Lately at our house

Luke is at the awkward nap/no nap stage. He needs one, but he resists! One afternoon I couldn't find him and finally looked in this comfy corner. 

 Evelyn recently moved to her crib, so Luke moved to his big boy bed. Still deciding if he wants to use the pillows, I guess. 

 We got an early snow storm-- 6 inches!--and the kids loved playing outside. This is the first time Luke stayed out for more than 15 minutes. It literally took an hour to find all the snow gear and get everyone suited up in the right sizes (it felt like 3 hours since Evelyn was crying). Poor Cora is wearing clown boots since I guessed wrong on how much her feet would grow between the end of season sales last year and now. 

 He only had fleece gloves from last year, which just didn't cut it for actually playing in the snow, so he had to wear some of Violet's old pink ones. The perils of being the only boy in the family. Luckily he doesn't mind, his favorite color most days is pink anyway. But he'll get some more manly ones soon. 

 We did an afternoon out at Jump Around Utah. It's a fun place, and has good deals on groupon often. Evelyn wasn't old enough to jump this time, but she was still really interested.

 Cora, Violet, and Luke had a great time. 

 Afterward we met up with Kevin, Kissie, and Pata at City Creek for dinner. Evelyn got to play around a bit there.

Violet's talk

Violet was asked to give a talk in Primary! She was so excited! Here's one of her practice talks. She did a great job.

I’m not old enough to go on a mission now, but I can still be a missionary.

I can be a good friend.

I can serve others.

I can be a good example and choose the right.

I can study the scriptures.

I can go to church

I can bear my testimony.

I can pray and ask Heavenly Father for a missionary experience.

If I do these things, I will be ready to share the gospel, just like a big missionary.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Family Pictures

It was just the kiddos for pictures this time. I wanted some of them for Christmas cards, and wasn't up for choosing outfits for the whole family. We just used what was in their closets and I think it came together nicely. This one is my very favorite one! 

 With this one coming for a close second

And a great funny one too. 

These are the pictures I had mounted on foam core to go above the piano

 

 

These are triple duty pictures... Evelyn's 6 month pictures, Cora's school pictures, and Christmas card pictures. I think we'll do school pictures this way every year!  

 

 

 

 

 

 I love it when I can get pictures that capture not just what my kids look like, but a bit of their personalities too!

Wax Museum

Cora's school had a Wax Museum day. They are studying a unit on professions, goods and services. She was assigned to dress up as a doctor and had a few lines to memorize. When people pushed the 'button' on her shoulder she had to say her part. I was pretty sick and had totally lost my voice, so I wasn't able to go, but Kevin got a video (pretty noisy in there huh?)

October Round-up

We met up with Amber, Jaxon, and Dylan for a visit to the Kennecot Mine Visitor's Center. It's always amazing to see those huge huge trucks!

Kevin took Cora and Violet to see Aladdin at Tuacahn. They changed the rules so you have to be 3 to watch the show, so it just didn't make sense for us all to go. The girls had a great daddy-daughter road trip! 

 The kids really like the Home Depot workshops that Kevin takes them too. It's on the first Saturday of every month and we go as often as we can (even if it's tricky for Kevin to help 3 kids with hammers at one time!). Luke was especially proud of his firetruck he made, he insisted on an up-close shot. 

 Violet lost her first tooth on October 9th! She was so proud, and happy to receive her own dollar from the Tooth Fairy. She is pretty young to lose a tooth, but her teeth came in early as a baby, so it's not completely unexpected. The dentist said she'll just be ahead of schedule tooth-wise and will probably get her six year molars when she is 5. 

 With all of our littles, we have lots of early mornings! I can't remember the last time we've slept past 6:30. Ah, who needs sleep anyway when you have these munchkins to play with? 

Family breakfast at Kneaders on a Saturday morning. Delicious french toast!

And, a bit of October on Facebook...

October 5th: Tonight I let Kevin choose if he wanted to change Evelyn's dirty diaper or read the requested Strawberry Shortcake Meets Cherry Jam to the big kids for bedtime (5th time this week). He chose the dirty diaper. Lucky for me it wasn't a Tuesday meeting night or I would have been stuck with the diaper AND Cherry Jam! Parenting is funny.

October 27th:

Evelyn has been sick for about 3 weeks with successive colds, and hasn't slept more than 30 minutes at a time during the day. This morning she took a 3 hour nap! I couldn't believe how much I accomplished during that time. It was nice to remember that I am usually busy meeting her needs, and that it's not because I'm lazy that normally nothing gets crossed off my to do list!

October 29th:

Weekend funnies: Cora, after a cranky morning and napping from 9-11am "Mom, I feel SO GOOD!".... Violet, during dinner tonight "I like this salmon a lot better than the fish salmon we had before" ... Luke, after spotting Cora up on the stand for the Primary Program at church yelled "Hi Cora!!"... and Evelyn, sporting cute banana smile while eating and producing such loud baby belches.

Happy Halloween!

The kids are the perfect ages for Halloween! It's been fun celebrating the holiday. 

Kevin is in charge of pumpkin carving at our house. The kids loved it! 

  

 Pretty spooky!

The kids had lots of opportunities to dress up. Here they are at Kevin's office after trick or treating around the cubicles and outside the ROB. They also dressed up for our ward's Fall Festival party. 

Cora's school did a Halloween parade! 

 Violet and Luke both had parties at their preschool/playschool too. 

                                  Cora was a witch, Violet was a cat, and Luke was a fireman. 

                   Evelyn was a caterpillar. She didn't like it too much for out and about, but she didn't complain too much about being snuggled in it in her stroller. 

 Kissie came over for Halloween night. She manned the front porch and handed out candy while Kevin and I took the kids out trick-or-treating. Luke did pretty well and stayed out for 45 minutes, then came home with me. Violet stayed out a bit longer, and Cora hooked up with a friend and stayed out even longer, getting the most loot of all! 

Halloween at Hee Haw Farms

We bought a groupon and did an evening at HeeHaw Farms. They had lots of activities there including a cow train, pumpkin patch, hay ride, huge slide, pig races, and corn box. It was a windy evening, but we still had a fun time. 

  

We bought some feed for the kids to feed the sheep and goats. But holy cow, they must have been starving because they were super eager! The kids all were too scared to feed them so I got to have a go. 

Violet was willing to pose for one picture--doesn't she look thrilled?

These little piglets were so cute! 

Even Evelyn got to take a turn in the corn box! 

Ride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins!