TROUBLE

A couple of weeks ago was one of those weeks where all the toddlers made all the trouble they could. We had multiple flour bin episodes...the one pictured ended up being my Micah's fault more than poor Brooklyn. I would have assumed it was all her (because she has a reputation around here...) but She didn't look so joyous like Micah did, and she was the one covered, AND Tara happened to witness some of Micah just throwing flour all over his buddy. Hmmm.

Every time we had little friends over my morning seemed loaded with many things just like this. Toys being launched off of the balcony, Fireplace rocks scattered in very large amounts across the living room, craft boxes emptied and fluffy balls covering my bedroom floor. Micah is also constantly locking doors lately and for a week or two we were having to take about one door apart every day to get into whichever room he had locked.

Micah loves his daddy

Halloween Festivities

I think pumpkin carving night is so fun!

My kids are all surprisingly squeamish when it comes to cleaning out the pumpkins. Micah did me proud this night and was very sad when I took it away to get the seeds out...

Thursday after school we had a "Bus stop" Halloween party at our neighbor's house down the street. They had gone all out and made this a very fun little party for the kids. Noah chose this moment however, to decide that since he's learnig about the human body in his EXTEND class, he would choose not to eat junk food anymore. I wondered what that would mean for trick or treating or if it would last more than a day anyway. But at our ward Trunk or Treat, he went around to all of the cars with his brothers and Dad,

Then he brought his loot back to me at the van and emptied his entire bag into my bowl to give out to the other kids. Very impressive I have to say.

Ammon spent 20 minutes trying patient to get this marshmallow without any hands. But we had to go and I finally told him to just use his hands.

Friday morning: Ammon's preschool parade. This is a long story that is painful to this mom even in the telling, so I am going to shorten and de-dramatize it a little. The short story is that I am the only mom in this school that forgot all about the Halloween parade. So we were stuck in the line to drop him off looking at all of these costumes and brainstorming how to ever go back home and get his costume to him in time...I finally dropped him off and raced home and back, and got there in the nick of time. I found him with his class all lined up and ready to go, and he was sobbing as all of the teachers tried to find him different costumes in their classrooms that he refused to wear. He just wanted his bat. The day turned out great, but I could have gone down in history as the worst mom of the year for sure. The moment I knew he wasn't traumatized for life is when I picked him up from school and he had the biggest smile..."Mom, that was the funnest day ever....I....GOT....CAANDY!!!!" He obviously doesn't share Noah's views on health views on candy and sugar...

My handsome bat...

After school on Friday we also had a squadron Halloween Party. We went for a little while before trying to rush to the church for the Ward Trunk or Treat....Here is my Micah gorilla with his best buddy, Grace the monkey. Her baby brother was a banana....oh my cuteness.

My incredible Kaden, who would look like he had thick eyeliner and mascara for days to come...okay it was only 2 days but that's just because his Father would not put up with it and did some serious intensive work to get the last of it off...

Truly a beast this boy can be...

Noah sensed my stress as Halloween drew near and I hadn't figured out or had the time to even try to figure out how to help him to be a swamp monster. He got a gold star as he mentioned that week he changed his mind and wanted to be a clown and make people laugh. So much easier...

My boys...

Our trunk or treat was so much fun and so well put together. So it was easy to let it be the end of our Halloween festivities. Then on Sunday a friend had us over for dinner, which got us through have of the trick or treating time, and then we came home to give all the boys some much needed haircuts. Trav had the brilliant idea to just put our Halloween bowl outside the door with a sign that said "Help yourself". So that's what we did.

Oh the Relief!

Primary programs are so fun, so why is it just such a nice relief when they are finally over and it all turned out great? I wasn't even the one who wrote and ran the program this year, so I don't know why it stressed me out. Actually in a way it stressed me out more. This is silly, because Cindy is a wonderful and competent and responsible and talented counselor. She did a great job! Yet I worry and it's hard when certain things and preparations are not directly in my hands to make sure they get done. Plus I like things done way ahead of time because last minute stuff makes me panic.

Anyway, hurray for finished primary programs! It was so fun to watch the children rise to the occasion and almost all of them knew their parts perfectly. They spoke and sang from their hearts and I know they were able to touch people and help them feel the Saviors' love today.

