Aleena's 4th Birthday

Aleena was born 4 years ago. I thought I would share some pictures of her from the past 4 years. I had a hard time picking and choosing. I wanted to post all of them. So my apologies for the long post.

Instead of painting on pumpkins, we decided to paint pumpkins on our bellies. I only had a couple more weeks until I had Aleena so I had quite the round belly. This was so fun. My older kids still haven't forgot this activity.

Aleena Jane Berlinguet arrived October 29, 2004 weighing in at 8 lbs, 2 oz.,

20 3/4" long, 8:02 a.m.

Sick Savanna

Savanna has been home sick yesterday and today. She started feeling sick at church on Sunday with a bad headache, and her eyes were killing her. I ran her home after Sacrament Meeting. Not 10 minutes later, she was throwing up. She couldn't keep anything down until Monday afternoon. She pretty much layed on the couch until Tuesday morning. At first I thought maybe it was a migrain but then she started running a fever, so she just probably had a bug. She finally got her appetite back this morning. She was pretty weak from not eating, had a hard time walking. She said she had Jello legs. Hopefully no one else gets it. I would have thought that today the others would have started showing signs but nothing. Maybe we will get lucky.

Soccer Farewell

Hallie & Jase had their last Soccer game this weekend. Hallie's game was Friday evening. It went great. Grama had the other kids, so it was just Brad, Livee and me watching the game. It was very peaceful. After the game, the team had a party at Idaho Pizza. Brad went to Grama's to watch the BSU game, and to be with the other kids. (They had gone over earlier to help Grama hand out fliers and to make some Fall cookies.) Hallie and I stayed for the party for a minute. She got her medal and then we left. I felt bad leaving, but ordering pizza is just not in our budget right now. But we made it up to her by taking her back to Grama's and the kids got to sit in the hot tub while Brad watched the game, and I got to read. It was nice. When you aren't at your own house you aren't thinking of "Oh-I need to be doing laundry, or dishes." I just could sit and not feel guilty.

Jase's game was Saturday morning at 9 am. BBBRRRR. He did pretty good. He had a small tantrum in the last half because he wanted to be goalie, but one of the other boys asked first. I hope he grows out of the tantrum phase soon. He throws more fits than my girls. He will probably be out the fits and the girls will hit puberty and the fits will start. I guess I better get used to the idea of at least one child being in the fit phase.

I like how this picture showed their breath in the cold air.

Jase is the short one with the black beenie on.

BOO

I got the crafty bug so I tried some blocks. These turned out pretty cute, I thought. I just used some old 2x4's and a little mod podge and paper. I used the double sided paper so I could have more options of patterns. I wrapped them with some cellaphane. No this is not my idea. I saw a Thankful one that a friend let us borrow for Super Saturday, and I was copying. This set I ended up giving to my mother-in-law, so now I need to make me one. I might have to do some for every holiday.

Misc. Livee

Livee got her hands on her first sucker. She thought it was quite tasty. It did make quite the sticky mess everywhere.

The kids were going through the Halloween costumes and thought Livee would make a cute cowgirl.

Livee has discovered the art of drumming. If you sit with her to the table, she thinks it is great fun to drum away.

Family Birthday

Last weekend we had a small birthday party at Grama's house to celebrate Grama, Reese, and Aleena's birthdays. It is always fun getting together and catching up. Brad's brother and sister were there with their families. Grama had made us pizza, and some really cool drinks for the kids that had floating eyeballs in them. Instead of the traditional birthday cake, we just made cupcakes and let each kid decorate their own with frosting and sprinkles. Aleena had to have a taste of every flavor of sprinkles. I don't think she even took one bite of her cupcake, she just licked off the frosting. Most kids only like the frosting anyways, so why waste a huge cake. The cousins hadn't seen Livee in a while and were excited to get to hold her. Aleena is so shy, and when opening presents she was just so cute and quiet. She had to share the spot light with her cousin, but that didn't bother at all. She got a cheer leading dress up, a new dress, a princess book, a miniature princess tea set, some jewelry, and a bath tub mermaid. When we got home she was so into her presents. She wore the dress, with the cheer leading out fit on top of it. She had all her toys surrounding her on her bed, and as soon as she woke up she was in the tub trying out the new mermaid.

