Boo!!

I'm soooo behind on my blogs. Somehow I need to find time to catch up every week instead of once every two months. I am going to quickly try to catch up and then, New Year's resolution -- not get behind anymore :-) Ha Ha.




So here is Adam holding up our traditional buttermilk pumpkin pancake with a chocolate chip face. I considered making a different breakfast for Halloween this year, but was very surprised when 14 yr. old Adam got very sad at the prospect of no Halloween pumpkin pancakes. That's the danger of doing the same thing more than once -- it suddenly becomes a sort of tradition. But, I'm glad the children look forward to our little traditions.

Here are some pictures of the children in their costumes. First is Adam. Adam didn't trick-or-treat, but he dressed up for a stake ym/yw dance and had a blast. (I still can't believe that I have a child old enough to go to stake dances -- and he actually loves to go!!) Adam was supposed to dress up like someone from TV. Can you tell what his costume is?............................. The money you could have saved with Geico !!!Kamri did not dress up, but she came to help me trick-or-treat with the little kids.

Jairin dressed up like a spy -- all in black-- but he didn't get a picture taken.


I'm getting worn out. I used to stay up all night the night before Halloween sewing costumes. Now, two days before Halloween, I say, "Look in the dress-up tub and find a Halloween costume." Bad Mommy. In my defense, however, all my late nights from previous Halloweens have effectively filled up our dress-up tub and there are A LOT of choices. And I am glad to see some of the previous costumes reused considering that I did spend a lot of time and money making them.

Here is Miri -- dressed as a very rich and affluent lady..........


Aria dressed as Queen Celeste (from the Babar the Elephant Books for those of you who don't know who Queen Celeste is)............

Joelle, the kangaroo..................

And Lana, the pink piggie.....................

Rob stayed home (with Caroline and Kainoah who were both sleeping) and made his famous spudnuts. I drove down the mountain with the other kids to trick-or-treat with some friends from our ward. It was a great neighborhood for scoring on the candy. Some gave whole candy bars.

One lady handed out to EACH child, a ziplock baggie (containing a granola bar, a Rice Krispie treat, Oreos, pretzels, Play-dough, a Ring pop, a Fun-dip , raisins, M&Ms and couple other kinds of candy), a glow-stick necklace, a package of chips, a coloring book and crayons and a cold Capri-sun juice from a cooler she had waiting for the children. Wow!! Going to just her house would have almost been enough. Maybe we'll start there next year. Now she is someone who is serious about Halloween!

The kids got too much candy, as usual. This pile of candy filled a big trash bag half-way.

We ate candy for a few days, but then Rob decided we needed to get rid of it more quickly. So, he collected all of the chocolate candy bars and M&Ms and chopped them all up into big chunks. Then he made a HUGE batch of Deb's Deli cookies and used the candy instead of chocolate chips. We weren't sure how they'd turn out, but they were very yummy. Each cookie had a different surprise. They were a big hit at home, at school and at church. What we didn't need, we froze into cookie dough balls to be popped into the oven for fresh cookies at a later date. It was a great way to quickly get rid of the candy without the children feeling we were getting rid of it. :-) I think we've found a new tradition -- Halloween candy bar cookies.

We even managed to buy and carve pumpkins this year.

Jairhail Brantishnikov

or not!!

Where's Waldo..... I mean, Jairin?

What to do with a baby brother,,,,,,,,

Play house......

..and make him be the baby........

feed him to the lions.........

(Kainoah seems rather resigned to his fate.)

smother him.........

(This is no joke, Kainoah.)

play hide and seek.............or maybe just smother him some more.

She's finally a Tween

We celebrated Miri's 10th birthday on Oct. 20th. She has been waiting for a long time to have two numbers in her age. After stuffing ourselves on 2-for-1 foot-long Subway sandwiches, Miri's choice for dinner, we had a party.

This is Miri opening her presents. Her big present was a nice scrapbooking kit. The children are always asking me when I'm going to work on their scrapbooks. lol!! The last time I did that was when Miri was tiny, before Caroline, who is a time-sponge, came along. Nine years ago, I was actually up-to-date in my scrapbooking. Now I don't even know where the scrappy books are. (Back then, we called them "scrappy books" because the Tigger Movie had just come out and that's what Tigger called them.) So, I'm relinquishing my scrappy book duties to the girls who have time and who love to do it. Maybe I'll have them make my scrapbook too. :-)

Miri chose Italian cream cake for her dessert. Now that is some goooooood frosting! We had to light the candles twice because she "blew" it the first time. :-)

This is Miri (and Joelle and Kainoah) wrapped up in her new Snuggie-- a blanket with arms so that she can read and still stay warm. Funny -- needing a Snuggie in Hawaii, but the nights are starting to get chilly up here on our volcano.

SERENITY

Kainoah at 3 months

Well, no matter how good my intentions are, I just cannot seem to find time to blog more than once every couple of months. And by then, so much has happened, that it takes me hours to finish blogging. It would probably be easier with fewer children, but I always have to make sure no one is left out, except for Kamri who begs and pleads with me to leave her out. So these are some pictures of baby Kainoah in his new Aloha wear, compliments of our dear NC friends, the Hubands. Thank you Huband family!!

This is the face baby Kainoah makes when he is trying hard to "talk."

He is a very very happy and content baby. Even though I'm nursing, he sleeps from 5 to 7 hrs. every night, our first baby to do so. This is a very good thing considering that Joelle and Ellanne usually wake up in the middle of the night. One night, Joelle got up five times and Ellanne got up two times, but baby Kainoah slept on and on, through all the commotion. He is living up to his name of "angel of rest." He will also sleep in his swing for 4 or 5 hrs. a couple times a day. When he is awake, though, he likes attention. He likes to be in the thick of things, not playing by himself in a corner. If we put him on the floor, he will crane is neck back as far as he can, trying to catch a glimpse of someone. And then the second he makes eye contact, his face lights up in a beautiful toothless smile. He loves to smile.

This is Kainoah the jail bird.