Fall's Fun Pictures (Sept-Oct)

H was a little MUCH too tired to go to church Sunday, so while waiting for Daddy to come home, I let the kids get some fresh air while I tried to get some cute fall pictures.  I know it sounds crazy to say my 5-yr-old was too tired to go to church, but when you need 12hrs of sleep a night and only get 10, bad things happen.  Mama was feeling the same way, however, and appreciated the excuse to take a long nap.

Too bad my camera's not focusing when I zoom in.

baby blue eyes

These next two are from today.  I finally got to Target to exchange the fun Halloween shirts my thoughtful mom-in-law sent the kids.  I lucked out--there was just one of each in the next size up. :)  Happy day!  Lil'S liked the dog on his shirt.  I usually don't talk about what's on his clothes but did this time, and he smiled and pointed at it a few times and gabbed a bit.  Yup, that would be approval.  Thanks, Grandma!  Oh, and in the picture above, Lil'S is pointing down to tell me the handle of the wagon keeps falling down.

 H came home with round gold paper listing her name, grade, and teacher.  There was a post-it note attached saying she was a top reader for the Read-a-thon fundraiser held at school at the end of September.  I don't know if she was a top reader for her class or for her grade, but I guess I'll find out eventually. . . .

Man of the House

 A package from Grandma!

I got croup.

H and her cousin J

Lil'S found a puddle while H and I were playing ball with a neighbor.  I finally ran to grab the camera when he was lying on his tummy in it, splashing with his hands and kicking his little feet with the biggest grin on his little face.  Too bad I missed that photo opp.

H had to get into the fray once she saw a camera was involved. ;)

General Conference of the 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Sunday Session

2 Oct 2011

Here's a bunch of pictures of our crazy crew by the end of Conference.

love the marker all over him

Lil'S's artwork (the black, I mean) 

very original piece by H . . . I think she said it's a girl on a boat in the rain (round blue circles). 

Couldn't decide which one of these I want to post, and I can't remember which one S preferred, so you get to see both of them.  ;)

I'm a Mormon! 

 I'm a cute little copy cat!

 As a child, I always wanted to grow watermelon in our family garden, so I was very eager to try planting it on our oversized, too-hot-to-grow-anything patio out front that was in desperate need of SOMETHING to make it look less bare.  We planted a few patio watermelon seeds in the two pots by our front door, and they grew four watermelon that we were so excited to watch grow bigger.  Well, they didn't grow bigger!  But life also happened after a while, resulting in our complete neglect of them.  Finally, the poor plants withered and died in the hot August sun, and the two surviving little watermelons sat . . . and sat . . . and sat there on our front patio, reminding me of their abuse every time I happened to chance by them. (We use the side door for our regular comings and goings.) 

Sometime in early September they were spotted by Miss H: "Our WATERMELONS!  We need to eat them!" and I Eore-ishly did the duty of a good mother and picked a watermelon from its shriveled vine and carried it inside, hoping she'd forget about it so that she wouldn't be disappointed when it was green or rotten inside.  A whole week later (things tend to get lost on my counter tops, but I guess there was a little procrastination in there as well), she discovered the little watermelon again and insisted we have it for dessert as we'd discussed during previous months--if it was any good, I again forewarned her, dreading the moment she'd find it was all moldy from sitting on the counter for eternity.   

Imagine my surprise when Daddy cut into the little melon and--

It was yummy!  

A little over-ripe, sure, but still yummy!

One happy H and one very relieved and thrilled mama behind the camera.  It was cute to watch the kids drink the juice from the rinds of those tennis-ball-sized melons.  We all really had a blast.  I'm looking forward to planting something again next year that--at least if I water it every now and then the first month or two--will actually bear some sort of fruit, despite my inattentiveness.

I found this "present" outside my door one day. :) 

I'm grateful I was feeling well that day so that I could kindly thank her for it and then later on talk to her calmly about the marker on the baby blanket!  I think it's still sitting on my dresser, waiting for me to attempt to get the marker out.  Such is my life!