October 1-3

So, October is here once again. Last year after blogging about our countdown chain to Halloween someone commented that it's no wonder Halloween is a favorite holiday for our kids. Yeah, that's true, so instead of complaining about it I'm just going to enjoy it since this is something I instigated in our family. Let the fun begin!

October 1: Paper pumpkins -- notice that Nikki has already broken into the costume box.

October 2: Candy corn toenails. Ryan can't stand to see polish out and not be part of it. I'll do his toenails, but I can't bring myself to put more than clear on his fingers! A lot of my ideas for our activities this month have come from Pinterest. I'm so glad other people scour the web for such cute things. Pathetic is the only way to describe my Pinterest board, but it's great to see what other people have pinned. This idea for nail polish looked so cute, but was so hard for me. Julie may remember how she would never let me do her nails because I just stink at it. My girls are finally getting old enough that they are realizing that I'm pretty sloppy with the polish. How on earth are you supposed to get straight lines for the different colors? By the time I got to my toes, I realized a solid color is just about the best I can hope for! Oh well, it was a great idea and a fun activity to do between conference sessions. (Loved General Conference this weekend, by the way! What a fabulous weekend!)

 See Nikki's shiner? She fell down the stairs yesterday. All the way down. She has quite a few bruises. For a girl who is so great at gymnastics it amazes me how clumsy she is!

October 3: Haunted gingerbread houses!

Cute conversation

Ryan entertains us with the cutest conversations these days. It's so fun to see how his little mind is thinking about things. As we were leaving the house today, Hannah asked me not to go too fast because she thought she would get carsick. Ryan said, "No, the car won't get sick!"

A little later Nikki was talking about how excited she was for October to almost be here. Ryan asked why she was saying that, so we explained to him that October has Halloween in it which means we get to dress up in costumes. Ryan popped in with, "Yes! I'm going to be a train tracks, and Daddy will be Thomas!" OK, well, we'll see what Daddy thinks about that. :)

Then somehow he and Nikki were talking about how old they are. Ryan said, "I'm three and four." Nikki corrected him and said that he will be turning four next year. Ryan's response: "Yes, then I'll be baptized."

He really is a cute little boy, and when he's talking at the top of his lungs in church or begging to not have quiet time in the afternoon or demanding his oatmeal at just the right temperature at breakfast, I just have to remember these moments!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa

Here is a video we made for Nate's dad who is turning 80 in a few days. We're so sad we'll miss his party, so we wanted to tell him we love him even though we won't be there. This is a good representation of what Ryan is usually like during family night, but we did the best we could!

Lack of Blogging

It's not that I don't have anything to blog about. It's just that I used to be lazy. I had more time than I knew what to do with. I had discretionary time. I had a few hours of my own most days, well at least a couple of hours. For someone who is laid-back and kind of a go-with-the-flow type of person, being busy all day everyday is a little shocking. And it is also really great. Don't get me wrong. I'm just finding that since I don't seem to have as much downtime these days, when I do I don't want to get sucked into the computer. And when I do get online it's a lot easier and quicker to check a few blogs than to write my own post. Life is good, busy, challenging, and I'm happy with it. Well, I'm not happy that our van window got stuck half-way open and it's raining tonight. We knew it was going to rain, so we pushed our uninstalled kitchen cabinets to the back of the garage so we could pull the van in at least half way and keep the window dry. Our neighbors must get a kick out of us.

Insanity

If Nate ever wanted tangible proof of how crazy I am, this picture is it. I'm getting new cabinets for our anniversary this year. What does that say about how romantic I am that I would rather have kitchen cabinets than the amazing vacation we could pay for with the same money? I also want new wood floors, so that means we get to install and stain our cabinets ourselves. Here comes another adventure! Getting the cabinets down was Nate's job. Those 23-year-old screws were so insanely hard to get out, I couldn't believe it. I also was surprised that the only thing holding up the cabinets are a few screws. I thought for sure they would be liquid nailed to the wall or something. We put a lot of weight in there!

We got a quote for custom cabinets, but I just couldn't do it. It feels like I'll never get my floors if we put that much into the cabinets. I've lived with broken cabinets for a year and a half, and I am just done waiting. So, I'm crossing my fingers that we can make it look nice and that we don't end up eating out for the next month because I can't find my kitchen!

By the way, last week was a great first week of school -- until Friday. I think it's kind of funny that we didn't even get five days in before complete meltdowns. The problem was piano lessons, and I think I'm done. They are going to someone else for lessons this Friday whether they want to or not. If they tell me I do a crummy job teaching grammar that won't offend me because they're probably right. But fussing at me over piano just gets a little too personal for me when it's something I love so much. I can't take it, and I just don't have to. It's really more about me than them.

First Day of School

Today was our first official day of school. It went really well. There were some moments of frustration that were experienced by all, but overall I enjoyed it and I think the kids did, too. I feel a great sense of relief in getting things off the ground. I know it's going to take a little bit for everyone to get comfortable with the new groove of things, but it's really going to be good. I fully expect things to evolve over the year, and I hope our family can be patient with each other as we get this learning stuff figured out. I'm excited for the things I'm going to get to learn, too.

