So Much to Blog About

So, obviously I have been a total blogger slacker. And I'm trying to get caught up. And that's why I'm posting about Halloween in January. But my lack of posts is not because there is nothing to blog about. Because there's a lot to blog about. A lot. We had a very busy fall here at lelu's house. Here's a few of the highlights. Some of them will get a post of their own eventually but most will not. We'll start with October.

Matt and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.
Caveman turned 13.
Matt's final semester of nursing school was in full swing. His clinical schedule was insane and he still held down a full time job. We did not see him. At all.
Caveman auditioned for All State chorus. Didn't make it this time. He's looking forward to next year.
Baby started going to the nursery at church. Making Sundays much more pleasant for me.
Matt's mom came for a visit from Connecticut.
School and church parties for Halloween.
And of course Halloween.

Then in November.
A weekend trip to Ami's.
Getting ready for the primary program.
Christmas shopping.
Matt is still crazy busy.
I'm thinking about starting an etsy shop. Bought lots of fabric and made lots of blankets. There will definitely be more to come on this.
Thanksgiving. Brent and Tracy came down with their kids and spent the day. We fried our turkey and ate very well. It was a great day.
November went by very fast. And is a total blur to me. I'm sure there were lots of other things that happened too. On to December...

We decorated for Christmas.
The girls had their Holiday Concert.
Matt's mom came.
We had our piano recital. A Polar Express recital. Complete with hot chocolate and Santa's sleigh bells.
Baby learned to say no. And he says it very well.
Matt took his final exams.
Matt's dad came.
My parents came.
Matt Graduated!!!! He was elected by his class to speak at graduation. He did an awesome job.
We had a party.
Caveman had a Holiday Concert.
We went to Memphis.
Kirk came home from his mission.
We came home from Memphis. For just two days. I made Christmas pj's. Seven pairs.
Went to a Christmas Partay.
We went to Alabama to spend Christmas with my family. ALL of them. Twenty kids. Twelve adults. One recently returned missionary. All under one roof.
Spent the wee hours of Christmas Eve morning in the emergency room with Matt. He has an ulcer. One that bleeds a lot apparently.
Still had a wonderful Christmas.
Kids had a lot of play dates and sleepovers.
Spent New Years Eve with good friends.

This week...
Sent the kids back to school.
Took Baby to the doctor. He has two ear infections and a sinus infection. Poor baby.
Lost two and a half hours of my life to the DMV.
Went to Maggiano's for the first time. Celebrated Davin's birthday with the Jagnandan's. That place was amazing. We ate ridiculous amounts of food and still somehow managed to bring home enough to feed a complete meal to our ENTIRE family. And it was sooo delicious. And the company was good too.
Today was a snow day. The kids got two days of school in then lucked out with a three day weekend. And boy oh boy it is cold!

So those are the highlights. Of course there was lots of driving kids to and fro, school projects, sick kiddos and the like to add the craziness. Baby keeps learning more words and Rockstar keeps losing teeth. And life is good. Really good. And I am blessed. And grateful.

Halloween

Better late than never right? Halloween was great this year. Cold and wet but still great. We went Trick or Treating with the Marlers. Then went to Red Robin for dinner, a fun tradition we started last year. After dinner we made a stop at the Pirate Ship before heading home to bed. Caveman is too cool for us and did his own thing this year. We all had a lot of fun and had TONS of candy to show for it.

I made most of the costumes this year. Cowboy's was a leftover from when Caveman was his age. And Baby's was a hand me down from Cowboy. So all I had to do was make an orange m&m, a pirate costume and a seventies super hero. No problem right? Like usual, I was pinning stuff together on the way out the door but they all looked great.



Baby was going through a serious peek a boo phase at the time.

Red Ribbon Week

It's the week at school when the kiddos get to dress up. There is a different theme each day. My kids dress up sometimes. Sometimes they don't. But this year Caveman REALLY got excited for tacky day.



Lookin good Caveman. Lookin good!

Teenage Caveman

So it happened. On the fourth of October I became the mother of a teenager. Crazy. Months later, I'm still not sure how it happened. But it did. Here's the rundown...

With a birthday in the first week of October, it falls on Conference weekend pretty often. He went to priesthood session on Saturday night, got home late and stayed up until midnight so he could turn thirteen and open a facebook account. Then he had to take a cool profile picture. Then edit the cool profile picture then search for friends and request friends. And he was up really late.

We spent his birthday watching General Conference. Then had his birthday dinner (he requested stir-fry). Then he took a nap on the couch. That hasn't happened since he was like two.



While he was napping I made cupcakes. Super chocolaty chocolate cupcakes.



He really likes chocolate so the cupcakes were chocolate with chocolate chips with chocolate frosting with chocolate sprinkles.



Yeah, it was a lot of chocolate.

We sang Happy Birthday,



He blew out the candles,



Then he opened his presents. He really wanted a cell phone.



We gave him some chocolate. Then told him he could have another present if he could find it. SO the girls helped him and they found it pretty quick.



He was very excited.



Over the next ten days he racked up 1500 text messages on that phone. And it this point in time I think it has permanently fused to his hand. Oh, the joys of having a teenager in the house.

Happy Birthday Caveman!!! We love you!!!!

And baby LOVED your cupcakes.