Can I put the tree up yet?

Was Halloween really only a week and a half ago? It's amazing how a drop in the temperature and the appearance of lit Christmas trees really makes it feel like the holidays already! Maybe that's why I made Barr go Christmas shopping with me for our date night last night. He's a good man! He was stuck at Kohl's trying on sweaters when he could have been watching the Buckeyes throw away their chance at a National title. In fact when I went in to check on Brittany last night there were tears streaming down her face. In between sobs she told me that she was afraid everyone was going to hate her teacher's husband because they lost. (He's the defensive coach in case you skimmed our last blog too quickly!) It never fails to amaze me how sensitive and caring her little heart is.

I guess I should write about Halloween. Candy, candy, candy...need I say more? Maybe the Grandma's want a few details. Ben's costume ideas included a barrel of toxic waste or a bull to which my response was his mother is not Martha Stewart! He didn't make his final decision until breakfast the morning of Dublin's Spooktacular Event. He didn't consider that I had Brooke's field trip to a farm that morning, therapy, 3 piano students in the afternoon, and the Primary Program practice when he asked me to make him a "punk" Luigi costume that day! Thank goodness for hot glue! Luckily Brigham just wanted to be the same thing as last year, the Grim Reaper. Brittany was 3 different things depending on the temperature at the event. She was a fairy, an Ohio State Cheerleader, and then a cheerleader beat up by a Michigan fan (no offense Larsen's!). Brooke was an angel, pretty fitting for her I think! It didn't take her long to figure out Halloween. She learned to reach into the bowl, pick a piece of candy, and drop it in her bucket. Next year I'll work on teaching her to pick out the Snickers and steer away from the tootsie rolls! On the actual night of Halloween, she made it longer than I thought she would, but when she started throwing the candy back at the people that was her way of saying I prefer sleep over candy! Barr took the boys back out after bringing the girls home. They reaped the rewards of the light trick-or-treating crowd by having several homes dump all their candy into their bags just wanting to get rid of it. Ben was feeling a little guilty looking at all his candy and knowing that Charlie Brown only got rocks. He still has a hard time separating reality from fiction!

We appreciated a quick visit from my parents the weekend before. They arrived with enough time to enjoy the beautiful leaves on a nice walk through the trails. We then met up with Barr where my parents treated us to a nice dinner. Is it sad that we consider a place that lets you throw your peanut shells on the floor "nice"? The next morning my mom joined me at our ward's Super Saturday. I always love going to those, and it was even more fun having her there too. She left in time to help Barr, Grandpa, and the kids cheer on Brigham for his last soccer game. They celebrated afterwards with a pizza party complete with video of the kids in action and awards.

The next weekend we drove up to Michigan to visit my sister, Laurel, and her family. Although we didn't arrive until kind of late, the boys couldn't resist playing a little Wii and of course the girls disappeared to the Webkinz school upstairs. Aren't cousins great! We spent several hours at the Henry Ford Museum the next morning learning about much more then just cars. I just had to laugh at the Dymaxion House which was some man's solution to the need of affordable, transportable and environmentally efficient housing. To me it was living in a tin can and I thought it was the stupidest idea I had ever heard of! Barr and John begged to differ. Having little or no upkeep, not having to paint or decorate...it was a man's dream! Barr also liked the "Hike Through History", but it made me feel old seeing some of my childhood toys in a museum! Ben's favorite thing was sitting in the actual seat that Rosa Parks refused to give up. Brittany's was all of the doll houses. Brigham's was the hands-on things he could play with and create. Brooke's favorite was dancing to old MTV music videos. Who knew she loved Cindy Lauper? While Laurel and I took Tessa and Brooke home to nap, the dads enjoyed seeing The Bee Movie with the older kids. They highly recommended it, but since Ben is able to quote it almost word for word to me, I don't think I need to see it.

This weekend Barr had a camp out with the scouts. I question the logic behind choosing to sleep on the cold hard ground in 32 degree weather when you have a nice warm bed in an actual house you could sleep in. I had to go find some zero degree sleeping bags or I wasn't going to let Ben go with him. Brigham was pretty upset that I put my foot down and wouldn't let him go. He didn't see why even though he had stayed home from school sick for the last 2 days, I wouldn't let him go camping in the freezing cold. Mothers don't understand anything!

Brooke has started gymnastics. It's a parent/child class so I can help walk her through everything. Her class starts 15 minutes after Brittany's class ends so Brittany has been able to join us for some of it. We got her to crawl under a tunnel for the first time! That was huge since we have been trying to get her to crawl for 2 1/2 years! She also loves the trampolines and actually let go of my hand for a second while jumping last week. Her desire to talk is also increasing. She is trying to imitate a little more but still doing mostly vowel sounds. She answers with "Yeah" to most questions so the kids like to ask her random things like "Are aliens going to take over the world?" or "Is Santa going to bring me a bazooka?" or "Do you want world domination?" It's like she's one of those Magic 8 balls! Her favorite thing right now is watching the computer's screen saver cycle through all of our pictures. When I get her up in the morning or from her nap she heads straight for the computer. The hard thing is that some of us need to use the cumputer, and she doesn't understand that. I think the only thing she needs for Christmas is one of those digital picture frames so that I can check my email!

That's probably enough from us for now. We hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Love,
The Hills










Brigham conferring on soccer strategy with teammate Sam










Flying lessons - I'm superman!










Fun at the Ford museum











Riding the banana mobile at Leed's farm










What a motley crew! Scary!