One of the funny parts of the night was Kayla and her political talk. She is a senior and is on a sort of political discussion group, and she was talking about how she thinks Palin is just a pretty face and that's it. The funny part is is that she could pass as a Palin look alike. Grama was fixing her hair and taking her picture giving her a hard time. It was funny.

As we were finishing up present time, Aleena started complaining that her heart was hurting. And she was bending over holding her heart. It kind of made me nervous for a minute. We found a tums and gave her and about 15 minutes later while we were getting shoes and coats on, she said she had to go poop. When she cam out of the bathroom she said "That was definitely the problem." I just crack up every time she talks like such a big girl.

Aleena insisted on wearing this dress. It doesn't look too bad in the picture but it is quite a used dress. It is her very favorite, and she has it on at least once a day. I figured it was her birthday, what the heck.

Savanna's final game

Savanna had her last soccer game of the season this past weekend. I was at Super Saturday so I had to miss it. She said it was a great game. They won 5-1 and she scored twice(of course she did, I was gone). I think her team will still be practicing because they are going to a tournament the first part of November(Brrr) and want to stay in shape.

Hallie and Jase both had games this week end also. Hallie had one Friday night. It was a great game(I need to come up with some new adjectives). It was perfect weather.
Jase had one Saturday morning, which I missed. Brad said he did great. I can't remember if he scored, but I think they lost that game.
Then Hallie had a make-up game Saturday evening.
Hallie and Jase only have one more weekend of games, and then things will settle down during the evening practice times. Hopefully the weather will stay nice for one more weekend.

Halloween/Fall Decorations

A friend wanted to see some of the decorations around my house, so I took some pictures today. I took pictures of most of my Halloween/Fall ones. I really need to do some more. Most of the painted wood projects, I have cut out and built, but the design is from a book or something I have seen.

This one is on my fireplace. He is about 3 feet tall. The pattern only has him about 12" tall, but I changed the pattern to be a bigger piece.

This little witch is so unique. She has such a unique face with the long cheeks and mouth. She sits on the edge of my fireplace and is about 12" from toe to head. I am noticing there is a lego in the picture, it makes her hand look funny.

This is my goody holder. My sweet mom actually painted this one for me as a gift, but I have done him before. He is really fun. Aleena discovered there were treats in it while I was taking the picture. He doesn't stay full very long. I really like filling it with those candy corn taffy. They are yummy, plus the colors really match. I started these in hopes of doing one for each month, but I only have October, November & December.

He is hanging right outside my front door. This scarecrow turned out way better than expected. Brad had brought home some old, old wood siding from a house that he was working on, and the siding had so much character to it, so I took this pattern and painted with a real see through effect and cut the siding out in the shape of a pumpkin. I have lots of the wood left and have lots of ideas to put on it. Not much to say about this one. I saw this pattern and liked him, so I tried it. I like the crackle effect on the saying board, it gives it kind of an antique look.

In my back hall way, I wanted somewhere for the kids to hang coats, and put backpacks and papers, so last year, I made these magnet boards and coat hooks. It has really kept things more organized. Last year for Super Saturday I taught this magnet board class. I ended up making 80 of them. AAAUUUGGH. The magnet boards just have paper and mod podge on them, and the coat hooks are just an old 2x4 I had around that I painted and then I stamped there name on it with permanent ink.

A lot of my projects are done with a "use what I got" method in mind. I just figure why go out and buy new when you probably have a lot of stuff just sitting around. Someday when my kids are a bit more self reliant, I would love to turn old junkie things into treasures and make a bit of money at it.