She's 5!

Lindsey's birthday is the day after Halloween, November 1st.

 

To Lindsey, Birthdays are a BIG BIG deal!

She got to have a party with friends.  

 

She wanted a fairy party.  

Each of her friends got wings, decorated a wand and a crown...

Dad lead them all on a treasure hunt for "fairy" necessities..... 

 

Her Grandma McKneely came and made her this special fairy cake (WOW!)

 And her sweet cousin even came dressed for the occasion!

 

Other Birthday festivities included Preschool celebrations--she had owl cupcakes as part of her class Halloween celebrations, 

Grandma and Grandpa Lewis took her for donuts--she just had a week of celebrations!  

This sweet girl is so loved.

Happy Happy Birthday Lindsey dear!  We're so glad you're ours!

Boo!

Halloween 2012 really had me worried.  I had been SOOO busy that this holiday really crept up on me.  I had to get past the Day of Service (October 20th) and THEN I could worry about Halloween.

Our ward held it's traditional Trunk or Treat on the evening BEFORE Halloween--which turned out good for us, we just took all the candy our kids got and didn't want and handed that out the next night (Shhhhh!  Don't tell)

COSTUME RUNDOWN:

 Kaitlyn was kind of my hold out, she really didn't want to be anything, and just ended up creating her own costume from things we had around the house.  I think she entitled it Butterfly Fairy.  Fine by me!  She looked cute!

 Sam wanted to be either a Mario Brother or a Ninja.  He had wanted to be a rubiks cube (How fun would that have been?)  But he changed his mind, then it was a Star Wars character (which I had connections for) but he changed his mind again.  I wasn't about to spend a ton on a new costume and thankfully a friend had a costume for him to borrow--he was in heaven as Mario!

 This costume was EASY!  Sam was Bob the Builder when he was 2, "Math" was more than happy to strap on some tools and be "Bob" again!  Such a cutie!

Thankfully Lindsey's costume had been decided since the summer when we found this mask in the dollar section at Target and when combined with her birthday dress-up outfit from last year it's perfect and purple and she loved it!

 

Stitches never happen at a good time....

Life with children is always an adventure.  I had one the other day....

Lindsey and Matthew were playing nicely (so I thought) and I walked down the street a bit to meet Kaitlyn and Sam who were walking home from school.  We're just about home when Lindsey comes out, crying, saying Matthew had thrown something at her and she was bleeding.

Now if I had a dollar for every time one of my children tells me they're bleeding and need a band aid.....

So I told her I'd be right in to see.  Well, what I saw was blood DRIPPING down her face and onto her shirt and a few drops on the tile.  Matthew had thrown a manga-doodle at her face, and it made a cut, a clean slice under her left eye on her cheek

 

But she was amazingly brave and not ever crying too badly.

I could tell the cut wasn't too deep, but it's on her face, and you just don't mess around with the face.  I started calling ER's looking for one with a plastic surgeon (because mom's sometimes panic).  But when I visited with my husband about it he told me I could do what I thought was right but that I might consider calling our regular doctor to see if he'd look at it first, maybe he could use some "super glue" stuff.  

So I did.  I farmed out my kids to a friend (Thanks Laura A.) who took the older 2 to Primary Program Practice, and let Matthew hang with her little girl (who is 6 days younger than him).  And I went to our regular doctor.  He was actually on his way out the door early on a Friday to start enjoying his weekend but stayed to treat Lindsey.

 I am so glad we went here.  He was indeed able to seal up the stitch without shot or stitch and use DERMABOND.  The entire trip to the doctor took an hour!  Who knows how long the ordeal would have taken had I gone to an ER with a non-life threatening emergency.  And I was able to pick up my children by the time their rehearsal was over.

 

This sweet girl was thrilled with her sticker and lollypop.  On her way to the doctor she burst into tears because her 5th Birthday Party was the NEXT DAY and she was worried her friends would laugh at her face.   (Bless her heart!) But I assured her that her friends would be concerned about her not laughing at her.  And so she perkily replied, "Then I'll just tell them about my trip!"

Love this girl, the timing couldn't have been more perfect.  A Birthday, party and all AND Halloween--this injury will be well documented.

Bunco for Boobs

Some might think this title is irreverent, but sometimes it fits the mood.

My friend Leigh Anne has been diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer.

In her honor I worked with a few friends to host a Bunco Night where we raised $2000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation to go towards breast cancer research.

