Jack o' lantern

I put the kids in charge of taking pictures of our pumpkin carving family home evening.

We did some prep work before Daddy got home from work.

The other kids have commented that Ellen looks like "Tow Mater."

"Two buck teeth for one buck!"

Elijah is appropriately attired, thanks to Nana.



There was a sprouted seed inside. Would another pumpkin grow inside our pumpkin? Weird. And interesting.



Everyone was a little more adventurous this year, and all the kids pulled out some seeds and braved touching the slime.





I love what kids take pictures of. It's all in the details, right?

Selfie.

Selfie with brother.















The end result!

And this being Texas, the next day our pumpkin was completely filled with mold spores, and the following day, Halloween, it was almost completely caved in and decomposing. Gross.

Walking to school

In some places I've lived, I walked out of my house or apartment in the morning to the smell of cows and farms.

The kids and I walked out of the house recently to go to school, and it smelled like SKITTLES!!

There are some advantages to living near the Mars manufacturing plant. Yummy mornings.

Elijah is 3!!

This little boy is three!!

Ellen and Jack insisted on only talking about his birthday when he wasn't around so it wouldn't ruin the surprise. Which is really funny, because he is so happy to do whatever his siblings are doing. And he still gets excited about things, even if I already told him about it.

Mom: We're going to eat dinner for your birthday!
Elijah: Jack Jack! We're going to eat dinner for my birthday! Daddy! We're going to eat dinner for my birthday! Ellen! Rose! We're going to eat dinner for my birthday!

We started the day with letter pancakes, lighted candles, and singing "Happy Birthday!" Elijah was excited about the candles until I told him to blow them out, and then he was scared and Rose took over. I took a video with my phone, and Elijah watched it about a dozen times throughout the day.

After naps, school and work, we went out to eat, and then to the Jumping Place for some inflatable fun. Elijah could climb up most of the inflatables and slide down by himself by the end of the night.

When we got home, we opened presents! The kids spent the afternoon after school making lego creations and wrapping up their own toys to give to Elijah. He was super excited to get Jack Jack's Lego Ideas Book and Rose's Hop on Pop puzzle. From Mom and Dad he got a puzzle and some fun Lego Duplos.

Crazy

Jack Jack asked me today why some kids we know (including some in our own family) do crazy things.

This led to a discussion about growth and development and the part of our brain that helps us make "safe" decisions.

I'm just glad that after Rose took my keys this afternoon and showed them to the assistant principal and he asked her, "Are you driving home?" . . .

she said, "No. I can't drive."

Corpus Christi

Funny how we take things for granted until they're gone.

Today my dad notified me that the walking trail and park at the Lake Waco Dam is closed because it's a National Park.


"Because of the federal government shutdown, all national parks are closed and National Park Service webpages are not operating. For more information, go to www.doi.gov."


Jack helped me move all my photos and videos from my phone to my computer, and I came across these pictures that Jack took from our trip to Corpus Christi in August.

We drove across the bridge to North Padre Island, which is a National Seashore, part of the National Park Service.

It was cool and cloudy. After the morning we spent at the beach (with sunscreen) we were all burned.

We saw crabs, fish, birds, shells, waves, seaweed and water to the horizon.

And sand. Sand in our toes, sand in our swimsuits, sand in our hair, sand in our car, sand in our shoes, toys, suitcase, bathtub, and lint trap of the dryer after I finished washing our clothes from the beach trip.

This beach is closed today. I'm glad we went in August.

The world is quiet here.

On my blog, I mean. And in my head, and at night when everyone is sleeping. But in the world where I'm a wife and mom and friend, teacher, primary leader and room mom, the world is a loud, chaotic, relentless perpetual motion machine.

How did we get from full on summer water fun to three weeks of school under our belt?

Again, I LOVE the summer reading program and reading in general. Both Ellen and Jack are starting out the year reading beyond what they were able to do at the beginning of the summer. In all truthfulness, I credit their reading ability to our continual work on reading the Book of Mormon together as a family. There are enough easy words to keep them motivated and enough hard words (Maher-shalal-hash-baz??) to challenge them. I recommend it.

Remember how Jack told me he wasn't taking any time off this summer? We ended up taking two (2!!) trips to the beach anyway in August and September. Maybe I'll blog about it. Corpus Christi/Padre Island and Galveston. So much fun, so much drama.

We had a Relief Society meeting about exercise and health. I did the high intensity interval workout and thought I was going to die about 3 minutes in. And I love it, love it, love it. Definitely will  keep this up.


In the middle of completing a list of errands requiring short visits to several places (laminate for primary, register the car, pay the late water bill, get the other car inspected, pay a ticket because the car registration was late, . . . ) I stopped at Walmart to get aspirin for Elijah and returned to the car with Rose and Elijah to find it locked.

And running.

And I had just told a friend I'd be home soon, and sure she could drop her kids off for me to babysit for an hour while she went up to the school for a meeting. Um. Fortunately, Jack could take an early lunch and come rescue me and my absent brain.


"You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl." I'm not quite sure how this applies to me, since I've never been a country girl, but I do love riding horses. I convinced the kids to try it, despite their fear of animals, and they loved it, too. Oh, and we got to celebrate our friends leaving for college and going on a mission soon.


This girl's hair is finally growing out a little, and swimming, speech, and preschool may be in her future. She's super excited about all of it.

Captain America. Oh, Captain America, how far you have come. Potty training. Need I say more?

Probably not, but I'm going to anyway. I can't believe how much harder it has been since my older kids are in school to find three days in a row in my schedule that I can stay home, fill Elijah with fluids, ply him with salty snacks, and praise, praise, praise him for being a big boy. To his credit, he has been amazing, and I am even more aware this time around of just how many different skills are necessary for eliminating human waste in a sanitary manner. I am also grateful for the unexpected opportunity to focus completely on my baby boy and get to know him better. I'm glad for a chance to slow down and be quiet. When the world in my head and heart is quiet and calm, I'm such a better wife, mother, friend, teacher, and leader.