October

October is always a very busy month for us with General Conference, 4 birthdays, fall outings and Halloween.  By the end of the month I'm tired! 

The kids sure love doing the Home Depot craft every month.  I'm less excited about it because the "washable" paint doesn't wash out of clothes and the girls have ruined a few shirts at these crafts.

I celebrated my 40th birthday!!  Wow! 40.  I remember when my mom turned 40.  It seemed old to a 12 year old and now I'm the one turning 40 with a 12 year old of my own.  It wasn't the birthday I was hoping it would me.  Three of the kids were sick and a little extra needy.  The dress Joseph bought me didn't work out so I had to return it and that was disappointing, too.  My dessert--French Silk Pie--made everything better.  I'm looking forward to a trip to Philadelphia mid-November.  A friend and I are taking 2 days to explore the city and celebrate being Forty in Philly.  

Football ended for Kimball in October.  He really enjoyed playing football and he had some good field time.  The team ended up with a 3-3 record.  It was a huge improvement from the year before when they didn't win any games.  We went to the home games.  They were long for the little ones, but we wanted to support Kimball.  He is already planning to play next year, too. 

We had a nasty case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease.  Kimball was the first to catch it.  I honestly think he picked it up at football.  Let's be realistic...football isn't the cleanest of sports.  The athletes are always putting mouth guards in and out of their mouths and then touching each other tackling and sharing germs.  Anyway, Kimball had a really bad case of HFMD.  He was miserable with the itching.  His feet and hands were all covered.  I was shocked when the school school said he could return to school once he was fever free for 24 hours.  A few days later Lincoln, Eden and Rebecah all came down with fevers.  Lincoln and Rebecah had very mild cases and never had blisters, poor little Eden was miserable.  She didn't go crazy with itching like Kimball, but she had blisters all over.  It definitely spread past her hands, feet, and mouth. 

Eden turn 3 on the 12th.  Sadly, she was sick on her birthday.  Her fever was gone, but you could just tell that she didn't feel well.  She still managed to show us enthusiasm opening presents.

Eden had a chocolate cake with purple cream cheese frosting.  It was a yummy cake.

 

We are so glad Eden is in our family.  She is so sweet and snuggly.  She loves babies and the color purple.  She is very obedient for a 3 year old.  She will readily make her bed and pick up when asked.  She loves to be included in the big kids' play and she frequently reminds us that she is a big girl. The plan is to start her in preschool in January.  Eden went to the doctor for her annual physical.  She was so brave for her flu shot.  She just looked down at her leg after it was over and turned to Mimi, her chameleon, for comfort.  

The kids were off school for Columbus Day so I took them to the apple orchard/farm.  We picked apples, walked around the pumpkins and looked at the animals.  

I didn't realize it was so bright for the kids until I was going through the pictures and I couldn't find any pictures where they weren't squinting!

I think Kimball has a knack for making friends with goats.  He was a little leery of this goat though because he didn't want to be nibbled on while he posed for the picture.

It makes me so happy that I have enough kids to fill every animal face!

Lincoln's and Annika's Birthday!

I can't believe that my tiny twins are now 5!  Where have the last 5 years gone?!?  They are great buddies and I'm glad they have each other.

We were very scattered on their birthday and we weren't all together until 7:00 in the evening.  Joseph worked early in the morning and Kimball had a football game until almost 7:00. It was very hard for them to wait until people came home to open presents so we actually opened a few presents here and there just so they could make it through the day.  

Birthday play-doh.

One of our "Grandma" friends gave them each a stuffed animal and a book.  Lincoln's "stuffy" and book were Charlie Brown.  Lincoln had no idea who his character was and decided to call him Gerald.  I tried to explain that his name is Charlie Brown and he is a cartoon character.  I hadn't realized that the kids hadn't been introduced to the Peanuts characters, but after I thought about it, it is an older cartoon.  Anyway, Charlie is still called Gerald by all of us.

I love the kids' preschool this year.  The teachers are wonderful.  They will post pictures on Facebook from class activities.  One teacher texted me these pictures of the birthday celebration at school.  

  

This was the first year the kids have wanted separate desserts.  I always make two of what ever they want, but this year they had two different requests.  It's a lot of dessert to have 4 "fancy" desserts within 1 week, but I want everyone to feel special and loved so I always make them what they want.  They both wanted pizza for dinner, but there will come a year when they want different meals and then we'll have one meal one day and the other meal the next.  Lincoln had a chocoalte cake with a whipped chocolate buttercream frosting.  I must say that cake was amazing.  I can't decide if I liked the chocolate cake better with the cream cheese frosting or the whipped chocolate buttercream.  Annika had a chocolate chip cookie cake.  

I thought Annika looked so sweet in both of these pictures.  

The day after our last birthday celebration Joseph left town for 10 days.  

The first few days of his trip he was in Utah for Kristi's wedding.

From Salt Lake City Joseph flew to Accra, Ghana with a layover in Paris.  

