October in a Nutshell

I am in a blogging funk again. There's so much to blog about but I haven't felt like doing it. I haven't had much time, either. So, this will be the entire month of October....

We went to an emergency preparedness fair that our church put on. The coolest part about it was watching a black hawk helicopter land and the kids getting a chance to climb inside.Right after that picture, as it was coming down, we were suddenly blasted with wind and grass. It was crazy. I didn't realize it would be like that or I would have prepared the kids better. Luckily the girls thought it was cool. Nate on the other hand was not a fan.

On the helicopter

Last Monday we carved our pumpkins for Family Night. Well, Joe carved the pumpkins. The faces were designed by the girls, though. They loved the finished product....

We also decorated some sugar cookies (notice the black frosting evidence on Natalie's face).

Here they are all lit up:

We also visited the pumpkin patch last week. It had been two years since our last pumpkin patch experience so everything was brand new to them (I love that about kids). They especially loved the big inflatable slide and spent quite a long time on it:

Climbing the hay bales:

Navigating the corn maze

Loving the hayride
They even posed for some pictures:

I really love that one.

Friends who came with us:

A little too much posing:

My cute little pumpkin :)

He will make an excellent drummer someday.

Gratitude

After listening to President Monson's talk, I feel a great need to count my blessings. Do you ever have those moments where you feel completely overwhelmed with gratitude for your blessings and also just feel like a complete shmuck for not feeling that way all the time? I had one of those moments last night. I want to hold on to that feeling more. Even after the immense gratitude of last night, I wasn't a perfect mother today. I didn't treasure every single moment with my kids. But, I was a little better and it made a difference.

So, I am thankful for....

...cooler weather! Hooray! It has been so nice lately. I want to go to the pumpkin patch, rake some leaves, put on a sweater, bake some apple pie, etc., etc.

...my health. Sure, I get tired a lot. I was talking to some friends the other day, also moms to young kids, and came to the realization that most everyone at this stage in life is tired. Still, I have the energy to do the things I need to do. I do not have to deal with any significant pain or sickness right now (knock on wood!) and that is a big blessing.

...Joe. I truly am. He is wonderful and I am thankful for his example and strength. That is all. He does not approve of blog-PDA. :)

...General Conference. It was just the boost I needed. I'm thankful for the Spirit that spoke to my heart: "You are loved", "You are doing great"... but also... "Be a little better" and "You can do it, but only with help from the right source." And especially: "Remember what's really important and focus on that each day."

...3 beautiful little kids who give my life a purpose and depth I never thought possible. The joy they give me each day is immeasurable. How can I ever repay them for that? How can I ever repay my Heavenly Father for entrusting them to my care? I can't. I'm thankful to be a mother.

That's all for now.

GOAL!

Here's a video of Elizabeth's first goal. As you can see, Daddy was very proud. I walked up just in time to see it, also.

I suppose she should have passed it to one of her teammates but they don't really enforce that rule this year and Elizabeth took advantage! :) It's fun to see her really getting into the games this year and running hard.

First Haircut and Other Stuff

Joe had been wanting to cut Nate's hair for quite awhile now. I kept telling him that he had to at least wait until he was 1. So that is what he did. The evening of his 1st birthday while I was at cub scouts (one of my church assignments now...lucky me :) I came home to find my little baby with a buzz cut! Oh I was so sad. Of course he didn't intend to cut it that short but one thing led to another and that's what happened. Joe was hiding out in the girls' room when I got home trying to get Natalie to stick up for him. She wouldn't :).

The before and after pictures he took are perfect....

Before:

After:

(I also love how Nate's shirt is pulled down around his belly. That's such a dad thing to do.)

Of course it's just hair and I've (almost) gotten over it. He really did need a cut. I think Joe learned a valuable lesson, too. :)

Before anyone gets too upset at Joe, here are some beautiful flowers he sent me this week:
No they weren't make-up flowers; they were sent before the hair cut. I loved getting them. One thing I love about Joe is that when he gives flowers, he gives them usually on regular days. It's so much more fun that way. Anyway, it brightened up what was a tough week for me.

