The Longest Day of the Year!

Without a doubt Halloween is the longest day of the year. It's a holiday I have a true love/hate relationship with. I don't want to give it up--I love planning the costumes, making treats, doing the FHE phantom, etc. But, when the day finally arrives and it's all over I'm exhausted and wonder why I put so much effort into a fun, but somewhat meaningless holiday. This year I simplified as much as possible and it was one of our better Halloweens. I used to enjoy making costumes but this year I just bought whatever Other Mother's had on their racks (except for Emma and Jack's costumes which I couldn't resist when I saw them at Gymboree). OK, so I bought Jonah's too, and made Eli's (very easy), but Lily and Anna's were from Other Mothers, ha ha ha (maybe I didn't simplify as much as I thought).

Today was probably my best Halloween yet since the little kids had preschool and I actually had two hours to myself to clean the house and gather up all the things to take to the school for Emma’s party. Jason decided to come to the costume parade today since Eli is in 6th grade and this will be his last year. It is so fun to see the kids and their friends all dressed up.

I can handle Halloween until 3:00 but then I fall apart. Every year we go visit Jason’s parents and trick or treat at their house. It seems like we just get home from school and recover from the class parties, then it’s time to put the costumes on again. It seems like we are always in a hurry. Grandma and grandpa love to see the kids in their costumes and I would just have them come to our house to see them, but my kids love to go to grandma’s. This year our ward had a trunk or treat and it was a lifesaver. It was 28 degrees and we were all freezing. It was so nice to spend a quick 30 minutes and get the kids loaded up with candy. After the trunk or treat Jason took Jonah and a bunch of his friends trick or treating in the neighborhood around the church. Eli was already trick or treating with friends and Emma went with her friend Abbie to hit some more houses. I went and parked the car and waited for her. Anna, Lily and Jack were thrilled to sit in the warm car and eat their candy. I’m not sure how much they ate but it was a lot.

I’m glad it’s over but Emma is already planning her costume for next year.

Anna dressed up as several things today. She kept pulling out dresses from the dressup box. I think she looks so pretty in this Cinderella costume.
Jonah makes such a good Napolean Dynamite, it's scary. Jonah had planned on being a nerd but there were too many accessories to gather up and when I found this costume at Fred Meyer I talked him into being this instead. After all, Napolean is a nerd.
Eli is very clever and loves plays on words. When he saw this costume on Family Fun's website he insisted on dressing up as a "quarter" back. It was very easy and I think it turned out cute.
This was Jack's first Halloween with our family. It's hard to believe that a year ago he was in the orphanage waiting for us to come pick him up. Last Halloween, the orphanage decided to have a Halloween party. They don't celebrate Halloween in China but they made a valiant effort and dressed up Jack as a cowboy. This meant he wore a plaid shirt. I've been waiting to dress him up ever since. He loved the candy since he's normally not allowed to have much. I let him enjoy the day and eat as much as he wanted. He was in heaven and so good today.
Lily was the Little Mermaid and very proud of her pretty self all day. She too loved the trick or treating although she threw several fits when she saw her siblings with different candies than she got. She definitely wants the world to be fair and lets us know it.
Emma as the cowgirl diva. Emma saw this costume in August. The girl plans ahead and wanted to be a cheerleader with all her girlfriends. As soon as she saw this costume she took it off the rack and brought it to me saying, "call all my friends and tell them I'm not going to be a cheerleader anymore." I thought this costume was adorable and easy so I gave in. Since August she has changed her mind several times whenever something else caught her fancy.

This Seat is Reserved

This may sound petty but I feel like our family has earned a reserved spot in the chapel. A couple of months ago our bishop gave a little pep talk during Relief Society about reverence and mentioned our family by name several times. Thanks to our 4 year old and two three year olds we aren't the most reverent family in the ward. I would have liked to hear the bishop say, look at the H. family, 6 kids under the age of 11 and there they are all lined up in a row, attentive and ready to learn. Instead in my head I was saying, "I challenge anyone in this ward to survive a sacrament meeting with these kids." Sacrament meeting is the longest hour of my week, but things are improving. I attribute it to the fact that as we thought about how to improve our reverence we decided to move to the two front benches on the right hand side of the chapel. We sit the three oldest kids on the front row and Jason and I sit behind them with the three youngest. We love sitting there and I would think that the whole ward would notice our vast improvement and realize that those seats are the reason for our success. Since we made our move we have arrived at church early enough to secure our spots. Unfortunately today, due to daylight savings time we had a false sense of security and were a little behind schedule. We were on time to church but not early enough to get our spot. Church starts at 11:45 and we pulled into the parking lot at 11:43. We had to take two cars because I had to visit another ward this afternoon and Jason was behind me. I literally drove 60 MPH the whole way to church. As I drove I instructed Jonah that he was to jump out of the car as soon as I put it in "park" and then run into the church to get our spot. We were just a second too late as I saw another family slip into our spot. We ended up sitting on the very front row in the center which isn't nearly as ideal. The little kids definitely need to be contained behind a bench.

