We love October!

Our second annual trip to Packs Pumpkin Patch. It's a you-pick farm where we have loved going with Joyschool preschool friends. This year we bought 100 pounds of pumpkin. And Ashley didn't cry that her pumpkin had dirt on it- happy trip!

The weather here was suddenly cold and has since warmed back up a little bit. Hooray for playing outside!

I thought the messes from big girl toys was annoying enough. Now that we have added baby toys to the mix, I am afraid the house will never be clean again.

Actually it will be when the maids come for their detail cleaning- my favorite day of the month. And it's tomorrow-yippee!

We sure have one cute baby! Aaron ate rice cereal for the first time on the 15th and loved it. Surprisingly at 4 months he actually swallowed some instead of just tasting it.

This boy LOVES sucking on his fingers. I think he's gotten 9 fingers at the same time once, though usually it's just 3. He's really starting to reach and grab for things and the girls have fun giving him things to hold.

Post-Bradley Class party

Bryan and I took Bradley birth classes to get ready for Aaron's arrival. The Bradley method is husband coached childbirth. From their website, "Bradley classes teach families how to have natural births. The techniques are simple and effective. They are based on information about how the human body works during labor. Couples are taught how they can work with their bodies to reduce pain and make their labors more efficient." Of all the birth options it seemed like the one that would work great for Bryan and I. It did work great and I actually enjoyed most of my labor with Bryan at my side and it was a beautiful team building experience. It was unifying, loving work to bring our baby into the world.

The other babies in the picture are from the other couples who took the class with us. They are lined up according to age- Aaron the oldest born June 5 and Phoebe the youngest on Aug 26. There were two couples who couldn't come that night so add 2 more babies and that was our class.We just found out the birth center is closing this December b/c of some legislative dumb stuff. The midwives who practice there legally need a doctor to sign for them, but the insurance rate for the doctors who do that is astronomical so they have to downsize and then one lady can reopen. Sad for people who want birth options!

Aaron turns 4 months this week. Time does go by fast. Three kids has not been as hard as I thought it would be. I attribute it to a lot factors: 1) Aaron is a happy baby. When he is happy, I am not stressed and therefore can be a better mom and make him more happy. 2) My girls play together so well. Yes they fight but mostly they are best friends. They are so bored when the other one goes to school. 3) Bryan is home. He works from home most days from the basement. He comes up for food and fresh air and will then help out with whatever needs help. It is heaven. I can run an errand and leave the kids for a few minutes. 4) My sling. It's sanity and it's easy. I love it most all of the time except when Aaron's spit stinks and/or when I've worn it so long my back starts to hurt (about 1-2 hours). 5) I know mom stuff. I am not scared of a crying baby, or poop on me, or if he's hungry. I guess you can say I've had experience and so I don't have to worry too much. 6) Aaron was/is a good sleeper. For about a month he slept from 9pm-5am every night without one wake up. It was too good to last so now he wakes up two-three times a night and is awake at 7am and then down for a nap at 9:30am. Even if he's not a great sleeper now, I had a month of good sleep. And for a recovering mom, it was bliss. Now I just take naps when I nurse or when I can or when Bryan gives me one, and it works. 7) Last but not least, the Lord blessed me with what I can handle and so I know I can handle it and so I am.

So basically life is good! Three is not too much- yeah! Even though my basement had a minor flood and Bryan was gone all day, I was tough and brave and I had two neighbors who came and helped rescue me. And my basement is as good as ever! But that's a story for another day.

Happy Fall

We just got our camera back from the repair shop and here are two of my cuties today. Poor Ashley is a middle child and might not find any pics of herself in years to come- sad.

Bryan is a biking man and loves his new road and mountain bikes. He also enjoys having his two brothers Cam and Spence down in Provo.

Aaron is approaching 4 months and he is a happy baby. This morning in the space of one hour he had peed out, spit up all over me, pooped out, spit up, and then spit up again. He is keeping me busy but we all love him. Ashley especially loves her baby brother.

The girls signed up for a new weekly song/dance class called Sunshine Generation- they both love it. Emily is liking kindergarden and I am loving that it is in the afternoon so she can play all morning. Ashley is liking her Joyschool preschool with her two neighbor friends Brookey and Nathan.