One thing that I love that we have started is eating breakfast together. Everyone gets ready, and then we all come to the table at 7:30, we say our morning prayers, eat breakfast, and read scriptures together. It's great to have that time with Nate before he leaves for work. It works so well because they can't eat unless they have completed their morning jobs. Morning jobs are just getting dressed, putting away pajamas, making their bed, doing their hair, etc. We all get going in the morning, and our day starts off so nicely!

Having Ryan get two new trains yesterday for his birthday was so perfect because he played with them all day long, and the girls and I were able to get everything done we needed to without worrying that he was getting bored. It was so cute to see Hannah and Nikki jump on the floor to play with him if they ever finished something while I was working with the other one. I just thought about how different our day would have been for all of us if the girls had gone off to school.

Over the past couple of weeks I have heard several friends talk about how they can't wait for school to start! I know none of these great mothers have meant that they are excited to get rid of their kids for most of the day. I think we just all have been ready for a routine again. I have been looking forward to school starting too, so that I can actually focus on my kids. I have had so many projects and distractions over the summer, and I am ready to spend my days keeping my attention on them.

Hannah told me today that she absolutely hated recess, so I told her we'll go swimming tomorrow for our lunch/recess break. I was going to have them help me pick up sticks and branches in the yard from Hurricane Irene during lunch break this week, but I decided life doesn't always have to be so tough. I can hear Chuck now, "Are we having fun yet?" Yes, Chuck, I am.

Birthday Party!

Ryan loved his James cake, so I was really happy with it. It was a good thing I took a picture as soon as I finished making the cake.

Within a couple of hours, the back completely fell off, and then the next day one whole side of it was sinking. One day I'll learn how to layer a cake, but until then we just cut off the back and took it to the party anyway. Ryan kept talking about how James crashed and we needed to make another one. Maybe another year, son!

 Many hands make light work...

 He was so excited to get Hiro and Sir Handel from his cousins.

 Thanks for letting Ryan share your party, Lexi. We have the best cousins!

I caught this one mid-"cheese," but I love his face. He has that excited look so often.

Update

Last week I was able to take a trip to Utah with a friend. It was so wonderful!! I did miss my kiddos, but I came home feeling like my normal self again. I really have had a busy summer, and it was great to get away for a few days. I can't give enough thanks to JW & Alli, and Mike & Sherrie for watching the kids for us while I was gone. They had so much fun that they can't wait for me to leave town again.

I went to Utah for a Dressing Your Truth conference, and I had a great time. If you haven't heard of Dressing Your Truth before, it really is worth checking out. It is a lot of money up front, but it has been so worth it to me. My friend and I stayed with Nate's brother, Steve and his wife Taunya, which was so great. I loved being able to visit with them for a little bit and just wish I could have had more time with them. I also got to have dinner with Robin one night, and I stopped in for a second to see Megan at the coffee shop she is working at in downtown Salt Lake. Then I headed down to Orem and spent a couple of days with the Littles. I love them so much. It's just not fair that we live on opposite sides of the country!

My friend's niece was in an accident this spring that left her paralyzed, so she is now quadriplegic. She is almost ready to come home from the hospital, and we got to spend one afternoon visiting her at Primary Children's Hospital. She was amazing. I can't believe her incredible attitude. The day we were there she was trying to put on her makeup by herself. It was so hard to sit and watch and not help her, but of course she has to work through it on her own. I really enjoyed getting to meet her and her family, and I know she is going to have such an incredible impact on everyone she meets for the rest of her life.

This week we are trying to recover from summer and get into a good routine for our upcoming school year. I'm so excited to have this time to just focus on my children. I think having a busy summer was probably a good thing for me because I am so ready to get rid of all the distractions and just make our days together my biggest priority. We started Spanish this morning and as soon as I get Ryan down for a nap (which needs to happen right now!) we'll break out the Latin and see what that's all about.

I finished my last mini food storage class for Relief Society last night. Can I just say -- Whew!! It was a lot of fun, but I ended up worrying and preparing for it more than I had counted on. I hope somebody got something useful out of it, anyway. I know I did!!

I made these hair bows with the girls yesterday -- okay, Hannah burned herself with the hot glue at the beginning of the project and I ended up doing the rest, but it really was going to be a great project to do together. Then Ryan wanted in on the photo shoot. It just reminded me that I do need to get his 3-year-old pictures taken. Yes, his birthday was during my trip, and yes that makes me a terrible mother, but since he's 3 hopefully I'll do better and he won't ever know what a terrible mother I am.

Speaking of his 3rd birthday...

why do I always do this to myself? It's so fun to me, but at the same time it's torturous. I am so crazy. He wants a red cake, and all he has been asking for as far as presents go are trains (and he's been asking since May). So, I found a cool Thomas the Train cake tutorial online and plan on adapting it to make James, since he's red. Hopefully the face was the hardest part. :) Hannah wanted to make one, too. Hers is the one on the left. She decided that since he's not so smooth, he's just a grandpa train and he lost his eyebrow in the war. :) She makes me laugh. So, we'll see in a couple of days if we actually get a red train cake, or a last-minute 13 x 9.

