all i want for christmas...

My childhood friend Behka has been featured on mormonwoman.org. Check it out here. You will be inspired. love you Behka.

Pumkin Carving

This year we carved a total of 7 pumpkins. It was crazy! And we did pumpkin carving at Pack Meeting and with the Young Women too! So we definitely got our fill of carving this year. And Jessi was even brave enough to put her hand in the pumpkin for the first time. Ethan you may notice, was not interested in pumkins this year. He has only wanted to finish reading "Diary of Wimpy Kid - Dog Days" The kids have been anxiously awaiting our copy we ordered and the 4 older ones have actually been fighting over it- yes, even smacking each other and grabbing it from each other like 2 year olds! We've had to set the timer on the microwave and take turns reading it because they all want to read it so badly. Honestly, it's so nice to see them so excited about reading a book. They have loved the Wimpy Kid series and we are getting excited about the Percy Jackson books too!
Well, now that Halloween is over I am so excited to start the holidays. Last year with being pregnant I really felt like I was just going through the motions and just trying to survive the holidays. I'm really excited to actually enjoy them this year!

A Spooky Surprise....not that spooky

Yesterday as part of our Halloween Day Jessi got a special surprise. A kitten of her own. Some friends in the ward had kittens to find homes for and yes, I was weak, I fell in love with this little blue eyed beauty. Meri has her own cat and I've wanted Jessi to have her own too. So this one is Jessi's. She named her Snowflake. She is getting lots of love from all of us, except from the other cats at our house-there has been some hissing going on in that arena. But I think they are starting to get used to her. Yes, now we have 4 cats - yes, 4! It's ridiculous really. We are officially a wierd cat family now. Not to mention our other pets! I think someday, maybe we'll get a dog for Zachary when he's a little older and after our other pets are in heaven. But the cats will live a long time so they are here to stay for quite awhile. But I've realized I really do love all of them. Even Luke, who I almost got rid of toward the end of my pregnancy with Zac. He was driving me crazy then, but now I'm okay with him again. Anyway, it's wierd how so much of our childhood shapes who we are as adults. As a kid we always had cats and had several litters of kittens that we all loved. Thanks to my mom who was so patient and for letting us love those little kitties and be a part of taking care of them and loving them. It was so fun! And thanks to Shawn for being so nice about having all these kitties!

Halloween was a Hit!

This Halloween was definitely one to remember. We had the Wright Brothers, Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat, a Witch, a Fairy, and a Mummy. We decorated our trunk like a jungle and had the Curious George movie playing and Shawn and Zac handed out candy while I walked around with Meri and Jessi. The big boys walked around trunk-or-treating with friends. After the church trunk-or-treat we went around our neighborhood for awhile. The kids were actually begging to go home - Shawn and I wanted to keep going! I'm so glad I have lots of kids so we can get lots of good candy! Shawn and I are not the classic good parents when it comes to trick-or-treating. While most parents are religiously divi-ing out candy that their kids are allowed to eat each day for the next month, we both believe in the "eat it til it's gone and then we won't have to worry about it anymore theory". So after trick-or-trunking and trick-or-treating we came home and watched Nightmare Before Christmas - kids munching merrily away on their candy. After church we had candy for lunch - and guess what, it's almost gone! Yay! So by tomorrow we'll only have the dum dums left that no one will eat anyway! I have to admit, I love Halloween. I love all the costumes and I love all that delicious candy! On no other night of the year can you walk up to the homes of strangers and they will give you candy for free. Who doesn't love that?

My Little Sisters

A few weeks ago I got to go to Boise to see my little sister Tess - for her baby shower. Her first babe is expected any day now! As an added bonus I got to see one of my other sisters Jandi too! I am feeling so old lately- My little sisters are having babies now! It was such a fun time being with them. And seeing Jandi's little Myles was so fun too! Tess is having a boy so now all 4 of us girls will have little guys born within about a year or so of each other. I'm so happy for Zac to have lots of cousins his age. They'll all be buddies! Krystal, we missed you! Dang it! Man I love my sisters!

