Just a photo post...

I took some photos of the boys quickly last Sunday morning while we waited for Billy to return from his meeting and pick us up to go to church.  They rarely are dressed up nicely, so I wanted to take advantage of it!

We didn't do school pictures this year because, well, it gets expensive for three kids in school now! I miss having an updated school picture on my wall though.... :(

So I took some photos myself, and while they are not professional and not the best...they'll do. :)

Here they are....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Bold New Look

So our goal is to get the house, interior, painted soon...probably in the spring. *crossing fingers* However something else always comes up.... haha

Anyway, I'm excited again about planning for my new "look" in the living room mostly. Originally I had thought of doing light tan colored walls with a dark brown accent wall. However, with the cream colored couch we bought, and the new wood floors...that was just too many shades of brown.

I NEED COLOR!

So I got the new Lowes project idea magazine in the mail and fell in love with one of their living room ideas. Its so bright. So colorful and so NOT what I would usually go for! However, for some reason I just love it.

I can see so many possibilities with decorations on the walls (which I don't really have now because I suck at decorating haha) and some green plants here and there would go really nicely.
The color scheme would be green/cream/dark brown with some gold accents here and there, darker gold. I already have dark brown coffee tables and a built in china hutch that is the same color as the walls right now-basic brown. However I'm wondering about refinishing it to a cherry wood brown. hmmm
The possibilities!

Anyway, here is the new wall color that I fell in love with and so far, unless I change my mind again, I think its what we'll go for!!

Updates with photos and video!

Well I am a slacker when it comes to blog updates. Here it is starting the 2nd week of November and I haven't even posted about Halloween yet!! I guess I've been hanging out at Facebook too much. oops!

Okay, updates...

Well we're done with soccer, so that is very nice! :) I posted already about Alex missing his last game and trophy party. :(

Now we are just busy with school, work, and church stuff. The usual!

In exciting news...Alex won an XBOX 360 at his school's Halloween fun night! Wohoo! He was SO excited. We picked him up just a couple minutes early, while they were still announcing winners of various contests, and then there was no school for three days due to conferences. So he didn't even know that he had won it until he came back to school on Monday and friends were congratulating him. He ran to the office...and there it was, with his name on it! When I picked him up from school that day he starting pointing at this bag he was holding before I even had parked the car. I had no clue what was going on! He was so excited that he could hardly contain himself. haha

Other news - Gabriel has finally started scooting! He just scoots a few inches backwards, but in about an hour he'll go halfway across the room. I have a little short video of him scooting once, it was the best video I could get. I also got a video of his cuteness laughing, babbling, and grunting at me. :)
(Cant figure this video thing out - so bear with me!)

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v331/bethanbabes/?action=view&current=gabriel_scoot.flv

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v331/bethanbabes/?action=view&current=gabriel_9mo.flv

Brayden is still practicing for his Christmas piano recital this December. I don't know when it is yet, but when I find out I will let you know! This is our first year doing piano, so I have no clue what to expect or what a recital is usually like. So far though he's learned three songs. Well he knows Jolly Old St. Nicholas by memory now. He also can play the first two lines of Silent Night and Deck the Halls by memory. He's still working on learning the rest of those songs though. Deck the Halls he actually taught himself. He started practicing the song by himself at home, and learned the first two lines before he even went back to piano lessons the next week.
Here is a video of him playing Jolly Old St Nicholas, although he messes up a couple times. He was flustered by the camera, and although he played it perfectly a second time - my battery ran out. So I only have this one to post for now:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v331/bethanbabes/?action=view&current=bradyen_piano.flv


Now about Halloween...it went well! We just took the boys around a local neighborhood to trick-or-treat for a couple hours. Billy Jr really figured it out and LOVED running from house to house yelling "trick or treat!" We had a hard time keeping up with him. He only lasted about an hour though and he was done. haha
So the boys dressed up as - Alex: a soldier with camo paint on his face / Brayden: a "spider king" with web on his spider king robe, but he wanted a zombie face too. Then he got hold of the red paint and went crazy on his face. grrrr / Owen: a vampire / Billy Jr: a pumpkin, just like last year. He didn't care though, and we were at Grandma's last year so no one here got to see it yet haha / Gabriel: a horse...although he pretty much stayed in the stroller for the first 30 min and then in the car with me.

 

 

I'm just looking forward to all the candy being GONE from this house...its not good for me to have it accesible. haha!

Those are all the updates I can remember for now. More to come later!

Beginning to sound a lot like Christmas....

