Joy School

We have been doing Joy School this year with Asher.....sometimes it is anything but joyful for me, but totally worth it. Here are the fun things we did at our place for the week of Halloween.

Carving pumpkins!

Singing the 'mean old witch' song...in costume.

Halloween

Since it's almost Christmas I guess I'd better blog about Halloween. ;-) My kids got really spoiled this year for halloween. They did the Trick or Treat in the Heat a few months ago, then dressed up for Shira's school carnival, then we went trunk or treating on Halloween. We are still eating candy! In case you are wondering who I am, I'm supposed to be Arwyn....come on, I look just as hot as she did in Lord of the Rings! You might as well just call me Liv. Anyway, Bohdan is a dinosaur and Shira is an Autumn witch....we doctored up her witch costume from a friend and I went a little crazy. By the time I was done it looked like fall had thrown up on the dress, thus an autumn witch. Then we have SUPERMAN! And yes, those undies are made of red duct tape! One must improvise when needed. ;-)

Arwyn & her Dinosaur

Shira the Autumn Witch

I think Superman is about to take off here.

A little dino

Space Needle, front tooth, & Beefy Boys

What, might you ask, do the Space Needle, a front tooth, and Beefy Boys have in common??? They are three things I haven't blogged about....duh.

Just the other night Shira complained that one of her front teeth were hurting her, it has been loose for months now, so I recommended her daddy pull it out. He did and here is the result.

My sweet friend Amanda gave Asher this super cool t-shirt....not sure why! But he loves it and got to wear it to bed. David went recruiting last month to Minnesota, Idaho, and Washington. These are the only proof I have of his trip. ;-)

What we did for Conference weekend

For general conference (first weekend in Oct.) the kids and I went up to Grandma Kays for the weekend since David was out of town recruiting. We had too much fun and Grandma Kay spoiled the kids as usual. I think we even watched a little bit of conference. hee hee.

Grandma Kay took the kids on a four wheeler ride around the house.

Kay said she found this little beauty on the side of the road, so she just HAD to pick it up!

Shira couldn't stop riding it, even though the battery was dying and it was moving slow as a slug.

I don't know where she found this one, but she did. We lost one of Asher's boots while decorating the house for Halloween, so he picked out these pink beauties from Kay's costume collection. Nice! He wouldn't stop wearing them. And yes, they are pink cowgirl/boy boots.Kay spoils the kids by making them pancakes in all sorts of shapes. Here Asher has a shark and Shira a butterfly. The kids are always begging me to make something cool whenever I make them pancakes, but I figure this can be Kay's special thing.....that and I'm super lazy!
We tortured Bohdan by putting pumpkins on his little hands.
I think we had more fun than he did.
Just a cute shot of Bohdan by the big pumpkin.

Shira playing with Bohdan.

Blueberry Pickin

I posted earlier about blueberry picking at Hatchers Pass, but wasn't able to find the pics. I found them! Hatchers was gorgeous, and we even got snowed on. It whited out the mountains in the pic, but it was beautiful as always and we did come home with some berries. Success.

Mastering the pincer grasp!

In September Bohdan got the pincer grasp movement down and it was worth a photo or two for grandparents. Bohdan is such a sweet baby. Still not sleeping through the night without awakening several times, but we still love him. And he's bald as ever. If he's anything like I was, he should have hair by the time he turns two! Poor guy.....but at least he's a guy and I don't have to glue bows on his head!

Ohhhh, the concentration.

"I got it!"

Trick or Treat in the Heat...sort of.

This year our kids participated in an annual fundraiser for leukemia called Trick or Treat in the Heat. The event is in memory of a 5 year old boy named Ian who died of leukemia three years ago. His favorite holiday was Halloween and it didn't look like he was going to make it to the next one. So his neighborhood had Halloween early for him and all the kids dressed up and went trick or treating in the heat, since it's normally snowy and cold by the time Halloween arrives around here. Since then they have held the event as a fundraiser and we were lucky enough to join in on the fun. Except it was anything but warm out. The wind was blowing like crazy and it was quite chilly. But it was still tons of fun.
Below are the kids trying out some costumes.....thanks to Grandma Kay.

