Klara's New Bedroom

If you can look past the pack in play, then Klara's room is all done. My parents came up this past weekend for the b-day celebrations and we were able to finish her room. Mom had a great idea of putting the butterflies on each of her letters for her name. So precious. It only took 5 years of living here to complete their rooms. Don't ask about the master. Still not done.

Those things on the walls are more butterflies, and there are some on the picture frame too.

I would love to hand a purple boa and purse on the knobs here, but the 3 yr old would never leave it alone. She doesn't understand "decoration only"....nor should she have too. So the temptation is not there. However, I can see it in my mind.

Kaleb's Birthday Party

Since Kaleb and I share the same b-day, we celebrate on 2 different days. So he has his day and I get mine. Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy to share the day with him, but it only seems fair that he gets a day all to himself. We try to make this a costume party so the kids get to wear their halloween outfits more often. (Mom's get a trail run too) Klara is Cinderella and Kaleb is Iron Man.

Group Shot. A few moms in the pic too since the little ones were a little overwhelmed with our wild bunch.

And how cute is this pic???!!!??!? We had not 1, not 2, but 3 princesses at his party. This was not planned, but we had Snow White, Aurora and Cinderella.

My B-day and Pumpkins

My parents made the trip here to help us celebrate my b-day. I love Clif's face in this. He was trying to trick me that he was going to blow them out......not with my big mouth!! Please note....this will be the last pic of .....the pumpkins. Now before you applaude, keep in mind all the love that went into these stupid things. The 3 on the left were the ones we managed to keep alive. It was almost sad to cut into them. This year, Kaleb did his all by himself. Klara told me where to cut. Mine I used the stem as the nose. Then we take the pic with all of us behind our own pumpkin.

I loved my dad's mouth in the pic above...so I had to publish both pics.

Pre-Ballet Class

Yeah, my little girl wanted to be a ballerina. Off to target we went and she picked out this dress. Practices are on Thur evenings and they are rehearsing for their Christmas Recital. Oh, I can't wait. The little girls are going to be snowflakes with the full tutu and all.......

She loves the skirt part the best and plays with it even during class.

She LOVES her teacher who is a princess in her eyes. She just stares at her and copies her every move and I mean every. So if the teachers uses her hands to fix Klara's feet, then Klara does the same thing. She even copies her princess down the the fingers (best she can).

Part of the rountine they are learing. Really, mom didn't cry (but I got realllllly close). She did a great job and followed insturctions to the "T" We have worked on the parts she learned and we'll see how good she did at her practice tonight. I want to add, Kaleb did really well too. We talked about whos turn it is now since he's done soccer and t-ball. So he took his hand held game system with games and headphones and sat there the whole time. Afterwards, I took them to McD's for a special treat. I hope they understood that we won't do this every time....I really hope.

Fall Crafts

Kaleb so badly wanted the fake spider webs last year (and I didn't), so we made sure we did this year. He had such a great time helping me with the fake spiders too. We made the ghosts this year out of our trash bags. Much more rain/snow friendly.

Kaleb made our Thankful Tree this year. This is something I've wanted to do but felt the kids were too young in the past. So this year it's up.

When looking at the next pic, please remember I'm not an artist and I admit this. I figured it was get covered up and enhanced by the leaves we will add to it. (good thing the tree doesn't have feelings...it really looks awful)

Next project. A little friend came over so it was time to have craft time to keep them all busy and out of trouble. So we made Jack-o-Lanterns. Pretty easy and mom can't mess it up.... well not too bad anyways.

Fire Part 2

Some of these were taken today. Still too windy to bring the air bombers in so they brought back the helicopters.
Another one of our drives to check on it, this is the freeway.

Air bombers from Saturday morning.

As of today, the fire is 10% contained. They are working really hard to not let the fire come over the top of the mountain. It would then impact town more and all our communication towers. Thanks to all who have shown concern for our family. At this time, we are still safe and away from danger. Please continue to hold our town and those working the fire in prayer for safety.

Our Fire 2009 Part 1

Our town is 3 miles from a wild fire. We have been takng drives to see what's going on. Clif got these pics off the freeway. This is the back side of the mtn next to town.
Our sunset Friday night due to the smoke.

From our driveway.

This is what we were in all day Friday. Sat and Sun was not as bad, but Fri was awful.

Halloween This Year

Iron Man and Cinderella.

Pumkins

They came off. It was too cold at night to leave them outside. Kaleb got a few pics of me cutting them off and now they go in and out from the garage and they are slowly changing colors. We've lost a few of the small ones, which I figured we would. I hope to keep these 3...just a few weeks to go.

Paper and Yes, More Pumpkins

This is our pic from our local newspaper...notice the little ones in front as our kids. I'm in there too but harder to pick out. Look 3-4 people to Klara's left...I'm there with the light colored shirt and dark shorts. Last night it got to 22 degrees....Brrr anyone??? This is the result of the pumpkins. They look more like wilted spinach leaves. It's supposed to be warmer tonight....27.

This is the most color I have and it's on the largest one. Hummm, what to do now??? Back to the internet for Pumpkin Growing 301 and everything I read says to move them to a warmer place. So, I guess I know what I'll be doing in 30 minutes.

More green pumpkins. But cut them up and put a candle in them and no one will know the difference.....except you.