Veteran's Day Parade

On Saturday, Las Cruces had a Veteran's day parade. David's boy scout troup was able to participate by riding a float, waving flags, and throwing candy. David was very excited to be in his first parade.

We anxiously awaited the arrival of his "float".

It humbled me to see these old men marching in the parade. They were so proud to have served our country.

Here's David with his pack. They threw us lots of candy.

It wasn't as flashy as most parades - but inspiring to see all the military groups and equipment.

The weather was beautiful and it was a great day for a parade - even though it's November!

Tagged - 8 things

Ok Ive been tagged by Amy & Elizabeth. They were slightly different lists - so I combined the two.

8 TV shows I watch

1. The Biggest Loser
2. The Office
3. CSI
4. American Idol
5. Get it Sold
6. Design to Sell
7. Mythbusters (awesome show on the Discovery channel - it's one of our kid's favorites too)
8. ummmm, I don't really watch TV that much, maybe Oprah?

8 things I did yesterday

1. Made cookies for Josh's speech class at school.
2. Got Emma's hair cut
3. Visited someone from Church for their birthday
4. Did some laundry (after my marathon session on Saturday, I'm trying to do - and put away - one load a day)
5. Played around on facebook, read my blogs, updated my Quicken, blogged
6. Played dolls and blocks with Emma.
7. Helped 3 kids with homework.
8. Made dinner.

8 Favorite Restaurants
This is a tough one - we don't really go out to eat that much...

1. Applebees - it's always nice to have a familiar restaurant like this when you are in a strange town. It's family friendly and we've been there more than once with our family because our kids would get free kid meal coupons from our Doctor when they got shots.
2. The Cheesecake Factory - just been there once for a girls night out. The food and the cheesecake was amazing. But, the wait to get in isn't really worth it.
3. P.F. Changs - I love chinese food - still, I've only been there once (I guess I need to get out more)
4. Papa Murphys - I know, not technically a restaurant, but I really like their take and bake pizza and it's a lot cheaper than getting a cooked pizza delivered.
5. Red Robin - another fun family place that has good burgers and bottomless steak fries.
6. TGI Fridays - fun for the family and for GNO - they also have a bunch of entrees that are 500 calories or under (and that's pretty good for restaurant food).
7. Huhot Mongolian Grill - we went there once with friends in Omaha. You get to build your own stirfry and then watch a bunch of guys cook it on this huge round grill. It was really good.
8. Biaggis - an Italian restaurant in Omaha that I have fond memories of - we went there with some of our good friends.

8 Things I Love About Fall

1. That it starts to cool down.
2. The kids are back in school.
3. The beautiful fall colors.
4. low electric bill
5. Thanksgiving
6. Carving pumpkins
7. earlier bedtime
8. Having a big pot of warm soup or chili for dinner.

8 Things on my Wish List

1. That someone will buy our house.
2. A house that would clean itself.
3. Instantaneous travel - like "beam me up, Scotty" That way we could always visit those that lived far away and distance wouldn't be a problem.
4. To go on a dream vacation with my family - like Disneyland or something.
5. To go on a dream vacation with my husband - like Hawaii or a cruise.
6. For all my kids to be happy and successful in life - you know - missions, temple marriages, good college educations, successful careers.
7. A personal chef
8. A gym membership with a personal trainer.

And, there you have it. A bunch of random lists of 8 things. I tag Jessica Hutchings, Trinity Moore, and Ginger Bloomfield (and anyone else that feels so inclined...)

Emma's haircut

Emma has the kind of hair I've always wanted - very fine and extremely straight. You can let it air dry and it is straight as a pin. The fact that it is very fine also means that it gets tangled very easily. I've spent lots of time (with lots of conditioner and a comb) combing out the tangles that get in her hair. She's never had very long hair - it would just make the tangling so much worse. So, it was time to chop a few inches off her hair. I forgot to take a before picture so I snapped this one in the car with my cell phone before we went in.

She was so cooperative with the hair stylist! I just know she wouldn't have held as still or put her head down for me - like she did at the salon.

