Ooh, oh

I cannot even get over how cute this is, but please pay no attention to the annoying mother bribing her son with candy in the background! Tonight's gonna be a good good night!

Our love for the Little Gym

I have felt very fortunate to be able to take our kiddos to the Little Gym occasionally. Up until this past week, only Maddox was going. The twins were involved in soccer at the start of fall, so for Maddox we did the Little Gym, plus until January when he turns three he will be on his own, no more mom and me class, so I had to jump on this while I still could. Well earlier in the month the owner was telling me they have a opening in Paxton's age. Well I did not think I would be interested because he is a baby. He roams around our house and gets a kick out of that, so did I really need to pay for him to come to the Little Gym? Well the more I thought about it and talked with Andy we thought maybe we should do it. The one think I LOVE most about that place is it is just my one on one time with my kids. I love that. The whole time I am there I think about how blessed I am to be able to do that with my kids. We have such a great time running around and playing with all the different things there is to do. So anyway, we decided to sign Paxton up. The bonus was since he is my second child enrolled we get a discount and since the term is 3/4 ths over it was prorated a great deal. So it ended up working out really well.

This past Saturday was our first week and he loved it. He is the youngest in the class it seems, but he still had a ball. He rolled around on the mats and even had Mr. John help him do a tummy exercise and a bar exercise. It was pretty fun seeing my baby have so much fun. The only problem is, he doesn't seem like such a baby anymore!!!

{just a side note. this little gym class is at 8:30 AM! grandma of the year even manages to get there for this early classs!}

CLICK below if you would like to see a darling little clip of Paxton at the gym. If anyone could tell me how to get it pasted into my blog so you could see it, I would appreciate it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNgW7fmAdq8

Bros...

have i ever mentioned that THIS is what i have always wanted.

First REAL haircut

BEFORE...

I trimmed Paxton's hair a few times since around 6 weeks old, but we have never really had a REAL haircut. We went to this fun place just down the street from our house that is just really fun for the kids to get their haircut. I normally cut the kids hair, so for their first cut I try to make it fun so we went to Kiddos Kuts for Paxton's first time.

DURING

My kids are so funny when they get their haircut. A lot of kids scream and cry and throw fits when they are getting their hair cut, my kids are the exact opposite. They literally almost, Maddox actually has, fall asleep in the chair. They get drowsy and just close their eyes and pretty much fall asleep. It is so cute. The ladies always talk about how they would prefer them to fall asleep over screaming, but I think it is still funny.

{getting a little drowsy}

Paxton wanted to stand up in the fun car at first and did really well like his brothers and sister. He as well started to get a little "heavy" as if he was going to fall asleep. It is so funny. He did such a great job. I didn't want it to be a short cut, because in all honesty, I need him to stay a baby a lot longer than he is, so we went with a little baby cut, but now he does not need a clip to keep it out of his darling little face.
{getting a little long, ya think?}

Enjoy the pics!

AFTER
What a big boy!

Honored

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Bennett's school for parent/teacher conferences. I was looking forward to talking with his teacher and getting a better feel for his new school. I am really liking his new school. Yes his last school was brand new and so nice and lots of fun activities and so on, but this school is smaller, a lot smaller instead of 6 third grades there are only 2. When I returned a book to Bennett today the secretary knew I was Bennett' s mom and knew who Bennett was personally. I like that!

Anyway, it was good to talk with his teacher and get to know how he was doing in class. He is doing well in his classes and she said that he is a sweet kid. When I mentioned that he is always worried about pulling a card and reminds me to sign his notebook everyday so he does not have to pull one, she said, like he would ever have to pull a card! At the beginning of the school year she told the class that she has never had a year where a kid did not pull a card and Bennett came right home and told me that this year would be her first year, he was not going to have to pull a card. So cute.

