TressaBlog

The kids were all out of school for Halloween, so we carved pumpkins in the afternoon. I took the tops off and then let the kids do their thing. I was very hands off this year. Although, I did help Tayla and Kade carve the actual faces out of their pumpkins. But, they did their own designs, and cleaned out their own pumpkins.

Then, since Daylight Savings didn’t change until after Halloween it wasn’t pitch black outside at 5:30. Yay! Still, as it was we took pictures a little too late, so they are pretty grainy. Oh well, you get the idea. Here is Brinn as Professor Sprout with the gray hair and all.

Here is Tayla as Dolores Umbridge aka The Freaky Pink Lady. Do you just love Tayla’s expression? She was going for evil. LOL And, of course we had to include Smoky in the pictures since Dolores Umbridge absolutely loves cats.

I think the favorite costume of everyones was Kade’s though. I did an exact replica of Eric’s costume from last year. I even used the same patterns (thank goodness for costume patterns that they make in both adult and child sizes!). The material is a tiny bit different, but that is all. They even have the same wig in adult and child sizes. Too fun! By the time Eric got home from work it was pretty darn dark, so I had to use the flash. Aren’t they the cutest Professor Snapes that you have ever seen? Oh, and take note of Kade’s candy bucket. It is a cauldron, because Snape is the potions master.

Today was my doctor’s appointment. My doctor offers a “sneak peak” to determine the gender a month before they do the official ultrasound. Well, that was today. Here is a cute picture of our little munchkin.

Of course right after my appointment I had to go to the fabric store to get some material to make a little blanket. So, what colors did I use??

Hmmmmmm

Was it blue?

Was it pink??

So, when I heard that Letia was having a girl, I knew I wanted to make a blanket or a quilt. I ended up making a quilt. I finished it today, and I am in love. It is so cute! I want a girl so I can make one for me. Of course if I have a boy, I can still make a cute one, but isn’t the girly version to die for?

There are strips of material running across the quilt with their raw edges showing. So, when I washed it they got all frayed and shabby. So fun! And the big and not so big rick-rack - yummy! The back is the fun green with white polka dots. And I love the pink candy cane stripe for the binding. I used two textured materials for two of the stripes. One is the nubby fleece like Granty’s favorite blanket but in white and the other is second from the bottom in pink. It is a stripey feeling chenille kind of material. Ah, heaven in a blanket!

Not that you can see it in the picture (it is actually MUCH cuter in person, yah I know you don’t believe me) but I did a free quilting motion and put a running chain of 5 petal flowers down the two biggest stripes of background fabric. So cute! And, I did a pretty good job of it (for being the first time I have done it!) if I do say so myself.

Ok, so how badly do you want the quilt Letia? Bad enough to come for Thanksgiving??? LOL!!

Monday evening Gavin called up to me to say that the freezer didn’t seem to be working. I hurried down and found my food almost all defrosted. Ugh! I threw away what I couldn’t salvage and put the rest into the chest freezer in the basement. We packed ice (from the grocery store) into the fridge to try to keep the food at a somewhat decent temp. To add insult to injury our vacuum cleaner died the exact same time! I swear we had just used it a few days before and it was just fine. This time, the motor was throwing sparks. Eric took it apart to see if he could fix it. Nope! It was just dead. So, Tuesday morning he worked from home for a few hours until the stores opened. Then we went and bought a new fridge and a new vacuum cleaner. Ugh! We decided to save $65 in delivery fees (which may or may not have gotten our fridge to us that day) and get the fridge ourselves with our suburban. It just barely fit with all of the seats taken out and laid down. Then when we got home we had to get it out and into the house by ourselves without any dolly or anything. We had to take the doors off of the fridge to fit through the front door, but it finally got in. Then we had to let it sit upright for a few hours before we could plug it in. So, I took Eric to the train and then I went to Ikea to get a dresser for Kade.

