halloween!

halloween started with a party on my bed... exclusive for those wearing footie pajamas.

brothers

I'm trying to win over my new visiting teaching companion.

reading happy haunting Amelia bedelia, Brady was all "mom, is it REALLY blood?!"  that kid is so dang literal.  the whole book was mostly completely over his head, despite me trying to explain it to him.  plus side: now he knows about things like putting a leaf in the table and cracking the window.

second year in a row being a baseball player.  he might be following in his uncle Wally's footsteps.

all ready for school and waiting for the Quentin bus (as we lovingly call it... bless my dear friend Danielle for picking Brady up for school all the time)... swinging his perfectly matching rockies backpack.

does this kid look pumped or what?!  ps- I didn't have any suitable baseball socks for him so I cut up some little girl tights that had been stretched out after having been used so much.  we used rubber bands to hold up the tops of his baseball "socks" which maaaay have little Mary Janes on the toes.

Elizabeth doesn't know what it's called, but she is excelling at photobombing these days.

this is 100% natural and I can't even handle how much I love it.

I knew I was on to something. 

while the two were napping and the other two were at school, I used my precious kid-free time to finally tackle Abigail's horrible junk drawer and I turned it back into. craft drawer.  no true before picture because you couldn't even see anything really because it was so full.  I found a number of old papers from church and this photo of her and Elle from the primary missionary activity a month or two ago.

part way through.  this is once I got out all the stuff from the drawer and there was just this under layer left that had to all be sorted through individually.

Danielle sent me this picture from Brady's school halloween party.  throwing the cotton balls on the spider web.  Brady explained it to me after school but was all "and when you got it to stick it was kind of like you got a goal."

the treasures from the drawer.  I reimplimented a "special drawer" for each kid.  Brady has a drawer in his dresser and Abigail has a drawer in her desk.  I'm interested to see what will happen when they start running out of space. so far, everything is special enough for the special drawer.

eventually this,

turned back to this.  it's a craft drawer again!

we started Abigail on medication at the end of fall break.  one of the most significant side effects is a decreased appetite.  even knowing that, I am truly shocked at how Abigail's appetite has nearly disappeared.  she used to eat an entire peanut butter and Nutella sandwich, a whole apple (or equivalent in a fruit or vegetable... about a cup... I always use the same size containers), a yogurt, and at least a little handful of pistachios (or other equivalent nut/trailmix).  lately, she eats her yogurt, maybe 3-4 bites of sandwich, a bite or two of apple, and a taste or two of nuts.  at first she would just tell me that she didn't have enough time at lunch but now she's finally started telling me that she's not very hungry and I need to start packing her less food.  she has no idea that this is a side effect of the medication but never asks questions so I haven't had to explain anything to her.  I mean, even giving her just part of a sandwich instead of a whole one, I can see how she's only taken a few bites.  it just blows my mind.  I weighed her before I started her on medication so I would have a baseline... mom fail though because I guess I never wrote it down... I can only guess.  I weighed her again though and she's down to 42lbs.  it is possible that she's lost three pounds in 2.5 weeks?!

Elizabeth was Minnie Mouse for the library party, a lady bug for the ward party, and chose Elmo for halloween night.  she was the most adorable Elmo ever.  pictures don't really do it justice, but she looked HILARIOUS walking around all night. I got SO many comments from people we passed.  even teenagers and older kids were all "ummm, I just have to tell you that that is the best Elmo."  I wish I had gotten a decent picture but that just didn't occur to me so I just had some blurry snapshots.

it was cold but we all survived.  thank goodness for no wind, rain, or snow!  Andrew stayed toasty warm in some fleece footies with his fleece footie costume on top.  I was actually even a little worried about him overheating in his carseat/stroller.

