Rest of October

And here are the others from October

 One day Mark was just super smiley and happy, so we had fun taking lots of pictures of him and Amy on the couch.

 It was my birthday this month! And that is about where it ends. Later that week I celebrated with two of my friends who also have birthdays that week. We had dinner and yummy cupcakes (not made by me) and then sent the menfolk to the Priesthood session and the kids downstairs to destroy play while the birthday ladies chatted and watched "Just Like Heaven"

 After Conference on Sunday, we drove up Swan Valley a little ways to do some "treasure hunting". For those of you who don't know what this is, there are crazy people out there who go hide boxes, or caches as they are known, and then post the coordinates online for others to go and find. We use Robert's GPS from work and it can be loads of fun trying to find just where they have hidden those silly things. The area was just gorgeous along the Snake River.

 The pumpkins we carved for Halloween with glowsticks inside (my favorite way to light them, but not every night). "We" being the kids who chose the pictures and me who did the muscle work. I think they turned out quite cute, especially with the different colored glowsticks inside!

 Sam and Amy holding the medical play dolls I made for patients at Primary Children's Hospital. Even though I had a gazillion things going on, a friend of mine posted on FB that she would be going to Primary's and was taking donations down. I have always wanted to do something in honor of our Kaylie, but the right situation never presented itsself. Until now. So I did it. According to their directions, you needed 1/3 yd of fabric to make one doll. So I bought 2 yds so I could make six dolls. Well, it made 11. That turned into a huge project real fast to cut, sew, trim, turn, fill, handstitch and then make gowns for 11 dolls. It ended up being nearly 12 straight hours of sewing and working, but it was well worth the effort!

 Kids being crazy at bedtime

 Sam showing off his ghost while waiting for our first parent teacher conference. Sam is doing really well in school. He is at grade level in everything and above grade level in a couple areas. He is loving the Spanish immersion program and I enjoy being able to help in both classes on Thursdays.

 This is a quick pic from the Halloween Mystery Dinner we did for our YM/YW combined that I was mainly in charge of. It was a ton of work and kinda crazy the night of while serving the dinner, but it was definitely memorable and I think the youth really enjoyed it!

 Next comes our awesome trip to St. George for my family's reunion. I know most families do theirs in the summertime, but that just doesn't work for our family, so we tried it in the fall. It worked out pretty well because it was UEA for my brothers, my oldest sister home-schools her children, the next does year round school and they were off, and Sam had Friday off of school so he only ended up missing 1 day.

 We had a blast doing all of the "usual" Whatcott activities like four-wheeling, shooting, hiking, pictures, eating, etc.

 Sam was a pretty good shot with the bow and arrow.

 The older kids painting rocks

 Out on the hike to see the hieroglyphs - I packed Mark in the front carrier the whole way in and out - I was pretty proud of myself!

 Shooting skeets

 Sam and Daddy pulling for everyone

 Isn't this an awesome pic? Yeah, my sister is gorgeous even while shooting in the desert.

 Some of the grandkids lined up on the Pine Valley Church. We went to see this, the oldest chapel in LDS history, but it wasn't open this day, darnit!

 Kisses for Opa

 And the day after we got home, I did a cake for my friend who took the awesome family pictures you see on the side of the blog. We traded a cake for pictures - it was sweet!

 And a glance at how Sam has changed over the years. My favorite part about getting new pictures is to take out the old ones and line them up! I definitely have a handsome little guy!

So photogenic, even while sleeping! Maybe I should try that? :)

More from September

So I guess it wasn't just October I was missing pictures from, so here is the other half of pictures from September.

 Just a random picture of my favorite guy actually getting some floor time. It is dangerous to leave him on the floor for too long! And for some reason, all of my kids sleep this way with their arms up over their heads.

 Amy and Sam playing airplane one day with an on-board medic :)

 In September is when Amy, Mark, and I flew to Arizona for a couple of days to join the other sisters and sister-in-law who came home for a visit. It was a pleasant, short trip! These are the older kids who came: Amy, Holly, Cayden, and Luke.

 Amy and Holly are only a few months apart in age and had so much fun playing together!

 On the way back to the airport they both sacked out, but Amy was sure to comfort her brother :)

 I loved this random pic from this month where he is totally asleep, but keeping his binky in his mouth for himself

 This is Julie and her youngest, Katie. This girl LOVES Mark - it is so adorable to watch!! Especially when she yells to "hold" Mark

 In the adorable Cabela's outfit Aunt Candace bought for Sam when he was the same age

 Mark is my super happy guy. This is him hanging out on the floor while we were waiting to fly to Arizona.

