Halloween

Halloween is always so magical with little people around! We carved our pumpkins on a Sunday afternoon the week of and the boys had so much fun! They got to do some of their own carving this year, which was exciting for them. We did it while Davis was napping and he didn't carve his, which was fine. He didn't know the difference. I love this picture of the three of them though!

I loved their costumes this year! Davis was the perfect size for the monster costume that all three boys have worn at this age. I love seeing these little monsters so much! He is definitely monster like and looked so so cute!

 Hudson debated for MONTHS what he wanted to be for Halloween. Finally mid-October I made him buckle down and decide for sure. He ended up being General Rex, a character from the clone wars Star Wars shows. He loved his costume and wore it all week and even slept in it (with jammies underneath) on Halloween night.

 Chase decided early on that he wanted to be Harry Potter this year. My neighbor leant us the quidditch robe, and I bought him the glasses. Heidi sent him a real Harry Potter wand and his costume was all set! He looked so cute!

 Our actual Halloween holiday was a blast. We started at the school for their parade. Davis was happily so entertained watching the parade and I loved seeing my boys parade through with their classes. Then in the afternoon I got to go help with Chase's class Halloween party. My assignment was to read Halloween books to them, which we already have so many so I just brought several favorites from our collection. Once it was evening we headed up to my parents so the kids could trick-or-treat up there. Davis came unglued and was literally shaking in excitement at the prospect of candy and had to eat it right away. Nana gave the boys caramel apples too, which was a bit hit!

 I love this picture, as we were trying to get the kids to cooperate for a photo. (Anna was home feeling sick). Chase is bossing Hudson, who clearly isn't cooperating. Nora's trying to figure out why, and Davis just kept smiling and enthusiastically saying "CHEESE" through it all!

Trick or treating was so fun this year. Our neighborhood is such a great place to trick or treat. Our fabulous neighbors, the Knavels, make homemade scones and set up chairs so everyone can kind of congregate there. We all went to enjoy a scone, and happily met up with the Shaws and Hickmans, who we continued to trick or treat with the rest of the night! I kept dropping kids off at home, where Ben was handing out candy, as they got too cold and tired (it was a cold night!). I got to chat with Katelyn and Lindsay as our hoard of little boys ran from house to house- it was a cute group for sure! I finally told Chase we HAD to go home when I got too cold and tired. He could have kept on going all night long! I put three happy, exhausted, sugar-filled children to bed and called it a night!

October

At the first of the month I took Davis to go visit my Grandma. Ben was on a business trip and I was feeling pretty lonely, which reminded me that I'm not the only lonely person in the world and I should go visit someone else I know is lonely! Davis was pretty timid while we were there (which is so rare for him) but he did sit on her lap adorably for a few minutes. 

I love October weather. It has made for a lot of fun afternoons in the yard playing! We live on this street with such great little friends for my kids (and I love their moms as well) and it's fun to just spend afternoons outside visiting and watching the kids play. Davis hauls this little balance bike out to try to ride it (it's still too big). He always puts a helmet on, which I think is adorable. He watches those big brothers and wants to do what they do! It's a good reminder for the boys to know that he's watching and copying them.

I pulled out the good camera one day and quickly snapped some pictures of my kids. They are growing too fast- I wish I could freeze them all at the stages they are right now. 

I get to spend my Thursday mornings volunteering in the boys classrooms. It is a highlight of my week. I love getting to know the kids in their classes better and their teachers. Mostly I love the hugs I get from my boys while I'm there, it means so much to them (and to me). It's so fun to see them in their environment at school. Last week while I was there I had a good talk with Chase's teacher. He's been a little bored in math and I had emailed her about things we could do to keep him challenged and engaged. She had a great plan of how to keep him moving forward since they use a computer math program that allows kids to progress at their own pace. Apparently Chase is miles ahead of the other kids, but she'll just keep him doing what he's doing. She's also pulling out some harder 3rd grade material for him to work on. And then she went on and on about what a great kid Chase is, how amazed she is with his abilities and how his mind works. It was good for my mama heart to know that he's teacher loves him and has a good plan to keep this smart kid challenged in school.

Hudson is doing awesome in kindergarten. He really loves it and is so obedient and attentive there. He's reading really well and loves to tell me all about his school assignments. As part of their words they are learning they color in block letters that make up that word. Every day he colors his to look like the American flag. He told me he thought that was a good idea "to be respectful". 

We did a corn maze with Ben's family on October Saturday. Ben proved to be the best maze navigator and once he took charge he had us out of there in no time! Davis was a good sport and trotted alongside us most of the way, towards the end I mostly carried him.

