Hallween 2010

Halloween Parade at the Elementary school. Sam was a nice witch.
Derrick a Cowboy and KayDee a pink Tinker Bell.Samantha's class did donuts on a string and made a big icing mess on the floor. I asked the teacher how she gets it out and she said she didn't know since this was the first year she did it.
KayDee and her preschool teachers. They did dry ice bubbles that were really cool!We trick or treated at the High School Friday afternoon and also went to our bank for some fun.
Then we went trick or treating on Saturday and then went to the park for the town party. They had a blow up house this year which was especially fun.

Autumn

DISNEYLAND!

We did it and we never thought we would get there. Our finances have always been tight but this year we decided we were going no matter what, especially since I promised Samantha we would go when KayDee was 4 yrs old. We set out to make some money. The kids worked in the neighbor's garden all summer to contribute. We sold pecans from our tree, did seed packets for our other neighbor and even sold some fruit from our trees. We earned almost half the amount we needed which was impressive considering the price of tickets! We told my parents we were planning to go and we invited them to go with us. They planned on taking us on a vacation and so we were able to go and have a great time with them. They went to Disneyland with us for the first day and then had some meetings for my Dad's business the next 2 days.We enjoyed the Adventures side of Disneyland first and Sam and Derrick loved Soaring Over California. All three loved the Bug's Life rides and then we went on The Tower of Terror. Samantha still claims it is her favorite ride. I don't think Derrick knew what he got himself into. We made our way around and we got to the big Mickey Farris Wheel and we got on a moving seat. It was the longest, scariest, devastatingly, helpless ride the kids thought they had gone on. There were almost tears of terror as we rolled backwards in an oval shape. Luckily my mom was there to hug and hold the kids with me until the ride finally let us off! Who knew a ferris wheel could be so terrifying?!We continued on and decided to skip the roller coasters since the wheel had taken all their courage. The kids enjoyed the Toy Story soldier program going on the street. They were bossed around by the green men telling them to freeze like a toy. Very entertaining.We went to the Resort side of Disneyland at the end of the day and did we get a reaction from KayDee as we came to the castle. She was prancing and galloping to each of us to make sure we knew the castle was right there. "There it is! We found it!" It was really a magical moment for her. As we continued walking around observing the long lines, we decided to head back to the hotel for dinner and go back early the next day.We went the second day by ourselves and were able to do everything we wanted to do before it started pouring rain. It's a Small World, driving cars, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribean and of course we visited the Princesses and Fairies. KayDee saw Belle first and she asked if KayDee was a princess and she said yes. Then Belle asked if Sam and Derrick were her servants and she said yes. It was so cute. She told them to take care of their Beast when they left. Samantha loved that Arial asked if they swam there and to look out for sharks. We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride which everyone enjoyed except for KayDee. Once she saw Zurg she was hiding, crunched up, shaking next to our feet for the rest of the ride. Derrick and Kevin scored pretty high! It rained on and off throughout the day and we decided to shop for our souvenirs at the end of the day and the rain forced us into a store at about 4:30pm. We had window shopped throughout the day and were able to find the items the kids had seen and wanted. Derrick ended up with action figures from Toy Story, and the girls each got a large Minnie Mouse doll. Samantha's was a pink baby Minnie with a blanket and KayDee found a red Minnie.
We decided to head back to the hotel and my parents watched a movie with the kids while Kevin and I sat in the hot tub. We left for home on day 3 and stopped at Calico Ghost Town. It was a fun stop even with their not so classy Halloween decorations on the old carriages and buildings.
It was a great vacation and we are grateful my parents could join us and help us get there!

Samantha's 3rd Grade Picture

I helped on picture day and they gave me a free package. Since I bought picture packages for Samantha for kindergarten and 1st grade, I figured I should use the package for Derrick this time. Samantha was happy since she got to choose her background in our yard. I enjoy taking their pictures and we had a time trying to keep Daisy out of it! At least the smiles were real because of the dog!
She would want me to mention that she made the flower clip at Activity Days. She is such a fun girl!

I finished the Marathon but didn't start it

This year my sister Diane ran the marathon with her friend. My sister in law Cheris ran it again and made good time. We saw her at the beginning but weren't fast enough for a photo and missed her at the end. We barely saw Diane and she ran over and stopped for a picture. Her legs cramped pretty bad for the end of the marathon and we were a little worried since the time was getting past what was average for her. Her friend ended up running ahead and we saw Diane alone come around the corner wishing for water (which we didn't have unfortunately). Her boys, my kids and I got up and ran with her the last few blocks to encourage her. I can say that I finished a marathon, but I didn't start it! I was glad we could be there for her. You never know how it is going to go when you run 26 miles and we are just grateful she was safe and able to finish. Way to go Cheris and Diane. Running a marathon is always a great accomplishment!

Scruff

Kevin got sick of shaving, not that he has to shave as often as other men, but still he was tired of it. This is about 3-4 weeks of growth. Not bad and pretty patchy. It has improved over the years.
I don't mind the scruff look every once in a while but I don't like kissing the scruff look. He decided he wanted more kisses, so he shaved it off for that benefit. We had to document the scruff with a photo.

Daddy Daughter Camp

Since Kevin takes Derrick on the Father and Son camp out, he really wanted to take the girls on one too, especially since he loves camping. Derrick stayed home with me and we watched a movie and he ended up with a fever that night. He recovered the next day, fortunately. I don't sleep well without Kevin anyways...
The girls had a great time with dad sleeping in the back of the truck with the carpet kit. That's why Kevin has a carpet kit and it was great to see how pleased all of them were. They had to have hot chocolate in the morning to make it more special. I am just grateful that my husband wants to do fun things with our children and puts the effort in. I am really blessed to have a partner who cares about the important things in life!

