Booo!

This Halloween I was convinced that our costumes were going to be SUPER easy.  I bought glow in the dark pajamas for the kids and found a tutorial to paint skeleton bones onto black sweats for Chase and me.  Anything is easier than actually sewing right?  WRONG!!  Oh my heavens!  Chase and my costumes took FORfreakingEVER!!!  First I had to find the black sweats which meant I had to go to my least favorite location in the world.  Walmart.  I'd rather go anywhere but Walmart but after searching other stores and coming up with nothing, I succumbed.  I have many reasons for hating Walmart which I won't get into, but they did have exactly what I needed...dang it!!

Then I headed over to JoAnn's to get fabric paint and an Exacto razor knife to make the stencils for the ribs, fetus skeleton, arms, legs, and pelvic bones.  Then I had to go to HEB to get some freezer paper because in my haste while trying to evacuate Walmart, I forgot they actually carry groceries too.  When I got home I started sketching the skeleton bones by looking at skeletons on the internet.  This took forever.  The baby skeleton took a ridiculous amount of time and cutting it out with the razor blade took even longer.  What had I gotten myself into?!!  

The tutorial from Pinterest (damn you Pinterest!!) said I would only need to iron the freezer paper stencils on the clothes and paint up to 3 coats.  After ironing on the stencils, I started painting. I soon realized after seeing the white paint literally look gray over the black fabric, that I was going to need more paint!!  There was NO way three coats would be enough to make these bones look remotely realistic.  This is when I hate being a perfectionist.  Why can't I be happy with gray bones?  

Back to JoAnn's for more paint and 5 coats later the costumes were finally done!  Did I mention I had to wait 4 hours between each coat?  Geez!!  Why do these blasted blogs lie?!!  Tell me the truth!!  Tell me this costume actually took you weeks to make and that I should only attempt to pin and recreate if I'm pregnant with my first child and have hours and hours of empty time at my disposal.  

I feel like I only have a few years left to do these family theme costumes.  I know one day the children won't be caught dead (no pun intended) wanting to dress like their nerdy parents.  Every year I think it will be my last.  I guess that's why I make these lofty goals and hate myself mid-project for ever taking it on.  I love these sweet pictures we get every year from my favorite photographer Macy.  Knowing that I will get an adorable picture of my childdlers in their costumes keeps me sewing, cutting, and even painting into the wee hours of the morning.  Next year we will be ghosts!! 

George in these pictures is KILLING me!!  Lets just zoom in on that precious little face.

I have to zoom in on this one too.  I can hardly stand it!!

Trunk or treat was fun!!  We didn't win "best family costume" but I did win "Best looking Pie" which is kind of funny because I only made a pumpkin pie to fulfill a pregnancy craving.  The crust had pretty much collapsed into the tin while baking, but it was in a pretty red ceramic dish.  The dish was the pie's saving grace, because it was about the ugliest pie I've ever made.  

Love that the Robisons set up their trunk with a screen and movie for the kids. They do this every year. 

 

These costumes and my food assignments pretty much wore me out.  

The next day was Halloween!  Chase went to work dressed as Colonel Mustard.  I love this man!!  

That night we attempted make-up on the kids.  I hoped George would get really excited about me putting wet paint on his face after watching me paint his siblings.  Luckily he's at a stage where he wants to be just like the big kids so he let us make him into a real skeleton.  Again, I can hardly stand how cute he looks!!

Spooky!!

We had dinner with the Steigers and friends and then headed out for some candy retrieval.

George couldn't believe his good fortune and was VERY excited about every house that put candy in his pumpkin.  Sadie and Jack pretty much disappeared with the other kids the whole night.  Glad we're still cool enough for our little Georgie Porge.

Happy Halloween!!!

Wet Texas

We've had a crazy amount of rain this summer.  This is usually a good thing, but REALLY bad if you don't like mosquitoes.  It's October and I'm still killing the nasty little buggers.  In addition to these annoying creatures, these lovely neighbor kids always seem to come over right before a torrential downpour, and then they "have" to stay until the rain stops.  It's lovely having kids in the neighborhood for Sadie and Jack to play with, but they never close the doors when they enter and exit the house, and you know what that means....more mosquitoes.  If I had a nickel for every time I ask a child to "close the door please"......well, lets just say, I'd probably have a brand new remodeled kitchen by now.

