We're lucky to have some of the best neighbors on earth.  The other night, two of my neighbors and I went to watch a movie.  During the previews, we found ourselves talking about how it seemed like there were so many scary/horror movies out these days.  I know that it's October so it's fun for some people to go see a spooky movie around Halloween, but in our house...we don't need a movie.  
    If you're familiar with toys, I'll bet you would agree that there are some that can scare the bejeebies out of you.  You know...the ones that start talking around two in the morning for no particular reason at all...kind of like Chucky?  
    Take our bathtub for instance.  Bathtub you ask?  Yes.  Bathtub.  Our little girl likes to turn our bathtub into a swimming pool for her dolls.  It's disturbing enough to walk in your bathroom to find a tub full of floating dolls with menacing smiles on their faces, but she put one of her dolls that "talked" in the water along with them.
    We tried to pull it out quickly, but it was too late.  The doll was toast.  When you pushed her button, she kind of garbled something about being "friends" that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.  Not wanting to throw her away, our daughter said that she would still play with her even though she was "bowken".  
    Fast forward to the middle of the night and (you guessed it) the thing starts talking by itself.  I sat straight up in bed and all but expected it to be standing in the doorway just grinning at us.  
    We've had toy fire trucks go off, play puppies bark, musical instruments begin to sing, just about anything with batteries has freaked us out at any given time.  Psycho baby doll with the crazy eyes absolutely took the cake though. 
    We ended up opening the doll's back and pulled the batteries out so she would stop altogether.  I swear, even the cat would walk around the thing with her back arched up.  
    I'll sleep better tonight knowing that scary doll won't be able to "talk" to us anymore.  If I hear even one peep out of that bathroom though, unlike the horror movies, you can bet your boots there's one girl that won't be going in to check it out.   

    Christian had his surgery and is doing great.  We thank God that all went well.  We're thankful for such a wonderful doctor, staff and for the prayers that were said.   

    It's here.  Christian is nine years old and for the past (give or take) five years, he has complained of having pain in his feet.  It gets especially worse if we go somewhere like an amusement park or a fair where we walk for long periods of time.  
    Last Thanksgiving we went to Texas to visit Adam's family.  We spent a fun filled day at Sea World only to have Christian start in on how much it hurt to walk after being there for a few hours.  We told him to stop complaining and growled at him with the fact that he was only eight years old and should be FULL of energy.  His brothers and sister were literally running laps around us as we walked while Christian begged to sit at every bench.  
    Adam's dad sat us down later that night and told us that he thought Christian really WAS hurting.  His dad explained how he had lived with flat feet his whole life and had to deal with the pain from it.  We knew that Christian had flat feet too, we just never really thought that it could be hurting him that much.  (Thank you parent of the year award.)
    Feeling like the worst parents ever for not listening to our child, we ended up taking him to his doctor who did in fact say that he would qualify for surgery to correct his arches.
    Christian had his left foot done earlier this year which has truly done wonders.  Tomorrow will be the surgery for his right foot and he's scheduled to go in at 7:30 in the morning.  Even though it's round two and we've already been through this before...it's always hard when your "baby" has to go through anything like this.  
    We know that everything will be fine and he will be so much better off in the end by getting it fixed.  Adam's dad said that it would have made such a difference if he could have had this done as a child. 
    After church on Sunday, we asked Christian what he wanted to do before his surgery since he won't be able to put any weight on his right foot or walk for the next six weeks.  He thought about it and said, "I'd really like to go to the beach and go around in the sand."  His answer surprised us but I said, "Okay!  Let's go to the beach to run and play."  Christian turned to say, "Oh, I don't really want to play Mom.  I want to go and try to look for sharks and cool stuff like that." 
"Sharks?" 
"Yeah, sharks.  That would be awesome." 
    Off to the beach we went.  Christian tried as hard as he could to look for a shark (and other cool stuff) while Ethan, Preston and Lauren ran and played the afternoon away. 

     I really hate that Christian has to go through surgery, but at least I'm glad he had fun before it happens.  Hopefully the next six weeks will go by quickly for him and he will be back to going to the beach and looking for sharks again...and other cool stuff...in no time at all.

    One of the most wonderful friends I've met since moving to North Carolina is named Suzy.  She has two beautiful daughters named Alyssa and Peyton.  
    Suzy was telling me how last Fall she took her girls to a farm that played a movie on the side of a barn.  It sounded like the neatest thing to be able to sit out on blankets with popcorn and pumpkin ice cream while watching a movie in the cool Autumn night.  She said that the farm also had a TON of fun things for the kids to do like hayrides, ziplines, a corn maze and a big bouncy pillow.
    It sounded like such a great time that we decided to check it out Saturday evening after the boys were done with their soccer games.  My parents were with us to see the boys play in their games so imagine their surprise when I told them that we were going to load up the car and head to a farm.  I think they would agree though...it turned out to be one of the best days of Fall...

    Thank You Suzy, Alyssa and Peyton!!!  We can't wait to go again next year!  XOXO

    Their costumes are here!  It's going to be a loooong month to have to wait until Halloween night!  May the Force be with them...   

