We had to check out the Witches at Gardner Village.
We got together with Bailey and Talina, and Jessi and Quinn and took the kids to enjoy the outdoors.
Quinn and Ellie. Jessi and my wild little blondes. :-)
Owen and Bailey hanging out with one of the witches.
Ellie enjoyed seeing all the witches.
One Sunday afternoon in October we rounded up the entire family to go up to spend some times up in the mountains.
Ben and Lacy were the ringleaders of this little outing.
Bailey, Talina and Star.
Ellie hiking with Bailey. Talina quite possibly was not aware that Grandpa had put Ellie in charge of Bailey.
Kings of the Rock with Grandpa!
Isaac's dirty little hands eating goldfish crackers. Most of that was chocolate, not dirt, if that makes things better . . .
Grandpa freaking us out by taking the girls out by the water, on wobby rocks . . . all of us were just waiting for one of them to fall in and subsequently freeze to death. Grandpa thinks we worry too much. He's probably right.
A few of my favorite pictures from the hike.
Grandpa and Annie switched sunglasses and hat.
Family photos.
OK, in a already super picture heavy post, having several of the following pictures might seem like overkill -- but watch Ellie in the corner. She cracks me up!
Cute picture of Bailey and Talina.
Talina and I with our cute babies!
This month was also a big one for Annie. She lost her first tooth! Greg and I weren't quite sure if it was going to ever happen :-) It took a full week for her to wiggle out that first loose tooth. We'll see what happens with this next one -- she just discovered another loose tooth yesterday!
This was Annie showing how loose her tooth was that night. She went to bed disappointed about it not being out yet.
But I got some of my favorite pictures of all three older kids at bedtime ever:
We spent some time trying on Halloween costumes one night.
We've got some lions, some tigers and an adorable little elephant.
This has been a big month for our little Owen!
He's becoming a pretty big fan of food, finally. I feel like I spend all day repeating the same schedule: Nurse (and nurse and nurse and nurse), then feed him some baby food, then heat up some soup or chicken or something, then bribe him with Cheerios. Then it's time for a nap. Then he wakes up and we nurse . . . it's like I spend most of his awake time feeding him. I'm hoping this means he'll chunk up a bit by his next appointment -- like onto the charts, at least. I got excited the other day 'cause my nearly ten month old was looking a bit long for his pajamas (well, technically they fit perfect, it was just the sleeves that were too short) -- and I was happy to see he was outgrowing some of his 6-9 month clothes finally! Until I looked at the tag and they were 3-6 month :-) Man, this kid is a shrimp :-) He's also still wearing size 2 diapers, size 3's tend to leak more 'cause they're big for him.
The rare times he's not eating he is becoming a more proficient crawler, and he loves standing up to his activity table and can walk himself all around it to get to different parts of it at will. He really wasn't the least bit interested in crawling 'til this month (between 9-10 months old), and now he's got it down. He's funny, 'cause it's very slow and deliberate, but it's text book crawling -- no army crawling, scooting or anything else -- he just went from never crawling to being able to do it perfectly (and really, really slowly -- which works well for me!)
He's fascinated with his hands lately -- he's really enjoying clapping and throwing his hands up in an excited 'yay' at every possible opportunity.
Look Mom, I can stand up!
A favorite annual tradition has been going to the Pumpkin Patch with Ellie's preschool. Here's my three little ones on a hay bale:
Bailey and Owen -- babies on giant gourds.
Obligatory pumpkin patch picture of the babies.
On Bailey's birthday (she turned ONE this month!!), we headed out to the Dinosaur Museum ('cause it was raining -- the original plan had been the Gardens).
Here's Ellie and Isaac posing by a giant dino foot.
Isaac with the Birthday girl -- these two are so cute together.
Strong kids -- hanging from the handrails were one of the highlights of the trip . . .
The kids posed on the front door step while they sang Happy Birthday to Bailey on video.
We had Bailey's birthday party at our house, which was so much fun, and the kids felt so special that we had it in our backyard. Here was a birthday card Annie made Bailey:
Owen showing how he's trying to stand up. He does much better with the activity table :-)
Cake smashing portion of the party:
Owen and Bailey. So cute!
We had a Family Night at Grandma Karine's house, painting pumpkins.
Afterwards we went to Annie's dance recital. She did so good!
"Yay!"
Baby's first fat lip -- after falling from the above activity table.
We made it to the Scarecrow Festival with Bailey and all the kids (yay for short days on Friday -- Annie's missing from most pictures this month 'cause we've done so much while she's in school.)
We had a Ward Halloween Party this week -- my little 'zoo' of animals is beyond adorable
Isaac was so tired he fell asleep on the floor at the party.
Owen was wide awake the whole time though :-)
OK, so that was pictures.
I'm trying to think if I have anything else to add here. I'm sick, which is making me grumpy. I've been feeling crappy all week, but today it just hit with fevers, body aches and the like. We had such a long stretch of relative health, and the last month or so -- argh, it's been one illness after another. Fevers, colds, ear infections, ear infections, ear infections. I'm ready for a good night's sleep. One day, right?
