We started off the month with General Conference at Brittany and Baydon's house. Our kids have been begging to be able to go and stay the night at their new house and it finally happened. I drove down early on Saturday while Tanner took Mariah and Chet to their soccer games. I took the youngest four to Old Navy to shop for some clothes for family pictures that were coming up later that week. They were giving away balloons and we ended popping three of the four within the first ten minutes. But there weren't too many tears.
Tanner listens best when his "eyes are closed".
Eliza and Jack spent a lot of time running throughout the house and screaming at the top of their lungs thinking Uncle Baydon was going to get them. He played along for the first ten minutes and then the anticipation of him jumping out from any corner was enough to keep them on edge for at least another hour. Eliza lost her voice from all the screaming and shouting.
We love time with family at General Conference and hearing the words of prophets and apostles.
Austin found poison ivy at the cousin's house, he has a real knack for it. So we had to postpone family pictures to give his face time to recover. Uncle Baydon brought some medicine from his office and Tanner ended up giving Austin a steroid shot and I think that helped him recover a lot faster than he has in the past.
Vivienne was "helping" Tanner with breakfast and found the red dye. It looked a little like a murder scene, but it washed surprisingly well out of her pajamas and the dish towel. Her hands had a nice red hue for a few days though.
We got to go to the Blank Park Zoo for a field trip. We took a picture of Eliza in this turtle shell three years ago so it was fun to recreate it.
We only lost Vivi one time, and she felt no distress being away from us...wish I could say the same. I guess I should just be grateful that she wasn't in an animal enclosure.
Asa was an angel baby and slept most of the time.
We decided that our favorite animals were the giraffes. But I must say the rhinos were a close second for me. When we very first got to the zoo the seal tank was empty and they were cleaning it, and the Australia exhibit was closed, but when we circled back around, the seals were back in their tank and we were able to see the wallabies and kookaburras. It's a small zoo, but it is just the right size for me to go by myself with six kids.
We had a few watermelons in our garden this year but they weren't very big. Tanner decided that he would save them and carve them for October, and I scoffed at his idea, thinking it wouldn't really work. This is what I came home to one afternoon. The watermelon jack-o-lantern is sticking its tongue out at me...I was proven wrong.
Shera came to visit! She made a traditional Chilean tea for us and taught us a little bit about her mission. She also shared some Chilean candy with us; it was delicious! The kids really loved the Chilean dessert she made, they were like little donuts.
Shera is such a delight to be around. She always sees the good in others and loves with her whole heart. We were so happy to get to spend some time with her.
I came in to Vivi dancing while Shera sang and played the guitar. My kids are so lucky to have older cousins to look up to.
As we were leaving Costco we saw a man with a little parrot on his shoulder; of course I couldn't walk by without saying anything and he put him on Shera's shoulder. He said he takes him everywhere and the bird will fly around some but always come back to him. It was so cute and full of joy, just like Shera!
I came out one morning to Austin sitting next to Josie like this, it made me laugh. That dog is spoiled.
Sometimes Vivi can be nice to Josie, she was snuggled up to her whispering in her ear about what they could see outside.
We went to Autumn Acres with some of our homeschool friends and even though it was really windy, the kids had a blast. I enjoyed visiting with friends while the kids ran around.
The big kids spent most of their time in the corn, which is usually for the toddlers, but they stacked tire tubes on each other and then tried to fill them up with corn. I had to intervene a little when it started to escalate into a wrestle match...boys.
We got to have Aunt Natalie at the end of the month. We put her right to work helping with the pumpkin carving. The kids did most of their carving all by themselves and they were really pleased with their creations.
Chet's haunted house and a "cat that looked like a chicken".
Eliza knew exactly how she wanted hers. I love the cute little face.
Mariah is all about cute...never scary.
Austin wanted a little bit of everything on his pumpkin.
Vivi painted her pumpkin and only tried to stab her siblings pumpkins with knives a few times.
Our HSAP does a "Friday Fun Day" and we had our first one this fall. The kids made turnovers and were able to pick their own filling. Even though Vivi isn't a part of the HSAP, they still let her make a treat each time. Then the big kids went on a scavenger hunt, learned about leaves, and painted rocks.
I had no desire to put any kind of effort into costumes this year. So when Chet jokingly said he wanted to be a banana for Halloween I went with it. Mariah decided a monkey would go great with Chet's banana.
Austin wanted to be a magician and Eliza was excited to be his rabbit.
Vivi wanted to be a "pincess" until she saw Eliza's costume, and we had to order her a bunny costume as well. They were so adorable. And the suits were perfect for the cold weather.
Chet and Natalie decided she should be an ant/aunt and Mariah made her antennas. It was so nice having Natalie there to help me with the ward trunk or treat. I don't think I would have been able to do it without her.
The next day we had Stake Conference; Natalie left the same time as us to spend some time with Brittany's family. Our kids were excited to stay at the Newton's house again. Asa was amazing and slept the whole night. Vivi was basically living on candy from the trunk or treat Saturday morning, and had a few epic melt downs but we survived.
Mariah was given the opportunity to speak in the Saturday morning session and she did so well. She wrote her own talk and brought such a sweet spirit with her message. We were so proud of her.
We went home Sunday night and Natalie and the cousins came up for Sunday dinner. Then we also got the cousins to come up and stay a few nights for Halloween. Tanner had been working really late nights and I did not want to take six kids trick or treating in the icy cold wind, so we were able to convince the kids to have a Halloween party instead of trick or treating.
Natalie painted everyone's faces...
We had Jack-O-Lantern quesadillas with tomato soup for lunch...
There was some dressing up going on...
The kids watched The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and Coco while Natalie, Brittany and I went to the Mustard Seed and the grocery store.
We made witches brew (homemade root beer)...
And made all kinds of spooky snacks...
We ended the night with monster mash (sloppy joes) and no one complained about staying inside on that cold, cold night. That night for scripture study we told family history stories and talked about how important it is to know who came before us and the choices they made to help us to be where we are today. I'm so glad Brittany and Natalie were there, they did most of the fun stuff that I never would have been able to do with a baby. They are some of the best!
