Happy Halloween!

Well, the kids pretty much came up with their own makeshift costumes (except Janika who bought hers).  Jase doesn't really get in to costumes much.  A couple of weeks ago he accepted a paper route and so he opted to wear his "paper route" apron thingy and go as a "paper boy."  Jared just taped pieces of candy wrappers and popcorn all over his clothes and went as a "movie theatre floor."  Janika was "Dorothy" from "The Wizard of Oz."  She has wanted that costume for a few years and finally got around to getting one.  Janelle was supposed to be "Cindy Lou Who" from "The Grinch."  Janika and I had done her hair in the really cool authentic way like the one in the movie (using a cup on her head and covering it with hair so that it stuck clear up), but Janelle threw a fit and bawled and so we just stuck some braids in instead.  She just wore her PJ's.  Jaiden was a kitty cat, Josh was a pirate, and Jenna was a little bunny (and a little devil at the party Wednesday night).

I took the kids trick-or-treating and Rick stayed home to pass out candy.  Janika wanted to go with friends but her dad said she needed to stay with the family -- poor Janika!   But she got plenty of friend time this week -- a Halloween party last night, a Halloween dance the night before that, and several friend get-togethers.   Rick needn't have worried about staying home to pass out candy since we only had about five people show up.  I think he just used that as an excuse to get a couple of hours with no children.   Our street isn't a popular one for trick-or-treating -- and neither is our house since it is out of the way with an empty lot on both sides.  In fact I wish next year I think we will just skip our street too since at about every other house either no one was home or they just didn't answer their door.  After doing our street and the one next to it we joined the crowds in the "big neighborhood" in our ward where they have all of the cool creepy decorations and good candy.  The weather was perfect and I figured that I could swipe a few of the Recess Peanut Butter Cups as long as we got a few miles of walking in!

School Parties and Janika's play

 

This is the first year that I have missed the kids' school parade.  I felt really bad about that but it was the exact same time as Janika's school Halloween play.  Rick couldn't go to either since he was teaching.  He thought I should go to the parade since I had three kids there and only one in the play.  But I figured that a play was more important than kids walking around the track in their costumes.  After all, Jared could care less and Jaiden just wanted to see the videotaped version of Janika's play.  Janelle was the only one that broke out in tears when I said I wouldn't be able to make it.  When I picked up Jaiden from school, I asked her, "how was the parade?"  She said, "What parade?  All we did was walk around the track -- boorrrriiiinngg!"   she had a great time at her party though and loved decorating her "Haunted House."

Janika did a good job on her show.  It had some funny moments, some REALLY corny moments, some moments with awful acting, and some moments with actually pretty darn good acting.  And since there were a couple of parts that made me laugh out loud, I figure it was a success.  (Hopefully those parts were supposed to be funny moments!)  Janika insisted that I videotape THE ENTIRE 50 minute show -- even though I couldn't see any of the "Thriller Dance" through the video camera because it was too dark.  But our kids were all excited to watch her play on video later on while she gave a blow by blow account of what was going on backstage.  Like the guy who missed his cue and said, "Oh, I missed it, I guess I will go change for my next scene."  Meanwhile everyone was on stage repeating his cue line three or four times until another student finally jumped on the stage to do the slacker's lines.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of her play because I was too busy video-taping the whole thing!  

Good job Jani!

Halloween Party

Painting and Carving Pumpkins

 

As you can tell, our family simply exudes artistic talent...this one is exuding it right out of it's mouth!

My "special son"

Jared looks totally possessed in this picture...

Janelle's Birthday Party

Janika turned seven last week and her birthday party was today.  Everyone had a lot of fun and Janelle was excited about all of her cool presents.  A big "thank you" goes to Janika and her friend, Maddie, for all of their work making a dozen batches of flubber!  (Several of the kids were late and are therefore missing from the group shot taken at the beginning of the party.)  We had a short dance party, started a game of "Don't Eat Pete" which we were going to go back to but never did, made flubber for each of the kids and let them play with it (they especially loved  blowing humongous bubbles in it with a straw), ate cake and ice-cream, and opened presents.   The kids went home with a bag of flubber and a goodie bag with popcorn and candy treats.  We were going to do "Witches Brew" with rootbeer and dry ice but I purchased the dry ice last night and put it in the upstairs freezer.  Apparently you can't do that because when we went to pull it out today, it had all evaporated except for one tiny piece. Woops!  I'll have to remember to be more careful next year!    

Spirit Week

The girls have been enjoying spirit week at their elementary school this week....Western day, Crazy Hair Day...they are especially excited to wear their clothes inside out tomorrow!

Smart Kids!!