2nd Subway Hike

All we had to do was call Wade and he set the whole thing up. We had to go during the week since it takes 3 months to get a permit for the weekend. We chose Thursday and tried to invite as many people we knew could possibly go. We ended up going with 6 in our group. It went a lot faster since we didn't have to wait so long to go through the hard spots. It was really a great hike and although the water was COLD, I was able to tolerate it better since I knew what I was in for. We found out from one of our friends that there is a hike that is similar to the Subway but you don't need a permit. We will have to do that and invite more people on a better day. I can't wait until the kids are big enough to go with us!!!

Derrick's First Tooth

Derrick is so excited! He lost his first tooth! It was wiggly and then it came out the next day. How's that for instant gratification! The tooth fairy forgot to come (she was BUSY) but remembered the next day and planted it beforehand to make sure it happened. Derrick went to bed and was reading his book for 30 minutes and reached under his pillow and found the money. He was so pleased that he said, "I was just reading and the tooth fairy came and I didn't even know!" We just giggled...

KayDee's in Preschool

The kids school opened a preschool this year and made it affordable! Yeah! KayDee goes to preschool twice a week and it is 3 hours!!! She loves it and is doing so well. She has two teachers, Teacher Marney and Teacher Sarah. I love that she has something productive to do during the week instead of being home in silence with me. She also started the music class and really likes being BIG!
KayDee and I try to do some fun stuff together and she needs to enjoy what the other kids got to do when they were four. We went to the splash pad one day after her preschool to have lunch and play. We pass it on the way to the school so it is always a topic of conversation. We finally made the splash pad happen.

Motorcycle Project

Kevin is working on a motorcycle so we can be more efficient with gas. It is definitely a project. We have requested a title and received it in a month (instead of the 60 days) and he has it running and is starting the painting. Maybe it will be ready by spring...

Kevin vs Walker Mower

Laub Reunion

The kids enjoyed the regular reunion items, barrel train, horse riding, playing on the playground.






Kevin off-roaded with a number of people including his dad, who had a great time in the truck Kevin built. The first off-road run both Milt and Kevin's trucks got stuck. Kevin aired down the tires and went to rescue Milt. At the end of the run Kevin's truck stopped and Milt had to pull him back. I told Milt to rub it in since Kevin rarely gets stuck.

First Day of School

BIG Ear

One Sunday, Derrick just woke up with his ear swollen and poking out more than normal. I touched it all over for pain and checked for bug bites or cuts. Nothing. It felt spongy and thick. Since I didn't think it was an allergy, I gave him motrin. We went to Kevin's cousin's farewell that day and the ear didn't change until the medicine wore off and then got even bigger. Next we tried benedryl. The ear continued to swell with that medication and so we tried some clay to see if the infection could be drawn out. Still, nothing. This was concerning.
We drove home late but luckily our doctor's office has night clinic hours. The doctor examined the ear and declared it had to be celluitis of the ear. He said he had seen a few cases in his career where the ears had actually progressed to blisters or even staff infections. He said it was all on the exterior of the ear and the interior was fine (which was my main concern). He gave him amoxicilan and said to call if his ear got worse. The medication worked like a charm and Derrick's ear was back to normal by the time school started on Wednesday. We feel blessed that we took him in early, so he didn't have any of those bad progressions of his ear. I still can't believe that it was never painful for him. It was definitely an unusual swelling of the ear.

Fake Finger Nails + Army Set

After the kids had helped with that garden for the summer, I told them we could go to the store and get something special for them. The girls picked out fake finger nails. This was our first experience with fake nails and luckily my sister LeAnn called in the middle of trying to put them on. LeAnn is the professional and gave some really great tips. I would never have thought to just cut them to the size and shape of each nail. I would have been content to have them oversized and popping off every now and then. I trimmed down each nail, especially for KayDee and we ended up super gluing them on. I was skeptical if the girls would even want them on for a long time but they really liked them and kept them on for days until the glue slowly wore off and a few started popping off. We had to take them off after a week since we were going swimming. I didn't think the pool would want random fingernails floating around. I was very pleased at how well the fake finger nails turned out. Derrick had played with an army set at Rachel and Justin's and had been waiting for an opportunity to get a set of his own. He jumped at this opportunity and we set out to find an army set he had in mind. We looked at the dollar store and Family Dollar and I really was surprised they didn't have sets. We went to Walmart and there was a $3 set but didn't have a tank. We had to make due with what we could find. Luckily his dad saved the day and had a tank for him from his old toys.

Primary Pioneers

We went to the primary activity this summer and the 2nd councilor showed the kids how to spin thread. She actually has a degree for it. The kids had so much fun trying to do it with the drop spindles and then learned how hard it was to use the spinning wheel. Then they made ice cream in zip lock bags. KayDee huddled beside me for most of the time but was eager to push her bag around to make the ice cream. She ate hers to the last drop but Sam and Derrick had dripped too much salt in theirs after their first couple bites. We love primary activities!

Weeding

This summer we spent a lot of time weeding. The kids are in a music class our neighbor provides and allows us to work for her to pay for it, which has been a great blessing. We weeded their garden while they were gone to the Nauvoo pagent for 8 weeks during the summer. It was a big garden and a lot of work (maybe an acre). Toward the end of the summer, their young cat had kittens in this barrel. The cat hasn't quite figured out how to take care of her kittens so they did end up dying (more like disappearing) but it was still fun to see. We were able to pay for Samantha and Derrick's lessons for the year and about half of KayDee's. We feel so blessed from our neighbor's generosity. I just found out that they are selling food from the garden now since there was so much and have already earned over $200 with more to go. I thought that was great!