Letters

Dear Fall Weather,
Thank you for easing me into winter. You make leaving the summer more bearable. And I am loving the chance to sit by the fire and read to the kids. It was really very thoughtful for you to stick around a while.

Dear Annie,
I love that you sing things more than you say them. I love the words you get confused...like calling tomatoes potatoes and potatoes tomatoes, and then, since you got tired of asking me which was which, you just started calling them tah-pay-toes. Please don't ever learn the right way to say it.

Dear House,
Where's my nesting energy now? All I want to do at night is sit around. And it shows. Well, you were clean for a little while. A very little while. Maybe once I get enough enthusiasm for Christmas decorating, you'll look pretty once again.

Dear Wheat and Dairy and Sugar,
I miss you. Not nearly as much as I feared I would, but still, I do miss you.

Dear Tyler,
Even though I sometimes act frustrated, I actually really love how you can get so wrapped up in a book that you honestly can't hear a thing I am saying when I'm two feet away. I love how you will finish one book when we're at the library, another one on the way home, and two more before you go to bed--if they're about 100 pages or so--if they're any shorter, you'll read a lot more. I love that I just found a huge list of books to fill your appetite for reading, and I love that they have almost all of them at the library! Thank you for sharing your love of reading with your brothers and sister and for being so excited to read your favorite books out loud to them too.

Dear Laundry,
There's just so much of you. And you never stop needing to be washed. And dried. And folded. And put away. Is it really too much to ask for you to all be clean at once? Or for you to wash yourself?

Dear Thanksgiving,
Who knew that you would be more fun when I was doing all the planning and the work instead of just enjoying the food? I never would have guessed!! But last year was great, and I sure am excited for you to come again this year!

Dear Robby,
Do you know that I've never seen another kid who will sit and hold a baby for as long as you will? Even when Annie was born and you were only three, you would just sit and hold her and stare at her for so long. Thanks for being so willing to hold Luke so often and for loving him so much. You're going to be such a great dad!

Dear Running,
Welcome back! I know we're going much slower and shorter than we used to, but at least we're going! It's nice to have you back.


Dear Luke,
It still amazes me how absolutely irresistible a baby's smile can be, and a baby's smell, and a baby's soft skin, and even a baby's frown...especially yours. Thank you for staying small longer than any of your other siblings. It means so much to me. Thank you for being so sweet and sleeping so well and staying so calm through all of our craziness. Are you trying to avoid being the youngest child? Because right now you're doing a pretty amazing job of convincing me to have a dozen more babies just like you.

Dear Christmas,
How has it possibly been a year since you were here? You are my favorite holiday. And so I am working hard to really, really enjoy you this year. I know I always say this, but I am going to keep things simple this year. Really, I am. Now I just have to decide which things to cut out. Thank you for being the highlight of winter-time. I'd like it if you stayed around a little while longer. I think maybe we should start celebrating you now, and continue on through January (because-- don't tell January--but it really is kind of a let-down after December).

Dear Andrew,
I miss you. Las Vegas can't possibly be more fun than me, can it? Please come home. Five days is five days too long to go without seeing you.


With Love,
RMP

Healthy Halloween?

I feel a bit like the Grinch to admit this, but I don't love Halloween. I think I could almost love it--of course autumn is an incredibly gorgeous time of year; dressing up is so much fun; pumpkins are really quite charming--but it's that CANDY, all that CANDY that I can't quite get along with. I know as a kid that's the most fabulous part (did you watch the Seinfeld clip?!)...but as a parent, I always dread the inevitable sickness and crankiness that hits our family after we've taken that hit of sugar every Halloween. And yet, who wants to be the parent who keeps their kid from having the fun?

I have tried different strategies every year, but so far none of them have quite worked as well as I had hoped. For example, I'll never forget that one year that I let the boys (Annie was still a baby) have complete control over their candy and eat it whenever they wanted. I don't remember if I gave them a certain number of days of freedom before their candy would disappear, but it didn't really matter. Robby's candy was GONE in less than 48 hours. Several pounds of candy literally GONE. I was checking his bag of candy to see how much he had consumed (I think I became a little concerned when he did not eat one meal for the entire day) when I realized that every wrapper in there was empty. Whoever had recommended that plan to me (thinking that kids can only eat a certain amount of candy before feeling sick and stopping themselves) obviously did not know the limits of Robby (or Seinfeld!).

