Halloween 09 ~ Oct 31

On our way to my Mom and Dad's church for their Halloween festivities today, we stopped by to visit Gma and Gpa D. The boys showed off their costumes and engaged in one of Grandpa's favorites--laughing cow cheese lite. You can't go to Grandpa and Grandma's without having a treat of some sort! :) ha-ha! Anyway, they got some goodies from them (in the cute little orange pumpkins) and we then set off for our 2nd stop of the day...

On the way over, I looked back at Ben and his eyes looked so blue. I had to snap a pic of him. I hope this is the last time I ever see him in eyeliner again though! :)

At Mom and Dad's church, the kids had so much fun playing all the games and enjoying all that they had to offer. We stayed for about 2 hours there...

to be continued... must go to bed for tonight...

Break Open the Bank!!! Oct. 30

Friday Ben had his second day off school for a teacher's work day. Since it was a free day for us, I gave Ben several options of what he wanted to do. It was very cold and windy out, so it wasn't a very good day to do much outside. We had talked for a very long time about opening up a savings account for him and putting all the money from his crayon bank and all the other money he had saved into it. We started this bank for him when he was very young--probably less than 2 years old. We've always put loose change in it and he has added money from Birthdays and other holidays to it also. He has spent quite a bit along the way (at garage sales and an occasional toy here and there--even bought a couple things from the book fair at school this year with some of it) but overall, he

has been very good about saving it. ...We dumped all the money out of his banks and stashes and started separating it to get all the "special coins" out so he could save them (gold dollars, coins from other countries, car wash tokens--lol!, $2 bills, etc.)

Once we were sure we got all the special coins out, we began bagging it up so that we would be able to carry it into the bank a little at a time b/c it was HEAVY!!!

When we got there, we found that they have a machine that you just dump all the money onto the tray, and it takes it in and counts it for you within a matter of seconds! WOW--technology these days!!! (I was afraid we were going to have to roll all that money and I am SOOO thankful we didn't b/c the bank clerk said we would have had to unroll it all. Eeeegads!!!

After he deposited the money, we found out that he had $271.25!!!!! We were both absolutely FLOORED!!!! He was SUPER excited!!!

Sugar Cookies...cont...

Little goober

I WANT IT Mommy!!!

These are all the ones Ben made minus a couple he ate.

These are the ones Braden made...minus the 3 he ate.

Halloween Sugar Cookies ~ Oct 29

We usually have a weekly playdate with my friend Kandice and her boys. This week we moved our playdate to Thursday since I was feverishly trying to get my painting project done and didn't want to slow down to play until I was very near the end of it for fear of loosing momentum. So, we decided to do something fun with the boys since they were off school for parent/teacher conferences all day Thursday and Friday. So we made Halloween sugar cookies. And like most days--they (all but Luke) HAVE to do everything shirtless, thus the vast amount of skin showing! ha-ha!

ChEEEEEEEEEze!!! Wow, he really looks like his big bro in this pic doesn't he! :)

My little creative one...

Make 'em pretty! :)

Halloween Fun

So we were supposed to go to Awanas tonight and have "Orange You Glad" night....pizza party....the whole nine yards. Well, I bought some orange hair spray for Ben...then Zach and Becca decided to get in on the fun. I sprayed theirs and Braden wanted NO part of the orange spray! (yay!) We get all decked out in our orange (I even had a little sprayed on the ends of my pig tailed hair) and just as we are walking out the door to head to church the phone rings....no church tonight b/c of no water at the church. Apparently they had been working on the sewer system on the road our church is on and had the water turned off for that. No restrooms or running water=no church services.

Well, since the kids and i were all geared up for pizza, I called Andy and asked him if we could take the kids out for pizza instead. He was all for it, so we went to eat at Pizza Hut and had a blast! .....Ben and his mohawk (which I was very surprised he let me do since he has always been anti-hair- standing- up-in-any-way-shape or form! :)

We have been taking Zach and Becca to church for a few weeks now. They have been through the ringer the past couple years in their family, so we kind of treat them like their ours on occasion too. They eat with us, sleep over a lot, play a lot at our house and anytime they don't feel safe home alone, they come over and hang out with us. We are really hoping that we can plant a seed in their lives so that one day they will get saved.

