Happy Halloween 2014 From the Super Swans!

I love Halloween. I think it's fun to get way into it. I get that from my dad and my Grandma Lemmon. One of the things traditions we've done so far since Lincoln was born is to dress up with a family theme in mind. This year we were super heroes.

Lincoln wanted to be batman. His costume was the easiest. He already had the mask and cape in the dress-up box. To complete the outfit, I just printed out the logo on to an iron-on transfer and put it on a black t-shirt. Done and done, and he was thrilled. :)

I think I mentioned before, Ivan started out being Superman, and then changed his mind and wanted to be Spiderman. I also used an iron-on transfer for his logo, and then t-shirt paint to make the webs on the shirt and hat and gloves. We also decided to go all out and paint his face. You really can Google anything, including 'how to paint a Spiderman face'. I enjoyed the face painting. And Ivan was tickled with it. We left his mouth clear so he could eat dinner without messing it up.

Adelia got her face painted too, although she had smeared it beyond recognition before we ever got to the trick-or-treating part of our evening. :) And by the time we got to trick-or-treating she was sick of her cape and went without. But she had a good time, and that's the important thing. Her shirt was also and iron-on transfer, and I made the tutu.

Ollie's costume was super easy too, but probably my favorite. He used a cape from our dress-up box, and I made him a t-shirt with a lightning bolt on it. He went as Flash. I spiked and gelled his hair to look like he'd been hit by lightning. It. Was. Adorable.

And last but not least, Aaron and I went as Wonder Woman and Clark Kent. I had a lot of fun putting my costume together. I made the boots out of red duct tape, following a tutorial I found on Pinterest. I already had teal leggings, so I cut out some paper stars and taped them on. My belt is duct tape that I painted gold. My shirt, was just a white maternity T I had in the back of the closet that I dyed scarlett, and then used T-shirt glitter paint to paint the logo on. My wrist guards are card stock painted gold with a red nailpolish star...and same with the headband. Aaron's costume was pure genius...he just wore his work clothes with a blue t-shirt underneath, then he printed out the Superman S and safety pinned it onto his shirt. He came up with that, and I thought it was perfect. He's a good sport to put up with me and my Halloween antics. :)

I took all the kids over to Aaron's office around 3:30pm. Every year his work does a trick-or-treat and some Halloween games for the kids. It's a lot of fun. Then we went over to Aaron's parents' house for an excellent Potato Soup dinner. And then we hit up our neighborhood for trick-or-treating. I love trick-or-treating. It's so fun to walk around and see your friends and neighbors dressed up in costumes. People have awesome ideas, and are so creative. Plus, I've always loved walking around at night. I can't explain it, but there's something free and wild about being out and about after dark. Haha!

And of course, we took our wagon with us, so any kids that got tired could catch a ride between houses. At one point, Ollie got out of the wagon and decided to push it for a block or so. I think he was on sugar overload, but it was hilarious.

Miss Nelson is Missing!

This morning was our homeschool field trip to see the play Miss Nelson is Missing, put on my the Scera Theater. They do a play every year for school groups, where they teach audience etiquette, and then let the kids ask questions to the cast members at the end of the production. It's great.

I was in charge of planning this field trip, which made the morning a little more hectic than it might have been. But, it's all good. I learned some great things about how to plan a field trip, and I know what changes I'll make next go around. And once I'd got the money issues figured out and our group all paid for, I was able to sit back and enjoy the show. And it was a fun show. The lady who played Viola Swamp, did an outstanding job.

We lucked out this year, because Gramma Tam decided last minute to come and go with us. This is the first time ever that my Mom has seen my kids in person on Halloween. They really enjoyed showing off their costumes to her.

In Preparation for Halloween

It's been a little bit of an intense week at the Swan house. I knew, being Hallween week, that it was going to be a busy week before it ever started, but then throw in a couple of unexpected items, and it goes from busy to intense, just like that. I'm glad this week is over, and I'm glad we're all alive and in good spirits to tell about it.

It all started with the sound of crashing glass one morning at 5am. Aaron and I had been up several times in the night with various children, but by 5am we were sleeping. Then CRASH! Not sleeping anymore. Of course we thought someone was breaking in. I've never seen Aaron jump out of bed so fast in my life. He grabbed the baseball bat that we keep under our bed, and checked upstairs in all the kids' rooms first. Nothing. So he headed downstairs. Oliver choose this moment to wake up wailing. So, I went in there and picked him up, and while trying to quiet him down tried to determine exactly what I, as an unarmed 8-month pregnant person holding a wailing toddler, would do if the intruder happened to get passed Aaron.

