Happy Halloween from Thor/Obi Won

Luke totally wanted to be Thor for Halloween (after he insisted on being a Thor/Woody/clown hybrid, we told him that it wouldn't be possible to wear all those costumes at once and he had a major meltdown for about 3 days every time Halloween was mentioned). So, once he settled on just being Thor for a couple days, we got this costume at Target complete with Thor's mighty hammer.

The day after he got the hammer, I let him take it school. His teacher was nice about it, but clearly, not so happy, and when I told Nate, he said, "What were you thinking?!"

(Seriously, I have no idea. I guess I was thinking, "Here, Luke, take this big hammer to preschool. No kid would ever figure out within 10 seconds of holding that hammer what an awesome game it would be to run around smacking each other on the head for 4 hours.")

But, then, on Halloween, Luke put on his Thor costume for school and freaked out because it was covered with little spider webs. You know the polyester stuffing they use to pad the muscles on those costumes? Luke saw a few stray ones poking out of his chest and was convinced the costume was dirty. He ran to the bathroom sink and got the costume completely soaked. And, wouldn't ya know, those fibers still stick up, even when everything else is completely drenched.

Fortunately, Luke didn't wear the costume he insisted on getting last year, Obi Won Kenobi. At the last minute last year, he decided the costume was too messy (it has some tunic hanging parts on it), so he was Woody for the second straight year. With minutes to spare before carpool, Luke got the Obi Won costume on and was happy.

I told him I'd wash the Thor costume while he was at school, but I got nervous about washing all that synthetic fabric, so I just told him I washed it and tried to pick out all the stray fibers. It didn't fool Luke. Luckily, he was quite content to put Obi Won back on that night for trick or treating, which meant that for the first time ever, our family had a quasi-theme Halloween:

Aunt Rachel would be so proud...

Ragnar

I love this picture because it shows two things I did this year: bore a child and completed the Ragnar.

Of course, I couldn't have done either without Nate. We realized pretty early on in our Ragnar training that only one of us could do this. It's a big time commitment to train, and unfortunately, 24 Hour Fitness does not offer 24 hour childcare. Nate took the kids lots of mornings, evenings, weekends, and vacations so I could train (though there were plenty of days when I didn't want to).

Judy was also a huge help. If a kid (or kids) were sick and couldn't go to the gym, Judy would take them while I ran.

And, then, Judy and Nate did a massive push, watching the kids in Las Vegas for a full 30 hours. (Did I mention that Nate was our nighttime driver, too?)

They did a lot of this:
In fact, I'm not sure who got more of a workout in Vegas.

I'm also really grateful to Dave and Jessica who convinced me that I could do this race. I found a new workout option that I like, and this is the first time in my life that I've physically pushed myself to reach a goal. It feels pretty awesome.

We had a great team--full of expert runners who were nice enough to let me tag along.Some day, I'll stop bragging about it...really!

Anyone want to do the Del Sol Ragnar in February?

Staying on Top of Your Elementary-Age Games

Asher: Evan, do you want to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Axe, Copper?"
Me: I've only ever heard of "Rock, Paper, Scissors," Asher. What does the axe do?
Asher: The axe gets rock, paper, and scissors, but not copper.
Me: Well what does copper do?
Asher: Copper gets EVERYTHING.

Ok, good to know!

The Best Birth Control Post Ever

This is my side of the conversation that Luke and I had today while I was in the bathroom, trying to shave my legs and he decided to come in and go poop.

“Luke, don’t forget to wipe your bottom.”

“Eeew, Luke, not with your hand!”

“Yeah, just use the babywipe.”

“Wait! Don’t throw the babywipe in the toilet! That will break the toilet!”

“Luke, there’s still lots of poop on the babywipe. That means your bottom still isn’t clean.”

“NO!! Don’t throw the other babywipe in the toilet!”

“Ok, now, wash your hands.”

“Luke, that wasn’t long enough. If your hands still smell like poop, they aren’t clean.”

“Yeah, I know they still smell like poop. I don’t need to check. Wash them with soap this time.”

Crazy Kids...

Asher was thrilled about our church's General Conference last weekend. He's been asking every Sunday since April if we could "just watch Church on tv like we did that one Sunday."

Luke informed me today that "the green ones are going to destroy our world." I can't get him to be anymore specific than that. Sorry for the bad news...

Emma is learning a few words: mama, dada, up, woof, and uh-oh.
Of course, if you ask her what a doggy says, she says, "Uh, oh."

(In these pictures, Emma really hopes someone will rescue her after a Monday evening of fun, but no, we just kept taking pictures of her.)

Bright and Early

Emma has this great new habit...like her brother and her dad, Emma likes to wake up early. About 5 am to be exact.

Of course, this means that by 7 am, while I'm trying to get things up and running in the morning, Emma is ready to go back to bed, crawling around the house crying.

But, at 5 am, she's just as pleasant as can be. At 4:30 am, we usually pull her into our bed, give her a bottle, say a little prayer that she'll go back to sleep. She does, for a bit.

On Monday (Labor Day--holiday--hello?), Emma woke up at 5 and was all wiggly in the bed, so I put her on the ground. She promptly crawled to her brothers' room and squealed as she climbed up on their bed to "pat" them awake.

Sometimes, I feel like our children plan assaults like this on us just to let us know who's in charge.

Luke and God's Plan

For our upcoming church primary kids' program, Luke was given a part, "I can follow God's plan by [fill in the blank]."

Nate and I are worried that he'll get to the pulpit, decide to be funny and say one of his two favorite "bad" words. "Poopy diaper" or "boobies."

So, we've been working on helping Luke fill in the blank. Here are some of the "blanks" Luke has offerred:
I can follow God's plan by:
eating marshmallows
eating dinner
eating bananas
speaking English (?!)
playing with trains
poopy diaper (we all knew that was coming, didn't we?)
giving hugs

So, we're going with, "I can follow God's plan by giving hugs." Fingers crossed that he'll actually say it come the big day.