thank you

Dearest Husband,

Thank you. Thank you for having patience. Thank you for 12 years of loyalty. I love you more today than on our wedding day. Thank you for going hiking with me. Thank you for playing games with me. Thank you for changing all of the "tar" diapers. Thank you for your humor and even your teasing. I would miss it, if it stopped. Thank you for supporting me when I stupidly commit to do too much. Thank you for giving me 4 wonderfully amazing children that teach me so much about life and living. Thank you for letting me fix the covers every night. Thank you for loving me, even though I am only a "30". Thank you for doing dishes and laundry and helping with homework. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for letting us get 2 kittens. Thank you for sharing your testimony of the gospel. Thank you for wanting to do good. Thank you for your example (I mean GOOD example :0)....I know how your mind works.) Thank you for spoiling me. Thank you for going to work. I know it's hard. Thank you for my kitchen. Thank you for loving my family. Thank you for going on bike rides and walks with me. Thank you for taking me horseback riding. Thank you for not expecting the house to be spotless or even a little bit clean when you get home. Thank you for thinking of me. Thank you for letting me take time out for myself. Thank you for putting up with all of my crazy issues. Thank you for getting help. Thank you for sticking around even through my hungry "Dr. Jekyll" phases. Thank you for thinking of "Puckettville". Thank you for wanting to have people over. Thank you for pushing me to grow. Thank you for adoring me. Thank you for helping me to "toughen my skin" so I'm less sensitive. Thank you for cooking me food. Thank you for getting us started on family scripture and prayer every day. Thank you for taking me out to dinner. Thank you for having the strenght/courage/discipline to have rules when we were dating. Thank you for calling me Dollface. Thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for being you. Despite what you believe, you are my Knight in Shining Armor.

I LOVE YOU!

halloween and motorboat faces

I resigned myself to the fact that even though I think Halloween is a lot of work for not that much fun, my kids really like it. I couldn't convince anybody this year that it would be more fun to stay home and watch movies instead of dressing up and going to the church Halloween carnival. (sigh) So, the girls all went as Monster High characters and Simeon was Luigi. After I got everything to make his costume, he informed me that he wanted to be Koopa Troopa. Ummm....sorry Charlie!! Luigi it was!!

For some reason, Simeon was extra cranky and didn't want me to take his picture. So this is all I got.

Brooklyn was Draculaura. Go here for what the character looks like.

Genesis was Frankie Stein. Here for what the character looks like.

And poor Glory was a sick person for Halloween. She does it so well, don't you think?!

And now....MOTORBOAT FACES!! My sister-in-law, Erin put pictures of them doing motorboat and they were pretty funny! So we decided to see what kind of funny faces we would have. I have to say some of ours are pretty hilarious!! Give it a try! The kids loved it.....well some of them.

Man!! I am GORGEOUS!

DRUMROLL, PLEASE!! The winner is.......

The sexy man I married! :0)

puckettville

Matt got the brilliant idea the other day, to make a town with roads for Simeon. He decided to get everyone involved. It became a family project. He wanted Genesis to draw the roads, but soon she was frustrated and we figured out that by having a girl do the design meant having lots of buildings and meadows for animals and flowers, and a river. Which isn't really conducive for a "car driving" board. There was no more room for the roads. What is most important to boys are the roads. Having a big enough road in proportion to the cars so you could fit two lanes, having a parking lot with enough room to "back out", etc, etc. So we ended up compromising. We made the parking lot and roads a little bit bigger and then filled in with the grasses and houses and river. I think everybody was happy with the end result. It's kinda big and a pain to store and drag out every 5 minutes, but worth it. The kids really like it. I even find Glory in there by herself, playing.

The kids are being monsters attacking Puckettville in this picture. Too bad we couldn't fit their faces AND the board in the same picture, but I was already in the closet trying to take it.

glasses and therapy

We finally got Brooklyn in to see somebody about her school struggles. We discovered that her eye muscles are not strong enough to do all the things she needs them to do for school work. So she has glasses to help and she has vision therapy where she does exercises to help strengthen her eyes muscles. So her "daydreaming" and her "ADD" tendencies are probably a result of her overworked eye muscles. The doctor said if there are any other learning disabilities, they should come to light during the therapy. It will be a long road for us, but at least there is a path now. And she looks pretty cute in her glasses, too!

jesus knows bowser

Tonight's conversation with Simeon went like this:

S: Jesus Christ is Aw-aw-aw-awesome!

Me: Yes He is.

S: Yeah, He died for us.

(Wow, his nursery leaders have done a good job!)

Me: Yes He did! You're right. Do you know why He died for us?

Glory: Because He loves us so much.

Me: You're right. He loves us so much that He knew we would want to live with Heavenly Father again. He died for us so we could live with Heavenly Father again.

S: Yeah and now He's with Bowser (a character from Mario Brothers Video Game). Bowser has a castle.

Aaaannnnd.....we're done with the spiritual stuff.

happy b-day/lost and found

Happy Birthday to Brooklyn! She is 10! How did that happen?? She had a friend over to spend the night a few weekends ago and then on Saturday(the 25th) Matt and the kids went to the Puyallup Fair. I was horribly sick for several days, so I wasn't able to go. Matt bravely took all four munchkins to the fair......by himself! What a brave man!! They got up early to beat the rush and they made a lunch, packed the stroller and water and they were off!! I was peacefully enjoying my rest when I got a phone call several hours later.

Matt: "We lost Glory."

Deb: "What??!!"

M: "Simeon had to go potty, so I took him and when we came out, the girls told me they couldn't find Glory. She just walked off!"

D: "Ok."

M: "What should I do???? I don't even know what she's wearing!"

I was surprisingly calm and so was Matt!! He freaked out a little bit and when he was reporting to the police, got all kinds of info wrong, but she was safely found. Actually, after reporting to the police and feeling like an awful dad, Matt went back to the spot they last saw her and they were going to search. All of a sudden, Glory walks calmly toward them, like she's just enjoying a day at the fair. Of course when the girls ran up to her and started giving her hugs, she lost it. She had said a prayer when she realized she was lost. They immediately left with Glory holding onto the stroller with Matt's hand on top and Simeon buckled in the stroller, Brooklyn holding onto the other side of the stroller and Genesis holding Brooklyn's hand. Luckily they had already done all they had planned to do. Matt told me he's never going to the fair again by himself with all four kids. I don't see why. :0) What a crazy experience! It gladdened my heart that she had the peace of mind and the knowledge to say a prayer! How blessed we are! That evening at dinner, during "Best and Worst", everyone said their worst part of the day was when Glory got lost at the fair (even Simeon).

pictures

We took family pictures yesterday and Genesis wanted me to post some of the goofier ones. They are the most fun, after all!

Genesis was very rowdy in this pose!

This was one of the test shots, but Matt thinks this is how I normally look....like I want to punch somebody. Well, if people weren't stupid all the time, they wouldn't need punching!