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"So Frequently we mistakenly believe that our children need more things, when in reality their silent pleadings are simply for more of our time."
***President Thomas S. Monson (Ensign May 1994)
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| Vance received treasures from his Grandma Godfrey and has been putting them to good use--but not sharing them with his brother. |
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| Flynn discovered that he loves listening to music on the TV --once the music stops, though, he's done watching. |
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| Nutmeg's been acting old and grouchy and she got a swipe of Vanilla's ear. I hate when they fight! |
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| Vance picked his little watermelon he's been growing. It was just getting too cold for it outside. The kids said it tasted terrible -- so I took their word for it. I was just impressed that he grew on a watermelon at all. |
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| Noah got his Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts! Super proud of him! |
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| We got a few pumpkins to carve . . . just a few. Flynn thought they were pretty awesome, but not too tasty. He did nibble on a few. |
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| Carving pumpkins is always fun at our house! |
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| Myshel carved all 3 of their pumpkins by herself. She was very determined. |
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| We had a few seeds when we were done. Myshel cooked them for us and even made some with pumpkin spices. They're very yummy! |
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| Noah turned 11! Wow, where does the time go!? |
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| All Noah talked about for a month was that he wanted a jean jacket. When he opened his present, though, he thought it was just a pair of jeans and was completely disgusted with us. Kids!! |
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| Happy Birthday, Noah! We love you so much! |
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| Trunk-or-Treating on Wednesday night AND Trick-or-Treating on Thursday night! What was I thinking??? Flynn made an awful cute giraffe. |
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| And Noah was a handsome, little cowboy. Boy, it's a good thing he got that jean jacket, huh. |
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| Carved pumpkins all lit up . . . they're just really fun! |
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| Checking out his stash. I'd love to say this was all he got, but I think this was only about a third of his take for the 2 nights. |
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| Someone else thought he should have a birthday, too. I just can't believe it's been a year since he was born. What a sweet little guy he is! He's such a blessing to our family. |
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| This is what Flynn did while his parents opened his presents. He wasn't interested in them at all. |
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| He did like the lollipop his Oma gave him, though. Silly, Oma! |
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| Happy 1st Birthday, Flynn!! |
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| He thought the cake was pretty good. |
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| . . . needed some milk to wash it down. |
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| He didn't get too messy, though. |
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| Chad and I helped take the youth on their temple trip. I always love being in the temple with the youth. It was especially fun this year, because there were several kids that just turned 12. So, I've known them in Primary and then got to be in the temple with them. Such a great experience! This is McKaylie and her 2 friends that rode up with us. |
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| These were actually taken the beginning of October, but I decided to add them here. We had a friend of ours take some family pictures for us -- before Vance leaves. She always does a great job. |
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| It was the beginning of October and we were thinking that we would have wonderful weather for our pictures. It turned out to be the hottest day in weeks. We were dying. I'm amazed that the pictures turned out so well, considering. |
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| Flynn did so good that day. He complained the least of all of us. |
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| Chad and I |
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| We really won't be together like this for much longer. Next year will bring a lot of changes for our family. |
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| Flynn and his Momma |
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Chad and I flew back to Maine on May 19th, which happened to be McKaylie's birthday. Our flight was suppose to come in at 11AM so we would have most of the day with her. As luck would have it, we were delayed in Philadelphia for 5 hours and then spent 3 more hours waiting on the plane. The weather was not cooperating with us! We finally got home around 8PM. So much for a big birthday celebration!
Myshel was super sweet and made her a cake and put a big sign on the door for her! I loved that! She opened her presents that night and we had cake and ice cream and dinner out over the next several days. She told us later it was a good birthday, but I know from talking to her on the phone, on her birthday, that she was really disappointed---so were we!
McKaylie brings such a sweet spirit into our family. We are so blessed to have her! It's hard to believe in one year, she'll be in young women's! WOW! Happy Birthday, Fruit Salad!!!
On Saturday McKaylie had a birthday playdate. I refused to call it a party, even though that's what it was. We had it at the park and I was sooooooooooooooo glad we did. 7 screaming 9-10 year old girls!!!!!!!! Yikes!
I was so glad that we weren't in my house!McKaylie is such a social butterfly. I don't know where she gets it. Chad and I are definitely not that way . . . I don't think. Anyway, she has lots of friends and was very disappointed that she had to limit her invites to 10 (8 showed up--1 was really late).
Something else that I'm totally not ready for with McKaylie . . . . .
boys! She invited one boy. He was totally ok with being the only boy by the way. He actually was really late because he had a baseball game, which was ok by me! I shouldn't complain too much, really. He was the best behaved one there, extremely polite! It was nice.
Myshel was not so interested in the party! Vance enjoyed throwing pebbles at her, which we reminded him was not very nice---after we stopped giggling!
In her defense, she had just gotten back from a sleep-over for the leaders at camp--she was very tired . . . and she's a teenager.
I can't believe she's 10!!! 
This cake fought me the whole way. It just didn't want to be frosted. It looks sort of ok in this picture, but it didn't look ok up close. I've never been so frustrated just trying to ice a cake!!!
McKaylie liked it, I guess that's all that mattered.
Happy Birthday Noah!
Yesterday was Noah's 7th Birthday. He had a great day, I think.
He loved having cupcakes at school.
He's such a sweetheart (when he wants to be) and our family is so much better with him in it!
Here's the cake we had at home. It says, "We're all wrapped up in you, Noah! Happy Birthday
He asked for one vampire cupcake, so I made 6 vampires. He didn't seem all that impressed by them, though.
He seemed happy with all his presents. That's always nice. The guitar is going to make me nuts, though.
Blowing out his candles . . . making a wish!
This is a blurry picture, but here's the inside of his cake.
Happy Birthday, Buddy! We love you!
