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. :)

Nestle's Quick in Anna's Nose

I thought this was funny - where is my compassion? Poor thing.


side note: I always told myself that I would never be THAT mom who let her kids run around without their clothes on. Well, I am still that mom, but this little sweetheart takes them off just as soon as I turn around. Seriously, I probably put her clothes back on three or four times a day.

New Family Pics

We took some family pictures a couple of months ago but they haven't taken priority. So, now that Jon finished his test on Saturday (YAY!!) I've had a little more time to relax and finally pick out some favorites. These first pictures are just for fun or the runner ups. I wish we had a picture for Anna and Kade that where more what WE get to see, but I'll take what I can get. We were melting by the time we finished the family shots. :)

Mormons Seeking Rent / Cured

Funny Story. Jon was headed out to a meeting Sunday and our neighbor two houses down from us yelled, "Hey Doctor!" Jon finished putting his stuff in the car and went to meet him. This neighbor is hardly ever around, so I'm pretty sure this was a first time meet. After a simple greeting, our neighbor asks, "You're Mormon, aren't you?"
"I am." Jon replied.
"Well, I've got this great place for rent if you and your family would like to move in. I'll make it worth your while." He then proceeded to tell Jon all of the accommodations and attributes of his house.
For any of you not aware, I found our place now on craigslist (after weeks of searching everyday). When I called on it the owner immediately guessed that we were Mormons when his caller ID read an "801" number. As it turns out, he was a Mormon too (we've since become good friends). He bent over backwards to get us into this place, but as we see it, this place was handed to us with a big red bow and a tag the read, "Your Welcome."
So back to our neighbor, Jon told him how great our Landlord has been to us and how much his wife did NOT want to move again. (Thanks Jon ;) He was persistent on us moving in, but in the end left the offer open if we were ever interested.
I couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of how just being a Mormon provided us this great place to live AND offers on the table! I told Jon that the next time we move somewhere I'm just going to place an ad: "MORMONS SEEKING RENT", might save me some time searching. Ha ha!

***

Now, in reference to my previous post. I should probably clarify that I am doing much better. In fact, life is great. I probably shouldn't have vented my feelings on the blog, my poor worried mother-in-law was ready to put us on a plane and save me from my problems (she's so sweet). Unfortunately, flying on an airplane with four little kids and living out of a suitcase in somebody else's house doesn't exactly cure chaos, at least not in my book. My problems, are four sweet little munchkins, whom I love and adore, so here or there they are still with me. :) I've just discovered that I'm not allowed to get sick and expect to remain sane or at least have any order left in my house! As it stands, my house is back together, I am back together, and we're all happy.