Where is your Ami?

A Happy Day

Mouse in the house

We (meaning Jon) just flushed our second live mouse for the day. That makes four this month. Eek! I think/hope one of them was the little guy I saw scurrying across the dining room floor yesterday that we spent the next 45 minutes in a failed attempt to trap with a broomstick and towel. Oh wait...I think I just heard it in the wall. The one we chased was actually pretty cute. His name is Jerry.
The girls were pretty excited about seeing him. After I announced (okay, screeched) that there was a mouse all three of them came running into the kitchen where the four of sat watching and waiting for it to make it's escape from under the china cabinet. Rissie tried coaxing it out with a high pitched, "squeak, squeak."
After a little while, Lauren asked me, "Do you even know how to get a mouse? I mean, they don't even speak human." Ha ha.
Jon got in on the action and toweled off a few of the crannies where he might be able to escape. Then after a few minutes little Jerry dashed out from the cabinet and under the table along the tile floor. The girls all squealed, "There he is!" In an instant he'd made his way to us and while Jon kept him from heading the other direction he ran straight for me and with towel in hand I threw it over him and he was trapped! All eyes were glued to the towel heap as we slowly flattened it to determine where he was exactly - only to discover that Jerry was NOT there! Perplexed we sought out any possible escape and finally determined that he must have jumped over one of the cranny towels and flattened in one of the vertical cracks of the (solid) gate (that we use to keep Anna out of the kitchen and off the counters and cupboards).
About ten minutes later I saw it running towards me in the hallway and into the room where Jon and I were. We hurried around the room blocking off this and that and then chased it around the room for another 25 minutes or so. We almost had him a couple of times, but finally he escaped into a itty-bitty hole in the closet that is near non-existent.
I suspect that he is still in the wall (Jon plugged the hole with one of Kade's diapers.) I hate that there is mouse in our house, but the other part of me is proud of that little guy - he was so close to being a gonner-mouse so many times and probably so scared. When he finally escaped I was a little relieved that we didn't have to flush him. He really was so cute.

HAB HALUWEG

What a fun holiday Halloween has become. We had a couple parties this year to make up for not trick-or-treating (unfortunately, we didn't have the Sat. night option.) The pictures can speak for themselves, but both parties were a big hit. Our first party was at our friends, the Dunns (Sadie, Austin, and Kade's new buddy baby Derrick), house where we joined our other friends, the Cobias (Kelly, and Abby). We decorated cookies, had donut races, read stories, colored pictures, and ate lots of yummy food.
There was a great turn out to the ward party last night. We visited, while the kids decorated candy bags, hit the pinata, tossed pumpkin balls into witch caldrons, pinned something on the pumpkin...n' stuff, and last but not least the trunk-or-treating! Always a treat.
To celebrate the actual day of Halloween, we all had some yummy caramel apples after dinner courtesy of our downstairs neighbors. Oh yeah, and notice that candy in Rissie's hair? She did that minutes after she got out of the shower this morning. Yay. It was really stuck too, fortunately it wasn't gum - so it came out after a little while under steaming hot water in the bathroom sink.

HAB HALUWEG
-Lauren (5)

Happy Birthday Rissie...in July

Rissie turned 4 years old this year and had a wonderful birthday celebration. She got lots of fun presents and a celebration just like Anna's. Unlike Anna's, however, I didn't spend ALL day in the kitchen (as you will see from the picture of Kade with one of the giant subs). I thought we should take care of the family presents before all of the guests arrived so we did it first thing. I realize now that I should have at least brushed through her hair. ;) Oh well. We had yummy blueberry muffins for breakfast and sang to her so she could make her wish before opening her presents. A couple weeks later I made the same muffins before church and Lauren kept asking me whose birthday it was.


Each of the girls got a cute little umbrella to celebrate Rissie's birthday. They were a big hit and played with them all morning until it was too hot to stay outside. Too bad her birthday was in July; they would have been perfect a few months earlier.

Anna turned TWO...in May!

As an extension to Anna's birthday, here are a few more photos. She's so cute! We had a big party for her a couple of days before with some of our ward friends. It was a fun night with lots of great food. I cooked way too much that day and the night before. I had the biggest sweet tooth before and after Kade was born and all of the desserts I'd been craving were made for this party. We had cherry and apple bread braids, peanut butter bars, chip cookie brownies WITH the yummy chocolate syrup topping, rice crispy brownies, cherry cheesecake tarts, chocolate strawberries, graham crunch, feta artichoke dip, 7-layer dip, and the list goes on. My friends brought some yummy treats too, so needless to say, we had a great time. M-m-mm.

The sister missionaries were able to stop by and sing to the birthday girl. Sister Stokes (in red) is from Seattle, and after talking with her I think we concluded that her parent's are most likely in Jenny and Todd's stake. Cool. Oh and the gentleman on the far right moved to Provo in August with his new little fam to go to law school at BYU. His twin lives in Spanish Fork. Little FYI's for y'all.
Anna's has one friend in nursery, Florence Ojo. I can't get her to smile, but she is always adorable. Her mom, and my friend, served a mission in Utah not long after she was baptized.

Her actual birthday was spent with our family. She opened lots of presents, blew out her candle again, and had some left over brownie and ice cream for dessert. Her sisters opened some sunglasses that made it extra fun for everyone. Lauren's got the pose down. Rissie is probably still young enough that she'll forgive me for posting this one of her. ;)

Our sweet birthday girl trying out her new table the next morning with her new glasses and panties. Love her!

Birthdays

Happy birthday to Jon. He turned 32 yesterday. We had some friends over for Mexican food and had a great evening celebrating. The kids had a blast playing with their friends while our poor downstairs neighbors listened to them holler outside.
Jon is such a great husband and father. I don't know how I got so lucky and can't imagine loving him any more than I do right now.

Happy Birthday, Babe!

Anna's birthday was 4 months ago. Yikes.


Rissie's birthday was 2 months ago. I'll post that next.

First Day of School

This week started the first week of school for Lauren AND Rissie, and consequently Anna too.

(I wish this pic turned out clearer- ?)

I am teaching the girls at home this year. I am thrilled to have my girls home, but am disappointed for Lauren to miss out on kindergarten. She doesn't really know what she is missing and is super excited to be going to school with me as her teacher - little sweetheart!

Chicago has pockets of good and pockets of not good. Our house is in a good area but unfortunately the school is not. I've had too many people tell me how bad the school is to try it for myself. So, rather than try to "unteach" the stuff I don't want her to know yet, I will be teaching her all of the wonderful things a five -year-old should know. We are off to a fantastic start. I've had some dear friends help me with some ideas. I can't imagine it getting too tough, but they don't exactly teach dietitians how to capture the mind of a five year old. So any tips or advise you can offer will be welcomed, even appreciated. :)