Trunk or Treat

We've had quite the busy week. Jeremy is working in Dallas this week so I've tried to have a lot to do to make the time go fast. Although I wouldn't really say he's working. He seems to get a lot of breaks and very long lunches so really it's more like a relaxing retreat for him.

Monday we made Halloween cookies and took them to a friend we hadn't seen in awhile. Tuesday we had family movie night.
For the most part the kids have been great. They have their moments when they meltdown and they are really missing their dad, but otherwise we've had a lot of fun.

I came out to the living room to find Price and Bryn reading together. It's moments like this that just melt my heart and make up for all the times they make each other scream and drive me nuts.
Not long after this I told Price he needed to put on his listening ears and hear what I was telling him. Then he told me he lost them at school. He's only 4 and already he's giving me smart-alecky answers. He must get it from Jer.

Wednesday night we had Trunk or Treat at church. I decided to brave it by myself and I made it (just barely). It was exhausting, but the kids had a great time.

Price was a knight. Thanks to my mom for making the great shirt. He's worn it everyday since it came. (sorry I forgot to rotate the picture before uploading it)

Brynlee was a dragon. This was Price's costume for the past 2 years. Just trying to get my money's worth out of it.

Kylee was a pumpkin. This costume has been worn by both my girls and probably most of the Williams fam. But it's perfect for cold Iowa Halloweens.

The kids had a great time and got lots of treats. After they went to bed I got to rummage through their candy and take the best stuff. All while watching CSI:NY, so it turned out to be quite a fun night. Then Kylee slept for almost 7 hours straight. Today I'm feeling quite rested and refreshed. Let's just hope she does it again tonight.

Mythbusters and Pumpkin Carving

Saturday was one of those days I wish I could bottle up and save for a rainy day. The weather was great and we had a great time being together as a family.

Jeremy had Scouting for Food in the morning then we worked in the yard for awhile. We are trying to get rid of this darn mole, but it's looking to be harder than we thought. We have decided that it is the cause of all of our basement flooding so we really want to get rid of it, but we don't want to spend a ton doing it. So I looked up on the internet for some ways to get rid of moles and found a little home rememdy. It consisted of castor oil, cayenne pepper and soap. Hopefully it worked, but we'll have to see. Another one I read about is to put Juicy Fruit gum in their hole. They like the smell, but then the gum does something to their stomachs when they eat it and kills them. I may try that later in the week so stay tuned for an update. But we might just end up sitting out there watching to see the ground move and dig up the mole and whack it. That will be a sure way to get rid of it. If only I had the time to sit around watching for the mole.

I also went and got my hideous haircut fixed yesterday. I just had more layers put in so it's not so heavy and bell like. Jeremy can't tell a difference, but then again he's a guy and I really didn't expect him to.

All week our pumpkins have been sitting in our garage waiting to be carved and Saturday night was the first chance we had.
The before:

Kylee spent hours on hers....hours sleeping that is.

The after:

One of our favorite treats is to roast the pumpkin seeds after we carve them. Price also kept asking when I was going to make a pumpkin pie. I have no idea where he got that idea since I've never made a pumpkin pie and it's been a long time since he's had one.

We also rented 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past', but it turned out to be really retarded. Good thing we got it from Redbox and only spent $1.

Preschool

Today I had the opportunity to visit Price's preschool. The whole summer I fretted over whether to send him to preschool or not, but now that he is 6 weeks in I am so glad I did. He seems to be doing great and to have some time with just Brynlee and Kylee has been good.

It was fun to go to school and see how he is there. I'm so used to him being wild and running around that it was great to see that he actually sits and listens and is quite well behaved (at least for today). One of the teachers even told me that he eats his breakfast and lunch really well too. Which is a relief because he can be such a picky eater. So it's been good for him to be exposed to other food that he wouldn't get at home.