We got these front windows replaces a few weeks ago and love our new view for watching the rain.  

Mosquitoes aren't the only critters coming in to get out of the rain!!

Just me and my George

Now that the older kids are at school all day, I get to spend my time hanging out with this little dude!  He's my buddy and we have so much fun together.  Whether we are rollerblading to the park, getting Buddy Bucks from HEB, taking scooter rides to see construction sites and "excabaders", or just playing with the trains in the play room, George and I have a blast! It's also great because for the first time in a while, I am able to have some "Abby time" when he takes his nap around 1:00.  I haven't had the chance for an afternoon nap in years.  It always seemed that once George went down for a nap, Jack was ready to party.  Now that he's at school, it's my time to party.  My "party" is usually me taking a much needed nap.  This pregnancy isn't that bad, but it still makes me pretty tired.  

Sometimes I can get George to snuggle with me.

This ridiculous face is what he makes when I ask him to show me his teeth. Big toothy grin!!

Sometimes I make him look like a pretty little girl because I'm so excited to have another baby girl soon....AND...because he looks so pretty!!

George loves his daily scooter rides.

He's also loving his little playgroup we set up this fall with all his favorite buddies.  These little guys get along so much better than any other group I've joined.  It's because there aren't any girls and because there are no little girls, there is ZERO drama.  Love it!!

One particular morning, we decided to hit the barber shop.   

Normally I cut the kid's hair, but we have ourselves a feisty one here.  He won't let me near him with a pair of scissors.  Don't know why he'll let a stranger.  

He looks so little in that big Great Clips chair.   

He was pretty good at first and then started getting REALLY mad when the hair started falling in his face.  Good thing the haircut was only about 5 minutes start to finish.  

Love my little dates with George even if they are somewhat unpleasant for him.  

Sometimes, even if I'm longing for a nap of my own, before I put this sleeping baby to sleep, I just stare at him.  Love those long eyelashes, and the sweet sound of his fingers in his mouth.  Sometimes, sleep, no matter how tired I am, can wait!

Getting Bigger!

Since this is my last baby, I've decided to be better at documenting this pregnancy.  We're getting bigger!!  These pictures were actually taken two days apart even though I look WAY bigger in the one below.  

I also have the lovely "shelf" that I conveniently use as my dining table.  Simple joys of pregnancy!

Sister Etherington and Nauvoo

My sweet parents treated Emily and I to a trip to Nauvoo to see Jane.  Chase was sweet enough to take a few days off work and watch the kids for me.  Each sister missionary is allowed one family visit if she is serving in Nauvoo, probably because it's a visitor's center.  I've never been to Nauvoo and have only ever heard how spectacular it is from other members of the church and of course Jane.  I'm not much of a church history buff but I thought it would be exciting to see Jane in her element and learn more about the early saints of the church.   

The flight there was great.  Flying without kids and a small carry on is always a treat!  Just me and fetus number 4.  I actually flew into SLC and stayed the night in my old bedroom before we hit an early flight the next day as a family.  It was a pretty grueling day of travel actually.  We had the three hour flight to St.Louis Missouri and then had to rent a car and drive another three hours to Nauvoo, Illinois.  It was all worth it when we were finally able to see our sweet Jane!!  She was in the visitor's center and of course burst into tears when she opened the door for us.  We all got a little chocked up.   

Jane still had to abide by the missionary rules, so we had to say goodbye for the evening and we were on our own until the next day where we would see Jane at church.  I'm not sure what we were expecting from Nauvoo, but we were at least hoping to find a decent restaurant or two.  No such luck for this pregnant lady.  I couldn't believe how beautiful Nauvoo was, but also how destitute!  There's pretty much one street with shops on it and half of them are closed.  Everything else is either a temple (gorgeous by the way), visitor's center, or other homes of early saints that they have turned into museum tours.  

