Updating finally -- ( warning: it's long...)

It's Quiet Time at our house right now -- this occurs after lunch when I put Lissy down for a nap, and send the girls downstairs to quietly watch a movie or read books, so I can have MY quiet time!

I've been putting off updating my blog for so long now -- one reason I've not been motivated is because my digital camera broke & I'm so lost without it! Sob. Well, it's just not the same -- not as fun without pictures! But I do have a few borrowed pictures. So, let's begin!

Kate got baptized on Oct. 10th, along with about twenty other 8 year olds. We had never attended a Stake Baptism before, but I think it went pretty smoothly. My neighbor, Shelly, and her daughter, Elisa came; plus all my in-laws, and Dave & Annie and Daniel drove up that day to be there, too! I misplaced my camera that afternoon, but Colene snapped some pictures of Kate and shared them with me. Here's Kate before, and after with Jim:




Let's see: the next event was my friend, Sharon's bridal shower. That was on the 16th of October. It was held at my sister, Cristeen's house in Chandler. I drove down that day (kids were out early for P/T conferences -- which went well, BTW!). Anyway, the shower was fun -- good food, good company, fun games, etc. We spent the night at Cristeen's, then took the kids to a park that morning for awhile before I headed out to Buckeye to spend the rest of the time. I have a few pictures of the kids playing at a fountain at the park:





I got to stay in Buckeye till the 20th since it coincided with the kids' Fall Break. Some highlights were visiting Misty & her new baby girl; doing some thrift store shopping and buying lots of books that were 1/2 off! So excited! What else? Oh yeah, my Grandma Pace was staying at my parents' house for a week or so at the same time, so my kids got to spend time with their great-grandmother. Oh, and my sister, Sandy & family stopped in on the way back from California on that Saturday and visited also. It was a fun visit and relaxing, too! Here's a pic of my girls with their great-grandma:



Let's see -- Saturday, the 24th the kids had a Fall Festival -- kind of a little Halloween carnival at the high school. The kids dressed up, and then went around playing games & stuff. I had Jim take a picture of the girls on his cellphone, and then email it to me, but it never showed up, so who knows what happened to it... Anyhow, Brynna won a cake for us on the Cake Walk -- she picked the biggest one she could find! And we ate it all in 2 days! Not that I'm bragging or anything...

Okay, so the 29th, we piled back into the car and drove down to the valley for Sharon's wedding. I was planning to leave the night before, but it had snowed 2-3 inches the night before that and hadn't melted yet, and I was afraid the Rim would be so much worse, so I left Thursday morning instead. I was so surprised to see that Snowflake had more snow than Heber or on top of the mountain -- it was just a dusting there. Really weird, since it's usually the other way around!

Anyhow, this time we stayed at Annie's and she watched my kids while I attended the wedding -- which was really nice. It's so cool that Sharon's married now after waiting for so many years! The reception was held that night, and Annie watched the kids again, and took them to a neighborhood Halloween carnival. I dressed them up again for that, except for Brynna, who went with me to the reception. Here's a pic of my girls & Daniel all dressed up and ready to go:



So, the next morning I re-packed the car, and headed out to Buckeye; I stopped at my friend, Sonnia's house to visit on the way. She's a friend from high school that I haven't seen for probably about 5 years -- it was really nice to visit with her!

I forgot to mention that I had brought a ton of pinto beans that I've had laying around, and soaked them all at Annie's house. I ended up filling 3 stock pots full of soaked beans to take with me to bottle at my mom's house. So Friday when I finally got to Buckeye, we spent the day bottling beans. Then that evening, the kids got dressed up again to go to a Halloween Trunk or Treat at my parents' church. My dad took a picture of them, but I don't have it yet.

Saturday morning was spent bottling the rest of my beans, then I headed back to Snowflake in the afternoon, and dressed up the girls one more more time to go trick or treating that evening! I'm so glad that's over with!

And now it's November...

I'm not baby-sitting anymore, which has been kind of bittersweet. It's nice to just have my two to deal with at home (during school), but at the same time I kind of miss the other 2 girls that I got to take care of. Lissy was a nightmare with the other 2 year old, and was really aggressive towards her, but now she tries to boss Kira around and gets really mad when Kira doesn't want to play with her. I'm thinking about starting potty training with her (Lissy) -- I'm so sick of changing her poopy diapers -- she's had some really rotten ones, and like 4x a day! Am I still writing? Enough already! I'll end :)