REHAB

We sent Valerie to pacifier rehab last week. When we found her like this, we knew she was officially an addict.

You gotta admit, she's got some pretty mad skills in this picture. Giving a total cheesy smile while sucking on 2 pacifiers?? That's impressive.


So really, we finally parted with the pacifiers. They were becoming more of a pain then a help. She would scream and cry for them all the time, and we were getting really sick of it. I think I just didn't want to let go of the baby stage, but it was time to face reality! We told her the pacifier fairy took all of her "nigh-nights" and gave them to little babies who need them. She has actually done surprisingly well. She cries for a few minutes when we first lay her down for her naps and at bedtime, but then she's over it. She seems so much older now though! :(

HALLOWEEN 2010

It was a total bummer that halloween was on Sunday this year! The kids' favorite part is trick or treating, and since we don't live in one of those cool places where trick or treating gets switched to Saturday, the kids were out of luck. But it actually ended up being a great teaching opportunity- we were able to explain to them the importance of sacrificing "fun" things in order to keep the sabbath day holy.
We headed over to grandma and grandpas house instead, and got to dress up for some pictures and play with our cousins.

VENOM (Kyle)


SPIDERMAN (Damon)


SPIDERGIRL (Valerie)


The spider clan


Group shot with all the cousins


I love this picture! Valerie was giving us her tough girl pose. She LOVED her costume. In fact, when I held up a fairy skirt she told me with disgust "I don't want THAT!"


Spiderman taking care of his woman....


Here they are at the trunk or treat!



Darryl was Napolean Dynamite and I was his chick Deb :)

Pumpkin Carving

This is definitely my least favorite halloween tradition. But the kids enjoy it, so we do it! And yes, I make the kids take their shirts off so they don't get dirty--even my daughter.

Damon did NOT like touching the insides of the pumpkin

Valerie doesn't like to cooperate :)

Amy's Farm

My sister-in-law and I took a couple of our kids to a place called Amy's Farm in Ontario. We went with a big group of other moms and kids. Other than it being really hot that day, it was a fun place to take the kids. We got to check out the farm full of herbs, meet a huge grandma cow, groom a miniature horse, feed a pig, pet goats, milk a cow and take a pumpkin home!

Here are the cutest kids in the group...well except that girl on the far right who tried to sneak in on a picture with all the cool kids :)


Valerie waiting to see the grandma cow

There were some really cool-looking white turkeys!

Can you tell that Valerie wants nothing to do with that goat? She refused to touch any of them.

Damon loved them though! Here he is with his homeboy

All the kids got a chance to milk a cow! I didn't think either of mine would do it, but Damon was brave. Valerie on the other hand, no way was she gonna put her precious little hands on that nasty thing!

They had fun grooming the horse

The horse-cow? I had no idea it was sticking its tongue out in the picture! Although I would probably do that too if everyone was taking pictures of me all day.

At the end of the tour there was a little pumpkin patch that the kids got to pick a pumpkin from

We had a fun afternoon!