Halloween Party

We really are lucky to have a good group of friends here in our ward. On Saturday Devin and Rebecca had a Halloween party and it was exactly what I needed to get over the blah week I've been having. My favorite costume was Jay's Jack Bauer from one of my favorite shows, 24. It was very original. We ate lots of good food and played mafia which was way fun. That game is so addicting. I could have played a few more rounds.

The kids are so excited for Halloween. They loved seeing Jason and I in our costumes and tomorrow I have to round up all the pieces to their costumes. They have all been wearing them for dress up and I hope everything is still intact. It seems like such a waste to not let them enjoy them before the big day.

Today was a long day with our extra hour but I loved having all the kids in bed by 7:00. We did FHE tonight and Jonah gave the lesson on the first vision. We then watched the Restoration DVD and I was amazed at how still the kids were while watching it. They all loved it, even Jack. Afterwards we watched America's Funniest Videos and Jason made Chocolate Banana Smoothies for the kids. Hopefully it's the start of a great week.

One busy Wednesday


Let me apologize first for the fact that I have yet to figure out how to format my pictures. I don't know if something is messed up in my settings but tomorrow Lucy will have to show me how to do this. Anyway, Yesterday was the day of madness for me as I rushed around doing all the last minute details for our Stake Primary Leadership meeting. No matter how prepared I am (and this is the most I've ever been prepared) there still are a million details to work through. At one point I was quite panicked because I couldn't reach my music leader and I had no idea what we were doing for the opening song. I finally reached her at 3:00 pm and she broke into tears as soon as she heard my voice. It turns out that her pianist was sick and she couldn't find anyone to replace her. Luckily I was able to find someone and we all calmed down. After all, you can't have a primary meeting without a pianist. For a minute I thought I would have to call Lucy but I knew we would have people there who could do it. On Sunday night I went with one of the primary presidents in our stake to visit a less active family with primary children. We had such a GREAT visit. This primary president made the cutest packet with an Article of Faith card, a CTR ring and some CTR stickers. The little girls loved it and felt so special and I thought it was a great idea. I decided to make a packet for all our primary presidents and encourage them to visit a family in their ward. The meeting went great and I was so relieved when it was over. I have had to ignore Jason for about 10 days straight because every night after the kids go to bed I am on the computer working on the meeting. He was as happy as I was that the meeting was over.

Today was jam packed. I don't think the day could have been busier. I literally went from one thing to another. Here's my day:

Wake up at 6:00 am with two kids in bed and one sleeping on the floor covered with a towel for a blanket. I don't know how or when they got there. I was seriously in the deepest, sleep-deprived, induced sleep.

At some point I remembered that today is picture day and immediately order all the kids in the shower so I can do their hair. Yesterday I did all the laundry except for one load that was still in the dryer. For some reason that was where all the best shirts were so I had to dig through the load to find something decent for the kids to wear. Next, I had to dig for the picture order forms.

Take Lily to speech, which only lasts 30 minutes, but I had to drive back home because Jack found a piece of candy in the car and Anna couldn't stand the injustice of it all. There was nothing else to do anyway.

Went to the Children's Museum to meet Carolyn. Anna has been begging to play with Natalie so we met at the Children's Museum. Unfortunately it wasn't enough for Anna and Carolyn was so kind and offered to let Anna come over.

I rushed from the Children's Museum to pick up my babysitter. This is the family that was new in our ward on Sunday. We had them over for Family Home Evening on Monday night and when I found out that the mom home schools I knew I had just struck gold. For years I was spoiled by my niece Christie who was also homeschooled and used to babysit for me once a week. I have now found another home schooling babysitter. I love people who home school for this reason. She did a great job. They moved in just in time since I had a lunch date planned for today for a couple of weeks and I wasn't quite sure how I was going to swing it.

