Halloween Fun!

For Halloween this year, Kandy is a pioneer, Missy is a flapper, Sunny is Winnie the Pooh, and Buster is Tigger.

There is a lot to write about Halloween festivities! Last Saturday the girls had a Primary party and we had the Kendrick family party. Yesterday we carved the pumpkins that grew in our garden. Today there was a party at the girls' school, and tonight, of course, we will go Trick or Treating. I was going to upload photos, but there are way too many!!! I will add a few, but to see the rest, go to my Picasa Halloween Album.

They are making scary faces and posing with their pumpkins.
The dark-haired girl is our neighbor. She spends a lot of time at our house!

Ready for the Primary Party

Even I got to carve a pumpkin!
(Actually, I did most of the carving, but I got to
pick the face for this one!)

Preschool fashion sense and other photos

Sunny picked out her own clothes a few days ago.

Buster must have fallen asleep while sitting up.Everybody climb on Bamp!

Happiness

I was tagged by Kristin.

6 things that make me happy, in no particular order.

Family. Where would I be without them? I'm grateful for the family I was raised in, and I'm grateful for the beautiful family I now have to raise.

Friends. There no matter what. Where else can I be myself?

My religion and my faith in God and Jesus. I seriously don't think I could have survived this long without my faith to cling to and support me through my trials.

A good book. Ain't nothin' better than cuddling up with a good read to escape the world!

Beauty in nature. I'm very guilty of rushing through life without stopping to smell the roses, but it does bring me peace and joy when I do take the time. I especially love roses, sunsets, and fall colors. I will also never forget an evening in France watching the waves break on the beach below a rocky outcropping.

Giving and serving with a willing heart. I have to specify the end, because far too often I give and serve my kids and others just as much as I absolutely have to. I know, though, that when I clean, for example, with the higher purpose of serving and blessing my family instead of "because I have to" and "it's a dump if I don't," I'm happier and I feel blessed for it.

I tag: Cripple Chicken, Tami, Jenny, Rob, Julia, Chris

Quotable Quotes VI

I was using a scraper to get all the brownie batter out of the bowl. Sunny, in her most cheerful voice, said, "I would be happy to help you clean that..."

She paused, and I looked up as she finished her sentence: "...by licking."

---

Missy: "Whoa, 2 band-aids and 3 owies. I've had a busy day!"

Buster and Minou

Buster loves our cat, Minou. Every time he sees Minou, he tries to get to him. He has just started really crawling, and Minou is adjusting.


Minou is great with him, though. Even when Buster gets a good grip and pulls his fur, he doesn't bite or scratch--he just gets away!

I took several more little videos with my camera. This last one shows him crawling toward me until he saw the cat again.




See? Look up in the upper right hand corner of the last frame, and there is the cat.

Buster is 7 months old!

Success and Expectations

So much of success depends on our expectations. I have been thinking this today because I just back from a successful day at the gym. Before I got pregnant with Buster, I signed up with a gym and trainer to get my body in better shape for pregnancy. I would spend about an hour and half at the gym doing cardio and weights.

Today was our first big day out to the gym now that Buster is old enough for the on-site care. Sunny was so excited! I was nervous, but rather than plan on a full workout, I decided that if I could just do 30 minutes of cardio, it would be worth it. I had been on the bike for a little over 20 minutes, I think, when they paged me. Buster had just lost it and was very sad and tired. I picked him up and cuddled him, doing a few stretches so I wouldn't seize up in the car on the way home. Sunny was pretty upset that we had to leave, but we did anyway.

If I had hoped to spend an hour or more, I would have been very disappointed. However, because I adjusted my expectations to something a little more realistic, I think it was a great success--especially for a first time. I hope I can lengthen things out a little (I'd like to stretch before I pick them up, at least), but I'm happy about today.

The other place I have noticed this is birthdays. When I was a kid, my birthday was so special! You get to bring treats and posters to school, and Mom made my favorite meal and a birthday cake. By high school, I hated my birthdays because school was just normal, and I might get special dinner. Cake was still on the menu, of course. I finally realized, though, that my birthdays were rotten because I was expecting them to be special, not just a normal day. Once I adjusted my expectations of my birthday, I started to enjoy them again.

The casualty of developmental milestones

Buster is learning to move! Last night we put him in his bed "drowsy but awake" and went downstairs. He started crying. When we checked on him, we discovered that he has achieved another milestone--pulling to standing! The upshot? He just can't stay still long enough to go to sleep. He also seems to be more restless. At any rate, I have not had as much time today as I would like because he has had short naps. And when he is asleep, I'm scared to make too much noise and wake him up. In some ways, I can't wait for him to get good at crawling and standing and sitting back down just so I can have more sleep and accomplish a little more during naptime.