I went to celebrate America Reads (or something like that). Yesterday the kids made muffins so we ate those for breakfast. It's a little scary to think you're eating food a 4-year-old made, but so far I haven't gotten sick, but we'll see. Then we split up into groups and read books to the kids. He has such a cute class and the kids seemed to have fun. Some of them aren't shy at all. It was a bit of a race to see who got to sit on my lap. And Price was so good to let me hold other kids while I read.

It was a high point to my very busy week. But luckily it has distracted me from being too lonely while Jer is out of town.

Pumpkin Patch

We made our yearly trek out to the pumpkin patch tonight. We had planned this a few weeks ago, but then last Friday Jeremy found out he had to go out of town for work so it was just me and the kids. Luckily our friends, Cody and Joe came along otherwise it would have been total and utter chaos (even more than it actually was).

The kids had fun pulling the wagon and searching the field for their own pumpkin. Price kept picking up pumpkins and them tossing them aside, hopefully he didn't do too much damage to them.
They also found some little gords (sp?) that looked like maracas and they were more excited about those than the actual pumpkins.
Kylee Ann this picture really is for you, though. All I have to say is "Winnie hates gords and I don't care..." It reminded me of you and your mom. Hopefully now that song is in your head. Your welcome.

This farm has tons of different pumpkis and squash. They had some really cool pumpkins that are flatter on the top and bottom which makes them good for stacking. They are reddish orange, I guess their called Cinderella pumpkins or something like that. They had cute displays of them where they took 3 and stacked them on top of each other and then draped a leaf garland around them. So cute, I would have done that but I'm sure the hoolies would smash them or wreck havok with them somehow.

These are our friends Cody and Joe. She works with Jer. They must really like to hang out with us or just be desperate for entertainment because everytime they come over the kids get so excited and therefore wild. I'm sure they think our house is a three ring circus (and of course they would be right). But I am glad they came, I couldn't have done it on my own.

We finished the night with a little taco soup and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Now we'll wait until Friday when Jeremy is here to carve them and roast the seeds.

Moles

This is the latest creature to take up residence in our yard, a ground mole. It is also the culprit that has caused our basement to take on water. The mole along with a window well that wasn't tall enough.

Just knowing that we have one of these critters in our yard gives me the hibbie jibbies. We discovered it by accident the other day. We have noticed that something was digging in our yard for the last few months, but we weren't sure what it was. Jeremy replaced our window well and went to check on it to make sure water wasn't coming in. When he checked it he found a dead baby mole. And of course he had to have me come and look and it, YICK! Why is it that when guys find a dead creature they have to call to their wives to come and check it out. I don't know about other wives, but I really have no desire to see any sort of dead creature. As long as he gets rid of it that's all that matters to me.

So if anyone has any great suggestions of how to get rid of this critter, let me know. Now I actually understand the game 'Whack a Mole', I read somewhere that they have thin skulls and if you hit them on the head with a shovel it kills them. I also think of the end of "The Incredibles where the "Underminer" comes to take over the city. So if you feel like whacking a mole come on over.

movies, dress ups and more

This weekend Jeremy had a scout campout and Price was devasted that he couldn't go too. So we decided to make our own tent in the living room and have a movie night. We watched Horton Hears a Who and ate popcorn. I loved making tents when I was little and of course my kids loved it too. I love how they get excited over the littlest things.
On Saturday morning we went to the library where firefighters were doing story time. They read books and then showed the kids their gear. Later we got to go out and see the fire truck. Price insisted on wearing his snowboots and coat and a plastic firefighter hat from the dollar store. He said it was his firefighter outfit. It was cute, but a little embarassing that he always insists on wearing a costume out in public. I'll have to remind him of this when he tells me that I embarass him.


Since Kylee is usually asleep during all of our festivites I added a picture of her in my favorite outfit. It is fleece and so snuggly. She is getting so big and cute, pictures don't do her justice.