Jase came home with his first report card from Intermediate School.  He got a 4.0.  Way to go Jase! Janika also had a 4.0 the whole time she was in Intermediate school.  I always got good grades in school too but obviously Rick didn't because he took one look at the report card and said, "I have never gotten a 4.0 in my life."  Jase said, "Well, obviously I didn't get my brains from you!!"   Poor Rick -- Jase always gives him a bad time about his days of poor grades and test scores.  I guess Jase forgets that Rick did graduate with honors with his Master's Degree.

Jase recently got his Performance Assessment tests from last year and he got the highest student proficiency level (4) in all three subjects -- Math, Science, and Language Arts.  In Math he got 194 out of 200.  Of course he was a little disgruntled that he missed six whole Math problems.  Poor kid.

As an unrelated side note, Jase's brain must need lots of nourishment.  Today he cooked himself a big pan of chicken noodle soup.  Janelle looked in the pan and said, "I want some, but there is none left!"  Jase said, "I ate it all.  It was only three cans!"

No wonder we are so broke!!  Hopefully his brain can pull in a little cash someday...

Fire Burning on the Dance Floor

Having a teenage daughter exposes our younger children to music and ideas they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to.   We were having family home evening and it was Jaiden's turn to choose the song.  Rick asked Jaiden, "What song would you like to sing?"  She blurted out, "I know...(then she started belting....)  Somebody call 911, shawty fire burnin' on the dance floor -- whoa!!!" 

Everyone joined in between chuckles. It reminded me of when Janika was around six or so and I brought her over to play with one of her friends, Hailey, who was the youngest of six girls.  Her mom told me later that the girls had wanted to listen to some music and sing.  Hailey asked Janika what songs she knew and she said, "How about, 'I am a child of God?'"  Hailey, on the other hand, started belting out songs from Brittney Spears.

So there you go.  Now Janika is the one keeping her little sisters "in the know" when it comes to current pop music.  But of course "I am a child of God" will always be a family favorite!!  

Borrowed Post: Janika

I asked Janika if I could "borrow" her post about her new calling.  I had to copy and paste some from her previous post too since it demonstrates what our house is really like! 

Janika's Posts....

My house has been really loud and annoying as usual. That will probably never change.  We are all almost fully recovered from being sick. Everyone is back to the normal volume except for Josh, who pretty much lost his voice, and its not coming back anytime soon, since he keeps trying to scream and yell. I am totally okay with his voice staying quiet!

New Callings

Most of you know that my dad is the Branch President of the Deaf Branch.  When we first got there about a year ago, I was called to be the Beehive's President, even though I was pretty much the only Beehive! We combine with another ward for the other meetings such as Sunday School and Young Womens. I was recently called to be the Beehive President of that ward too! I am really excited to get to know the other Beehives! This is going to be a really fun calling! I feel pretty special to be able to be the president of both wards! =D

Flu

Well last week everyone in our family got the flu.  Janelle had gotten this mask from the doctor and insisted on wearing it.  It told her there was no use wearing it -- all of us already had what she had and so it wouldn't make any difference anyway. But apparently she thought it was pretty cool.  I took it off her after she fell asleep on the couch with it on.   


Rick started it all.  He got sick Thursday night (the 8th) and tried going to work the next day but ended up coming home.  He missed our Deaf Branch Fall Dinner that night and the kids and I went without him.  Saturday Jase went on a Scout activity at a nearby lake.  He learned boating safety and skills including how to drive a boat and had a great time.  Later on that evening he started to get sick with whatever Rick had and by Sunday half of the family was sick.  I went to church with three of the kids and Rick and the rest of the kids stayed home.

Janika, Jase, Janelle, and Jaiden missed school Monday and Tuesday.  I also woke up feeling sick on Monday.   It was difficult because Rick went back to work that day and now I was sick but still had to take care of all of our sick kids.  But at least I didn't have to get anyone ready for school and or do much.  Jared got himself off to school and I slept during both of Jenna's naps. I was feeling so miserable by Monday night that I asked if Rick could stay home on Tuesday and take care of the kids.  He said he could make arrangements to stay the morning during his prep hours.  He and Jared went to the library for movies and to the store for medicine, juice, and one of those digital thermometers that you swipe across the forehead.  He fixed dinner, put mentholatum and socks on everyone's necks, and went around taking everyone's temperature.

Everyone had the traditional flu symptoms -- fever, body aches, chills, dizziness...  Janika's was a little different since she had laryngitis and congestion along with a low grade fever.  Most of the kids' illnesses turned into congestion and cough a few days later.  Rick took care of the kids during the night, keeping a close watch on Josh since his fever had gone clear up to 106 degrees.  Tuesday morning he made a big pot of home-made soup and took care of the kids and clean up.  I was very grateful!  He was going to take my class that night but then I decided I felt well enough I could manage it.  We were only doing the midterm anyway.     