He had a FULL day of travel.  In Ghana Joseph helped with Operation Walk.  It was his 5th trip with Op Walk since we moved here.  There were a few set backs for the group, but they were still able to complete roughly 50 surgeries.  The Ghanaian people are so humble and appreciative of the services provided even if they don't qualify for a surgery.  Jewelry is a popular gift in Africa so quite a few patients gave Joseph bracelets and necklaces to express their gratitude.  Joseph feels bad that they use their limited resources to give him gifts, but at the same time he realizes that the gifts are gifts of love because these surgeries really give the people a much better quality of life.  

I know these trips are wonderful, but having Joseph gone for 10 days is very difficult on the family.  The three little ones really struggled having Joseph gone.  Every morning they would ask if Dad were home yet.  They also worked through their worries by clinging to me.  By the end of the 10 days I couldn't leave the room to use the bathroom without someone crying asking where I was going and how long I would be.  Even though Joseph has been home for almost two weeks Lincoln is still very clingy.

The view from Joseph's hotel room.

Op Walk team

This is the wife of the hotel owner where the team stayed.  

Joseph gave her steroid injections in her knees.

While Joseph was gone I took the kids to the Halloween party at the Elementary school.  It was very crowded, but the kids had a good time.

Fire Safety Month

All of the schools and preschools celebrate fire safety month.  The big engine came to preschool to the delight of the kids.  Lincoln decided to be a fireman for Halloween after this visit.

The Preschool had Open House.  We went late and it ended up being perfect.  Most of the families had arrived right at the start time so when we showed up 30 minute later all of the other families were gone and we could walk around the classroom looking at the art projects without feeling crowded.  One of the teachers is a friend of mine so it was nice to chat with her casually, too.

We got together with one of our Grandma friends and had a birthday lunch.  She made a fun lion cupcake cake for the kids and we had a nice time.  It's so nice to have friends that reach out to us like family since we don't have any local family.

I love those long candles.  The candles were exciting for the kids.

Halloween

I finally realized why I'm not excited about Halloween.  It has never been a favorite holiday of mine, but after such a busy October I'm all partied out and I don't want to have to make a big deal of one more day!  So, we only carve pumpkins if the kids remember and Joseph is around to supervise.  Costumes are just old ones from the Halloween box.  At least the three little ones are still young enough to not realize their mom doesn't enjoy the holiday! We still celebrate, but not with the same excitement. 

We did go to the Ward Halloween Trunk or Treat.  Joseph got back in town the day of the party so I didn't have to do it alone.  Eden went most of the night without her costume on, but right before the Trunk or treat she put her dress on.

Rebecah with church friends.

Pumpkin Carving.  The day before Halloween Joseph got home about 3:00 and spontaneously said he had time to carve pumpkins.  I made it work and just used a different part of the kitchen to make dinner.  They kids diligently scraped the inside of their pumpkins for a LONG time.  It was probably their favorite part of the entire activity.

Lincoln and Annika picked little pumpkins at school and they wanted to 

carve their tiny pumpkins so Joseph helped Eden carve the big one.

Annika designed her pumpkin face all by herself.

This is a fun picture of Eden wearing a baseball helmet and mowing the lawn.

Most days are so busy, but we did have one quiet morning where we made a little craft. Joseph commented to me recently that I used to do a lot of crafts with Kimball and Rebecah and I rarely do them with the younger three.  I felt a little guilt, but when Kimball and Rebecah were this age we did crafts to fill our day until Joseph got home from work.  Now I'm so much busier with laundry for 7 people, housework and food prep that I don't always have the time and energy to make crafts regularly.  I do make sure I read to the kids regularly and we do other activities together.

Preschool Halloween Party 

The kids had a great time at their party.  The parents were invited to attend the last 15 minutes of preschool so we could watch a costume parade and listen to the kids sing some fun Halloween songs.  I was so proud of my two for singing so well.  They have really grown up.  Annika used to get shy in front of the parents and wouldn't sing, but she was singing and doing the actions.

Lincoln playing a game earlier at preschool.

Kitchen

I realized that I never posted the pictures of our finished kitchen.  It was a big project and it took months.  Painting the cabinets was probably the fastest part of the process.  We had to wait a month for the granite to be ordered and then it took another month for us to decide on back splash.  Who knew that it would take so many back splash samples to finally find "the one".  Then once we had the back splash we needed to find the time for Joseph to install it and then do the grout.  It's all complete though and it was definitely worth the time and money.  We are pleased with the outcome.  The enamel paint is amazing.  I can wash it so easily.  Definitely worth the cost.  Our only regret is that it took us 6 1/2 years to finally do this project!

Before: 

After:

No more ugly brown!!

Other high lights:

We took family pictures.  I'm glad this dreaded task is over for the year.  I always want nice pictures, but I'm too frugal to pay a professional.  I know my kids won't be good for a 1-2 hour photo shoot and I don't want to pay professional prices if my kids won't be good.  One of these years I'll fork over the money for nice pictures.

Annika lost her first 2 teeth!  I was shocked when her first tooth came out and then her second one came out so quickly about a week later.  She seems so young to be losing teeth, but all of my kids seem to lose teeth at a young age.