Regret

I try not to have to many regrets in life.  It's a waste of time in my opinion, but one regret I do have is while in Germany I had the opportunity to buy a dirndl and didn't!  What's wrong with me?!  I so need to find a pattern to make one.  Anyone know how to make a dirndl and want to teach me how?  I want to look as cool as these two awesome dudes!  Come on!  Help a girl out!

Essential Oil Diffuser

I just wanted to preface by saying that I am not getting paid to say what I am about to say.  I just really LOVE this product and I know there are some people that might be interested in this little bit of information.  Our family uses essential oils.  I won't say which oils due to possible legality issues, but if you are curious which ones just leave a response and I will get back to you.  Anyhoo...I have wanted a diffuser for a really long time, but couldn't afford the one that a certain popular oil company sells.  I wasn't crazy about how theirs looked either.  So I found this one and decided to take a chance.  SOOOO glad that I did!  This thing works really well, blends in with my existing knick knacks, and has more timer options that some other diffusers.  It also has like four different colored lights (my kids like to choose which color) or you can use it without a light.  And the best thing about this diffuser . . . the price!  $46.99 with prime shipping!  AWESOME!

http://www.amazon.com/BriteLeafs-Ultrasonic-Aroma-Diffuser-Humidifier/dp/B008YHB23A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359609557&sr=8-1&keywords=briteleafs+ultrasonic+aroma+diffuser

A Trip Down Memory Lane

So I am a horrible wife.  I failed to mention that in August of 2012 my hubby and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary!  That is a big deal!  And how did we celebrate you ask?  Well . . . my brother came home from his mission on our anniversary and then I left for Europe . . . without him!  Lame anniversary present for him, I know!  But better late than never . . . HAPPY ANNIVERSARY.  I love you more now than I did back then.  Cliche, right?  But nonetheless true!  You are the butter to my bread, you are the breath to my life.  I love you!  Now lets see if he actually reads this.

(p.s. if you could say one thing to this cute young couple about the future ahead of them, what would it be?  Ready... set... go!)

Fall Leaves

Our first fall after moving, the kids were so excited to rake leaves.  The novelty quickly wore off, but I made sure to run out and take some pics before the excitement left.

Now look at that smile on her face.

There was actually some sibling "love" going on over who got which rake, but I forced this little one to smile anyways.  She complied.

Awww . . . there's the love!

 While taking these pictures you can be sure that I might be heard saying more than once, "Pretend that you love each other!"

 Now here is the real reason the girls wanted to rake.  Back at our old house we had only one small tree that produced maybe a total of 15 leaves.  And sadly, they would pile them up and jump in them only to find that they didn't cushion their knees the way they had hoped.  But now, at our new location, the leaves are plentiful so the pile of leaves was ample. 

 Here they are getting ready to jump!

 I don't think our youngest knew that this was supposed to be fun.

But look at those two girls faces. 

 Their leaf jumping dreams have been fulfilled!

And 1 jump was not enough for this little boy!

 Holding hands with his 3 sisters only slowed him down.  I think if he had been wearing his cape he might have reached mach 10.

Potty Training

What kind of mom would I be if I didn't take pictures of potty training?  I knew that when I got back from my Europe trip that I was going to tackle potty training our youngest and that's exactly what I did!  We use the "take your kid to the potty every ten minutes" method until they start to recognize when they need to go.  So we spent a good week close to the porcelain throne.  I couldn't help but snap a few pics.  What else am I gonna use as blackmail when she starts dating?  

Now, what potty time experience would it be without an I Phone?

I tried to be sneaky about taking her picture, but I got caught!

"Mom!  Go AWAY!!!! NO PICTURE!!!!"  No lie!!  That's exactly what she said!  Look at that face!  I'm pretty sure I need to do a post on the many faces of this little girl.  She has a plethora of AWESOME expressions.  Another time . . . another post!

Halloween

Just as a heads up, Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday!  So I usually end up forgetting to take their picture until the very end.  Then at the very end of the festivities I can be heard saying, "DANG IT!!!!  I forgot to take your pictures!  Hurry . . . line up!!!  So our Halloween pictures are never super awesome.  But for your viewing pleasure here is our little witch.

 And a member of the SWAT team.

 A very fancy kitty cat.

 Look out!  Here is a very scary vampire. 

LOOK OUT!!!

 Are these four kiddos not super cute?  I know I'm biased, but come on!

 Every year, even though I am not a fan of Halloween, I like to do a Halloween dinner.  I don't spend a lot.  I usually just go to the dollar store and come up with stuff there.   Halloween plates and cups, eyeball candy, spider rings, etc.  

