Halloween 2008

Halloween this year has been lower key than usual. We usually go to the Pumpkin Patch and do pie afterward. We didn't go this year. Most of our energy has been spent on Prop 8 stuff and other drama. We took this picture at the Ward Halloween party on Wednesday. Elle is supposed to be a tiger, but when I went to put the face paint on she freaked out because she didn't want to get any in her eyes. I started putting it on to show her that it didn't hurt. Her response was, "That's stupid, mom" It turns out that Elle and her friend Ella both were cats. They look so cute together with their curly hair.

Once we got to the party, there was a face painting booth. I tried to convince her to wear whiskers and had them put some on Garrett to show her. No luck. Ethan was Mummy. It's a homemade costume cut from a bed sheet. There was some trouble keeping the bottom together, but for the most part he looked really good. For the trick-or-treating I did his eye makeup to look Egyptian. He got a lot of compliments. Hunter wore a store bought Captain Hook costume from two years ago when we did the Peter Pan theme. It is super flimsy and kept coming apart. Before we went out on Halloween I re-sewed the Velcro on the back of the shirt piece so it wouldn't keep falling off like it did at the party. I actually had to go hunting for it at the end of the party when I saw Hunter running around with the jacket flapping open and no shirt piece.
Ethan and his friend Nate were both Mummies. There were a pair of Jedi's who were also very good friends. I'm starting to think the kids planned to match one another and the adults find out the collaboration merely by chance.

Before Trick-Or-Treating I made a bunch of very healthy kid favorites. Grilled chicken, steamed broccoli with melted cheese, Caesar salad, and homemade rolls. We encouraged the kids to eat as much as they could so that once they had their haul of candy we could let them gorge without worrying too much about it. Micheal set up the pull out bed and let them sleep downstairs and watch a movie. Netflix had a "very long wait" on the Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin movie, so instead they watched Cars.

Primary Program

We went to the Church for the final Primary practice on Friday. It started at 2:15, but we didn't get there until 3pm. The kids were running around everywhere at the tail end of their Pizza party and Debbie (Primary President), usually very calm, looked like she'd had one too many kids ignore what they were supposed to be doing. We finally got some order and ran through the program.

Elle had a part singing "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam" with the other Nursery children. It was super cute! It's taboo to take pictures during sacrament meeting, so I was fortunate to get these during the practice.



The children all got up and said something about themselves. Hunter said, "I'm a good clown." Ethan said, "I'm a good artist." But most importantly (then all the children said together), "I am a child of God".

Despite the wiggles during the practice, the whole thing came together beautifully. It's always been my opinion that whatever Debbie is called to is done TOP NOTCH.

After the Primary program we had a Party in the Primary room with fruit, banana bread, veggies and dip. Then we had the kids watch The Testaments which showed what was happening on both sides of the world (Jerusalem & Americas) during Christ's ministry, death and Resurrection. It was especially wonderful for the kids to see how Christ visited his "other sheep" in the new world. I know it made a deep impression of my boys.

With the Primary Program over everybody in the Primary Presidency can finally take a deep breath. Phew!

The power of one

Extreme Silliness

All of my children had nicknames that just came into being when they were babies. Ethan was "Little Bear". Hunter was "Boudilee". Elle was "Princess". Garrett is officially "Rah-Rah". His name was borne from the sounds he makes when he's calling the Momma. It sounds like he's saying "Rah-Rah". So I'll call it back to him.

He has his own theme song to the tune of "La Cucharacha"

Oh little Rah-Rah
My little Rah-Rah
Rah Rah Rah Rah Rah Rah Rah
Oh little Rah-Rah
My little Rah-Rah
Rah Rah Rah Rah Rah Rah Rah

Garrett is one of the happiest, most sociable babies I've ever met. He will smile and "talk" to everybody. Baby flirting! When he's in the mood to talk at home, he will actually cry like his feelings are hurt if you don't sit and talk with him. And he does talk back. I'm sure he's inherited the K-family gene for talking and talking and talking. He's going to be unstoppable once he knows some words and dangerous when he actually knows what he's talking about!

The camera was on my chest while I was holding Garrett in the air, that's why it's not quite straight.

It's ALL Good

Garrett was in the process of going to sleep. He gets very relaxed and just "mushes" in my arms. Michael looked over and saw the expression on his face and HAD to take a picture. Last night Garrett had fallen asleep in my arms so I took him to Michael to hold. Eyes closed, sleeping it didn't take long for him to wake up and protest loudly that Mom was no longer holding him. Apparently babies come with a proximity meter that works in conjunction with a scent alarm.