I really love dressing my boys up for church. This particular Sunday they all looked so cute so I photographed them all. Because of their varying states of dressy-ness, I did individual pictures because I thought they would look weird all together.

Hudson has been so in to Star Wars for months now. He made his own light saber out of a old wrapping paper tube and has been playing with it for months. Aunt Heidi took pity on his and bought him a lightsaber and had it mailed. He came unglued when he opened the package! It has hardly left his side since. He was super excited to play with his lightsaber with our neighbor Will Hickman, so he immediately made that playdate happen. They played together with their lightsabers for a solid hour (at which point we had to go home for lunch).

The last Monday in October the boys had another day off school. I asked them what they wanted to do and gave them several options (including the zoo and discovery museum) but they both immediately agreed they wanted to go visit my grandma! So we spent the morning doing that, which made me happy that they wanted to spend their time in such a great way.

That afternoon my dad informed us that there would be a BIG pile of leaves at his house, should any grandchildren want to come jump in it. Of course my boys were IN! They had a lovely time helping rake and then jumping over and over and over again. Davis was in heaven (last year he was super weirded out when I tried to put him in the leaves for a picture). I love the simple things that children find so enjoyable!

Fall Break

I LOVE that the kids get a fall break, even if it is only two days. Between school, friends, piano and sports I feel like I hardly see Chase! I was looking forward to spending some good quality time with my boys! We packed in tons of fun activities (and also got a decent amount of chores and yard work done as well!). On Thursday we hit up the Discovery Museum with the Bennetts. It was so fun, as always, and so nice that they all have a little buddy to play with. And of course, I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Alyse so I didn't take pictures, except this one of Davis mowing the whole first floor. He loves this lawn mower (and our identical, but very weathered one at home). 

 I had promised the boys forever ago that we could see Incredibles 2 once it came to the dollar theater, which nicely aligned with our break! I was going to be super brave and take Davis too, but when my mom offered to take him instead at the last minute I jumped at the chance! So just the big kids and I enjoyed this movie together. I laughed so much at Jack-Jack and how uncanny the similarities are between him and our own Davis Jack. Like, I think the producers may actually know Davis and based the character off him. The boys laughed and laughed through the movie, until it got a little intense and scary for them and then I had them BOTH on my lap.

 Friday morning we hit up the zoo. I've loved having a zoo pass this year. I knew Hudson would love it, but Davis enjoys it just as much! He oohs and ahhs over every animal and it's darling to see him so excited! Hudson took a little map of the zoo and was sure we were going to find treasure with it, hence him holding it up in this picture!

 Davis loved the elephants, and he really went crazy for the gorillas. We have been reading him "Good night Gorilla" and I think in that moment it totally connected for him.

Ben and I were able to have a nice date night at the temple during the break as well. It was wonderful to get away with my main man and have a chance to talk about our family. During General Conference in October a lot of changes and challenges were given- and Pres. Nelson urged us all to spend more time in the temple. We don't get there as often as we'd like, so we decided we needed to make it happen soon. We talked a lot about goals for parenting, what's working and what's not, and how we think we can step up our game and teach our children more at home as two-hour church goes into effect in January. It was a much needed night out. I'm so thankful for the Booyse's watching our boys, and for my wonderful husband. 

One more thought from this time- during the women's session of conference Pres. Nelson gave all the women four challenges. Along with attending the temple more often and participating more fully in Relief Society, he asked us all to do a 10 day social media fast and to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. Both of these have been such good experiences for me, so I wanted to record my thoughts here. First, on the social media fast, it was a nice break. I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would. I am thankful for the connections that I can make with people through social media and for all the good on there, but it was great to unplug for a bit for a reset. It also made me think about how I spend my time. Secondly, reading the Book of Mormon. I was somewhere in Alma when the challenge was given, but I decided I'd just start over and try to read it all by the end of the year. I'm spending a lot more time each day in my scriptures and I'm actually really loving it. I'm making a lot of connections I hadn't before and I can actually feel my mind functioning more clearly as I take more time to study. Some of the thoughts and themes that have impressed me as I've been reading are:

• The Lord doesn't take away people's trials just because they are righteous. He helps them through them and gives comfort. He's always there for them, but the trials don't just go away.
• Over and over, he asks us to focus on things that really matter and reminds us that material things pass away and aren't forever. Focus on Christ and family and service and relationships.
• Life is a refining process- it isn't easy for anyone. We can learn from trials.
• Remember all your blessings come from God.
• It can be easy to be confused by Satan if you aren't continually focusing on actively trying to stay close to God.

Anyway, Fall Break was AMAZING! I loved having my kids home and just really soaking them in. I loved taking them on adventures and focusing on having fun for a few days. I love those little guys. They really are the best!