Happy Halloween!

The kids were excited from the moment they woke up this morning and it continued all day. Everyone is finally resting peacefully in bed with sweet candy bar dreams dancing through their heads. Halloween is always fun but a bit chaotic trying to get everywhere that we need to go and seeing everyone that we need to see. Luckily most of the family is close by but poor Annie was dragging at 7 never mind at 9 when we were finally home! Remember that you all ask for pictures - some might say that 80 is excessive in one night but the kids are cute - what can I say?

We had trouble picking a costume for Peter and finally ended up with a Storm Tropper costume. He loved it and that was what was important but next year I think I'll get a little bit earlier start on finding one!
Molly girl - our little veterinarian! She looked so Cute!

SISTERS!

Annie grasped her little Elmo bucket in her hand and refused to let it go!

The kids clowning around before we headed to Grammy and Papa's house for pizza!

Our little Elmo!

From every angle....

Our sweet girl - check out the bruises on her cheek!

Bob and the kids - how cute are they?

Every once in a while I am just blown away by how gorgeous my kids are - look at those smiles!

Peter and Annie - ready for some trick or treating!

Molly and Peter are ready to go!

I'm always worried that the kids will think that I was never around since i'm not in any pictures - thus my bad hair day documented - not like anyone will look at me with that beautiful Elmo in my arms!

Introducing Hannah Montana - the cutest one I've ever seen!

Tyler was a joker - very cute!

Our little pumpkin!

Grammy, Papa and the grandkids - how cute are those kids!

The kids having fun with Grammy and Papa!

Grammy passing out candy!

The girls waiting for Papa to take them trick or treating!

Peter, Molly and Abby playing around outside before they went out with papa to trick or treat!

Papa and Peter!

Annie Bananie starting to look really tired!

Tyler loves to hold Annie - how cute are they?

Grammy and Papa with the kids!

Kk got home just in time to see all the kids dressed up!

Annie in her ride ready to go trick or treating with the big kids!

The boys hanging out waiting for Papa!

Look how great Auntie Kate looks now that she has no gallbladder - amazing what removing an infected organ will do for the body! Peter was ready to crash at this point but was up for a little snuggle from Auntie Kake!

My beautiful godmother, goddaughter and daughter!

The girls - Annie looking like she wants to drop on the spot!

We also stopped in to see Grandma lena - uncle Joe's grandmother. The kids love seeing the Laurito's!

Auntie Cathy is in Las Vegas celebrating Halloween with Luke, Molly and Kate but Auntie LuAnn was happy to see us at her door trick or treating! She always gets the kids special treats and they love it.

So Halloween is over and now we move onto raking leaves, setting the clocks back and getting ready for the new baby! Auntie Beth is coming in less than a week and the baby will be here in less than two - yikes I have a lot of work to do!

GNM - ILY!

For Auntie Beth

I'm not positive on those children that don't belong to me but as far as my little cherubs go we were less than inventive about Halloween costumes this year - I'm 9 months pregnant- cut me some slack! Annie is Elmo, Molly Doll is a vetrinarian and Peter is a Star Wars Storm trooper. I believe that Tyler is a joker (from a deck of playing cards), Abby is the one and only Hannah Montana and Katie is a pumpkin - how perfect with her recent plumpness! Julia is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and I am going as Moby Dick for obvious reasons! So now Auntie Beth can daydream about the little monkeys running around the neighborhood in their costumes and I promise to post pictures ASAP after the big night.

GNM - ILY!

What happens in the Harding House before school!

Morning seems to come very quickly in our house and every morning is a feat if we get everyone out of the house without tears and fully clothed. That being said - there are also some really fun times in the morning - like when Peter starts doing impressions of Bob dancing or Molly imitates Grammy's voice when telling Annie to eat her breakfast! Peter's comment this morning out of the blue was "Hey, is Papa in Haiti again or did he just forget about us?" Mind you he saw Papa all day on Monday!

We had a baby check today with the Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist and we are released from care - Alleluiah! Baby Bethie looks adorable - definitley has some hair (alot according to the tech) and heart, kidneys and placenta are still looking healthy and wonderful! I have three non stress tests and bloodwork this Friday and next Friday to make sure that my health is in order and we are a go for November 11th! I can not wait to meet this little chickie - she certainly has kept us on our toes. I remember thinking that all of this would never end when I was pregnant with Annie but Bob always reminds me that exactly 12 hours after her birth I commented that the pregnancy was not bad at all and that I could do it again - how prophetic!

I was trying to get some pictures this morning of my beautiful daughter's face with all of the bruises and cuts on it from Grammy and Papa's house on Monday. According to Peter (who was home sick and stayed with them, also) Papa let Annie fall out of the chair and she screamed her head off! You can't really see all of the bruising and everything and it wasn't as bad as my mom led me to believe but she does look like a little orphan! My mom called to warn me - not sure if she thought I was going to be upset or not but come on - I have a right to be a little pissy right? I mean my parents only take Annie (and any other sicklings) once or twice a week all year so that I can work and not pay daycare - then they feed her, play with her , hug her, kiss her and (horror of horrors) take her outside to play with her cousins risking her perfect little face!