I was exhausted after all my efforts earlier in the day and realize that (again) I had over committed myself on this one but I ADORE my friend, she's been a good friend to me.  She helped me learn to breast feed my first baby, helped me prepare for labor, threw me a baby shower for my second baby....you get the picture.  My heart breaks for her family and what they're going through.  She is constantly in my prayers.  But I have faith, she is a warrior and a fighter and will do this with dignity!

Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?

On October 22nd we joined with the other members of our Stake (Mormon term for a group of congregations) to participate in a Mormon Helping Hands Day of Service.  It's an annual event that I am blessed to help coordinate as part of my calling (volunteer church assignment) on the Public Affairs Committee.

This is a huge undertaking and there were many tender mercies and miracles that happened during the planning that helped us bring about a successful day, impressing many people about the "good works" our church is involved in.

My family participated in Bonham's "Great Days of Service" where we picked up trash.  Sam opted to spend the day with a friend who was also on his soccer team so that he could play in his game (he had the BEST game of his life too--3 goals and 3 more shots on goal!).  I am so pleased with how well my girls worked, they stuck with it and worked hard never complaining.

Many of our members worked in Farmersville and Princeton.  The Farmersville ward is going to break ground on a building next year and we're working to build good relationships with city leaders there as well as build good will by serving in the community.

Stake wide approximately 875 people served in 32 projects in Allen, Bonham, Farmersville and Bonham.  I am so proud of what we accomplished!

Pumpkin Patch

Each year we try and take an outing to a pumpkin patch.  Our children are getting older and I'm realizing how this may be a fleeting tradition. 

Our weekends were PACKED for the whole fall and we were worried we wouldn't fit it in, BUT when Columbus Day rolled around and we really didn't have anything else going, we convinced Dad to take a longer lunch and come join us.

PLUS it was a chance for us to show him our favorite Chihuly glass sculptures.  The weather was AWESOME and we were not alone, but we had a great time!

 Que photo roll:

Painting and Prophets

Whew!  I am trying to recommit to spend some time each Sunday evening updating this blog, I can't believe it's been a month!

But it's been a BIG month.

My calling in Public Affairs has been incredibly busy and if I admit it, it's taken over 20 hours a week for the last 6 weeks or so, my children are a bit starved for attention and have watched a bit too much television BUT I'm still learning how to balance and most of the time my calling doesn't interfere with raising my family, but there are times of the year when I just have to grin and bear it.

But we did find time to squeeze in some fun family time, lets catch you up!

Painting and Prophets:

The first weekend of October is always a special time for us Mormons as it's an opportunity to sit for 2 days and listen to our living prophet and apostles and hear what God has inspired them to share with us to help us learn and grow.  This is always a fun weekend for our kids as I gather activities and listening games to help keep them engaged.  Conference for them is 4 2 hour sessions over 2 days.  They're still so little so we've got packets of coloring sheets, bingo cards and more.

One activity we added this year was buzz word buckets.  I had 5 buckets each filled with different snack foods.  Each had a photo attached to a dowel with a buzz word to listen for.  If the kids heard the word (Prophet, temple, scriptures, family, etc) then they could have the treat in that bucket.  THAT was a great activity for the session that runs from 11-1:00 because it helped stave off hunger until the end of that session.

BUT this year was even more exciting because of a historic announcement.  The age at which missionaries can begin their full-time 2 year or 18 month missions has been lowered.  Young men can now serve at 18 and young women can serve at 19!! This is incredible.  I served a mission, and it was one of the BEST decisions for my life.  I learned so much and it's prepared me so well for many aspects of my life.

When I think of the "hastening of the work" and how much more prepared these youth are now, and the responsibilities that will be theirs, I am excited.  Particularly I think of more returned missionary women raising families, influencing another generation of valiant spirits, the long term effect of this will be significant.  

Further, the likelihood of my girls serving missions has just gone up as well, which thrills me!

Then on a not such a spiritual note but something that means a lot to me.....WE PAINTED!!

This weekend uniquely didn't have any soccer games scheduled and we were just going to be sitting around listening to conference, so we decided to start painting the inside of the house.  We've had the cheap, easily marked up builders grade paint on our walls since we moved in.  Raising 4 kids is hard on houses and our walls were AWFUL looking.

I've been paralyzed at picking paint colors and knowing where to start, but I've been searching and testing paint colors for a few weeks and during conference we got at it.  I took charge of the kids and conference activities, and Stephen (along with his sister Rachel for a bit) really tackled some painting.  We've made progress, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color we chose.  I can't wait for Christmas when Stephen has a big block of time off and we can get even more done!