Look Alikes!!!

Indeed, I do think that these 2 look VERY similar indeed!!! Above is Aaron at the same age as Evan is here below!!! :D

Feeling festive

This morning, even though my list of things to get done before Thursday reaches into the sky, I decided that I would take a small amount of time and make a Christmas shirt for Amber that I had seen a while back. I decided that if I waited until I actually had the time, Christmas would be gone and the shirt would never be made. :) I was pleased with how it turned out!! :) Now if I can get the matching skirt done too I will be really happy!!!!

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving day this year with just our little family! It was a fairly low key day. I got to sleep in. :) The kids watched the parade on TV and then played downstairs for most of the day. It was a cold and rainy day, but nice and cozy inside. We had a yummy dinner. No one but us adults liked every thing that was served, but there was something that each person liked and ate well for dinner. :D
Evan loved the home made (or "old maid" as Aaron likes to call it) macaroni and cheese. And he especially loved the fruit salad. But really, who wouldn't like it? It is full of colored marshmallows and cool whip!!! :) I am thankful for the sweet family that I have. I have been richly blessed. The Lord has been very good to me. I have a wonderful husband who loves and cares for me. I have fantastic children who are sweet and obedient and love the Lord. I have a beautiful, cozy home. I have the best parents and siblings ever! I have the gospel of Jesus Christ and the scriptures to guide me throughout my life. I have so much to be thankful for!!! I hope that everyone had a good of a Thanksgiving as we did!!

Bobcat

Wednesday night was our pack meeting! For some reason, our pack has changed to only having pack meetings every other month. (To save money is what I think they said!) Brian was SUPER excited since he had just joined scouts in September once he was 8!! He knew that he would be getting his Bobcat award. He has loved doing cub scouts. Since our ward is so small, they combine our boys with the ones from the other ward to make the pack. Here is Brian getting his award before I made it up there. :) We are so happy that he is doing such a good job on his scouting things! This man here is his den leader. We only have male den leaders here.
Here is Brian doing his cheer with the den master! Way to go Brian!

Since Weston is working on his Webelos, he earned several pins. Daddy went up with him to get his awards. Barth is called from our ward to help out with the scouts. That is nice for me because he takes the boys on Wednesday and I can get the other littler ones down for bed at a good time!

Good job Weston on getting your pins!!!

Way to go Aaron!!!!

This afternoon Aaron came up and told me that he was ready to ride without his training wheels! I had tried to get him to ride a few months ago, but he didn't want to. Today I took off his training wheels, aired up the tires a bit and by the time I stood up, he was off and riding!!! Brian demonstrated how to get things started to Aaron and the rest was history! No needing to hold onto the back. No running behind or anything!!! Way to go Aaron!!!! You are awesome!!!!

Sometimes it pays to be helpful!!!

About 5 or 6 weeks ago, as I was coming out of Sam's Club there was an accident right in front of me involving 2 older people who backed into each other. A man was clearly about 3/4 out of his spot when a lady, not looking or seeing him, backed right into him. Since it happened right in front of me and my 2 littlest ones, I asked if I could be of assistance and then gave my name and number to both parties to take to their respective insurance companies. The next day I was contacted by what I think was the ladies insurance company (since they seemed dismayed that the lady was at fault). Since then, I hadn't given it much thought but was glad that I could have helped. This afternoon when Barth went to the mailbox, he said that there was a letter for me. I looked at the envelope and didn't recognize the return address. Inside I found this lovely little card and inside this gift card. It was from the gentleman and wife whose small truck had been backed up into that day at Sam's. There was a very nice little note thanking me for my kindness that day. I was floored by the whole thing. The gift card was for $50!!! I really couldn't believe it!! Such a nice and kind gesture by the lovely older couple. I guess that sometimes it does truly pay to be nice. It totally made my day!!!!!! :D

From shirt to dress

I found these cute shirts, that were girls size 10, at the GAP clearance center near our house this past week. They were having their 30% off sale, so I decided that for about $3.50 I could make these shirts into cute dresses for Amber. I got the first one done this morning and Amber is wearing it today with a sweater since it is cold.
I added some elastic to the sleeves so they wouldn't be so big on her arms and then added ribbon in the back to make it fit better around the middle. I think that it turned out pretty cute indeed!

Around the House

Nothing too out of the ordinary with these pictures really. The first ones were taken the other morning before taking the boys to school. Amber was playing dress-up while still in her pj's and Aaron was playing right along with her. Evan was trying his hardest to steal the pillows that they were using!
I can never get a good picture of Evan these days. Most turn out like this one. He is just too busy to hold still long enough for me to snap a decent picture. He loves to climb onto and up and over the couch lately.

Don't mind me standing on my head here. It is just a typical day around the Yorke household!

What? You want me to look up? I am too busy with my can of soup and bucket of chess pieces to be bothered! Thanks anyway Mommy!