[sniff....sniff....sniff] "Ah...sugar and spice. All is well. "

[sniff....sniff....sniff] "Man stink! ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!"

YES! Exactly!

Barbie Movies and crack

Barbie movies are like crack for 3 year old little girls. SERIOUSLY! We have pizza and a movie night on Fridays. Since Michael went to the temple after work and wasn't home yet I had the kids watch Fairytopia. I knew Michael wouldn't tolerate sitting through a Barbie movie. He barely made it through The Last Unicorn a few weeks ago. The other option was Nancy Drew. We'll probably save that for next week. Elle couldn't even eat her pizza she was so mesmerized by the screen. Half way through the movie I noticed she still hadn't touched her pizza. I had to remind her to eat.

Michael called when he got out of the temple to tell me he was on his way home. Elle realized it was him on the phone and excitedly said, "DAD! You're missing it!"

Her whole world is princesses, friends, clothes, doing it herself, helping mom, loving babies and of course...her hair. She gets complimented on it daily now. I combed her hair in the bath tonight and after I got all the tangles out she walked around gently stroking her hair saying, "So pretty". She insited that nobody mess up her hair.

Homeschooling as a team

I've connected with some other families who are doing homeschooling this year. This week we've had several group activities that have been very productive. Ethan thinks we're just doing fun stuff. He doesn't think it's school unless we're having his formal one-on-one lessons in math or phonics. I suppose that's good. He's learning and he doesn't realize that it's school because it's rather natural. On Tuesday we did beeswax sculpting at Amy's house. The older girls got frustrated quickly because you really had to work at it to get the wax soft enough to sculpt. The mom's just jumped in and set the example making some really neat things which interested the kids to try again. Elle loved the beeswax and took a little bit of each color home in a baggie. The smell was very unique. It smelled somewhat of honey, but it also had a woodsey, naturalness to it. Hunter didn't like it, but I thought it was very calming.

On Thursday we went to Tilden park in Berkley. There were three moms and one homeschooling dad who all went together. Between the four parents we had 9 boys (including Garrett) and only 2 girls, Elle and Hannah. It was really nice to have the Dad influence on all those boys. At one point Hunter had to be plucked out of a tree because while climbing it his foot got wedged between some branches.
The main attraction was the farm and the nature center. After lunch we went on a nature walk around the lake. It was only a mile, but Elle got really worn out.
It was also amazing to watch the boys go into the pack mode and just start running. Poor Hannah felt a little overwhelmed. I don't think Elle minded too much, because she's outnumbered most of the time anyway. It was nice for me to have some other grownups to talk to who are of the same mindset. We considered it so much of a sucess that we are planning more fieldtrips together.

Uncle Daniel meets Garrett

My brother Daniel came up from Southern Cal to visit. It's the first time he's been up since Garrett was born. The kids get SOOO excited whenever one of their uncles comes to play. He was super indulgent and let them climb all over him and his motorcycle. After dinner the first night he jumped up to do the dishes. Ethan said, "Why are you doing the dishes? That's MOM's job!" Without missing a beat Daniel said, "No, it's not her JOB. She does it because she loves you." Wow!

He only stayed for two days, but the kids loved every minute! I'm sure Garrett won't remember meeting Daniel for the first time, so I took LOTS of pictures!

VP debate

I started to listen to the Vice Presidential debate and after the first 20 minutes I couldn't take it anymore. It reminds me of that bit on the Simpsons.




The best part is the last 90 seconds. I've determined not to throw my vote away this election on one of the two the media is shoving down everyone's throats. Mathematically, the only way to throw your vote away is NOT to vote. I've looked up every candidate running for president and reviewed their platform.


Independent: Ralph Nader

Libertarian Party: Bob Barr Agree

Constitution Party:Chuck Baldwin Agree

Green Party: Cynthia McKinney

America's Independent Party: Alan Keyes Agree

Boston Tea Party: Charles Jay

Prohibition Party: Gene Amondson (main platform is for prohibition of alcohol )

Reform Party: Ted Weill

Party for Socialism and Liberation: Gloria La Riva

Socialist Party USA: Brian Moore

Socialist Workers Party: Roger Calero (born in Nicaragua, ineligible if elected)

For fun, take a quiz to match your preferences. I wouldn't read too much into the results, but it'll at least point you in the right direction.