Fun Sundays and 6 Facts

Sundays have become my favorite day of the week. Now that Swen works on Saturdays, it's our only day to be together. He does have Tuesdays off, but we have mutual and scouts on that night, so Sundays are our only real family days. We usually get to see one side or the other of the extended family too, so that's a bonus. Plus, we get delicous food, AND we get to go to church. I have always liked going to church, but now that I'm older I really love to go and have my "spiritual bucket" filled. It gets harder and harder to have quiet spiritual time the more kids you get. Anyway, these are the reasons why I love Sundays. A few weeks ago, we had a particularly wonderful sunday. We played Charades, which I took pics of and posted, we jumped on the tramp, and we just spent lots of great time together.

Joe as a donkey

Swen as a gorilla

Me as a chicken (that is the WORST picture that anyone has ever taken of me-oh my goodness!)

Ike as a frog

Lissy as a sheep

O.K. This is another WORST picture. There were other cuter pics, but this one made our whole family laugh because I look so lame, so I thought I'd pass it on. I was trying to be Lightning McQueen with the "vroom-vroom" sounds. "Silly-Boo, Mama!" as Lissy would say.

GQ

Pack meeting fun

Face painting gone BAD!

My sister-in-law tagged me to share 6 facts about myself/my family in our blog. I'm going to have to do it in shifts, though, because...


1. We are buying our first house! Can I hear some shouts of happiness from everyone, please! We are really excited. I'm in the process of going through every paper ever saved, and every box of "essentials" that we have carried around with us for years. I have spent hours, and taken many trips to the recycle bin. We also have a huge pile for DI, and one for the dump, too. I really don't like moving. This is our 10th move in 10 years of marriage. I'm ready to settle down for a few years! We are moving on Sat., Dec. 1, and will be staying with Swen's parents for about a week until our new house is done. Yea! When we're there, I'll have more time to add my other 5, but for now, I probably better run...

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween! It gets more fun every year as the kids get more into it. We all had the stomach flu last week, and Lincoln hasn't been able to get rid of his. He's had a high fever and no appetite for almost a week. I only put his costume on long enough to get this picture. Little Smiley doesn't look like a happy camper, does he?

Isaac was feeling very independent this year. He had one goal in mind- get as much candy as possible as fast as possible. I kept having to remind him to stay by me, they I decided to ease up a little. That's hard to do with your first! Swen had to work, so I took the kids around my parents' neighborhood while Link stayed at their house. Then Swen came a took the boys for a second round to his parents' neighborhood while I enjoyed hot cider and pumpkin cookies in their nice warm house with the two youngest.

Mr. Cool Ninja and his cool jack-o-lantern. He's been sharing a little too much candy with me. Ugh, I think I've gained 10 lbs. so far.

The cutest little black kitty ever. (Actually, all of the kids have worn this costume when they were this age. They've all been the cutest ever. I have to watch the compliments, or the boys ask, "What about me?"

We didn't get Lincoln alone in his costume. We'll have to take his picture when his fever goes away. Here's a cute fall picture of him, though.

Ghost on the move...

We had fun carving pumpkins this year. Alyssa thought they were a little scary, so I tried to help her do a surprised one-like "Wow! It's Halloween, I'm so excited!" But it ended up looking like a scared pumpkin. Oh well.

The artist in Swen comes out when he carves pumpkins. He gets very serious about it. He stayed up until 11:30 carving a very cool pumpkin. It looks like it's a few sandwiches short of a picnic, or like it's elevator doesn't go quite to the top. But it's still very cute. When I failed in giving Alyssa a non-threatening jack, Swen had to do it instead. He definitely succeeded.

The finished product

I had to post this pic. of the "Buggerfields". This is Swen's sister Allie, her husband, Ted, and little Chloe Butterfield. Ted is a cool and unique guy that drives a Harley, but also loves to sew. He made these w/o a pattern. Amazing!

Some of the Howard cousins

Earlier in October, the kids had a few days off school for Fall Break. We had so much fun! We went to Ratatouille-or however you spell it- Gardner's Village, hiking up part of the Timp. trail, and the boys saw Harry Potter 5 with Swen.