Brady started sorting his candy (he's just methodical like that) and Abigail jumped over to help him.  it kind of made me nervous though because I don't want him to be aware of how much of his candy I'm going to eat.  ; )

another year in the books!  I can't believe little Andrew will be toddling around with them next year!

three kids in a travel bed

winning at life

I woke up (well, who are we kidding... it set in last night) sore from the weights class I did at the gym yesterday. Thank goodness it was yoga day today. I managed to get Abigail ready and off to school on time and the rest of us ready so we could drive straight to the gym. Dropped the kids off at the daycare and got five minutes of warm up on the treadmill and then went upstairs for yoga. It was a sub named Debra and she was telling us scripture stories and mythical stories to go along with the yoga poses and she was all about her theme of the day of heat and change. Very entertaining and a pretty good workout. Picked the kids up at 10:45 and hung out at the playground with molly for an hour or so while our kids played. The weather was beautiful although maybe a tad hot. That sun. 

Got brady and Elizabeth lunch (well, brady likes to make his own sandwiches now so that part was easy) and he read books to Andrew since I was putting Andrew down for nap. I put Elizabeth down at 1 and gray got picked up at 1:10 and I was in the shower by 1:15. Woohoo!  My whole nap time was spent showering and then ironing some of Chris's shirts. I'm 100% against ironing but our dryer has been sporadically not doing the wrinkle mode that keeps it tumbling. So I've accumulated a stack of wrinkled dress shirts. Tackled all seven shirts. Ironing is the biggest waste of time ever. Also, Elizabeth never napped. Hung out in her crib forever and eventually started crying so I finally got her out at 3 something and she actually was awesome reading books quietly in her room while I did ironing and put the shirts away.

At 3:55, my alarm went off for school pickup and as I told Elizabeth to get her shoes on, I smelled a dirty diaper. Got her diaper changed. Went to Andrew to get him buckled. Also had a dirty diaper. I think I was ten minutes late picking up the kids. Whoops. But I did grab three bananas and passed those to the kids while they were getting buckled and we were all able to drive straight to the library. I know we just went last night (and had a super embarrassing exit that involved three of my four children screaming), but Chris was in slc today and not getting back til 8. When he's out of town, it almost guarantees us a trip to the library.

Two minutes after we walked in, one of the librarians was walking around saying there was availability for the fairy garden making class that was about to start (I'd had Abigail on the waitlist) because people last minute didn't show up. So Abigail and Brady ran over to join that and I nursed Andrew and Elizabeth played.

After it was over and people were clearing out and cleaning up (but of course Abigail was still working hard), the kids noticed that where were actually foam crowns and orange sugar cookies and orange juice juice boxes and I decided that I was officially winning at motherhood today. 

We stayed a bit longer so the kids could play and we checked out our hold books for Abigail and a whole ton of books that I'd collected for Brady. We left after 6:30 and got home closer to 7. Walking in, I started an episode of paw patrol for the kids while I nursed Andrew and put him to bed (that kid is so neglected and so patient... he's not really a pet rock anymore... I'd put him firmly in the carry on baggage category).

honey got home while the kids and I were eating dinner.  Brady and I went upstairs and read a bit.  I just wanted to show him the new library books I got for him and show him that even though some of them look hard... he's completely capable.  I haven't told Brady yet, but we're gonna take a break from his reading lesson book for a while.  we may or may not come back to it yet... I haven't decided yet.  I want to see how he does with me working with him out of real books that have a much larger set of vocabulary words.  I know he's capable of reading more than just the limited words in the reading lesson book.  

anyway, then Brady had a meltdown when I told him I was going to put Elizabeth to bed (it was 9:00 or something and she didn't even nap at all today!) so I left him and I think he was asleep within two or three minutes.  it was by the time I finished brushing Elizabeth's teeth.  ha.  I think school days really wear him out because he doesn't get a nap or any quiet resting time.  

so once all the kids were asleep, I was so exhausted but my kitchen was a disaster.  lately, I've assigned that job to Christopher, but right now is his busiest time of year and he said he wouldn't be able to get to it tonight or tomorrow morning so I went downstairs and did the pile up of dishes and started the dishwasher and cleared off the counters.  it felt really good to get that accomplished but didn't feel good to see the clock say 11 and know my sleep time was dwindling. still so worth it to wake up to clean kitchen though.  it makes all the difference to my day.

I'm not gonna pretend that all my days are so amazing, but I couldn't fail to record this special one.  everything just came together for me and I feel so lifted up from it.  thank goodness for amazing days.