Corbin's Date

The girls went to friend's houses for play dates after school today.  I took the boys on a date early this afternoon, since we didn't have to rush home to meet the bus.  We started at the monthly preschool play date at Crystal Bridges where Corbin painted the most adorable clouds I've ever seen. I'm such a sucker for watercolors.  

We ate our picnic lunch at the museum, then stopped at the Spark Cafe for ice cream cones (I am in denial that it is freezing outside). Soren got his own little cone, which he devoured. When it was gone, this happened.

Be still my heart. I love these little boys.

Halloween

Halloween lasted for 3 weeks this year. 

We had birthday parties, school parties, carnivals, activity days, ward party and trunk or treat, the walmart home office halloween extravaganza, and neighborhood trick or treating. 

It was fun and exhausting just like Halloween should be.  

This year, we had a magician, a QuincyBee, a shark, and a skunky. These are the best shots we could get of our very excited crew:

I die over the sweetness of this little skunk. So adorable.

Soren's little buddy Sawyer next door was also a skunk and the two of them together was cuteness overload!

Jacob and Corbin are quite the duo.

 Corbin's preschool class at Arvest Bank. Another photo of Corbin and Cole was in the paper last week.

 This year was our first experience taking the kids door-to-door trick or treating because we've never lived in a neighborhood before now.  They loved it. I have the sweetest neighbors. Our little cul-de-sac was just enough. Soren rode in the stroller and the kids kept asking me to carry their candy bags because they were too heavy. Lazy much? Back in MY day, I had a pillowcase and if it was too heavy to carry that meant I was done trick or treating.  I remember Emily Hepner, and Katy Myrvold and I making pitstops to empty our candy bags and going back out for more.  We were hard core trick or treaters.  Halloween is way too easy for kids now a days, man.  Half of the cubes at the home office just had a bowl out for the kids to help themselves too.  They didn't even have to SAY, "trick or treat!"

It's been a week of free-for-all candy noshing and now that all of the peanut butter cups and almond joys have been devoured I decided to call it this afternoon.  Corbin helped me sort out the remaining chocolate candy into one bag (that I will now refer to as "movie snacks and mom's sanity supply") and the colorful hard candies and licorice and tootsie rolls (because let's face it, tootsie rolls do not count as chocolate and you know it) were bagged up and stored away for ginger bread house decorating next month.  

I love Halloween.  I was so ready to jump right into the month of gratitude, this year. 

Spiderwebs and black cats have been boxed up, and cornucopias and pilgrims are up.  

We are ready to give some thanks. 

There are a lot of good things happening in the world.

How is it that I spent like 3 hours doing laundry today and I don't have any clean socks? How is it that I have unpacked every box from our move and still have not even located any of my socks?

The weather was chilly and raining today and I ended up in running socks because I don't have any regular socks. Who doesn't have any socks?! Where did they go? I haven't needed socks since springtime and I seriously wonder if they disappeared in the move.

I also ran out of clean sweatpants-disguised-as-real-pants aka "yoga" pants this morning, so unless I want to be a grown up and put on real clothes tomorrow, I'm going to need to do MORE laundry tonight.

Or...

I could go buy more stretchy pants tomorrow.
I'm about to make a decision.
Decision made.

I am not a grown up yet.
Operation buy new stretchy pants tomorrow for the win.

You don't care about my lack of clean socks and stretchy pants problem.
That's forgivable. It's not a real thing to complain about.

So let's talk about something worthwhile.  Like gratitude.
Here are a few really great things happening in the world:
1) I have nothing real to complain about. My health could be better. Life is not perfect, but life is good. Really good. I'm thankful that there is noting substantial happening that could potentially shut me down or keep me from being happy.  I have a great life with a great family and awesome friends to enjoy it with. These are things I choose not to take for granted.

2) I got a really nice little note of appreciation for serving in primary from a near stranger yesterday. It was a few sentences in an email and I was touched.  The words were meaningful and genuine and a tangible reminder to me of how far into a day a small amount of gratitude can carry someone.

3) A person at Sams Club approached me while I was pumping gas and offered to finish so I could get back into my car and warm up.  Such a nice gesture!  It's the little things that can make someone's day.

