Noah's Award

Noah recently got an award at school. Too bad his teacher forgot to notify me so I could have attended the assembly. Luckily Noah didn't mind, his response was, "I didn't see you so I figured you weren't there." I felt bad for missing out. I had driven by the school earlier that day and had wondered why there were so many cars and parents there. Turns out it was the 1st quarter awards.

He was given the "Random Acts of Kindness" award. "For showing kindness, courtesy, and respect to fellow students and teachers....your actions prove that one person can make a difference."

It's nice to know that my efforts to teach him to be kind and respectful are working.

His teacher told me during Parent Teacher Conference that they have have had a couple of "Student of the Month" awards so far this year. She hasn't given him this honor since she knows he will be good all year. She's saving him for the Spring when it is harder to find someone who fits the criteria.

I'm glad he is such a good kid. Especially when I am not around to remind him.

Meet Twinkie

Twinkie is our "Elf on the Shelf." Auntie Laurie was kind enough to send him our way last year.

He decided to re appear with the ending of Day Light Savings time. I guess he figured Noah and Zoe needed an early reminder of the importance of being good to one another. You see his job is to sit and observe all that goes on in our house during the day. Then every night he flies back to the North Pole and reports all the good and bad things to Santa. He returns before you wake up ready for another day. The fun part is you never know where he is going to show up. The kids have to hunt for him every morning. The one major rule is no one can touch him or he loses his magic.

Here are a few of his hiding places:

So far I think the extra reminder to be nice to one another is working. We will have to see how long it lasts.

Need a Nap?

Can you tell that it's been a long week at the McDonald Household? Too many late nights with Halloween festivities and setting up for the Monthly Relief Society Activity. This is what I discovered when I noticed my house had gotten a little too quiet.

They were all watching Cars 2 for who knows how many times when they all 3 crashed out. The boys on the couch....

Zoe on the chair...I wish I could have joined them, but I was doing many last minute preparations for a very successful activity.

We held an "Angels Among Us" night for November's Relief Society Activity. Everyone was given the opportunity to submit stories about another sister in the ward who had helped them out in a time of need. Who had "saved" them so to speak. They had the option of revealing their name or in submitting stories anonymously. In the end we ended up with close to 43 stories. That night we enjoyed a nice meal, read through the stories, had a musical number, and even had enough time to visit. Things went so great, we were done and cleaned up by 8:30. I'm re-leaved to have it over with. It was the first activity that I was in charge of completely. The counselor over me was released about a month prior and I didn't think it was fair to make her work on it. She was however helpful in putting together an musical number. We'll take December off, since Relief Society is in charge of the ward party and then we'll hopefully get things organized for January.

A Special Day in Our History

Look what I got today...

Dan surprised me this evening with Roses. What's the occasion you might ask? Nine years ago today he asked me to marry him. The proposal was a complete surprise to me.

Here is what I've written down about it in the past:

Dan proposed on Friday, November 1st, 2002. A lot of interesting events lead to it. A week full of weird excuses as to why he wasn't where he was supposed to be. Several questions about if and when my dad was going to be in town, or back from a business trip. A stressed "Trunk or Treat" the night before. At one point he went around to the front of the building and was supposed to open the locked door for me, but never came. Plus there were a lot of strange comments from family members such as : Trenity can say "Uncle Dan", "Fix your hair," after a long stressful day at work doing the monthly inventory count, and "not yet, but soon," overheard in a telephone conversation.

Our parents were going out to dinner together that evening, a first but not too unusual since our Dad's talked all the time at church. Then he called saying he needed help carrying things in from his car, after getting off of work late because he had to run reports to Nick, and not seeing his car in the driveway. I kept chatting away on the phone and he was in a big hurry for me to open the door.

I opened the door to the biggest surprise of my life. I'm still not sure how he managed to set it all up with the front window open and me sitting on the couch. So, when I opened the door there were 12 roses, one on the door mat and the rest on each step, leading down to the driveway. I almost stepped on the 1st rose, I was that clueless at first. But in my defense it didn't take me long to catch on, each rose had a hand written note attached to it, asking if I'd be his wife for Time and all Eternity.

Dan was at the bottom of the stairs waiting with 12 more roses and the ring. When I reached the last stair, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

So, I guess some times it pays to be oblivious or just not to read too deeply into things, or ask too many questions. It turns out that my whole family and a good chunk of his family were in on it all along. How he got so many people to keep their mouths shut is beyond me. He got my ring size a few weeks earlier while we were with his parents at Seagull Books after a Stake Temple Trip. He was stressed out that my Dad was never going to be home so that he could ask his permission. When he left me locked outside at the church during Trunk or Treat, he was finally talking to my dad. He has a very funny story about that, I should have him write it down sometime. My mom had told my sister thus the "Uncle Dan" thing. Some of his sisters knew, hence the cryptic phone calls while I was around. Fun memories.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Back to today, it was a pretty fun day. I wish I could say I remembered earlier in the day what significance this date holds, but that would be a lie. However, we made it an extra special day quiet by accident. I had a doctor's appointment in Reno for my annual, so I left the kids with a friend. My appointment was done in time for an early lunch so I had made arrangements to meet Dan. We were finally able to use a gift certificate I was given before Jack was born. We went to this nice Sushi Restaurant. Since we were early it wasn't crowded and the service was fast. It has been awhile since we've shared an uninterrupted meal. On the way back to the office we stopped at Target to buy the Cars 2 DVD. We kept dinner simple that night, take and bake pizza, and enjoyed the movie.