Well anyway, after saying he was so sweet she followed it by saying "not only is he sweet, but he is most definitely the sweetest kid I have ever gotten to work with in my history of teaching." Then she said, "I am sure it is an honor to be his mother." You know what? It truly is. I am the lucky one. He is so great. Yes there are things that he needs to work on, but don't we all. I was so happy to be reminded of how wonderful he truly is.

I left there feeling very great about my children and the paths that they are all on. I feel fortunate for their little desires to be good kids and want to be good examples. I hope this will continue forever. I didn't say this to his teacher, but I must admit I am a little jealous she gets to spend most days with Bennett.

Where has the time gone?

I truly cannot believe it is ALREADY November! I mean we are in NOVEMBER folks! I know people say it all the time, but seriously life is just moving at such a fast pace. I wish it would slow down a little here.

I am having a hard time adapting to the fact that is is already November. I try to kind of get in the spirit of it all, but no luck yet. They have Christmas music on already! I LOVE Christmas music with a passion, but it is just a little too early for me. I have not started Christmas shopping yet at all. I have decided that I am going to do it all in one day or so. Every year I find a deal here, get a deal there, because lets face it I never buy ANYTHING unless it is on clearance or a HUGE sale, but I feel like when I space it out I maybe tend to get more. So this year I am going to try and do it in one day more or less. We will see how that goes.

I am getting excited about Thanksgiving though. I love that day of the year. I love when the house smells of turkey and yummy food. I love the hustle and bustle of the weekend and all the people over just lounging around and playing games. Love it! Love, love, love it! I do think I am going to try and make some different things this year. We tend to do the same things, same recipes every year and not that there is anything wrong with them, but I want to change it up a bit this year. We will have to see. I may just want to stick to tried and true. Who knows!

I am getting really excited about seeing Brandon and his family and Cherise and Karl and Nicole. We are all very excited about seeing them. Can't wait! It is always a party when family is in town!

Anyway, another fun thing we have to look forward to is going to this place

for Andy's company party. A night of fun away from it all! That is coming up. Anyway, so here is to getting in the spirit of it all! Maybe some snow would do the job?

Yes, they are all mine

I am sure you guys are bored to tears hearing stories about what kind of comments people make to us about "ALL" of our kids. I literally have people count my children when I am walking into somewhere. Like today walking out of the gym a lady counted with her finger and then said, as if I have never heard it before, "Are they all yours?" I have got to come up with something funny to say back, but I always just nod and say yes, they are. I mean come on people we are not the Duggars here! Andy always talks about getting me a shirt that reads, yes they are all ours and no we are not done! That would answer two of their questions without even having to ask them, right? I am pretty sure they would come up with more questions to ask then.

Truth is, there is nothing I would change about my little family including the spacing in between each child. Yes we would have loved to have had one in between the 4 years of Bennett and the twins and wish we did, but we didn't and I know now it was ALL about the timing. More than perfect little Bennett in Dental school would have been Rough with a capital R! I am just thankful they are mine and they are all mine and love that we have each one of these little ones with their very own special spirit that they bring to our family.

Andy came home from work the other day and said you know what I realized today? I said what? He said when we had Paxton our fifth child, my second to oldest was only TWO! I replied with, where have you been hon? We have talked about this before I am sure of it. I guess it just hit him though. To be honest, when we are at home doing our thing, like preschool, music time, art time, story time, and running around playing and even when we go to the gym everyday it doesn't seem like our little family is odd at all. It seems very normal to me. Even when people point out that we sure "HAVE our hands full", {I am not kidding four people said that to me TODAY just walking out of the gym} I still think, what are they talking about!

I do have to say though which is weird, when I see a family with several little ones I think how do they do that, I mean to me our family is my normal, but to them it has got to be crazy which yes I know does not make sense, but that is what I think. Like a lady at the gym has twins who just turned three and a baby who is 10 months and I always look at her walking in and think how does she do it! Then at the Little Gym the other day Mr. John was talking about the expense of diapers and one time he knew a family that had three kids in diapers, GASP, and he could not believe it. And a lady chimed in about how she had two in diapers and it was crazy. I tried to leave the conversation because I don't want it to seem like I am trying to one up anyone, but as I was walking away he says, well you probably had two in diapers right? I said yep we sure did. Actually we had four in diapers. The whole room went silent and it was if they were going to start a fund raiser up for me right then and there. He wondered how because he said he thought there was more space in between there and I said well when Paxton was born the twins were two and Maddox was one. When I was saying this yes it did seem a little crazy, yet somehow in my mind, again, it seems normal. Good thing, right?