But the years when I took complete control over the candy and handed out a little bit at a time didn't go so well either. Every single day, multiple times a day, I was asked for just one piece or just one bite of candy. And it lasted and lasted and lasted. I know it should get to the point where I just throw it away, but I have this thing about my kids' stuff. I feel a responsibility to protect it, even if I've taken control over it. I feel like it's still theirs, and I can't throw it away without their permission without feeling incredibly guilty, especially when they come to you the next day (or month) and so sweetly ask, "Mom, what happened to my________?" It just feels like my job to protect my kids, and somehow that has also led into protecting their things as well. Does anyone else feel that way?

So I had been dreading this Halloween because I didn't have a plan for the candy that I was excited about. Luckily I ran into a friend of mine the day before Halloween and we started talking. Their family is a no sugar family (I mean that none of them ever eat any white sugar at all.), so I was asking how she handled the holiday. She told me that her kids all go trick-or-treating and when they return, they do a trade. She buys healthy treats and small toys that her kids trade in their candy for. Then they save all the candy to make gingerbread houses. Cool, huh?

So we tried it this year, and it worked really well. We didn't force them to trade, and we had a few hard bargainers (I had to throw some money into the deal by the end!), but everyone ended up happy. We did let our kids keep a few pieces of candy that they were free to eat whenever they wanted as well. And Andrew and I started a two week cleanse (part of which includes no sugar) right after Halloween, so that's kept us from eating it all ourselves! I think we've finally found our Halloween plan. We can't wait to make some crazy gingerbread houses! How do you guys handle the candy??

Despite my concerns about the candy,

WE HAVE HAD A LOT OF FUN THIS MONTH!

We went on a hayride and picked some pumpkins.

A local museum put on a Harry Potter night. We met Professor Trelawney who told us our fortunes, almost got whomped by the Whomping Willow, and concocted a few things in our Potions class.

The youth in our ward put together a Halloween party for the Primary kids. It was really cute and the kids had a blast (especially because that was before I decided on "The Halloween Plan", and every activity at the party included some form of sugary treat)!

Hooray! Papa came to town and took over the pumpkin carving duties that I was so neglecting.

Andrew and I are usually too worn out trying to get our kids all dressed up, so it's a bit unusual for us to be wearing anything fun. But we had some friends over for soup, salad, bread and caramel apples before trick-or-treating, and I guess their excitement about dressing up rubbed off. So here are the costumes for the night.

teacher, oriental lady, surfer dude, power ranger, harry potter

(Luke was snoozing during the one quick family photo op, but he was our cute little pumpkin!)

My favorite story from the holiday was about Annie's costume. She had planned for MONTHS to be Cinderella. She was even determined that she had to wear a BLUE dress, and the huge selection of princess dresses we already had just wasn't going to work, because nothing was the right shade of blue. Thankfully I didn't buy anything new and just figured we'd work something out. So you can imagine my surprise when my grandmother asked her just a few days before Halloween what she was going to be and she responded, "A teacher!" "A what?" I asked. "A teacher!" I had absolutely no frame of reference for when this change of mind took place, but the reason was soon discovered. There is a little girl next door (who is actually Tyler's age) that Annie just adores. She calls her one of her best friends and always wants to play with her. Thankfully, the girl seems to adore Annie as well and is always very sweet to her. One day, she put her glasses on Annie and then said, "Oh, you look just like a teacher! You should be a teacher for Halloween!". And that was all it took. I must say, I am quite a fan of the costume. The glasses cost $1, and everything else we had at home. Plus, she's the most adorable teacher I have ever seen. (As Andrew said, "Anyone can look like a teacher! What would we do without stereotypes?")

How was YOUR Halloween? Hope it was a happy one!

In The News

Have you ever been interviewed by a reporter? I've decided that it's kind of like bearing your testimony.* You know how you have all these thoughts and feelings inside that you're nervous to share, but feel like you should? And then when you do, the second you're done, an entire encyclopedia of eloquent sentences just fills your mind, and you wonder, "Why didn't I think to say that before?". And you're left wondering and worrying about what you did say, and whether or not it came across the way you meant it to. But still, overall, you're glad you got up there and said something. Well, I was interviewed by a reporter for the Daily Herald yesterday, and that's kind of how I felt. Here's the article if you're interested.


*In our church we have a meeting once a month where anyone can share their feelings about our religion with other members of the congregation.*

two

two minutes

two hours

two weeks two months

It's already been two months since our little Luke joined our family.

My, how he's grown!

We're all still madly in love with him, in case you couldn't tell.