More Baking

Bob's birthday cupcakes
Barbara's lemon meringue pie

Recap

Babies are smiling a lot now, but I have yet to catch a good one on camera.This is John, and it's the best I've gotten so far. The flash on my phone camera takes the smiles right off their faces.

For those of you who don't get my family letter, my last few weeks have been crazy. Kids getting hurt, things breaking, schedules to keep up with. Crazy. Here's last week in a nutshell:

Monday- Bob discovered his dirt bike had been stolen. Ham and potato soup I made for dinner got dumped into my diaper bag.

Tuesday- Woke up to find the load of laundry I started the night before with the dirty diaper bag was covered in red lipstick spots from a sample size lipstick that missed the removal process before I put it into the washer. Sprayed and scrubbed dirty clothes. Some spots came out, some didn't. Dryer repair man came. Piano lessons, soccer trophy presentation, sign up for girls basketball, and back home to find dryer man there again to finish up.

Wednesday- Smoked, basted, then deboned 2 turkeys for the ward dinner that night. Cleaned up most of the dead pecan branches that fell during the storm. Went to yummy Thanksgiving dinner.

Thursday- Lilly accidentally kicked Brook's finger in the bounce house and it swelled up. Loaded all the kids up at 5:00 to take Bob to scouts, and as we were passing Jay as he pulled in and we pulled out, he sent me a text to say the scout leader had called and cancelled scouts for that day.

Friday- No school for Veteran's Day. Took Brook and the twins (both sets) to a late afternoon doctor's appointment. Pinky finger is sprained, and the babies got immunizations. Jay's mom took the 3 oldest for a sleep over and to help her with some Christmas ornaments. Cindy offered to take the other 5 over night so Jay and I could have a break. We fed the babies then went to dinner where they were very upset because of the shots. They finally fell asleep and we ate while holding them.

Saturday- Made pecan pies before the kids got home. Hung around the house all day until Jay got home, then went to the Temple. Wondered why it was so empty there. Got pizza for the kids on the way home.

Sunday- Emma asked if we still had church at 1:00, which is when I realized it was stake conference that day. Which explains why the Temple was so empty. I was supposed to have been at the adult meeting of stake conference the night before. And there I was, glad that I had finally gotten to the Temple. Played Cashflow with the oldest 4 after church, which took almost 5 hours.

Cupcakes and Pies

Janna made cupcakes for Sparky and James who both had birthdays. A few months ago, she went around the office and asked everybody what their favorite color and cake was, and the date of their birthday. She's made a treat for every one of them ever since. I have to say the German chocolate frosting is amazing.

And Saturday I made pecan pies. I'm doing more pies for Thanksgiving.

Wind/Rain Storm

Lots of broken branches, roof tiles and gutters/drains from the wind storm 2 weeks ago.

Dryer

My dryer is repaired now, thank goodness. Two days without it working was rough. Less than impressed with the dryer repair man who is "one of the top 10 in the country."

Halloween 2011

Halloween was consumptuous this year. We went to:
1. Ward chili cook-off and halloween carnival
2. Trunk-or-treat at another church building
3. Cousin Sam's spooky birthday party
4. Aunt Amy's mom's haunted house

This night Brook was a witch. Another night she was Rapunzel.
Lilly was an angel.
The boys were cute.

This night Suzee was a bee.

James was Robin.

Cami stopped by.

We, meaning the kids, decorated our "trunk" for the first time ever. Jay had Fear Factor: Halloween Edition playing on the TV.

Bob the pirate at the ward party.

Suzee was a lady bug ballerina until she took off the lady bug wings and skirt, and turned into a barefoot ballerina for the rest of the night.

8 Weeks/ 2 Months

This was 8 weeks old up here

And these are at 2 months old

Messy Boy

There was something behind the dresser that James wanted, so he pushed it over. Completely logical.

And he's a hoarder. He has collections of cars, ties, stuffed animals and clothes. I find piles in the most random places.

Abscess

Brook had an abscessed tooth, and the one next to it was starting to get bad too. I took her to the dentist, and they took both front teeth out. She was so tough, and was glad to have that big bump go away.

Western Wear

I got my first pair of Wrangler's and boots EVER! Jay took me shopping after me wearing the same 2 pairs of pants for the last 6 weeks.