Anyway, I truly love being the mom to these little ones and what an extra blessing it is to have Bennett, my little friend, confidant and helper. Each child we have had has just added more blessings to our family than can even be imagined. So yes, to all those that ask are they all mine, YES they are all mine and each one of them brings me more smiles, more laughter and more love than I ever thought was possible!

Jadeyn age 3, Cortland age 3, Paxton age 1, Maddox age 2

One great big huge Halloween post!

Halloween
We had a busy day on Halloween, but sure had fun that night. The kids were so excited and could not believe that the day had finally come to actually go trick or treating! It was so fun. That night while going to bed I just kept telling Andy how much fun I am having being their mom and how fun it was that night. Just watching Jadeyn every time she would get candy she would look at Andy and I and say "they gave me candy that is so nice" like she hadn't just done it 20 times before. It was so cute. Maddox was so cute walking around with those Buzz wings. He would hit everyone and everything in his way without even knowing it. They way he walked around that night was like he owned the town. Everyone would say hi Buzz and he would just say "hey" like it was normal to be called Buzz. He owned it that is for sure. Cortland was the cutest Woody. I loved watching him walk around in those boots and tell me everything he got every time. He would also give me a piece about every five minutes. So cute. Bennett had a great time. His costume turned out pretty cute. In the pics his makeup does not look like the same color but it really was the same color as the tarp I made his costume out of. Poor kid, I figured out how I wanted to do "sarge" from toy story and kept sending Andy up to try it on the poor kid because I was kind of just sewing what I thought would work. It turned out pretty good. I did not paint his hands yet for the pic, but all in all it was pretty good. He was a good Sarge. Love that boy! Jadeyn was so excited about being Jesse. She loved it. She was a darling Jesse! Paxton was the little alien form Toy Story. When we saw a hat in Disney World we knew we should go with that theme. Funny enough we didn't use that hat. I found this alien costume at The Children's Place for 2 dollars so we went with that. What a cute alien he was. Andy was Andy and I was the mom. I just love themed Halloweens. I better enjoy it while it lasts before I have no say in it anymore. I have to say though the kids were SO excited about being The Toy Story Crew. Love it!

Bennett's Party

I am so sad I did not take my camera to his party. It was so fun. I will at least list the things we did! We made a witches stew with all kinds of things, like banana chips, m &m's raisins, cereal, cheetos, pretzels, sunflower seeds, and so on. There were tons of things and they all represented something from a witch. It was fun and the kids got a kick out of it. We also made Witches Brew

with rootbeer and dry ice. Then we did a few rounds of bingo which is always a hit. After that they all got three Halloween pages. A find the difference page, a Halloween maze and a word search. While some were doing that we played the ooey gooey game. I took four pumpkins and put 21 prizes at the bottom of each pumpkin. They were small little prizes. Then with the one I put cooked spaghetti noodles for witches brains, then peeled grapes for monster eyeballs, carrots for witches fingers, and then corn kernels for witches teeth. They all loved it and it was so cute. We had cupcakes and cake pops and the witches brew and stew. I had so many moms want to send something in it was so nice. They ended up going home with four goodie bags too. Such a fun time. I love it. I am in my element when I am in those classrooms. Plus I love to plan parties and make the food, so this is right up my alley. Plus it is kids. Easy to impress! I am seriously thinking about recreating some of it just to get some photos! The only photo I do have is this one I took before we left out the door for the party. I made these little treats for all the moms who helped me.

