Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treating around Grandma's house went over rather well. I can't wait for their bedtime so I can begin my raid of the chocolate. They'll never know the difference. All they care about are the suckers.

Catching Up

After my last post and the period of time that followed, perhaps you thought I'd been checked into the local mental institution. It was either that or check myself into my parents house. I chose my parents house.

We brought Jason up to the airport on the 25th and then came up here (North Ogden) to my parents. After 5 days, I've only just begun to start enjoying my vacation because I had some kind of stomach flu for 4 days. Jason had the same thing up there in Washington. We're both feeling better. I'm just waiting for it to hit the rest of the family. Probably just in time for our drive home.

Saturday night we had our annual Halloween dinner. Every year my Mom puts this dinner on for us. Saturday morning she blocks the kitchen off with sheets and spends all day cooking for the dinner. When it's time to eat, we're each given a menu with 15 items such as- giant monster toes, bat eyes, sliced carcass and witch's brew-to name a few. There are 3 courses to the meal-5 items per course. We fill out the menus, turn them in and then the fun begins. On your first course you may have unknowingly ordered your spoon, fork, knife, napkin and drink. At the end of the course it is all taken away before the next course, so you would end up eating the rest of your meal with no utensils. It's a lot of fun. It's been a tradition in our family for over 20 years.

After the dinner, all the kids (and dogs) get dressed into their costumes so that we can take pictures.

All the kids in their costumes, complete with one pimp dog and one hippie dog.

Uncle Steve supervised the carving of the pumpkins.

Spencer

Regan

Thank goodness for family-especially when you're sick! My Dad took the older boys on long hikes two days in a row. He also took them shopping. They love shopping with Grandpa. This time they scored new bats, balls and mitts as well as pumpkins and new haircuts.

My mom took them miniature golfing and to a corn maze. She also took care of all the kids when I needed to be in bed or, um, in the bathroom for extended periods of time.

Much better than being sick at my own house!

Insanity

Today in conversation with some friends, the definition of insanity was brought up: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Well, I think this qualifies- everyday I put Benjamin down for a nap, and everyday I expect him to sleep for AT LEAST ONE HOUR! Yet, everyday I put him down, and everyday he's awake in TWENTY MINUTES! There you have it! I can officially declare insanity. What one year old sleeps for only TWENTY MINUTES!
I just had to get that out.
On a different note, I thought this was funny. Last night, after Regan and Spencer had gone to bed, they came upstairs arguing (something we've become very accustomed to).
"Spencer's keeping me awaaaake! He won't stop singing!"
"Well, Regan Keeps telling me to sing in my head, but I can't hear it when I do that!"
Oh, the joys of children! I guess it's time for me to get off the computer and go get Ben. It doesn't sound like he's going back to sleep.

The new garbage man

Ben's new favorite pass time is to throw away anything he can get his hands on. Our spice cabinet is conveniently located right next to the garbage can. Salt & Pepper anyone? Just check the garbage...

Going

Going

Gone

2 Weeks

Jason never thought this day would come. After almost 8 years, it's official. He gave the Leavitt's his 2 weeks. Our boys think he crazy. After all, he gets paid to play in the dirt.

So what are the big plans? He flies to Washington on the 25th to frame his Dad's house. He should be gone about 6 weeks, give or take.

When he gets back he'll be doing fireplace maintenance and hopefully just handyman jobs on the side. He'll be starting school in January. SUU now has an Outdoor Rec degree that he's interested in. That should take him about 2-2.5 years.

Basically, we have no idea where these next couple of years will take us, but we feel like it's the right thing to do and I'm sure it will work out.

For those of you who are wondering, I'll be back in Cedar on the 30th. You can call me to schedule meals to be brought in, or to arrange to take my kids from me. But really, I'm not too worried. I'm surrounded by great friends who already take good care of me, and my Mom will probably make it down a time or two, which will be great.

It's been an eventful few weeks (with only one anxiety attack along the way). We're excited, and a little anxious, to see what the next few years bring. Thanks to all our friends and family who are helping us get there.

Due Date

The official date is May 14th. That puts me at about 9 weeks right now.

I think he or she looks a little like Jason?

Monster Baby

Ben is working on getting a new tooth. I'm working on keeping my sanity.

I was in the kitchen when I noticed that things were quiet. For the first time today (with the exception of his two 30 minute naps) Ben wasn't clinging to my leg screaming.

Everyone knows a quiet child means trouble. I decided to investigate. I found him in the living room enjoying the remains of our last fire. What I really wanted to do was quietly leave the room and let him enjoy himself for at least a good 30 minutes.

Partly because I knew Jason would be home from work at any moment and partly because I'm not sure what eating ash does to a body, I took him kicking and screaming to the bathroom to clean him (after taking a picture of course).

A potential 30 minutes of peace, down the drain. Oh well.

I believe in bribes

I always love it when there's an exciting event pending that I can use as motivation for the kids. This Friday it was decorating the house for Halloween. I told the kids that the only way we could decorate is if the house was cleaned from top to bottom by Friday evening.
Sure, I can get my kids to clean on any old day, but it's so much more effective when I can throw out comments such as "Oh no! It doesn't look like we're going to get done in time, but that's okay! We can always decorate next week." or "That's okay Spencer, you don't need to help out. We'll miss you tonight when you're in your room and the rest of us are decorating."
Followed by "NO! We'll Clean! We'll Clean!"
Ahh, I love it! At this point I can get them to do pretty much anything from taking out the garbage to cleaning the toilet.
Too bad there's not always an excting event that I can use for a bribe, or I mean, reward. I prefer to think of it as "Positive Parenting" rather than bribery.
Maybe tomorrw I'll bake a cake. "What? You're too tired to do anything? That's okay, Dad and I will eat the cake ourselves."
Works every time.