Thank You for remembering to celebrate that life changing night.

Trunk or Treat and Halloween

This year the entire family got into the costume craze. We started the planning somewhat early this year. A lot of ideas were passed around from going as: the Incredibles, as farmers with vegetables or animals, or the Cat in the Hat with Thing 1 and Thing 2 and the goldfish or Nick and Sally.

In the end we went with a Bee theme.

It took a little convincing of all those involved. We were worried that Noah was a little too old to dress up as a bee, but he was more than willing and even really excited to go as our bee hive.

Dan designed his costume. I felt a little bad for him as some kept calling him a robot.

Jack's costume was really easy to find, there were a million choices on eBay.

The hard part was getting it on the cheap, I can't believe how much some are willing to spend on costumes.

Grandma was kind enough to buy Zoe's costume for her.

She made a pretty "Queen Bee". We had to stress this aspect of it. She was originally disappointed that her costume didn't have a stinger, we informed her that real queen bees don't have stingers either. We pointed out that Jack's costume didn't have a stinger. I thought she'd be more disappointed that she didn't have wings, who knew a stinger was so important?

Dan and I decided to go as Bee Keepers. (sorry, no individual shots of us)

I made our hats, I even sewed bees on to the netting. Then we just wore gloves and disposable painter coveralls.

This year our ward combined with the other Fernley Ward for Trunk or Treating. It was so much fun. I loved seeing all the different costumes. Plus the kids got a ton of candy with very little effort. I think the best part was that there were prizes given out this year.

They awarded a 1st and 2nd place for best "Family Costume". I think it was originally supposed to be an individual award, but two families really got into it this year. There was a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize for the chili cook-off. They awarded prizes for the best pumpkin drawings. A very clever idea to keep the kids occupied while food was being set out. Last, but not least, they handed out a prize for the best decorated vehicle. All in all it made for some good competition.

Our Family took 1st place in the Family Costume Category. Our prized included this crazy Afro Wig and a $10 gift card to Chili's. We can't wait to go get dessert. The kids were so excited to run up and get our prize.

The second place family was from the other ward, I can't think of their name, but their little boy is in Noah's 1st grade class. They dressed up as Scooby Doo. The mom and dad were dressed up as Fred and Daphne, the kids were Velma and Shaggy (who carried a stuffed Scooby-Doo). I'm not sure what their prize was, but I thought there costumes were amazing. They even took it one step farther and decorated their van as the "Mystery Machine" and handed out Scooby Snacks.

Dan took 2nd place in the chili cook-off for his Pumpkin Chipotle Chili. Our ward managed to sweep this event. I hope we combine next year. Everyone seems to have had lots of fun, the only ones who might disagree are the ones who were in charge of the activity.

As if school parties and Trunk or Treating weren't enough the kids had to go Trick or Treating on the actual day as well. Dan was surprised they tired so quickly. He was willing to another street, but Noah was done. They came home with a ton of candy and then had fun passing out candy to the neighbor kids. We had a lot of kids this year. We weren't that prepared, but my kids were very willing to give out the candy they received at Trunk or Treating when we ran out. According to them they had more than enough and I would have to agree with that. I made sure we kept their good candy and handed out the less desirable kind.

Here is a picture of Jack going through his loot. I've never seen such a little kid so excited about candy. More proof that he loves this holiday.

Got to love the toothpaste in one hand and the M&M's in the other hand. He would not let it out of his hands or sight. He was too afraid we'd take it from him.

The kids kept things separated for about a day or two, then it all got combined. A day after that we went through and sorted it. We bagged up all the Tootsie Rolls to give to Grandma Sandi, the Bottle Caps to give to Auntie Tiffany, and the M&M's to send to Cousin Garrett (who is in the MTC and couldn't go Trick or Treating).

We are already thinking of ideas for next year's costumes.

Jack o Lanterns

Noah and Zoe had fun carving pumpkins with Daddy this year. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get pictures of their pumpkins.

Here is the Jack o Lantern they carved for Jack.

Jack got so excited when they placed it on his tray.

He giggled, clapped his hands, and waved his arms around like crazy. Then he got the biggest smile on his face every time he looked at it.

I think Halloween could be Jack's favorite holiday.

Family Pictures Preview

So Dan decided to take Nevada Day off this year. He figured it was a good excuse to take a day off, since Noah would be out of school. We decided to take advantage of the bonus day together and attempt some Family Pictures. Our friends, the Pastos, have access to this beautiful property, so we headed out there. Circle was kind enough to snap a few shots and just let us take our time exploring different options. Things didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked, Jack was not in a very good mood.

Here is a little preview, the rest need a little touching up.

I'm happy with the results. There are a lot of cute individual shots, small group shots, and cute pictures of Noah and Zoe together. Jack was our challenge of the day. We'll have to keep trying for the perfect Family Picture, if there is such a thing.

At least we weren't paying big bucks for a photographer. Now we just have to get them printed out.