As I mentioned before, I am glad we'll be out of debt soon. Seems like some of our things are falling apart or not working properly. The most frustrating item being our computer. The screen keeps going black on us. Also my "tennis shoe" socks are getting holes in them, but I guess that is somewhat expected as they are two years old and I wear them 5 days a week while exercising.

We are having fun with my parents being here for Conference weekend. We enjoyed listening to the sessions at home and glad my mom had her laptop so we could do so. Lee plugged the speakers of his stereo into her computer so we could all hear the messages--even with the kids around. Mentioning the kids, they actually did really well. They loved listening for words from a list (when they were in the room) to get a piece of candy. For example if they heard "Book of Mormon", and told us right away that they heard that word, they got a piece of candy.

Last night my mom and I watched Emma with the boys, so it wasn't a true girls' night. It was kind of funny because the boys really watched the movie. I think they mainly liked the popcorn. We were going to watch Harry Potter when Lee and my dad got home, but I fell asleep on Clark's bed. Lee got me to wake up a little before 11 and we watched it then.

Last Sunday the boys had their primary program. I loved how the program was set up. There was a family having FHE with a non-member friend and each principle they talked about the kids said something about it and sang songs. I was disappointed with Clark's part. I had him memorize it (Cal too) but when he got up to the microphone the person holding the microphone didn't give Clark a chance to say his part. The person just started whispering it into his ear. Oh well. I knew he knew it, and he knew he knew it. Guess that is all I can do, right? I am definitely going to say something come next year's primary program--let the kids try and give their part!

Here are 4/5ths of the kids the morning of the primary program


Clark and Cal went to a birthday party a couple of weeks ago and they got seeds in their goodie bag. The Sunday after they got their seeds they wanted to plant them. So they did.


Our big event was going to Texas the end of September. Lee "applied" to get PRK done on his eyes through the military. He was "accepted" and had the surgery done September 24th. We took Clark out of school and we all went down. Two great parts about the trip were that we were able to see Paul and Cindy, and Darrell and Stacie. While at Paul and Cindy's Clark was in heaven playing with all their Lego's. It was great seeing family, having them feed us, and providing a place to sleep!

Our second night Paul and Cindy treated us to dinner at Rudy's. Ahhhh...sooooo good! Lee and his big and oldest brother (literally) Paul.


A picture earlier that day at Chacho's--a fun Mexican restaurant in San Antonio. Lee went there a couple of times last summer during OBLC. Here he is about an hour after his eye surgery. We got ice cream that they made from scratch there, plus some YUMMY chips. I've decided that I don't like jalepenos. I don't mind the heat, it's just the weird taste they have. Yuck.


Oh, and Cindy, the green ice cream that Shanna is eating below and got on her shirt, it came right out with the Clorox color bleach.




While we were waiting for Lee. I buckled the kids in so I could fix my hair and do makeup. Clark apparently had the camera.


Uncle Paul and Cal



Two of my cute boys


The kids liked seeing Cindy's cat


Another picture at Rudy's


Elden enjoying Chacho's


On our way out and on our way home we stopped at Darrell and Stacie's. It was fun to see them. The kids loved playing together and with cool, different toys.


I couldn't resist the green eyes on the cat...can't remember the name....


Since it is money crunch time, Lee listed some optometry books on Amazon.com and they all sold! He made enough money to pay for about 87% of the trip! But to keep within the "trip budget" we followed Deb's lead and had dinner a couple of times at a rest stop. As you can tell it was a great rest area! We have a portable gas stove with a single burner. I grabbed a pan and some bowls and spoons and put them in the van. One night the kids had ramen and Lee and I had soup. Then another night we had soup again and the kids had spaghettios. Each night dinner cost under $2. For six people traveling that is not bad! (I won't count Elden.)



A picture on the way home via Oklahoma. Eric is a cutie!


The rest stop again with our famous van in the background


At Rudy's



We drove by the San Antonio temple


It was very windy and cold when we stopped at the rest area the first time. I didn't bring jackets either. You can tell by Clark's shirt how windy it is. But our little stove worked just fine!


Again at Cindy's



Clark at Darrell's


A random kid picture, probably thanks to Clark


Jessica and Shanna


Joseph


Sorry for the random placement of the pictures, but you get the idea I think! We are glad to be home and Lee's eyes are feeling pretty good. His vision isn't where he would like it, but with PRK it takes a few months, so we're not worried. Plus if the PRK surgery doesn't give Lee the 20/15 vision that he likes, he doesn't mind wearing glasses. It should be successful, but if not, Lee doesn't mind.