 Funny thing!  I've never dealt with dry ice before, but I didn't realize that it needs to be kept in a sealed container.  Um, duh!  So the day after it was purchased I pulled it out of the freezer to find the package empty!  LAME!!! So my hubby made a quick dash to the store and bought some more.

 This year for our special dinner I made snake calzones.  I just painted them with green food coloring.  Mmmm...they were some tasty snakes!  Highly recommend snake calzones for Halloween next year.

Cousins

I LOVE that we have moved closer to family!  I LOVE the relationship that they have with their cousins!  The fact that we all homeschool makes this relationship that much greater!  I found this picture and couldn't help but get excited at what I hope will be a great friendship.  Not only with this little cousin, but with her other little cousins as well.  We are truly blessed!

The Pumpkin Patch

I searched and searched online to try and find the perfect pumpkin patch.  This was not it!  The directions online were horrible and took us probably and hour out of the way and when we did find it was right of the highway and didn't have quite the atmosphere I was going for.  But the kids had fun, I hope.

In search of the perfect pumpkin!

 She was so excited to find a pumpkin!  In fact every time we passed a pumpkin patch after this she yelled for pumpkin.

 My big strong man pushin' all the pumpkins.  What would we do without him?

 I LOVE the different one.  The greenish odd shaped one.  Yep! That's my favorite!

 And here was my attempt at a picture of my kids.  No easy feat with four kids.  Those of you that have more than one kid know what I'm talking about.

Attempt #1 

 #2 was a no go

 Attempt #3 NOPE!

 #4 and 

 #5 still not working.  Let's try a less sunny location and see if that helps.

 Attempt #6 What in the world?

 #7 Come on guys!!

 #9 Nope!

#10 And still a NO!!!

 #11 Well I guess 3 out of 4 isn't so bad!  We'll take it!!!

 What's sad is that this isn't even half of the photo attempts!  These were the cream of the crop!

My European Adventure - The Final Chapter

I'm actually a little sad to write this final post on Europe.  It's like the trip is ending all over again.  Here are my final moments in London.  We went to see the royal palace so that we could see the changing of the guards.  First we walked a million blocks in the completely wrong direction.  After realizing we had gone the wrong way we had to walk a million blocks back plus a million more to get to the palace.

 And after waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting . . . we finally got to see the changing of the guards. Can you see it?  Can you see it?

Can you see it now?

Oh!  There they go!  Wasn't that exciting?!  It was the lamest changing of the guards ever.  My dad said that when he's been in the past its really fun to watch, but he couldn't believe how dull it was this time.

 I HAD to take a picture of this police station.  It says Belgravia Police Station.  If you've ever watched the BBC series Sherlock Holmes this should ring a bell!

 Here is Westminster Abby.  Again we walked and walked to get here only to find that it was closed.  Apparently it was Pioneer Day!   So these are the only pics I was able to get.  Bummer!

 After realizing we couldn't get into Westminster Abby we decided to go to the Winston Churchill war rooms museum.   I loved a lot of the quotes they had displayed, but thought the museum was very disorganized.  The audio guide would tell you to go to the purple zone or red zone, however I wasn't ever able to find the colors they were referring to.  And I am not color blind, so we can't blame it on that.  Come to find out, I wasn't the only one with this problem.  Even my dad couldn't follow it!  

 After giving up on the whole audio guide thing I ventured forth on my own and just read all these amazing quotes.

 O.K.  One final Harry Potter moment.  We decided on our final night it would be fun to try and find Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross.

 Totally expecting to just be taking a picture of platforms 9 and 10 we were totally shocked to find this 

 How cool is this?!

 O.K.!  I think I'm done with Harry Potter now!  Probably not, but maybe!

And finally, probably my favorite thing I did in London was when I got to go see this . . .

In this amazing theater

Her Majesty's Theatre

 You actually aren't supposed to take pictures inside the theatre, but I snuck this one real quick.

 And lets not forget the food.  Fish and chips!  This was my food requirement while in London.  We asked around and were referred to this place and it did not disappoint.

And I don't think I will ever forget this!  Every time we would take the train, which was often, this nice lady would announce over the loud speaker "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform,"

in her most proper British accent.  I couldn't get that phrase out of my head then nor can I now.  I wish I had the pictures that look like this that say Look Left and Look Right.  They are on every corner where you might cross the street.  Isn't it good to look both ways as an extra precautionary measure?  Maybe thats just my American way of thinking.

Alright!  I guess my blogging days about Europe have come to an end.  What will I blog about next?  Hmmm... kids, homeschooling, projects, baking!  How will I decide?  Maybe I should just take another trip so I won't have to!