getting ready

We spent much of yesterday getting ready for today. The kids are not trick-or-treating or going to any harvest festivals. We've done that in the past a few times and enjoyed the fun family time, but around here things just are not very family friendly. In our neighborhood many of the houses are decorated with VERY scary things (there are a few that we've seen that are really bad even in day light), last year we found that the costumes got pretty bad too. The kids are very excited about our plans for this year, and have had a good time helping me get it all together.

*it looks like we've already been having too many sweets though, we're loosing teeth!

The big fun yesterday was putting together goodie bags to pass out. We decided that we would pass out bags full of candy, with tracts in them. It was fun to see how excited the older kids

were about the tracts and that they knew this was the most important part of the goodie bag. I had planned to have the older kids do this project during nap time, but we had other things to do then. Mr. M had gone to shooting practice with Rob, leaving me just four kids to do this project, two of which I thought would be no help. I was wrong! Mr. S and Miss J were great

helpers! Miss J was so enthusiastic about putting the candy in bags that at one point we had to distract her by letting her eat candy so we could finish the job (she was fine with the concept of one candy per bag, but when we switched candy types and went to three per bag she just could not follow).

Next came decorating some pumpkin shaped cookies. This was fun, and I was able to get a big job done at the same time. The big kids took turns decorating and moving oatmeal from the huge bag to smaller bags for storage in buckets. Once again we had to

distract Miss J from "helping". She is often very good at helping with jobs, but this time she was getting more oatmeal on the floor than in the bags, however she was quite happy to decorate cookies once she saw that was an option!

Rob and I made some chocolate popcorn balls that the kids had found the recipe for and asked me to make. I don't think they are very good, but I'm thinking the kids will enjoy them.

We're also getting ready for Miss C! At this point she could come at any time! One of the hardest things for us in getting ready for a new baby is figuring out who will watch the other kids. We always try to find someone close by, that we know really well. This is easier said than done, we know plenty of people that are willing to help with the kids, but most of them live 20-30 minutes away, they are our back ups though! We are so blessed to be stationed again with a family we went to church with in Florida! They live right down the street and are more than happy to watch our kids when Miss C comes! Miss E will be coming to the hospital with us this time. She had asked to come when Miss J was born, but we were not ready for that. This time we think she is ready and this has really provided some nice times for the two of us to talk and for me to enjoy my "little girl" as she is growing up! However I was a bit nervous about having to wear my "mom hat" during labor, but a dear friend is coming along to be Miss E's buddy so I don't have to worry about that anymore. We had not planned to have anyone else come to be with Miss E (I'm not big on having others there, the less people the better. I mean, last time the doctor was barely in the room for the birth! LOL!), but this friend happened to mention in conversation how she had always wanted to be at a birth (besides her own kids), she is one of the few people I think I'd feel comfortable having there. So, I shocked her by asking her to come to Miss C's birth, she is so excited! Miss E is excited to have here there with her too. So, everyone is now waiting for the phone calls to get moving. We can't wait!