 I was so especially excited to meet this new little guy, Landon. He is about 10 weeks younger than Mark and was the last grandson born this summer. The things on his ears (because I know you are going to ask) are to help shape his ears (apparently they were quite misshapen when he was born). He ended up wearing them for a solid month and a half, but now has perfect little ears!

 Robert's mom making a massive amount of the tradition Skousen gooey rolls for the RS broadcast

 The girls of the family: Sister Kayla, Sister Shanna, Mother Trixie, Sister Lisa, Sister-in-Law Stacey, and Sister-in-Law Me

The three grandsons born this summer going from youngest to oldest. They were nicknamed Sleepy, Grumpy, and Happy :)

Catching Up - October

 At four months, Robert thinks it's ok to start trying out french fries. (insert eye roll)

 All ready to go out trick-or-treating the Saturday before Halloween.

 This month has been fraught with washer troubles. Thankfully I have a handy man that will hopefully have it all figured out soon. Or else I know what I'm getting for Christmas ;)

 I am so very excited that this month marks the end of harvest season, which means we were able to move things around and get kids situated in their own rooms. Now Mark and Sam share a room and Amy shares with the office!

 I am very excited to have the kids where they are at for various reasons, but mainly to have my room back. I am excited to start getting the vinyl put up in each room that Robert's mom cut out for me when I was visiting.

 Sam's school had a Halloween carnival and so we made these Frankenstein rice crispy treats to donate to the bake sale. They were alot of fun for both of us to make together!

 Amy loves her iPad time!

 This is a pic of what my family room downstairs looked like after I had gone through all the trash bags of clothes that were sitting in our spare bedroom unmarked and unorganized. There is a clothing swap coming up for our community, so I decided it would be a good time to go through and sort, fold, and organize all the clothes the kids have grown out of. This took me literally all day to go through the bags, sort, fold, organize, and then put back in to bags. I watched almost an entire season of The Next Great Baker while doing it :)

 Because he threw up all over the lobster costume that was BARELY long enough, I decided to give Mark a break and put him in the 6 to 9 month pumpkin outfit Sam wore for his first Halloween. He was a much happier camper :)

 The kids were driving us nuts asking when the trunk-or-treat was, so Julie and I took them trick-or-treating along our town's tiny main street. It was a fun little activity and we got done just as it started to rain - perfect!

There is alot more for October (like 2 trips!), but I am having a hard time pulling the pictures off my iPhone to the computer (I think it is because our iCloud is full?), so I will have to post about those later!

Catching Up - September

 So I am finally back in the swing of things (hopefully), so I am catching up from my 2 month lapse. In September Liliana came back from visiting home and stayed with us for a few weeks until school started again at BYU-Idaho. We helped her find some things to do like cleaning, babysitting, and making tortillas to earn money for school. The kids and I enjoyed having her back with us again!!

 We had a couple crazy days where we were making tortillas all day long. We made 14 dozen for one event alone!!

 And as one last summer fling before school started, we went to Bear World with the Potters and ended up being joined by our other friends, the Miles, once we arrived. All the kids had a blast!!

 Then my big guy started school! It is still hard for me to believe I have a kindergartner!! But it is true and he is loving it!!

 This is him on his first day of school. He went right in to his classroom, no fear or worries and got right to work coloring his rocket ship.

 This is Sam with his Spanish teacher, Mrs. Garrido. Sam is participating in the language immersion program at his school and all of us have been enjoying it!

 This was when we went to pick Sam up after the first day of school. This little girl misses her big brother ALOT while he is at kindergarten!!

 September also means canning - and lots of it!! We did the usual peaches, pears, applesauce, etc. But this year our new thing to try was making our own pickles. They have turned out quite yummy, too! I think it will be added to the list for future canning seasons!!

 I was asked to make my first wedding cake!! It was a little nerve-wracking to do my first, but I think this one was the perfect project because it was someone I don't see all the time and she wanted it very plain and simple. It was a challenge simply because I didn't have alot to go on. I talked with the bride over the phone and I had really nothing to go on, but overall I think it turned out nice and I was told by the bride's sister (which is how we got connected) that it was exactly what she had wanted (I REALLY hope this was true!)

 And it isn't September without the State Fair! This year we were joined by our friends, the Southwicks, who now live in Meridian, Idaho. These are our friends from the good old college days.

 We each have 3 kids and our kids are all around the same ages, so it was a great time had by all. Until we lost their oldest that is. Thankfully he was found soon and without being traumatized (all he could talk about was the policeman), but we definitely don't EVER want to go through that again!

 Caught Mark smiling in his sleep during church.

 Saying goodbye to Sam as he gets on the bus for school. We have all been adjusting to the earlier schedule.

 We went over to the Potter's for some reason (probably to can or something) and we let the kids make their own Flubber.

And a quick snapshot of Mark in his favorite place in one of my favorite outfits on him :)