We had to drive 20 minutes just to find a restaurant that was open.  Food was definitely my main concern on this trip.  I get REALLY sick when I don't eat, but I'm also VERY picky when I'm pregnant so the combination of little choices and crappy food was NOT good.  We ended up going to Walmart (30 minutes in another direction) and buying some food to eat in our "Woodruff" suite.  Our hotel was hilarious.  They checked us in, and then the employees checked out!!  We never saw a single person in our "hotel" the entire three days we were there.  Never mind if we needed more towels, or if something happened to break.  There were ZERO hotel employees.  After a while we started noticing that there were pictures of Brigham Young all over our bedrooms and main sitting area. We thought it a bit odd, seeing Nauvoo was kind of Joseph Smith's gig.  It wasn't until we discovered upon checkout that we were actually staying in the "Brigham" room.  Lucky us!  I think we were driving my mom half crazy with our irreverent remarks.  There's no way Dad was going to keep his mouth shut with  pictures of Brigham Young on every wall.      

Church in Nauvoo is another interesting experience.  First of all, it starts EARLY!!  Em and I giggled in bed until about 1 a.m. every night or until Mom and Dad started pounding on the wall we shared to be quiet.  Sacrament meeting was interesting to say the least.  The whole chapel was filled with senior missionary couples and about 2 dozen younger sister missionary couples.  A missionary sacrament meeting!!  It also happened to be the week of transfers and a lot of seniors were going home.  So the entire meeting ended up being these old people getting up to say goodbye and share their testimonies.  After church Jane had her zone conference where there was yet another testimony meeting for those who didn't get the change to say goodbye during sacrament meeting.  Lots and lots of testimonies.  I was able to  bear mine as well and talked about how much I loved the church mission program.  I spoke of Jane and her decision to go on a mission and how much we have all seen her grow spiritually because of her decision to serve. After zone conference we said goodbye to Jane for a while and went out in search of food, again.     

Best part of the day was that the normally closed restaurant down the street was open for Sunday brunch!!  Hip hip hooray!!  It was like having a thanksgiving feast after our few days of food deprivation.  Keeping the Sabbath day holy wasn't an option.  

That afternoon we drove to Carthage to see the jail where Joseph Smith was shot and died.  Jane gives tours of the jail and was able to give us our tour.  It was great seeing her in her element!

Love my sweet little Jane.  Can't wait for her to come home in December!!

I thought the Cannons would get a kick out of me going to Heber C. Kimball's home.  They're related somehow.  Lets be honest, with polygamy, it's pretty easy to be related to someone famous is Mormon history.  

Our last day we went to the Nauvoo temple.  It was beautiful inside.  At this point, my lack of adequate food and midnight chats with Emily had started taking their toll.  This pregnant lady fell asleep several times during the session and at one point was so deep in sleep that I actually had a short dream.  I was not being "alert and attentive."  It's cool being pregnant in the temple, but also exhausting!! Thankfully I woke up when I needed to:-) 

The next morning we had to say goodbye to Jane and head back to the airport.  Dad wanted to see the famous arch in St. Louis so we headed out pretty early.  After a few hours of eating Fritos and enduring Mom's "creative" driving skills, I was more than pleased when we FINALLY made it to the airport four hours later.  Now I just had to endure a three hour flight to Utah and another three hour flight to Texas.  My flight to Utah just about did me in.  All that sitting in the car and on the plane was KILLING my tailbone.  I ended up finding a row to sleep on because the flight wasn't full, but woke up with chills and my whole backside absolutely throbbing!  I was at breaking point!  

And I broke.  

I got off the flight and walked threw the SLC airport with my sunglasses on, just in case I ran into someone that might notice me.  I was a wreck!  I couldn't stop crying.  Mom, Dad and Emily kept asking me what was wrong, but I seriously didn't know!  There was nothing wrong besides the fact that I was exhausted and bawling my eyes out.  Mom was insistent about me going to their house to sleep instead of getting on another plane to Texas.  I was "not in a state to get on another plane!"  I was however determined to get on that plane.  I knew all I needed was my Chase and my bed!! Mom forced me to eat some Cafe Rio which sadly tasted disgusting to me (even after all the horrible food in Nauvoo!).  I obeyed, ate and then forced them to leave me so I could compose myself.  I eventually made it onto my plane and sat next to a very nice woman who asked me if I was feeling ok (I was still wearing my glasses and pretty congested from all the crying).  I didn't want to start crying again, so I lied and told her I had just had Lasik eye surgery and had to wear the glasses until the sun went down.  