I just love this pumpkin shirt on Braden. He's my little pumpkin! ;)

Pizza Hut--Orange and Out on the Town! :) Oct 28

So we head to Pizza Hut and the kids have a hoot while Andy and I actually get some conversation. What a concept! Who knew that taking MORE kids to a restaurant (ones who don't always have to be together) would turn into a more enjoyable experience! :) ah ha! :)

Acting silly as usual! Kisses for Daddy! :)

The kids love to get into the costume bin and become "mixed up characters." It's one of their all-time fun things to do. It's really cute to see what they come up with! Although, Braden my seemingly OCD child, has to match. No mixing up for him! (Mr. I ALWAYS want my shirt buttoned to the top and my zipper zipped immediately on my coat when it's put on!)

Ben's Class Halloween Party ~ Oct. 16, 2009

The week of Ben's class Halloween party started off very rocky. On Monday, Ben had 8 kids absent from his class and one went home sick that day. On Tuesday we got an e-mail from his teacher that said, "Well, this is a first for me. We are down to 6 kids today in class." The flu and HINI (Swine Flu) have hit very hard this year--very early in the season and EVERYTHING else is going around too...strep, stomach viruses, other 1-2 day viruses....etc. etc. So, on Tuesday, only 6 out of 19 kids were well. Ben came down with a very minor bug on Monday night--very lethargic and had chills so I kept him home Tuesday and Wednesday. He only ran a very slight fever (not even enough to keep him home from school, but with everything else going around and his teacher not doing much new at school with everyone else gone, why send him?) Wednesday attendance went back up to 10, but when the week was all said and done, there were only 3 kids in the class who didn't catch something and miss at least one day of school. CRAZY!!! Anyway, by the party on Friday, all but 2 of the kids were back in class for the Halloween party. I went as a helper for the party but it sure felt like walking into a pietre dish of germs!!! I just took my vitamins and used lots of germ X!!! :) Ben's teacher was not able to be there for the party. Her little boy had been sick since the weekend and it finally caught up with her. She got progressively worse and had to stay home on Thursday and Friday. So Ben had a substitute for the party. She was very nice!

This was one of the games they played.

Craft time--decorating pumpkins I love this shirt we found for Ben last year. It says, "Out of Candy--Need REfill!" He was eating "dirt" for a snack (oreo cookies, vanilla and chocolate pudding with gummy worms in it) YUM!

Ben's classmates who survived the illnesses of the week and made it to the party! ;)

I am trying--Yes, I Am Trying to Get Back To Blogging

Hey there fellow bloggers. I am going to give this another shot. I have been very lax about keeping up with this, but I am going to try to get on the ball with this. While I try to catch up, i will probably post one new blog and one old one each time I journal so that I can get everything on here. I've heard that you can actually print blogs now, so I am looking into that possibility! :) Hope you are all having a great week! :)

School Boofest 2009~~~October 16

I don't have a thing to wear!!!

Ben looking through his costume bin to decide what he wanted to wear to the school Halloween party they called "Boofest." It was the school's first annual Halloween bash. I have a feeling it was b/c we have a new Principal and he is allowing Holiday parties instead of "seasonal" parties! YAY!!! Ben told the kids at school he was going to be a Skeleton but we had bought a Pirate costume for him. He went through the costume bin as if he was a girl going on a date and said, "I don't have anything to wear!!!" I laughed so hard b/c he probably has 30 costumes in there that i've picked up at garage sales.