My mom, the wonderful seamstress, made these cute chef outfits for the kids. They loved them and helped to make pizza the night they got them. They look so cute and I always love any help with dinner. So thank you grandma for the great dressups!

For the past few weeks Price has been playing soccer through the Y. It has been interesting to say the least. If you know Jeremy you know that he is a VERY competetive person and I think he has been that way since he was little. So for Jer to see his son more interested in watching his shadow rather than playing soccer was a little tough. But overall I think Price had fun which is the whole point. He was usually waving at us or watching the people on the sidelines or even occasionally flirting with the girls (cutest girl named Aisnley on his team) rather than going after the ball. His team didn't do that great either. They finally scored their first goal last night (we're not sure if Price did it, but he claims he did). Then they gave the kids these medals. He was so excited!

His face is like that because he is saying "Cut the pickle". But I love because it just captures his personality.


Other highlights this week include seeing a scene from the play Aladdin at library storytime and then doing a craft and having a treat.

Brynlee telling me I drive too fast then Price telling me to drive faster.

One Month

We have survived the first month! It has flown by, but we have somehow survived with 3 kids. I've even been on my own for 3 days and not had been too overwhelmed (Yeah!). Luckily the baby isn't too high maintanence and Price has been in school during the morning, which helps.

I am slowly adjusting to getting up in the night and the kids have been really good to let me sleep in-today I slept in until 8 and then we had to rush to get Price to school. So I really can't complain about a lack of sleep. Secretly I do enjoy some of the late night TV viewing so if I have to be up I might as well have something good to watch. I love CSI:NY, TMZ and the middle of the night news with Jeremy Hubbard and Venita Niar. Of course there are a million and one informercials on and my fave would have to be for the Snuggie. It's the blanket with the arms in it. The people they have modeling it are ridiculous, but what I love the most is that they have one for dogs. They show a dog sitting on a couch with glasses reading a book. I guess I'm not that much of an animal lover that I would 1- let my dog sit on the couch and 2-think that it needs a Snuggie.

We've made it through 1 month without too many bumps and bruises let's just hope we can make it through the winter without getting RSV or the Swine flu.

Busy Week

We've recovered from the nose trauma and are slowly getting back into a routine.

This week we have been busy experimenting with our food storage; grinding wheat for bread and making soup with our beans. We also have a ton of oatmeal and I hate eating oatmeal for breakfast, but I do love no bake cookies. So I've been trying to find more oatmeal recipes this week so I don't gain 500 pounds from making too many no bakes.

Lately Price has been on a Superman kick. Probably because when we were in our hotel last weekend we saw one of the newer Superman movies on TV. For Hodson family movie night we rented the old school Superman movie and watched it. It was from 1978 and the special effects and outfits are definitely from way back when, but Price loved it. We may have to rent more of them. I guess Jer used to watch them when he was little, so it must be a little boy thing. This whole week Price has insisted on wearing his Superman cape, snow boots and belt since those are all items that Superman wears. And of course he wears them wherever we go, such as Wal-mart and then races around like he's flying.
Yesterday he was so bummed that he really couldn't fly. I felt so bad for him because all he wants to do is fly like Superman. Me too, Price.

Brynlee loves her little sister (sometimes a little too much), and she calls Kylee "babycakes". So when Kylee wakes up Bryn comes running in saying "Hey babycakes" It is so cute and I am glad she is already being so kind to her sister. Now we just need to work on the part where she lays on her.


It is no secret that the Hodsons are cheap. If this is a shocker to you, obviously you don't know us (or more precisely Jeremy). But today Hy-Vee was having some screaming deals. So we all ventured out only to find that the rest of CR had the same idea as us. Although we did notice that most people weren't hoarding the sale items quite like us. But now we are ready with our freezer full of chicken, pork roasts, bread and of course ice cream.

On another note I am way excited about the new temple announced in Brigham. Who would have ever thought? Not Jeremy since he thinks it's the most podunk town ever (which it is obviously not).