If you have a moment...

I had just posted my Harvest pics and recent post, and started scrolling through, checking through my other blogger friends blogs. If you have a moment, read the Kostjuck blog. They lost their little one this week. Ashley was on my wing and college, and I've been so amazed by her family's testimony in their time of suffering. Their faith has been a truly beautiful example to me and I'm so grateful to them for that. Their posts have never been discouraging or depressing, but always full of joy and hope. That is only because of Christ. What a reminder!

Bring on the Harvest Festivities!

First of all I wanted to mention that I've noticed other mom-bloggers write down the little funny things their kids say, and I always forget to do that even in their baby books and stuff. But yesterday, I was changing Morgan's diaper, and Noelle randomly says, "When I grow up, I'm going to have 3 kids and a bald baby named Goliath."
My response, "Oh really, is the baby going to be cute?"
"yeah, and bald." Okay, so we've established the bald thing. (Interestingly enough, Noelle was my only bald baby). Anyway, I thought it was cute. I'm looking forward to a grandbaby named Goliath. Maybe she'll name his sisters Delilah and Jezebel.

So meanwhile, been insanely busy and crazy around here. My classes are turning out to require more time & effort than I had anticipated (live & learn). So first of all props to my hero hubby who has been doing a lot with the kids lately to help me. Secondly, shout out to Bethie who watched them for us the other day so we could go out. She's the bestest. (She also glittered up the sugar pumpkins in the pic. above Martha Stewart style, cute huh, those are real pumpkins) We saw Body of Lies that night, and it was really good (sensitive to cussing and torture scenes, don't go, I just closed my eyes). As far as festivities go here's the lowdown:
1. Preschool Silly hat parade (their alternative to Halloween)
2. Carving pumpkins with Denny and his kiddos.
3. Pumpkin cookie decorating play date with the church at Beth Catalde's house
4. For the 3rd year in a row, for Halloween (Reformation Day I mean), my cousin Eliza and her husband & kids came over for dinner and we went around trick or treating and got the kids all sugared up. It was pretty fun. We were supposed to go and be the face painters today at our church Harvest festival, but looks like we're rained out this year!

Oh Ye of Little Faith...

Ta Daaa - the porch is complete! Dan worked so hard on it, and was finally able to finish the glaze stuff this week. I love it and am so happy! He's taking this upcoming weekend off to go to a men's retreat, and then when he returns we can start the next project - painting the house, new outdoor lights, landscaping.... oh wait, maybe I should just stop and enjoy that this step is complete. I don't want to scare him off!
Oh and by the way, the porch would not be finished were it not for our friend Peter, who fortunately for us, happens to be a mason. He came and worked 2 whole Saturdays on it when Dan was ready to throw in the towel, so props to Peter, our great friend, without whom we wouldn't have a porch, nor would Lorelei know the truth about chem trails.

The Obligatory Pumpkin Patch Pix

So basically I feel guilty because I couldn't chaperone on the kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch, and I can't chaperone for the preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch, so we made our own family outing of it, and went today. It was pretty dang hot, but a nice late afternoon out...

Helpful Hints for Housewives

Just a few things I've found helpful lately:

1. My mom is always right about stuff.  Remember in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the dad would always say, "put windex on it."  Well, my mom's new favorite saying is "WD40 it!"  WD40 works miracles on mildew stains in the tub and impossible to get out marks on the stove (but please don't spray it next to a lit stove).  Anyway, my mom kept telling me to try it, and it really, really works.

2. For those of you out to save a buck, you may know that the men's and children's sections of Talbots went out of business, if you go to the outlet section of Talbots, they still have a few pages of some cute kids stuff and a page of men's stuff for super cheap, just to consider as Christmas is approaching.

3. Lastly, for those of you who have been cursed (as I have) with the "I had one too many babies" sticky-outy gut, I have found a miraculous fashion tip that is so flattering to the tummy.  I noticed on Oprah that a lot of times she wears these really wide belts, and on one of the final episodes of The Gilmore girls, I remember Lorelei's character wearing a really wide belt, so yeah I tried it, and I love it.  I layered the wide belt over a short sleeve button down, and not only does it look cute and stylish, it sort of acts like a girdle and gives your waist a cinched up look.  

Let's Get Real

Last night when I went to bed, my living room was clean. I took a picture of my clock which says 9:38, to show you all what can happen to my house within just a few hours of 4 little girls waking up.

Cute Kids Alert!

Oh man, I've been too introspective lately, forgive me for being too self-indulgent, isn't this blog thing supposed to be all about cute pictures of the kids anyway? Here's a few recent pix. The latest in their world is this:

Morgan (15 months now) is turning out to be Miss Independent and Miss Personality. Her expressions crack us up, she is definitely the most animated of my four kids, so far, and unlike the other 3, she is reluctant to go to others, turns out she loves me the best. Finally, after 3 daddy's girls, I have an official fan!

Lorelei, my poor Lorelei, has an absess in her mouth, and has to get a tooth removed this week. Ironically, we have the worst teeth genes ever, despite my dad being a dentist. I wish I could say she's being brave about the whole thing, but honestly, I think they're going to have to sedate her, no really they might. I'll let you know what happens with that one.

And as for the twins, well Noelle is the closest to a tomboy that I have. She wants to wear "boy shoes" every day (translation tennis shoes) and she also wants to sleep without a shirt like dad.
Meanwhile, Maylin is the complete opposite, by far the girliest of the four, and certainly the most vain! She loves to wear pink and purple and dresses and lip gloss and she loves to play barbies.

DNA is a very mysterious thing, I truthfully do not see very much of myself in any of my kids (except the whole vain thing). All I know is even when I'm yelling about one of them coloring on my table , I still love them. I mean I must love them, because if I didn't I so would have taken a bus trip outta here several times this past week!