Gearing up for Halloween

Sorry I have been absent this week. We had a field trip for our four year old to the pumpkin patch and some other things going on to keep us busy. It was a very cold and windy day when we went. We had fun and our 2 year old daughter thought she was part of the class. We are visiting family today (Sunday) which I am very much looking forward too. Then on Halloween, we have an outing with my MOPS group and then trick or treating for a short time.

Matt had a blast on these!

Playing with corn.

A firefighter

A Pooh :P

And a baby dinosaur!

Meal Plan

I did my grocery shopping late in the week due to another family emergency.

Spaghetti (easy repeat from last week)
Homemade mini pizzas
Porkchops
Taco salad
Chili

...and I can't remember the rest. That's the kind of week it was.

Fall Leaf Wreaths

We saw this craft on the Sprout Goodnight show and thought it'd be cute to do with the kids. Here are the instructions from Sproutonline.com. We didn't use berries and flowers -- only leaves. I went to Dollar Tree and just bought fake leaves since the leaves in our yard were pretty wet.

L-R Matthew's (age 4), mine, and Cheyenne's (age 2)

Supplies

• 1 paper plate
• Ribbon
• Dried leaves, berries, flowers, small stones, pine cones, or anything else from nature that you find
• Decorations (glitter, stickers, pom poms)
• All-purpose white glue
• Hole punch

Instructions

1. Using safety scissors, cut out the inside of the paper plate – now you have the shape of your wreath.
2. Using the hole punch, punch two holes in the top of the plate – this will be used to hang up the wreath.
3. Now it’s time to decorate it! Use your imagination to decorate it with leaves, berries, flowers, pine cones, markers, or glitter.
4. Once you’ve decorated the wreath, let it dry.
5. After it has dried, put a piece of ribbon through the holes and hang your nature wreath at your door!

Pumpkin Patch & Christmas Shopping

We finally got to have a trip to the pumpkin patch. It's a challenge to get family time with my husband's crazy work schedule. We took the kids to a pumpkin patch not too far from where we live. They enjoyed going to the bounce house and a hayrack ride. Although picking out pumpkins with 4, 2, and 1 year olds is pretty interesting. Our daughter (2 year old) wanted every. pumpkin.

 

Our pumpkin family :P

I also ordered my husband an anniversary present (Fast Five on DVD) and a Christmas present for the baby. I'm trying to do most of my shopping using the free gift cards I earn on Swagbucks and Superpoints. (If you'd like an invitation to join Superpoints, leave a comment and I will get you one!)

Here is what I ordered for our 1 year old:
Green Toys Dump Truck

Meal Plan

With my mother in law still in the hospital, we are having a week of very quick meals.

Spaghetti
Chicken Fettuccine
Macaroni & Ham (I will post this recipe eventually)
Enchiladas
Grilled cheese & tomato soup
Chicken Noodle Soup w/ rolls

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When you can't sleep

Here I am at 1 a.m. not able to sleep. I laid in bed after nursing my baby and realized how wide awake I was. The thoughts of the last 5-6 days just running through my head. The fact that a week ago my mother in law had been in our house, sitting in a chair, talking to me about some things I was going through on my side of the family.

Her work accident has changed things for our family. Recently she had gone back to this job and things had felt well...empty. Now she is in the hospital and we don't know for how long. We were used to her popping over every day. Just to say hi. Just to chat. Just to see the kids. And every time, she took the time to just sit and talk with me. I have met many new people this week and every one has told me how much they love and that she has a heart of gold.

I am not sure when things will go back to normal. I told my husband the other day we will have a "new" normal. We don't know how things are going to go. We are just thankful that her injuries are less than we originally thought. Walking into that hospital room and seeing her on that breathing machine shook me to my core.

Through this experience, the Lord has really humbled me. When we get caught into the day to day motions, we really forget how precious life is. Being a mother of three young children, I am constantly reminded what a blessing life is. But now I have been shown how quickly life can change. Life is precious and always changing. But when an awful accident happens, it really makes you takes thing into perspective.

I guess I feel better getting that out. I will continue updating the Carepage I previously posted about my mother in law's progress on her recovery.

Asking for prayers

My mother in law was injured inside a machine at work the other night. Up until this morning, she was on a breathing machine. She has bruises on her heart and lungs and fluid in her lungs. She is doing better at this point, but has a long recovery ahead of her as we don't know the extent of her arm injury as well.

Love For Lillian - Updates on her health status You must register before it will let you view the page.

Prayer Chain for Lillian

Meal Plan

Our menu plan for this week:

Homemade mini pizzas
Baked potatoes & broccoli topped with cheddar
Homemade sub night
Shredded BBQ beef sandwiches
Taco in a bag (some people call it a walking taco)
Lemon pepper chicken w/ side
Cheeseburger macaroni (made from scratch, not the Hamburger Helper stuff)

Grocery sack ghosts

Tonight my 4 year old and I made some grocery sack ghosts together. This was a very easy craft and didn't involve me buying anything (thanks to a friend giving me a sewing kit when I stopped by her house tonight!) Here's what you'll need:

I found this on a random craft site so this is not an original idea.

- grocery sacks (we used 12 bags to make six ghosts)
- scissors
- yarn or thread
- needle (or hole punch)
- Sharpie marker

Now I used Wal-mart bags, so I cut off the front of the wording and the bag handles (save one of them!). Then I balled up the second grocery bag and placed it in the middle of the first grocery bag. I brought it together and then twisted it once so it made the head, then I wrapped one of the bag handles around it and tied it a knot to make the arms. I also fluffed them out and trimmed them to be the same size. With the marker, make eyes and a mouth. Then you need to string the thread/yarn through a hole so you can hang it outside. I had to use a crochet hook to poke a hole in the top of ours, so having that on hand would be a lot easier. I also used yarn instead of thread.