Halloween

This year for Halloween we went door to door trick-or-treating. This is the first experience any of my children have had with it. Last year we went down center street during the day but I didn't have Bryant with me this year so I didn't want to mess with the crowds there on my own. I never realized how much teaching was involved in trick-or-treating. Before we went out I reemphasized the rule that they say thank you for whatever they are given even if it is not something they wanted or if they wanted something else from the bowl. After all, all of the candy, except 10 pieces, were going into a community bowl for the whole family. After two houses I realized I had to set some additional rules. Only knock once, we don't knock with our feet, remain outside the house once the door is open, try not to crowd the person with the candy bowl, and don't reach straight up with the appearance of a demand for candy (even though that is really what trick-or treating is right?). We live in a neighborhood with a lot of town houses. This provided the children with a lot of doors right next to each other, equating to a lot of candy, and not very much effort or time. Gunnar was the one that didn't want to come home when the older oldest two were ready to come home. He adamantly said "no home! More Candy!" I couldn't help but laugh at his insistence. With the promise of two more doors to knock on on our way home he obliged to turn around. 

Here is Brylee and Connor before heading out the door.

Gunnar trying to keep up with is older siblings at the get go :_)

Here are the troops ready to head out and get some candy! Brylee was a dog, Hunter was a ninja, Connor was a bumblebee, Tucker was IronMan, and Gunnar was a lion. 

Here is Brylee's pile of candy

Tucker's piles of candy

Hunter's candy

And Gunnar's candy

A picture of the bee with me :)

Connor refused to smile for the camera :)

All of the candy brought home by our children was enough to almost fill a box that was previously filled with 20lbs of peaches. It was more candy than we would normally purchase to give out to trick-or-treaters! They certainly all had lots of fun and no one complained about the community bowl, thankfully.

October

We got to spend a whole week in Mesa, AZ during October. If it had not been SO HOT it would have been perfect ;) I knew it was going to be "warm" so I didn't pack any pants or long sleeve shirts but it was still in the 90s while we were there and leaving the beautiful 70 degree weather, the 90s were hot. It was nice spending a whole week with the family who were enjoying their fall break. I felt like I had plenty of time to visit with everyone and get real time with some of my family members that I rarely get to see when we are down. I really enjoyed the long talks I got to have with Natalie at night and Aleisa on our drive to visit with Tammy. That one on one time is not something that I usually get. Bryant also got to go fishing a few times with his brother, always catching a fish as soon as he walked away from the fishing pole to go to the bathroom :) We were also fortunate to tour the Phoenix Temple Open house on its first day open. It was so nice to go at the beginning when it wasn't terribly crowded. I had a friend post of Facebook the other night about how it took her family 2.5 hours to get from their car, through the temple, and back to their car because there were so many people. That is how I felt our Ogden Temple walk through was like. The children had a great time seeing everything inside once again. I can't wait for the Payson, Utah Temple open house in January :)

It was nice to come back to Utah and still have glorious weather. October's theme for me was "do nothing." I seriously spent several hours outside every day and had to drag myself in the house to make dinner each night. It was just too fun to be out in the wonderful weather with all of my children, the other moms in the circle, and all of their children. Dinner was always late and Tucker and Hunter didn't always get their homework done but in the grand scheme of things that doesn't really matter, we sure had fun though!

Our almost 4 year old neighbor inherited a bike from another neighbor at the end of the summer and had been riding it tons. Hunter took several turns on this bike too. Well the training wheels wore out on it and the only ones we had that could attempt to replace them were from a 12in bike and were way too short for the bike. They did however give the psychological benefit to Hunter and our neighbor that training wheels were on the bike so they both rode it without the training wheels even touching the ground. Hunter was so thrilled with himself. He had me take the training wheels off our "big boy" bike and he took off like a champ! He was so thrilled with himself he kept exclaiming "2 WHEELS!!!" and "I'M DOING IT!!" over and over. It was a very proud Mom moment and one that I'm glad I got to enjoy. 

Here is a video of Hunter shortly after mastering "2 wheels"

And here he is being more adventurous as he has gained confidence and riding down the sidewalk bump :)

Tucker was so excited by Hunter's success that he decided that he should try as well. He decided to ride the bike that had the training wheels that don't touch the ground. Tucker is a lot more timid than Hunter and has not had as much balancing practice but he was able to ride on two wheels, he just doesn't like to turn so he would ride in straight lines from one driveway to another :)

Family picture practice

Well we were going to get family pictures taken in October and we got all ready for them when I got the call from the photographer that she would not be able to take them because there was a funeral happening and she was sorry for not letting us know sooner. Well I took the opportunity to have a dry run and I learned that it was good to practice. I learned that the children don't like being "positioned," have a hard time holding still and all looking at the camera. Here are some of the gems taken by our neighbor for our practice.

