Happy Birthday Macey!!!

It's happened.  My baby has turned 4 years old!  

Oh, how depressing.  My little baby precious is so old!!!

We celebrated on Saturday and she had a Dora cake.  This poor cake had a rough start getting out of the pan, but I think I disguised it pretty well.

And as you can see, Dora survived as well:

Macey was so excited for her birthday.  It's all she talked about for the last couple of months.  

Here she is waiting to open her presents:

Micah was a big helper with the present opening part and reading of cards.

She had lots of family come to her party and got lots of fun presents.  

The kids loved putting her puzzles all together.

Even though she is 4 now, she promised me she will still be my baby precious until she is married.

That's good.  I suppose she can still be Daddy's little girl as well.

Halloween Happiness!

 

OK, so during all our bad luck, life still went on, and we did have a great month of fun Halloween activities.  

It was like Halloween just went on and on.  The kids had many opportunities to dress up.  

First, Jewelia and Caleb were invited to a Halloween party.  Jewelia was going to be Supergirl this year, and although Caleb was going to be something else, he humored me to dress up like "Superboy" so he could look cute with his sister.

Then it was time for our church Halloween party.   

Macey dressed up like Princess Belle, and Jewelia was SuperGirl.

Caleb was to be Mickey Mouse Sorcerer, and Micah was a Ninja.

Then there were our costumes.

Can you tell what we are?  

Here, maybe if you put us together:

We're not elves, we're Garden Gnomes! 

I was very proud of myself for sewing the hats and making my vest.  

Troy even won Best Costume 2011 at work and got a trophy!

Our ward party was fun.  The kids had a good time and we took some fun pictures. 

This was all still a week before Halloween, so we had plenty of time to get our pumpkins ready.

Every year I do a Mr. Pumpkin Head type jack o' lantern with the kids at church.  Here is how it turned out this year:

 This year, Micah and Daddy had big plans for their pumpkins.  They took a long time and carved in some fancy video game characters on their pumpkins.

Micah made "Tails", and Daddy made Sonic the Hedgehog.

Macey had a Halloween Party at her dance class where she got to wear her costume.

 Then it was time for the kids' Halloween parade at school.  Although I was a little annoyed that the school was celebrating Halloween on a Thursday before Halloween when it wasn't even until Monday, I guess it was nice.  I suppose it made more days of Halloween.

Here are the kids ready before Halloween with their "big sister" Emily the cheerleader.

Well, after all this fun for weeks and weeks, Halloween actually came for real!  

Of course by this time, Macey's costume was pretty trashed and stained from all the parties and hot chocolate she had spilled down the front.  So for Halloween night, she became a "Sleeping Beauty fairy princess".

We went out and got lots and lots of candy!!!

I love this picture of Macey where it looks like she got caught in the act. 

So now we have tons and tons of candy and I'm probably going to get really fat.  I'll try to control myself.  

Bad Things Come in LARGE Numbers, Now with an UPDATE (10/27)

OK, so this is just a little blog post so that I could count all the awful things that we have been experiencing in the last few months.  I suppose it is my way of making a visual list so I can actually see how many bad things have happened to count.  So anyway, if you'd rather not read my pessimistic post, then feel free to skip this one.  

It seemed like everything was going alright until about when school started.  Then everything came crashing down.  Let's see....

1-Junior High messes with Micah (don't ask, long story)

2-Labor Day Plans get ruined

3-Air Conditioner is broken? wiring?

4-Sprinklers are broken

5-the Van has a leak in the oil gasket

6-Depressing Birthday (probably my own fault, I was already depressed)

7-Colonoscopy and Endoscopy

8-Root Canal

9-Lab messes up on Colonoscopy and Endoscopy test results so all for nothing

10-Eye place messed up my glasses with wrong center of focus (#1)

11-Asked for work off, but didn't get it, had to rearrange a whole mess of activities

12-Caleb begins to get picked on in school

13-Eye glass place messed up again on fixing the glasses (#2) this time put lens in backwards

14-Accidentally shoplifted from Target (don't worry, I've paid them back)

15-Doctor says Caleb's left eye has had a dramatic loss of vision

16-Eye glass place messes up even on the 3rd attempt (#3!!!) to fix them

17-Flat tire on the freeway

18-Troy's car gets 2 new tires $$$

19-Van needs new water pump

20-Van needs new oil thingamabob

21-Van needs new bar thingy that handles the struts/shocks?

22-Paid a million $$$ for the above, but van still needs new brakes and tires

23-Dentist visit again to say gums have not improved after laser beam treatment of death

24------

OK, so what will #24 be???

Gee, will it be another million dollar car repair or dentist visit or major medical procedure that won't even matter because the lab totally messes up but we'll still have to pay for it?!  Or will the van tires explode before we can afford to buy new ones?  Or will the brakes give out before then?  Or maybe the glasses place will finally call me to say they've fixed my glasses and yet they still won't be right for the attempt #4?  Oooh, the anticipation to know what will happen next!!!  

OK, sorry, yes we are a little frustrated right now, but as you can see, things have kind of sucked lately!

I will try to be optimistic now.  Even though all these awful things have happened, there has been some good things.  Micah has done well in school, we've gone to some nice recitals and school performances for the kids, Troy managed to fix the sprinklers and air conditioning (at least for now), and the kids had a nice primary program.  Nobody has been deathly ill (knock on wood!).  Really I am trying to be grateful for what I have and really I guess we could have a lot more problems, but I try to think, when is the good going to happen?  Come on now!!!  I remember I did a post similar to this way back when I was pregnant with Macey to prove that bad things didn't happen in 3's like my mom said, but in 10's, but now I think the numbers have just gone too far.  Something has got to be looking up soon, doesn't it?  

Here's to hoping things turn around!

OH, WAIT, THIS JUST IN, AN UPDATE!!

#24---what could it be??

Why, yes, just a day after I post this list of terribleness, today I drive the kids to school and what happens in the school parking lot?  Yep, ANOTHER flat tire!!!  Oh, what joy and luck I have!!!

So there is #24 of suckiness, 

and of course

#25 would have to be that now we have to buy not 2 new tires, but 4 new tires!!!

So yeah.  Bad things come in 25's!!!  Or do they?  I'm sure there will be a 26, 27, 28.....why not?  

What do I say to you bad things?  Huh?  

BRING IT!!!!!

Ok, sorry once again for my wild crazy sort of venting, but seriously, why does my life have to suck so much right now?