn't tell the girls as we still wanted to surprise them so it was really fun to see their faces when they came home to find their grandparents here. They loved every minute of their time and miss them a great deal now that they are gone as do I.

We went to see the cherry blossoms as we do every year. We caught them at peak bloom, they were beautiful! It was a VERY BLUSTERY day! It was a hold on to your hat and everything else not nailed down type of day. Nevertheless the walk around the tidal basin was wonderful as always and I am so glad we went! Billy, Emma and Papa stayed with the van so we don't have any pics with them ah well.

It's a bit hard to see from the pic.. clicking on it to enlarge it might help you see it better, but the whole place was almost like a pink and white winter wonderland.... the blossoms were blowing everywhere so at times it looked like it was snowing, the girls loved it!
We made a mad dash from admiring all the beautiful cherry trees to Mandi's first soccer game of the season. Billy is coaching her team. When he coached Emma's team he had them call him Coach Twinkletoes. It was such a hit, he has resurrected the name... I don't know how anyone is keeping a straight face when addressing him but they do a good job ;) Mandi's team is called the Green Grass Monsters!! (Bet you can't guess who came up with THAT name chuckle.) They are having a fun season. Mandi is always the youngest and smallest in every group as her birthday was right before the cut off date but she is getting better at holding her own.
Later that afternoon it was off to Emma's first game of the season. She is with a developmental league that is a step above the rec teams we are used to. She has two practices a week and two games every Saturday. They are being trained by a group called UK United... a group of guys from England who work here teaching "football." She loves the extra time on the field and enjoys the training she is getting. There has been some frustration because the people who "coach" on Saturdays are not the UK United guys and are not always at practice which makes it hard for them to have a feel for team development but overall she is having a great time. Despite the fact she is the smallest skinniest thing on the field, she is very fiesty and is a great little soccer player, often taking the other team by surprise.
Caught the girls piling on their dad during some downtime... had to get a pic!