Trick or Treat

The kids got tons of candy at the ward Halloween trunk-or-treat on Friday. The boys finally settled on their costumes that afternoon, and we worked like crazy to get them done in time. Thankfully, Claire decided against being the Earth like she had originally planned (that would've been tough to make!). She already had a Snow White dress, and all we had to buy was a Snow White tiara.

Coming home from trick-or-treating last night

Our cute little bunny!

the lovely Snow White

Yes, there's only one way--Scott's way.

I don't know how Tyler came up with this idea, but it sure was creative! With his speed, it's hard to pass him anyway.

Claire in Kinder

It's been over a month now, and Claire's thriving in Kindergarten. We didn't make the decision to send her to school until a week before school started. We already knew that I was going to homeschool Tyler this year, and we pretty much assumed I would teach Claire too. But as we thought it over more and more, and after praying about it, we felt that having her go to school was the right thing for her. And I have already seen many positive effects--she's more outgoing, independent, mature, and excelling even more in reading and writing! Of course, she's really hard to get out of bed in the mornings, and we do have to work on her not yelling at Scott like a teenager... But in all, I'm really happy with how school is going for her.

As for Tyler, I'm glad we decided to homeschool him this year. He's improving in many ways on things that concerned us previously. I'm so proud of him! He's a hard worker and is very thoughtful of others. Today when I was about to mow the lawn Tyler offered to do it. It was really hard for him, especially trying to push it uphill, but he didn't give up and he got it done! I love having him around all the time (we all miss Claire...), and our relationship has really improved. The actual homeschooling has its ups and downs, but I think I'm starting to figure it out. I really appreciate the support and help of homeschooling friends in the ward. It's nice to not be alone in this adventure!

One big happy family

We love our crazy kids! Here are some random pics from the past couple months. Tyler earned enough money to buy a new bike (we paid for half of it)! He earned a big chunk of it on our trip home from Colorado, entertaining and taking good care of Lily.

We finally checked out the splash park at The Woodlands Waterway and rode the free trolley

Hangin' out with Lily at the splash park

Claire made me a donut Scott loves swimming now that he knows how to move around fast with a floatie

When Lily's really happy, she stretches her mouth open really wide--it's so adorable!

Kamping

Ok, so it wasn't exactly roughing it. We went to the Lake Conroe KOA, which was really an RV park. Not much privacy, but it made camping a lot easier with a newborn and three other little kids. The best part was the enclosed pool! The worst part was when Tyler got stung by a wasp. His whole hand got swollen and it put a damper on the rest of the trip, but we're glad it didn't get any worse.

Tyler turns 7

I can't stop looking at this picture. It's my baby all grown up already! Well, not yet, but I can't believe he only has one more year until he gets baptized. Doesn't that make me feel old! Tyler had his birthday on Thursday. We brought cupcakes to his class (thankfully we had a car that day--we are down to one car b/c of an accident Tim was in last month--thanks Robinsons & Cherrys for loaning us your cars, and Phil sorry about the sunroof...). I guess the whole car situation deserves a post of its own. Anyway, for his birthday dinner we had wontons and fried rice (I guess there is some Chinese in his blood). I made a space shuttle cake which turned out to be a total failure. I decided to leave out pictures of that part! We had a treasure hunt to find one of his presents--real walkie talkies. Tyler decided to have a camping trip again instead of a big birthday party. I was glad about that, because for me camping would be less stressful than throwing a party. I'll talk about the camping trip in the next post.