:) Oh! I almost forgot!!! Evan is beginning to say words with meaning!!!! Hooray! He can say Daddy, (not da da, but the actual word Daddy) sock, night night, map and a few other random words! He will not do it on cue unless it is just he and I. He is kind of a shy little guy like that. I love it though!

Weston and Brian looked cute reading scriptures the other night. Weston looked like he had been gobbled alive by the night shirt monster and Brian was being funny by pulling his pants way, way up! I sure do love these kiddos!

Little Evvy really wanted my camera and was making a b-line for it this particular morning. The flash made him very washed out looking, but I still like it! :)

I love you both!

Today I am thankful for my good parents! I am always thankful for them and all that they do for me, but today I am feeling especially thankful for all my blessings. You see, our old Bishop, whom Barth worked with so closely these past few years, is quite ill. Barth had been to see him several times up at the hospital, but the ICU is not a place for children, and since Barth was out of town this last week, today was the first time that I was able to go and see him. I had hoped to see his wife as well, but she was not there yet. Instead I got to talk with his son who is roughly the same age as my brothers. Although I am not a stranger to hospitals and have seen my fair share of people quite sick, I still was not prepared at how sick this dear man was or for how much visible pain he was in. As I stood there, I thought about how sad I would feel if it was my own father or mother in the bed instead of a friend. I knew that I would want to be there every minute. So today, I am glad that my parents are alive and well. I am thankful that I get to talk to my mom everyday, even if we are both quite busy. I am glad for the times when I call in the evenings and get to talk to my dad to see how he is doing. I am thankful that they raised me in the church and gave me correct principles that guide my every day life. I am thankful that they taught me, through example, to work hard and do my share. I am thankful that they taught me that honesty is always the best policy. I am thankful for their sacrifices in my behalf, both as a child, and even today! They are awesome people!!! The Lord has blessed me so much in my life. Thank you Momma and Daddy for being the excellent people that you are and for all that you have taught and done for me!! I love you both very, very much!

It burst

The thing on Evan's leg burst this morning. It was NOT a pretty sight. All sorts of gross fluids and stuff! YUCK! And lots of bleeding. So they want him to wear a pressure bandage on it today and call late this afternoon to let them know how it looks. Is the saga finally over, or have we just opened a whole new can of worms? I guess only time will tell.......

I am thankful for......

*dirty walls- it means that children live in my house and I am so busy enjoying them that I haven't gotten around to painting them again yet!

*sticky honey on my counter tops- it means that my children have made their own lunches!

*spilt milk- it means that they are truly my children and got my wonderful spilling gene!! :)

*crumbs to sweep- it means that we have food on our table and full tummies!

*piles of laundry- it means that we have more than enough clothes to wear!

*toothpaste on the sinks- it means that hopefully they are actually brushing their teeth!!!

*fingerprints on windows- it means that they are looking outside and loving it!

*floors to mop- it means Heavenly Father has blessed me with a nice home to care for!

*whines and tears- it means that I am lucky enough to stay home with my children!!

*bags under my eyes- it usually means that I have had a few hours to myself and have, as usual, stayed up way too late for my own good!!! :D

*a lump (and sometimes absent lump) in my bed- it means that I have a sweet husband (I call him my lump in the bed) who is by my side, supporting me in all that I do. I even am thankful when his lump is absent because it means he is on a trip, working hard to support my family and making sure that I am able to stay at home!!

What are you thankful for? :D

So cute!

Everyone looked mighty cute today. I just had to snap a quick picture before church of everyone!!! :) Enjoy!

Who are you? And what have you done with my Brian?

These are the words that I keep asking lately!!! :) So, for those that don't know, Brian is my pickiest eater by far. He doesn't like cereal. Won't even sit on the same side of the table as those eating it in the mornings because even the smell of it makes him sick. He rarely eats meat. He really only likes beef in the form of tacos. And he will eat a hamburger from McDonalds. :) He loves most fruits, but doesn't like veggies too much. Really, he is quite picky!!! So, imagine my shock and surprise when he wanted to taste some pumpkin muffins that I had made for our ward party this past week. I told him they were made with pumpkin, but if he wanted to try them, that was great. He LOVED them. Didn't want me to take them to the ward party. Then was thrilled when there were 2 left over! So, I have made quite a few batches since then for Brian for breakfasts! And then, the other night at dinner, we had broccoli. He was the first to eat his portion and looked up at me and told me that he didn't think that it was all that bad! I just looked at him and tried to pick my jaw up off the floor. (It wasn't like we had never had this vegetable before. We have it all the time.) Then, a few nights ago we were having lasagna for dinner. When he came to the table, he asked why it smelled like pizza (which he likes). I told him that it was probably because they are in the same family. He gobbled up the dinner and asked for more!!! I don't know what has come over my sweet, picky little Brian lately, but I am not complaining!!!!!!! I could get used to this better eating....... :D

Halloween Party Fun

We did not go out trick-or-treating on Halloween this year since it fell on Sunday. Instead, we had our family Halloween party. We usually do it for FHE on the Monday before Halloween, but since Daddy has been out of town a lot this last month, we decided to have it when he was home and also so the kids wouldn't be bummed about not trick-or-treating. We had a great time. The bigger boys also came up with some other games to play besides our usual ones. The first game that we played was ghost, ghost, ghoul. The kids LOVED this game. We played it for a long time. Before we started the games, we put Evan to bed since he was over tired.