I finally made it to Austin and into the arms of my Chase.  I went to bed the second I went home.  Jane and my parents want me to come back to SLC for Jane's homecoming in December but I've decided after my hysterical airport episode, I won't be traveling again for a very long time, at least not while I'm pregnant.  No mas!  My tailbone can't handle it! 

Nauvoo made an impression on me for sure, especially after reading an article when I got home from a non-mormon magazine that wrote about how great it is to have Mormons living in your community.  The writer summed it up by saying that most communities would be better off with a healthy group of LDS living within the limits because they educate their children, work hard, are involved many aspects, and are very friendly.  Who wouldn't want to have us around?  Coming from Nauvoo, where exactly the opposite sentiment was experienced in the late 1800s I was overwhelmed with the progress our church has made in becoming better known and overall appreciated in our nation. I am so grateful for the sacrifices of the early saints and that I was able to learn more about them in Nauvoo.  I officially place my stamp of approval, but would caution anyone planning a trip there to bring an extra suitcase of food!  

   

Back to School!!

(Soaking up their last days of summer while I count down the days)

I practically shoved the kids through the door this year!! We got back from Utah and had a few weeks of "survival" until they were off to school and it was just Georgie Porge at home.  Serenity!!  Love my children, but breaking up their numerous fights throughout the day got REALLY old.  Don't you worry, It starts back up again at 3:00 when they get home.  

We lucked out this year with some awesome teachers.  I feel like we've lucked out every year.  Kiker is the best school!  Jack got Mrs. Haschke who is very warm but stern (Mary Poppins), and an awesome educator.  Jack comes home singing songs and pointing out high frequency words in the books we read.  He had become an awesome little reader over the summer and is learning so much more every day.  The best part is, he loves school!  It's pretty hard to wake him up in the morning, but once he's up, he's pumped! His buddy Evan is in his class and even though they are together all day at school, they still want to play when they get home.  He's such a happy, well-adjusted little guy. 

Sadie's teacher is another Mary Poppins.  Her name is Sara Trumet and she and Sadie have such a cute little bond.  They write little notes to each other on Sadie's spelling tests each week.  When we went in for Parent/Teacher conference, she suggested we put Sadie in the Gifted and Talented Program which starts taking applications in January.  I was a little apprehensive after hearing the program was just more homework, but have since been convinced Sadie thrives off more of a challenge.  I'm just pleased that Mrs. Trumet sees Sadie the way we see her and that she will be guided at a greater degree for the years to come.  

I did something different this year and took their school pictures the night before.  That way they were all happy and not groggy (or rushed) in the morning.  Love these little nuggets so much!!

Sadie was convinced she needed a bigger backpack this year.  I surprised her with this Garnet Hill pony backpack.  She was beyond thrilled!

Jack's first year at Kiker!  He needed a back pack too.  He of course chose a Spiderman pack.  Still can't believe he's old enough to go to elementary school!!  

Kids got some very special "Father's blessings" from Chase and then they were off to bed with a little help from our friend Melatonin.  

I couldn't help but take a few more pictures the next morning!

No matter how crazy they make me when they're home for the summer, I always get a little emotional the first day of school.   Just look at them!!!!

We dropped Sadie off first, who has always been so brave and excited for new adventures.  She's going to have a great year! 3rd grade!!

It was a little harder to say goodbye to this little man.  He was totally excited to get in there but I totally cried and held onto him a little longer than usual.  I've learned from Sadie that once these kids hit Kindergarten, they're never home all day again. No longer babies, but big kids one day to be TOTALLY embarrassed by a mother's tearful embrace.  

I'll keep kissing and hugging them in public until they won't let me anymore!