Food Storage Success

I've been teaching a few classes at church this month about how to use food storage. I've blogged before about some of my adventures learning to use it, and I guess because I have started using it so much it just seems natural to me now. It was a little surprising when some of the things I've been sharing were new to the people who came to my classes. I've talked about powdered milk and eggs, wheat and oats, and this week we'll do beans and rice. So, as part of preparing what I want to share this week I tried making a cake today that turned out very nicely. I used powdered milk, powdered eggs, cooked beans, and whole wheat flour. Everybody asked for seconds, so I'll count that as a success.

This is a recipe I got over 10 years ago and I just adapted it to use my food storage in it. That's really the best way to use food storage -- take the recipes your family already loves and add in your stored ingredients.

Banana Nut Cake
Cream:
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter (1/2 c. cooked white beans)
3 eggs (3 T. dry egg powder + 6 T. water)
1 c. banana pulp (2 or 3 mashed bananas)
1 c. chopped nuts
1 tsp. baking soda dissolved in a little water

Alternately add:
1/2 c. sour milk (1/2 c. water + 1 1/2 T. dry milk + 1 1/2 tsp. vinegar)
and flour mix (1 1/2 c. flour, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. baking powder)

Bake in a 9x13 pan @ 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool and frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 c. butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
4 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add vanilla and salt. Beat in sugar until smooth and fluffy.

Bass reunion 2011 pictures

 Uncle Jay with the kids at the aquarium. It was raining when we got to the beach, so we headed to the aquarium and had a great time there.

 Lexi, Nikki, Brenna

 Ryan & Nate

 Emma & Hannah

 Nikki, Lexi, Ryan

 Hannah, Nikki, Brenna, Lexi, Ryan, Emma, Jay

 Lexi & Nikki

 Megan, Emma, Aunt Alli, Hannah, Lexi, Nikki, Nate, Jay

Brenna & Ryan

 Ryan on the battleship in Wilmington, NC

 Emma, Nate, Ryan, Roger, Robin, Kellee, baby Katherine

 Jay

 Nikki

 Eliza and Lexi with Jay and Josh in the background

 Kids trying to move the anchor chains: Lydia, Nikki, Ryan, and Hannah -- not sure who's behind Lydia, maybe Emma?

 Ryan and Brenna on the bunks in the ship

 Nate taking a break, he kind of fits on the bunk

 JW and Kate on a cloudy but perfect day at the beach

 Hannah

 Nikki

 Ainsley and Kate

 Katherine, Ainsley, and Kate

 Not-so-little Nate with Little Jay

 Nikki and Eliza

 Roger was trying to take a nap (where's your towel to lay on Roger? Didn't you just get back from buying one? :}) The birds were going crazy from the Cheetos the babies were dropping, and someone put one on Roger. It drove those birds nuts, and one finally couldn't stand it anymore. He came and got it, and Roger didn't even move.

 Emma and Hannah

 This was cute. There was a whole line of people trying to keep their feet still with each wave that came. They stayed at it for a long time. Roger, Robin, Savannah, Kellee, Nikki, Lexi, Lydia, Eliza, Ryan, Nate, and Brenna

 Sherrie and a very sandy Ainsley

 chillin'

 How much sand can you rub in your hair, Ainsley? :)

 Pool day at our house. Yes, the vast majority of those people belong to our crowd.

 William and Ryan

 Kate & JW

 Chris, don't shoot the camera!

 Hannah and Emma were blowing into the noodle having a contest to see who could blow the water into the other one's face.

 Megan styling Savannah's lovely 'do.

 Joe sat in the water throwing the kids for the longest time, and they were lucky enough to have Roger come in as a replacement when they wore Joe out.

 Luke, William, and Brenna

 Brenna, eat brownies in the pool!

 Ryan

 relaxing by the pool

 Brenna and Ryan

 We had a talent show that actually got split into two nights. For some reason I didn't have my camera out for any of it except the skit that the in-laws outlaws did. It was SO funny! They did a great job!

 

I thought I took lots of pictures the first few days, but there is so much that I missed. And I didn't even take any the last couple of days. So, here's a little recap of the week for me.

Church at the Albemarle Branch in Edenton, lunch with Aunt Ruth and her family, driving around Edenton, Hayes, and Paradise, having Robin's family stay with us, the aquarium, swimming at the hotel, chatting in the hot tub, touring the battleship, the BEACH!!, great seafood -- what an adventure to take 21 kids out to eat, swimming at the pool, BBQ with leftovers for days, hanging out at Mike's, looking at old mementos and pictures of Mom and Dad's, listening to a tape of Mom and Dad, Brenna's spitting fish pinata, playing Hearts, family talent show, Jerry Clower recitations by JW and Mike, going to the temple with all of my siblings and our spouses and then out for ice cream afterward, Robin made Hannah's day with a bead art craft one morning, Jordan Lake with Nell and Jill and some of their families, boating - I actually got up when I tried water skiing again after about 4 years -- wahoo!, banana pudding from Jill (I didn't make it, so everyone was relieved to know it would really have bananas in it)

That's all I can think of for now. We have such a great family. Thanks for making it so fun, everyone!