And the mom of the year award goes too....

On Wednesdays I volunteer in Kolya's class at school. My friend watches Cora (Amira is at preschool) and I take Eliana with me because I don't like leaving my baby with people (except for family). Yeah well, maybe I need to rethink that because on last Wednesday she would have been better off at my friend's house with Cora.

So I help out in Kolya's class for my alotted 45 minutes. We were playing a game with flashcards and I was wearing Eliana. She was great and fell asleep on me (all of this information is irrelevant, by the way. Feel free to skip to the end). It was time to go so I gathered my stuff up and went out to my van. Eliana was still sleeping so I was trying to be really careful as I put her into her carseat so that I wouldn't wake her up. As I was trying to maneuver her I accidentally hit the lock button on my keys. I didn't want to jostle Eliana any more than I had to so I ignored it, thinking to myself, "I'll just unlock it before I get in." So I get Eliana into her carseat and I tossed my keys onto the drivers seat out of habit. That way my hands were free to buckle her in. I get her buckled in and shut the door. Just as the door is clicking shut I think, "Crap!". But it is too late. I just locked my baby in the van with my keys! "No, no, no, no, no, no no!" I exclaim as I try in vain to open up any of the doors, just in case. I even tried the back, just in case, but to no avail.

Realizing defeat I ran back into the main office and asked Annette at the front desk if I could use the phone and a phonebook because I just locked my baby in the van. As I'm flipping through pages trying to find a locksmith in Rigby, Anette tells me that she will call the police department for me and see if they can come right away and open up my van. So she calls the Rigby police and tells them that I need someone to come unlock my vehicle, emphasizing the fact that there is a baby locked in. I went back outside to stand by my van, peering in at my baby who is getting increasingly agitated because she has woken up and her hat has moved so that it is over her eyes. The police get their really fast and within moments have opened up my van. So after all was said and done it really wasn't that big of a deal, but I hope to never go through that again.

Oh, and Eliana was absolutley fine, except being a little put out by her hat. After the door was unlocked I took her hat off and she was all smiles.

Happy Halloween

The kids had so much fun trick-or-treating. We were out for 2 hours. We finally went home after visiting a scary house. After that Amira kept saying, "I don't want to go to the monster house." And Kolya was doing the potty dance, he started after the 5th house, and held it for almost 2 hours because he didn't want to stop. We brought the stroller for Cora. She refused to walk between houses. We would push her to someones driveway, she would go out and get her candy, then get back in the stroller to be pushed the 20 feet to the next house.

Carving pumpkins

Eric gutting his pumpkin

Me carving a kitty pumpkin

Amira with her happy pumpkin

Kolya with his scary pumpkin

The kids had so much fun carving pumpkins this year. Amira wanted to have a happy pumpkin, while Kolya wanted his to be scary. Amira kept saying, "Please make a happy pumpkin Kolya." After Kolya's pumpkin was carved Amira told him it was too scary. She didn't like Eric's either because it to was too scary. Cora liked getting her hand inside the pumpkin and feeling it's guts. I have no picture of Cora with her pumpkin because she was super grumpy so I put her to bed before pictures were taken.

Peaches (in case you couldn't tell)

I spent a few hours last Saturday canning the peaches with the kids while Mr. Sick played video games downstairs. I was amazed that Kolya and Amira actually helped. I expected them to want to help, but that including them would ultimately make the process take even longer. But thankfully my children amazed me and they actually helped a ton. Kolya and Amira peeled almost all of the peaches for me. Amira peeled 10 max. I kept her going by telling her that if she wanted a peach slice she had to peel a peach first. She'd get all excited and a few minutes later I would be handed a slightly mangled, but mostly peeled peach. Kolya peeled the rest of the peaches, minus the 5 I peeled. So I was able to focus on washing boiling, and slicing the peaches. It was such a wonderful experience to be working with my children to accomplish something. And here's the kicker, when all was said and done Kolya said, "Mom, thanks for letting me help you do the peaches." It doesn't get any better than that.

At death's door

When we got home on Saturday from running our half marathon Eric was running a fever. He felt horrible and kept getting worse. On Wednesday he was having a hard time breathing so he went to the doctor. The poor guy was diagnosed with bronchitis, pleurisy, and pneumonia! He's feeling a little better now that he is on steroids and antibiotics.

Smart Cookie

At school they tested Kolya's classes reading levels. Kolya is at a 3rd grade reading level! Okay my bragging is done.

My little girl

I was holding Eliana this morning and Amira told me that she wanted me to hold her. I told her to climb on my lap, but she insisted that Eliana was in her way. I told Amira that I had to hold Eliana because she was a little baby, and that Amira was big so she needed to just sit right by me, or share my lap. Amira's response was, "I'm not big Mommy, I'm just a little girl." I put Eliana down and held my sweet little girl.

Suncrest half-marathon

Eric and I ran the suncrest mountain half marathon on Saturday. It was my first race and Eric's second. It was quite the run. There was a lot of ups and downs the first 7 miles, then it was uphill for the next 5 1/2 miles, and downhill the last 1/2 mile. I ended up walking up all of the hills in the last 5 1/2 miles. I came in at 3:02:25. My average pace was 13:55. It was a lot of fun and Eric and I are already trying to decide when we are going to do our next one.