The Bathroom...

A few of you heard our fiasco yesterday with our bathroom leaking, but here is the story and a couple pictures. I was giving the kids a bath upstairs getting ready for church and Justin comes up to let me know there is water coming from the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom (that is directly below the upstairs bathroom) and pooling on the floor. So Justin ended up staying home from church to figure out what the problem was. He started with removing the paneling and sheetrock from the area that was leaking and then realized that we would have to replace the whole ceiling so he exposed it all. Luckily the water wasn't too bad and the wood was just damp and not rotted or moldy. He figured out that the water was coming from the overflow valve on the upstairs tub so he replaced that and tightened everything up. By the time the kids and I came home from church, he was done and mostly cleaned up. We are going to leave the ceiling alone for a little while to let everything dry really well and make sure there aren't anymore leaks before sheetrocking it again. I am so blessed to have a handy husband that isn't afraid to get his hands dirty and figure out problems and has gotten very good at doing all kinds of handiwork around the house. Just another reason I love him! Here are the pictures of what he was dealing with.

BTW...the toilet is brand new as of a week or two ago. A simple "tighten the toilet bolts" project turning into "let's buy a new toilet" project. Justin has gotten very good at replacing toilets though and had that whipped out in no time.

Growing Too Fast

The other day I came home from work and saw the johnny jumper and exersaucer out and couldn't believe that my baby was big enough to go in either! I was figuring I would need to wait until he could sit up unassisted (which won't be long), but not true. He likes them both and is nice to have the variety. So today I waas making banana bars (a great way to use up a couple of expired bananas...let me know if you want a recipe) and put Grey in the jumper and took this little video. Elliot needed her time in the spotlight at the end too. What cute kids I have if I do say so myself!

Anderson 30th Wedding Anniversary!

This past weekend, Justin's parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary and they were so generous to invite us all to Hayden, ID to stay 2 nights and play at the water park and play place they have adjacent to the hotel. With 6 kids ages 5 to 4 months we were very busy and had a lot of fun. Friday we played mini golf and ate pizza and played arcade games.

Saturday we spent a couple hours in the water park in the wave pool and going down the slides (the adults had the fun there) and having all kinds of wet fun.

We bowled after lunch then had a couple of hours of well needed nap time.

We met for dinner at Tomato Street and had a fabulous feast there. Back to the pool until closing time and then crashed in bed. Sunday we got up and enjoyed breakfast together although everyone was looking pretty warn out by this time. We all had a great time. Thanks so much Granpa Snook and Grandma Jana!!! We love you!!!

Family Home Evening

Those of you with little ones know that it can be difficult to plan a worthwhile home evening. I love it when we have a new Friend magazine though because they have a little section in there for little people with a story and sometimes an activity. This month had a story about a girl that sent a letter to her grandma. So after reading the story, Elliot colored a picture for each of her grandmas and we put them in an envelope and into the mailbox. She was so excited to do this little project and hopefully will brighten each grandmas' day.

Then of course you have to have FHE treat. And for some reason I was craving a raisin pie. I don't think most people have even heard of a raisin pie, but it was one of my dad's favorites so we had it fairly often growing up. So I called up Mom today to find out how to make it. It actually is very easy, especially if you cheat on the crust, like I did, and buy a premade one. It got a thumbs up from Justin, but Elliot didn't really care for it. One bite took me back to my childhood. And tomorrow morning we can have it for breakfast, just like the clown arounds, right fam?

What's wrong with this picture?

So at first glance this would be just an ordinary picture of my little girl dressed in a rather unique looking choice of clothing. However, this was just minutes before leaving to go to church. Yeah. My mom always told me to pick my battles and that the funny dressed kids are the independent ones that dressed themselves, but really? Do I have to take Punky Brewster to church with me? If she really had her choice she probably would have been in ther "summer dress" (a sleeveless dress that is really thin and was cute in the summer, but it is barely 50 degrees out now- that dress is now put away in the garage with the other summer clothes) and flip flops (also now put away in the garage). Funny thing is that she wanted to wear jeans and long sleeved shirts all summer. Go figure.

HALLOWEEN!

What a night! Maybe a little too much for our little family. After dressing the kids in the their costumes (Elliot a cat and Grey a duck), we went downtown this afternoon and went trick-or-treating to all the businesses there. It actually was a lot of fun and we saw so many people we knew. Made us feel part of a community. Then to Burger King for a quick and nutritious meal (ha ha). And off to our tri-ward trunk-or-treat and carnival at the church. Poor Elliot about half way around the parking lot she was complaining that she was cold and wanted to go inside. I am saying, "No Elliot. We have to finish. You are having fun." I felt so bad. Like "you will have fun, darn it!" Anyways, we made it around and back into the church. A little hectic with so many people and kids and all, but had a good time eating goodies and playing little games. We were all ready to come home and crash. The kids are in bed now and Justin is helping at the high school football game. Halloween has never been a favorite holiday of mine. I don't have many memories of it as a kid. I remember a few random costumes (a witch several years, one year I was Charlotte from Charlotte's Web, can't really remember others) and I do remember my brothers and I dumping all of our loot out on the floor to sort it out and give everything with nuts to my mom because none of us liked nuts. Then we would trade and stuff amongst each other. But now with kids, Halloween is a little more fun. I am not into dressing up myself, but it is kinda fun to dress the kids up and have a fun day for them. And we have enought candy to last us until Christmas (but realistically it will be gone in a week or two...I know I have a sugar problem. It is the main reason I exercise regularly, I will admit. And I wonder where Elliot gets her love of sweets). Hope everyone out there had a good Halloween! And now the count down is really on for the holiday season!

Random Goodness

Amazingly enough, Elliot woke up in a good mood this morning. She tends to not be much of a morning person so this was so nice to have her happy first thing. The rule at our house is she has to get out of her pull-up before she can do anything else. She said okay right away, but wanted my help. Then she goes on to tell me, "Mom, it's okay that I peed in my pull up a little bit last night. I am still learning to go in the toilet." Oh, sweetheart. (We took this picture of Grey this afternoon and I had to put it in here...what a cutie!)

Then later in the afternoon, I was in the kitchen and I heard Elliot reading. I peaked in the front room and this is what I saw:

So dang cute seeing my two babies together like that. Elliot was reading to her brother. It doesn't look like Grey is really very happy, but I assure you he loves his sister and the attention that she gives him. Some times it seems to be "scary love" and "smothering love," but it is love nonetheless and he is becoming very durable from all of her "love." Hopefully she will be able to help us teach him all of the good things that he needs to learn.

Then Elliot and I started to make dinner. It is one of our favorites tonight- ham and cheese calazones. It is from kraft.com and if you haven't gone there and ordered their free magazine with awesome, easy recipes in it, do it today. It is a great magazine and a great site for very easy, but good recipes. All the calazones are is pillsbury pizza dough cut into 4 squares, put a slice of ham on each square, mix ranch dressing and shredded cheese together and spoon on ham, top with sliced tomatoes and fold the dough over on each one to make a pocket. Bake at 400 degrees for about 16 minutes and dinner is ready. Yummy! And Elliot even gobbles it up. Here she is sitting in her "special spot" where she always sits to help me in the kitchen.