Our Scary Phone Bill...

So we got a $300 phone bill.... WHA???  I looked at it with deep confusion, procrastinated calling them to see what the heck happened, but finally we gave in and contacted them. We've never had overage charges before so we were really confused and thought there might have been some mix up since we just officially switched from our Alltel plan to AT&T about a month ago. The two companies merged at the beginning of the year, but we got to keep our amazing plans until we got new phones. When looking at the bill I felt like I was trying to read a book from an unknown alien language. I was so confused!  It turns out all the over-use charges were OUR FAULT.  However, AT&T has such super awesome customer service. They decided they weren't very clear on informing us how all our habits of using our phones would effect our new plan, so they took off all the extra charges (about $200) AND supplied us with some starter rollover minutes to help this not happen again. I think they were extra willing to help because most of the charges were from Dirk's constant phone calls to his mother. They saw that number racked up the most minutes on our plan and asked who it belonged to. Of course they thought it was super sweet that Dirk said he calls his mom multiple times each week and were extra willing to help him out because of this.

Moral of the story....  We can't make phone calls to certain mothers and brothers who live in Arizona during the daytime on weekdays quite as frequently anymore.  

Sunny October Afternoon

We've apparently been having a very unseasonably warm and sunny October. I know there can't possibly be many more of these days for a while so I'm trying to kick the kids outside every chance I get. This is what we did yesterday...

Halloween Party

Friday evening we went to a Halloween party at a friend's amazing old house. They just bought the house which was built in 1909 and was AMAZING on the inside and quite spooky looking on the outside. It was the perfect place for a Halloween party. When I have a 100 yr old home, I plan on holding the most amazing parties there... Anyway, I haven't even gotten started and I'm already off track. You can tell where my mind was during the entire party... It was mostly a kids' party anyway, so I was allowed to wander and snoop and ooh and ahh and drool and covet and dream...

So we are having a boring and lazy Halloween year. The first almost 3 months here in Oregon have been busy, stressful, chaotic, and a bit lazy all mashed together. It's really hard to feel motivated to get going for the holidays when we don't have strong family schedule yet. Dirk only goes to school two days a week and Hayden is only gone for two and a half hours each day. That leaves a lot of spare time when we are ALL home together... and I get NOTHING accomplished when we're all together. Thankfully Dirk just got a job... Did I ever tell you that yet? DIRK GOT A JOB! YIPEE!! So hopefully I'll finally find some motivation once he gets started this week. Anyway... No time, motivation, money, and no craft room to make costumes or decorations this year. I made the mistake of letting Hayden browse the costumes at Target as soon as they were put out a month and a half ago. I really shouldn't let him do that, as it leave absolutely no creativity and imagination for him to decide what he wants to be. Naturally, he fell in love with both Captain America and Thor and couldn't decide, so I bought them both (I know how FAST those things sell out in the right size) and let him pick one and returned the other later. He decided to be Thor. Of course a day or two before Halloween when he starts seeing and hearing about other costumes he's changed his mind 5 times and wants to be some sort of skeleton/vampire/Thor combo...

We had no idea what Ginny would be. I definitely was not motivated to do a family theme this year. When we asked her what she should be for Halloween she roared at us. When she saw any Halloween decorations she roared at them. Pretty much whenever she feels like it she roars. So we figured something that roars would be perfect as she'll have no problem being in character. I found a cute little monster costume that looks a bit like it came from Monsters' Inc., but it is just a generic one. We decided to girly it up so people could tell she was a girl under all that blue fur. She performed well and roared all night long. Whenever the hat would fall over her eyes she would say "boo!"

Dirk and I just used our same outfits I made last year. He was a dark Jedi and I did the poisoned Snow White.

Dirk's full costume from last year

my full costume from last year

It feels really strange that I haven't hand made a single item for Halloween this year, but at the same time it's been a bit relaxing. I've been able to focus on other things that are more important, and the kids both got costumes that may not have been unique, but they still love them and look cute in them, so that's all that matters.

This photo makes me giggle... Hayden has no idea what to do while his sister is freaking out. Love it! 

Autumn Day in the Park

I would like to say this afternoon we went to a beautiful park filled with trees of every autumn color... that we had a glorious time playing in the leaves and spending time with each other... But that wouldn't be very true. That was the plan, but of course  it didn't play out. The park we planned on going to didn't have very many colors on the trees yet (but the ones that had turned were really pretty). The kids were cranky, disobedient, yelling, and pouting or running away from the camera almost the entire time. I was lucky I got the photos I did. We ended up lasting about 15-20 minutes before we gave up and headed home. Maybe we'll try again next week when more colors have changed. I have to say, I'm loving this SLOW autumn season. It started off a bit too warm for my liking, but the colors are starting to change and we still have nice sunshine on crisp but not freezing days!