Luckily, I never had to decide. Aaron came back up the stairs to tell me that the mirror in our downstairs half bath had fallen off the wall and broke. It was glued to the wall instead of held up with brackets, I don't know if that's standard or not, but it seems really stupid. But I wasn't angry. I was too relieved that 1) No one was breaking into our house, and 2) That the mirror had fallen off in the middle of the night, instead of in the day when it could have landed on a kid. Aaron told me to go back to bed, while he put Oliver back to bed AND cleaned up all the glass. I'm married to a saint, Ladies and Gentleman, a pure saint. And I am so grateful for him. Blessings in all things.

We also made a semi-emergency trip to the dentist. Lincoln was up all night in tears one night with a tooth ache. We called the next morning and told them we'd come in at the first available opportunity, which was later that morning. I took an already very full schedule, and squeezed the dentist appointment in between Adelia's preschool and the boys' theater class.While they were checking Lincoln's teeth, I figured (since none of our kids have ever been to the dentist) that it was high time everyone in our family got in for a cleaning. I spent all of Lincoln's appointment, trying to squeeze 4 other appointments into our over-packed schedule before the baby becomes part of the picture.  Lincoln ended up having 8 cavities. Holy bad-tooth-brushing Batman. So I also made two appointments for him to come in and get those fixed. That adds up to 7 dentist appointments and 4 OB appointments for us before Ruby comes. Not to mention the 2 well-child visits, the HFMD visit, and Adelia's trip in for her UTI we had two weeks ago. If I ever see another doctor's office again, I might break down in tears. I feel like lately we could just pack up and move in, for how often we're planning on being there.

When we got home and I told Aaron about the cavities, he decided that he wanted a second opinion. He canceled the appointments I'd made, and rescheduled Lincoln with a different dentist. Luckily Aaron took Linc to that appointment. Sure enough, eight cavities. But the new dentist was able to get Lincoln in sooner than the first dentist, so we only have to wait over the weekend to have that one filled instead of two weeks. Which is good, because Lincoln has been in tears off and on since the first day he told us about his tooth ache. We're trying all sorts of hocus pocus to try and help the pain and to avoid giving him Tylenol every 4 hours for 5 days straight, since we'd really like him to have a healthy liver and all that good stuff. But I'll be honest that it's frustrating.

On top of that there was Halloween to get ready for. Both Lincoln and Adelia had school parties early in the week, so their costumes had to be all done for those.  

                             

And Ivan, who was planning on being Superman, decided last minute that he wanted to be Spiderman instead. So we had to make a quick run to WalMart for a red shirt, and some black metallic T-shirt paint. And I have to admit that sometimes I'm pretty freakin' amazing. I was happy with how his costume turned out.

And let's not forget the preparation for my own costume. :) My husband thinks I'm ridiculous. But I like to go all out for Halloween if I can manage it. Here's a few previews...

You're excited to see the finished product, aren't you? :) I am too!

And one of the nights this week we carved pumpkins. I got smart this year and had the kids help sort out the seeds from the guts.

Check Marks

Our Primary Program is over. Hazzah! I can't express to you what a relief that is for me. I'm not sure if I've blogged about it or not, but I am the Primary Chorister in my ward right now. To put it lightly, it's not my most favorite calling I've ever had. I do not have a single musical bone in my body. I can't sing...not I don't like to sing, or I won't sing...I CAN'T sing, I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. I can't play the piano. I can't read music. And aside from waving my hand around in the air, I know next to nothing about how to lead music. So, I'm not really sure why I'm the chorister, other than the bishop asked me to be, and I was always taught not to turn down a calling. But it's a struggle for me. (And being pregnant doesn't really help.) Our piano player is the sweetest nicest lady, and she keeps asking me, "How do you want me to play this song, I'm trying to follow you leading but it seems like we go a little fast, what do you think?" And I just laughed right out loud and said, "Please don't try to follow my leading, I have no idea what I'm doing up there. Just play the piano the way the song is written and I'll do my best to follow you." Eye-yi-yi. I'm constantly screwing up words, coming in too early, and missing the cue for when the intro ends and the singing is supposed to begin. I make an idiot out of myself on a weekly basis. It's like a really bad case of the blind leading people who can already see just fine. I'm sure I've made the kids worse singers than they were before I got put in.

