Happy Halloween!

Well, our Halloween didn't turn out like we had planned. Our church started doing Trunk or Treat last year and it was a huge success. We were planning on working a booth with our Sunday School class and spend a couple hours letting the kids get candy, play games and eat. We thought we were going to be able to go because Sara is better and so are Lance, Luke and I. But, last night Emma started running a fever and then Hope started one this morning. Arghhhh!!! We started them on Tamiflu so hopefully they will kick this by the time the weekend's over. But since they are both not feeling well, we just went to my parents', my brother and sis-in-law's and a few houses on their street. Luke and Sara went down our street when we got back while Lance passed out candy, but Hope and Emma stayed with him.

The kids had a blast. Emma LOVED it! I didn't think she would really care, but she loved holding out her bucket and having candy put in it. She would grin from ear to ear!

Sara loved it more than anyone I think. She kept running to houses, saying "Halloween is fun!"

I think Luke had as much fun giving out candy at our house as he did getting the candy! He's my little social bug!

And poor Hope. She was so cold, she just wanted to be held. She would walk up to the houses, but then want to be carried to the next house. She was a tired princess. But so darn cute!

Aurora, Snow White, a cowboy and Dr. Faddis :)

OK, so Lance got me in a tizzy. We were herding kids to the garage. I was coming from the living room and he fell in behind me from our bedroom. I turned around, took one look at him and said, "What are you doing?!?!" He was all decked out in old timey western wear. He responded, "dressing up." I looked at him and just freaked! I ran into our room; grabbed some of his scrubs and old lab coat; found his stethoscope; and presto chango! Dr. Faddis!

at Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Leah's house (that's Luke Skywalker!)

trick or treating Mom and Poppa

Cinderella and her cowboy!

So Tired of Sickness

Ok, so Lance was home again today sick. And he had to come home early yesterday to take care of me and the kids. Sara is still running a fever, and I'm TIRED! I hope that we can get well soon. I'm on the upswing, so I hope that tomorrow will be better.

Luke is going to school tomorrow so that's good. He's excited that he gets to wear his Halloween costume. I'm actually pretty proud of it. He wants to be Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi. Mind you, there are several Luke Skywalkers. He wears something different in every movie. So, I'll post pictures Sat. But I came up with something and all I had to buy were 2 shirts. (and two only because I couldn't find a long sleeve polo shirt) All the kids are excited about Halloween. Sara is going to be Snow White, Hope is going to be Aurora, and Emma is going to be Cinderella.

Speaking of Hope. Oh, that Hope. This is what Lance found in our bathroom trash after I pulled up her hair at dinner.

I went to pull her hair back to keep it out of her food while she ate. I told Lance, "Look at her hair." Thinking it was baby hair growing in and then it hit me. She cut her hair!!! I sat down at my seat and asked her why she cut it. "I don't know." Then Lance asked her where her hair was. "In your bathroom in the trash." Then I told her that she will look goofy when she cuts her hair. "No, I'm pretty. Luke likes it." (Luke had tried to tell her he liked it so I wouldn't get on to her so badly.) It never phased her. It didn't bother her in the least. She did say, "I'm sorry Momma." Then I tried to get on to her for hiding and she said, "I didn't hide, I sneaked." What do you say to that?!?!?! I swear! I don't know how I'm going to raise her!!!

Pumpkin Carving 101

Tonight was Pumpkin carving night! The kids had a lot of fun. (Despite the sickness running rampant. Luke bit the dust tonight. Arghhhh!) I was proud of the kids. They all had their own idea of what they wanted their pumpkin to look like. I started last year telling them about how we are like jack-o-lanterns to God. We have all this gunk inside us and he reaches in and scrapes it all out. Then he puts His Son in us to let His light shine out of us to be a light to those who see us. I know they are a little young to get all the symbolism, but I hope that as the years pass, they will understand it more and more.

And Lance roasted the pumpkin seeds so the kids could have a treat! Yum!

Hope drawing a mask on her pumpkin

Emma just wandered around wondering what was going on!

Luke scraping out the gunk!

Sisters!

The finished products!

Illness has struck. Boo.

Well, we put up a valiant fight, but the Faddises were beat. Sara and Lance have the flu. Arghhh. Which means it will probably be a month before we're out much by the time it goes through the entire family. And Luke threw up yesterday at noon so our plans were changed even before we knew about the flu.

We had a busy weekend before we discovered Sara had a fever. Luke had a Boy Scout campout that he went to on Sat and an Upward football game. We missed a family reunion because of Luke throwing up and that disappointed us. Lance had family in from Colorado that we only get to see once a year. Thankfully we saw them for dinner Tues or we would have missed them all together. But since we didn't go (we didn't want to get Lance's sister sick because of her recent surgery) we went to my brother's in-laws for a bonfire for his birthday. Happy 34th Jeremy! We had a great time.

