Pumpkin carving

 We did this as another Sunday activity, and it was a lot of fun.  Skyler was the only child who would actually put his hand inside the pumpkin to help clean them out.  Ethan was the only one who wanted to draw his own face instead of using a pattern.  I was named master carver as I was given the task of cutting out everyone elses designs.  I am looking forward to the kids growing up and taking more initiative on some activities, like cleaning the guts, not gonna lie.

Cousins party

I don't get any more kids, but we can leave that discussion for another day.  For now what is important is that whenever my Sister in laws have a baby I am quick to offer to babysit any time.  I crave that baby time.  Tamara never really took me up on it, at least not when Scarlett was a baby.  Jocelyn hasn't until now, and it was soo fun.  The kids were thrilled to have their cousins over.  Baby Brooke was never without attention from either me, or the kids.  We had pizza, and then had a movie party with popcorn.  I think that we need to start doing this more often.  We need to intentionally plan cousin dates, and the baby is always a nice touch, for me at least!

Exe exams

The family all had eye exams on Saturday.  We are lucky (at least for now) that we can just go and see Grandpa to get our eyes checked.  I wanted to get a picture of Ethan with the glasses on his face because it was a pretty funny sight, but I just wasn't quite quick enough.  For now we are glasses free for the kids, and it is just me that has all of the extra hassle and expense of glasses.

Haunted Houses

Mom came home after shopping with Eric and Taneil with a haunted house for everyone to decorate.  It was awesome! I am always looking for fun things for my kids to do on Sundays that we can either do together, or that can keep the peace in our home while avoiding video games, and keeping the tv watching to a minimum.  In fact, as I am sitting here recording this the kids are all spread across the great room with beads and string everywhere, but there is peace (relative) and quiet (again it is all relative) in my home. This day was especially sweet for me because my brother Eric, and his wife Taneil were here, and my brother John came over as well.  It had been the primary presentation earlier and they were all there to support my kids.  John was taking great care to do what my kids wanted including leaving a piece off of the house so that Skyler could eat it (Why this kid likes eating stale gingerbread I will never know!) Everyone had a great time, and my day came to an end when I tearfully called my brother and thanked him for the time and attention that he gave to my kids that day. I am the only one in my family that has any kids (for now) and so my brothers haven't gone through all of the emotions associated with kids, and maybe they never will, maybe it is a girl thing, or just a crazy Melanie thing.  Regardless, it was a fun family activity, and it filled my heart with gratitude for my siblings, and my family.

no more TV

so we got a new TV on boxing day - the kids wrecked it, it was under warranty and therefore they replaced it.  We got the replacement 6 weeks ago - the kids were in heaven, and happy to have a tv that worked again.  My precious little devil of a daughter decided to spray the tv with the bottle I use to do her hair.  We tried again to see if we could get it fixed, nope there is rust and corrosion and no tv for the Nielson's. I feel like crying - not because I need a tv really bad but because it was 6 weeks old, and tv's are not cheap!

Cross Country Runner

Skyler was on the cross country running team this year, and he had a lot of fun.  He is not a super strong runner, but was thrilled with his participation ribbon that he got at the end of his race. 
At his first race Grandma and Grandpa Nielson would run and help encourage him to keep going, and at his last race it was me.  Thankfully Jordan had the other 2 kids at home, it was COLD.  But I ran my 1 km trying to encourage him to keep going.  He didn't come in last, and he was happy so I guess that is what counts.  It was a good experience for him, and he is already talking about running next year.

Thanksgiving Day weekend

On the long weekend we had a lot of fun.  Friday night we were able to go through the new temple here in Calgary and take the kids, and John and Amanda with us.  It is a beautiful building, and I am so excited to have one here in Calgary.  Then when we got up on Saturday morning we started our jouney down to magrath, but instead of just driving to Magrath we made a few stops.  The first of which was at the Aviation Museum in Nanton. Truthfully I didn't expect too much from it, but the kids loved it.  And how appropriate to reflect on our freedom as we were looking at lists of thousands of people who died in WWII in the airforce alone. The kids were able to climb inside one of the real fighter planes, and look around, and then they were able to climb into a cockpit and play with a flight simulator.  I am grateful that for now none of my children are pilots.
We piled back in the van and drove to Lethbridge where we did a little bit of shopping for halloween costumes, and then went to see Brave in theater and pigged out on popcorn.  We spent the night at Sandy and Kims - which for some reason is a favorite for my kids, and then Sunday we were able to watch conference and enjoy a family dinner with my grandma and grandpa Fox. We don't know how long we have left with them, and grandpa has gotten kind of mean, not like he is mean, but the dementia is really bad, and he doesn't act like himself.  Sometimes it is really hard to hear him say things, mean and hurtful things that he never would have said to us.  Ever! I was very grateful to see him though, and give my grandma a big hug - she is one of the best women there are.  Life is good.  Then we drove home so that I could go and serve dinner to 28 missionaries on Monday.  It was a long weekend for sure, but fun, and one to remember.

Halloween Wreath

I really like having a wreath on my door, and I didn't have anything for halloween that I liked.  This was by far the easiest wreath that I have made, and I love how it looks.

Halloween parcel for Stephen

Stephen is still serving in Layton Utah, he has been there for 5 months now.  We have some great fiends who decided to leave us and move to Utah, but live really close to Stephen and have taken care of him for us.  They were up for a visit and offered to take a pkg back for us, so I madly put something together.  I hope that he enjoys it.
The bonus to having a friend take it back to him is that I could wrap it all pretty and not have to worry about it being destroyed in the mail, so here is what he got.

Not enough pockets

Last Night we went out to dinner to celebrate Mom, and we were eating at Red Lobster.  It was all you can eat shrimp, and mom's shrimp was taking a really long time to come out, and the kids had all finished eating and were getting restless.  Ethan started to pack up, and wanted to take all of the little boxes of crayons home, and his pictures.  He started shoving stuff in his pockets, but quickly ran out.  So he started to put stuff down his pants, yup he sure did.  Mom caught that one and informed him that it was not the best place to store things.  Ethan is not one to become discouraged though and undid his zipper on his pants and started shoving things in that way.  I just about died, but showed him that he had back pockets to his jeans and all was well with the Nielson Family.