Polar Express

We went to the Polar Express the beginning of the month. The boys were excited before we got on the train. Just look at Conner, he can hardly stand it.

They all got dressed up in their PJ's for the train ride, but it was pretty cold so they had to wear their coats with their jammies. After the ride to the north pole Santa got on the train and gave all of the kids a sleigh bell. Conner is sure that Santa gave away all of the bells and won't have any left for his reindeer. It has been a point of discussion in our home for some time now.

Riley and Santa can be friends as long as Riley can sit on mommy's lap. When we got done with the train ride we went back into the hotel lobby and took this family picture in front of the fire they had going. It is probably the closest thing to a family portrait that I will get for a long time.


The boys were hungry after we got done (big surprise) so we went back up to our room and ordered pizza and wings. After that they were off to dream land. They all keep asking when we get to go on another train ride. I have a feeling they will keep asking until Christmas and then hopefully they will find something else to focus on.

Sewer issues

We are currently unable to use our bathrooms and kitchen. This afternoon one of the toilets plugged up, or so I thought. Then, a little while later one of the other toilets plugged up. Then, to my suprise, the bathtubs backed up. I will not give you any of the gross details about what keeps coming up in my bathtubs. Let me just say, I will be filling them with pure bleach for a few days before we will be using them again. We called the city and they came out and tried to unclog the line. Unfortunately, we can't find the clean outs for our house and we have no idea which way the line runs.

Without the use of the kitchen sink I did not cook dinner. The kids and I went to El Camino while Michael went to a planning and zoning meeting. When we got home I tried flushing one of the toilets and it worked. So we flushed another and it to worked. Yeah.

I decided I did not want to take the chance and flood the house, so I took the boys to grandma's to shower. Josh was finishing up taking out the trash, so I told him to come to grandma's when he was done. When he got there he told me that the bathtub in one bathroom was half way full and the toilet in the other was about to over flow.

I ran home to check, and sure enough there was water backing up into the house. Nothing has actually over flowed onto the floor, yet. But I had to take water out of one of the toilets so it did not spill out onto the floor. Yuck.

We have called the city, again and Smoke, the great guy that he is, went to city hall and figured out where our sewer line runs. They are currently working to unclog it. I am hope full that we will be able to flush a toilet again soon. If not we will be doing a lot of walking back and forth to grandma's house to use the facilities.

Some day we will look back at this and laugh right???

Raining eggs?

Has it ever rained eggs in your kitchen? I think that must be what happened in mine today.


Riley and I went out and collected eggs. We found 2 and brought them in the house. I realized the carton in the fridge was already full and searched in the pantry for an empty one. When I found one I dropped it on the kitchen floor. Riley decided to put the eggs in the carton by himself. Lets just say that 2 eggs, 1 carton and 3 year old hands don't work. As you can see one of the eggs did not make it to the carton. Oh well, I needed to clean the kitchen floor again.

Here is a closer look incase you were wondering what a fresh egg really looks like up close and personal. I still can't get over how yellow the yolks are compared to store bought eggs.

Help American Farmers Every Day

Some time ago I was sent a link to this website that is helping raise money for the National FFA organization. I was an active FFA member in high school. All you have to do is visit this website once a day and click on the barn to help out. It only takes a few seconds and benefits a great organization. I added this website to my favorites and I click on the barn every morning. Please take the time to help out.

http://www.helpgrowyoursoup.com/supporting.aspx

PS. Will one of you please tell me how to make this into a click here button instead of having to post the web address/link. I would love to be able to say click here and not have to copy the entire address into the post.

Halloween

This year the Halloween costume parade was back on for the kids. (Thanks Tana) There was an amazing turn out and the kids had a blast. Even Riley walked the three plus blocks. Here are a few pictures of them at the parade.

They all three started out walking together, Clone trooper rex, the UPS man and Superman.

The farther they walked the farther our clone trooper got away from his brothers. He found more than one of his friends and needed to walk with them instead of his brothers.

Josh did a great job helping Riley. He even saved him from falling a few times.

At the end of the parade all of the kids got a candy, which made all the walking worth while. I hope that this parade happens again next year. The kids all seemed to have a great time and it was so fun to see them all dressed up for Halloween.

Carving pumpkins

This year grandma and I took the boys to the pumpkin patch in Snowflake to pick out pumpkins. They all three found a large one to carve for Halloween. We waited until the day before to carve them so they would still look spooky for Halloween. Josh did all the carving on his, Conner did some of the carving on his and I did all the carving for Riley. All three of them helped remove the guts out of their pumpkins. They had a great time and made some really cool jack o lanterns.

Riley was not about to reach in and use his fingers to dig out the pumpkin guts.

Conner on the other hand thought it was the coolest part of carving pumpkins.

Josh stayed focused on that pumpkin longer than I have seen him focus on anything for a long time.

Conner's school has an activity for the kids for Halloween. They ask them all to decorate a pumpkin and bring them in for the weeks before Halloween. This is what Conner decided he wanted for this year. He and I made this together. We could not use pretty white gauze for a Halloween pumpkin mummy so we dyed it with coffee and added some fake blood.

Conner is falling apart

Conner lost his first tooth a few weeks ago. I know I should have posted about it then but I was busy plus I was sick. He came home from school complaining about how bad it hurt. That was either Wednesday or Thursday. Saturday on the way home from the pumpkin patch in Snowflake he had a sucker in his mouth and we went over a bump in the road. He lost his tooth right there in the back seat. He of course couldn't wait to leave it for the tooth fairy. Things sure have changed since I was loosing teeth. He got $15 for one little tooth.