After that we played the game pin the initials on the tombstone that Brian came up with. Barth and I played too. We thought that putting it by the fireplace would be a good spot, but it tuned out that feeling for the notch that the tombstone was hanging on just made it that much easier to get your initials in the right spot!! :)

Everyone had fun dressing up in their costumes for our party. We had so many activities that we couldn't get them all done in one night!!!

Brian did a good job on making up this game and drawing and coloring the tombstone. Games take a lot longer to play when there are 7 of you playing! That is one of the great things about having a bigger family I think!

Here was the final tombstone. Amber was the only one that didn't feel for the notch in the fireplace!

One of our family's favorite activities is pumpkin bowling. The children like to decorate paper bags like pumpkins and then we bowl them over!! We have done this activity every year since we started this tradition. :)

Even Aaron was able to bowl with his spooky, no hand, costume!

We all had such a fun night together. I was glad that we had such a fun family party!!!

Somedays.....

.....like today, when I have spent my entire day changing out clothes in closets and drawers, discovering hidden clothing long forgotten under beds and at the bottom of closets, and doing a half of a bazillion hours of washing, drying, folding, and putting away laundry, I find myself wishing that we had paper clothes. You know, like paper plates. Only I would make them better so they wouldn't fall apart in the rain. And you could recycle them too. Because then we wouldn't have to waste so many trees. It really would be so much easier on me! :) I think it is funny how when you first have a baby, doing laundry is so fun. Because the clothes are tiny and cute. And they make nice smelling baby laundry soap!!! And then, those babies grow. And so do their clothes. And then you can't fit quite so many things into that washer! And the clothes get dirtier too because the children discover dirt and mud and how fun those things are to play in!!!! And really, God is so smart, because even though you have a lot of work to do and life is sooooo very busy, but you really don't mind because He already got you hooked into loving those cute little messers. He starts those cute babies out so tiny and sweet and before you know it, you even love their messes! And you miss the messes and the piles of laundry if you aren't around them. :D But still, I do wish that we had paper clothes some days. Like today!

Trunk-or-treat

Saturday night was trunk-or-treat for our ward. We started out ready to get there on time, or so I thought, but it took much longer to get everyone ready than I had planned for, so we didn't get there in time to do all the activities. We did get there in time to do some things though. The kids had fun and got some fun things. Weston and Brian headed straight to the pumpkin decorating when we got there. Weston dressed up as Ash from Pokemon. He was pretty happy with how his costume turned out since he got to get a new cool stuffed animal!! :)
Brian was excited to be a ninja!! His cool arm band things kept sliding down, but that was okay. His cute little pumpkin had like 4 or 5 eyeballs I think. After this they headed over to the cake walk for some cupcake fun!

Our gym was set up with tables for the pumpkin tasting, so all the activities were in rooms in the building. I had a hard time locating Barth with the little ones at first, but found him over in the YW room doing corn hole with Aaron and Amber! Aaron was adamant that he wanted to be a ghost this year for Halloween. No matter what I did to try to convince him to be something else, he wouldn't budge, so, a ghost he was!! And he wanted to be a ghost with no face and no hands. I told him that he couldn't have no face for the trunk-or-treat, so he decided that he could have a white face and white hair. I dumped half a bottle of baby powder into his hair, painted his face white and he was as happy as a clam!!!

Amber loved dressing up as Cinderella. She even had on some make-up for the occasion! :) I am so glad that I made her this costume. She has worn it practically every minute of every day since it was finished. She even wore her gloves from Auntie M's wedding to complete her outfit!!!

We decided not to dress Evan in the cute jail bird outfit that I had made for Brian so many years ago since it was really in a fragile state and I was afraid that it might come apart. (I made it when I was first kind of learning to sew!) He was a pumpkin instead. It is hard to get a good picture of him these days. He is always moving or busy and doesn't want to look at the camera!

Barth and Evan passed out candy this year while I took Amber around to the cars. Aaron, Weston and Brian took off on their own and had a blast running from car to car and getting as much candy as they could!!!

Amber quickly got the hang of saying trick-or-treat!

All in all the kids had a great night out getting candy!!! Stay tuned for our family Halloween party that I will post later on in the day!!!!