Trunk or Treats!

We went to two Trunk or Treats this year; one with Hatches and Grandma and Grandpa Riddle in their church, and then to our ward's as well. We were a huge success and it was fun to see all of our old friends.

Halloween at school

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. Each year we try to pick a family theme and this year we picked Alice in Wonderland. It turned out really cute and we were all happy with it. Here are some of the pictures from their day at school.

Hannah at school with her friends Loren and Jenna.

Danielle at school with her friends from class.

The girls before school.

Ben at his school parade as the Mad Hatter.

Surviving the Carnival

So the carnival came and went (thank goodness). We all survived barely and felt like we had been run over the next day. It was a great success despite the few sprinkles that fell now and then. We had enough high school help to man the booths, lots of excitement over the rides, and had many positive comments on spreading it out to the field this year. Brent of course dealt with a few hang ups here and there, but for our first carnival we felt good how it turned out.

Lora Hatch, Jen Thompson, and I helping set up the food booths.

Dani posing with Jesse. We were lucky enough to be able to use some of the Homecoming Float props as decorations. Homecoming had been the Friday before and the floats had looks great!

Grandma and Grandpa Riddle had come to help with the kids. We were very grateful since Brent and I were busy the entire time.

Towards the end of the night, Brent and his board had a pie eating contest to relieve some stress.

It worked pretty well. This Brent with his "brother from another mother," Craig Howard Vice President of the PTO with Brent.

All business

Brent had his first business trip; a week long conference in Tennessee about bracing. He had to leave Saturday morning and flew back the following Thursday night (just in time for the carnival Friday). He and I both agree that a traveling job is not in his future, as he and I were both miserable all week. He did get to see some pretty neat stuff and wants to to eventually get back there with me. Here are the highlights from his trip.

Country Music Hall of Fame

Shots of Nashville

Great Smoky Mountains

He said the colors there were beautiful. At least somewhere they get a true fall!

It's almost here (and over!)

Brent and I have been hard at work, along with the other people on the PTO board to pull together the TLC Fall Carnival. I think (hope) it will be a big hit, but honestly I just want the whole thing to be over with.

This is one of the 5 posters/flyers I have spent hours making, revising, and then completely re-doing. I really like how it turned out. I'm also in charge of the 15 booths at the carnival. I decided what they would be, the prizes for each, and had to make sure that I had everything to run the booths including volunteers. I'm grateful to Brent and Debbie who went to the high school volunteer day to get me all of my help to run my area. I was SO happy! The kids seem generally excited to be helping out too, so cross your fingers it will go smoothly.

Today I dropped Brent off at the airport. He flew to Tennessee for a conference on bracing. His timing is terrible, but who knew back in April that we would be the President and First Lady of the parent club and that the carnival would be the same week as the conference. Tonight I'm sorting through all of the prizes and putting them into boxes by which booth they go to. That way when I get there and people are unloading each box will have a place to go. I figure the more organized I can be, the smoother things will go.

I hate when Brent is gone. I don't sleep well alone (and no adding kids to my bed is NOT an option. Although if they sneak in to cuddle mid-morning I don't kick them out.) I'm grateful my parents are hear to help. Although we long for a place of our own, there are a few advantages to living with family. Off to work!

We are here! We are here! We are here!

We are. We are here plugging along without a camera. Our camera was stolen a few months back and we had the privilege of borrowing my uncles for a few months. But sadly he has asked for it back and now we have non. We are working on putting away each week and hope to have one before Halloween.

We have been busy though!

Brent and I are super busy this month trying to put together the school carnival. If I haven't mentioned, Brent is the PTO president at the girls school. Although he is doing a wonderful job (like actually making it a legal establishment, which it was not before!), it is very tiring. I said I was going to make a t-shirt that says, "First Lady of the PTO." We do a lot of it together and I think it is bringing us closer (although some days you can't tell.)

The kids are doing better after a bad case of strep throat that went through the ranks. I have been to the doctor's office every week for 4 weeks. Let's just say with our co-pay payments we are keeping food on HER table.

The kids are growing up too fast. We see more of our selves all the time in each of the kids and as they get older it is more and more apparent. Danielle is mini-me, right down to the impatience and yelling. Sigh. She is Super helpful, but this makes her think that she gets to be in charge and she and Ben have comes to blows on more than 1 occasion.

Hannah is mini-Brent, super smart and has to be explained in detail about things so it makes sense to her why she can or cannot do something. She has a stubborn side, but she is also so kind and will do almost anything you ask just to make you happy. (Right now she is my favorite because she is the easiest. You know if you have multiple kids you do this to, so don't judge.)

Ben is a rambunctious, loud, four-year old boy who thinks it's his birthday every weekend. He is ALWAYS upset about what he is not getting, runs circles around all the rest of us, and has started to do this loud obnoxious groan when ever you tell him what he doesn't want to hear. He wants McDonald's for every meal and cries when we tell him (everyday) that we aren't going. He and Dani are tied right now for least favorite.

Then there is Bree. Happy Bree. She misses me right now and I can tell. When ever I'm home she wants to be where I am. I started working 4 ,1/2 days a week with Faith, so I don't get to spend as much time with my girl as I used to. She is getting better moving around, but is still not walking and most weeks she has a black and blue spot somewhere from falling. We are lucky that she is so happy. We are still giving her breathing treatments morning and night and she gets an allergy medicine in her cereal every morning. The doctors have told us that this winter may be a hard one on her and we are doing all these things as preventative measures so she doesn't get pneumonia again.

So we are here. Pushing and plodding along. We hope to have a camera again soon, so we can continue to journal our many adventures.

Loving Fall!

Danielle's class field trip.