The Tiara

I went to Walgreen's today and all their Halloween stuff was 1/2 off. I bought a pumpkin carving kit that will come in handy next year, and this tiara for Rachel. She has been wearing it all afternoon, but let Anna borrow it for a minute.
The kids are all ready to go trick-or-treating tomorrow night, so Phil and Cathy- if you're around we'll probably stop in for a minute on our way to Barb's!

Friends

Tonight I watched Amber and Mackenzie for a couple hours. Rachel was beside herself with joy. The girls immediately barricaded themselves in the bedroom and dressed up in princess dresses. They were beautiful.
The picture of them in the plastic box was their idea, not mine! Funny kids.

Our Pumpkins

Last night we finally dug into our pumpkins. The kids were extremely excited. Rachel of course drew a very intricate face on hers, and our knives being the size of small machetes made the job a wee bit difficult. But with Casey's skills, they came out just fine. Note to self: get a pumpkin carving kit for next year!

My Weekend

You're never going to believe this, but I actually left my house on a Saturday evening! My Laurie watched the kids so I could attend the MOPS Halloween party!!! This is me and Amanda, she whipped up her little gnome costume the night before the party. Unbelievable. She was adorable! I will post more party pics over on the MOPS blog hopefully tomorrow. :) There are some doozies! Would you like to see Tracey DeLong eating baby food? Shoveled in by her husband??? Well, you have to be part of our MOPS group to view those special photos!


Homemade gifts are the best! My friend Barb has crocheted a blanket for every one of my children. Here is Anna with her brand new yellow blanket. Casey looks like he's enjoying it, too.

Field Trip!

Yesterday I went on my first field trip as a parent! We went to Johnson's Pumpkin Farm. It was a cool sunny day, and the kids had a ball. So did Betsy and I. :) There were goats to pet, donuts to eat and pumpkins to pick. The kids learned about how they grow the pumpkins on the farm. They even sat in a teepee and learned about Indian life in the area long ago. That was Rachel's favorite part. The above photo was a really cute flamingo made of dried gourds. I wish I was that crafty.
I say that because I am sitting here working on my pilgrim hat that I've ripped apart and had to resew about four times today.

Cute pumpkins!


Hugging her pumpkin she picked from the pumpkin patch

My 500th Post- and a Dull One at That

So I am having issues with MY blog. I can't post a comment. There is nowhere to type a comment, no box to type in. I can leave comments on other people's blogs, but not on mine. This is weird. I signed out of everything and rebooted this morning to no avail. Any helpful hints for me?

Anna 10 1/2 Weeks

Anna is usually pretty serious...

but sometimes her true colors come through. I thought she looked a little mischievous here. Do you know how long it took me to figure out how to spell "mischievous"? Too long, that's for sure.

I Should be Homeschooling

So Adam came home a little early from school today. His classroom helper called. She has bad phone skills. Really bad. This is how the phone conversation went:

Ms. B- "Adam fell off the slide on the playground."

Me (trying to be funny)- "He's not brain damaged, is he?"

Ms. B.- He was up pretty high when he fell."

Me- Sooooooo, is HE OK????

Ms. B.- He landed on his back. He cried a lot."

Me- (With more annoyance now) Sooooooo do I need to come pick him up?"

Ms. B- *long pause*

Me-" can I talk to Adam?"


So needless to say Casey picked up Adam. He is just fine. He is currently watching a PBS program about birds in Australia. And picking/ chewing on his toes.
I hope Ms. B. doesn't call tomorrow.

My Little Stinker

Abby has discovered how easy it is to climb in and out of her crib. This hasn't affected her sleeping at all, thank goodness. It will make it a lot easier when I have my hernia surgery, though! We are hopefully getting bunkbeds soon from Pastor Mark's brother, we just need to pick them up. The boys will get the bunk beds, and Abby can have one of their toddler beds. My baby is growing so fast.

Jesse the neighbor boy still comes down frequently. Nothing says fun like a playhouse full of Matchbox cars and snacks.


This little miniature rose just doesn't give up.


Here's the gap! The big tooth is coming in behind where it should be. Non of my kids (maybe Tommy) have room for permanent teeth. I don't know how I'm going to afford ortho for all these kids!


Well, Casey is feeling better, but the crud is floating through the house. I have a touch of it now. I knew I should've bought 2 boxes of Kleenex instead of just one.

