Begining of October

The October General Conference was so amazing this year.  John and I have come to really dread Conference weekend.  I have such fond memories of good food and comfy clothes and quiet naps through talks.  Then we had kids and it is two days of yelling at them to be quiet so I can hear.  After the 1st session they start to resemble caged wild animals more than the little children that I love.  But this time it was really great.  They for the most part found quiet things to do or they would go outside or they would actually sit and listen a little.  What!?!

Part of our success was our little incentive chart with all the ingredients to make sugar cookies on little circles and for every talk that you either listened to or were quiet enough that John and I could listen to you would earn another ingredient. 

Worked like a charm.

The next week I got to go on a field trip with Lottie's class.  I was so happy to go because with all my little babies at home it's not very easy for me to volunteer in the bigger kids classes.  Even though I really really want to be one of those moms that is involved in everything.

We went to the pumpkin patch and had so much fun.

We also had our annual flu shot day.  We check the kids out of school and all seven of us get our shots and then we go out to lunch.

The kids have a real love/hate relationship with this little tradition but I think they actually love it a little more than they hate it..

I don't know why I took this picture but I just want to remember this little season of life with my 3 little girls.  One day I'll take another picture in this same bathroom with my 3 teenage girls and wish I could go back to these simple days.   I just know it.

This fall in Utah has been just gorgeous.  Unseasonably warm days with lots and lots of leaves to kick around.  My kids have such a magical life.  They don't know it but they really do.  These pictures are from a walk we took one night on grandpa's farm.  I mean who gets to grow up like this?

Ivy is going though some stuff right now...

Of course, we carved our pumpkins.  This is one of those parts of October that I could be just fine with skipping but whatever.

Then the kids had red ribbon week were they dressed up each day.  This was a typical Lottie morning when I made her put on this ridiculously adorable cheerleader costume for sports day that she was not happy about.  Why do kids have to have an opinion about what they wear??  Why can't they just trust me to make them look awesome?  Even Jack told me that she was the cutest girl in the lunchroom that day.  Lottie is going through some stuff too.

And then we ran up to Eagle Mountain for our cousin Tate's baptism and I caught Ivy and her cousin Loch in this moment.  These two have just recently discovered each other and have been having so much fun becoming friends.  Family is the best.

More than anything else though, October is the month we started finishing our basement.  Looking at these pictures are really fun because we've come a long way since then.  That's a post for another day but it's been lots of long night and tedious days spent down there but it's becoming a place that we find ourselves spending more and more time.

Through out all the work though we've had the kids right in the middle of it with us.  It's been sometimes super annoying but also kind of cool.  That they get to see this all come together for them.  So they can have a place to be.  I hope they remember all the work and time that went into making that scary dark hole into a warm cozy place for our family to gather.

Also, I posted this picture of a Wreni squeeze moments in the midst of house work a little over a year ago.

So when I took this one of the two of them last month I had to see them side by side.  What a difference a year makes.  And, we're still working on our house.  Will the projects ever end?