Treats

Ghosts

Halloween decorationsI wish I would have gotten pictures of our outside. We put up a few things. So fun. Our neighborhood goes ALL OUT for Halloween. Every house is decorated, there are haunted houses, and all kinds of things for Halloween. It is for sure the neighborhood to be at!

A really cute decoration I think!

Something I made our first Halloween when we got married. Martha Stewart tip. Still using it!

Our Pumpkins

Bennett did the first one all by himself.

Pumpkin Picking
We went pumpkin picking on Saturday and it was fun. Unfortunately the pumpkin farm was under two inches of water, but they still took us for a wagon ride and then back to the store to find some pumpkins. It was fun and the kids loved it.

Trunk or Treating

bedtime routine

andy is mr. bedtime around here. i can't thank him enough for that. we normally do scriptures and prayers and then up for their teeth to be brushed. andy normally carries them up like airplanes. no wonder he has some guns. he carries all the little ones up like this two at a time. he then puts them in bed and reads them stories then i come up and tuck them in. i love our little bed time routine. it is the perfect ending to our fun days!

Teeth

saturday was a crazy day for us. if hallween wasn't enough we decided to throw in family pictures in the mix after soccer and the little gym. luckily though soccer was cancelled so it was an easy morning:). on the way home i relaized that i never posted on my new teeth. this is not a very good picutre obviously. i took it in the car on the way home. i wanted to get a shot though before i fogot. bennett saw me taking the pics and decided to get in a shot.

waht a cutie. i think andy did a great job. the picture does not do them justice.

they are perfect and very functional and white! love it!

My favorite Halloween Decor

One teeny chocolate chip cookie...

...can do A LOT of damage! When I make cookies, which is about every week around here, I make little ones and then teeny tiny ones for the babe. I am talking like the size of a quarter. I gave him one, turned my back and this is what I came back to seconds later. How can something that small make such a mess. I guess I need to make them dime sized and hold the chocolate chips next time! Seriously so cute though.

AND speaking of cute. Here is our little baby in Jadeyn's new rain boots. He was so proud of himself. So cute. He didn't make it very far in them, but still cute to watch.

And speaking of boots, these boots are the best. We have five pair of them. They are super easy to put on, they are cute, they keep your toes dry and warm and they are fun to wear.

Love them!

And him!

Scouts

Bennett is in Scouts now through church. He likes it and it is every Tuesday night. I have yet to catch the "scout vision", but I am working on it. One of the activities was going down to a fun farm for Halloween/Fall. We did a little bonfire with hotdogs and smores. It was fun. They had little things for the kids to do. They had little rides and the little ones loved them. It was the first time Paxton has ever ridden anything himself. It was so cute. I probably took around 40 pictures of him on that little airplane. He was adorable. They also had a little scary hay ride. They loved it. It was cold though and we came home early, but all the kids had a good time and still talk about it! Thanks Scouts...it was a fun night.

my oldest, my youngest

so unbelievably, adorable!

Big Helper, Little Beauty

Jadeyn is known around the house as the mama. She is the helper. She is constantly wanting to help with the baby and can actually do it all for the most part. She is such a great helper. In the morning she likes to get the baby dresses, diaper changed and feed him. When he is eating she normally we sit by him and just talk to him. So sweet. She is also so sweet with her other brothers too. She helps Bennett with his jobs, she is always looking out for Cortland and getting Maddox whatever he needs. I am so lucky to have this girl. She is so sweet, helpful and one determined little girl. Some times her determination drives us a little bonkers, but that is what drives her. Someday that will be a strong point of hers.

We love everything about this little beauty!

The advantage...

of being the youngest of five.

I came down one morning and Paxton was in his chair

and had been given, candy corn and chocolate.

This all happened in the time it took me to walk down the stairs! Lucky him.

Not so lucky me!

Getting caught up!

So today I thought I would get caught up on my blog. I wanted to post Halloween pics, but after looking at my pictures I realized I was 18 blogs behind or something crazy like that. So I am throwing them all in so I can get caught up again! I am almost there. Plus, this sounded like more fun than cleaning the floor boards! Who blames me!

