Further proof

that the Baby has left the building: Today I sat and watched Evan crawl all the way up the stairs and then back down all by himself. He can't stand, but he can safely manage the stairs. Go figure.

Where's the Baby?

Gone forever. I'm so sad.

Evan got his first haircut and now I can't see anything but "Big Boy" when I look at him. It was time. His hair in the back was getting quite long and unruly. Notice the "before" picture. Long, babyish hair.

And then after 5 minutes of buzzing, the baby is gone. He looks all grown up!
WAAAHHH!

Sorry. It's going to take me a while to get used to this.

The Ward Trunk-or-Treat: Tons of Fun for Everyone!

The kids are quite hyped up on all the candy they ate on the way home from the Trunk-or-Treat. Bedtime is a laughable idea tonight. Soon, though, their blood sugar will crash, and I will too. I'm tired. But first, here are some pictures.
Dean loves the bat costume!

We all have funny looks on our faces, but it was the only one with the zookeeper and animals together.

Katherine was a little stinker!

Evan's turtle costume turned out OK, but it made it hard for him to crawl around.

Another little turtle friend at the party!

Drew with his bucket full of treats.

Dean with one of his super-buddies.

The Trunk-or-Treat was fun. I love seeing all the kids dressed up and excited. It was a potluck dinner this year and while my feelings on potlucks are not as strong as Beebe's, I still like to know who made the food I'm eating. Usually I just eat my own.

There were some carnival-type games and a little haunted house, and then we headed out to the parking lot for the real fun. We have a tradition that Pie walks the kids around and I sit and hand out candy. I like it that way. The kids go around and around the parking lot until everyone runs out of candy, and then they see how much they can eat before we realize what they're doing and make them stop.

As ward parties go, it doesn't get any better than that.

Getting Trunky

I'm taking a break from frantically creating Halloween costumes. Why did no one tell me the Trunk-or-Treat was on Saturday?

I guess I may have heard vaguely mentioned a few times this month that this, the best activity of the year was on Oct 27. What they didn't say was "Sister Fardanesh, you have 3 weeks to make the kids' costumes." And then a week later I should have heard "Ann Fardanesh: Are you paying attention? 2 weeks until costumes need to be finished."

I might get them all done, though. Edie's lion costume was borrowed from Cousin Tyler, so she's ready. I just finished Dean's bat shirt & hat. I need to buy some black pants for him.

Drew's Anakin vest is started and almost done. He needs a blue lightsaber. I got him a red one, but he has informed me that Anakin's is blue even though Darth Vader's is red, and yes, it matters a great deal. So I'll exchange it when I get Dean's pants.

I need a hat for my zookeeper's costume and some kind of patch for my shirt that says "Fardanesh Zoo".

I haven't even started on Evan's costume. The plan is to make him a turtle. If I can't manage that, he'll be a spider, borrowed from Con. I would ditch the turtle idea all together except I've never had a crawler at Halloween and I think it would be cute.

So that's what I've been up to this week. We're off to Cub Scouts in a little while. Drew is a big fan of scouting and his enthusiasm has rubbed off on to Dean. They worked together to create a scout program for 6 year olds, complete with uniform and patch to earn. Pretty cute.

Funny Faces

Ten months has been my favorite age with all the kids and Evan is no exception. His personality is starting to shine. He has some funny faces that he'll do on command, if you know how to ask. Drew tried to capture one with the camera, but had some trouble since Evan smiles whenever the camera points at him. Drew persisted, though, and I post the results here for your viewing pleasure:


Here it is. Clenched fists and teeth, shaking his head ever-so-slightly:

Back to Reality

I've been reading for 4 days. That's right. I really haven't done much of anything but read for 4 days! I'm done with the series now, so I feel I have to come back to reality.

Have you heard of these books? Apparently everyone has except me.
"Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer
It's awesome.

FHE Idea

Here it is, the easiest and funnest treat for your little ones at Family Home Evening:
Roasting mini marshmallows over a candle with toothpicks. Just be sure that the toothpicks don't catch fire. Drew is getting crazy here with 4 at a time. Obviously, Edie is impressed.

Let me clarify

To the Internet Fairy who grants blog wishes:
In my last post when I wished for something exciting to blog about, I was not referring to the barfy, fevery excitement that we got. Can we have something good, please? Something that doesn't require many extra loads of laundry and retreating from civilization for days at a time.
Many thanks,
Ann

To wrap things up

I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats, waiting for news on how the Fardanesh Family is doing. Fine, thanks.

Pie is up and out of bed. The antibiotics seem to have done their job. He went to work yesterday and seminary & work today. We're all happy about it. The cruise we missed was fun for all who went, but I'm not sad to have missed it. There will be another opportunity next year.

My kitchen is fully-functioning again. The appliance repair man came 3 times yesterday, but in the end the dishwasher is fixed. The main problem was not that the Drano had corroded through the water intake line, as I was dreading. The flood I created flipped a switch that allows only the drain pump to run. He turned it off, and voila! It works!

Oh, how I wish I had more interesting things to blog about! Maybe next week.