Here is her cute new 'do. She went around all day telling everyone she had pretty hair.

I'm hoping it will lead to less tangles and less tears!

Mom to the rescue

My kids come home with lots of notes in their backpacks. They need to bring something or have some special day at school, etc. With three kids in school it's hard to keep track of everything. I know I should write everything down on a big calendar or something, but we get by. Last week Josh brought something home from speech saying that he earned a "free day" (he has only been going to speech for less than a week - guess it doesn't take much to earn such a day) and that he had to bring cookies for the group of 4 kids. It was a note with blanks for the date, what to bring, and how many kids. It was written in Josh's cute handwriting - but still legible. So, last week, I glanced at it and it said Mon, Nov 13th was the day to bring cookies. All I noticed was that it said "Nov 13" which I knew was far in the future and I didn't have to worry about it yet. Fast forward to this morning - Josh is insisting that he has to bring cookies TODAY and that I forgot. So, I called his teacher, explained the discrepancy on the note, and said I could probably bring cookies to the school. I did have some errands to run today, starting with a Relief Society visit at 10:00 and I could probably pick up some cookies and drop them off at the school. She called me back at 8:00 am and said that he was supposed to bring cookies today and that his group meets at 9:00 am. Hmmm, didn't exactly fit into my schedule. I was still sitting here in my bathrobe and it wasn't going to work out to hurry and get dressed (and get Emma dressed) run to the store, run to the school, then do my errands - which involved going BACK to the store. The teacher said not to worry about it. But all I could think about was how Josh told me he needed cookies and how he would feel bad when he didn't have them. So, I quickly threw together a homemade batch of chocolate chip cookies and had them in the oven at 8:15. Now I'm just hoping they won't balk at homemade cookies - these days everything brought to school is supposed to be store-bought. I'll just say what I say to my kids when they get something and they would rather get something else - "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit".

Well, the cookies are out of the oven - time to run them over to the school. Hopefully they will appreciate it!

In Loving Memory

Late Sunday night, just a few weeks past his 90th birthday, my Grandpa Glen passed away. He had been declining for the past few years, so in many ways, this is a blessing. We will miss him, and are all a little sad, but also happy to know that he is in a better place now. The kids don't really have a lot of memories of their great grandpa, but I was touched when Rachel and David both shed a few tears when they learned of his passing. This picture is my grandpa as a young father - the cute little boy in the picture is my dad. My sister told a fun story about him on her blog, so I thought I would share a different one about him that I remember being told. He was born in 1918 and was a twin. I'm sure times were quite different back then, but I can still imagine a mother's worry when a child goes missing. I'm not sure how old he was (I think he was a baby) but one morning he was placed on a bed and then later, when his mom went to check on him, he was gone! Everybody searched high and low for several hours and it was determined that he was probably kidnapped by gypsies. I can't imagine the grief this young mother must have been feeling. Then, someone noticed some sounds coming from under the bed. Turns out he rolled off the bed and under it, where he slept peacefully for several hours. He has always been a teaser and a joker and I guess he started very young!

We will miss you Grandpa!

Halloween costumes

I finally finished all the costumes (the final one being finished the day before Halloween) and the kids all had a great time.

Emma was a fairy

Josh was a doctor

Rachel was a fairy

David was a doctor as well.
The original plan was that Rachel was going to be a nurse, but then we couldn't find a pattern and Rachel fell in love with the fairy one. It didn't turn out exactly like we had hoped, but she still looked beautiful.

Happy Halloween!

Carving Pumpkins

We had our traditional Family Night before Halloween pumpkin carving activity. This year it was great because I bought 3 little pumpkin carving kits and the kids were all able to do almost everything themselves. We had a lot of fun. The only problem (if you can call it a problem) is that the weather here is so warm that all the pumpkins were pretty much spent by the time Halloween came around. But that's okay - the fun comes with the carving.

Still trying to get it sold

Well, unfortunately, our buyer backed out, and we are still trying to sell our house. We are very disappointed, but life goes on and hopefully the next offer will be just around the corner. Maybe it's just waiting for a special family who will love the house as much as we did.