A long awaited update, at least by my mom

This post is dedicated to my awesome mom, who lives so far away from us she misses my cute little ones desperately. These four little ones just keep me so busy. Even now, while Natalie and Adam are sleeping and I want to sit and write, Jacob and Nathan are begging me to look at toy magazines from the newspaper with them. What is a mom to do? Here are some highlights from our last few months.

BYU Football Game
Our awesome neighbor, Brian, gave us some free tickets to yesterday's BYU game. Usually football games in November are to be avoided, but with this freakish weather, it was a beautiful day, sunny and 70 degrees. We had enough tickets to take the whole family. Adam and Natalie slept in the car on the way down and they did surprisingly well at the game. We had a great time, and the Cougars even pulled out a huge victory!

We had a picnic lunch outside of the stadium.

Some members of the family didn't want their pictures taken

The boys loved cheering on our Cougars

Halloween
This year for Halloween I had a Jedi Knight, Batman, a Cowboy (Woody), and a little Witch. Lucky for me they all choose easy costumes to make, or costumes that have been worn on Halloween before. I made Jacob's Jedi costume out of two pillow cases I got a Ross for $1.99. And I made Natalie's tutu, too bad you can't see her costume better, she wouldn't leave her hat on. I found a witches hat that fit her little head perfectly at Target for $1.

These are the worms we ate for dinner. Mmm. Okay they are really made of jello that we put in straws to solidify, don't they look real?

We never got around to carving our pumpkins, they just looked to good sitting on the porch uncut, but Jacob did make this pumpkin for his school's pumpkin decorating contest. It is two pumpkins that grew into one that he made into a spider.

Pumpkin Patch
There is fun little pumpkin patch close to our house that we like to go to every year. This year we went as a preschool field trip. My sister-in-law, Erika, me, and some of our neighbors are doing our own preschool. We take turns teaching by the month and October was my month to teach, just one of the many things that keeps me busy.

This is our neighbor Xander, Nathan, and his cousin Alayna

Adam on the search for the perfect pumpkin

First Lost Tooth
Jacob lost his first tooth on September 25, the big tooth was already starting to grown in so we had to get that baby one out. The tooth fairy left $1 under his pillow.

Soccer

Jacob loves to play soccer. He is on a different team this year with some of the kids in our neighborhood, including his best friend Katelynn. They have a really good team. They only lost one game, and they tied once, to Jacob's cousin Isaac's team, which was his old team. It was an awesome game.

Jacob and Isaac both going for the ball

First Grade
Jacob started 1st grade at the very end of August.

Here is Jacob and his friends Katelynn and Lexi in front of their school

The first day of school I got plates down to make lunch, I automatically pulled down three plates, I didn't realize until I was making sandwiches that Jacob was gone and we only needed two plates, it was sad, we missed him.

Jacob had a hard time adjusting to 1st grade. He cried every day that I dropped him off. He would say, "I just miss you, it is just a long day." It was so sad. His teacher told me to give him something to keep with him. So we took this picture of the two of us and I glued it to the back of one of those clear pebbles. That helped, and since then he has not cried, but he still carries it with him every day.

A new job and a new calling
After school started I decided that I needed to go back to work. I quit my old job back in April to stay home with the kids. It was really nice to be off for the summer, but finances wouldn't let me not work for very long. I got a job as a home health nurse. The jury is still out on weather or not I like it. So far they haven't had much for me to, which is frustrating because I clear my schedule to work, and then I don't work, and then I don't get paid. I think that I will stick with it for a little while longer and see if it gets better. I also got a new calling. I am now the Relief Society Secretary. I like it a lot, but it is busy. Maybe not busier than doing four callings at once like I was before, but busy.

And there you have it. Life right now is crazy for me, but good.

Silly Nathan

Nathan has been talking, and making us laugh, since he was 10 months old. He says the funniest things. I just had to write a few of them down so I don't forget them. His favorite pajamas are the footie kind. The other night he was trying to put them on and he came out the the living room and said, "These jammies are stupid! They won't let me get in them!" They were all twisted up and half inside out. Today we discovered that he calls his Sunbeam Teacher Sister Samowitz, Sister Samwich, it's close. This afternoon he was eating a snack and he bit his tongue. He said, "That hurt so bad," he thinks for a second, "it was like hail. It was like 100 hails hitting my tongue." Randy and I laughed so hard, it hurt like hail, ha. Where does he get these things?

Blog Slacker

Okay, so I have been a total blog slacker. I always have the best intentions of writing new posts. I take pictures, I even think of titles and what I want to write. Here is an example I wanted to do a couple of weeks ago:

Out with the Old, In with the new

Good Bye squished cushions,

Frayed edges with the cording coming out,

Gross stains,

torn seem,

old couches, that everyone has, used to have, or knows someone who has had. You have been good to us for 8 and 10 years respectively, but it is time for us to move on.

Hello beautiful, new, "durahide" couches that my kids can wipe their ketchup faces and sticky hands on and it doesn't matter. Welcome to the family.

I was also going to write a post called "Jam Session" about making apricot jam with my neighbor friends, and one called "Scout Widow" about all the things the kids and I did while Randy was away at camp for a week. But I didn't. You have to give me a break, I have had four kids at home all summer. We have been busy:Playing games, this is Nathan's favorite game, Tumbling Tower.

Growing a garden, and making yummy food with our harvest. That zucchini made 4 loves of zucchini bread, 3 dozed double chocolate zucchini muffins, and a pan of zucchini brownies. I have also made lemon poppy seed zucchini bread, lemon zucchini cookies, chocolate zucchini cookies, and zucchini apple crisp. And, of course, we have enjoyed zucchini grilled, baked, and pan fried.

This yummy grilled pizza was made with homemade pesto from basil we grew, tomatoes and zucchini we grew, and onions from our neighbor. Soooo good.

Playing at the park, this was Natalie's first time on a swing, I think she liked it.

Visiting the Gale Center Museum with cousins. The kids had fun playing and I had fun learning about the history of South Jordan.

Visiting the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point and riding the ponies.

Playing with neighbors.

Playing at the splash park with friends every Wednesday morning.

Hiking, the hardest hike we did this summer was the "Y". It was tough with little kids, but we were rewarded with ice cream from the Creamery after, so it was worth it.

Visiting the airplane museum in Roy, UT.

Eating Aggie Ice Cream in Logan, it is pretty good, but I still prefer the BYU Creamery.

Spending a day at Bear Lake with Randy's family.

And generally having a fun summer.

Now that Jacob is back in school we should settle down into more of a routine. Maybe I will actually have some time to post more often.

Ten Years of Wedded Bliss

Ten Years
3 apartments, 1 house
2 college degrees
7 vehicles
8 job changes
4 pregnancies
4 babies
3 boys, 1 girl
1 major illness
1 dream vacation
0 fights
3650 days of happiness

I love you Randy!
Thanks for giving me the life I always wanted,
and making me the happiest girl alive.