Braden was Tow Mater from the movie Cars. It's one of his favorites and I happened to find this one at a garage sale early in the summer. He was soooooo excited about wearing it! He kept saying, "Where's my hook?" (His tow hook in the back of the costume) He also kept trying to hook things with it and "tow" them. What a character! Ben ultimately decided on the Pirate costume b/c we were going to be indoors and it would be a cooler costume than the one with the mask that goes over his head. And he was very happy he did after we felt how HOTTTT it was in the school building! Braden wanted to try to keep up with his big bro (as always) by making the mean faces Ben was making. I took about 10 pics of them. I have some doozies! This was inside the school gym. Neat balloon arch! Very festive. I was impressed at the time and effort they put in on the Boofest. The hallways were really done up neat and they had a costume contest for each grade in several categories. In the cafeteria was a magician and snacks for everyone. There was a hayride on the playground and even a pumpkin decorating contest for anyone to enter. This is Ben waiting with some classmates for the costume judging to begin. After the Boofest I had promised the boys we would build a "Tent" in the living room and have a slumber party--just the three of us (Andy had the flu all week and I had been on the couch trying to avoid catching it) so when we got home we built that and popped popcorn and watched Karate Kid I. Ben had never seen it before and loved it! Saturday night we watched Karate Kid II and he liked that one even more! (We rented them from "On Demand." What a great invention!!! :)) Braden who had cried from the time we started trick or treating the classrooms at the school and didn't stop til we got to the car fell asleep nearly as soon as his head hit the pillow! He does NOT like crowds and we experience that at nearly every school function. Oh well, we all have our quirks! Fun night and weekend!!! :) Sunday night Andy took me to see Matthew West in concert. He had bought me tickets for my Birthday. Mom took the boys to church with her (Braden got to go to JBQ for the first time with Ben, and then she brought them back to the house and put them to bed for us.) What an AWESOME concert and night!!! A much needed break--very inspirational too!!! :)

"My Ice Cream Falled Over"

Braden definately has a way with words. Just before I took this clip, he was saying, "My ice cream falled over" (which meant it got all over him) Just a cute clip I wanted to put on here of his personality in March.

UGH--How do you upload videos to Blogger???

Well, that didn't work! I am trying to upload a video to Blogger and I just can't seem to figure it out. I've been trying for an hour. HELP!?! Any suggestions???

"My Ice Cream Falled Over" by Braden Dixon

Easter Festivties

Well, for some reason this year, we didn't go do a city wide or church egg hunt. I guess my mind just wasn't all with it this year, but it didn't happen. I didn't even think about it until Saturday afternoon when all the egg hunts were over. The boys didn't ask about it or anything either, so we didn't go to one. (Probably cause I don't like having the candy in the house) But we did color Easter eggs. Ben had the day off on Friday, so we went shopping and among other things picked an egg dye kit. That evening we began dying our eggs. Saturday evening the boys finished decorating them. Braden kept dropping them and cracking them, but he had fun nonetheless. With his obsessive nature though, he got pretty upset every time he'd break one. So, I'd take that one and decorate it and give him another one. lol. The lillys in the middle of the table were a craft Mom did with her Missionette class--very cute!

One of Ben's finished products.

The finished products!

After we finished with the eggs, I had them help me "stuff" eggs for the egg hunt on Easter. I had bought a few packs of additional eggs to help Mom fill some for the hunt. She and I had spent the day together on Thursday and had done a bunch that day and had stuff leftover, so I went and picked up some more eggs to put the remainder of the stuff in. They loved helping! Especially with the money! :)

Easter

The boys dressed up for church. For some reason Ben was looking through his closet and found this suit in the back of his closet. He brought it to me and said, "look what i found in the back of my closet Mommy! I'm going to go try it on!" It fit, so he said he wanted to wear it for Easter. So we began dilligently looking for a shirt to go under it and I ended up taking a jaunt to Walmart at 11 pm after Ben had gone to bed, to find him a short sleeved collarless shirt, since he was determined that he would be too hot with a long sleeved shirt on and he said he wanted to wear the suit coat the whole time at church. So, I spoiled him once again and went and found him this blue shirt for $3.50 at my favorite all-night shopping haven :) He was THRILLED when he got up and saw it! Braden has a black suit too, but he wore it about 3 weeks ago and he was about to bust out the seams of it then, so I didn't force it upon him again today. They would have looked so cute in matching outfits!

We happened to get to church (the second service) a few minutes early and had the opportunity to take a couple photos with the boys before they had to go to their Sunday School classes.