The decision is....

Lins, and anyone else who cares. I have decided to leave my hair as is. I have gotten used to it and/or it has faded some. Plus, I am too cheap to fork over the dough to fix it. Family pics. got rescheduled for this afternoon. We'll see how it goes....

Here's a pic.

Before

After

It is just a little more red than I was wanting. I don't know if it is permanent or semi-permanent. Who pays attention to those things? :) Pi, there is nothing wrong with being a red head, I'm just not used to it. :) AND my red hair is not pretty like yours!

Color choices

All right, so I have come to the realization (yet again) that I am horrible at picking out colors. For painting, decorating and now hair dye. I dyed my hair over the weekend, and I have been hoping it would tone down a little. I was hoping to get it back to a more natural brown shade. Well, not so much.... it is now a reddish, purplish. Having albino skin, this is not the most flattering shade. For the first few days Kent just looked at me and would chuckle, while saying, "You have red hair." Everytime I look in the mirror it is still a shock. Does anyone know how long I have to wait to dye it again? I don't want my hair to fall out, but we have family pics. on Monday. Any suggestions? Maybe I will post a pic... I have to have Kent take one.

Trick-or-Treat....

We went trick-or-treating at a church carnival this year. It was a fun day because Brayden knew what to expect, and he woke up with his eye sparkling with excitement! He was a "Fighter-fighter" (Fire fighter) and the girls were baby chicks. We headed to the carnival early because last year the church had over 3,000 kids there. I wasn't too excited about that, but we got there pretty much when the doors opened. :) It was great, they had tons of games for the kids and they even had a jumping castle. Brayden and Ellie both loved it! The ladies couldn't get over how tough Ellie was. She was getting knocked around by all the big kids and she just laughed and kept on jumping. Dani wasn't quite so wild, she didn't even want to walk. Kent or I held her the whole time. A fun time was had by all! We were home by 6:30, just in time to pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters. Brayden LOVED this part too! He thought he was pretty cool opening the door and putting the candy in all the bags. Thanks for helping us Grandma Phillips, and for getting us more candy! At 8:30 he told me, "The last trick-or-treater came, Halloween is over now mom." Mom and Dani.

Daddy and Dani.

B fishing for candy.

The girls watching B catch a fish.

Taking a treat break!

Brayden actually got his face painted! Usually he is too

scared, he thinks it won't ever come off. He chose a pirate ship.

B decided to paint his pumpkin, instead of carve it.

I couldn't have been happier!

Therapy fund

Worst mom of the year? I am thinking so.... Tonight the kids and I were on the floor reading Halloween books before bedtime. We were all having fun and the girls were actually listening to the books! B was having so much fun he started screaming, and cheering, while lying right next to me. His mouth was an inch from my ear. For those of you who have not been around Brayden, he is loud! He talks loudly, he thinks loudly, he plays loudly and he screams even louder! My ear was ringing! We have talked to B about his loud voice ALOT. Tonight I just looked at him and said, "I don't think I can hear anymore, my ear is broken." He actually stopped screaming turned and looked at me with panic in his eyes, and tears forming. He said, "Oh no, is it going to fall off?" I said, "I don't know, is it bleeding?" My hair was covering my ear, so he lifted it up and he instantly started crying! He said, "It is all red, oh no mom, it's going to fall off!" Evil person that I am, I started laughing! I had no idea he would actually be so concerned! He cried harder, and said, "It is going to bleed, what do we do?" I gained control of myself and told him, "Hopefully if no one screams for the rest of the night it will be ok." His first response was, "Can you give something to my sisters so they won't scream??? Just give them whatever they want, so they won't scream at you!" He was genuinely worried. With all the chaos, I forget what a gentle, sensitive boy he is. I reassured him before tucking him in that my ear was ok, and I should be just fine. I know I mentioned this before, but really, who is willing to chip in for my damaged son's therapy bills?? This is just the beginning.....

This is a pic. of him from a few weeks ago, he has a little bit of a concerned look on his face.... I wonder what he was thinking?

Fort Phillips

Today we had to do a bunch of errands. The girls were screaming and Brayden was talking non-stop about very important stuff from the back of the van. I finally turned around at a stop sign to face them and lost it! I said something along the lines of, "You need to stop screaming (As I'm screaming) and be quiet and stop talking, so I can drive safely and not get into an accident." They are usually pretty good in the car, so this wasn't really typical behavior, plus I was lost trying to find a ticket box office. ANYWAY, I am an old lady and can't handle a ton of noise, I think because there is constant noise in my life now, so any additional puts me over the edge. I can barely stand to have music on in the house. So sad..... I have digressed. SO..... we are going down the Freya hill (which is huge) right after I had my breakdown. I told Brayden, "This is a HUGE WEEE hill!" He said very quietly, "Yeah, this is fun." Then when I was approaching some cars, he said under his breath, "Get out of the way, watch out cars!" I think he thought for sure, I was nuts and I was going to ram them. Who wants to contribute to his therapy bills??

But before we went on that fun adventure we made Fort Phillips, which Brayden was so excited about. We built it right when he got up and he got to eat breakfast under it and watch cartoons, "just like he did at Grandma Wagener's house." The girls were locked in their high chairs for their breakfast so the fort lasted for about 20 minutes. 20 seconds after the girls were unleashed, it was all over..... Brayden said, "I am very angry, lock them in their room!" (I have never locked them in their room, in case you're wondering.... although it has crossed my mind).

From that point on, the Fort was never quite the same.

Halloween Happiness

Last week Grandma Wagener sent us a Halloween package! There were stickers and window clings in the box! All of the kids loved the window clings and they worked together for 15 minutes to get them all up on the slider! It was the best gift ever!

At some point last week Brayden and I made our annual Halloween cookies! They turned out yummy!

Last weekend we attended the twins group Halloween party. We made a 15 minute appearance and then we had to be on our way. It wasn't a very good morning for any of the kids. Part of it may have had to do with the costumes. It took longer to get all the gear on than the amount of time they actually wore it.

The Phillips fam at the twin party.

Brayden "working" hard

Ellie decorating her treat bag.

Dani coloring her bag.

Now all we have left to do is carve all of those pumpkins (and trick-or-treat)! We had a sad morning last week when we woke up and B looked out into the driveway and saw two of our four pumpkins smashed! He was in tears and so upset, because he chose those at the pumpkin patch. He wanted to go back and get some more. I convinced him that we still had enough to carve (I wasn't going to go through that again) and he seemed ok with it. He's still telling everyone, "Mean people smashed our pumpkins on our driveway." It was so sad having to try to explain why someone would do that to a four year old. :(

One more week 'til the sugar rush!