The lengths our kids go to avoid doing a job!

It really was an accident, but I have to laugh because I had just asked Trinitie to move the stools out of the kitchen before she went to play with a friend. She was working on getting the first stool and somehow knocked the stool over. The seat of the stool landed on her pinkie toe and that was as far as she got with moving the stools out of the kitchen. (After we got ice on the toe and Ibuprofin taken, mom moved the stools and swept the floor.)

Her whole toe was purple and swolen in just a few minutes. It was obviously broken and we knew that there wasn't much you could do for a broken toe. I was determined we were not going to waste our money on a trip to the doctor. I rented some crutches so she could get around but by the third day the whole right side of her foot was bruised. Jim and I were afraid that maybe her foot was hurt worse than we thought. She wouldn't put any weight on her foot and it really looked bad. We caved! I took her to the doctor the next morning and found out that our diagnosis had been correct. Her little toe was broken but that was all. They did encourage her to wear the boot and use her foot more so that it would heal faster. All this for a pinkie toe.

Three teeth in 24 hours.

Just after Christmas Autumn had gotten one of her top teeth so loose that it was almost sticking strait forward. It stayed that loose for the next 6 weeks. She also had two teeth on bottom that had started getting loose at the same time as the top one but she had left them alone and we didn't think about them much. I guess I was getting tired of seeing her tooth sticking out so mentioned that the dentist would probably pull it out at our next dentist visit if she hadn't. She had a dentist appointment in 10 days and decided she wanted control of the situation. We had been encouraging her to pull it during the past 6 weeks but suddenly she had it out within 1/2 an hour. I felt kind of bad. The front part of the tooth still had a fairly big root. Oh well, it's out now and I'm pretty sure the dentist would have pulled it.

Now for the bottom 2 loose teeth. The next morning she was messing with one of her bottom teeth. She says she just pushed down on it and then pulled and it was out. Much less blood than the top tooth and the root was definately ready. Before I knew it she had done the same thing with the other bottom tooth. She kept the Tooth Fairy busy last weekend!

Am I ready for this?

Thursday I took James down to the DMV to get his drivers permit. I thought I would have a hard time with it. Especially since they get to drive a year younger in Idaho than I was planning on when we lived in Colorado. Instead I found myself somewhat excited. It's hard to watch my kids grow up so fast, but I'm finding that I truly enjoy each phase we go through (some more than others). I am really enjoying this phase of life. I wanted to post a picture of James' permit but they keep it to give to the Driver's Ed. Teacher to keep until James finishes the class.

Midnight Madness

Friday night was "Midnight Madness" in Rigby. It starts out with a light parade at 6:00 that welcomes Santa who rides in on a firetruck at the end of the parade and I think the kids got to go sit on Santa's lap when the parade was over (I'm not sure, my girls were busy at the Mini Nutcracker Balet). A lot of the businesses on Main Street stayed open until midnight for shopping, hot chocolate and other goodies. This year they also started a new tradition of a Mini Nutcracker Balet.

Both Trinitie and Autumn were able to participate in the Nutcracker. Trinitie was a Russian Candycane Dancer and Autumn was the baby mouse in the scene where the nutcracker and the mice fight. It was really cute! They did a great job. There was limited seating to watch the nutcracker so they ended up doing two performances. The nutcracker took up the girls whole evening so they missed santa, the parade and shopping but they had so much fun they didn't even notice.

James went to the parade with a friend and they met some girls from school there. They were supposed to meet us at the nutcracker but they got sidetracked getting hot chocolate and cookies at the stores. Somehow they didn't quite make it before they shut the doors for the first performance.

Jim and I walked around and checked out some of the stores while we waited for Trinitie and Autumn to finish their second performance. We kept running into James and his friends, so we got to keep an eye on them without really trying to. It was a lot of fun! I am loving this small town community!

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. Autumn was our football player and Trinitie was the Spirit of Halloween. We had been discussing Halloween Costumes with a friend while we were at one of James' football games and she offered Autumn one of their Cheerleader costumes. Autumn was quick to let her know she was going to be a football player. It was fun creating Trinitie's costume with her. She had a ton of ideas in her head and it was fun to figure out how to make it work.

Autumn, Trinitie and I went Trick-or-Treating with some friends and James stayed home with Jim to pass out candy. Before we left a group of girls from James' school had come by and tried to talk us into letting him go Trick-or-Treating. He was a good sport though and listened to his parents (Trick-or-Treating has to end at some point, right?). Well, while I was gone the party ended up at our house (with dad's approval). I was a little surprised to come home to a house full of Teenagers. A couple of James' good friends and the girls who had been by earlier had come to help James pass out candy when they were done getting candy. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed meeting the kids James has been hanging out with but I am wondering if I'm ready for this girl/boy thing. The best part was when we ran out of candy and James' friends grabbed their treat bags and started handing their candy out.

The Beach

Going to California as a family was a once in a lifetime thing for us. We were pushing it to get Jim there at all. He was a great sport and we were glad he was with us. We did our best to hit the major hi-lights while we were there. All the mom's had a girl's night out and went to see "Wicked". It was awesome! All the talent was amazing. We also made sure the kids got a chance to enjoy the beach. Everyone had a great time. James amazed me. He had no fear and went out way farther than I ever would. He also caught on to the Boogy Board quickly and had a blast with his uncle Brian.

Disneyland

The end of July we went to Disneyland. We had promised the kids 3 years ago that we would go in 2008. We lucked out and got to have a family reunion there also. Grandma and Grandpa Herget and all their kids and grand kids were able to make it. We stayed in 3 condos just a few blocks from Disneyland. We had a blast! But we were having so much fun we forgot to take very many pictures. It was nice to have 3 day park-hopper passes. We were able to enjoy and not feel rushed. Autumn (my energizer batter) actually was exhausted on the last day. She asked to go back to the condo to take a nap and she hasn't taken naps for 3 years. We also spent a day at Knott's Berry Farm Water Park and a day at the beach. I'll post the beach pictures in my next post. We actually remembered to take pictures there.