October

We loved the uncharacteristically warm October we had. It was a great way to ease into the colder weather. 

Eliza wasn't feeling well one day and Josie decided to comfort her. Eliza hates when Josie lays by her so I think Josie had to take advantage of her being asleep. She woke up and left before Eliza woke up too. 

Mariah is taller than Chet, which hasn't happened for a very long time. I told her to enjoy it while it lasts...

We had a quiet General Conference with just our family. Tanner was on call and at the hospital Saturday morning. I tried to listen to the Saturday morning session while watching soccer games, chasing Asa around the soccer fields, and watching every single one of Eliza's cartwheels...needless to say, I had to listen to that session again. But I did see Austin score a goal! Which is a miracle considering how distracted I was. 

Chet hurt his wrist while playing goalie when the ball was kicked from a very short distance away into his hand, bending his wrist. The boy who kicked the ball was so concerned about Chet and wanted to go and make sure he was ok and say that he was sorry. I had just gotten done listening to Elder Andersen's talk about peacemakers, so it touched me so much. That boy was showing true Christlike love. 

Sunday morning we had Cinnamon rolls and we throughly enjoyed them. 

Eliza made a terrifying, cat and dog mask for Asa and Vivi...just getting ready for halloween. 

We had other soccer games the day after a big rainstorm. Austin had the first games of the day so the fields weren't too bad, but Mariah and Chet had some of the last games and they about lost their shoes a few times. But they thought it was pretty fun. These games were during Stake Conference so Tanner was gone again. Vivi got stung by a bee but barely even cried and I was somehow able to listen to all of the leadership session during a game. 

Asa enjoyed the firetrucks during library storytime. 

And Asa and Vivi loved playing at the park across from Eliza and Austin's homeschool class. 

We got free tickets from the library to the Blank Park Zoo and loved the weather and animals. 

Tanner was able to go to the sealing of one of the families in our ward. 

Mariah wasn't thrilled with Austin taking her picture at a friend's birthday party. But I was thrilled with all the different cakes her uncle had made for said party. More birthday parties should have six different cakes...just not the ones I throw. 

And Eliza loves holding little Ryann...she can't get enough of that baby. 

Vivi wanted me to make a smiley face on an artisan loaf...

Austin enjoyed his homeschool lab where they made chutes for a ping pong ball. 

And Chet enjoyed helping teach origami at another homeschool lab. 

Vivi was the Statue of Liberty. She has enjoyed doing more at homeschool activities this year. We love our Co Op!

Vivi found this "beautiful flower" outside and put it in her hair. 

Asa fixed his own hair and also dumped out a whole bottle of my face serum. One night at dinner we wondered why his face looked a little oily but I didn't find out the reason until I was going to bed...two year olds, am I right? 

The cousins came up one weekend and Anni played on Mariah and Chet's soccer team. She did great, and we all about froze to death. The temperature helped us all to be happy with the soccer season being done. We are grateful for the coaches who sacrifice so much time to help our kids learn and grow in a sport. 

And I somehow don't have a picture of Austin's soccer team...which is a bummer. They were a really fun team to watch play. 

And then the big boys went to the BYU game. 

We took family photos and our photographer sent us this sneak peak. Judging by how amped up Vivi was and how grumpy Asa was...it may be wise to just stick with this one. Kassi at Studio One is pretty amazing though so she may be able to get a few more decent ones out of the session. Here's hoping!

We celebrated Evan's birthday and then he taught the kids some improv games. We love having him for Sunday dinners. 

We finally carved pumpkins.

By the time I decided we were actually going to carve pumpkins there weren't great choices at Walmart and I didn't really want to go on the hunt for the perfect pumpkins. So Mariah carved the one she had painted in Young Womens, Eliza carved her little pumpkin from the pumpkin patch and Chet and Austin carved one of the decorative pumpkins that Tanner had picked out earlier in the month. 

Vivi and Asa painted pumpkins and Asa was really bummed that I wouldn't let him hack into his with a knife. 

The kiddos helped me decorate for the ward Halloween party. 

Tinker Bell, Peter Pan, Wendy, Tiger Lilly, Hook and Smee. 

Mariah really wanted to do a theme again this year and thanks to a creative friend who made the Peter Pan and Hook costumes, and Amazon, we were able to put together some costumes. Chet put his together five minutes before we had to leave and I think it turned out pretty good. He was real close to just being a "banana on a unicycle", but Mariah insisted he figure something out. 

Asa was a little clingy when everyone got there, but once he'd eaten some food, he was feeling a lot happier. He loved the trunk or treat and by the end he could barely carry his bucket full of "tandy". 

He didn't care too much about eating the candy, but he loved carrying his bucket around. 

Our actual Halloween wasn't too exciting. Tanner and I went to almost every store in Ottumwa looking for root beer extract and finally found some at Menards. But then some teacher wiped out the dry ice at our local Hyvee that day (the nerve, everyone should know that Ashley Crossley uses the dry ice on Halloween for her root beer). So we just bought root beer and did root beer floats. Mariah had read The Princess Bride to the kids, so we watched that movie after putting the littles to bed. 

The next day we went to the Kidsymphony and when Tanner decided to wear the adult Hook costume our friend made, I decided I should just go as Smee. We walked through a craft fair after the concert dressed like this...We got some weird looks but we're too old to care now. We've officially made it people.