Lee has been enjoying watching BYU football games with friends. I have been doing the regular things at home. I need to pull all of the fall/winter clothes out. I guess since it is October I need to stop thinking that it's still "summer". The kids are doing well. Clark is enjoying school and loves having friends to play with in our neighborhood--Cal too. Some of them are moving next year and I am already sad about it. Elden is sleeping great through the night--for the most part. The other day he slept from 7pm to 6:30am! Sometimes he wakes up early, but overall he is fantastic. He sure spoils me! There is a surge in fridge raids, but nothing too notable to blog about. Lee picked our pumpkins yesterday and we have five! One of them is eaten up in spots, but that is okay. And it was fun hanging up my fall wreath that Deb made for me. I need her to make another for me...

Just 26 more days!!!

I have been behind on my blog and forget some of the things I want to blog about. So once again this will be a short post.

Some highlights from the week include playing Alhambra Friday night with friends and finally finishing Wall-E after three or so tries. Our DVD player and computer are on the fritz and are deciding on their own when to work and not to work. Good thing we'll be out of debt soon! Yes, we could live without a computer, but we don't have to, so that will be a sooner-than-later purchase.

Yesterday we watched our friends' kids while they went to a Dave Ramsey seminar. During that time Lee took the two older kids and Clark and Cal to a kid party thing at the Pippin Youth Center on base. They had a great time, and I was able to keep plugging away at the laundry.











Jennie pointed out to me that some of my photos are cut off--and I've since noticed too (thanks Jennie!). I re-uploaded some pictures as a smaller size, but that didn't help. I am going to have to try the smallest upload size next time.

And some Elden news, he had his 6 month check up on September 11th. We weighed 12 pounds 2 ounces! He also got his 6 month shots. (Hmmm...I am wondering if I already put this in a previous post.)

For Lee's birthday his co-workers at the 43rd gave him a gift certificate to a local Mexican restaurant, El Jimador. It was really good!



Tomorrow is our 7 year anniversary! It seems like we've been married for awhile, and 7 years is a good chunk of time. But it still seems that we haven't been married that long. And we haven't. With seven moves, a couple of flat tires, five kids, and finishing "school", it's been quite the adventure! Happy Anniversary Lee!

Saturday the 12th, we enjoyed going to our ward's Fall Festival. There was a pie eating and pie judging contest, bobbing for apples, a get-to-know-you game, a playground for the kids to play on (imagine that), pie for eating and great company. We enjoyed having our friend Kari and two of her kids come.


My friend Kristi and I before the contest.


Kristi won!


The kids got in on the action too.







I didn't win the pie eating contest or the pie contest, but I did win a fun goodie basket for finishing the get-to-know-you game first!


I have a couple of random kid stories.A few days ago the girls took turns trying to make night life loud. The worst was last Sunday night. Shanna had still not fallen asleep after being in her room for 2 hours. I finally went into her room and laid on a mattress on the floor, and she sort of calmed down but she was still "tossing and turning" and FINALLY fell completely asleep at 3am. Then the next night Haley had fallen asleep on the floor (like she does quite often) and I put her in her bed. She was MAD! At least she calmed down after about 5 minutes.

Finally, a few comments on my kids and cleaning. My kids like to play in the nursery at church, and a few weeks ago Lee had choir practice after church, so it worked out nicely. Shanna had a bag of puzzle pieces, dumped it on the ground and played/looked at them. After she was done she put them all back into the bag. The other day Cal and Shanna were playing with some Legos. Cal was singing the words Clean Up to the tune of the Bob the Builder theme song and Shanna was putting the Legos in a bag. It was too cute. And a few times Clark has made his bed in the morning with no promptings from mom.

It's great seeing my kids clean up after themselves once in a great while without having to ask them or sit and wait for them to do so. There are still plenty of messes at my house though! The fridge pirates have disbanded for the time being. Hopefully they will never join forces again. (Though I think that is wishful thinking.) Two things that have helped to stop the raids are: 1. hiding the sour cream and 2. not buying yogurt. Those two things are hot commodities for Cal, Shanna and Haley.