A Schultz Thanksgiving

What a fun Thanksgiving we had. All the kids were here except Mark of course and we missed Mom...but she had to help her sister so we understand. We decided to start out the day with a fun (and slightly competitive) turkey trot. There were 36 of us in the different events (4 mile run, 2 mile walk and kids races). It was a freezing morning - in the low 30's the whole time, but we managed to have a good time anyways. Some of the highlights are that Danny finally beat Sherry in a race (but not by very much). Danny took 2nd in his age group in 25:29. Sherry took first in her age group in 25:55. I squeezed out third in my age group in 31:40 (my PR since High School...woo hoo). Cody took first in the men's division of the walk and George took third. And Audrey took first in Girls 3-4 years old with a 400 meter run in 2:27. Full results are on the website.



We decided it would be fun to get shirts made for the turkey trot with our numbers on the back. The hardest decision was of course what to do with Mom and Dad since we kids have always been 1-10. So they ended up as 0 and 00. Numbers are based on when you came into the family and so far we are up to "38" which was pinned onto Jeannie's tummy for her new baby boy.




We also ate dinner....and what a dinner it was. Everyone helped out and it ended up DELICIOUS. The only close call was when Dad broke the glass bowls right over the turkey Todd was carving. Thank goodness the turkey was still tasty even after being rinsed with water.




And what kind of Thanksgiving would it be without lots of computer gaming? Todd, Timmy and Dad spent the two weeks before Thanksgiving setting up the basement and getting everything ready for the big weekend. Every day and every night the computers were filled with people playing non-stop.

Claire's 18 Month Checkup

Today Claire had her 18 month checkup with Dr. Baird. She is 32" long (75th percentile) and is weighing in at 22.5 pounds (25th percentile) - tall and skinny :) Her head is in the 75th as well - so she is taking after Luke more than Tayson in head size. All in all she is pretty healthy and for the first time ever her ears looked great.

The funniest part of the appointment was Luke of course. He LOVES the doctors office and the nurse absolutely loves him because he's so silly and isn't afraid of anything. When he went to Claire's 12 month appointment he asked her if he could get shots too. Then a few months later when he turned 3 he was so excited for his shots and didn't make a peep or cry when he got two. Right when she finished he just looked at her and said "see, I'm not scared". She just cracked up. So today when we were there he wanted to get checked and get more shots which made her smile. Then I said "Luke you should be a doctor when you grow up" and he said as serious as could be "But I really, really want to be a robot". Which just cracked me up. He is so funny.

Luke Skywalker

As most of you know Todd is a HUGE star wars fan. He even claims we named Luke after Luke Skywalker, I however still claim it's from the Bible. Luke believes his daddy though and is very attached to Luke Skywalker. Yesterday after church Todd decided to put on "Return of the Jedi". The boys love watching movies downstairs. The entire movie every time Luke Skywalker was on the screen our Luke would say "it's me" or "he's going to kill me" or "i beat him" every time Luke Skywalker did anything. It was so funny. Poor Luke has had the line "Luke, I am your father" said to him so many times. Good thing he idolizes a Jedi Knight. :)

Happy Halloween

We had a fun day yesterday dressing up and playing all day. Tayson had a fun party at school then I took the kids to lunch and they came to work with me. As usual Nu Skin went all out for Halloween. It's hilarious to see so many adults get so into the holiday. I was a bumblebee and Claire was a ladybug, Tayson was Spider man and Luke was the Incredible Hulk (or creble hulk hands as he calls it).

The boys are ready to head out for trick or treating. Tayson rode his razor scooter and we took Claire and Luke in the stroller. Half the time we were carrying Claire, the boys were in the stroller or one of us was riding the scooter for Tayson.

Claire didn't go up to one house - she just sat in the stroller happy as could be until the end when it started to get a little cold and past her bedtime. Then we had to carry her. She did get a few treats though and thought she was in heaven. Reece's Peices are her favorite. She says "bite....peeaaase" or does the sign for "more" then pounds here chest with a "please".







Jeannie and Trent came by to see the kids before they took off. They caught us out on the road and it made the boys day to see them. They love Jeannie and Trent - of course seeing Trent in a fur loin cloth was a bit scary...but the kids don't know any better. :)

Luke's Arm

We had quite a scare last night. Apparently, Tayson pushed Luke off the slide in the basement and Luke landed on his right arm. We were pretty sure it was broken from his 15 minutes of straight screaming and the fact that he would move his fingers or anything. We decided to take him to instacare around 8:00 pm - just as the pumpkin carving was coming to an end. Luke missed the lighting of the pumpkins because he was screaming so hard. So Todd and David gave him a blessing and he finally calmed down and we took him in - he fell asleep on the 15 minute drive and was perfect the whole time we were there. They took 2 x-rays and luckily he didn't have a break or fracture, just a bad sprain.

He still won't use his right arm and we are icing it and doing Motrin for the pain. This morning he came in to the room with his right hand over his head and said "look mommy I can do it" then Tayson said "I think he should get a special prize" and tried talking me into giving them one of Luke's special prizes set aside for when he decides to finally potty train. I didn't fall for it though.

4th Annual Pumpkin Carving

Last night we had our annual pumpkin carving FHE. It started 4 years ago with Jeannie, Trent, Todd, Tayson and I and has grown every year. This year was by far the biggest.



Grandpa was in charge of Lexie's pumpkin - and she wanted one with 2 bats. As you can see one of the bats came off from a few wrong cuts with the knife. Good thing grandpa is so good with toothpicks. Don't worry we can barely see them when it's dark.



The kids had a blast carving, eating and playing. I think Tayson ate 8 pumpkin bars last night!!! Claire didn't do anything but walk around and pretend to shoot us with her gun.



Some sweet shots of everyone working hard on their pumpkins. I took lots of pictures because Luke and I won for the fastest pumpkin - his was very simple and easy. :)



And the final product. Thank goodness most of these will not be on my porch for the rest of the week. What would I do with all those pumpkins!!!

Claire

Yes she is our princess. Baby #3 and a girl. What can I say I spoil her rotten and I love buying her clothes, shoes and jewerly. She is a big fan of jewerly too - she would only crawl for the "bling" - when Timmy would take off his big shiny watch she would crawl across the room. Otherwise she didn't bother to move much at first.


Of course growing up with 2 big brothers hasn't always been easy for her, especially with Luke only 20 months older than her. She had sippy cups and books thrown at her from the day she got home from the hospital. Now she is tough and can hold her own. I have seen her push Tayson down when he bothers her and she walks around the house making gun sounds and shooting spider webs out of her hands saying "pssss" just like the boys. It's time for me to buy her a doll I think.



Claire turns 18 months old in a few weeks and still only has her 2 bottom teeth. I can feel one of the top ones starting to poke through, but she is a little behind the times. As you can see at one she didn't have any teeth yet.