Joy school ghouls

My friends (there are 5 of us in the group) have started doing Joy school for our 3 year olds. We got the curriculum from online www.valuesparenting.com and we teach one week, then we rotate who teaches. So far it has been great. The kids LOVE it, and I am loving it, I learn the weeks that I am teaching, I have made some really great friendships with the other moms, and I have 5 weeks off after I teach. I just can't say enough good stuff. So these are two pics from the Halloween program they had for the parents. They did a little parade in their costumes and then they sang some songs, so cute!

8th annual halloween party...minus two years

Okay, Darrin and I love Halloween. Candy, costumes, food, what else is there? Since our early years of marriage we have vowed to have an annual adult (adult was only added after the kids started coming) Halloween party.
Unfortunately with a few moves here and there we missed the last two years, but now were back! This is a pretty big deal for us, I even rescheduled my wisdom teeth extraction, so that it wouldn't be too close to the party.
This year, was a GREAT group! We had a blast, costumes are always required and this is what showed up at our front step...

Waldo & Wenda

Rocker & Witch
Hunter and Deer

Mouse & The Trap

Scary monster & Construction worker

Sarah Palin & John McCain

The Hippies

For reputation sake I won't mention any names...but I will say that Gary's red pants were the highlight of the night (oops, sorry Gary).

So fun...can't wait to see who will show up next year.

The Husband Babysitter

Have you ever noticed when your husband is watching your kids people always say, "So is your husband babysitting?" why is it called babysitting when it's the husband but, parenting when it's the mom? Well after a couple of "babysitting" days of Darrin watching the girls, I found some great pics on the camera. I realized that it is more of babysitting when dad watches them, they play, wear messy pajamas, and there are usually dirty dishes still in the sink!

Against my will

I was so happy for the day when Eden's hair got long enough to put in piggies, barrettes, anything other then a bow headband. Don't get me wrong I love the headbands but it's just fun when they have enough hair to actually do something with. With that said let me show you a picture of what Eden's hair looked like when we went to music class yesterday...

So are you wondering where her cute barrette or ponytail went? Yea, me too. This has now become my big battle, keeping hair things in Eden's hair. She is notorious for ripping them out the minute I set her on the floor after doing her hair. If I'm nearby I of course put it right back in, which leads to about 10 re-dos, but what about the times when we are rushing around for, let's say, music class and as I pull her out of the car I notice her looking like the above photo. Or the times when she rips it out during church on dad's watch and I pick her up from her nursery class, looking like the above photo. It's beyond me at this point.

Why can't I just have the sweet little ponies?

Thou shalt not covet....thy sister's lipgloss

While in Florida I thought it would be a good idea to get the girls some presents. I found these cute little animal lip glosses. Knowing my oldest would want whatever animal Baylie got, I choose the same animal. Leave it to Jaya to discover 2 days ago that the lip glosses are different colors. So for the past 2 days I have been hearing nothing but how Baylie's lipgloss is prettier. I first started out ignoring the disappointment but when she started explaining how they were different and how once again that Baylie's was prettier because it had more sparkles, I had to turn to more drastic measures...the scriptures. I quoted from the top of my head, Duet. 5:21 which says ...Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife. She instantly wanted to know what covet means which I explained means wanting something that's not yours. Has it solved the problem? Yes and no. She still thinks Baylie's is nicer, but she is definitely not talking to me so much about it, and when she does I just say the scripture over again.

I may have this put on my wall somewhere, just so we're very clear on this issue, if it's starting with lipgloss I can only imagine where we might be in the future.

"No really, she fell down the stairs."

This is Darrin and this is my first attempt at Blogging. I feel obligated to post this one only because if I didn't someone might turn me in for spousal abuse. For the record Darcy's eye was cut when we went with some of our friends to the lake. Our friend was teaching each of us how to surf the wake of the boat. It took me several tries but I was finally successful and managed to get up a few times. Darcy followed me and was much quicker at getting up out of the water but the problem was, that she doesn't sink like I do. When I would fall I would always sink very deep, I kept waiting to touch the bottom of the lake which never came. Darcy on the other hand dropped in and popped back up before her surfboard did and so as soon as she came up the board hit her right in the face, by her eye. Next thing I knew she had a thick stream of blood coming down the side of her face. She didn't even realize the severity of her injury because she was positioning herself to go again when one of our friends pulled her out of the water. Sadly, she spent the rest of the day in the boat while I rode on the tube with our girls.

The part that made this even worse is that the next day was the primary program and she had to sit up on the stand with this big white butterfly bandage on her face. I was asked by every member of the Bishopric what had happened. Trying to explain getting hit by a surfboard at a lake is a lot harder than it seems!

I still think that she is so beautiful.

Week-long bliss...

We just returned home (reluctantly I might add) from an amazing vacation in Destin, Florida. Five couples including us, left the kids at home (thanks mom!) and headed for a beach house. We had so much fun.

Good food, good activities and GREAT company.

Darrin and I on the plane, headed for Pensacola Florida.

This was the boardwalk that lead from our house to the beach, AMAZING!

Darrin and I enjoying the beach.

All the ladies; Johanna, Stephanie, Me, Sarah & Laura

Us ladies at the beach.

The men; Erik, Kenny, Dan, Ben & Darrin

(sorry the pic is so far away, just know they are adorable!)

Darrin getting ready to snorkel, yes...the guys did think taking kitchen knives was a good idea, I'm glad the ladies came home and talked some sense into them!

Go karting, need I say more...so fun!

Wave runners. This was one of the best activities that we did. Apparently I was the only one that didn't get the memo on not taking your camera so mine was shattered on this ride.

I just want to thank the Babbels for planning this trip. We also have some good sayings around our house now and our girls can thank Sarah for the rest of eternity for introducing them to "Put your big girl panties on and deal with it!" I love it...we miss all of you!