Halloweenie 2010

Poor Taylor has been sick (sinus infection) ...she did want to still make Halloween cookies :) They were great!!
We invited everyone over for pumpkin carving (this year Halloween was on Sunday, so all the carving and trick or treating were on Saturday)...Zacky cleaned his pumpkin out all by himself. (Taylor and I drove around looking for pumpkins, but all we could find were mini ones. Taylor was happy, though, because she wanted to make stacked 'snowman pumpkins' )
his NBA ball (Daddy and Zacky have been thoroughly enjoying basketball season so far this year! The season opener was on Tuesday and they got Wingers and watched the heat not beat boston!)
Taylor cut the hole funky and it wouldn't fit :)
happy day :)
Kimberly was alone in her work again this year minus the sombrero ;)

our snowman--which was appropriate since we got our first snow this week!! (it rained this halloween :( yuck!
here are my sad halloween-ers! Taylor would not dress up (i think for fear that she would be the only one at school showing up in full costume-wimp) so she was facebook-ironic since she doesn't have one ;)
And shopping online for halloween costumes with zacky was like shoe shopping with him!! not good! I tried to get him to copy dan and get an ostrich costume (among many others) but he would NOT. silly kid. So he went wild and crazy with a basketball uniform (I said, so you're gonna wear the jersey you wore on Wed? wild and crazy! :) He wanted to shave his head like Rondo- he did branch out and wear his headband upside down. Tiff came and took he and Hudson around in the car (because it was pouring at that point) and then we headed to Kelly's where the big kids went out for super long! Taylor didn't feel like going out so she stayed in with me and daddy and we played Pente and took turns answering the door :)
Broken Fairy Tales-princess and the pea (jeff borrowed Alecs costume :) and Kelly made hers!
Dan was so excited about his costume :)
Zacky wouldn't use a cute bag-he went pillow case all the way! And it was filled!!
trading time :) and then Family Halloween Soup time! my favorite!
Sunday evening sunset. gorgeous

Taylors Violin performance

Zacky did a puppet show at school...who knows???
We took grandma Beebe out for her 80th birthday lunch (even though she still says we are way too immature at restaurants :) Kelly got her the girdle she wanted-hee hee
We got our first storm of the year-I wish I had the picture of Zacky walking into school in his shorts when it was 32 degrees!! That crazy kid!
Taylor had her first orchestra performance. When I looked at the performance sheet, there was a star by her name. I asked her why and she said because she's the violin group leader. She doesn't tell us anything :) The tunes were at least recognizable ;) She still claims she hates it but is doing great!

We went to subway afterwards (right before running to Pack meeting-always a joy!) The boys did not enjoy the performance but they did enjoy their sandwiches. We just always sit in awwwww as we watch Hudson pound his food! He's crazy!

UEA break- moving Bryan back from SF

We had a fun girls day on the first day of the break-boys went fishing with jeff- we went to see Ramona, ate at hagermans and played at a nearby park. It was a gorgeous day! After the movie we did a little shopping, had a dinner at Costa Vida and then went to Kelly's to watch a Scooby Doo movie. Fun day :)
Next day, I was off to SF to help Bryan clean and move out. So weird. We had a fun last night in Mountain View. We walked to main street-had to take a picture of the Happi House (one of Bryan's fav places to talk about)...
we had our last delicious meal at our fav italian restaurant. Such a nice night and yummy food while we snuggled outside. Doesn't get better!
Our last walk to main street...I was actually a little sad. Bryan just wants to leave. I'm just glad that we played it up all over SF. We have such fun memories. Kinda weird that it's over, but happy to have daddy home again!
Then we went to grab some treats for the night. Had to make one last stop to Nob. Bryan's favorite store!
All the furniture sold on Monday so we got to sleep on the gross floor. We cleaned and enjoyed the rest of the final night in SF...
Time to drive home...we started the morning with ice cream sandwich icecream that was left over.... and we continued to eat our way home!!
Goodbye embark bark!
When the kids were here they'd always point out every Prius...there are lots here!! It's the car Taylor likes the best :)
Our last drive through SF...glad we did everything we said we wanted to...fun city :) I'll miss the bridge
On our drive home we did some exploring...Love that Bryan will explore with me even though it cost us 2 hours! We found Dommer Lake and then Lake Tahoe. HAD to go check it out. We loved the little lake town. Decided we should come back for a month :) And Lake Tahoe was incredible! Such a fun detour :)
No wonder people come from all over! Long long drive, but lots of fun!