Wednesday Jared felt sick and stayed home and everyone else went back to school.  But I guess it was a little pre-mature for Jaiden and Janelle since they ended up with a bad cough later that night and were back home on Thursday.  Jared never did get it very bad and seemed fine later in the day.  Wednesday was also Janelle's 7th birthday.  She wanted to go to school in her new school clothes with her Mystery Box (she brought this miniature real shark that we have in a bottle) and wanted to get her birthday prize and sticker.  Rick and I had a commitment Wednesday night and so Janika had to take care of the sickies.  I told Janelle we would postpone her friend party until next week when everyone was better.

Janika and I had tickets to go see "Aida" at Tuacahn Thursday night and although we were both still a little under the weather, we felt well enough to go and enjoyed it.  Friday the kids were out of school for Fall Break. The day was spent pruning (for the boys) and cleaning (although we didn't get very far).  I managed to sneak out and get my hair done.  I had allergy symptoms for the past couple of days (constant sneezing and post-nasal drip).  All of the kids tease me about my sneezes because they are so loud -- grandpa sneezes!  I haven't learned the art of the cute little feminine sneeze yet and probably never will.  But Saturday I felt great  100 percent better!  I didn't sneeze once!  Everyone is pretty much better now.  Josh still has a touch of laryngitis and he sounds so funny and cute.  The little kids are still coughing bad at night but other than that everyone is doing a-okay.   Whew!

Right now there is so much hype in the media about the H1N1.  When I brought Jenna in for her 12 month appointment a week before we all got sick, our Pediatrician said that 99 percent of the people who had come in with flu symptoms had H1N1.   So most likely that is what we all had. But whether we did or not, it is all just the flu -- I don't know why everyone is making such a huge fuss differentiating it from the "regular" seasonal flu.   I guess there are those few who have scary complications but that is a possibility with any sickness.  Hopefully now that we have all gotten it we will be immune for the rest of the year (at least from this strain -- right?)  The upside to all of the kids being sick -- look how much they sleep -- WOW!

Jenna Likes Ice-Cream!!

I brought Jenna in to the doctor for her 12 month well-check.  She has definitely thinned out.  She is 18 lbs 4 ozs and 28 1/2 inches long -- 9th percentile for weight and 26 percentile for length.  I guess we just weren't meant to have roly poly babies! 

Happy Birthday Jenna!!

It was one year ago today that we brought little Jennalee home from the hospital!!  I remember it well.  It was raining on and off and we had to sit in traffic because the roads were still partially closed due to the Marathon.  We finally made it home in between conference sessions and got to show her off to my mom and dad who were staying with us for a few days. Now it is a year later and Jenna has gotten so big!  She has brought so much joy to our family!

Today was a gorgeous sunny day for the marathoners and for conference weekend. This morning I slept in and then went running.  We enjoyed the morning session of conference.  Jen (my sister) and Grayson and their five boys were in town on their way to Disneyland and so they came over for a few hours this afternoon.  Since we live several hours from family, we are always grateful when family is around to come visit.   Rick had started emptying out the pool today and so the kids threw on their swimming suits and splashed around as it drained.

We visited and ate lunch and waited for Jenna to finish her nap so that we could celebrate her birthday with cake and ice-cream (and presents).  I had purchased some cute little outfits for her and the other kids went around gathering toys this morning to give to her. It was pretty funny.  They went and found little gift bags and Josh filled his up with all sorts of interesting things to give to his baby sister -- half of a plastic Easter Egg, some keys (not sure what they go to), a pair of baby sandles he happened to find in his room, a Hawaiian lei, and some other random toys -- all treasures indeed.  Jaiden and Janelle had actually found some little baby toys in their toy box that they lovingly put in their gift bags and gave to Jenna.  Rick said, "we should do this for every birthday!"

We are so grateful for Jennalee.  She is our last baby and growing so fast.  I find myself just soaking it all in -- holding her, nursing her, snuggling with her, and playing with her.  All of the kids absolutely adore her.  They all want to be the one to sit by Jenna at the snack bar or in the car.  Jenna crawls all over the place.  She can go up and down the stairs with ease.  I was glad that she learned how to crawl down the stairs backwards rather quickly so that I didn't have to worry about her toppling down head first.  She cruises around furniture standing up and has learned how to climb up on things.  A couple of months ago she climbed up on a little plastic chair which was right by a kitchen chair which was right by the table.  We were so surprised to turn around and find her on the table!

Jenna likes to wave bye bye and hello.  She sometimes does the sign for "more."  She babbles a lot.  Her first tooth is finally erupting through her bottom gums.  She loves to play "peek-a-boo" and "chase."  She is a happy, mellow baby.  She loves to be around all of the other kids.  If all of the kids are playing in the basement then she wants to be there too.  Jennalee is such a fun baby.  We love her very much!

Happy Birthday, Jenna!