Texas troops...

These past four days have been pretty crazy. Basically, I became a single parent of four kids and two dogs overnight. Not literally of course. My brother and sister-in-law went to San Francisco for a vacation, so I've been sitting their kids. It was a good swift kick in the reality for me of what awaits with parenting. Parenting is like multi-tasking at it's best. To be quite honest, I'm not sure how moms do it everyday. Everytime I turned around it was like some toy, article of clothing, or something just appeared out of nowhere. And trying to keep the floor clean throughout the day was more like trying to "shovel snow off the driveway during a snowstorm" (as my sister calls it) than anything else. So hats off to you moms!!! Granted, I didn't exactly work my way up to it over the course of nine years, it was more like baptism by fire in a lot of ways. I knew it was going to be tough going into it, but let's face it.....kids grow up way to fast and you've just got to enjoy them while you can despite the moments of intensity that without a doubt just happen. Unfortunately, the distance between Texas and Utah keep me from spending more time with them. It was a good chance for me to spend some time with them.

On Monday we all sat down and had a "planning meeting" where we outlined all of the things we needed to do, and the things we wanted to do together on a big piece of posterboard. Then, we voted on two out of three of some fun activities to do after homework and chores were finished. They chose to decorate the house for Halloween, and to go to the local Pumpkin Patch and pick out pumpkins to paint. I took some pictures of them while we were there. Now, I know I may be biased, but I really do think that they are some of the most adorable kids. Here are some of my faves...