Missionaries and The First of Three Parades...

On Thursday we had the Missionaries over for dinner. We decided to serve a Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, gravy, Stuffing, Beets, rolls, a spinach salad and Apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Why would a crazy pregnant lady with Gestational diabetes do this to herself? I don't know... all I could eat was the Turkey and Spinach salad and one scoop of potatoes. Thank goodness our friends The Kennedy's minus Nate joined us, so that we didn't end up having weeks and weeks worth of leftovers. ;-) For some reason we got a chuckle out of one of the Elder's who is from Samoa wearing a stocking cap.... he just had that look like he is really enjoying the cold. He thinks all of this snow and cold is fun. I guess I can understand why...

I think we really are starting to get into the idea of living near the Halloween Capital of the World... We went to the night time parade in Anoka last night. The first parade of three. On Thursday there is another one and again the longest parade ever will be on Halloween. (but worth it) We have been here for 3 years and haven't hit this parade and now I am glad we went. It was really NEAT, the girls loved it! I think we all did.

You have to get there early to get a good spot and thanks to the Seamans, who set up chairs for us all, we got a great spot! Benjy wasn't too excited since, again, he missed the last half of the 4th quarter of his Notre Dame Game. Last week he missed it for the Fall Festival and he is calculating missing it again next week for Halloween.

Kaydree can never get her fill of babies. We shall see if this changes when her little brother is born.

The Kennedy's were so sweet they picked up pizza for everyone. Kaydree opted for her favorite (Subway) with me, maybe out of sympathy. I love pizza, I can't tell you how many times I have listed pizza as my favorite food and now I can't seem to tolerate it with my blood sugars. Guess what my celebration dinner will be when I get home after the baby is born?????

Little Norin was so cute. It was a little chilly but I was actually hot sitting there with a winter coat on.

Everyone seemed to dig out their warm costumes.

I am impressed that the Kennedy's and the Daileys made it to this Parade in their first year living near the Halloween Capital of the World!

I wish I could have gotten more pictures of some of the floats..they were so neat, but for some reason they turned out blurry or dark.

After Benjy found out that Notre Dame had won, he seemed to enjoy it more.

We were all so thankful that it turned out to be a great night..the weather was perfect and the Parade was really neat!

2009 Fall Festival

We live in Ramsey, however we belong to the Anoka Ward and Anoka is...The Halloween Capital of The World! Benjy has always loved his Hill Billy Teeth and lost them a couple of years ago, so I made sure he had a pair for this Halloween. He found some of the girl's stuff that they weren't wearing and threw it together. I think he was a cross between a creepy Wendy's Girl, Pippi Longstocking and Little Red Riding Hood?

Here is the baby bump picture some of you have been requesting.

Kaydree just loves inviting some of her friends to the Fall Festival. I tell you, I don't remember being that giggly as a child? Maybe I was...but these girls sure do have a GREAT time together.

Karsyn invited her friend, Elizabeth, but she was sick and couldn't make it, so thank goodness at the last minute her friend from Kindergarten and neighbor, Jayden could come. Look at the height difference between these two girls....

I heard there were at least 20 different types of chili to choose from! I love chili and it doesn't hike up my blood sugar and they were YUMMY! I think the chili cook off is one of my favorite parts of the Fall Festival. I used some of my parent's canned Tomato juice and it was so tasty... maybe I am biased? Some of the kids passed and went for the hotdogs.

I think Kaydree had a smile on her face the entire time. She is a diva with funky hair. We might paint it with hair spray paint for Halloween. Everyone kept asking her is she was and OLD diva?

Kaydree has finally caught up to some of her friends after having a huge growth spurt this summer!

The girls loved the musical walk and won coloring books.

What a cute little couple. They were so good with the little ones and a huge help!

I am always amazed at the costumes that Jessica makes. Unbelievable!

The goofs.

The cutest little family! Two princess' and a lady bug! Nate was a skeleton, but was off chatting with the guys when this picture was taken.

The spiciest chili went to Andy, hands down....I didn't try it with pregnancy reflux, but Benjy said is was soooo good!

The start of Trunk-0r-Treating.

The dog and feet had the little ones wondering .

Kaydree's friends loved the "spooky" lights. The little ones liked the cute trunks.

Some even hid in their trunks...Don't try this at home!

I thought is was really fun to see everyone decorate so differently.

Would you let your child take candy from this guy? Benjy was so excited to hand out candy..

