Halloween costumes!

This is Joey, but the J's on his boots stand for "Jake" from Disney's show, "Jake and the Neverland Pirates." This means he was a "good" pirate.  I loved how particular he was about the costume.  He was particular down to the very detail and it was very fun to put together with him.

Michael chose his costume, just to be an awesome big brother.  He wanted to match the twins. So... the Cat in the Hat to go right along with Thing 1 and 2 (yep, spoiler alert!).  This is the first year we didn't have all the kids go trick-or-treating together.  Michael went with his friend and his friends Mom.

Adelyn went on a special Halloween activity to the Hallelulah church parking lot with a friend.  They had bounce houses and games, and tons of yummy cupcakes and candy.

My crazy boys!  Notice how they shoe-less?  Halloween must have been record warm temps!  It was awesome, especially for the kids!  Record temps means record amounts of trick-or-treaters.  We passed about somewhere between 150-200 pieces of candy in our neighborhood.

And I may not have dressed up, but I dressed up our car, and that makes me awesome anyway.  Our theme was candyland, complete with punchball lollipops, wrapped candies made out of paper plates, cardstock path, and hand-drawn candyland banner.  I won the $20 prize!

Pumpkin Time!

We had lots of fun with our pumpkins this year!  We took a couple trips to the pumpkin patch where they had a fun hay maze and a couple acres of pumpkins to walk through.  In fact, I wrote up a pumpkin patch article on "Cedar Scene," a little hip site about stuff to do in Southern Utah.  I'm a brand new author, and pretty excited about doing little write-ups once in a while (whenever I think the hip Cedar Scene matches up with a mommy of five).  http://www.cedarscene.com/

Back to the topic at hand: Pumpkins, and carving said pumpkins.

Adelyn. October was a great month for Adelyn.  Starting school was hard this year, and she really overcame this month.  It is so hard for me as a mom to see her having a hard time, but also a pretty great feeling to watch her overcome.  Once again, I am humbled by how amazing my kids are.

Braden

Joey with a preschool buddy

Nelson

Isn't she gorgeous?

Michael and Adelyn got to carve their pumpkins with absolutely no help this year.  Yay!

Joey did lots of sawing all on his own too, but he wanted lots of help cleaning out the slimy pumpkin guts.

Michael's Birthday

Michael turned 7 this year! The older the kids get, the closer in age they seem to be.  When Adelyn was 21 months old, a newborn seemed so tiny and they were so vastly different in what they were capeable of, now, I feel like Michael is right on Adelyn's heels. I am so thankful for the friendship they share.  I tell people that Adelyn taught Michael to read before he was in Kindergarten, and I'm not kidding.  They love to be with each other, and love to share their school experiences with each other, just as much as they share them with me (okay, maybe even more than they share with me).  I love their companionship at home, and at school.

There is so much I want to remember about Michael right now:

Michael has started forming a lot of fun opinions.  He has his own style, and I love that he has things he really cares about.  When it was time to get new shoes, he was so particular about what he wanted that I didn't dare buy anything without his previous consent, and when we were shopping in stores, he wanted the $80 shoes, which didn't get my consent.  We compromised and spent an afternoon shopping on ebay for the perfect pair.  He found a pair of Michael Jordan's that he wanted to win so badly. He watched in agony for the last 8 minutes of the auction, hoping the price would stay under mom's maximum bid.  He won them for $3.50, plus shipping and we were both thrilled. They showed up a few days later looking brand new.  Here's to hoping that compromise is always so easy.

He's a class clown and a class smarty pants.  His teacher pointed out that even though the kids all know he's smart, they adore him.  He likes to try and help others with their assignments and he reads "hard books" to the girls.  His teacher says that when Michael reads outloud, all the girls gather 'round to hear his stories.  He's not braggy in any way.  Even at home, he has never said anything about things he is better at than others.

And although he likes to help out, he doesn't feel obligated to be with the girls at recess or lunch.  He is all boy, and is tired of their chasing, and only wants to play kickball, football or basketball.  I showed up to the lunchroom the other day, and got there a few minutes before him.  By the time he'd gone through the line, the twins and I had attracted a table full of our favorite girls from church and school.  He refused to sit by me and ate lunch at another table, so I moved tables to sit by him, once again, attracting a table full of girls who wanted to sit with the babies.  I think I'm pretty much banned from coming to lunch again.  He was truly embarrased.  I've already decided that next time, I will skip lunch and show up to recess with a shiny new kickball and no babies.

He's growing up! That's all there is to it!

Wildly opening a present. He received some fun things, including a small mp3 player and a collection of "The Boxcar Children" books.

The babies are feeling pretty jealous I think. These are only Michael's candles though, well deserving of all seven of them!

The babies were attracted to this cake like bees to honey.  I love his smile right now, with a little gap, right where his grown-up teeth are making their way through.

Has started showing a little enthusiasm for picture poses.  He's smiling here, but there are a couple where a get a pretty chill model face.

It was a fun birthday.  We celebrated with a birthday activity while we were in Phoenix.  We took lots of family with us to play mini-golf (a brand new adventure for any of our kids).  It was very fun, and I know he enjoyed the evening a ton.  He got spoiled at grandma's house with a new Wii game and Birthday Bash ice cream (which Mike and I heard was pretty good).  He took Marshmallow Brownies to his class and got a special birthday song and book there.  I think he felt pretty spoiled.  Rightfully so!!