This is Asher as 'the Beast' and Shira as 'Belle the Beauty.' Only the bottom half of Asher's costume was a little small. You can really tell if you look close. Poor kid.

Since we also had the 'Cowardly Lion', we decided to combine the two costumes so they could go as Beauty and the Beast. But here Asher is demonstrating the not so cowardly lion.
And here is Asher as Superman!
This next shot was taken by our local newspaper. It was in the paper!

My kids are totally famous!

Siblings

Just a few shots of the kids in their pjs.

They had just had blueberry shakes....thus the mustaches.
Sleeping on the way home from picking blueberries.

Sky Diving...not us, just friends

We spent Saturday watching three friends go sky diving one at a time. We didn't realize it would turn into an all day event, but it was worth it. And I believe it turned out to be the nicest day of the entire summer. Next summer David and I plan on doing the jumping, but this time it was Grandma Kay, her dad Fred (who is 74, I think), and my good friend Kristi. We had a blast watching them and can't wait to do it ourselves.

This is Kristi coming in for landing.

Here is Fred, who isn't normally smiling. Isn't he handsome!?
This was the best! Fred is apparently a big joker and started off by telling his instructor his name was Hank. Then when the instructor was putting on Fred's harness he told him he would buckle him in but that he would have to make sure his 'package' was adjusted. Fred didn't miss a beat and replied, 'I don't have a package.' I was dying!
Kristi and Kay....Kay's shirt says 'Shut Up & Jump!'

Which they did. Grandpa Blake & Asher watching Fred jump.

David and Bohdan doing the same.

Labor Day

I know Labor Day was quite some time ago, but whatever. We had a great weekend. We went out to Palmer and spent the weekend with Kay & Blake. On Saturday we watched Kay, Kristi, and 74 year old Fred, (Kay's Dad) jump out of a plane (pics coming soon). On Monday David took off with Blake to go moose hunting for a week, and Kay, Kristi and I took all the kids (seven in total) to go to the Alaska State Fair. It was a ton of fun and a few of the pictures are below. The best part was talking Shira into getting on the swing ride with Asher, you know, the one where you just sit in a swing and it goes around and around? Once she got on and the thing started taking off she started freaking out and crying and screaming. As the thing would come around in our direction I would start yelling words of encouragement, which just made me look foolish, trying to calm her down. Asher, who was sitting right next to her, was oblivious to her terror and just enjoyed the ride. Once Shira realized it wasn't going to get any worse, she started to calm down, but not enough to move her freaked out eyes from focusing straight ahead without blinking. She just looked so scared and I felt so bad, yet couldn't stop from laughing because she was hilarious! The best part was when she tried to acknowledge us and wave. She would just fling her arm in our direction every time she came around, as if to give us some lame attempt at a hello, but never moved her eyes in our direction. I think you get the idea. My camera died, but Kay took some pics that will hopefully get posted when I receive them. For now you can check out the horse rides below.

The Great PumpkinShira hula-hooping. Can you see the focus?

The Alaska State Flag done with flowers.

Feeding Bohdan some.....something. Me and the kiddos.

The best shot of the day! Grandma Kay eating corn on the cob.

Bath Time with Bohdan

Sadly enough, these are our first photos of Bohdan in the tub. I really couldn't do it earlier with only two hands....I mean, someone has to keep the baby from choking on water, and David seems to be either working or out of town....working. Bohdan is such a sweet baby. Although he has developed an attitude this past few weeks and starts screaming if he doesn’t get what he wants….what, does he think he can think for himself??? I think not. I’m still the mom here.

You can see his two teethers in this one.
Such a happy baby.

Yummy Raspberries!

Yesterday we went to a friend's house to pick some of their raspberries! I could have picked a lot more were it not for my three little 'helpers', but we had fun and it was actually sunny while we picked. We were able to fill three gallon size bags in about two hours. We love raspberries and now we get to make freezer jam! That is about as domestic as I get....there are only three steps. ;-)
David has been out of town this week, thus all the blogging, and we can't wait to have him home tonight! And if you haven't heard the crazy news, our very own governor, Sarah Palin, is running for vice president with John McCain!!!

The sun was a little bright and they weren't cooperating enough to take a second shot.

Bohdan chilling in his stroller while we picked berries.

Yummy raspberries.