Big News

So I watched the debate, and I'm still voting for McCain. OK, so that wasn't the big news....

Rachel's first tooth came out today! She was eating supper and looked at me and said, "I want you to pull my tooth out." I was so happy, I felt so important. I barely had to twist it and out it came. She didn't even flinch. I didn't realize how emotional I would feel looking at that gaping hole. And then we read a story that Rachel brought home from the library called, "Love You Forever". Well, if that doesn't make you sob, I don't know what will. Such an emotional day around here!

Poor Casey

There is sickness in this house. Here is my husband. He needs to leave for work at 3pm, pray for a miraculous recovery. You know the restaurant would just shut down if he called in sick. I think that's what he thinks.


Tommy is having a rough day today. Everything made him cry, so he got thrown into bed a little early today... he is currently sleeping. :)


Future applesauce. I need to get some more apples, I have done about 1 1/2 bushels, but that won't last the winter.

The Girls

My precious baby rolled over today. I was at work and missed it. Boo hiss! I feel like I always miss these moments, and I only work one day a week!


Rachel is loving school and doing great with her reading. Her first tooth is about to fall out any minute! She actually let me tug on it tonight, but it wasn't ready to give up the fight... maybe tomorrow.


It's potty training time again at the Veihl's. It is so different when the child actually begs to sit on the toilet. About 100 times a day she says she has to go poop just so she can sit on her perch. She has went pee about 3 times on the potty in the past couple weeks. She will be two in November. I am so proud.

Tomorrow I'll have to update on the boys. Hopefully Adam won't be kicked out of music class this week. That would be the third time. :(

A Good Day

Ah, the sun is out today, it makes such a difference in how I feel! I took Anna to her 2 month check up today (with Abby and Tommy in tow, that was fun). She weighs 12 pounds, 4 oz, 23 1/2 inches long. I thought she'd weigh more, Abby was 13 pounds and Tommy was 13' 11" at his/her 2 mo. check up. The doc said she looked perfect, very strong.
We ventured to Target afterwards to get me a new shirt for tonight. I get to go out with the work girls, one of them is moving to Tennessee, so we are having dinner together. It's always hard to say goodbye.

Rainy Day

What else is there to do on a dismal drizzly day? Bake muffins! Here are my biggest fans waiting for me to get them done.


Hanging out with daddy


Anna is know for her fabulous hair. :) It's so nice and fluffy after a bath.

Slump

I don't have anything exciting to blog about. Today I had a consultation with the surgeon for my hernias. I am scheduled for surgery on November 5. My mom came over today to watch the kids so I could go to my appointment, then we cranked out some applesauce when I got back. I was going to take a picture of the applesauce, but the kids were getting a little out of control, so I had to get it into the freezer before it was all over the place. Nothing like fresh warm applesauce. Casey will gag if he reads this.

Tommy's First Cleaning

I am so proud of my Tommy! I took him to the office for the first time today and cleaned his teeth, and he did so great! He held the suction, and he didn't even gag on the prophy paste. I was elated! Tammy and Pattie were working at the front desk this morning, so of course Tammy gave lots of attention to Tommy, and even made him a "chicken".

I am declaring my child cavity-free (even though a hygienist isn't supposed to diagnose). Now if only I could get him to stop sucking his thumb.

Some Lame Complaints and a Few Pictures

I'm just going to complain for a minute, and then we'll get to some pictures.

I was excited to go to Wal-mart today- by myself! I leisurely picked up some groceries, then came home to unload them. My box of macaroni was not glued all the way shut and lots of little shells escaped. Grrrrr. Then when I was putting the flour away I noticed a hole in flour bag. Double grrrr. And I was going to put something scrumptious in my bread maker to mix up- but I can't find the paddle that goes in the bottom of it. This has Abby and Tommy written all over it. It's probably in the toy box. Now I realize that my life is pretty good if this is all I have to complain about, so I don't know why I even wrote about it. I think I need to go read my bible.




Abby doing a little light reading- the kids toss them in for her. How nice.


Just having a little snack.


The kids like to play house, and Abby is always the baby. Abby never took a pacifier, but now that Anna has one, they are a great novelty.


The boys got hair cuts last night, I always feel like I've accomplished so much after buzzing two heads.