Hodges fall 2010 visit!

Julie, Taylor & Dominic showed up Wednesday a little later then they expected...darn airplane delays! We were so excited for their 3rd annual visit!

They all tried to sleep upstairs in the loft. Courtney fell asleep early but after I took this picture she did wake up and join them!

Thursday we we hung out at the house for a bit then we headed to the Dollar Tree for treats from Taylor and Dom's Grandma. She misses the girls. After that we headed over to Oasis Gym for some open gym time! Good times!!

Taylor

Courtney

Samantha

On Friday I kept the kids out of school to play. We packed a yummy lunch and headed over to the White tanks for a fun hike. It was the longest hike my kids have been on. 2 miles round trip! Courtney and Dominic both wanted to be carried back but the other 3 were troopers!

Alyssa joined us too!

Dominic kept asking the girls to hold their hand...Courtney always did but Sydney didnt want anything to do with that!

the motley group!

Julie, me and our kids!

Best Friends!

Sydney

Dominic

The hike we went on was the Waterfall hike but as you can see the waterfall wasnt...It was just a little pool of water!
The Howe family!

thankfully that big rock didnt fall on them!

after the hike it was pool time...Jon did try and heat the pool up but it only got to 79* so the kids pretty much stayed in the hot tub!

best friends forever!

Girls night!

Kim and Amy

Julie and me! Man I miss living near her!!

Looks like Julie drank a little to much (I was the driver)

Saturday we took them to Sam's soccer game and then to Olive Garden for a yummy lunch! Always sad to see them go...

puppet show

The girls have advanced into making little puppet shows. Sometimes they blow my mind on how creative they are...

feeding ducks etc...

Last week we headed up to Namy and Papa's and they saved some stale bread for us to go feed the ducks. We were pleasantly surprised to see a turtle and a HUGE fish!

Sick Sydney

Poor Sydney has had a fever since Sunday afternoon. She didn't sleep to well Sunday night. She kept wanting me to sleep with her which I would have loved to have done but her twin bed is just too small! I sure wish we would have bought the girls double beds but that just seemed so big when they were 2! yesterday she spent the day on the couch watching a bunch of cartoons, she didn't want to eat but I made Sure she was drinking something to keep her hydrated. She had a dose of ibuprofen at 4:30 and at Bedtime she wanted more I told her she could have some if she needed some in the middle of the night. At 9:30 she starts crying for her medicine. Her fever was gone but she was so adamant about it I gave her 1/4 tsp. I was hoping that the fever had broke and we were done but nope she woke up with it being 100.3! Another lazy day for her. Jon and courtney are going to head up to my folks while I make this house look sparkly for the Hodges that are coming tomorrow! prayers that Sydney's fever finally leaves this house!

E

twinks

Today Samantha had a soccer game so we all went to watch. For some reason Sydney and Courtney were not in the best of moods. Courtney was hot (she wore a long sleeve shirt and it was 80*) Sydney was oh I dont know what she was. Jon and I spent most of the game dealing with them then actually watching the game. At the end of the game Courtney really lost it and I had to literally drag her to the car. She cried and screamed the whole time. It's time like these I really question why in the world do people want to be parents! We got home and everyone is cheerful and playing together...I JUST DO NOT GET IT!

assessment

This morning Courtney had an assessment with the special education department for the state. We are a little concerned with her speech. According to her, her name is Tortney. They're are a few other letters she has a hard time with to. We have been trying ourselves to help her but it isn't getting better so a friend suggest I go through the state. We walked into the room and introduced ourselves. They had a tight ship going...first a hearing test and vision. Then they took her to another room where they tested a bunch of other stuff physical, cognitive, speech. She was gone for a good 30 minutes and she told me after it was all done that all she did was play. We should know next week whether she will need speech therapy or not. The nice thing about this program if does does need it it's free, at least for now...

Halloween!

We had a great day! Namy, Papa, Jim and Jill over for chili and corn bread. (the kids had mac and cheese too) After dinner the deal was to get the kids to clean their rooms before we put the costumes on...need to bribe to get things done around here! It worked. We got the costumes on and then we did hair and makeup! My girls sure love to be girly. As most of you know I am not the girly type so after I used the curling iron On Samantha I realized I dont own any hairspray so I had to use Jon's gel to make sure it stayed in place. I curled Sydneys but Courtney just wanted makeup, no curls! All three loved the make up especially since I put so much of it on! Trick or treating was kinda pathetic this year. It seemed like every 3rd house was passing out candy this year. Lot's of dark houses. This was the first yeat that our community "Dreaming Summit" had a huge block party. The lady that put it on did a tremedous job. She got a lot of local business to donate things like prizes for the contests (costumes, pet costumes, chili cook off) She even got Albertsons to donate hot dogs and drinks. Lot's of games for the kids. Looking forward to next year.

Taylor Swift

Storybook Princess

Purple Fairy!

The Girls and their pumpkins!

At the Dreaming Summit Block Party waiting to strut their stuff at the Costume Contest!

Trick or Treating

Courtney was so excited she ran and tripped and all her candy fell out...she was so mad her sisters got ahead of her!

Scary house! Fog machine and all...

heading home...we were at the second to the last house and Courtney said she was done...her purple pumpkin was heavy!

We then headed over to Kim's house for a special treat to end the evening.
It was an AWESOME Halloween...and now we have way to much candy in the house!