Rileys blessing night

Party at Jareds house...They did Riley's blessing at their house while Becca's parents were still in town...

Taylor can't get enough of the baby!


arm wars??...
We had a big car week...big whitey and bug are gone :( sad week, but with Bryan coming home, we officially have too many cars! (and Bryan won and got to keep hooptie :)

kelly's birthday and old pics of taylor and beethoven :)

We took Kelly on a shopping day and Hagermans lunch for her birthday! Kara missed it because she ended up going to Scottsdale with Dan for training. We laughed and bonded :) It was a purse birthday! Luckily Bryan was home to take care of sick Zacky. He spent the whole day job hunting and ended up with 4 interviews on Saturday. We have our fingers crossed. We're just happy he's coming home and he could not be more relieved! We had a fun Friday night at the Earls theatre and Dallas made us pie. And Sat, Bryan and I went on a date and then he got all the window shades up. Yeah, we can see in the kitchen now! :) Then I made his favorite on sun..crepes! fun weekend
had to take the towering shoe pic for the year ;) We laughed our way through tjmax for about 3 hours! And I almost lost my sweater :)
Zacky got sick on Thursday night and missed school Friday. I went to parent teacher conferece and learned that Zacky is still winning them over! I asked him how he does it and he just smiled :) His progress report says perfect kid. perfect student. And the student teacher wrote that he was her favorite. I asked her how much he paid her off with. ;) He scored above avg in reading and above in math. And then the teacher showed me a math test he gave everyone to see where they were at...he said zachary got an extra problem right that he put on just to see what the kids could do with it. He didn't think any of the kids could figure it out, but Zacky did. he's the man! ... and boy does he know how to milk the sickness train ;)***he had the cutest moment this week... he and hudson wanted to go get more popscicle sticks to play with, so we ran to the store grabbed those and milk and eggs and fruit. When we got up to pay, Zacky had brought his wallet and insisted on paying for everything because Daddy had lost his job. He said we always take care of him, so he wanted to take care of us! Such a sweetheart. And I told Taylor I was so proud of her too because we just decided the day before to go on a little fun mommy/daughter trip to Palm Springs to buy a car and do some shopping and bonding and just play together. When she found out about the lay off, she said, I guess we can't go now. But with no attitude or whining, just reality. They both quickly said, it's time to be careful again. But with a smile. I'm so proud of them!
before Taylor's soccer game, I found them watching tv like this :)
she had her tough game on Saturday against the Lightning who beat them when we played them a couple weeks ago without subs. She played so aggressive. She even got 2 fouls. Bryan was so proud of her :) She made so many great passes and her corners were perfect! 2-0 She was so excited to beat this team!
Some old Beethoven pics... they make me happy :)
she's 4 here
this is when she, at 7, beat out all the 14 year olds. she was so proud! good Beethoven

saying goodbye to Beethoven :(

the kids have been having a party with the left over popsicle sticks from Webelos. Taylor built her tower over her head :) Zacky and Hudson made towers with pins on the top to pop the water balloons they threw over the rail. They are obsessed with water balloons right now!
We had Emma night for YWs. The girls all got to get dressed up for the personal progress 'award show' :) I took Taylor and Mac shopping for their dresses and they looked darling! Taylor led the music and did a great job :)
right after we went over to take Beethoven some candy corn. He got put down the next day :( Sad day. All I could think about was Taylor leading him around when she was 3. He was so good to her.
sad....then the same day that Beethoven got put down, I got a call from Bryan on the way back from ice skating that he is getting laid off next week and that Jeff had just been fired. Weird day. We're happy he's coming home. He's been SOOO ready lately to not be gone anymore. Timing is right but still hard. So the job hunt is on.