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.

Happy Halloween!

[Post by Andrew]

This brings back a lot of memories for me. I came across this children's book (Jerry Seinfeld's "Halloween" -- also a stand-up routine of his) when we took the family to the dentist a few weeks ago and I about died laughing while reading it to the kids in the waiting room when Becca was getting her teeth cleaned. I had to have Tyler pick it up and continue because I was laughing so hard I couldn't even keep reading. Of course, the fit of hysteria was partly related to only getting a couple hours sleep the night before (some middle of the night kid drama).

Anyhow... Enjoy!

Back to School

I planned to give myself the month of September to take it easy and not worry about school. (That's one of the reasons why we have school year round--so we can take a break anytime we need one!) But when I found myself alone with the kids all day for the first time last Monday, I decided that a bit of routine might be helpful for all of us. So I gathered everyone together in our schoolroom to begin our devotional. That was the moment when Luke decided to have his first blowout. So we paused before we had quite begun and the kids cheerfully ran upstairs to grab me diapers and a change of clothes for Luke (the first sign that shows you how unprepared I was that morning). After carefully extricating Luke from his clothes, I began changing his diaper and bathing him with wipes. I didn't do the traditional 'put the clean diaper under the dirty one' trick because his dirty diaper was just as messy on the outside as it was on the inside. (Can you see mistake number two just around the corner? You'd think with this being my fourth child, I would have seen it a little sooner.) As soon as he was perfectly clean, I prepared to put his new diaper on, when, of course, he began to wet all over the entire couch. Don't worry, the changing pad stayed completely dry. A new errand for the kids-going to get me the vinegar spray bottle. I cleaned Luke up again, quickly put his diaper on this time, and got him dressed. Then I laid him on the one dry section of the couch so I could clean the rest of it. Please don't ask me why I didn't put a burp cloth underneath his face, because I simply can not tell you. Oh, maybe it's because it had already been used to try and catch some of the previous body fluids that were erupting from my darling babe. So I didn't have it ready to catch the spit-up that Luke decided to leave behind on the one clean space that was left.

Even with our rocky beginning and the long delay, we still had a pretty productive day. We memorized a few more lines of our Robert Frost poem, the boys got through several math lessons, Robby finished a few reading lessons, and I read and pondered this quote for the rest of the day:

"The woman receives from the Spirit of God Himself the intuitions into the child's character, the capacity of appreciating its strength and its weakness, the faculty of calling forth the one and sustaining the other, in which lies the mystery of education, apart from which all its rules and measures are utterly vain and ineffectual."

~Rev. F. D. Maurice (found in Charlotte Mason's book, Home Education)

School is going to be a little different this year, but none of us are complaining. How could we when we get to have this adorable face smiling up at us all day?

(picture courtesy of my very talented sister in law...thank you Esther!!)

We're in Love...

with our little

Luke Benjamin Pincock

We're in love with...

the way he was born, peacefully at home surrounded by his family

We're in love with...

his sweet, patient, good-natured personality...he seems to know that there are three other kids in this family and he is already so willing to patiently wait his turn

We're in love with...

his smiles~he already gives us so many of them, when he's asleep and awake, and we love every one!

We're in love with...

his velvety head, his fuzzy face, his deep blue eyes, his satin smooth skin, and his tiny everything!

We're in love with...

his perfect, soft, delicious, newborn-ness

We love everything about you Luke. We're so happy you are a part of our family!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A note about his name: If you heard it from our kids first, you might have been informed that we named our child Luke Skywalker Pincock.

I am not exactly sure where the Star Wars fascination came from, since I haven't even seen the movies (no, not even the original ones--shocking, I know)-and I know my kids haven't. But nevertheless, the obsession is there. Just in case you were wondering, we were going for more of a scriptural heritage when we named our child.

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PS Thank you so much to all of you for your congratulations and kind thoughts and calls. I'm sorry I still haven't had a chance to speak with many of you and hope to soon!

Baby Boy! More Details to Come...

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you know that Becca did an awesome job today and gave birth to a beautiful, 7 lb 1 oz baby boy at 4:40 p.m. They are both doing well and are getting some rest. We'll post more pics and details soon... including a name!

Nesting...

I owe a lot of you phone calls or emails.

I'm sorry.

It's just that after two straight months of family reunions, I finally realized that I was about to have a baby, and my nesting instinct hit hard.

For those of you who have been there, you probably don't need much of an explanation. And I'm not really sure I can explain it that well anyway. But for some crazy reason, it is now absolutely essential that every single corner in my house is clean and every single unfinished project since high school is completed.

My poor kids.

I have no desire to do anything except dust, sweep, mop, fold and put away laundry, clean baseboards, reorganize every cupboard and closet in my house, hang pictures that have sat in a box for the last year, go through and throw away old papers and letters that I've had for decades...You get the picture.

You'd think that I will never have the opportunity to clean my house again (although, knowing how well I've done at that with three kids, that may not be so far off the mark!).

If only I could bottle up this crazy energy and store it for days ahead. Unfortunately, I'll just have to resort to taking some pictures of my house that at one moment in time actually happened to be clean from top to bottom. Because I really don't think this is going to happen again, at least not for a long time.

I'd REALLY LOVE to talk to you dear friends soon. But first, I really need to go mop the kitchen floor and reorganize my pantry. (And I'm being completely serious.)

Turning EIGHT is GREAT!