Went to the school to have lunch with Emma. She was very cute and glad I came to see her.

Then I went to my REAL lunch. Liz, Sarah and I have been doing lunch for years. When Eli was in Kindergarten we would meet every Monday at McDonalds and let the kids eat and play in the play structure. I hate McDonalds but the company was good. Liz and Sarah are both in a totally different phase of life than me. Both of them have three kids and their youngest children are both in 4th grade with Jonah. In other words, they have a lot more freedom than I do. But we have managed to stay friends and we try and meet for our birthdays. We always go to Luna and we always order the same thing. The Luna Sampler plate which comes with soup, salad and a sandwich. Then we order coconut cake for dessert. We always eat way too much and say too much but it's fun to catch up with them. Today we were celebrating my birthday which is July 23. Like I said, they have a lot more freedom than I do.

After lunch I went and picked up Anna, dropped off the babysitter and came home for just a few minutes before it was time to take Emma to her last soccer practice. Hooray! By this time in the soccer season I am thrilled it's over. Although, I must say I think we've had the best fall I can remember. I think the majority of the games had great weather. The girls had so much fun playing in the fall leaves at the end of practice.

Tonight was Math night for Mrs. Harvey's class. Emma has been excited about this for a week and keeps coming home with fun math games for us to play. Today she informed me that she wanted only Jason and I to go to the math night with her. That meant that I had to kick it into high gear. After my yummy lunch at Luna I was in no mood to make dinner so I poured the kids a bowl of cereal and called it good. I hurried and got the little kids in bed and left Eli and Jonah to babysit. Eli had Mrs. Harvey for 2nd grade and still remembers the math night. He really wanted to come. I think the best part about Mrs. Harvey is how she teaches math. She has all these fun games to help the kids master their math facts using face cards. They are so fun, even for adults. We played a couple tonight and then she gave us a pakcet of games and a deck of cards. It's something extra she does for her kids and after putting on my big meeting last night I really appreciate the effort she went to for the kids in her class.

I'm so glad that today is over. I'm off to bed to read "The Memory Keeper's Daughter." It's our book group book this month. I haven't been able to read it yet because I knew I'd be hooked so I'm excited to get going on it.

I had to take a few days break from blogging thanks to the fact that I had to speak in church today and it took all my writing energy to prepare a talk. As soon as I sat down after the talk I felt instant relief. I am so happy I only have to do that once every few years.

Here are some highlights of the past week:

HAIRCUTS:

The girls and I finally got our haircuts taken care of. It had been a long time since our stylist moved in August. I've been putting it off because I'm so scared to try someone new but my roots have been bad for a month so I broke down on Friday. She came to our house and cut all the girls hair, plus mine. I thought she did a good job and even if she didn't it's worth it that she will come to me!! The boys were so good and entertained the little kids.

ELI BABYSITS:

I think we are close to being set free from babysitter bondage. Eli babysat, out of absolute necessity on Friday night. We had the evening of the arts (way to go Lucy, best one yet) and did not want to miss it. Eli babysat all summer, but never all the kids and never when the little ones were awake. On Friday I couldn't get the little kids in bed before we left so it was up to Eli. He had all three little kids in bed before 8:30 and I was amazed. Even I can't do that very well. So, it's official, my days of begging girls to babysit are over. Luckily Eli is a homebody so I think I'm in great shape for a few years.

NEW FAMILY IN THE WARD

We have lived in our ward for 8 years and watched family after family move out. Today a new family moved in and Jason was so excited to discover it was a guy who had served in his mission. It was fun to make that connection.

That's about it. I've been consumed by my talk so not much happened around here this weekend. Jason was great and took over for me so I could concentrate and I think he's more relieved than I am that it's over.

Lily's Masterpiece

This is Lily's latest masterpiece. Our walls our covered with these little treasures. I used to get mad and yell but it didn't make a difference. Now I just calmly say to myself that we can repaint everything in 5 years when she's outgrown this phase.

Lovely artwork on the inside of Lily's closet door.

Fall Fun!