4) I met up with a friend, Stacie, whom I have known casually for about 7 years.  She's a cheerful little nugget and even though I only chatted with her for about 20 minutes, our exchange was full of optimism and good things. Good news, good stories, and just all around happiness.  Not the fakey fake everything is perfect even when it's not kind of happiness. Just her beautiful acceptance of everything and everyone around her the way that they are. She has true joy.  She never loses sight of the bigger picture. Being around her was refreshing and delightful.

5) Lastly, tomorrow is Adoption Day at the San Benito Courthouse for my sister, HolleeAnn and her husband Paul.  Just look at this adorable face on my nephew.  He belongs to our family forever!
They have waited 8 years to add a sweet little baby to their family, and tomorrow, little Nico will officially be theirs. Ours.  I am so happy for them and wish I could be there to celebrate with them.
Welcome, Nicolas.  You are the best thing happening in our world right now!

So yeah, my socks have disappeared and I'm out of clean pants, and the children refused to eat the delicious meal I made tonight. 

My older sister officially gets a baby of her very own for keeps tomorrow.
I have a score of gratitude to sing.

Grandparents Visit

We had the greatest visit with my parents this month. I love when they get to stay more than a couple of days.  We had about 10 days together and they were fantastic and full of adventures, as always.  

We hit up the craft fair right away.  

This lemonade became a tipping point for a total meltdown.  Neither Corbin or Quincy wanted to share the treat, so they result was a battle of wills tug of war and the whole thing spilled on the lawn and all over Corbin's pants.  They were both really mad about it, but willingly picked up all of the ice off the ground and threw it away.   The booth owner handed me a new lemonade (with two straws) and said something nice about just letting it go and told us to have a nice time at the fair.  I'm not sure the children learned anything from it, since their lemonade was replaced with no consequences, but it was still a really nice gesture since a lemonade at the fair is like $6.  More often than not these days, I feel like children are treated like a nuisance when we're out in public places.  Some places are more welcoming to purse dogs than small children and they are expected to be seen but not heard.  It is such a treat when strangers are accepting and forgiving and do nice things for my children...especially when my children are acting like children. :)

We ate a lot of good food together.

This is what heaven looks like. I am sure of it. Shelves full of giant round, delicious, loaves of bread.

 Having my parents around = fun.  My parents like to play and so do we.  One night we played Farkle and had a marathon round of Memory Match where the kids blew us away with their memory skills.
(Aaron must've had a high Farkle score here or something.)

(note Reese the scorekeeper. She's the only one who can be trusted since the rest of us are cheaters.)

 My dad and Aaron installed a new combo lock on the front door.  (Aaron's face was a joke-he was mimicking Quincy and Corbin who didn't like the noise.)

My mom taught the girls how to knit hats for their American Girl dolls and she made them tiny scarves to match.

"Grandpa, I think you have a mild case of IBS"

Soren figured out very quickly that Grandma and Grandpa always have "juice".

In keeping with tradition, here is the latest pic captured of my mom, mid-hair-dying.  

Love you mom! 

 "she's going to kill you for posting that picture..."

One of my favorite things about my parents is that they love to laugh and tease.
And here is my dad after using the sink hose to spray water down my mom's shirt. I love that they can always find a way to have fun. 

We got lost in Fayetteville (twice) and the night before we got stopped by a train at this intersection at 11pm.  It was pretty creepy. Then a bunch of people with flashlights jumped off the train and started shining their spotlights everywhere.  In a tense moment when I was deciding whether or not to wait for the train to move or back up and get the heck out of there, my mom says, "It's an army of Dauntless soldiers! They're looking for us." (I'm reading Divergent right now, so her timing was perfect.)

My brother sent us this text the day before they left his house in Denver.  His caption read, "We are not very exciting hosts."

That led to a thread of jokes about what we should do to them while they're sleeping.  Magic Marker Mustache won.

Dad, you're the greatest.  