Shawn's Birthday

For Shawn's birthday we went to Disneyland for the last time using our year passes. It has been a ton of fun using our passes this year! One question I have is "what is up with people who offer to take picutures for you in front of the Walt Disney statue and then cut off his head?" This is the 2nd time this has happened to us. Don't people know that he is the reason people are lining up to take pictures at this spot????? I loved riding on California Screamin' and Small World - my favorites. Lots of fun memories this year at Disneyland!

A Place of His Own

Zachary made the move to his own room. The piano is now out in the garage and Zac has his own space to sleep. Yay!

Pippa Rock

We lost a dear friend this week. Orion's pet rat Pippa died on Friday. We had a special dinner in her honor and ate sunflower seeds because those were her favorite. She was a friendly rat and a good friend to Orion. Last Halloween she played the part of Scabbers, Ron Weasley's rat- a fun memory. Orion had a few tears and made her a box and a headstone. When I was a kid we loved the Pippa Mouse stories and had a Pippa Rock out in our backyard. Now we have one too.

I love grapes!

Has anyone seen the new Willy Wonka? Well, Zac can sit on his own now and he rolled over from front to back a few times today. Exciting stuff!

The First Day

The middle schooler , the kindergartner, and everyone in between


Everyone had a great day today. Had a few morning jitters and Ethan had the back to school blues. And of course, as anticipated Jessi had her meltdown as I left the school, but when I picked her up she was all smiles. I really feel like we are going to have a great year. The kids said I said that last year too. Maybe I did. And it was a great year last year too!
So, here we go again! Between all the school schedules I'm either dropping off or picking up 5 times every day! But we are starting a car pool soon so that should ease up a bit. And Zac is not to be forgotten (actually Zachary means "God remembered") :) has had a blow out every SINGLE day this week. Yes, up the back, out the legs, etc. Yesterday he even had it dripping from the middle of the car seat! So he topped all his sibs with that one! We were at a friends house and about to leave. Then I noticed yellow goo on their tile that looked an awful lot like baby poo. Yes, it was leaking out the bottom of the car seat! There is NEVER a dull moment at the Teare home. I was sad to see almost all my little friends leaving for school today. It always takes me a few days to adjust to them not being around as much, but that hour between when I dropped Jessi at kinder. and picked Brayton up was oh so quiet. ah, peace and tranquility.

Zachary's first camp out

Okay, I guess we did have a couple of happy moments during the camp out. These are the only 2 pictures I took. It was cold. It was windy. We didn't sleep much, but we survived. See below for full details.

The End of Summer

I have finally posted some of our summer happenings. If you want to read it in order, go down and start with "the summer begins" and work your way up and it will make more sense.

We had a grand summer this year. We spent a lot of time playing with friends and family, working on cub scout stuff, practicing the piano, and just relaxing. I can think of only 2 things that really were REALLY not on my list of favorites. Number one was going to the dentist. Ethan had 3 cavities - I felt so bad for him the day he got his fillings. That same day the girls and I went for a cleaning. Jessi flipped out and had an all out tantrum. PLUS I found out I have 3 cavities and my root canal needs to be completely re-done. And by the way, I HATE going to the dentist anyway. Not my favorite day.