On Saturday we made our annual trek to Green Bluff to pick out pumpkins. We try and do this every year, but missed last year due to bad soccer schedules and getting ready to pick up Jack from China. This was Jack's first visit to the pumpkin patch and he acted like he was a pro. There are several farms at Green Bluff and we like Harvest House in the fall. They have a great atmosphere and go all out to make it fun for the kids. Eli and Jonah complained about going (they are outgrowing all our fun family traditions) but once we reminded them about the famous pumpkin doughnuts they were ready to go. When we got there the place was packed. There were 3 long lines. One for pumpkin doughnuts, one for pie and one for caramel apples. Jason agreed to stand in the line for the doughnuts and I took the kids to the hay maze. It was so fun. Jack was apprehensive at first but ended up loving it. We were just hanging out in the hay maze when Anna ran into her friend Natalie. We were so excited to see their family. Finally after 45 minutes in line Jason emerged from the doughnut line. They limit your purchase of doughnuts to one dozen, but Jason was able to talk the people in front of him into buying a dozen extra for us so we had plenty for our family and the Zorich's.

Freaky Friday

Yesterday was one of those days where I felt like I was spinning my wheels. I woke up with good intentions of getting lots of things done but ended up doing a lot of driving. I had some Gymbucks from Jason's mom to spend at Gymboree so I drove to the mall while the kids were at preschool. When I got to the counter the lady told me I needed 25.00 more worth of merchandise for my gymbucks redemption but I was out of time to even search for anything because I had to get the kids from school. I rushed back to the school and was four minutes late which is so embarassing since I have three kids that get to wait with the teacher. Back we went to the mall and as I pulled into my parking spot my bumper knicked the bumper of the car next to me. It was so minor that I debated over whether to write a note and called Jason who told me that OF COURSE I should write a note. I rushed into Gymboree with the kids and quickly picked out my additional $25.00 worth of merchandise, only to find out that I really didn't need it. AARRGHH! I came back for nothing. A very expensive trip to the mall when the scratched bumper is taken into account.

After the mall I rushed off to Emma's teddy bear picnic at the school. The kids all had a great time and I planned the Halloween party with the two other moms that are in charge.

Next on my agenda was getting Eli and Jason off on their campout. They left and I made plans with Lucy to go out to dinner. We were going to paint her stairs but she was having some back pains so we opted for dinner at the new PF Changs downtown. I was just getting the kids fed when Jason called to say the the tent poles were not with the tent. Once again I jumped in the car and met him halfway with the tent poles.

Lucy and I had a great time at dinner. Spontaneous plans are so much fun. I am glad we decided to go spur of the moment. It wouldn't have been as much fun if we were anticipating a night out the whole week. We shared a babysitter and he somehow managed to get all the kids in bed. It was a good thing since we had to wait an hour and a half for our table. We spent the time shopping. It was so nice to have a girls night out! If you want to see pictures check out Lucy's blog by clicking on the link on the right of the page.

Group Therapy

I am amazed at how much I have come to depend on my bookgroup. Maybe it's because book group is the only extracurricular activity I have right now.

I've always loved to read, but after I finished college and started having kids reading for pleasure became less of a focus as I became interested in other things. Book group has been great because it motivates me to read more. This month we read Never Let Me Go and it's one of the best books we have read. I liked it because it isn't my typical read. It's science fiction and I found it fascinating and thought provoking. I definitely recommend it.

For me the best thing about book club is the girl talk. I'm a talker and I love to connect with other women. We have such a great group and I've definitely come to depend on them for major debriefing about life. It reminds me of being in college and staying up late with my roommates. We have had so many great discussions and sometimes I wake up the next morning with major regret about the secrets I've divulged or the opinions I've shared. I think we all feel that way to some degree. It's comforting to know there are other people going through the same things I am. Sometimes I sit in my busy house and feel like I'm the only one going through certain things.

This month bookgroup was at my house and I had a great time getting the house and food ready. October was a fun month to host because of the halloween/fall decor. Having so many toddlers at once has made me scale down my holiday decorating but now that the little kids are getting bigger I can put more things out.

The highlights of this months discussions were: the entire book group decided to start blogging and we watched our favorite you tube videos together. Can't wait for November!

Paint it Black! Last week I bought a wooden bench for our family room and painted it black. It turned out so cute that I decided to paint all our wood furniture black. Today I was working on our barstools and Anna wanted to help so badly. She is usually pretty passive so I figured it she was asking repeatedly I might as well give in. She did such a great job and we had a great time painting together. I made her strip down to her undies so she wouldn't ruin her clothes. 

