We *Heart* IOWA

From fall leaves to pumpkin patches, from Big 10 Homecoming parades to corn up to your eyeballs, there's a lot to love here in our "North Texas" land! :-)

HALLOWEEN!

Elmo, Darth Vader, Batman, and Plain ol' Mom and Doctor-Dad hope you all had a great Halloween! Four Halloween parties (not counting the actual Halloween night) gave us PLENTY of candy to send us on sugar-highs all through the holidays. Jaron's work puts on a trick-or-treat / party every Halloween:

We also LOVED having Nana in town for the week!! Trevor puts on a good "stink-eye", but don't be fooled!! He has been asking for Nana at least 20 times a day ever since she left!

Gotta Love that Mikey

We're driving to church yesterday, on a beautiful winding road lined with autumn-colored trees. I was enjoying the view, and the rare peace within the car, when I heard Mikey share my reverence for nature's beauty. He said, "We sure are lucky to have so many trees..." (I was thinking, "Awww, what a sweet thought")

"...so that we can get lots and lots of paper!"

Way to be practical, Mikey.

Success

A truly successful day, by my standards, is when I haul a basket of laundry to the basement, wash and dry that laundry, then fold AND put away all the said laundry...before any more laundry piles up on the floor where the basket should be!!

Let's just say, I have not experienced success in a long, LONG time.

Best $3 Ever Spent

Trevor loves anything with wheels: cars, motorcycles, tractors and busses. He calls them all the same thing: "Kaa". Lately he's developed a greater love for busses because we walk his big brothers to the bus every morning and pick them up in the afternoon. And Trev gets to see lots of city busses driving around (and he squeals "Kaa! Kaa!" from the backseat every time we see one). I found the Score of all kid-toy-scores a couple weeks ago at a consignment store: a Little Tykes Bus, complete with passengers and battery-operated sounds. Trev has been inseparable with the bus ever since I bought it (over 2 weeks ago).

At the dinner table...

Along the lines of Trevor loving anything with wheels, he was thrilled to discover that his PJ's can hold several cars.

At a recent apple orchard visit, Trev wasn't at all interested in the apple-sampling or the warm apple turnovers. He ran right up to the tractor-trailer, sat down, and waited until it was time to go on the tractor ride. Mind you, he's never been here before, but he instinctively knew that the tractor ride was for him!

Date With Mikey

Mikey loves Kindergarten, but like his older brother, the transition to full-time school hasn't been entirely smooth. It's pretty exhausting for this tough-guy, and we've had our share of meltdowns after school. I felt like so many of our interactions were negative (me disciplining him, or prodding him to hurry up for school), and I've missed cuddling up with him to read or talk every day; there just isn't always time after school when we have homework, extracurriculars, and a 7 pm bedtime. So when I heard about a "free Friday" at the "local" (1 hr away) zoo, I jumped at the chance to have a date with Mikey. I took him out of school early and headed out to see the animals. We had a lovely time. Lots of giggles and cuddles. I'll cherish this date for a long time (especially during those "meltdown" moments!)

Mikey's Gone Pro

We had one of Jaron's friends over for dinner the other day, and he was admiring Jaron's handiwork on his skate ramp. He asked Mikey, "Do you like to skate on the ramp?" To which Mikey responded, "I'm not bery (very) good at skateboarding, but I'm a PROFESSIONAL at tying shoes!!" (with much emphasis on "professional"!)

After years of velcro shoes, I finally broke down and got him a pair of lace-ups. We had a couple of shoe-tying lessons during General Conference (2 weeks ago), and look at Mikey now! Way to go Mikey!!