The kids got balloons from the local grocery store the other day. Later on, they ran in from their room and told me they wanted to give their balloons to Heavenly Father. So that's what they did....

As they were flying away, Natalie yelled, "Bye bye! See you when I die!" :)

Ever since we got back from Utah, Natalie has had a hard time being in a room by herself. I guess she got used to the close quarters. So, lately during quiet time she has been sneaking out and falling asleep in the hallway. She will sometimes try to do it at night, too, but she's usually OK with Lizzie in there.

In the doorway to the bathroom:

I don't mind this arrangement actually because when she sneaks out she pretends to be asleep so I won't make her go back in her room. Then, she is usually out for real within minutes. If she stays in her room reading books, she doesn't always nap. Plus, my kids are such deep sleepers that she doesn't wake up, even though she's in the middle of everything.

If Nate wakes up before her, though, he loves to crawl over and bug her. He thinks it's so funny.

Here's another random sleeping picture that I took a few months ago and forgot to post:
That's Elizabeth, asleep with her head hanging off the chair. Luckily, she never fell off.

I looked into Nate's room the other day and saw this:

Reading buddies.

And for the final quiet time snapshot, here's how I found Elizabeth one day:

I thought that was a cool little reading spot she made for herself.

I took pictures of the kids the other day before church. I was happy to find that the girls' Christmas dresses still fit...

"Mom---he's slipping!"

Nate is 1

My baby turned 1. I can't believe it! This year really flew by. I still think he should be this size sometimes:

Don't get me wrong. I love him just how he is right now, too:

He is my boy. He has been SO different than the girls were in a lot of ways.

For one thing he is messy. He makes a bigger mess just with a sippy cup of milk than any other baby I've ever seen. He just spits and dribbles it out like crazy. I took a picture one day:

How did he get it on his forehead? I have no idea.

When he's eating something he likes, he just shovels it in. One day he was cramming about as much beans and rice as he possibly could into his mouth. He made himself gag and threw up onto his tray. He was about to pick it up shovel it right back in when I stopped him. Yuck.

He can also be quite violent. He is still a big hair-puller/scratcher/biter. Luckily the biting hasn't been as bad lately. I've been punishing him for these things but he's always yanking on Elizabeth's hair in the car when she's reaching down to buckle her seat belt. I can't do much about that. That's one of the downfalls of close quarters in the car I guess.

With all of this, it's quite a miracle that his sisters are still completely smitten with him. It probably has to do with his smiley and lovable side. I keep waiting for them to be annoyed with him but it just hasn't happened yet. They are such good sisters, for one thing. I don't give them enough credit for that. And, he is one happy, adorable little boy. We are so glad he came to our family.

He is still not walking and not really all that close either. He can stand well but he doesn't think he can. I still think he will walk before the girls (15/16 months) but we shall see. His only words so far are "mama" and "dada" and even those don't always refer to us. This age is so fun because it feels like they are learning something new every day. The other day I saw him rolling his little car along the ground just like a big boy.

He loves cars and balls. He loves his green blankie. I love when he snuggles on me. He still does his shy look sometimes, although it's much less often. I'm going to be really sad when he doesn't do that anymore.

Anyway, we had a couple of birthday celebrations. We went to my parents' for Labor Day and celebrated the late August/September birthdays.

Here they are:
(Abby, Grandpa, Nate)

This one turned out great:

Monday night, we had our own little family party. First we had dinner. I included two things I know he loves in the meal: watermelon and rice.

Enjoying his watermelon

Then it was cake time!

He wasn't sure what to think about us singing to him:

He smashed it up before he even took a bite

Finally tasting it

Yummy...

Natalie made quite a mess herself...

That will an excellent blackmail picture when she's a teenager.

Then it was present time.

He got a fire truck

And....a gigantic basketball hoop!

It was quite a bit bigger than I realized when I bought it so it's mostly an investment into the future kind of present. He can't play with it now (oops). He did love when Daddy helped him dunk, though, and he loves just playing with the ball...

The girls love it, too

Coming up next: Before and after pictures of the haircut his daddy gave him while I was out Tuesday night...