I think every birthday is a special reason to celebrate, but there are definitely some birthdays that change your life more than others. Tyler had one of those momentous birthdays this year when he turned eight years old. First, and most importantly, this is the age where we believe a child is ready to make the choice to be baptized. We have spent the last year talking with him a lot about what this decision means, and have been touched by his desire to follow the example of our Savior. He chose to be baptized when we went to Maryland, and we were grateful to share this experience with many family members and friends. As a mother, it is hard to describe the feelings of watching your child grow and make these kinds of decisions in their life. To use Tyler's words, "I felt warm and happy inside." It was a special day for our family.

Another change this birthday has brought to our entire family has been the introduction of CUB SCOUTS. What a world we have entered into! Wow. I must admit that although I am a huge fan of setting goals and working towards something and of the philosophy of Scouting in general, it would be very easy for me to become overwhelmed and eliminate at least some of the time commitment Scouting requires if it weren't for this face...

Tyler's first day of Scouts~on his way to Den Meeting.

Right after his first day of Cub Scout Camp. He couldn't have been more thrilled.

Our first family Pack Meeting (the Raingutter Regatta for those of you who are also entrenched in this world). Poor Robby just doesn't know how he's going to wait two years to join in the fun. When Pack Meeting was over, Tyler said, "See, Robby, why I love Scouts so much? It's SO much fun!" (Not that Robby needed any persuasion about Scouts being fun. He and Annie are practically in tears any time Tyler gets to go to Scouts and they need to stay behind.)

We love Tyler so much and are so excited for all the new experiences he is having. But it is still shocking to me that eight years have flown by this quickly.

I'm sorry...were we supposed to keep blogging during the summer?!

I'm not going to start in on all the reasons that blogging has completely stopped for our family. Nor make any promises about how long it will continue. (Not that anyone would believe me anyway with my track record.) But I will post a few of our latest family pictures and just let you know that right now we are all healthy, happy, and here. (We just returned from a month long visit with our families.) (And I do apologize to any of you who do not use google reader, and have possibly come here only to see the same post over and over and over again. Sorry!) These pictures were taken by our very talented friend Amber (see previous post). We have had many things happen over the last few months, most of them very good things, and we will attempt to make a few more updates in the very near future. Hope that all of you are happy & healthy as well!

Mothers With Style

If ever a woman had style, this one does. I first met Amber back in our early married days in our BYU ward. Of course one of the first things I noticed about her was how gorgeous she is. Just look at her fabulous hair. And she always looks so stylish! (So do her girls. And although they are beautiful all on their own, I'm pretty sure their perfect hairstyles and coordinating outfits are courtesy of their mother.) When I first visited her apartment, I realized that she is also an awesome interior decorator. And that is not something that is easy to do in an apartment on a limited budget! I also found out that she has real style with creating scrapbooks. You should see the things she comes up with! (My scrapbooking attempts are rather pitiful in comparison.) But those are not the reasons that I like Amber so much. She is just such a nice, fun, easy going person. It is a real joy to be around not only her, but her family. Her husband and daughters are just as great as she is, and we feel so lucky to know them!

Well, Amber has another amazing talent. She is a phenomenal photographer. She just recently started a photography business, and if you live in Arizona, you are very lucky. If not, see if you can plan a trip to Utah when she might be in town. We lucked out with not only having the chance to have Amber take some family pictures for us while she was here, but also to have her fun family stay with us for a day. It was so much fun to visit and catch up. Just look at these cute kids!

Amber & Josh make taking family pictures easy and even fun. It was really one of the best experiences we've had, and believe me when I say that our family has had a LOT of family picture taking experiences! You can check out some of the other fabulous pictures Amber has taken at her photography site or her photography blog.

Thanks again Amber & Josh for coming to stay. We're so happy to call you friends!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

We have an 8 year old!

I still remember so well the night he was born and made me a mother. How has it possibly been eight years since then?

We like to have cake twice a day for birthdays around here. Coffee cake for breakfast and birthday cake for dessert.

Tyler had a special treat this year. His grandpa was able to be in town for two days, and one of those days happened to be his birthday! These kids adore their grandparents, and getting to go birding, swimming, and to the store to pick out a present (or two) with Papa was almost more fun than he could handle on his big day!

The fun didn't end there...even though it was already more fun than should be allowed to fit into one day! Tyler invited a few of his friends to go bowling with our family. We all had a blast. Andrew and I had a little competition, which boosted both of our usual scores a bit (he won); Tyler & Robby made some awesome shots (is that even correct bowling terminology?) and showed us their cool moves; and Annie outscored every person there (except her dad)!

And just so you can laugh a little at our expense, Andrew decided to take a few action shots of our bowling skills.

Check out the concentration!

How can such feminine delicateness outscore everyone else?!

We're so lucky Andrew makes so much effort to be there for the kids' birthdays for as much time as possible. His presence is really what makes the day so great!

And in going along with our 'theme' of not having any theme and just throwing in as many different things as Tyler loves into one day, here is the BYU cake he asked for!

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Ty, I love you so much bear. I'll always be so thankful that Heavenly Father sent you to me. You made me a mother, which is the greatest thing I could ever hope to be. Now I'll keep working to be the best mother I can possibly be, because you deserve all the best. I am so proud of your pure and tender heart, your desire to learn new things, and the way you loyally protect those you love. I love you so much!

Love always, Mom

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