Halloween and Beyond!

Since Zack left, we haven't had much time to post. Either that or we have been lazy. Probably a little of both. We have a lot going on in our lives right now. Here it goes:

After Zack left, Benjamin and Laura stayed at Danielle's house to watch McCade. Danielle went to New York City for a few days and left her kids behind(see her blog---the link is on the side of our page). Tacey and Dallin were shipped out to friends houses and we had the weekend to spend with McCade. For those of you that don't know, we love animals in our family. We brought the rats, Misty and Hazey, as well as Rufus with us. Rufus always sleeps in his kennel. He is better behaved when he does. So when we stayed at Danielle's, the kennel came with us. Because Koda, Danielle's dog, can roam free around the house, Rufus does not like to be locked up. We decided to keep the kennel in the room we were staying in to help keep everything under control. Then McCade happened. He learned that the command for having Rufus go in the kennel is "Kennel". So what did he do? McCade tried it out. After seeing that Rufus always did what he said, McCade decided to challenge him. McCade climbed into the kennel and then said the command. Rufus apparently is a very obedient dog. Somehow McCade even closed the kennel from the inside. The pictures are worth a thousand words. Just by looking at them, you can see how well they fit and how this whole thing went downhill fast...

Needless to say, McCade got a lot of licks and was smashed more than once. Laura wouldn't let them out because they got into this mess themselves. McCade had to figure out how to unlock the door just like he locked the door by himself from the inside!

Overall, the weekend was fun. We spent a lot of time with McCade and give him some one on one attention. We played games and made the most divine cake. It is a snickerdoodle cake made with a white cake mix. The receipe is in the Cake Doctor. It was awesome. One of Laura's favorite parts was when we all knelt down to say family prayers. The boys were very quick to do so at the foot of the bed...

McCade gave Laura a bit of a hard time every once in a while. Her favorite moment was when he said he could not go to church because his right shoe did not fit. Not his shoes did not fit. His right shoe did not fit. Laura said that made no sense, but Cade insisited. So she had him take his shoe off. So like McCade. He is in such a hurry all of the time that he neglected to pull his sock on all of the way. Laura couldn't believe when she saw that he had about 4 inches of sock hanging off of his toes and wadded up in the front of his shoe. No wonder the show didn't fit. McCade did go to church that morning.

Haley has become very good at grabbing things that she wants. She absolutely loves her keys.

Then there was Halloween. Haley was dressed during the day in a onesie that her Uncle Zack gave her before he left on his mission. It has glow in the dark stars on it and says "Trick or Treat!" She looked so cute in it. Especially since she was wearing it with her frilly white skirt.

We carved pumpkins in the evening after dinner(homemade chili and cornbread with apple cider---Laura's family tradition). They turned out great! We already carved pumpkins earlier in the month at Cory and Heather Bird's house. Benjamin carved pacman eating those little dots and being chased by a ghost. Laura is not so creative and carved a face. We decided to do something different this time around. Benjamin carved an awesome sun and Laura could not decide. No surprise there because it was a long process deciding the first time. Laura finally decided to carve a pumpkin for Haley instead. Can you see why this pumpkin belonged to Haley?

When we went outside to light the candles, Benjamin got a little crazy. He was playing with the wax from the candles and decided to make "art". Here is his masterpiece:

Then when it was time for Haley to put on her costume, she looked adorable! Benjamin had to work Halloween night, so it was just the ladies hitting the town. Haley was a Jack-o-lantern. So cute!

We have some other good news that does not involve pictures. Benjamin has now been to two interviews for podiatry school. He applied initially to schools in Pheonix, Arizona; Des Moines, Iowa; Cleveland, Ohio; and Chicago, Illinios. He was invited to interviews at all of the schools. He decided to go to the first three and go to a regional interview in Salt Lake City for Chicago in 2009 if all of the others did not work out. First was Arizona. He liked the school. It is definitely our first choice as far as location is concerned. Benjamin said it felt like they were on the backseat to the dentistry students, so that is not so great. Then Benjamin went to Des Moines and stayed with Luke and Ashley Webb. He loved it there. It really is an amazing place. The only problem is the distance from all of our family. That is a big downside. Well, long story short... He got accepted to both schools! Benjamin cancelled his flight to Cleveland and wants to decide between the two. We have a lot of praying and thinking to do. We will see how it goes and let you know when we decide. When we do decide, we will be moving to that city sometime next summer for Benjamin to start next fall.

Also on Halloween, Laura started her job! She teaches math to the Junior High and some of the High school students at Jefferson Montessori. It is an awesome place. Danielle was first hired there for her theater skills. When she heard that they had an opening in math, she gave them Laura's information and they hired her! She took the job as a hobby and way to get back into math. She works anywhere from 3-5 days per week for 1-2 hours a day. Because Benjamin works night shifts, he is sleeping during the day when he has worked the night before. Laura's boss saw no problem in Laura bringing Haley with her. It is a perfect job for Laura to do. If nothing else, it gets her up and dressed in the morning so she can get things done!

We do have some bad news. When we first got to Danielle's house, we realized that Hazey was getting pretty skinny. Since coming home, she stopped eating and drinking completely. She went a little crazy before she finally fell asleep for the last time. It was really sad, but we were happy she finally died because we didn't want her to suffer anymore. We buried her in the back yard next to our first rat, Raynie. We know that she is in a better place, but that didn't sop Laura from crying. Now we are down to just Misty and Rufus.

Since Hazey died, we have been trying to give more attention to Misty. Just last night we put her in her rat ball in our office while Benjamin was on the computer, Laura was feeding Haley, and Rufus was hanging out. Misty really likes Rufus. She follows him around. When we first got her, Rufus tried to bat around the ball and we came down on him hard. Now he is scared of her, especially when she is in the ball. It is hilarious to watch the two of them walk in a circle over and over again... Rufus being chased by Misty in her Ratball. Benjamin tried to show him it was ok, but he would have nothing of it. when she would run into his leg, he would pick his foot up until it was touching his body. Then he would bolt the first chance he got. We are going to get it on film.

We are sorry there are no videos ever on our page. We are still figuring out why the videos on our camera will not load on our blog. Hopefully we will get it soon. Then you all can see Misty chase Rufus as well as Haley jabber on and on. We think she will start rolling over soon. When Laura moves her arm out of the way a little bit, Haley can roll from her tummy to her back. She just has to finish figuring out the arm thing.

We cannot wait to go down to San Diego next week. We will leave on Tuesday, be there through Thanksgiving and not make it home again until the following Friday. It will be nice to have a vacation as well as see Laura's family. It will be extra special because Haley has not yet met her Aunt Shannon, Aunt Andrea, or her Uncle Scott. She has only seen her Grandma and Grandpa a few times and we are looking forward to everyone spending some more time together.

We are in the middle of a bunch of transitions right now. It is a crazy life but we are having fun on the ride. We thought we would leave you with a few videos of how we harass Rufus that we were able to load because they were taken on Benjamin's cell phone. Hopefully these will brighten your day, because it definitely makes us laugh. And trust us, this is only the beginning of how we bother Rufus... More to come!