October 2019

The first week of October brought a baby shower, more dance and soccer, and then General Conference.

Cute little boy on a bench. I think this was from the time we accidentally missed a meeting with our CT to go to the weekly play date, and found out that the playdate was actually the next day. Sometimes I really crush it as a mom

I highly recommend these magnet tiles. They were a midnight impulse buy a couple nights before I flew to SD solo with my kids, and they are still played with almost daily. They encourage so much creativity and I still see my kids put them together in new ways even 6 months later.

This was from a library activity one afternoon.

More standing on the sidelines, considering playing soccer

We ended up with a pretty successful general conference set up. The kids were looking forward to it as it got closer, they played bingo and did coloring sheets, and I heard them repeat phrases or sometimes ask questions about something that was said. Of course we also had plenty of moments of jumping across the couch, throwing food (some by Andrew), and generally being crazy, but overall I think they're getting it more each time and that's all I can ask for.

Of course I used food to help my family look forward to the weekend more. Saturday brought french toast bake and on Sunday we had cinnamon rolls.

The following week, I decided on a whim to take all four of my kids hiking by myself. It was a trail that we've done before, but always with Andrew carrying one of them in the hiking backpack, and me usually caring one on my shoulders off and on. I didn't bring anything to carry kids, and only carried Alex through the parts that were too steep for him to make it up. I was so impressed with all of their perseverance; it's at least a couple miles long. And we had a lot of fun too! The funniest part, to me, happened the next day. Michael said his legs hurt and he refused to walk anywhere. He had me carry him around all day, and it was a couple hours in before I realized that his legs were sore from hiking the day before. He had never felt that sensation before, and didn't understand what was going on with his legs.

Plenty of rocks to climb on

Finally some progress happening in our master bathroom again. We hired some people to build the shower for us, and it was amazing how quickly the work gets done by professionals!

My kids call this pasta "worker hats" instead of shells.

Adaline invited a couple friends, who were on fall break, over for a "pajama party" one day. There was a long itinerary that include painting nails and other sleepover-type activities, but they just played pretend all day and squeezed in painting nails right at the end.

Matthew has been building lots of robots and then programming very simple codes for them. He's mostly just in it for the building part right now though

Lunch at the park with friends, and a little trip to Brentwood library.

See what I mean about the quick progress??

I was trying to get some Halloween things at the dollar store, and looked back to see this epic battle playing out.

We went with the homeschool group to the pumpkin patch and had a great time! My favorite little activity they had was this steer roping set-up.

New pj's from Gram

I mean, wow, right? If I had all the money, I wouldn't do any fixing projects myself.

Next up was Michael's 3rd birthday! Michael is such a fun part of our family. He talks like a 6 year old, tells the longest out-of-breath stories, and has a never ending supply of jokes. He loves to help with Alex by carrying him away from "danger". He has almost mastered riding a two-wheeler, he mostly just needs a little assistance during take off. He loves every sport he hears about, and is shockingly good at them for being barely three. For example, he can dribble a soccer ball like a pro. He loves to be included in his older siblings' games which is happening more and more as he's getting old enough to follow their rules. He also loves to look at books and to be read to. It seems to be a requirement for being in our family.

On Michael's birthday, Andrew happened to have the day off, so we spent the entire day celebrating. He opened presents then we sang Happy Birthday and had cake for breakfast. After cake, we went to Chick-Fil-A for a very early lunch (but really for the play place). During Alex's nap, we played with the play dough set he'd unwrapped that morning. Then Andrew took the kids to try out his new T-ball set at the park while I made pizza for dinner. Andrew and I commented to each other that we really spent the whole day doing fun things to celebrate Michael and that it felt like one long party all day long. We feel so lucky to have this sweet soul in our family.

For months, Michael has been saying that he wanted a cake with Elmo and Cookie Monster fighting on top. I have no idea where that came from, (I didn't even realize he was familiar with these characters) and we had no idea how to make that into an actual cake that we were willing to serve. Andrew came through on this fantastic idea of them fighting over a cookie, and all I had to do was bake the giant cookie. Way to go, babe! You totally crushed it. (and Michael thought it was awesome)

A cookie in each hand.

I might have been having the most fun with the play dough, tiny play food is totally my jam.

The next day, I got to help take the activity day girls on a trip to the Lindsay Wildlife Experience with the boy scouts. Alex came with me to make soccer games a little more manageable for Andrew, and it was pretty fun. One thing we got to see and learn about was a porcupine, and I was most surprised by how cute it was!

Living his best life

Adaline and Matthew have been taking music lessons since the end of August, and I got to go to class with them recently. It was so neat to see how much they have learned and how much fun they're having. I think they are both gaining a good ear for pitch and learning tons of theory.

How can he sleep like this? His legs are hanging out of the crib!

A slightly rare sighting of fall leaves on the way home from a park play date.

Michael loves to do this thing where he flips up his eyelids and freaks us all out. Apparently, he can even fall asleep like that...

And then came Halloween! I made a "spiderweb" in the hallway then sprinkled toy people and animals throughout for the the kids to retrieve with tweezers. Later, we carved pumpkins (which means the kids scooped out some of the guts and then told me what to carve) and then finally it was time to dress up and hit the sidewalk. Andrew and I kept busting up laughing watching them trick or treat. The three oldest were so excited they couldn't stop themselves from running. Adaline said "go ahead, batman" at every single house because she was a little too scared to go first. Alex struggled to lug his candy bag around, pointed out every pumpkin, and gave hugs to plastic ghosts. When we got back, the kids dumped out their bags and went to town eating candy. When they started slowing down, we let them each pick out 15 more pieces to put in a bag and then I put the rest in the freezer for gingerbread houses (after throwing out the kinds no one likes). The next morning, they each finished off what they had left for breakfast. Even thought they were a bit hyper/cranky on Friday, it was a way better system than other years, and now they've long forgotten about the Halloween candy.