I knew I was a little late getting in this blog entry, but I had no idea that it's been almost a month!! We have been busy with Halloween activities and playing outside enjoying the great weather. On Oct. 25th Faith and her friend, Maura, even set up a Kool-aid stand. They made just over a dollar each and even a non-family member (a construction worker working on the house next door) bought two cups! But I wonder who their best customer was . . . . . .
It was Christian and his five cups!! Of course the girls only gave him half an inch of Kool-aid in the cup for his quarter, but he enjoyed it to the fullest!

On Oct. 26th, Faith was lucky enough to get to go to the Hannah Montana consert, escorted by her dad. She screamed, danced and had a great time. And it only took about three days for Tony's hearing to return. That same night Christian and I went to mom & dad's ward trunk-or-treat. They have about fifteen people sign up to bring homemade soups for the dinner, making it one of my favorite fall events.
Christain was, of course, glued to my dad for the evening.

Awesome people stepped up and dressed for the occasion (I think coming as my regular self should have counted, being as that is scarier than any costume I could think of. But, alas, it was pointed out to me that I'm a party-pooper) Here are my sister Joy (and her unborn daughter, Lilly) as a basketball, her husband Jordan as a basketball player from a monster team, and her daughter Sierra as a cheerleader. I must point out that Joy MADE that adorable costume. You can't see the front very well in this picture, but the school name is "Peek-a-BOO Day Scare."

Here is my sister Sarah and her husband Brad in their seventies costumes, complete with afros. Great job! I was showing Tony's sister this picture and she couldn't even guess who they were!!

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Later that evening Christian & I joined Tammy & Zach in visiting the Dinosaur Park. I love to go there at Halloween when they have bloody limbs hanging out of the dinos' mouths, jack-o-lanterns, spider webs everywhere and a fog machine that is out of this world. Christian LOVED it and was making dinosaur noises back at them.

We had lots fun at our ward's Halloween carnival the next night, and Faith found a new way of keeping track of her brother. We ate spaghetti & meat balls and then went to the classrooms with the games. Faith did: eat the donut haning on a string, pin the bone on the skeleton, cake walk, fishing pond (Christian did this one, too!), decorating a pumpkin sugar cookie, musical tombstones, and a spook alley.

Monday the 29th, we met up with Joy's family at the Black Island Farms Corn Maze in Syracuse. We first watched the magic show, then did lots of slides, the baby corn maze (even the small one just about jiggled Christian's brains out riding in the stroller over that rough ground), played in the sandbox of dried corn, sat around the bonfire, teeter-tottered, Faith rode in a little farm train-like thing pulled by a tractor, and saw the farm animals. The picture is of Faith taking her brother up to one of the slides. We had a great time!

On the 30th I carved pumpkins with the kids. Christian loved pulling the "guts" out and even taste-tested some, I think.

Then we went to Lagoon for the last time this year :(

On Halloween night we first went trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood, then went over to Tony's parents' for homemade chili. After that Tony took the kids around their neighborhood with his mom, Tammy & Zach. The kids sure loaded up on the candy! Christian thought having people hand you candy that you can put in your bucket was the coolest thing, ever. He had a vise grip on the handle of that thing!!

Here is Faith with her aunt Tammy. (Another person cool enough to dress up! I tell you, I'm going to put in some effort and come up with a costume next year in an attempt to cool myself up.) We had a great Halloween night!

Faith's 6th birthday was Nov. 1st, but we celebrated with the family the Sunday afterward. We had some great cake and Faith got tons of nice gifts. Unfortunately, one of the main things she asked for and received were the AquaDots. Just a few days later the recall came out because the glue on them turns into GHB (the date rape drug) if ingested. But my mom got them exchanged for a Sleeping Beauty Barbie with magical color changing dress, and all is well.




I caught her in the other room practicing to be a singing star with her new "High School Musical" microphone.