What a great activity for the whole family. Our girls were so excited all day long for the Fall Festival to start. Benjy even missed the last 20 minutes of his Notre Dame Game to go...Thank you to all of those who made it possible.

A Birthday at Benihanas

Today we met my cousin, Samantha, her husband (Glenn) and daughter (Belle) and my Aunt Karen and Uncle Doug for lunch, since it was Sam's Birthday. They invited us to join them at Benihanas. Benjy and I had never been there, but we have been wanting to go.

It is very entertaining as they cook the meal in front of you.

Karsyn was mesmerized watching the chef. I knew there wasn't a lot on the menu that she would eat, but she enjoyed the entertainment. She did devour the steak and chicken, she is our carnivore.

Kaydree and Belle both ordered Steak and Chicken and had shrimp for appetizers. Kaydree really liked the food!
They thought the little volcano made out of fried onions was so cool!
Samantha got her ice cream with a candle on top as they sang Happy Birthday in English and Japanese.
The group minus the pregnant lady who conveniently gets behind the camera as much as possible. We thought the food was excellent!

My Dad is a Yo-Yo (Lawyer)

I had a doctor's appointment today so Karsyn got to go spend some time with her dad at his office. It just happened to be a theme day for college football and a Birthday Celebration. Karsyn thinks that it is a fun snack day at Dad's Work, everyday. In fact she wants to skip school tomorrow to go to work with Benjy. At one point in time, when Benjy was on the phone with a client, Benjy's secretary took her to the board room full of 30 other attorneys. Of course she loved being the center of attention. When they got home he asked Karsyn what she thought about what he does for a job and here was her response:

By the way at the end she says, "You can rock the world." We aren't quite sure that means.?

An On-going Domestic Dispute

The other night Benjy and I sat watching the show, Hoarders. He said to me, "Isn't it funny how, here we sit after 10 years of marriage, with another little one on the way, the girls are in bed and we are excited to watch a show about people hoarding." When we first started watching the show, I could see the anxiety building in Benjy as he watched it. Benjy's first priority with keeping a clean house is, "his floors," as he calls them. Second on his list would be the elimination of clutter. He considers most things to be clutter, decorations that sit around, especially. Benjy called me last week and said that he felt like a psychologist with one of his clients that he had been working with for a year. He said, "It just dawned on me after watching hoarders, that this person was a hoarder. So I used some of the logic that we have watched on hoarders and I think that it helped." Sometimes as we watch the show we enjoy bantering back and forth about which one of us is more of a hoarder. Then we would start naming the things that the other hoarded. He thinks I hoard paper work and junk mail that needs to be sorted through. I called him the t-shirt hoarder until today....I have decided I get to add another item to his list....TIES!

For years we struggle with what I call the, "TIE ISSUE." Benjy likes to leave his ties, tied so that he can just slip them on, without having to tie them every time. Which is fine for a little while, however what happens, which drives me crazy is, the tie starts to turn over. So I am constantly flipping his tie back around. I also think the top starts looking very thin, the knot too small and too tight. He also seems to have a hard time getting to his ties because they start to stack on top of each other. (see above picture, right?) So about every couple of months, I untie them, iron them and hang them in a color coordinated way. Benjy is not happy and definitely doesn't feel very thankful that his sweet little wife does this for him. ;-)So why did I feel the need to do this process of reorganizing and ironing this morning? On Saturday I was running to look for a dress for Kaydree, so I asked Benjy, "Do you need anything, like jeans?" He of course said, "I need some ties." Now... a little background. Whenever my family asks him what he would like for Christmas or for his Birthday, his reply always is, "dress shirts and ties." So on Saturday I went into the closet and said, "I don't think you need anymore ties, you just can't see half of your ties, how about some jeans, you only wear 2 pairs of jeans." He then must have gotten hurt feelings because when I called him from the store to see exactly what size neck I should get he informed me that he didn't NEED anymore ties. (Sarcastically)

Now Benjy is someone who really doesn't ever spend money... on himself, hobbies, clothes or anything, so I felt kind of bad that I reacted to his need for a new tie. So I bought him one which I am not sure he likes... however he just hit his 35th tie in his little collection. Maybe after he reads this blog, he will have time to adjust to the straightening of this little collection before he gets home tonight?

P.S. I turned on the comment section just for you, Dear, in case you felt the need to have a rebuttal to this post? Keep in mind that I love you!