The Circus!

So Andy's office bought some circus tickets because the circus came to town in the office where he works. I forgot how much I do not like the circus. I don't like the wet dirty cold atmosphere. I do not like the animals being all bound up and stuff and the people are just interesting. The kids loved it though even though it was so cold. We were able to take some friends with us too. Marc and Michelle and their girls came, Cami and Bennett's friend Karly. We love her so much. She is such an amazing little girl. Really, amazing. So sweet and good. Her mom and I always talk about how much we hope they can remain friends forever and then some day maybe a little more than friends? That would be awesome. Afterwards we came home and made caramel apples and hot chocolate. It was needed!

There are soooo many things I love about this picture. First Andy with his bed room eyes as my grandma refers to them. Always his eyes are closed or just about closed. Then not to mention me, looking a little less than desirable especially with those lovely temporaries that look oh so beautiful/yellow!

Maddox sitting in between Andy and I with a hand on each of our legs. Melt my heart.

Bennett's friend Karly. Oh how I love her.

A Beautiful Fall Day

Cami and J. We like to take her with us to do all these fun things. First, she is fun to have around and it doesn't help that the kids love her and she is a big help!

These boys just make me giddy!

Best Buds!

This is only a small fraction of how many seagulls we had around us!

Love this boy!

I am not sure how I got lucky enough to get this two for one deal!

This boy loves his daddy!

This was like a sandbox only filled with corn kernels. Cool.

One day Andy and Bennett were off on a Friday and we decided to take advantage of a beautiful fall day and head up the river road. Boy is it beautiful in the fall. The trees and all the colors were just amazing! We left in the morning and headed up. We had a picnic lunch on the way up there. We stopped at the river and fed what we thought were going to be the ducks, but the second we got out of the car they all left! Luckily for us the seagulls were ever present. There were hundreds of them. It was a little crazy. The kids loved everything about it for sure. They had such a great time. After that we headed up to this beautiful state park that has a beautiful lodge that one of Andy's patients runs. It was gorgeous. They have SO many things to do up there. They have a huge lodge with tons of activities and the kids just loved it all. Then we did the scenic drive up to the top. Just gorgeous! After all that, we headed to QT for the most delicious hot chocolate I have ever had! Then on to a park for a spooky night treat. We did a hay ride, and two corn mazes. They had so much fun. It was just a perfect day with our little family. There are not days better than that I have to admit. Last night while talking to Andy about some deep doctrinal type stuff, I said, "But, I feel like this is Heaven already. I don't want anything to change!" I am serious. How could it get any better than this?

Bows

Can I tell you how much I love having a little girl. I think having four fun boys {believe me I would not trade one of them and would love to have another boy! GASP!} just makes all the girl things that much more fun for me. Really. I remember Paige, my SIL, saying when we found out we were having our fourth boy that there is something to be said for the lone princess in a house full of boys and boy is there. I love it. Michelle and I like to make bows together for our little girls. It is so fun. This day I got cranking them out like nobodies business. I think I made like 15 in about 45 minutes. I think they are so cute, even cuter when they are on such a cute little girl!

This one is my favorite!

Friends

A few weeks ago we had a friend come play two days that week. We really don't get much of that and it sure was a treat. They had so much fun having Gavyn come play. We wanted him to stay forever and live with us, but I guess his mommy is quite attached because she said no!

Apples

Every year we always go out to the farm and pick apples. We actually normally do peaches in their season, apples in the fall and pumpkins shortly after. The kids always love doing this. I love reaping everything they pick. This year with our apples we canned apple pie filling, and some applesauce. So yummy. The kids enjoyed just eating apples while they were picking and climbing in the trees to get them. This year we had my moms friend Laura join us and Michelle and the girls. We had a great time!

It is a tradition we always pick apples with Grandma.

