November's Recap - Part 1

I have tons of pictures from November, so I will break them up into two posts.

Here we go!

I came out of Walmart with my kids, I noticed someone (cough, cough, Ellie) had drawn a person on the Suburban...Time for a car wash!

These boys love to play the piano. When it was new they wanted to play it constantly, (along with the other two kids) but now the novelty has worn off a little bit and they only play it occasionally (or when I sit down to practice. For some reason that seems like the opportune time to play...)

Sleepy boy! It was too difficult to finish his sandwich I guess.

Over those summer and fall months Nathan was quite the little mess maker: one of his shenanigans when he was supposed to be sleeping. I'm not sure what I was doing to miss this while it was happening??? Luckily he hasn't made a big mess like this in quite awhile! Knock on wood, but I think he may be out of that phase! Or maybe he just got sick of vaccuuming up his messes? Yeah, we will go with that.

We were so blessed with a nice, long fall! Playing at the park in November with just a light sweatshirt? Miracle!

I'm not sure why Ellie wouldn't smile. Silly girl!

The boy in the batman pajamas and mask had Jonah and a few other little boys captivated. They couldn't stop looking!

Wow, he sure has gotten taller since then!

Sam was out of town and requested a selfie. I love this picture - look at Ellie's face! So funny!

Jonah woke up screaming and unreasonable after only about 20 minutes of his nap, and the only thing that would console him was snuggling in my bed. Poor guy!

My little Nathan boy. He loves when he is the first one to wake up from naps before Ellie gets home from school! He gets some mom time all for himself.

Ellie brought these pretty leaves inside that she found as she was walking home from the bus stop.

I had forgotten how much she LOVED the pretty colors of the fall leaves. She would constantly bring  red, yellow and orange leaves to me and she couldn't stop talking about how pretty they were. (And again with the funny close-mouthed smile... I don't know what's up with that!)

Blurry picture, but I sure love this happy little boy!

Jonah went through a phase where he didn't want to wear his regular sweatshirt, he only wanted to wear the top to his dragon costume. Sure, why not? I secretly think it is cute!

Sam was gone for 10 days in November, but luckily Tami and Adam were living with us at the time and they were a huge help.

I took the kids to Porter's to look around (gotta do something when it's cold outside!) and contemplated fabric for Tommy's stocking... Which never happened this year. Whoops!

My sister-in-law was so sweet and spoiled Ellie and Nathan by taking them to dinner and a movie one night while Sam was gone, and I had a coupon for a free buffet at Pizza Pie Cafe and Jonah and Tommy are so young they eat free too, so we decided to make a little date of it. I cannot even describe how giddy and happy Jonah was to have me pretty much all to himself.

(Tommy had a good time too)

But seriously, Jonah couldn't stop telling me everything on his mind, and for awhile he just laid down on my lap and continued talking. I'm so glad he had such a great time!

My boys love to go to Walmart and "look at the animals." It's another way we kill time when it's cold outside.

Ellie requested to have her hair straightened for school, then of course we had to send pictures to daddy, who was still out of town!

Nathan couldn't be left out of the picture.

Jonah fell asleep on the stair like this.

What in the world?! Kids can sleep in some pretty weird positions!

A friend and I took our kids to a trampoline gym for toddler time, and they had so much fun!

Unfortunately these are the only pictures I took.

Look at that gigantic egg our turken (cross between a turkey and a chicken)

laid! Usually it lays eggs the same size as the other chickens' eggs, but wow!

Nathan left all of his treasures by the door for easy access after naps. He LOVED that stick he found at the park!

Another case of Nathan traveling so he could nap. He went through a phase where he REALLY didn't like to sleep in his own bed. And as long as he slept, I didn't care where or how many toys he was surrounded with!

I thought this would be fun to document - Ellie's sometimes-backwards numbers.

I went out to feed the chickens and this little guy had to keep an eye on me (Ignore the filthy window. It never stays clean for long with all of the little fingers we have around here!)

I couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving to start decorating for Christmas - it was fun to get all of the nativities out of the box in the basement!

And of course I couldn't forget a picture of my cute pilgrim girl in the hat and necklace she made at school.

She wore that hat so much! And just the other day she had to throw it away since it got ripped. Three months? That's pretty impressive if you ask me!

More to come from November!

October's Re-Cap

     Wow, it has been awhile! I have tried to blog quite a few times from my phone, (since that's where my pictures are it is just easier) but I can't even tell you how many times the Blogger app has crashed when I was nearly finished with a post, deleting the whole thing. So frustrating! After that happening about 10 times that kind of took the wind out of my sails... But now I have come to terms with the fact that I need to blog from my computer - and I'm ready to stop putting it off!

     I thought the quickest way to get up to date would be to go by month, so here we go, starting with October!

Nathan used to be the last one of his siblings to fall asleep, and sometimes he would come hang out in the doorway of our bedroom until he fell asleep. He did this almost every night for about a month, then he stopped.

The first name Ellie learned how to write besides her own was "Eve." We had to take a picture to send to my mom so she could show Eve. Ellie was pretty proud of herself! She still loves to write down the names of everyone she knows, especially our family.

Sam finally got to finish the chicken coop after it got destroyed when it blew over earlier in the summer. Nathan LOVED to be outside with him while he worked.

We also watched General Conference, and each of the kids had to show me their pictures of President Monson.

Tommy didn't quite make it to the end!

My brother Ben came home from his mission in October, and I went to Arizona by myself to see his homecoming talk. It was really strange but relaxing to be there without my kids!