Brayden has been practicing his Christmas songs for his piano recital this winter. He's mastered Jolly Old St Nicholas and plays it over and over and over again ALL DAY LONG from memory, doesn't even need the book anymore. LOL
Now though he's supposed to be working on his new song, Silent Night. He's got the first line down but is struggling on the second line. I think his sickness got him behind a bit because he couldn't practice for a few days and forgot how the second line is supposed to go. He's almost got it though. :)

I will get some batteries in my camera and post a video of him playing Jolly Old St Nicholas. :)

But all these Christmas songs, all day long, is really making it sound a lot like Christmas around here! My favorite time of the year. :)

Sick

Uggh I write this now as I have almost a 102 temp so forgive me for not making sense if I don't! haha

I just wanted to warn everyone to stay away from now because ALL of us, with the exception of Gabriel, are sick..most likely with the swine flu. I asked Gabey's pediatrician and he said all the symptoms match and since its too early for the "regular" flu, they are just assuming any case with those symptoms of a flu are the swine flu because its spread like wildfire here.

This thing is SO contagious. First Alex got it and was home for a couple days and then Brayden and Owen started their fevers the same night, and Billy Jr the next night. Billy and I started feeling sick and feverish this morning. I just pray that Gabriel doesn't get it! ALthough his pediatrician said he qualifies as high risk because of his age and we could get him some meds if he starts having a fever, probably a tamiflu type thing.

Alex went back to school today because he was 48 hrs fever free but then the school called this  morning and he had a 99.4 temp. I don't even consider that a temp..and the school's own "rules of when not to come to school" sheet says any temp over 100 don't come to school. Some people just have warmer bodies. BUT it was a good call afterall because by afternoon he was up to 102. Great. He was my one well child! lol

We unfortunately had to cancel all kinds of fun plans we made this weekend, Alex missed his end of the soccer year trophy party and last game as well as the school science fair today that he was looking forward to. Owen is missing his pumpkin patch field trip tomorrow. :( And I am missing a fun weekend I had planned for months now scrapbooking with Joy. Sorry again Joy!

I just hope that we are all better by Halloween or the boys would be UPSET. haha

Okay...food is here, bgotta ruN!

General Conference Oct 2009

We haven't finished watching all of General Conference yet, but we are watching bits and pieces as time allows.

For our family home evening yesterday we watched a snippet of Elder Holland's talk. Wow!

I loved the way he spoke with such passion and confidence. The talk really makes one think. Being a convert to the church, there were things that I had to really pray about for guidance and for confirmation of its truth. Gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon is one of those things I had to really pray about.  I have tried to read it for a year and a half now, but I haven't quite got through it. However, when I do sit down to read (or listen on the computer) I can feel its truth in ways I've never experienced.
While folding laundry a couple months ago, I was listening to the audio files of the Book of Mormon. I was listening to the part of King Benjamin's speech. Suddenly I was just hit by this feeling...or a mix of many feelings - sudden truth, happiness..I can't really put it into words. Billy said later when I told him that it was the feelings of a broken heart and contrite spirit. I was moved to tears standing there folding laundry and listening to King Benjamin's speech...and I can't even say why or what exactly he was saying at the time that caused me to be touched so much...it was just a sudden burst of feelings and emotions.

Back to Elder Holland's talk...I loved all of it, but some of my favorite quotes was the one he quoted from his grandfather: “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”

But the most convincing part of his talk was about when Joseph Smith and his brother were in jail and about to be executed. This is what Elder Holland said about that:
"Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor.⁹ Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon."

Anyway, I just had to share...and I'm all fired up to finish the rest of the Book of Mormon sooner rather then to continue putting it off. I feel the holy spirit when I read it, or listen to words from it, and that can't be denied or ignored...its just...the truth.

Not a happy monster...

I went to Goodwill today to see what kind of Halloween outfits I could put together for the boys. We're tired of spending $15+ on each boy every Halloween at Walmart or Target or whatever...we have too many kids for that. haha So last year I went to Goodwill and had each kid put together their own oufit for cheap.
It was great, they had fun, and we saved a ton of money.

This year I wanted to do it again, but we couldn't find the time for us all to go out together and look at costumes. SO...I thought I knew what the boys liked enough that I'd go out myself and find some costumes while the boys were in school.

I came back with what I thought was perfect for each boy...Alex is going to be a GI Joe or soldier, Brayden a "spider king" or spider wizard or something like that (dont ask! haha), and Owen a cute silly monster.

Alex seemed to like his, although I'm not done buying his outfit and still need a couple things. Brayden wanted to be something else but really warmed up to the spider wizard outfit and likes it now. However when Owen saw his....he fell apart.

He tried it on, and then cried and pouted and said he HATED IT! Billy and I couldn't stop from laughing. It was very reminiscent of the scene in the Christmas Story when the boy is made to put on the bunny outfit his grandma (or was it his aunt?) made him. LOL

So I HAD to take pictures....am I crazy, or was I right to think this silly monster outfit was super cute? Too bad Owen didn't think so...