Pumkin Farms

After spending two days in a row at local pumpkin patches, I've decided I want my very own pumpkin farm when I grow up. But I don't want to start it from scratch. I want one of those 100yr old farms with all the cool old stuff. So basically, when we get rich, I'm buying myself a pumpkin farm so I can give hay rides and watch all the kids go nuts over picking out their own pumpkin. Add in a corn maze and a beautiful vegetable garden and herb garden and of course a flower picking garden, and I'm good. Chickens will need to be there as well as a 100yr old barn. Oh yeah- and all the employees will already be established, so I don't have to do the hard labor... I'll just focus on the vegi garden and flowers and the workers can do the rest. That's not too much to ask, is it?


Yesterday I was lucky enough to go on a field trip with Hayden's Kindergarten class. We rode on a school bus which I swear was much smaller than the ones I grew up riding. My knees were jammed in to the back of the seat in front of me, and I couldn't walk down the aisle without bumping every single seat with my hips. My head almost touched the ceiling! The pumpkin farm was beautiful. This particular farm was so old and had the most perfect pumpkins. Their vegetable, herb, and flower gardens were gorgeous as were the eggs in the chicken coop.

I didn't take pictures on the field trip, but this is the pumpkin Hayden chose. Daddy helped him carve it when we got home.

Today we went to a different pumpkin patch for a birthday party for a little girl from church. This farm had the most crazy looking pumpkins and gourds! They had so many different varieties of pumpkins! I wish I had taken more pictures of them, but of course, I was busy with two cranky kids. I had to bring a few of those funny looking pumpkins home. Ginny especially loved the bumpy ones.

Ginny and Haylea (the birthday girl) checking out all the neat squash

Hayden thought this stack of pumpkins was pretty awesome!

The girls weren't quite sure what to think of this one.

Hayden and Holly being goofy

The kids looking at some bugs

Update On The Kids

Hayden is learning to read so fast and so well! Yesterday I read a few stories to him from a children's version of some Book of Mormon stories. I read him a few paragraphs while pointing to the words, then he wanted to try. This is the paragraph he read and I only helped told him the words "asked" and "servant" and helped him a little with the words "because" and "wanted". He knew the words "Ammon" and "Lamanites" because I'd already read them a few times.  Here is what he read so you can get an idea of how well he is doing. I was shocked!

"Ammon went to the king of the Lamanites.

He asked to be the king's servant  because he wanted to help him."

Hayden has a friend I think I've written about, named Holly. Holly is sweet and quiet and shy, but oh does she adore Hayden and Hayden adores her. They play so well together. Today Hayden told me he is in love with Holly. He's said he loves girls before but he's never said "IN love". I asked him what that meant and he said he was in love with her like Mr. Potato head is in love with Mrs. Potato head. I asked again what that means and he said he likes to play with just her and have fun with just her and not the other kids. It is cute but at the same time so weird!! My son has a CRUSH! I'm not quite sure how to react. It's adorable and I know there's nothing to be worried about, but at the same time, all of a sudden I'm seeing his future life in fast forward and all the girls he's going to think he's "in love" with and I just sort of want him all to myself and I don't want to share him with all the others!

Hayden and his friends in jail. Holly is the cute blonde.

Ginny still doesn't talk much. This is the list of what she says:  Mommy, Daddy, baby, ball, night night, duck, Hi, bye bye, no, and mine. 

She loves to put on clothes and change clothes and dress up pretty and put on shoes. She also loves to take baths and would stay in there forever if I'd let her! She is addicted to her bottle and uses it as a pacifier which drives me nuts. I've tried to switch to a sippy cup, but she likes to be a big girl when it comes to sippy's and would rather drink from a real cup, which she can not take to bed of course, to that leaves me with a bit of a dilemma. She is now also the best little mommy and loves all her babies. She is so sweet when she gives kisses. 

I bought this basket for my entertainment center to fill up space, look decorative, and maybe even be useful. All it's been useful in is providing Ginny with endless entertainment while she pretends it's a car or a bed or a bath or a basket for all her toys.

This is Ginny asking for a kiss