Annie was really cute and wanted me to play house with her. It was funny that she fit so well in the doll cradle!

All of the siblings together again after 2 years! (Even though I'm blocking part of Ben's face... Whoops.) Also, I'm officially short!

Once I got home we played lots of play dough. And when we do play dough my kids have to get out pretty much every single utensil in the kitchen...

But hey, at least they were having fun!

Mmm... Play dough cookies!

What a beautiful sunset! (It's so strange to see this picture now, because the neighbor's house on the left has since burned down and they are in the process of demolition and eventually rebuilding.)

We have been wanting to get a piano for awhile, and we decided to do it this year! (I am now taking a beginning piano class at BYU-Idaho and really enjoying it!) Every year a store from Idaho Falls comes to Rexburg and sells discounted, used pianos, so that is where we got this one. Also note that I have not added any picture evidence of my fourth child to the wall... I should probably get on that!

These last two pictures are the only two pictures I have from Halloween... That's a bummer! The top one is us running to the grocery store 30 minutes before preschool to buy treats for Nathan's class since I had forgotten to get them before. Yep, I am awesome like that.

And this one is Nathan playing air hockey with Sam at BYU-Idaho after trick-or-treating at Sam's office building and a kids Halloween party that they threw on campus. For the sake of remembering, Ellie was Elsa, Nathan was a ninja turtle, Jonah was a dragon, and Thomas was Batman. Afterwards Sam took the kids trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. They had a great time and got TONS of candy. I always feel sorry for the kids teachers the day after Halloween because of the sugar!

It us fun to look back at pictures from October and remember some of the fun things we did and to see how the kids have grown physically and with all they have learned! I can't wait to get to November's pictures.

Life as of Late

Here is a completely random post of pictures that will give you a good idea of what life has been like lately!

We have been spending lots of time at the park, soaking up these end of summer/beginning of fall days. The weather has been beautiful.

Nathan loves to make Thomas laugh. He works hard to find what will spark a giggle from his little brother, then does it over and over and over again. With Ellie gone in the afternoons at school, Nathan has really taken over the "oldest" role.

On Mondays and Wednesdays we have 35 minutes between dropping Ellie off at school and picking up Nathan at preschool, and Jonah and Thomas take advantage of being the only two home by playing so sweetly together. I almost forget what it's like when my older kids bicker... Almost.

Of course we take lots of trips to the grocery store. I love this picture because it is a pretty accurate representation of what it's like to shop with all four kids.

Thomas likes to "help" the kids get their laundry ready to take to the laundry room.

As a family we went to the BYU-I orchard and picked a few apples.... I made tons of apple sauce and dehydrated even more. It took me a few days to get through this laundry basket, and Thomas loved to play with the apples and say, "ball."

I absolutely loved this picture I saw on instagram from ldsliving. The representation of our Heavenly Parents and all of their children is so beautiful.

And I laughed SO HARD at this picture. I'm not sure why... Maybe because it's pretty comparable to bed time at our house? That couldn't possibly be why....

Ellie loves to wear my shirts to bed recently. The other night I sent her in to pick out a shirt to wear, and she came out wearing this shirt and some heels. I thought it was funny how she had to puff her chest out like that to keep the V-neck from going nearly down to her belly button. She loves to wear my high heels all over the place lately.

Snot + Grass = Yuck! (but kinda cute)

Someone got a little bit sleepy! He was practicing his letters while I worked on homework... I guess the letter A is boring!

We have a neighbor that often brings over hand-me-downs, and Nathan was beyond ecstatic to get these ninja turtle pjs. He wears them pretty much every night. I have to sneak them out of his room to wash them.

I don't love this picture of myself, but hey, this is real life! Me in my granny night gown and Christmas socks in September, reading a book to my little guy who is only in a diaper. That book is "The Wheels on the Bus," and Thomas loves it. He dances along when I sing it to him by shaking his head back and forth and jumping up and down.

Before Jonah's haircut on Sunday we put it in a ponytail. It's the cutest little "man bun" that I have ever seen! Though it's much better now that it's short! (Ignore the hand towel hanging all weird on the oven...)

"Look Mom, take a picture of me crossing my fingers!"

Nathan's love language is definitely "Quality Time." He revels in the one-on-one time he gets with either Sam or me! Yesterday afternoon while the other two boys were sleeping and Ellie was at school he and I sat out on the back porch for awhile and he got his very own whole piece of gum! Pretty exciting stuff.

I don't know how to flip this picture, but this is Jonah trying to feed Sam some chicken over FaceTime on a stick he found. Delicious.

And a little video of my bathroom-cleaning helper singing "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me." I missed the first part, but it still captured the cuteness of his little voice!

I love being a mom to these four cute kiddos!

Another Bookworm

My older three all love books, and I think Thomas is catching on too! 

He can pretty much always be found pulling the books off of the book shelf, and I don't usually stop him (unless he's ripping them or something, of course!).  I want him to always feel drawn to the books. I guess it's kind of like my mom says with her piano - as long as the kids aren't being rough with it, they are welcome to play it. I don't want to kill his curiosity by telling him "no" to touching the books. I want him to always be drawn to them. Besides, that's why we have a kid book shelf anyway!

(As I post this he's behind me emptying the bookshelf!)

Keeping it Real

Candid photo of me helping Nathan and Jonah clean their room. Sweet.

(Photography by Nathan, who was supposed to be cleaning. Also note that Jonah is nowhere to be seen.)

It's amazing how messy two little boys can get their room in one day. Good thing I love those little mess makers!