    I once heard a man on the radio talk about how many times brothers and sisters fight over a one hour period.  He said that on average, two siblings will argue with each other about three to four times an hour.  Add more siblings, get more arguments.  If the kids are younger, they could argue almost every ten minutes or so.  
    One of his main points was that it was GOOD for the siblings to argue.  It taught them to learn how to deal with conflict resolution and overall social skills...ummmmmm yeah.  Just about the last thing I'm thinking about when we're in the car going ANYWHERE is how well the kids are developing their social skills.
    Today alone, the amount of yelling, screaming, fighting and craziness was off the charts between the kids...and that was just getting out of the driveway.  Our three year old kept screaming for a toy that our five year old wouldn't give to her.  Our five year old kept barking like a dog and it was driving our seven year old nuts.  Our seven year old kept hitting our five year old on the head with his backpack while our nine year old kept yelling at all of them to stop so he could ask me a question.  
    Ahhhhhh yes.  Social skills.  I would like to invite the guy from the radio to sit in the car with us the next time we take the kids to go anywhere.  I don't think he has a stopwatch fast enough to keep up with the "conflict resolution" these four can dish out.  
    I sure do hope he's right and the kids really will be better off in the end though.  Lord only knows they'll have a lot of practice...screaming, fighting, barking and all. 

    Have you ever had a three year old paint your "fingernails" and "toenails"?  I use the two words loosely because today, Lauren Elizabeth painted mine.  Whooooa Nelly.  
    She got my toenails, my toes, my feet and even a little bit of the floor beneath them.  My fingers and hands were beautiful shades 'O Lauren as well.
    I'll have to admit that as hard as it was to sit and try not to stress about doing damage control, it was one of the cutest things I had ever seen her do.  She was so serious and focused on doing a "dood dob" that the thought of having to scrub my hands and feet with fingernail polish remover became less and less of a priority.  
    With each toe, finger, foot and hand, she would look up with the biggest smile and say, "Do you wike it Mommy?!"  I could only nod and say, "It's beautiful, Lauren."
    It's going to take some time to clean everything off but regardless, I'll never forget the look on her little face.  She had such pride when she was done and I don't know if there's anything else on earth that will ever be quite wike it.

    Aaaaaah October.  It's one of the best times of the year.  Cool weather, beautiful colors, that certain "feel" in the air...and yes...Halloween. 
    It's the kick off holiday of the season.  We get so excited to start decorating the house and thinking about pumpkins and caramel apples, (and candy) upcoming Thanksgiving with family and friends, (and candy) and of course, Christmas. (caaaaaandy)
    As fun as Halloween is, I'll have to admit that I get a little crazy when it comes to thinking of costumes for the kids each year.  I try to come up with a theme that will go over well with each of them, but as they get older, it becomes harder and harder.  I know our Halloween themes are numbered because Christian is nine this year.  He's going to want to do his own thing within a year or two I'm sure.  As for now, while I can still get away with dressing them as a group, I have their theme picked out and just ordered their costumes.  I hope it's going to be the best year yet. 
    Here are their Halloween pictures from the past few years...Happy October!!!

    We're excited for this year's costumes and I promise that I'll post a picture as soon as they're here! 
Happy Halloween! 

    Okay, so here's what happened.  The kids are getting older so we decided that it was a good time to start giving them daily chores.  When Adam and I were kids we each had a whole list of things to do.  We came up with some easy ones like - pick up your toys, make your bed, put your dishes away and give the cat some food and water.  Nothing too difficult, just simple daily tasks to give them more of a sense of responsibility each day.  
    It was around this time that we started to notice how our dishes and silverware were inexplicably disappearing.  One night as Adam and I were cleaning the kitchen he looked over and said, "Is it me or do we have less plates, cups, spoons...come to think of it, less of EVERYTHING!  Where is it all going?!"  We began to search the house but found nothing.  
    We pulled all four kids together and asked what they knew about it.  Their little faces looked up at us with complete confusion.   "Okaaaay Guys.  Spoons and forks can't just get up and walk away...what's happening to it all?"  -crickets-  Not one of them had any idea of what we were talking about.  
    The next night, we decided to change things up a bit.  Instead of going straight from the table to the kitchen to start cleaning after dinner, Adam and I sat and watched the kids to see what happened.  
    "Okay guys!  Let's take our dishes to the sink!"  One by one, they got up and put their spoons, forks, cups, bowls...everything...on top of their plates.  It was actually cute to watch all four of them carefully balance their pile as they walked like ducks in a row to the kitchen.  
    Christian carefully put his dishes in the sink and walked away.  Ethan put his pile down in but kept his spoon so he could jump back and toss it in shouting, "He shoots, HE SCORES!!!"  Little Preston lifted his heavy load and barely made it over the side of the sink...and then came Lauren Elizabeth.  She followed the boys to a point but then turned and went another way.  "What is she doing?"  I whispered to Adam.  "I don't know but we're about to find out."  
    She walked her little three year old self right to the trash can and with the whole pile in her hands, dumped it all in.  "Lauren!!!  Why did you do that?!"  We both said in shock.  She shrugged her tiny shoulders at us like we were crazy and said, "I'm frowing dem in da sink!"    
    We dug everything out and explained how she HAD to put them in the actual kitchen sink.  "That one is too big up though."  
    oooooof course it is.
    It's hard to tell just how much she has "put in the sink" and we probably don't even want to know.  At least we've learned that one of her chores won't be to take care of the cat anytime soon.  With our luck, one of these nights she would decide to give the poor cat a bubble bath in her "kitchen sink" after dinner too.  (meow)

Time: 6:05 pm
Location: Kitchen
Activity: Missing plates, bowls, cups, spoons and forks.
Suspects: A three, five, seven and nine year old.
Incident Report:
    For several weeks there have been reports of missing kitchenware.  Bowls have disappeared, several utensils are gone, the normal stack of plates in the cupboard continues to get smaller.  The suspects?  Three boys and a little girl...but what are they doing?
   To be continued...