Grandparents are awesome

We were so happy to get kind of a last minute visit from Trav's parents for the past 10 days. It was a such a treat when we had expected not to see them for awhile. We fit in all kinds of fun things and the time went way too fast. The coolest thing that I did this time around, was to give each kid one day out of school by themselves and that was their day to be just with Grandma and Grandpa. That really just meant Noah and Kaden, since Ammon was the star student that week and could not bear to miss a day. He got his time with Grandma when I took all the rest of the kids to piano one day.

Kaden had his bonding time with Grandpa by helping bag pine needles in the back yard.

Two of the most amazing people I know shown above...and three of the most amazing people I know below =)

Halloween

Hopefully no one is really observant and interested enough to notice that Micah was a lion for Halloween last year (but a different lion), and that Ammon was a bat last year....the very same bat. The thing is, I started to try and gently give other suggestions when Ammon was insisting to get out his bat costume to wear...and then I thought "what in the world am I doing?!" This is so easy and he is so excited about it. I have such a love/hate attitude about Halloween sometimes. It really is fun, and I love seeing the kids all dressed up, but it always seems so overwhelming and overstimulating getting them all ready, and taking them to all the related activities (usually by myself)--and it almost always seems to be accompanied by tantrums and crying and whining much more than the normal doses. This year, we had Grandma and Grandpa Passey visiting so that made it funner than the usual even. Any holiday shared with family is fun. Travis decided to do something different one of the pumpkins this year. I kind of wondered about it but it was all made clear to me when I found out at the ward trunk or treat there was going to be a "competition". And guess who won? ...Rrrraaaar

Noah dressed as Noah...at teh last minute he decided he did not want to wear the beard or even dress up at all. I told him that was fine, but he would have to pay for anything I had gotten for his costume that HE had asked for, and for my time in making the robe (I got out the sewing machine for the first time in 4 years!). I only asked for $10, but he has been trying and trying to save for a pet, so he decided he would like to dress up after all. I think he was glad because he got all kinds of comments saying how awesome he looked. Some people did call him Moses or a shephard, and one even said he was Santa Claus, but most of them knew right away...

My batty boy--Ammon wore this costume every day for 2 weeks leading up to Halloween to get his fill. He really gets attached to things.

I love this picture.

My cute little pumpkin--I felt a little guilty not dressing her up in something completely girly and using the costume Ammon had used his first Halloween, but my friend Tinah helped me to girl it up and we won't confuse their pictures... This little girl is SO much fun. We seriously cannont get enough of her. She is so cute and happy and smiley and good natured. I love how babies bring out tenderness and goodness in everyone. That's a great reason to try to have one around at all times, right?

October

My big girl sitting to tall and strong--this was the beginning of October. She started sitting at 6 months, and at 7 months started the cute inch worm, army crawl, scooting. It was kind of nice at first because if you sat her up, she was stuck there--she didn't know how to get don't and go somewhere. Then she figured out how to just make herself fall, and just the past couple of weeks (so at 7 1/2 months) has figured out how to go more smoothly from sitting to crawling to sitting again. I could watch her and her little bum wiggle all day long. She is so cute! Noah is still bringing her down every morning with exclamations of how cute she is and how much he loves her. I will be so sad the day her brothers start getting annoyed with her and not thinking she is their favorite person in the world any more. But maybe that will never happen?...For now, we all soak her in as much as we can.

Ammon with his pumpkin from his field trip to the pumpkin patch.

I love just running into things like this as I am putting kids to bed. This seems like just a simple tower, but on further inspection I was realizing the thought and dynamics that actually made it work. He had to use certain books for each level and adjust them perfectly for the perfect balance. Around here books are good for many many reasons.

Ammon is so creative. I am able to keep and preserve most of Kaden's good drawings and art work, but with Ammon's creations they never get recorded. I need to just start taking pictures of some of the things he does. He loves to just build things, usually with paper and tape (and sticks). A couple of months ago he got his brothers involved and the built a bunch of dragons that were really impressive. I never got those recorded...sad. And Travis found this apple tree up in his room the other day. If he wishes for a certain toy, he usually just decided to make that thing himself. I love it. When his paper and tape frenzy started a couple of years ago, Travis told me it was awesome and it was okay if we were going through a roll of tap a day and a lot of paper. Then after awhile we both grew weary of little scraps of cut up paper ALL OVER the floors, and tape plastered on the table and floors and bench. So we stopped buying tape for awhile, and now Ammon is just starting back up and trying to be a little more conscious of his messes, but it really is amazing to see him work out how to build things that never would have occurred to me.