October

We started out the month with our semiannual General Conference through our church. We all look forward to hearing from our prophet and other church leaders. This was the first year in quite a while that we weren't able to watch it with family but it was still a special experience. We kicked it off with our conference crepes and "mutella" as Austin likes to call it. 

Eliza was very diligent taking "notes"

Her older brothers and sister are a great example to her. 

A little cleaning during the intermediate hymn

We made sourdough cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning and they were delicious. Mariah was a great helper, Vivi...was quality control. 

We had beautiful weather for most of October. Eliza and Vivi had fun at the park while the big kids were at piano.

Eliza really wanted to crack this walnut, but it wasn't breaking...guess we'll have to learn about harvesting walnuts before we try next time. 

Enjoying the sunshine and watching their big brothers play basketball

For a field trip we got to go on a train ride in Boone. We had fun exploring all the old cars and enjoying the beautiful scenery. 

Uncle Sevy and his girlfriend came for a very short stay to drop off his dog Finn. The kids were excited to get to babysit Finn while Sevy is doing training for a few months. We will all be very excited for Christmas to see Uncle Sevy again. 

One Wednesday we went up to the cousins' to celebrate Porter's second birthday. 

catching frogs and getting in the way of cross country runners...all in a day's work

Tanner took this picture and captioned it, "Happy Birthday walk for Porter!" Those fifth children are tough. 

And because one dog wasn't enough...here's Josephine, Josie for short. She's a real sweetheart and we're hoping her mellow nature will continue. 

I took Vivi grocery shopping solo while her siblings were at a homeschool thing and she proved that one child isn't any easier than five at the grocery story. Here she is "helping" me push the cart out of the store.

We also had a field trip to an alpaca farm. We even got to see a brand new little baby. Its eyes were huge in the most adorable way. We then went to a shop where we learned how the fiber is made into yarn and the kids begged for everything in the store. 

Vivi and I enjoyed a beautiful sunset together. 

Chet bought a BB gun with some birthday money and had some friends over to target practice. Three boys with guns is enough to give me a heart attack, but they all survived and had a good time. 

Grandpa Crossley came for a few days and got some good pictures of us carving pumpkins. I usually wait for a time when Tanner can help but he was laid up with a bad back so I had to be brave and just do it. FYI...the hand mixer hack didn't do much as far as cleaning out pumpkins. But I got all four pumpkins cleaned out and still was in a good mood...a Halloween miracle. 

Eliza drew a face and then I helped carve it out. She wanted it "really scary!"

Austin did his face all by himself. 

I somehow didn't get a picture of Chet alone with his pumpkin and Vivi woke up just in time for a group picture. 

Mariah was excited about doing group costumes again and I was all in until I wasn't...whoops. So I told the kids we were doing easy this year and to just raid the costume box. Mariah was the only one who was a little disappointed but once she had an idea she wasn't too sad about the change.

scarecrow

"scary but not ugly" witch 

Knight with his own hand carved dagger

And one very enthusiastic cowboy who insisted on the pistol even though I wasn't sure it should be brought to church. 

And Vivi wore those cat ears for about thirty seconds. She had a tail only because she didn't realize it was on her. When she saw me doing face paint on Eliza and Mariah, she asked for some too but I hadn't even finished the nose and she was trying to wipe it off. Since Eliza I have learned to keep my expectations low as far as my kids wearing what I want them to wear. So I was just glad she was only rejecting something dug out of the costume box and not a costume that I spent a lot of time or money on. 

Vivi was a little confused with the trunk or treat. Her face cracks me up in this picture. 

And then miracle of miracles I was able to convince the kids that they didn't need to trick or treat on Halloween. Instead we made some homemade rootbeer (thanks to the manager at the local Hyvee selling me some of his dry ice even though they don't normally do that) and pumpkin donuts. 

We were going to eat the donuts off a string but they were too soft and wouldn't stay on so some of the kids decided to try to eat the donut without hands. 

The rootbeer was a hit and is probably going to be a new halloween tradition. Just as long as I can keep convincing the kids that it's way more cool than a bunch of candy...