Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! We are excited to celebrate this evening. The Wise Hero keeps saying "Candy!" She's learned really well.

On Sunday morning the Wise and Hopeful Heros needed to carry their stuffed animals around in the carriers that their aunt made for us. 

On Saturday we went to our ward party. We got to wear our costumes and we had a lot of fun. The ward here has a carnival games and then a chili and hot dog party. Alice loved throwing balls and I loved watching kids play a smash the carrot game. It was fun.

Here are our scary dragons:

And the whole family:

Saturday was a crazy busy day. We went to the San Diego Safari Park. It was a lot of fun. We went then because during the month of October kids got in for free. It was a great zoo, but a little bit more spread out than most zoos. We had a great view of this tiger. She was marching back and forth. We loved watching some tiger cubs playing together, but we didn't get a good picture because they were playing behind a tree.

The Wise Hero loved all the animals. And she had a great time. The Bug Hero and I survived pretty well but near the end, our stroller got a flat tire and so I pushed a difficult stroller and The Bug Hero carried The Wise Hero. And The Hopeful Hero struggled. She had to walk nearly a half a mile. The promise of candy at the ward party motivated her. We loved seeing the baby giraffe and the baby rhino. 

Too cute not to include:

This is at the beginning before we did all our walking. The kids loved playing and being there.

The Friendly Hero was chosen for Student of the Month. We are proud of him!

It was hard, because the girls mobbed him. He found it a little embarrassing. 

October 24th

We had a wonderful week. We got to go down to San Diego this weekend and visit with our Grandparents. We had a great time at their ward Halloween party. And we had such a great time, there were no pictures. That also could be about the fact that the Wise Hero refused to be put down. There were way too many new people around. It was really fitting that for Halloween I am a "Mother of Dragons" My shirt says that, and I spent the entire party holding my littlest dragon. We'll send out pictures next weekend. We have four dragons, one mother of dragons and a good knight.

On another note, while I'm used to carrying the Wise Hero around, I'm not used to that long consecutively, and my arms are really tired.

Grandma H made the girls these cute skirts. The Hopeful Hero loved wearing them for Grandma H and the Wise Hero refused to try it on. However the next day, for Stake Conference the girls loved matching and the Wise Hero refused to take it off. The delights of a two year old.

I also can't get over the Wise Hero's smile. She's really ramping up the cheese factors.

This past week at school there was the school book fair. When the book fair comes, the school invites the parents to come eat lunch with their kids. It's a great ploy to get us to buy books. (Not that I need a book fair to do that....but it's always fun.)

This is outside the book fair. And the best picture I got was this: only one kid looking at the camera. In all others, none of the kids looked at the camera. In their defense, it was really sunny out.

Mom Wins

I am celebrating. This past week, I have had several highs in parenting. And I'm choosing to celebrate them, instead of focusing on the real lows this week.

Peaceful and Friendly Heroes have decided that they LOVE reading. And it was super exciting. They take books for car rides longer than three minutes. (My favorite.) And they both have series that they are trying to read. And I had to take away books for twenty minutes so we could finish cleaning. I've arrived! I have to take a book away to help my kids focus!!! I tried not to dance with glee while I took away a book. I offered them tons of sympathy as I took it away and reminded them that as soon as the vacuuming was done, they would get them back. But inside I was so happy they have found the joy of reading!! I have succeeded!

The other super thrilling thing is that we have been playing Harry Potter a lot. The boys have been having bubble wand fights. They fight and shout spells like, "Finite!" "Alohamora!" "Desendo!" And "Eat Slugs!" They have also tried "Avada Kadavra." But they pronounce it, "Avada  Cadabra" Which is also amazingly adorable. The Hopeful Hero has joined in--she asks everyone to call her Hermione. The Wise Hero becomes Ginny and she calls me Sister Weasley. I get to call my daughter Hermione, and I get called Sister Weasley, who is one of my heroes. Life is really sweet right now.

These two things have carried me through shots, fat lips, fighting and screaming. (Just to remind you that we have normal lives.) And I'm counting these as a win. And savoring them. So, you can just address me as Sister Weasley. Life is so much better when you are a Weasley. Even without the house elf.

A Tour of the New Digs

We are beginning to feel settled. We don't have pictures up on our walls, but I know where things are in my kitchen and I know where the light switches are. It took about a week, but I am beginning to feel like this is my home now. And it feels great!

This is our dining room. It's a huge room that the first thing you see when you walk in the door. And it's not quite as dark as it seems. We put the table there, because it's the brightest area in the house. I'm embracing the red in the house and I put out my apple table runner. I feel so grown up in a house with a table runner.

 My new favorite place--we have a toy room that is not the first thing you see when you walk in the house. It's across from the kitchen, so I can have the kids play and enjoy their time while I am cooking. And this room is much darker than the living room. (On another note, I'm still figuring out my camera. Go figure.)

 Close contender for a favorite spot. It's my kitchen, that is a lot bigger than the one in Indiana. I love it. I love it. I also know where I unpacked things so it's not impossible to cook.

 This is one of my favorite things that I brought with me. She didn't want her picture taken, The Hopeful Hero makes us laugh lots. And is always running.

 My bedroom is also a great place to be. There is one more bookshelf to put up, but we just found the hardware for it yesterday. I love my books. And I also love that the quilt I made for my bed three years ago looks like it was totally planned for this house. Unforeseen gifts.

 The other most coveted place in our house--the garage. We are thrilled to have the garage. The kids love to play in it, and play along the side of the house while I am cooking. And the washing machine--because everyone needs to know where the massive amounts of laundry that I do are done. In fact, the little heroes all think that my favorite chore to do is laundry. Because I do at least one load a day. Some days I can do up to four and still have more to do the next day.

 We are enjoying living in Southern California. We miss our friends in Indiana, but The Bug Hero is enjoying his new job and we are enjoying making new friends. And all of us love the new house.