Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Fear's!

Woody and his two Buzz Lightyears

Trunk-or-Treat 2008

We started off Halloween morning with some ghost pancakes and a lot of rain. We will finish the day with some neighborhood trick-or-treating and probably some more rain. Dexter and I will be hanging out at home, passing out candy... Dex is not really into the bee costume we forced him into for trunk-or-treat, anyway.

Poor Jay. He's working today. It's really the first rainy day that he's had to work, and it's a holiday to boot. I'm sure the roads are going to be a mess. Not to mention that he still hasn't been issued his rain gear, and the only hat he has is his dress hat, which obviously he can't wear in the rain. Good times!

And speaking of my wonderful husband...

Happy (belated) 30th birthday, Jay!

The big day was Wednesday, and it turned out really well. My presents to him were:

1) Letting him buy a Wii
2) Letting him play said Wii as much as he wanted on his birthday (which I started to regret by noon...)
3) Taking him to get Indian food for dinner (trust me, this was a sacrifice on my behalf)
4) Throwing him a surprise party!

The party turned out great, thanks to Betsy, Mom & Roy, my friend Robin, my sister Jen, and many others. And the best part was, he was actually surprised! Thank you to all who came to celebrate with us, I know it meant a lot to Jay and to me, too! I will post pictures when I can. In the meantime, have a fun and safe (and hopefully dry) Halloween!

Times, they are a flyin'

The school pictures are in! It's fun to see how much the girls have changed from last year, because you don't really notice it when you're around them on a day-to-day basis. I'm happy with the way the pictures turned out, even if I only remembered to brush their hair as we were headed out the door. :)

Beatrice - preschool

Natalie - First Grade

More June Cleaver Experiments

Because I've been having so much fun sewing (surprisingly, that's not sarcasm), I decided that some of the Christmas gifts we give away this year will be hand-made. And when I saw this flannel material on clearance a while back, I knew it would be perfect as a blanket for Dexter. Here is the final product (don't look too close), which he won't get until December 25th:
I have a few other hand-made Christmas presents up my sleeve, but I can't tell you about them right now, for obvious reasons. I will say that Jay, Betsy, and I are going to quilt some blankets for the girls. We already have the material purchased, and I'm excited to get them started. Of course, I'll probably just be observing Betsy at work since I have never quilted before, but.... baby steps.

On another June Cleaver note, I entered a pie contest which took place last night at our church's Trunk-or-Treat event. I have no idea why I actually signed up for this. I think it was because I was sitting next to a very confident Stacey and Shannon, who were both signing up for the Chili Cookoff and vowing to kick one another's chili-lovin' booties. I just wanted to be cool like them (but at the same time, not to have to compete against them and be assured of losing). So, I signed up to make a pie. Here's the pie I brought (plus a bonus pic of my prego belly and my non-flat-ironed hair):

Chocolate Banana Cream... mmmmm! I got the recipe from a good friend (thanks, Jim!) and let me tell ya, it's good. So good that I'm making another one today to share with the fam. Sadly, I did not win the contest. I'm okay with it though, because now I have weaseled the secret recipe out of my friend's hands and can make it whenever I want, which is quite a consolation prize, indeed.

(Sorry to taunt you all like that, but I can't share the recipe. When Jim is a famous chef, which he's bound to be, I will take you to his restuarant and buy you a piece of pie...or, just come on over to my house.) :)

What is the world coming to?

The government has abandoned Mother's. It's true.

Who cares about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when Mother's Cookies has to close its doors?!? They've been in business 92 years! This is the kind of company that deserves a bailout. And yes, I know that Mother's and I have had our hard times in the past, but still, I never wished this on them. I am going to have to invest in a second freezer just so I can stock up on Iced Oatmeals, Taffy Cookies, and, of course, Circus Animals. This is a sad, sad day in the Fear Household.

*Sigh* So long, my crunchy, yummy, little friends...

The Ultimate Baby Name Showdown!

Well folks, it's here: The Ultimate Baby Name Showdown! Aren't you excited?!? (Ok, maybe it's just me.)

