My week

Thursday - While doing laundry I somehow managed to break my middle toe. It was a lovely mottled red and black. Well, I am pretty sure it was a break. With no insurance we just taped it to the toes around it.

Friday - We got everyone set for Halloween. Marcus is Leo (from The Lost Hero and Mark of Athena books.) We found him a nice tool belt to go with his orange Camp Half-Blood shirt. Anneke wanted to be a female minion or girl Joker. They didn't have the latter and the former was only for smaller kids. She is going to be Harley Quinn (from Batman). Luke is excited to be Luke...Skywalker that is, so he will wear the costume he wore to Disneyland. Mallory has been asking to be Minnie Mouse. We are going traditional with the red skirt. Today she put on the costume and started talking in a high pitched voice. I had to call her Minnie for hours.

Saturday - Our dear friend, Kacey, had her baby. Our other dear friends were sealed in the temple. We got to see a couple of elders that we were close to while they served here. Both came down especially for the sealing since they baptized the husband. My middle two stayed with Aunt Heather. Andy and I went to a church dinner while Marcus and Mo played at home.

Sunday - Heather, Evie and Bella came to church with us and had dinner later, too. (Luke left his blankey at the Nordell's house and it is still not in his possession. It makes for some long evenings, let me tell you.) Mallory was a stinker during sacrament meeting.

Monday - I was trying to be nice to Kacey (see Saturday) and offered to pick up her daughter from school. I did not get the text saying she was agreeable to it until 20 minutes after school was out. I felt awful. I have tried to help her several times, but fail each time. I do love her and maybe someday I will actually do better.

Tuesday - I watched a little boy for a sister in our ward. I did not realize it was an act of service until she came to pick him up. When it is your actual job, sometimes it is hard to know. Oh, well. It is a good thing it wasn't too hard.
My two older children were scrambling to get their projects done. Anneke was so flustered she tried to remove her chocolate cake from the oven without hot pads or oven mitts. She went to bed with an ice pack wrapped around her (left) hand.

Wednesday - I managed to pick up Kacey's daughter on time. YAY! I also went to see Anneke and Marcus's project presentations. Anneke's was about making chocolate cake and Marcus's was about okapi. I was quite impressed with how far Marcus has come with his public speaking.

So, that is what life has been like for us lately. Something every day. How was your week?

Bye tooth

My baby boy lost his first tooth.  Luke has been wiggling it for a while and talking about the many things he will buy with his money. Mostly, he was excited to pay his tithing, which I thought was sweet. Anyway, it was pretty lose, but his dad could not get a good grip on the tiny tooth and I was never asked. When Andy pulled out the pliers (as a joke...I think) Luke became hysterical and it was put on hold for the night. Finally, Saturday night it came out.

I asked him to smile so I could see his tooth space.

 We tried again, but this was not what I had in mind.

 There we go!

Now he has a slight lisp that I love! He picked out the tooth box on Friday so he had a special place to put his tooth. Luke put his pillow under the pillow inside the box. Apparently the tooth fairy could not find the tooth because along with the $.88 the tooth was waiting. I have it in my jewelry/treasure box to keep. He feels he should get it but I am arguing that I made it so I get to keep it, right?

Swimming

Within a few months of moving here I began watching baby Marcus for a friend. Until Rosy had he second, Austin, I watched Marcus. She has remained one of my closest friends. For the past several summers we have enjoyed swimming with the Orozcos in their pool. Due to several factors this was probably the last time we will get to do so. It is the end of an era.

Mo's "auntie" gave her the lifejacket and now she can't swim without her "swimming coat".

 "Baby" Marcus and Luke have remained good friends for 5 years.

 Marcus was pretending to be Leonardo DaVinci using floaties to "walk on water". (Yes, my children are odd. How many kids do you know pretend they are famous artists/inventors?)

 This girl is a fish. She made sure we went swimming at least once a week this summer.

 My cute, Luke.

Our summer is over. Marcus has 6 more until his mission. It always made me laugh when people would say that time goes so quickly. Now, I am experiencing it first hand. We have no more diapers in our house. We are growing out of naps. We have a middle schooler for goodness sake! My life is changing with the stages of my children and it is bittersweet.