It doesn't look like she likes Maddox at all, right?
The boys eating away. This was the first time we let Paxton go at it all by himself!

Proudly showing daddy what he is doing!

Umm, yeah. Don't think it gets much cuter!

Climbing in the trees!

Jadeyn is our child with no fear.

Again, cutest ever!

Cousins and best friends!

They didn't have the wagons going out that night, but they did have the little buses.

The kids liked it just the same I am pretty sure!

Yep, again. I think she likes her grandchildren.

Andy turns 32!

The birthday boy!

For Andy's birthday this year we had such a great time. We celebrated with the whole E side a week before. We have SIX E birthdays withing 2 weeks of each other so we just did one big happy birthday party! We celebrated his birthday with most of my side the same time we did Paxton's first birthday. Then on his actual birthday my grandparents came over. We had a great time.
The morning of his birthday the kids and I went over to the Lou to pick up some great cupcakes at a fun little cupcake place over there. Then we went to Target to let the little kids pick out something to take to daddy. We got everything in the car in the Target parking lot and my car would not start. I had four little ones buckled in and ready to go and nothing. Finally a sweet man jumped us after waiting for almost 45 minutes. I could not believe no one else offered to help. We got jumped and picked up lunch to take into the office for his birthday. It was so fun. We got home and I put the kids to bed and got started on his birthday dinner. Pioneer woman lasagna. So good.
We also celebrated Pax's bday with my grandparents too!
J sure loves her great grandpa!

That weekend I surprised Andy at his office and took him out that night. Michelle, my angel sent from Heaven, offered to watch the kids and let us have the whole night. We had reservations at the Melting Pot, then to go to the Temple and then to a hotel I had a free night at and then massages in the morning. Well the Temple was closed so there went that and after the Melting Pot we decided we were too tired to go to a movie and nothing we really wanted to see was playing so we just came home. The next morning we did do our massages though. That was fun.

It was a fun birthday week for him I hope. I sure love that man. I am so grateful to be the lucky one!!!

I need a nap

Today:
Sleep in a little bit
Pack the car full of all the fun things for Bennett's party {details on that to come}
Unpack it all in the pouring rain
Put on a very successful, if I do say so myself, Halloween party for 21 third grader
Come home pack up the rest of the kids to take to the farm to get some pumpkins
Go on a wagon ride and pick out 5 pumpkins
Taco Bell for lunch, a big treat for the kids
Drop by the grocery store for a few more carving pumpkins
2 haircuts for middle boys
Home to finish up the last few stitches to Bennett's costume
Make corn casserole
"Make" Bennett up
Dress the other kids in costumes
Carve pumpkin
Head down to block party
Leave too early from block party for Church's trunk or treating
Trunk or Treat
Leave early from there
Back to block party for a little bit
Come home and scope out the treats
Put the jammies on the kiddos
Put the kiddos to bed
Zonk out soon. Hopefully

Tomorrow:
Soccer game at 9:30, 34 minutes away {last one}
Little Gym
Stake Conference
Family pictures taken
Order our traditional pizza for Halloween
Trick or Treat
Sleep for 10 days straight!

J and C play soccer and Bennett!!!

Cortland making a goal!
He would get SO proud of himself when he would make a goal!

Some drills!

She is actually pretty good! Who knew!

This fall the twins were able to play on the same soccer team. It was so darn cute. Jadeyn is funny when it comes to things like this, she is a little hestiant, but once she warms up which usually takes a while she is fine. She is actually pretty darn good too. She would take the ball all the way down the field and did really well. Cort is going to be our althlete I think. He is a natural. He loved playing soccer and it was just so cute that they got to play together. We had so much fun going to their games even though they were at 9 AM every Saturday. That is ok, it was fun.

Bennett played soccer again this year. This is his third year. This year they played on the big field. He is getting to be such a big boy. I cannot believe that he is old enough to play on a "real" sized field. He had a good time. We had a great coach and you really can't ask for more than that! He loves to play goalie as you can see.