For the love of Pete!

There is craziness happening in Spokane. Neighbors are putting up Christmas lights, stores are decked out with Christmas decorations, and this morning on the way to school the kids said "mom play some Christmas music." I informed them that none of the radio stations are playing Christmas music and just to prove my point I changed the station. Guess what was playing on that very station...here comes santa claus! Today Claire seemed to think that when it got dark, Santa was coming. I had to break it to her gently (about 20 times) that Santa would not be coming to the house today. Seriously...can we have Thanksgiving first?
On another note...just an update on our house situation. We found a house a few weeks ago that we fell in love with. 5 acres, charming updated cape code farmhouse, barn, playhouse, tool shed...it was perfect. We looked at it twice before we made an offer, which was quickly accepted. All was going well until the dreaded inspection. Holy cow...there were all sorts of hidden problems. Plumbing leaks, electrical issues, some strucural issues, etc, etc, etc.. the list goes on. We could ask for an allowance from the sellers or have them drop the price, but the phrase, "money pit" kept running through my head. Scenes from Tom Hanks "money pit" movie were flashing through my head. So today we backed out of our offer based on the inspection. Suddenly a brand new house sounds very appealing! :) One of these days things will work out, right??

Oh Halloween, how I love thee

Yes, I love Halloween. I love the decorations and the costumes and of course the candy. This year we headed up to the south hill to do some trick-or-treatin' with the cousins. We had a yummy dinner and then hit the road. I tried to take a picture of the boys but they were so hyper they wouldn't stand still. Behind them is their cousin George dressed as some cool ninja guy...He kind of blends into the background, that camo really works! The little girls were princess, of course. And Malia was a flower girl. And once again I left a child out of the pictures, sorry malia! They had a great time and came home with a nice haul for mom and Dad to snack on for the next month!

BFF's

A few weekends ago, My SIL julia, kicked her husband and kids out of the house so that us moms could have a "girls weekend" (more on that later) Her family came to Grannie's house. (where we are living) So Claire had lots of time to play with her BFF.. aka. cousin jane. I sat down to look at the pictures on my camera and discovered that Malia had a photo shoot with the 3 year olds. Too cute, I hope they do stay friends forever!

1st annual cupcake wars

If you are an avid food network viewer like myself, you'll know what cupcake wars are. Its a show where some of the best cupcake makers from the U.S compete in a cupcake bake-off. The reward is to have their cupcakes featured at some big gala or event. They have to come up with unusual, creative flavor combinations. So, here at the Ditto household, we decided to have our own cupcake wars. The cupcakes featured were: Malia-cookie dough cupcakes, Me-"elvis" cupcakes, or banana cupcake, peanut butter frosting and bacon bits on top, Debbie, coconut cupcakes, Julia-chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. And the winner is (drumroll).....Malia's cookie dough cupcakes, they were brown sugar cupcakes with a cookie dough center, and cookie dough frosting. They were yummy and the first to disappear. My cupcakes won most creative, or in other words...nice try. They were yummy, but a little too unusual for this crowd. Which consisted of the majority being under 9. The bacon bits freaked them out a bit. I'll have to save this recipe for a more "refined" group. :) We had a great time making them, and made ourselves sick eating them. We'll definately be doing this again.

Dora vs peyton

One of my favorite cereals is the new "wheaties fuel." I like a little sprinkled on some yogurt in the morning. When it first came out I was trying to get Claire to eat some for breakfast. She wanted nothing to do with it....until I told her it was Dora the explorer cereal. Yes, I lied, and nevermind the tough jock guy on the front of the box. (Is that peyton manning??)...anyway, She ate every last bite. That was a good 10 months ago. Today we went grocery shopping and she shouted, "mommy, buy Dora, buy Dora, pointing at mr.tough guy. I wonder how long it will take her to realize that this cereal has nothing to do with Dora the explorer.

The not so eventful anniversary

Brent and I share our anniversary with Jacob's birthday. So we celebrated Jacob's birthday Friday night with family, by having a burrio bar and costco's enormous chocolate cake. It was a fun, crazy evening. Jacob is turning 8 and will be getting baptized on Oct. 9th. I will be happy to have my camera back by then! More pics to come.
So Saturday Brent and I decided to celebrate our anniversary by going to silverwood amusement park. I had gotten a free ticket and since it is the end of the season, prices were discounted. The only problem is that the weather was pretty yuck...drizzly, cold. But we're troopers and headed up anyways. On the way up I stopped for some motion sickness pills and popped a few of those (roller coasters make me nauseous otherwise) So we get there and learn that our free ticket is only good for kids under the age of 18, we also learn that half of the rides are closed down due to the weather. So we decide to scrap the idea. I'm feeling a bit tired anyway. So, we head to downtown coeur d'Alene to walk around and check things out. By the time we get out of the car I am SO sleepy, the kind of sleepy where you feel almost sick from trying to stay awake. We walk around for a little bit before I have to ask Brent to park himself on a bench, so I can lay down on his lap and have a snooze. I'm starting to question if I have MS or mono or something....I shouldn't be this tired. We checked out a few stores and then headed to a yummy mediterranean restaurant called "the white house" for dinner. SO yummy, but my mother-in-law claimed we made the house smell like garlic for the next 24 hours. After dinner we went to check out our "dream property", went to Cabela's and then headed home, where I fell asleep at 8:30 while Brent watched football. Pretty exciting eh?? It wasn't until the next morning that I realized it was those stupid motion sickness pills that made me so tired! I seriously thought something was wrong with me...so I'm chalking it up as the lamest anniversary ever. But the good news is...we still love each other!! And Brent loves me even if I make him park himself on a bench so I can take a snooze in downtown Coeur d'Alene!
*Update on the house situation*
We have found a couple who are planning to sign a lease to own agreement with us. They are leasing the home for two years with the option to buy after that. They put down a larger downpayment up front and then a portion of the monthly payment goes toward the purchase price of the home. At the end of the two years if they decide not to buy, we get that money. Hopefully they will though :) They want to be in this Saturday, so we are headed down Thursday to do a frantic pack-up and move out.

New school, new shoes

Guess who left their camera in Keizer last weekend. Guess who didn't realize this until it was time for "first day of school pics." I'm so lame.
School started last week for the three older kids. They were all nervous about starting a new school. Heck, I was nervous. But they all came home happy after the first day, and the next day and the next...I think it will all work out. :)
So the week before school started I took the kids to wal-mart to pick out one new school outfit. Gone are the days of several new school outfits...it's been reduced down to one. Well, Malia found a pair of shoes that she really wanted, that I refused to buy for her. They were only ten dollars so I told her she could earn the money herself and buy them. Heck, when I was in school I had to buy ALL of my own school clothes. I got up at 6am in the summer to pick strawberries to buy those school clothes. Nevermind that she's only 9. Around the same time she learned how to finger knit at the YMCA youth zone. She spent hours finger knitting scarves and then decided she wanted to sell them door to door. I would rather have a root canal than sell things door to door, but being the good mom that I am, I agreed. I found myself hiding behind bushes and trees to avoid being spotted by neighbors. Bless those neighbors...they were good to Malia. She was selling her scarves for a quarter, but several people gave her a dollar. Soon she had enough for her shoes...plus a new pair of earrings. I have to say I was pretty proud of my little girl. Lesson learned: when your child wants something bad enough, they will figure out a way to get it. (which hopefully doesn't involve stealing)