BRENNAN IS OLDER THAN ME!

6 months out of every year, Brennan is older than me. His birthday was November 5th. The night before, his dad and Harriet came over for dinner. On his birthday, we made him breakfast in bed, gave him presents and kissed him goodbye. He had to fly out to Vegas for a district meeting. Kelly (his brother) lives there so he stayed an extra day and they went to dinner and hung out. Brennan loved that. On Sunday, my family came over for one last hurrah! Birthdays around here last for at least a week!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This halloween was a busy one! We had school parties, friend parties, church parties, and even a birthday party.

Yes, my girls somehow look familiar , don't they?

They were meant to be in movies!

That is as scarey as Ems gets!

Chili at Gramma and Grampa's is the best! It's a halloween tradition!

It's Halloween! We always have fun dressing up! Loren and Kasey trick or treated at Country Pines (the old folks home that our girls work at) and then trick or treated on our street.


I guess we can start thinking now what we want to be for next year! Haley has been waiting to wear her Nacho Libre mask since she bought it in Mexico last December. Can't wait till next year! (not really) Halloween is fun but it's oh so nice when it's over.

SHARING BIRTHDAYS!

Haley's birthday seems to go on and on! My mom and Haley have had a combined birthday party for 15 years now. We went to Garcia's (both their favorite). We ate, sang and had cake.

Isn't Taysen adorable!?! We had to take pictures. She is so fun!

Taysen loves Papa talking to her. Her eyes get really big and always breaks out into a smile!

We had a good time. Ems was in SLC with her friend Stace so she isn't with us. (I hate them getting big and doing their own thing)


Here are the birthday girls! We love Haley and Gramma!

Mindy is such a good cake decorator! It makes birthday's fun to have a cute as heck cake.

HALEY'S 15!

Haley turned 15 yesterday. I cannot believe that 15 years ago I was sitting in the hospital waiting to have a baby. My water started leaking 2 mo. before she was due and Dr. Pead was worried about infection and my labor starting so he admitted me into the hospital. I was fine for about a day but then I started going nuts. Brennan worked in SLC and he would come to Bountiful to see me on the way home from work and I would shoo him out so he could spend time with Ems and Lyssi. They were staying at my mom and dad's during the week so they could take care of them. Brennan would go over every night to see them. Anyway, he would leave me and I would cry. My mom, dad and Shelly took really good care of Emily and Lyssi. They brought them to see me a lot. They would leave and I would cry. I was a mess. I think I drove the dr crazy. They were testing my fluid every day to see if Haley's lungs were developed. I was told to only get up to go to the bathroom. I even had a chair in my shower. Well, I was a titch psycho and I would jump around trying to go into labor. I'm glad Haley was stubborn and didn't come till she was ready. On Oct 21, 1993, my dr came in around 4pm Wed. night and said "well, it looks like she's ready". Brennan hurried over (with a pizza) I was so happy! They wheeled me down to labor and delivery. I had a really easy labor. She was born @ 2:03 Thursday morning on the 22nd. She weighed 5 lbs 12 oz. 18" long. When I held her, I was ashamed at how I felt while I was in the hospital for a month waiting for her to come. She was definately worth the wait! My heart felt so full She was born 4 weeks early and completely perfect! She still is perfect. We love her so much. She is so fun and really funny. I'm so glad she is part of our family. We love you Haley!

A small miracle happened on Monday. I pulled into Maverik to get gas and it was under $3.00 a gallon. I wanted to get out and do a cartwheel but instead filled my van. It was under $50! I was thrilled. Thank heavens for little miraculous events that make us thankful.

MEET NOGGIN

Lyssi has a pet turtle. She loves him. His name is Noggin. She has only had him for a couple of weeks. Emily's friend gave him to her against my better judgement. I hope he works out. Pet's don't last long at the Bateman house. He hasn't peed on my floor, so that is a good sign. The second he starts eating my couch, he is gone!
Kasey loves Noggin... from a distance.

He runs really fast. It shocked us and kind of even scared us. Haley is petrified of him. It's funny. Lyssi took him in her room where Haley was doing homework and set him down by her. She completely freaked right out!

Lyssi and her turtle

SPIRIT WEEK

This was say "no" to drugs week. They had "red day", "crazy sock day", "favorite team day" and "pajamma day". Loren loved all of this. She said she will always say NO! to drugs.

This was spirit week for Haley. She felt pretty cool being Batman on super-hero day. The day that she dressed up like an old lady was not so cool. She said that not very many people dressed up like a grandma or grandpa. About 12:00 she called me and asked me if I could come get her and bring her home to change. She said that she looked ridiculous. I thought she looked cute!

SNOWING IN OCTOBER!

We woke up to a winter wonderland! We had about 6 inches and it continued lightly all day long. It is beautiful! I love the first snow. Everything looks so pretty all covered in white! When I woke up Loren for church, I told her to look out the window. Her face looked like pure delight! Snow was just a little blessing that we were blessed with today.

Loren and Kasey had so much fun playing in the snow. They were out there for over an hour building a snowman, when I went out to lift the body on, it broke so their snowman turned into a chair.

Snow is falling all around

On the housetops on the ground.

Snow is falling on my nose,

On my head and hands and toes.

GENERAL CONFERENCE

I love President Thomas S. Monson! I really enjoyed all he had to say. "Despite the changes which come into our lives, and with gratitude in our hearts, may we fill our days...with those things which matter most." He said we need to find joy in the journey~now, share our joy with friends and family. One day we'll run out of tomorrows.
One of my favorite talks was from Elaine Dalton-General Young Women President. I have a special place in my heart for the young women program. I know it's because I have 4 daughters who I want to grow up to be happy and have integrity. She said that some think that high moral standards are old fashioned and irrelevant in todays society. Deceptions lead youth to be idle, to lose sight of divine identity. Virtuous youth can change the world. She said that with the Lord, we can do anything!
"Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly,then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God."

It was a good day! We had some friends over for breakfast and they went home just before conference started. We all watched it in our jammies. After it was over we went to my mom & dad's for THE BEST fried chicken. I'm not kidding when I say "the best". I love Conference Sunday's. These pictures are so not cute! but this is all we have to work with!

SCRUB A DUB DUB

Poor little Cinderlyssi! If you can't tell what she is doing, she is scrubbing the kitchen floor. My girls came home from school on Friday and I had a list for them to choose from. Lyssi got stuck with the scrubbing the floor. She said "mom, you can't even see that it is dirty." Well the dirty water proved her wrong. She did a good job, and after telling me over and over that it was taking her forever and her friends watching on the sidelines waiting for her to finish so they could go have fun, she finally got done and it looked wonderful!