The top two vote-getters from each poll (for both boys and girls) are listed on the right, so go ahead and cast your vote. FYI, where there was a tie, I just chose the name I liked best.

I can't wait to see the results!

We have a date!

There are many not-so-great things about having c-sections, but I have to admit, I really like the fact that I get to know the baby's birth date ahead of time. It certainly helps with the planning of babysitting for the other kids, etc. And it doesn't hurt that the doctor usually schedules the surgery for about a week ahead of your due date. That is stellar! So... we now have a date for the surgery. Drum roll please...

Friday, November 28th!

Whoo hoo! And yes, that's the day after Thanksgiving. Perfect timing, actually. I would hate to have missed out on the opportunity to go crazy with Thanksgiving dinner, especially with the "I'm pregnant so I can eat as much as I want" excuse. It's a beautiful thing.

If they make me fast ahead of the surgery, then I'm having Thanksgiving at 7 a.m. "Wake up kids, it's time to have turkey!"

(I don't think they do ... I really should remember that, huh? It's only my fourth. Oh well... maybe I'll eat a pie or two ahead of time, just in case.)

On another note, the results of the 2nd round of baby name polls are as follows:

Girls
Evelyn - 12 (35%)
Josephine - 10 (29%)
Alice - 9 (26%)
Mary - 3 (8%)

Boys
Jack - 16 (48%)
Linus - 7 (21%)
Charles - 7 (21%)
Gordon - 3 (9%)

Later this week I'll take the top two from this poll and the top two from the last poll and we'll have an ultimate baby name showdown! I'm excited! I love seeing everyone's responses. I have to admit I was surprised at how well Linus did. *I* like it, but that usually doesn't mean much. :)

Dexter is 18 months, so....

You know what that means! NURSERY!

Not that I've been counting down or anything...............ok, yes I have.

Dexter is not the best "out & about" child, and that especially pertains to church. He starts screaming the minute we walk through the doors (and that is not an exaggeration). My sweet mother-in-law has spent almost every Sunday with me trying to help me out since Jay has to work, but I fear neither one of us has been getting much out of church the past few months. It doesn't help that Dex will only sit through sacrament meeting long enough to finish his extra-large cup of juice (3.5 seconds). Even snacks don't placate him.

To be fair, it's not that he's unhappy or bratty. It's that he is loud. He has one volume - screech - kind of like one of his sisters, who shall remain nameless.

Wait, how did that picture get in here??

Anyway, what a joy it was to turn the D-Man over to the fine folks in the Nursery today. Almost 2 hours of peaceful Sabbath Day observance...ah! What more could a mom of young kids want? It felt like I was getting away with something. So thank you, THANK YOU, to all those who serve in nursery. You guys rock.

The Pumpkin Patch, in pictures

The pumpkin patch adventure of 2008 begins...

Now that's a lot of pumpkins!

Hey... hay!

He does treat me like a queen...

Just runnin'...

Just chillin'...

Why yes, I do look just like my Daddy.

No sir, I'm not smuggling a pumpkin...

I got it, I got it!

Our haul.

The end!

I like the school year because...

...when I sort through the plethora of papers that come home each week, I find gems like this:


For some reason, this had me cracking up for ten minutes. I love that the "no" is coming from the direction of the kitchen. Hmmmm, wonder who that could be? :)

(P.S. If you haven't voted in the latest baby name poll, get to it! Only 2 days left!)

Baby Name Poll: Round 2 (plus, I'm off the ice)

Well, my friends, you were right. A week of consistent vitamin taking has significantly reduced my ice craving, and I'm feeling almost normal again. As normal as a pregnant woman feels, anyway. Hats off to Jay, Jeremy, and Diane, who all diagnosed my craving correctly. I can feel the iron pumping through me even as I type.

And now, as promised, a new baby name poll! The results of my previous poll can be found here. Please vote in both polls, since we need both a boy and a girl name. Perhaps later I'll pit the winners of this poll against the winners of the previous poll and we can declare an All-Time But Non-Binding Winner!

Now go vote! (Consider it practice for November 4th.)