Halloween 2014

We love us some Halloween. Brian reads tons of spooky stories to the kids...mostly ones from his childhood. We watch tons of scary movies. We usually do a corn maze and a haunted house. Its second only to Christmas for us. Manti attempted to put a damper on it all. There is just nothing. We had ambitions of going to a corn maze in Richfield that we found online. We bundled up and drove 45 minutes to Richfield. Followed the GPS and we were out in the middle of fields, but they were plowed fields. Not a corn stalk in sight. We ended up going to Taco Time and coming home. The kids were super bummed so Brian headed right back out with them and told them he was taking them to a Haunted House he heard about in Mount Pleasant. That was another 30 minutes the other direction. All the website claims made it sound awesome. It was in an old historical building. They waiting in a huge line and paid $10 a piece. It lasted all of about 7 minutes and was nothing compared to the haunted house they did last year in Salt Lake. They were slightly pacified. We ended up in Salt Lake a couple weekends later and Grace and I ran to Walmart while Brian took the kids to the Castle of Chaos in Salt Lake. It's a little unusual for kids our kids ages to go, but they love love it. Castle of Chaos did not disappoint at all...something about getting locked in coffins at the end and after waiting a while not know what was happening the floor dropped out from under them and when they landed they were being chased by a chainsaw man. I was so relieved they got a little taste of Halloween fun. Next year we'll just have to make a weekend trip to Salt Lake and do both a corn maze and a haunted house in the same weekend.

We had a rodeo queen, the dark knight and tinkerbell. I took my camera to the Droubay Halloween party and forgot it so I just have a couple and some taken with Meg's camera.

Meg was a rodeo queen because she loooved the rodeo we went to this year and would love to be an actual rodeo queen.

Adin has been batman a time or two in the past. He was specific about wanting to be the one with the black bat, which some research taught me was the Dark Knight. He was really annoyed that people thought he was batman and kept correcting people everywhere we went.

Gracie was tinkerbell because we all love comparing Grace and Meg at similar ages. With their birthdays only a few months apart they hit a lot of holidays around the same age. 

We went to a pumpkin patch in Gunnison to get our pumpkins. It was fun to pick from tons of varieties and colors. They happened to have a little hay bale maze that the kids had some fun in.

Trick our treating here was somewhat of a bust. Manti City does a trunk or treat on Main Street. People come from all the neighboring cities. I was told it was packed and to avoid it. We walked down to check it out really quick because we thought it would be a quick way to get a bunch of candy. Not so. It was the lamest thing I'd ever seen. You stand in this slow moving line that moves up and down main street and walk by cars and get candies. You literally stand in line...not just any line....a huge line. It was so ridiculous it ticked me off. We tried to trick or treat neighborhoods and it was really hit or miss. Since the trunk or treat is so popular most people don't plan for traditional trick or treaters and so it was hard to find candy. It was pretty brutally cold out so Gracie only did a couple houses. The first one we went to, Gracie waited for them to open the door and when they did she just walked right past the lady and into her house leaving me and the kids on the porch. It was pretty cute. I ended up taking her back and putting her to bed with the plan on handing out candy. Literally one kids came the whole night. Pathetic. Thankfully, Brian's friend from the ward, was their last stop and since he hadn't had any trick or treaters either he dumped his bowl of candy into the kids bags. They thought that was so awesome that any lack of candy from other houses was forgotten and I'm sure that will live on their memory forever. I've got to start thinking of a plan for next Halloween and I'm fairly certain it will involve getting out of this town and finding some traditional trick or treating. :)

Gracie at 18 months

Oh, this girl. She's a super stubborn, opinionated, overly sweet and affectionate 18 month old who still loves her mama, and I can't seem to get enough of her. I adore being a mom. I love watching them grow and enjoying all the phases. It is truly the best that life has to offer in my opinion.

Some fun things to remember from this stage

-Words she says, "edy, set, go" and then she runs or expects you to chase her or tickle her or something. Kitty, Da or D-dy, dance (diga diga), have a good day (slurred together), thank you (slurred), bottle, oooo (nooo), and dirdie (birdie). I'm sure there are more but I'm having a mind blank and will have to add in later.

-She loves playing outside and will cry at the door. She climbs rocks, rolls around on the dusty deck, falls down repeatedly and absolutely ruins whatever she has on and needs a bath when she comes in. Argh. One time I was trying to get dinner done and was watcher her and Adin through the window. She went to the sandbox and started throwing the sand up in the air and over her head over and over and over again. When she came in she had more sand in her hair than someone would get at the beach. She was super angry at me for sticking her in the downstairs tub and spraying her down with the sprayer. She screamed the whole time and didn't like baths for a few days after that. I'm thankful that we finally have a good yard, but I can't help but wish it were just flat with grass and no dirt.