The only trouble I am finding with the girls' schools is that both girls have had each other as playmates for so long that neither of them know how to play by themselves. They are constantly asking me to play Pollies (Polly Pockets) with them while the other one is gone. I am getting better at playing with them and they are getting better at waiting and playing by themselves so it is working.

Tonight the girls were being obnoxious at bedtime so I separated them. Emily fell asleep in my bed but Ash just wouldn't go to bed. I went upstairs to hear her say, "I can't go to sleep without my best-friend" over and over to herself. I brought in a sleeping Emily and then Ash went right to bed.

First Days of School

Here are my babies on their first days of school:

Ashley is doing Joyschool Preschool (the home rotating preschool). Here are the 3 kids with a big sister too. Two of the preschool kids were missing, so we'll have 3 boys, 2 girls and 4 different rotating mom as teachers. The first unit is the Joy of the Body followed by the Joy of the Earth. This is my third year doing it and I love it. www.valuesparenting.com/joyschool/

Emily started kindergarden at our public school Adelaide. She has Mrs. Thornell and is very

excited about school. Her grandma Hanks bought her a Hello Kitty backpack and so life is complete. The first week she had Red, Yellow and Blue days where each day the kids wore those colors, they learned a new color song and got to have a new crayon in their crayon box. She had to stay in from recess on Friday b/c she didn't do her work. She was alone in the class and was crying. Sad Emily and sad mom to have to hear that news, although I am not surprised. She is so easily distracted with everyone and every thing when she is not excited to do something.

Here's how I speak right to my husband's heart- I write it with 10 boxes of cereal!

This is how Aaron and I look most days, him tucked away in my green sling (my pouch). He loves being in it! I just wish it weren't so hard on my back!

Our cute selves

Bryan and Jono rock it on their balloon guitars at the firm party.

The before and after the girls gave him a haircut. The only bleeding was when I cut his ear- sorry babe! We used the trimmers on size 6.

Here's Bryan's "magnum" look. Or is it "blue steel"? I can't remember.

Thanks Fosters for the cute hat!

Our Tooth Fairy

Emily lost her first tooth yesterday! We were driving home from our road trip to Washington/Idaho and about 4 pm she said, "Mom, Ashley knocked my tooth and now it's really loose!" I handed her a paper towel and after a few pulls, she pulled her bottom right tooth out. She was so excited to tell the dentist and all her friends.

The tooth fairy came last night and brought her 2 gold dollars and 2 half dollars. She also left little pink sparkles on both the girls' beds. Ashley was mad and wanted the sparkles off, while Emily thought the sparkles came from the fairy's sweater and wanted to keep hers on.

Today the girls wanted to play 'fashion' and got all dressed up. At different points in the morning both girls were mad and said, "You can't be in my fashion," and the other girl would run off crying. Yet in the end they worked it out and even mom got to be included.

We had a fun trip to Pullman, WA and to Moscow and Couer D'Alene, Idaho.

Us 5 and Cameron and Spencer Hanks drove 15+ hours up and back and survived! We saw Drew & Kelly Hanks and their 2 girls, and Kelli and Jeremy Foutch and their 3 kids. We played on Couer D'Alene lake for a couple days- once on a motor boat with a tube and the other day in a paddle boat. In Couer D'Alene the girls loved learning about the Mudgey & Millie story and window shopping. They also loved playing with cousins and friends in the beautiful outdoors of the Northwest. The grown-ups did a lot of talking about what it means to follow Christ and enjoyed lots of good discussions and sharing of ideas.

Hot Summer Fun

This summer my kids have spent the most time in our garage. In our cul-de-sac neighborhood it seems that most moms are willing to let their kids play outside unsupervised if they stay outside within sight. In the summer that means either in the heat riding bikes or hiding underneath Beth's tree (the biggest one on the block), that is until they found my garage. I agreed one day to let them bring their Barbies outside and my garage hasn't been the same since. That half of the garage used to house Bryan's brother's car but since they returned to Utah and claimed the car, open play space. This week it's PollyPocketVille, last weed Build-A-Bear Land.

We have also played a lot dress-ups this summer. We have a lot so it's easy to do. Yesterday we had a theater day with 2 friends over and did "Three Little Pigs", "Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo..." They had a blast. Here's Aaron in his first dress-up outfit, Emily as Tinkerbell (the flying fairy), Ashley as Swan Lake (the swimming fairy).