And just to make this EVEN longer, here's my facebook updates for the last month . . .
October 24, 2012
It's one of those 'chicken and the egg' conundrums . . . am I pissy 'cause my kids are so grumpy, or are my kids super ornery because I'm so grumptastic . . . hmmm . . .
October 22, 2012
I was helping out in Annie's classroom today and as I was leaving, she pulled me aside and whispered that two of the kids at her table have been taking her snack and snack time and eating it. Seriously!? I asked her if she's ever told her teacher, and she said she hasn't. Annie?! This is the child who goes rabid badger if her siblings even LOOK at her stuff wrong, and she's just been letting kids take her food and eat it without saying anything to anyone. She's also been eating lunch alone some days, and playing at recess alone -- how is my eldest child SO different at home than when she's at school?!
October 21, 2012
Annie has a bookmark taped to her bed . . . just in case. It's an emergency bookmark. "In case you are reading a book, and you suddenly decided you needed to go to the bathroom and you needed a bookmark or something."
October 15, 2012
Ellie is the child of a thousand "Whys?" and it gets a bit, um, tiring at times. So Greg and I laughed until we cried when on a drive home tonight Ellie had asked about 50 questions, and finally Isaac, COMPLETELY EXASPERATED, sighs and says, "BECAUSE ELLIE." And every time she'd ask another question he'd sigh again and say loudly and slowly, 'BE-CAUSE EL-LIE." He he he.
(Today, October 27th, we were playing with some new little trick or treat toys -- like plastic spiders and whatnot, and Ellie started to whine she didn't get the pink one. Isaac, exasperated (a normal take on his interactions with Ellie), "It's just COLORS, Ellie! Just colors!")
Greg gets his awesome promotion! Yay!
Isaac's in a 'I don't know' phase. "Isaac, where's the kitty cat?" "I non't know right over there." "Isaac, what's over there?" "I non't know a plane!" There is no pause whatsoever between the 'I don't know' and the answer. To every. single. question. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. :-)
October 10, 2012
Just listened in to Annie reading a story to her siblings. The original book is in English, but she was reading it as, "No Elefantes", with such sentences as, "One day, a 'hombre' came to the old woman's 'casa', selling 'los animales'." So, apparently at least some Spanish is sinking in :-)
October 7, 2012
Greg and I can't figure out how the two of us, kids who never had a loose tooth last more than 8 hours before we'd ripped it from our own mouths, have ended up with a kid who's had a loose tooth for a week now . . . and that tooth is so barely, barely hanging on by a thread . . . and she just can't seem to bring herself to get it over with :-) It's baffling. :-)
About one hour later, she finally yanked the tooth out!
October 5, 2012
Ellie was grumpy about our book selection tonight . . . "It's way too much in Spanish," she whined about 'Corre Perro Corre' (Go Dog Go), "I don't like Spanish like I like English."
October 3, 2012
Just had to tell Annie for the fourth time to turn off her flashlight or I was taking it away -- but I have such a hard time cracking down on late night reading and her new favorite thing, writing up and solving math problems. The one she'd just finished when I killed the lights: 8911468944159+4131143943724. Man, this kid cracks me up. (And I double checked her work, she got the right answer) :-)
October 2, 2012
After spending all day looking for my missing cell phone, I told the girls that whoever found it for me won a dollar. They completely impressed me by getting out a piece of paper, drawing plans of the house, checking off each room as they searched it, and drew a map of the order they searched. Unfortunately they weren't the ones to find it (as it was in the sleeping baby's room, the one place we never checked 'cause I looked for my phone during naps, of course). But, their ingenious map may just make it into the scrapbook! :-)
So, here in the land of 'you have got to be kidding me', Owen has been running fevers all day, and now my poor 11 month old niece Bailey is 104+ degrees -- I wasn't expecting this, since Bailey got sick first two weeks ago, then Owen a week ago, and then after Isaac got sick over the weekend I thought we were through all the little kids -- but apparently this virus has just lapped itself and is working on it's second round . . . sigh . . .
October 1, 2012
So, the blood curdling screams (that freaked me out completely) coming from the boys' bedroom was apparently caused by Isaac sleep walking face first into the corner of his brother's crib.
Um, ouch.
My baby girl just came home from school with her first LOOSE TOOTH! We are practically giddy around these parts :-)
Poor Owen just can't get on the charts :-) At his 9 month appointment he weighed in at 15 lbs. 5 oz. He is a whopping 11% on height though. :-) At this rate, we may be in 6 month clothes awhile longer, and I'm gonna be able to use up the rest of this case of size 2 diapers. See, there are benefits to freakishly tiny babies :-)
For Family Night tonight we're making a 31 link paper chain -- ONE MONTH 'TIL ELDER CODY COMES HOME!!!!!!!!!
Can't wait to see my baby brother again!