Why a new dresser? Well, he was using a plastic piece of crap. And, since we are moving kids around, we figured it was time. After brainstorming lots of options we finally decided on one. We moved Gavin upstairs into Kade’s room. Moved Brinn over to Tayla’s room. Brinn’s old room will be the nursery and Gavin’s old room in the basement is now the playroom with all of the toys in addition to the guest room.

I just hope things are done breaking for the time being. Ugh! On the bright side I like the new fridge a lot better. It actually matches the rest of the kitchen (white) instead of the black beast that had been dominating the kitchen. The kitchen actually seems a lot bigger with the white one in there. Tonight we are going to move the old fridge out into the garage. A friend told us that we might be able to fix it, so we figure we will try (it might be a cheap fix). If it fixes then we will just have an extra fridge in the garage which will be really nice. Especially with the large crowd coming for Thanksgiving.

On October 12th we woke up to snow. The kids had to go and dig out all of the snow clothes and go and play. There wasn’t a ton, and it didn’t last too long, but the kids had fun while it lasted.

My snow angel.

The snowball maker.

The beginnings of a snowman.

So, I was at the quilt store getting material to make a quilt when Mindy called to say that they had decided to stay in Oakley. Yay!!! That means they will most likely be here at our house for Thanksgiving. And, they are close enough we can get together for a weekend every once in awhile.

Grandpa and Grandma Loveland will be here for Thanksgiving dinner. We’ve invited DeeAnn and crew as well. Becca will be here, and possibly Brandon. Mindy and BJ and kids will be here. Soooo, now we need Letia and Dan.

Favorite color: orange

Favorite food: chicken

Favorite dessert: doughnuts

Favorite thing to do at school: centers

Favorite movie: Curious George (prompted by Brinn)

What animal would you be if you had to pick: lion

Favorite book: any book about dinosaurs

Best friend: Dallin

Favorite holiday: Halloween

What do you think will be the most fun about being a big brother? “Big? No! Little!”

But, what if you were a big brother? “To do service”

Again, I am using a picture from the workshop a few months ago.

Favorite food: macaroni and cheese (good thing Gavin makes it for her a lot!)

Favorite dessert: doughnuts (hmm, do you suppose that is because there were some doughnuts sitting on the counter for dessert for FHE?)

Favorite color: light blue

Favorite holiday: Halloween

If you had to choose an animal to be what would it be: shark

Favorite subject in school: math

What do you like about being a big sister: “I like to help Kade when he is hurt. I like to make him laugh.”

Favorite friend: Brynnlee

Favorite movie: The Last Mimzy

Favorite book: Jack and Annie series of books

I’m using some pictures from the Picture Life Workshop photo shoot a few months ago.

Favorite color: dark purple, black, red, white (do you think she has Halloween on the brain?)

Favorite food: seafood, any kind

Favorite book: Fablehaven

Favorite dessert: bubblegum ice cream

Favorite holiday: Halloween

What do you like most about being the big sister: “I get to babysit sometimes when Gavin is at scouts.”

Favorite subject in school: music and art

What animal would you be in you had to pick one? wolf

Favorite movie: Spiderwick Chronicles or Lord of the Rings

What do you want to be when you grow up? Teacher

We will start with the oldest child’s interview. We had a fun evening interviewing all of the kids.

Favorite color: Forest Green

Favorite subject: Language Arts (English), although he absolutely HATES his teacher this year. So, it is his favorite subject outside of school.

I asked him to say something in German, so he did. He rattled something off, but you will have to take my word for it! That is one of the classes he is taking this year.

Favorite food: My fettucine alfredo with shrimp (every birthday he requests this, I don’t even have to ask him anymore!)

Favorite dessert: sherbert

We asked him what he likes about our family. “Daddy plays lots of games with me, Brinn bugs the heck out of me, Tayla snores, Kade is funny”

What do you like about being the oldest? “I get bigger servings of food.” What??? Silly boy!

If you could be an animal what would it be (we had to put on the stipulation that it couldn’t be mythological): a hawk or a falcon

Favorite book: the Eragon series

Favorite movie; NOT Eragon! Lord of the Rings trilogy

Favorite holiday: Christmas