October Break

We had a wonderful October break last week, although we didn't go on a grand vacation or do lots of exciting things around here. Instead, we had lots of fun sleeping in and staying up late, not doing homework, not running to various lessons (or even practicing for said lessons), and generally just relaxing. What made it even better, we got to visit with lots of family!
My eldest sister, Jeanie, spent the week visiting from Montana. She had to come down for some work training workshop and she was able to extend her stay to visit with us. It is always so fun when Jeanie visits because she spoils us all rotten.


We always eat really yummy food, which for our family, is the most important part of any activity. I didn't get many pictures of all the good food, because I was too busy eating it.


Mommy's little piggy! (When you have chocolate cake in front of you, it is imperative to get it in your mouth, no matter the method.)


Gary REALLY likes whipped cream. :)

The kids enjoyed playing outside all week. The weather is starting to cool off a bit, enough that they don't have a heat stroke at least. They really enjoyed playing with glowsticks from Grandma Kay and Grandpa Towne.



They also have their own "Fairy Land" and are apparently experts at making Fairy Pie. Here is the recipe if you need it.


Too much partying for Jeanie and Isabella...


On Friday night, we had all the Eldredge family (that could make it) over to celebrate Richard's dad's 70th birthday, as well as Hailey's 13th birthday. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but Annette posted several on facebook. It was fun to see Cindy, who flew down from Washington, as well as the AZ people that we don't get to see very often. The kids always have fun together, and despite all the chaos of the evening, it was a great night. (Sorry to my neighbors for all the noise.) :)

Now the kids are back in school and we are back on a normal(?) routine, which is good too. I still can't believe October is winding down already and I am entering the third trimester of this pregnancy. January will be here before we know it. (Let's hope my body can survive 3 more months!)

Birthdays, Bug bites, . . . Battlestar Galactica

Ok, so really there will be no mention of Battlestar Galactica as I haven't watched that show since I was really little (the original series...wasn't there a dog/robot thing in it?), but for those who really know me, the title is of course a reference to an episode of "The Office." If you don't know about that, well, that is sad. :)

Anyway, so to catch up on the rest of September (I really can't believe it is October!), we had two big birthdays to celebrate. Richard turned 35! But the poor guy didn't really get a good birthday celebration due to his work. He actually put in 35 hours the day before his birthday. (Chew on that one.) We said we would make it up sometime to him, but he was always so busy that we just ended up rolling his birthday into Becca's birthday and had a double-whammy of a celebration.

Rebecca turned 11 this past week. I can't believe my little girl is growing up so much. Richard was finally able to take a day off. We had a yummy breakfast before she had to go to school. Then Richard decided to work on the brakes (fun day-off activity). Then we had lunch with her at school. Afterwards, Richard and I went cell phone shopping, as he really wants a new one, but can't decide on what to get. (He still hasn't decided.) It was an early release day, so as soon as the girls were done with school, we all (including cousins Emily and Kacy) went to Amazing Jake's for some indoor amusement fun. When we dragged in the door that night, we were all ready to drop, but we had a few fun presents for the birthday people to open. Fun day, but this old pregnant lady isn't as spry as she once was. :)

Rebecca talked us into having a little party (or Girls' Night Out) with 7 of her closest friends. They had a blast eating, painting nails, doing hair, watching movies, and just being silly. They had a great time. (I have no desire to paint another nail for quite a while.)

On to the bug bites....As I mentioned in my last post, Jonny got attacked by mosquitoes one night. The next day several of the bites were huge and red. It seems the little guy is quite sensitive to bites. His ear was extremely red and swollen for 2 days. Nothing a little Benedryl won't fix, but still.... He continues to attract bugs, getting a new bite or two every so often. Now, if the girls want to get him to come inside, they just start telling him there are ants coming and he hurries inside.

In other news, we had a nice little visit with Grandpa Towne and Grandma Kay a few weeks ago. They came for a concert that Kay's grandsons were involved with and for Debbie's baby's blessing. It was nice to have them stay with us and have the kids develop a stronger bond with them. As always, Dad had to tell a "Ralph, the Big, Fat Elephant" story. Such fun!


In all honesty, our month had much more going on than just this, but this is about all I feel like blogging about right now. And probably all anyone wants to read about. :)