Number 2 on the list was our overnight camping trip. The kids really wanted to fish this year so we went to the lake. Drove around for 30 minutes trying to find a spot to camp - no good spots. So we went to our regular camping park and decided we'd go back to the lake in the morning. It was pretty cold and windy by the time we got there. I was really hungry. And one of the kids started whining, oh so loudly to go home - you guessed it, it was Orion. He carried on for awhile while Shawn and the other boys set up the tent and made a fire. Finally hot dogs were done. Some friends from the ward stopped in to visit us so that was fun. Had smores. After they left it was dark and time for bed. Then the crying really started. Orion, Meri, Jessi, and even Ethan started bawling about going home. Lasted about 30 minutes, felt like hours. Thankfully Zac was calm and so was Brayton. After much carrying on we finally got everyone bedded down. If Shawn hadn't spent so much effort to get the tent up I would've just packed it in and headed for home. Everyone konked out pretty quick except for Ethan and I. He's been going through a really afraid of the dark phase and I always let my imagination run away with me too so every little noise I'm wondering what wild animal has wandered over to our tent ready to pounce. Of course I'm telling him there is nothing to be afraid of when really I'm terrified myself! It took a very long time for the 2 of us to get to sleep and I was terribly uncomfortable sandwiched between Meri and Ethan. I really felt like the night was NEVER EVER going to end. I had forgotten my phone in the van so I had no idea what time it was. And I would have no phone to call 911 when the wild animal came! Ethan and I were up on and off all night. Around 3am Zac woke up so I fed him for awhile. I could not get comfortable with him at all so I had to rummage around in the tent trying to find a flashlight to find the keys so I could go sleep in the van with him for who knew how much longer the night was going to last. After stepping on a couple kids and waking Ethan up yet again, I found the flashlight and managed to find my shoes and get in the van. Zac stayed awake for about an hour staring at the moon and then we both finally got back to sleep for about 2 hours when morning FINALLY came. Oh blessed morning! We made our pancake breakfast and headed to the lake to fish. Didn't catch anything, but the kids loved it. Next year, I'm wondering if we really need to do the camp out. We've done in 4 years in a row now. Maybe this year will be our last!
I am hoping...

So here we are mid- August.
I always have mixed emotions at the end of summer time. This week the kids go back to school. I took Brayton to the middle school orientation on Friday -"sniffle, sniffle". My baby is going to middle school and he's practically as tall as me AND his shoes are now bigger than mine. He's excited for school to see his friends and he'll start learning how to play saxophone. He has a list of classes on his schedule and I'm wondering where my little boy has gone. And then there is Ethan, he'll be 5th grade this year, top in the elementary school. He's almost as tall as Brayton. And then Orion the 3rd grader. He can't possibly be in 3rd grade, can he? Will he be able to handle 3rd grade? My little strong willed, emotional, free spirit, son. And Meri, in 2nd - she was so lucky to get her 2 favorite friends in her class again- she is very excited to start school! And then Jessi, a kindergartner. I'm bracing myself for a melt down on Wednesday after what happened at the dentist last week it's inevitable. She's been excited all summer about starting school, but the last few days she's been kind of melancholy and saying she doesn't want to go. I know she'll do great, but just getting past those first few days.

I AM really excited to have time to clean my house and have some peace and quiet during the day, but I'm really going to miss those little nuts. I remember when they were all really small when Jessi was a baby. When we'd go places I felt like Pooh Bear pulling his little honey pots behind him all tied together. But they aren't little honey pots any more. It's so exciting to watch them grow and yet I want to hang onto them all at the same time.

Well, I better head to bed. I hope you all have had a wonderful summer too. Happy Fall.

Water War

Here we are at Amanda and Matthew's having the water war. Notice Amanda in her giant purple coat! I loved it! Thanks so much for having us!

At the tea party Andy made sure that everyone called each other "darling" and kept their pinkies up. She used her best British accent and yes, she's only 5! It was adorable!

Cousin Swap

This summer we decided to swap kids with Amanda and Matthew for a week. We met at the Fresno temple which is the half way point to San Ramon. They took our 3 big boys and we took their 2 girls. The boys got to do lots of fun stuff like climbing walls, tubing, and swimming. And here we did dancing, tea party, hair salon, and made puff paint t-shirts. What a grand time it was! The next weekend we drove up to San Ramon to trade the kids back. When we got there the boys were making cardboard forts, sewing bean bags, and getting water balloons ready for a battle. So the big battle was that night - my favorite part was when Amanda came out in her giant poofy coat to protect herself in the war. It was awesome. What a week it was! Thanks so much Amanda and Matthew for taking the boys and giving them such a great time. And thanks for sharing your girls with us.