One Of These Days...

...I might actually keep up on my blog posts so that I don't have to do these major catching up and glossing over ones. One of these days is not today.



Anyway the month of October was crazy busy, as usual. And because I didn't take a whole lot of pictures last month, I can't really remember everything we had going on. I know we had A LOT of soccer practices and games. The kids ended up all having a great season. Kendall and Lynnsey improved even more and were really fun to watch. Kendall had a few injuries because he got right in there after the ball and then would end up getting mauled by the larger, even more aggressive players. But he always recovered quickly and got right back in the game. Spencer even had fun after the first few games. He mostly just ran around after the other clump of kids on the field but he'd get very excited if the ball happened to bounce off his shoe and we would cheer excitedly as if he'd just had the most amazing kick of his life. He claims he wants to play again in the spring, so hopefully he'll love it.



I directed a cute little talent show for our Faith in God group last month too. We only had three kids participating and an hour to fill, so we really had to work to stretch out the time. We performed a couple of fun readers theater pieces one of which we were asked to re-perform at our Branch Halloween party. And then each of the boys performed two or three talents. Kendall brought some artwork to share, and then he performed a cute magic show and read an original poem. And do you think I had my camera there to take pictures? Of course not.

I did however capture a few random shots of the general cuteness/silliness of our kids. This one is Spencer being a rock star: (I love his pom-pom hair and flashlight microphone)


Kaya has become our little sneaky child these days. Every so often it will grow very quiet and we can generally find her hiding under a table or behind a curtain eating something that is off limits. The other day I spotted her under the kitchen table with a bowl of sugar. When she saw me coming her way she frantically tried to shove it behind her back. Little stinker. This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago when she had already brushed her teeth and gotten ready for bed. We found her with a piece of watermelon hiding under the high chair.

Then she generally smiles sweetly at us and says something irresistable so she never gets in too much trouble for her antics:

Fall came with beautiful, brilliant colors. The kids had a ball playing in the leaves but none of us enjoyed all the raking. One crazy day we spent about 3 hours raking our own lawn and then went over to my mom's and did hers for another couple of hours. By the time we were done we could barely move, so we treated ourselves to a rare dinner out at Pizza Hut.

This tree in my mom's yard was absolutely breathtaking. We took pictures in the very late afternoon so the colors aren't even close to as brilliant crimson as it is in the full sun. It was absolutely gorgeous.

By the time we finished the raking, it had grown dark and cold so Taylor made his own earwarmers--out of his gloves. It doesn't show up very well with the dark picture, but it was pretty funny.

This one's a bit blurry but I wanted to show the giant piles of leaves we raked into the street for pick-up at my mom's house. It was insane and many of her trees hadn't even turned color yet so there were lots more to come.

And these pictures are from our own yard--when the idea of raking was still new and fun.

In other news, Kaya still hasn't kicked the binky habit. In fact, sometimes one just isn't enough anymore...

Halloween was lots of fun this year although it felt a bit rushed because we changed our theme late in the month so we had to scramble to put together all the costumes. We had planned on going with a Little Red Riding Hood theme but Lynnsey insisted that she wanted to be Red Riding Hood and Kaya could be the grandmother. But Kaya won't wear any sort of headcovering and so the little gray wig I was planning to buy would never have worked. So we finally ended up dropping that idea and going with a "What I Want to Be When I Grow Up" theme. And this way, even Taylor decided to dress up for another year.

Taylor was a paleontologist (modeled after famous movie archeologist Indiana Jones).

Kendall went as a budding chef.

Lynnsey the veterinarian.

Spencer made an adorable astronaut.

And Kaya was a precious little nurse (without a nurse hat of course...)

This year our branch trunk or treat was held at the same time as our city trick or treat so we missed out on going around our neighborhood and opted for the church activity. Literally five minutes before we left, Kalen decided we should dress up too. So I went as college professor and he went as a stay-at-home mom. (I think he really just didn't want to change out of his sweats). If we'd had more time, we could have made it work better. Oh well. Kalen thought his Old Navy t-shirt that had food spilled on it during the dinner was a nice touch. (Good to know what he thinks of my general appearance...)

The kids had fun at the various carnival games before the trunk or treating began.

And Kendall got to meet the Swedish Chef from the Muppet show:

And in still other news, I'm still making hats for my new Etsy shop. I've actually only sold one item to someone that I don't know. Everything else has been locally. But that's okay too. I've got orders for four more hats that I'm working on right now so I'm excited to be able to have some business. Just thought I'd share a few more cute pictures of my models.

Lynnsey cracks me up; she's such a little ham. She does this thing where she turns her head in this perfect little pose every time like she's an old pro at modeling. Kaya rarely cooperates anymore now that the novelty has worn off and she remembered that she hates wearing hats--unless it's the worn out purple one that she's had since she was a baby. That one she wants to wear everywhere!

She does however enjoy wearing skirts and dresses now and she picked this outfit all by herself which I thought was adorable.

And that's about it. We had a great stake conference this past weekend. We had Elder Oaks come to speak to us along with an area seventy, Elder Cook. They were both absolutely spectacular. I was able to go to the adult session on Saturday night which was wonderful. I've not been able to do that for many years. And Sunday, we were able to meet Elder Oaks and shake his hand which I think had a profound impact on our kids--especially Kendall who was just so thrilled at the opportunity.

We are also excited to have Jonathan and Timothy visiting for a couple of weeks. The kids just adore them both and have been having so much fun. I'll have to post some funny pictures of a role reversal that Kendall and Jonathan did last night when they were goofing around. And hopefully, I'll be keeping up on this thing a bit better from now on!