-She adores her bottles and their may be a day when I regret switching her to that from nursing, but I doubt it. I love the cuddle time that the bottle gives us before naps and bed. Our pediatrician in Pleasant Grove told me that with their last baby he let him have a bottle before bed till he was almost four because he would sit and cuddle and rock with them at night. His point was that they are only kids/babies once and to soak up every bit of them that you can.

-She is a pretty good eater. She does really well at dinner time and eats most of our meals. She has decided that she wants to feed herself. It makes for quite the mess, but lets me get things done or enjoy my own meal. Two favorites that stick out above and beyond would be spaghetti and hashbrowns. She inhales both those things.

-She has decided that she is no longer going to sit in her high chair. I don't have a booster seat yet so she can barely see over the table to eat. The other day we decided to try making her sit in her high chair because she is much more contained in it. Brian helped and we wriggled her stiffened legs and arched back into the high chair. She tried chucking her bowl of spaghetti across the room. She was crying so hard and so mad that she fainted (her "normal" fainting that she does when she cries really hard). When she came back to it was like she forgot what she was mad about. I gave her the bowl of spaghetti and she just sat there and ate. Hilarious. For a while I could still get her to eat snacks in her high chair but the last couple days she is refusing those as well. I'm going to have to shop for a booster seat. 

-I think she is finally outgrowing two naps. The last 4 days I have put her down for her second nap, but she doesn't ever go to sleep. I wish that meant her morning nap was extended but it hasn't yet. I also wish that meant she didn't actually need the nap anymore but she does. She is cranky and tired the rest of the night. 

-Oh, my, goodness, this girl loves to grab my finger. She has no respect for what I'm doing (using the restroom, cooking, vacuuming, trying to relax). If she wants/needs (I say that because sometimes she just takes me places for no reason) she comes and gets my finger and pulls till I come with her. Sometimes its for food or a bottle refill. Sometimes to go outside. Sometimes to reach something for her. Oftentimes its to get her a couple chocolate chips from the pantry. 

-This girl is obsessed with animals. She gets so excited and points and squeals. We really need to get her back up to the zoo. Our foster cats are the sweetest and allow her to absolutely mawl them. We are trying to teach her to be soft and she's kind of getting it. 

-She loves to play with the kids, but doesn't like them mothering her. Occasionally she will give them a kiss. She says "oooo" to them A LOT and tries to push them away. We're trying to teach her to be soft with them too. :) 

-She is super affectionate with me and will often just come up and hug my legs or throw her arms around my neck and squeeze. She always lets me love on her. She cuddles with me and quite often just wants to be held.

-She gives her dad luvs and kisses every night before bed as part of her routine and gets excited to see him when we meet for lunch or when she sees his car pull up at the end of the day. If I am not around. he is definitely her number one.

-I am loving having a girl again and really enjoy dressing her up cute and doing her hair. She loves her shoes and often wants to try on different pairs. If she has a new outfit or jamies she definitely notices and looks down at the clothes as best she can and checks them out. Our other two never cared what we put on them. She is really good and leaving headbands in, and we call them her pretties.

I just love this girl so much. She has a strong personality but I love every bit of it, stubbornness and all.

Back to School

This summer flew by. It didn't help that the kids started more on the early end of August than on the late end. I was more of a nervous wreck about it than the kids were. They were just mostly excited. I had put in a request that Meg be in a class with her one close friend, Mariah. It didn't happen, but Meg did get the favorite teacher in the school. I worried myself sick with that one. Should I request to have her moved down to the other class with her friend or just let her stay. I carefully broached the subject with Meg to see how she felt about it. She absolutely wanted to stay in that class. She had a few acquaintances and the "mean girls" were in that class. She just really wanted to have the teacher that everyone wanted. Brian encouraged me not to rock the boat. So we didn't. She seems to be doing just fine. I worried about Adin because everyone said that his teacher wasn't very patient and was very strict. Adin is a little bit of a jabber mouth. An absolutely adorable jabber mouth (most the time it cracks me up how much he can talk...sometimes it exasperates me). He has gotten in trouble a couple times. On the first day he said that some kids around him were asking him questions and when he answered them, he got in trouble. He said, what am I supposed to do, not answer the kids that would be rude. He adapting just fine. Part of me hates sending them away. I worry over all sorts of little things and want to be there to protect them or stand up for them. They both love it and rarely complain.

 Great big second grader. :( I still remember cuddle time after his naps when he as 2 and 3 so this is just plain sad.

 Fifth, Fifth!? Ahhh! So heartbreaking. She is 10 and going on 15. Begging daily for mascara or blush. Plucking her eyebrows and talking about boys.

Here's to another school year! Hopefully a good one.