So now we've been in the house all day having a movie marathon. I downloaded a ton of movies from netflix so we watched several of them. One of them was Annie. I loved that movie when I was a kid and I got a little emotional watching it with my kids. (corny, I know!) But I was shocked that it had 2 curse words in it. One of them bad. The kids didn't know what was being said (and obviously I didn't when I was a kid or I would have remembered!) Why do they put that in a children's movie??? Seriously?!

Oh, and before I forget, I have to write something Hope said yesterday. It was the cutest! The girls and I were headed to a birthday party that Sara was invited to. We always listen to our local Christian radio station. (My kids love music and sing all the songs they hear and I just want them singing songs that worship the Lord.) At that moment in time, the station manager was talking about fundraising. Sara asked me if KLRC was a Disney station. I told her no and then Hope pipes up from the back, "No, Sara, that's God talking." hahaha!!! I loved it!

Close!

This afternoon I was working with the girls on their Cubbies verse before AWANAS tonight. Their verse was "I am wonderfully made." We read the little story that goes along with the verse. Then we started reviewing their verse. Sara got it right away, but had a little bit of a hard time with the reference. She eventually got it. Hope was hysterical. We started rehearsing and serious as a heart attack she looks at me when I asked her to say her verse and says, "I am beautiful." I about died laughing! Close, but not quite! And she kept saying it the same way over and over. It took a few times, but she eventually got it!

Proud Momma!

We had Luke's parent/teacher conference today. I couldn't be prouder of him! We had a rough start to the year, but he has settled into things and is doing GREAT! He has all A's (which isn't a BIG deal, but it just means that he is concentrating because he has the smarts, but sometimes doesn't apply himself) And he is reading 8 levels above the top of the testing. His grade tops out at a level 20 right now and he's on a 28. That boy LOVES to read. There are many times that he will "go to bed" only to turn his lamp on and read for a couple hours! And he is one of the very 5 top writers in his class. 20 out of the 25 in his class are at basic and he's "proficient" which is as high as you can get! That is a miracle! Last year, he hated writing lab! Who knew he'd be so good at it!

I'm not saying all of this to brag, but this is my blog to remember the things of our lives that I want to remember when my kids are grown and I want to remember how proud of him I am and how good he is doing at this point in school!

Way to go, Luke!

Vinyl, Vinyl Everywhere!

OK, so I've started a home business and it has been consuming my time at night. I'm doing vinyl personalization and decals. It's a lot of fun, but I have not had the time to blog at night like I want to because I save all my orders until the kids are in bed. So, I'm busy for the couple hours after the kids go to bed before I go to bed! It's been a lot of fun. My first order was for a boutique in town and it was huge. It paid for my machine and computer so everything I'm doing now is just for fun! I'm going to try to be better about blogging even just a little bit before I go to bed!

So, what's going on with the Faddises??? Emma is beginning to turn into a toddler from a baby. It's sad but exciting all at the same time. She has gotten really good at the sign language we've taught her. As a matter of fact, a couple weeks ago when I picked her up from the nursery at church, her worker asked if she knew signs. She had been doing them for them at church! Just this past week, I was holding her in the living room and she pointed to the kitchen and then signed "eat." I was so proud! She is really wanting to play with the big kids, too. And this weekend was craft fair weekend in NWA and I bought all the girls crocheted hats. I gave Sara and Hope theirs while my Mom was holding Emma. Emma started grunting and reaching for me. She wanted a hat, too!! It was hysterical! I gave her hers and she immediately tried to put it on her head! When I did it for her, she just grinned from ear to ear. She's growing up!

Luke is doing great in school. We had a rough start this year, but he has settled in. I've been really proud of him. We missed the entire week for Disney and when he got back, his teacher sent home all his work to make up. He did an entire week of science in 30 min., and the whole week of math in about the same time! And he has been in 2nd place in their reading competition in his class for several weeks now. He keeps bringing home prizes he's won each week. He's proud of himself, too. I told him it's time to knock Sadie (the 1st place child) of the #1 spot! Ha!

Sara is changing before my eyes. She turning from a little girl into a big girl. I cannot believe she is going to be 5 in a month. That just doesn't seem possible. I kinda don't want her to. I know that sounds crazy, but I'm not ready for her to go to school next year. We're planning her party and we're doing it up big. We are going to have a LUAU at an indoor pool. She is so excited.

And Hope. My crazy, into everything, turning me gray, sweetest thing in the world, Hope. :) She continues to crack me up and stress me out all at the same time! I know this is gross, but it cracks me up so I want to write it down and remember it. Lance was buckling her in the carseat the other day and he saw her picking her nose. He told her not to do that because it was nasty, and she said, "Daddy, I ate it, too!" And then just laughed and laughed! I don't know what to do with her! She will do something so annoying and then walk up and start kissing me repeatedly and say, "tisses. tisses"

Ah the joys of parenting!!!