The only down side was that we have a pretty small primary here and we went a little short. I am continually humbled in my calling these days, and am learning and growing in ways I never could have otherwise. Yet I still feel very incompetent most of the time and like I just can't do everything as well as I want to. The Bishop assured me when I was called that God knows and loves and values me, and that I don't have to do EVERYTHING. If I just do SOMETHING, He will take that thing and magnify it. I have definitely seen that work, and I am so grateful to not be alone!

The Shock

My favorite quote of the night came from Kaden " I think that looks like a baby dinosaur skeleton....."

We went to Fun Fetal Fotos last night to have an ultrasound done and to finally find out for sure that we are having a little boy, so that people will stop telling me to have a girl. Even Travis has started teasing that we are having a girl more and more lately. It's completely ridiculous that I, a very frugal person, would pay to have an ultrasound, especially less than 2 weeks before our normal US is scheduled anyway. Originally I justified it by saying it would be like a 6 week difference in when we find out, and then called to get in and found out that this is a busy little place....Then I justified it by saying we had already decided to do it, and this way the entire family could be there and I knew they would love that.

I have to say I don't regret it. It really was fun to have all of my boys gathered around us. One of the first things this nice lady said to us, was a comment to Travis. "Well, obviously you are not a pilot!" It was so funny she would think to say that. She was totally surprised when we laughed and said that he actually was. I guess the rumors of pilots mostly having girls have been true in her case. Anyway, it took her 5 seconds of looking before she said "Well, Dad, you finally did it". What in the world was that supposed to mean? I mean I know it sounds like she is saying he is finally having a girl, but come on. We are the Passey Boys and Mom family, aren't we?

But no, apparently there really is a little girl inside there. I haven't let myself even ponder on the possibility of a girl this entire pregnancy. Little thoughts have come and differences I think to myself from my other pregnancies, but I brush the thought away and talk about our little boy. So now I just keep going over "she" and "her" in my head, and it's the weirdest feeling. It will take awhile to get used to the idea. We can talk about names now--where do we start? I always said we'd be in trouble if we ever had a girl, because we have serious issues on agreeing on girl names. Sigh.

Hold on to the moments

We have been delving into our home videos a little bit lately. Like the times when Ammon was just a few months old (with Kaden younger than Micah is now!), and when Ammon was Micah's age and Micah was a newborn. I need to go and find our older videos, too. Anyway, suddenly as I was watching some of those, I saw time zooming by me faster than I control. Tears came to my eyes, and I wanted to cry for happiness and sadness both. I want to keep every one of my boys as my baby, and I saw the stages of my babies turning into big brothers. I felt overwhelmed with how blessed we are and a little panicked about how fast it all goes by and how much faster time seems to be getting every day. I want to know how to savor every moment of their growing up and of every stage better than I sometimes do. I can only imagine what a wreck it would make me to watch these videos as my kids are all teenagers or even worse, gone from the house. Supposedly everyone's kids really do grow up sometime...

I thought how fun it is to have Kaden and Ammon so close but also I realized Kaden was still a baby when he had to give up his baby position. I don't think it hurt him at all, and I still like the though of having them close in the end, but with the last 2 a little more spread out, I really was able to enjoy that fun stage a little longer. And keep my babies babies, maybe not always a good thing, but comforting to me a little.

It was also fun to hear there younger voices and how similar they are to their voices now, and how much their personalities were there even when they were younger. They truly are spirits from God with their own personalities, and I forget sometimes that their personalities are who they are and not how we have parented them. I mean obviously we can influence them and affect them greatly, but they each have truly individual and special traits that came with them. It's fun to see those traits at such an early age and see what they have developed into and wonder how they will manifest in their future selves. Parenthood is such an amazing blessing and experience.

Preschool

Holy smokes, it has been almost a month since my little boy started preschool and I have not said a thing about it. How sad is that? Well, I did take pictures. Ammon is loving preschool. He has been waiting and waiting to be more like his big brothers this way, and it's nice to have just 3 hours a day 3 days a week--I can't imagine if he had started kindergarten and was gone all day every day already! I find it amusing that whenever I ask him his favorite part about school, the answer is "Lunch". Especially since I make his lunch every day and it's not like he gets special food. I think it's just bring a lunchbox and eating with his classmates in a room with very colorful tables...