My gorgeous girl - still not cooperating in showing all of her bruises from Grammy and Papa's house! She usually just hangs out in the morning watching the kids dance and play and then she waves goodbye to the bus and grabs her blankie and binkie and heads off to bed!
This is Pete doing some air guitar to the HSM3 soundtrack this morning before school! He was having such a blast and even offered to waltz with me - another scene in the movie! My goddaughter Julia didn't see HSM3 this weekend and I was going to offer to take her this weekend but it sounds like Auntie Beth already has some plans for seeing the movie with the girls while visiting- and lets face it - who is more fun - the 9 month pregnant auntie who packs her own candy and popcorn or the cool LA auntie who undoubtedly has stored away some cool HSM facts and lives where the movie was filmed!

BTW - Peter is apparently doing some campaigning for McCain at school - not sure when he got into politics or how McCain became his man but he did comment that he likes him because "He is older than Papa so he knows even more than Papa does." LOve this kid!

Moly girl did some dancing but she had an important request to take care of first. Mrs. Nelson saw her placemats on the blog and requested one of her own. Molly drew her a beautiful butterfly and put her name and "I love you" on it - she was so proud and excited to give it to her today. Apparently Mrs. Nelson told Molly that she is going to put plastic over it and use it for lunch! Molly is so upset about not spending Halloween with Mrs. Nelson - we have had some tears this week because she is going to miss Halloween and the Polar Express with Mrs. Nelson - she "hates being too old for kindergarten!" What a sweetie.

Halloween costumes are ready to go for Friday and the kids can't wait! Grammy is providing a nutritious meal for pre-trick or treating and Mommy is ready for some CANDY!

GNM - ILY!

Wow - I have either gotten busier or lazier because I am finding it very difficult to keep up with the blog. Sunday morning I woke up to my creative daughter's handy work as we sat down to breakfast. Molly had made each of us a placemat for the table - it was very cute except for the fact that she woke up at 6 a.m. to do it!

This was Daddy's - he got a picture of Molly and Abby.
Peter got his name on his because he is very proud of his name, according to Molly.

Annie's was very simple because Molly did not want her to be distracted while she was eating.

When I asked Molly why there was a big sad rain cloud in the sky on mine she said that it was because "I always know how to predict the rain". I have no idea what that means or if she even knows what it means but I thought it was cute. Molly could spend her whole life coloring if we let her.

This is Molly's - notice the picture of her playing the drums and her little title "Molly Rocks! She also left us each a piece of gum at our spot - we later found out that instead of using the gum that Auntie Beth sent to her she used the gum that Auntie Beth sent to Peter so she could save hers.Banana tried on her "Big Sister" T-shirt on Sunday and loved it - or the attention she got from wearing it! Is it possible that this tiny little girl is going to be truly be a big sister?

Molly and Annie - Molly was so proud of Annie in her Big Sister shirt - now we need to make some shirts for the big kids - Molly still wears the one she made when Annie was born all the time.Does everyone know what this weekend was? The opening of High School Musical Three. Disney was pretty smart as far as I'm concerned after debuting the first 2 movies on the Disney Channel free of charge they put this one out in theaters and judging from our crowd - they did pretty well. Karla and I planned a special afternoon viewing for the big kids while the Dad's stayed home and watched football.

As a special treat we got the HSM3 soundtrack for the kids before the movie - we, naturally, needed to learn the songs before we went to see it! We also got one for Abby and Tyler because my claim to fame with Abby is that I have given her all of her HSM CD's - I'll take my affirmation where I can get it! This is Daddy, Molly and Annie dancing to "Scream" from the soundtrack - Molly could not sit still because she was so excited!Ready for HSM3 and all decked out and ready to go!

The boys waiting for the moving to start.

My review of the movie is based on the reaction that the kids had. I enjoyed the movie - there is nothing like some teen angst and big show numbers to increase your heartrate. The boys were fairly quiet during the movie - they laughed, covered their eyes during the big kiss scene, talked incessantly about all butt references, and enjoyed the movie enough so that they never asked for food, drinks or bathroom breaks.

One side note - for all of you who do not believe that I am turning into my mother - even I'm convinced that I am at this point. No - I didn't make my own popcorn and put it in little ziplock baggies for each child to have during the movie - Auntie Kate and my mom used to do that - I'm pretty sure my mom sent me off to more than one movie with a boyfriend in high school with a baggie of popcorn. I did, however, stop at CVS and buy 4/99 cents Twizzlers for the kids to eat because I am too cheap to buy movie snacks.

Now the girls are the real test and they didn't just like the movie - they went crazy loving the movie. Every time I looked over at Molly and Abby they were glued ot the screen beaming!Molly recited every single outfit that Gabriella wore the minute we got in the car and then wondered about what kind of curling iron she uses to get those curls in the bottom of her hair.

During the movie the girls laughed, giggled, told secrets and watched what the big girls behind them were doing and copied them. They sang the songs, danced and chattered to each other about everything they saw!

In all honesty the movie was hokey and corney but clean and in good fun! Watching my daughter and listening to her incessant chatter about the movie since then makes it all worth while. What a fun kid I have and what a lucky Mom I am!

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow for another non-stress test and fluid check and we see the Maternal and Fetal Medicine Specialist on Wednesday - my hope is that when the doc gets a look at me and my ENORMOUS, GARGANTUAN belly they'll decide to deliver me early. In all honesty they are thinking that the baby now weighs around 10 pounds so Bob and I are fully expecting the little cherub to come out and get a job to support herself!

GNM - ILY!