Lastly, about 5 hours after my parents arrived, Aaron and I left the children in their care and took off for Oklahoma City for the night.  We attended our stake Fill the Temple Day on Friday and came home that afternoon.  It was wonderful to sneak away and have 8 hours in the car to talk.  My parents were awesome and took great care of the kids, went to the girls' assembly at school, ordered catfish (Quincy's favorite) for dinner, and spoiled everyone rotten the whole time we were gone.  It was awesome to be able to go to the temple together instead of taking turns.  

Thanks, Mom and Dad!  Come back soon!

"October, Roctober, My Favorite Time of Year!"

It's autumn on Primrose Lane.

The fall color show did not disappoint this year. Spectacular!  The back half of my home is a 2nd level so the window views are in the tree tops. There isn't a bad angle, every window delivers beauty.  

 Reese and Emma raked some leaves into a giant pile on the lawn the other day

Corbin decided it was the perfect place for wrestling and tackled anyone who got close. 

CoRd40

 This is my favorite tree every year. It's in front of Corbin's preschool and starts out green and purple and every year I look forward to watching the leaves slowly turn into this flame of beauty.

This is the road between my street and the girls' school.

Off Spanker ridge

Outside of Stonemill in Fayetteville.

Last week I was struck by a terrible mastitis infection that knocked me down for days. I had quit nursing Soren the week before and probably should've seen it coming. Anyway, mastitis is the worst, guys. The worst.  I couldn't lift my arms without crying and every movement felt like I was being stabbed.  I couldn't leave my bed for a day and a half.  We were practicing for the primary program in sharing time or I would have just stayed home.  I was pretty miserable. Kasey brought soup and I spent as much time as possible in bed. My parents left town Monday morning, but my dad and Aaron gave me a blessing before they headed out, and then Kristi came down the street in a timely answer to my prayers and took the boys while I went to the doctor to get some antibiotics. Medicine is such a miracle.
I sat on my porch swing with a blanket and hot cider (even though it was 65* outside) Monday evening while the kids played on the island and just let nature (and drugs) rehabilitate me. I felt overwhelmed with gratitude.  I am so lucky to have wonderful family and friends that come through when I'm sick.  I can't believe I get to live in such a beautiful place. Bella Vista is breathtaking in the fall and monday was quite the showstopper.  How could I be miserable when every view around me is a a gift from God, telling me how much he loves me?  The beauty of the trees did not heal my pain, but my attitude was definitely cured.

Ginger Softies are my fave

Aaron is teaching a missionary prep class to all the 16-18 year old boy and girls in our ward this afternoon, so I whipped up a double batch of these goodies. 

Four is the new black. I like to think I wear it well.

Today I took the girls and Soren with me to run errands while Corbin was in preschool.  We went to a zillion places, picked up Corbin, came home for lunch and naps, then went grocery shopping, and then returned home to fix dinner for the Missionaries.

I have some really helpful children. Walmart took longer than expected, and I mentioned on my way home that I was in a bit of a hurry to get food ready in time for our dinner appointment.  

Quincy and Corbin brought in ALL of the groceries and put almost all of them away while Reese put Soren in the high chair and fed him a yogurt.  Then, the girls put on a tv show for Corbin, and went to their room and picked out their clothes for the week (they were out of school today).   

While I was at Walmart, an older man looked at me and my brood of excited shoppers and said, 

"Don't you and your husband ever think to just go to the movies?"  

I didn't understand his joke, and replied, "Oh all the time! We love date night."  

Wait. Why? 

"Well are ALL these kids yours?"  

Oh. You mean these AWESOME kids? The one's standing right here, listening to you say they shouldn't exist? 

"Yes. They are.  They're the greatest." 

Since when is four kids the new "too many"?

Why is any number too many? Or not enough?  Go worry about the children who don't have mother's at all. Mine are doing just fine and they adore each other.  How could anyone look at my perfect little ginger and say to my face that I should've stopped before him?  

Sometimes, moments in my house are totally crazy. Today had some of those moments, like right before nap time when one tired child bit another tired child for refusing to share a toy.  But for the most part, every time I looked around, one child was helping another with something, and that makes me really, very happy.  

Who needs the movies? I've got quite a show with four fabulous little thespians happening right in my own home. 

If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me, "Two girls and two boys? Now you are done." I'd be rich.  I like to think that my two boys and two girls are what make me rich.