Are we ready???

No - but we'll get there! Busy and fun week! We made a gingerbread house, watched Kim and Abby at their final acting class, watched Eric sing with his class at a retirement home, put up our tree, put up lights outside, etc. . . .

I have a headache so this will be a short post and I hope it makes sense! Anyway, the kids are doing well in school and elsewhere. We wish we could turn on the mute button in our house sometimes, but someday the house will be too quiet I guess. Jessica is the princess - insists on wearing a princess dress at least once a day. Eric is a boy - crazy, I know. He loves to throw anything, including major fits. Abby sings and dances everywhere she goes. Kim is such a great helper, I don't even know where to start!

Reid has been called for jury duty in a couple of weeks and he's excited I think. Maybe he'll get on a high profile trial and we'll see him once a week or something! More likely, he'll sit around reading a book for three days and they'll send him home.

Thanksgiving concert

Tonight we had a Stake Thanksgiving benefit concert. Those who attended were supposed to bring some food for the local food bank. We filled the stand pretty well with choir members. It actually went rather well. Reid and I sang and the kids stayed home, so it was actually a break. I always forget how much I enjoy singing until something like this. Our choir director is amazing. He is from Holland and studied music there. He gets us to sing better every time. I'm glad it's over now and not in a month!

Potty training is on hold until after Thanksgiving. We had some good success, but then she had NO interest and a number of accidents. She wants to sit on the potty occasionally, though. Someday . . .

I think we are all looking forward to this week. Reid has the week off of work and a lot of our responsibilities are not pressing this week. yeah! We need it!

The other day I asked Jessica what her name was and she said "Jessica Allie T Morgan." Not sure what the T stands for, but it was very cute. Eric is afraid of everything right now. Closet monsters, under the bed monsters, dark places, brushing his teeth in the bathroom alone, sleeping without the light on, etc... I know it's just a phase, but we hope he grows out of it. He's sleeping in our bed every night!

Fun in the sun!

Yes, we did have some sun this weekend and we enjoyed getting a bit of yardwork done and played at the park too. We are looking forward to the end of Stake Choir - we are doing a Thanksgiving concert and food drive next week. We will have our Sunday evenings back! Kim and Abby have 2 more weeks left of acting class. It's been going well I think. I'm not sure they LOVE it and I don't think they are dying to go back in the spring, but it's been a good experience. Kim wanted to audition for Willy Wonka Jr., but we decided that the Sunday shows would be a problem at this point, and the $375 fee if she made it was a bit steep for us. She REALLY wants to get into this, so I'm hoping the middle school will have a class or club she can join that will fill this need more easily and cheaply.

Abby is Abby. She announced in Primary today that she is good at rapping. Not the kind we do at Christmas either. I don't doubt that she is good at that! She was devastated to learn that I was released as the Activity Day leader and made Primary Chorister this week. She was apparently hoping that I would be her AD leader. She was convinced that I was the only one who would do fun things and that I had all the fun ideas. It's nice to be appreciated, I guess. Kim just said it would be embarrassing to have her mom as the Primary chorister.

Jessica is working hard at potty training. We've kind of taken the weekend off, but I can see her figuring it all out soon. I can't believe I'm almost done with diapers! Eric is turning out to be a typical brother - stealing purses, dolls, etc... just to annoy the girls. He's a fun kid who loves to talk. Not at all like his father :)

Birthday

Thanks for all the birthday wishes - cards in the mail, phone calls, facebook messages, etc... I had a great day. Reid and I went to a little Italian restaurant in Seattle and then went to a play called All the King's Men. It was good. Reid and I were both tired, so I'm sure the play was actually better than I might make it sound. I got a body pillow (I think the kids love it just as much as I do), a soft robe, some books, a Sudoku book, hmmmm... I detect a theme here . ... Anyway, I also got a few new serving dishes - now I just need a place to put them since the china cabinet is still in the bathroom.

I'm selling Jessica to the highest bidder - so if you want a stubborn, independant 2 year old, let me know. Okay, so she's the cutest and smartest 2 year old as well, and we do love her. We just have to keep convincing ourselves of this. If we let her tantrums go on, she will scream herself hoarse over the horrible actions of her parents (i.e. putting toothpaste on her toothbrush or closing the lid on her sippy cup). I guess the strongest spirits were saved until the last days!

Kim is singing the national anthem with 8 other kids from her class at the veterans day assembly tomorrow. She is not sure she wants me to go watch. Becoming a teenager who is embarrassed of her mother already!

Abby and Eric are remarkably normal this time. Working hard at school and enjoying life.

Losing Brain Cells

Well, the new floors are messing with my plans of writing in the blog every Sunday, but I'll get back on track soon! We spent a couple of nights this past week at a hotel while they installed and finished our hardwood floors. We came back home on Wednesday and I walked into quite the intense chemical smell of the finish on the floors. I opened all the windows and it was livable that night. I would guess that we all were losing some brain cells that night, though. :)

We had parent-teacher conferences for Kim and Abby and they went great! Both girls are doing a great job in school - top reading and math groups - and are not causing problems, either!

Jessica has started calling people "buddy" which comes out rather hilarious sometimes. She enjoyed Halloween as a cat. Eric was Darth Vader, Abby was a go-go girl, and Kim was a dark fairy (but switched to a queen for trick or treating). A fun time was had by all!

Under Construction

Well, our house is rather torn up right now. All the carpet and vinyl flooring has been torn up from the whole house except for the bedrooms and bathrooms. Most of our furniture is in the garage or bedrooms, although the china cabinet is in the hall bathroom. We are hoping the hardwood gets delivered tomorrow and they start installing it later this week. It's been a bit crazy because no one wants to play or sit on the floor because it's the yucky floor the builders put in. Jessica has the piano in her room, so there is not much room to play. We will survive!

It will look lovely when everyone comes up for Christmas as long as we don't scratch it up putting the furniture back!

Oh, and we also painted all those areas of the house as well. I was gone last weekend at an overnighter for the RS (not an OFFICIAL event) at the cabin of a ward member. Of course Friday was the day most of the house was painted, so Reid escaped to his parents' house with the kids to avoid painted children and messed up walls. I had a grand time! I stayed up late (5:00 a.m. the first night and 2:00 a.m. the second night) playing games and chatting - eating WAY too much foom. We went shopping in Leavenworth - a German town full of shops and little restaurants. Of course we ate at the Italian place.

The girls started acting class and I think they are having fun. It takes up most of our Saturday, but it's a new experience for them and it's not outside in the pouring rain.

Conference antics

For the first time ever, with kids anyway, we attended all four sessions of conference at the church. We've watched them at home many times, and usually attend one or two at church, but this time we went to all of them! The kids were remarkably good. Eric started the Saturday morning session with a lovely whining session and Jessica can't play at all without a song or running dialogue, but otherwise, they played quietly and even listened occasionally.

We made a little scrapbook of sorts with pictures and info on all the apostles and the pictures from the Ensign of the quorums of the Seventy, Presiding Bishopric, etc... Eric and Jessica especially, enjoyed looking at the picture of whoever was speaking at the time and realizing that it was the same person as on the screen.

Kim was a tremendous help on Saturday because Reid was gone all day. She has been stepping in so much lately without being asked. I had a sitter Friday night and I suspect Kim did more of the work than the babysitter! Good practice I suppose!

We had a lovely wind/rain storm that left 2 lights out on the way home on Saturday. Luckily our power was still on. It's definitely fall!