Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving was nice and quiet (mostly) this year.  We went up to my parent's home in Pleasant Grove, it's only a 10 - 15 minute drive depending on traffic so no long car ride, yay!  We fixed a nice dinner but didn't go huge meal this year as a lot of the family was elsewhere.  This was a good thing as I was "privileged" to do most of the dish washing  ;o) .  We played a few games and the guys watched some TV.  I raked a bunch of leaves for the kids to jump in.  Krista and Kylie were too busy playing games on the Playstation to come play in the leaves.

Andrew

Jessica (just as Andrew threw a bunch of leaves on her)

Andrew and Jessica

April

I was going to get a few pictures of the family around the table but I completely forgot.  We were just having a good time and no one else got out their cameras either so this is pretty much it for Thanksgiving.

Mr. Stone goes to CHINA

Jared got the chance of a lifetime last month when one of the companies he does financial stuff for sent him to China to help sort out some production and shipping stuff.  He spent a week in China.  He didn't get to do much tourist stuff as most of the time was spent in travel or meeting with factory representatives.  He did get to eat a lot of authentic Chinese food.  He visited the Forbidden City and Tienamen Square.  He had a great time and brought home presents from a Chinese WalMart, including shirts in authentic Chinese English (which I find very amusing).  He took lots of pictures and his business associates took even more.  Here are a couple of good ones.

Notice on the far right is Glade, my brother, who lives in China right now.

Kylie's baptism

Most of my readers are also members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  For any of you who are not, this is a big deal.  When a child turns eight they are old enough to be baptized and become members of our church.  Kylie chose to be baptized and we were very happy, and proud of her for making this decision.
Here are a couple of pictures.

Here she is with Jared right before the baptism.

Here she is in the new outfit she picked out for the occasion.

Anonimizing

A friend of mine recently told me how unsafe blogging is if you use your real name or the real names of your kids, spouse, pets, etc.  I noticed a few of the people I follow use nicknames for all their family members.  Actually, this confuses me and I have to try and figure out which of their kids I'm reading about.  The ones who use initials are easier to figure out but still slow me down a bit.

I can barely remember my own kid's names some days.  There have been times when I was trying to get one of them to pay attention and after calling the same name multiple times I realize that isn't even the kid I'm talking to.  Scoff and scorn if you will, but frankly, keep it to yourself unless you've got five or more kids and have never had this problem.

I do call all my kids "shorty" as an ironic form of endearment since they all top the growth charts for height; but otherwise I don't really have nicknames for them.  I guess I could refer to them as Shorty 1 through Shorty 5 but that just seems... lame.

There is the option of making my blog private.  Again, my friends with private blogs are probably being much more responsible and safe.  However, a good part of the time I can't get into their blogs; and I know them and they invited me.  Those private blogs are not bookmark friendly so by the time I find the link and get past the security they've had three more kids, started a new business, and moved to Kansas.

Anyway, so life is unsecured.  The internet is unsecured.  If you're reading about my kids to come up with bad stuff you can use, or good stuff you can use for bad things... well, just log off right now and go find something better to do with your life because you know what goes around comes around.

Andrew's 3rd birthday

Then.

Now.

---------------------------------

Got a haircut. (No picture)

Lunch at McDonalds.

Went to the library. (No picture)

Got birthday pictures taken at Target.  (Pictures to come.)

Feeding the ducks.

At the park.

Dinner at Golden Corral.

Playland at the mall.

Bought Spider-Man shoes at the mall. (No picture)

Went home exhausted!

What am I missing?

I've been in a bad mood for a few days; possibly more than a few days.  I'm not sure what to do to shake it at this point.  I'm living right, getting exercise, mostly doing okay in life, and am over the baby hormones by a long ways.  I'm just cranky.  I've tried to give up facebook and other kinda-time-wasting activities to see if getting more done would help; just in case it was an overwhelmed by the craziness around here thing.  I went out with friends a few times; just in case it was a need to get out more thing.  I read a couple of those uplifting-type books about how spiffy I am or about how bad off someone else is; just in case it's just a loss of perspective type thing.  I've done some service things; just in case it was a lack of giving of myself type thing.
Still cranky.
(and starting to feel rather guilty)

Temple attendance - check
Scriptures - check
Journal - check
Prayers - check
Church attendance - well, I'm there but I sure don't get much out of my extensive time in the foyer (notice the cranky here?  Yeah, that's what I'm talking about)
Kids taken care of - check
Housework - check

I can't think of anything I'm missing.  So what am I missing?

Halloween 2011

It's time for another round of Halloween pictures!
The funny thing about this year is that two of my kids look pretty much exactly the same as they did last year.  It was their choice.  April is pictured in both her costumes as she couldn't pick just one.  Krista is in the Trelawny costume from Harry Potter premier night again so this is a semi-redundant post I guess.  Everyone was happy and much candy was gathered so it's all good.

Jessica - pig

Andrew - frog

April - fairy princess 1

April - fairy princess 2

Kylie - medusa

Krista - trelawney

The first three pictures are Halloween night, the next two are from the church "trunk-or-treat" party, the last one is from the school parade.  Jared was dressed in scrubs and I didn't make it into a costume this year.  I need to get myself one of those "mom costumes" so I'll be completely predictable, you know, the lady that's always the same thing every year, but at least I'll have a costume.