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Funny side note, Faith has decided that her stage name when she becomes a famous singer will be "Princess Rocking Girl." Look for her new album out in stores in 7-10 years. :D

As I said at the beginning we have been enjoying the weather. One thing we love is riding bikes. Christian's favorite is playing in the dirt and Faith loves going over to her friends' and playing on the trampoline or the giant fancy swing set. I'm going to be sad when the weather turns cold and snowy!

Here is Faith in one of her favorite outfits she received for her birthday.

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Last week I took Faith in for her yearly check-up and she got a flu shot. She was terrified of getting the shot and afterward said it made her leg hurt. In the car on the way home she asked "Mom, how do people get wheelchairs?" HA, HA Faith, the drama queen.

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Mostly I spent last week reading the three books in the "Twilight" series: "Twilight", "New Moon", and "Eclipse". Girls, you have to check these out!!! (And I don't mean at the library, there are over 300 holds on each!!!!!)

Here's what we have been doing the last two weeks:

Tammy took us to Arctic Circle for dinner and playland amusement. Faith had come across a dollar store kitty costume (ears, bowtie & tail) in our Halloween stuff and decided she wanted to dress up for the occasion. She was a great helper with her brother taking him on the slide again and again. It was lots of fun!

It was Faith's turn to take home the reading bag which contained the puppet dog "Danny" and a notebook. The kids are supposed to do lots of things with Danny and then (with a parent's help) write a story about what they did. We took a lot of pictures of Faith & Danny's weekend adventure. Christian was enthralled with Danny, too.

One day, Christian came across my stash of extra binkies and decided that one is just never enough!

Faith got her turn at being VIP at kindergarten for a week. We got to make her this poster with her family, her favorite toys & games, pictures of when she was younger, her favorite things to watch and her favorite things to do.

Last Friday I had a party with my friends from my old neighborhood. It was awsome to see all of them!!

We ate soup in bread bowls and pumpkin log roll, showed pictures of ourselves when we were younger, told our favorite fall memories and chatted until late. Since my house was nice and clean, I took the time just before they arrived to take some pictures of my house.

Here is the kitchen (with an extra table set up).

Here is part of the family room and looking up at the "loft" hallway to the play room.

Here is my nearly empty formal living room complete with blue tape, ready for painting (who knows when I will ever get to it).

Here is our bedroom.

Here is Faith's room (just a little girly, huh?)

This past weekend we went to Lagoon. Christian loved borrowing his daddy's sunglasses while waiting to trick-or-treat at the "Spook-a-Boo" attraction they have there during Frightmares.

Tony and the kids tried out some costumes there. And the kids had tons of fun on the rides. Christian even got to ride the cars, baby boats, train and the Kontiki!

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Also this weekend we went to Gardener's village. Unfortunaely, my camera battery was dead so I'll report on that next time when I get the pictures from Tammy.

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The other exciting thing that happened is that Faith started dance lessons. She loves it and is trying to talk us into putting her in tumbling classes starting next month.

Not a lot going on around here the last couple of weeks. I thought I would change things up here on the blog and get a new template. Hopefully then more of you can see the layout as I do on my screen. Apparently only certain screens show the stretched layout the way I want it to look. I also updated the pic of our house to a newer one with GRASS!





Here is Faith just out of the tub helping out her little bro.






Last Tuesday, September 25th I was trying to get a few things done and I found that a certain little stinker pot had thrown most of the items out of the cabinet under the master bath sink and climbed right in! I got him out of there, got the stuff replaced and went back to my laundry folding.









And what do you know? That same someone had found a new "car" to play in! These pictures weren't staged and were taken within five minutes of each other!


















Here are Faith and Christian engrossed in some very interesting T.V. Buddy is holding a rice ball - Tony's favorite autumn snack made with puffed rice and jello.








Here are the kids on Friday at the dollar store trying on cowboy hats. Earlier that day my mom took us to eat at the Greek Festival in South Ogden. Yummy!! Christian ate almost an entire tyropitakia (triangular cheese pie made with phyllo and feta cheese)




And on Saturday when Faith and I were at WalMart she saw this little dog dress and knew that Crumpet just had to have it! We later went to PetsMart and got a new collar and leash so she could be completely decked out.