This is my favorite picture of all of them 

Now our pictures are scheduled for November 9th, which means that it will be colder and I get to come up with new coordinating outfits for everyone, the only downfall to the postponement...

September

Here are some pictures from September 

Connor being forced to sit up for a picture, such a sour face.

Hunter stole his Uncle Jordan's hat while he was here for the baby blessing and hid it under all of Bryant's hats so that Jordan would not be able to find it. 

The kids also had fun making a cozy party on Tucker"s bed! It sure is fun to stuff four kids into one bedroom :)

I was a major slacker and did not take any pictures of Connor's baby blessing. He barely fit in the button up shirt we had for him so Bryant took it off him before Sacrament meeting was over, then he pooped all over the rest of his church clothes during the third hour. It was so fun to share the day with everyone that could come out and support us. We are blessed to have had my parents and Bryant's parents and brother Jordan drive up from Arizona to be in attendance. We are also blessed to have so many good people around us here that came out too!. 

Connor turned 2 months old the day after his blessing! He is over 15 lbs, He outgrew his 0-3 month clothes at 1 month old and is transitioning out of 3-6 month clothes at 2 months. He also refuses to smile for the camera.

Hunter's first day school was September 2. His school was able to hire another kindergarten teacher a week before school started and the principal decided to alter the way kindergarten would run as a result so kindergarten started two weeks later than everyone else. The school got rid of half day kindergarten much to my dismay! We still had the option to send Hunter to school for just the morning but then he would miss out on all of the extra-curriculars like music, p.e., art, and library. I felt like they had forced my hand and really did not like it. It has taken me awhile to not feel super grumpy about it. 

This is Connor completely filling a 6 month onesie. 

This is a video of our everyday lives. Brylee really wanted me to video her flying paper airplanes. 

Connor falls asleep when he is tired even if I sit him up on the couch to keep him awake for a little bit longer. 

hmmmm....do not disturb....Connor is in deep thought

Every year an outdoor shopping mall does an event called "Chalk the Block." Lots of artists come and draw pictures in the parking stalls and chalk is handed out to guests to color the sidewalks of the mall. After seeing all of the pictures we found a place to start drawing. Well I drew a large dog for Gunnar and then everyone else wanted one. Hunter came up with the idea to start coloring it in and got everyone else to follow suit. 

Here is Hunter with his finished dog.

Tucker's dog was way too big to finish before we left but he was able to make a rather nice mask on the dog. 

Brylee wanted pictures with lots of her creations

I wanted a picture of Brylee in this watermelon dress because I think it is super cute, for once she didn't want a normal picture and so she posed like this ;)

Funeral for Marjorie Whiting

Bryant's grandmother passed away at the end of September so we made the trek to Taylor, Arizona for the funeral. We drove down on Friday and were pleasantly surprised that it only take 9 hours to get to Taylor if we drove through Moab rather than take the 89 to Flagstaff and catching another freeway to Holdbrook and then to Taylor. 9 hours in the car is easy cheesy :) We stopped in Moab to stretch our legs while I fed Connor. The kids had lots of fun at the park and I was glad that it was not far off our path. This park had some interesting toys like this weird insect/creature that Tucker was climbing on 

They also had these toys to ride on. I loved these when I was little.

This four way rocker was my favorite thing. 

Hunter had lots of fun climbing up :)

Taking the path we did, we went through the heart of Navajo country and we found a rather ominous face in one of the mountains. We also learned not to stop in Many Lands for gas. We likely could have made it without stopping on the reservation but someone had to pee. Then someone had the need of another bathroom break only 10 minutes later so we stopped in Chinle as well. It was an interesting adventure to say the least and now we know to make a stop before the reservation and then again after if necessary. 

Amazingly our children traveled well. Normally, I am stuck sitting on the middle bench of the van helping the children be happy but with 5 children there are no seats for me other than in the front. Tucker and Hunter took turns on the middle bench helping Connor and passing food to the back row when needed. Gunnar had a moment where he was super upset and would not calm down without a hug, not even an air hug (blow a hug like blowing kisses) would not suffice. Otherwise everyone got along and helped each other be happy. 

Here are some pictures from the funeral taken by Hunter and Tucker. 

After the funeral we all went to Grandma Whiting's house to reminisce. We left there right after a major rain storm hit and drove to Flagstaff to visit with Michelle and Daniel. After learning about the 9 hour drive through Moab I had second thoughts about traveling 3 hours to Flagstaff to travel 9 hours to home the following day but I'm glad we stopped there. It was so nice to stay up and chat for awhile and then visit more Sunday morning. Family sure is the best!