In the Dark

I am so convicted tonight. We had a storm system move through this evening. We lost power for about 2 hours. It was the best two hours. Lance and I talked about the fact that we should turn off the lights every night. Luke found glowsticks for himself and the girls. Emma was pitching a fit for one, so Lance found her one, too. It was sooooo cute, she started shaking hers like the big kids. She's turning into a little girl so fast! She wants to do what the big kids are doing.

Then we place I spy shapes in the living room. I was really proud of the kids. They were finding squares, circles, rectangles and triangles all in our house.

I had started some brownies in the oven before the power went out. They didn't quite get done, so we had some brownie goo by flashlight in the kitchen. The kids loved it.

Then we made animal shapes in the flashlight on the wall. Sara was loving making duck faces and Lance made a giant dog that ate her duck! Hope was mesmerized by her shadows. She thought her hands were the coolest! And Luke put on a super hero performance in shadow!

Right before bedtime, we all laid on the floor and talked. It was sooooooo much fun. Why do we have to wait for the power to go out to do this?! We truly enjoyed our kids and had great family time. It's something the kids and us will remember years later.

Then it was off to bed with the glowsticks. Everyone has a glowstick lighting up their room. Even though the power is back on!

with flash

without flash!

A Child's Perspective

So we were driving to church tonight and had to stop by some friends' house to drop something off for them. When we go there the kids stayed in the car while I ran up to the door and sat it on the doorstep. They have the cutest homemade scarecrow sitting in one of the chairs on their porch. It is really cute. It is life size! When I got back in the car, Luke said, "Momma, I thought that was a man on their porch waiting to get their kids!" I about died! I think he's thinking about an America's Funniest Videos episode a few years ago when there was a man dressed as a scarecrow and scaring trick or treaters. Ha!

Then Sara said, "Momma, I thought it was an old man. I thought, why is that hairy old man sitting on their porch." She cracks me up! She is so serious! When we were at Disney and watching the fireworks at Cinderella's castle, they start the fireworks with a person dressed like Tinkerbell, all lit up "flying" down a zipline. It's really cool. It's dark, so it's hard to see the zipline and it looks really neat. My daughter, ever so practical, said: "Momma, that was just someone with a hook on her back and going down that string." She definitely doesn't live in the fantasy world!

She absolutely cracks me up with her seriousness. Tonight in the car on the way to church (after stopping by my friends) we were listening to the radio. The Brandon Heath song came on that says, "Give me Your eyes for just one second, Give me your eyes so I can see...Give me your love for humanity..." Sara said, "He's not being nice. He's not asking nicely." Luke tried to explain to her that it was ok and she just argued with him. "Luke, he should say, 'God, can I have your eyes, please?" I had to hold my laughter in!

When You Wish Upon A Star...

I haven't blogged in a while. We just got back from DISNEY!!! The week before we left, it was crazy! Trying to pack 6 people for that big of a vacation is ridiculous! I finally just had to let go and realize that I was going to leave my house in a mess!

We had soooooo much fun! It is absolutely impossible to recap all the different memories and share all the pictures. So I've included 2 family pics and I'm going to write down 1 memory of each child.

The Faddises in front of Cinderella's castle!

With the big guy himself!

Sara getting ready to drive a race car!

Hope getting into the spirit of things in Mexico at Epcot!

Emma LOVED Mickey!

Love that grin!

We had the absolute BEST time. It is such a wonderful place to take kids. It truly is magical. We went 3 years ago and told ourselves we would go back every 3 years while the kids were little. Sara wasn't even 2 and Hope was only 3 1/2 months the last time. It was such a fun experience with them now that the girls are a little older. We plan on going back in 3 more years. Emma will be 4 so it will be a totally different experience. No diaper bags! We want to wait 3 years because we don't want it to be routine. We want Disney to be special.

This trip was so much fun! Luke loves fantasy and he comes alive at Disney! One of his favorite things was getting to make a custom lightsaber at the Star Tours in Hollywood Studios. IT is something he's always wanted to do and he got the chance to. He was grinning from ear to ear!

Emma loved Mickey! I was worried about the characters scaring her. They didn't! She loved it! When we met Mickey the first day at Hollywood Studios, she automatically reached out and grabbed his nose and wouldn't let go. The only character she ever got scared of was Lilo. I think it was because she had a "human" face except it was HUGE! Ha!

Sara loved getting the characters signatures. She loved her autograph book! And I was so proud of her riding Big Thunder Mountain! She, Luke and I rode it at night and she loved it! I thought that she would be scared, but she laughed the whole way! I was a proud Momma!

And the memory I have of Hope will stand in my mind forever. We had a great spot for watching the spectacular parade at night at the Magic Kingdom. All the floats and people are totally lit up in lights. It was amazing! I was holding Hope up so she could see and she was yelling at the top of her lungs at all the characters. At one point, I was turned to my Mom and Hope grabbed my head with both hands and turned it to show me a character. She came alive during the parade and loved everything about it.

It is a trip that I will treasure forever. I love sharing those experiences with my kids and doing things that bring smiles to their faces and hearts!