The Halloween Thing

So many people have asked me "What are your kids gonna be for Halloween?", or "Where are you taking the kids trick or treating at?" . Well due to not wanting to hurt peoples feelings and by all means not wanting people to think I am judging them this is my non-confrontational way of answering people's questions at least the ones that read my blog.
Its a church thing... Halloween originally is the celebration of when the veils between worlds are at their thinnest and spirits of the dead could pass between our world and theirs. People traditionally dressed up to scare the spirits away because it is said that the spirits of the dead were coming back to posses the living.
It is also said that the jack-o-lantern is a light to keep the spirit of an Irishman named Jack away, he fooled the Devil and made him mad so when he died the Devil turned him away from hell and he was so mean that he was turned away from Heaven as well. Upon leaving hell the Devil threw him a lump of burning coal so he could see. People use to put lumps of burning coal in turnips and placed them on their porches in hopes that when Jack came back he would take the light instead of bothering them. Americans have adapted this tradition and use pumpkins instead of turnips.
So there is a little Halloween history for you, and some explanation. If know me at all you know I believe in God and because of this I am not naive to evil which is why I choose not to celebrate it or teach my children to celebrate it. I have been up in the air about letting them go trick-or-treating because I know they will want to and "all their friends will be doing it", but for now I'm saying no, until they are able to fully understand why and stand firm in their beliefs, and I believe that it all starts at home. Children led by example, and I want my children to be strong leaders of their faith. Trust me it'd be a whole lot easier to say yes, and I have in the past I even went trick-or treating as a kid, and I am not condemning people that go or let their kids go. I just think people should be informed on what they are really celebrating.

The Evil Empire Strikes Again...

I am truly surprised that as much time as I spend at Wal-Mart I haven't had more trips to write about, that said I am sure there will be more to come. Today I took the kids shopping and since Parker had a half day I took ALL the kids shopping. It must have been "old persons day" today out in the Dunlap area ( I say this with the kindest of hearts I know someday I will be old too), but every person over 60 was out and today not unlike other days every one of them said something to me... "you've got your hands full (my personal favorite)", "are they all yours?", "wow, thats a load", I even got a new one today "are your girls twins?"and so on and so on. So besides that I went to Target to look for more of a selection of shower curtains then Wal-Mart they had nothing that excited me so I went to Wal-Mart for some storage solutions to the toys that are breeding in our home. They have what I want at the Wal-Mart 4 min from my house, but since I was on the other side of town and driving back to my side of town was sure to put the kids to sleep I thought I'd stop at the one I was near. Well after 20 minutes of holding what seemed to be the pee of the century and searching for what should have been easily found, we went to the restroom, oh yes, me the cart and 4 kids in the restroom, and then began the search again. The kids were getting cranky so I thought lets go look at some fun Christmas decor that really shouldn't be out on Oct. 23rd. We found a Santa that my MIL was telling us about, you know the kind that sings, well this one shakes its booty and sings "I like to move it, move it". Of course when you have a two year old they always pick up on the last couple of words so as my two year old is singing "move it, move it" we run into an older gentlemen who first very obviously counts my "load" and the gives me a look like "nice manners you teach your children". Shortly after this my 4yo screams "I HAVE A TATTOO, and you don't!". By now I am sure they have called child services at that Wal-mart on me so I won't be going back (with kids) anytime too soon. Well, I must get off the computer and back to my motherly duties my baby has found the cat's water bowl... oh joy!

Over half a year!

MAX IS 7 MONTHS OLD TODAY!! Over half a year as gone by with my baby! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. To get to this point in pregnancy it seems like it takes FOREVER!! He is really progressing fast too. He's been "real" crawling for about a week now, and on Friday he started pulling himself up onto his feet. He has also FINALLY started sitting up, and I didn't help he can do it all on his own! Yeah for Mom backing off for a little independence. Just two weeks ago he couldn't do any of this (except for just about crawling). I haven't gotten any pictures of him standing yet, mostly because when he is doing it I am sitting on the coach and he is trying to get me to hold him, but I will post them when I do. For now here is a picture from a couple weeks ago when he wasn't doing anything and I was praying he wouldn't fall face first off the pumpkin pallet (he did) notice to finally get a couple pictures I had to sit the pumpkin between his legs to hold him up. This is his "what the heck are these face".

Friday Morning...

Took the girls to see the Pumpkin Tree today. It was pretty cool. Wakarusa has some amazing fall decor downtown. We didn't stay long because it was pretty cold, but it is a sight to see. Plenty of photo opps if you aren't freezing!

Room for Beds

We need more room! I have just spent the morning putting together and taking apart 5 beds. 4 of them bunk beds, and let me tell ya those suckers are not easy to put together... Let me start at the beginning... about 2 years ago my Mother needed a mattress for my little brother because my step-grandpa was making him a full size bed. At that time he was sleeping on one set of bunk beds. I thought that trading her a mattress, that we did not use, would be great and then we could get my oldest son into a regular size bed instead of a toddler bed and my daughter out of the crib that we would soon need for the new baby about to be born. So it took my grandfather a little longer than expected to get the new bed made, and in the mean time Parker needed a big boy bed. So my Mother-in-law had my husbands old bunk beds in her basement if we wanted to buy a mattress. So I hauled my pregnant butt to her house loaded up one of the bunk beds and brought it home. We bought a mattress, put up the bed, gave Hannah the toddler bed and all was right with the world. However, soon Hannah was too long for the toddler bed. By this time my mother-in-law was ready to move and had my husbands bed that his brother made that she did not want. So we took it and gave it to Parker because it is rather high off the ground and gave the 1/2 of the bunk bed to Hannah...in the meantime we had baby #3. Eventually it was time for her to move out of Mom and Dad's room... here is where it gets interesting...so the other part of the bunk bed came to our house we put 1 set of bunk beds given to us by my mother-in-law up in one room for Parker and Hannah and Caedence's crib in the other room all by herself...in the meantime guess what? Baby #4 was conceived...I guess that's what we get for wanting a room all to ourselves. Sooooooooooo by now Parker has started preschool and is getting a little too inquisitive to be sleeping in the same room with his sister...we moved him out w/ 1-half of the bunk beds put the girls together the other half bed - 1 crib, and a baby crib in our room 6 months later we have a 2 year old who is too big for her crib so.... Yesterday I went to my Moms got the bunk beds that had been traded fair and square for a mattress set (that was not used as intended, but my little brother does have his own bed), and here we are today.
If you have been adding beds in the story and lost track I will fill you in we have 5 beds (2 sets of bunks and an extra) and 2 cribs....we have 3 bedrooms. Parker has a set of bunk beds for him and eventually Max and Hannah and Caedence have a set of bunk beds. I'm exhausted how bout you? It gets better though... we still have 1 bed to set up for Hannah and no bolts to do it with, ahh, yes the joy of children and all the things that go with them. We also still have 4 dressers that need places!

Here is a picture of the beds I'd like to have for our children 2 beds and storage in 1, but at this point if I never have another bed to put together or take apart it'll be too soon.