20 Meals in my freezer!!  

Mega Menu Mailer

One of my least favorite household chores is making dinner. It's not that I don't like to cook, it's that I don't like to cook with three toddlers hanging on my leg and three big kids trying to talk to me, ask for help with homework and various other requests.

Even when I didn't have a bunch of kids this was still the dreaded task of my domestic life. Back in the day my friend Betsy and I started a frozen casserole group. There were three of us in the group. Each month we got together, made a menu and each took turns doing the shopping. We took turns hosting our casserole group and always left with several frozen casseroles. We were so innovative that we were even asked to do a homemaking meeting all about our ingenious idea. I am sure that the more mature members of the ward realized that freezer casseroles are disgusting but we thought we were pretty smart mamas. After a few months we (actually, I think it was our husbands) realized that chicken lasagna and chopstick casserole are NASTY and the group came to an abrupt halt and we returned to our staples of grilled cheese sandwiches and Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner.

Then I discovered, through flylady, savingdinner.com: http://www.savingdinner.com/. This site features a program called menu mailer. Basically you subscribe to the service and every week you get a complete menu with a shopping list. This worked off and on for me but I still had the dilemna of how to find the time to fix dinner without losing my mind.

The website recently developed what they call Mega Menu mailer. This is a month's worth of meals prepared in one day. It is so awesome and has truly changed my life. She gives you a shopping list and instructions on how to prepare 20 meals in one sitting. It is a lot of work but worth it for all the time it saves me. Plus my family is so happy when we have a good homecooked meal on the table and we are able to eat together. This has totally improved our scripture study too since we read after dinner, which is hard to do when we are standing around the counter eating pizza.

The Three Amigos!


For some reason I can't figure out how to space my text with my pictures so I'm going to continue my beach trip blog in this entry. Nine years ago Jason and I moved to Spokane and met Tony & Kelly and James & Betsy. Kelly and Jason had gone to high school together and Tony was in Spokane for one year doing a residency. In 2000 James was transferred to the midwest. It's rare to find such great friends and even more rare that three women can be such good friends. Even with the distance between our families we have made great efforts to stay connected. It was a happy day when James was transferred to the Northwest so we established the tradition of meeting at our lake cabin in the summer and at the Oregon Coast in the fall. All the kids look forward to these get togethers. Yesterday I volunteered in Emma's class and her teacher said that Emma had told her that she had a great time at the beach with her cousins. We definitely consider each other family.

We arrived in Portland on Thursday night and headed to the beach the next morning, stopping at James and Betsy's nice new house on the way. We met John Chunliang, their new son from China, who just got home in August. When we got to the house we discovered the key wasn't in the lock box so we had to wait for the property management company to bring it to us. The kids had a great time playing in the sand. It was quite chilly so we were relieved when the key arrived. We settled in quickly and nestled in for the weekend. The big kids had fun playing air hockey, pool and dance dance revolution. After we got the kids in bed we headed down to the beach for a moonlit stroll. The next morning we started the day with some conference viewing and then headed to the beach. The two hour break in between sessions was the perfect amount of time for the kids to play so we headed back to the house to watch the afternoon session. When the guys got back from the Priesthood session we played cards and headed back to the beach for another moonlit stroll. The next morning was conference again. We loved watching conference together and discussing all of our favorite talks. It was the perfect way to spend the weekend. It was over too fast. We drove home on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning it was back to the usual. I miss the beach! Can't wait for next year. 

The Oregon Coast Fall 2006--The Big Boys
Anna

Jack
The Oregon Coast 2006

Since 2002 we have made an annual trip to the beach with our good friends. A lot has changed since that first fall trip. Back then we were three families with 10 kids between us. Now we are 3 families with 15 kids between us, 1African American, and 4 Chinese.

Last year the tradition was replaced with a medical mission trip to China. We missed it so much that we vowed to never miss another year and made up for missing last year by renting our best place yet. A few years ago Jason and I camped out in a room with several of the kids. This year Kelly found a house with 5 bathrooms and enough sleeping spots for 24 people. AWESOME. We each had our own room and the boys slept in a bunk room and the girls also had their own room. It was our best year yet!