On Sunday we stopped by Eric's house to see his new bedroom set. It is very fancy with black marble dresser top and marble columns on the bed and dresser front.



















We're so excited for fall to be here and are looking forward to lots of upcoming Halloween activities!

Just a few highlights this past week. Here's Faith sporting braids with her horse shirt looking so cute for school. She loves kindergarten and is having fun. She did say to me the other day, "Mom, I know all the stuff there. Is she ever going to teach me something new?" She's a smartypants!

And Christian doing one of his favorite activities--popsicle scarfing!

It's been pointed out to me that there are tons of pictures of the kids on this blog and even some of Tony, but none of me. Faith expertly took this picture to remedy that.

Here's Buddy enjoying a patch of sunlight with his doggy and kitty.

The kids enjoying some bike riding on a beautiful day.

Christian LOVES to get into the pantry, fridge or freezer and get everything out. He's figured out how to open cupboard doors, too. Time for some major childproofing!

On Tuesday the 18th Christian took his first step!!! It was to me and he wasn't happy about it at all, I kind of tricked him into it, but it was a step! Here is a picture of Faith trying to get him to do one for her.

Yesterday Faith had to have two teeth pulled to make room for her front bottom permanent teeth to come forward. She was so brave!

Faith made me some beautiful drapes for the family room. They have a jungle animal theme with a maccaw, aligator, tiger, anaconda (snake), giraffe, lion, elephant & monkey on each with fringe at the bottom. I bet you wish you had paper drapes made by such an artist!!

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Here is Faith last night doing the dance to the music video "Nobody's Perfect" by Hannah Montana. She does such a cute job!

Sorry this entry is over a week late, we have been busy around here!



August 28, 29 & 30 Tony took off work to finish the sprinkler system and finish grade the yard. He worked very hard on it, but still had to have Tyler and his friend rake most of the day on the 31st.



On Thursday, August 30th, I packed my things, well I tried to pack around the baby in my suitcase! Christian and I headed off to Park City to stay the night and Faith got to sleep over with Jordan & Sierra.



Friday morning we drove into Midway early for Swiss Days, which is a giant outdoor craft fair. It would have been more fun if Christian had gotten more sleep and didn't scream for the first few hours of it. Still, I got a few things and had fun with my mom, Joy, Sarah and her kids Alaura & Noah.



On Saturday, September 1st we layed the sod for our front and side yards! We had lots of help: dad, mom, Eric, Brad, Jordan and even pregnant little Joy. Oh, and I have to mention that Faith was also a cute little helper, dragging the heavy rolls of sod and tucking the edges like a pro.

It was hard work, but only took about three hours!

Since we were busy with the lawn on the 1st, we had Christian's birthday party on Monday. We had a barbeque with chicken breasts on the grill and lots of salads brought by the family.


Christian got tons of cute toys, books and clothes and thoroughly covered himself with chocolate cake!

Tuesday the 4th Christian had to go to the doctor for his one year checkup and shots. Here he is enjoying the fish tank in the lobby.

Thursday was an exciting day, Faith's first day of Kindergarten! She absolutely loves school and also riding the bus. I can't believe how grown up she is!

Saturday evening Faith went bowling with her aunt Tammy and her cousin Zach. She slept over at Grandma & Grandpa Braegger's and had lots of fun. Tony, Christian & I went out to eat at Lucky Buffet. They have two cement Chinese statues that resemble lions at the front door and when we walked past them Christian pointed and said "Dog!" and then panted like a dog. He's hilarious, he won't say "dada" and says "mom" all the time, like it means almost everything, but he can say "dog," pant like a dog, and meow like a cat.

I've been busy a couple of days last week and every day this week babysitting for a lady in my ward. She has two boys, 8 & 5, and I watch them from 6:10 am (youch, way early for me!) until they leave for school at 8:25 and then the younger one after kindergarten until 4:00. They are cute kids and Christian loves having a playmate while Faith's gone to afternoon Kindergarten.

Hopefully it won't be more than two weeks until my next update!