But miracles do happen, and the kids did wonderful at the Primary Program. And now it's over. Yay! There's one major event to cross off my list of things I have to do before Ruby comes. The next one is the homeschool group field trip I'm in charge of planning this month and then Halloween. (Both are on the same day.)

Then October will be over and it will be November. I could have the baby in November. It's possible. Wouldn't it be wonderful? I'm rooting for November. And actually if I could pick a day in November, I'd pick November 20th. That's my dad's birthday. But that's a little too early for me to think it'll really happen. Aaron's birthday is the 23rd, but I think I'd rather keep the two birthdays separate. Especially because Thanksgiving usually falls right around there as well, and having Thanksgiving and 2 birthdays to celebrate all in one day sounds a little too chaotic for me. I don't feel like I'd be able to give all three things the time and one-on-one attention they deserved. Anywhere between the 24th-30th would be good. If only we could plan, right? That would make life so much easier. I envy the c-section people for that reason. They know they're having a baby on this day, they arrange someone to watch the other kids, it's all nice and low stress like that. I think my biggest stress of pregnancy is the unknown of when the baby will come. Will I be able to get to Aaron, and get all of our kids where they need to be before the baby is born in the car? Ya.

I'm getting excited for Ruby to be here though. To meet her, and find out what her little personality is like, and how she will fit into our family. Aaron's pretty sure she's going to be a Type 3 because we picked the name Ruby for it's sassyness quality and to take after me. I'm not convinced she's a Type 3, (although, the clothing choices I've made for her might suggest otherwise) but I definitely think she's got a good chance of being a higher energy. A Type 1 or a Type 3. She moves around a lot more than Ollie did. With Ollie sometimes I'd have to try really hard to feel him move, and sometimes he made me nervous with how little he moved. But not Ruby. With her, pretty much all I have to do is pause and think about it for a second and yep, there she is. But, Lincoln was fairly active in the womb too, and he's a Type 4, so really anything is possible.

I went to my 34 week doctor's appointment today. It was a quick one. Everything looks good. I go back in two weeks. I have to have some blood drawn because my platelets were low last time. And after that I'm in every week until the end. I scheduled all the rest of my doctor's appointments today. it was kind of crazy. That's only 4 more doctor's appointments. FOUR. And that's only if I go a full 40 weeks. The end is near. I should be nervous, but I'm not, really. Not as nervous as I usually am at this point anyway. I am excited though...for the baby...not for the labor and delivery part. But I don't have the anxiety for the labor/delivery that I usually do. Not sure why that is. Maybe it will hit in the next couple of weeks or so, but I felt like I spent almost all of my pregnancy with Oliver dreading labor and delivery. And maybe, because I had the epidural and his delivery ended up being so calm and peaceful, it's taken all the anxiety away. Or, maybe I've just kept myself so busy, I haven't had time to think about being anxious. Who knows. :)

But really, I'm doing well. As long as I don't have to bend over. One of the kids spilling something on the floor that I have to bend over to clean up, is just about the fastest way to watch me come unhinged. It shouldn't be like that...I don't really like being Mom-zilla. But for crying out loud, let's just stop spilling things on the floor for the next 6 weeks, shall we?

Big Red Barn

We finally made it down to the Big Red Barn. It's one of my favorite places to go as a family every year. It feels like the epitome of fall to me. The activities are fun, but the venue is not too crowded. And my pictures always turn out. Always. It doesn't seem to matter what time of day we go, the lighting and colors always make the pictures great. So get ready for picture overload. :)

Despite the look on his face, Ollie LOVED the potato sack slides. He spent about an hour just going up and sliding down and going up again. 

"Hmm...how do you drive this thing?"

Girls' Night Out, Dressing Your Truth Style

Brenda Type 4, Me Type 3, Carol Tuttle Type 3, Arianne Type 2, Brookie Type 4

Tonight I went on a much-needed Girls' Night Out. Some of my favorite ladies and I went up to Lehi to attend the Dressing Your Truth Club Night, and it was so fun! It's nice every once in awhile to do something that is completely for you as a human, and has nothing to do with the roles of mom/wife/neighbor/teacher/etc. We learned about layering clothes for Fall and Winter, and tips and things to think about for each Type. One thing I loved was looking around the audience and seeing ally the different Types of women and what they were wearing. Lots of inspiration there.

And, we were even brave enough to go up and meet Carol Tuttle afterwards and get a picture with her.