Octoberfest

Young Women in Excellence was this month. I had this great idea to make silhouettes of each of the young women with a quote written on them. I didn't know how to actually do it though. It was a group effort with the other leaders but we got them done. My contribution was to put them in the frames. I think they turned out so great. It was fun to see the young women try to find their own. They were better at spotting others than their own profile.

 As part of ribbon week, they had camo day at school. Justin has tons of camo but nothing that would fit the kids. Sarah rolled up his sweatshirt and called it good.

This is a slap bracelet on Erica's nose. She's pretty much always goofy. Her latest thing is to follow up any answer to her question with "How do you know?"  It goes something like this:

Erica: Is this made from wood or glass?
Me: Your spoon is made from metal.
Erica (all judgy and irritated): How do you know?

James is kind of cruising. I remember Sarah just going around and around the perimeter of living room and into the kitchen but he doesn't do that. James likes to pull himself up to things to see what he can pull down then he crawls to a new spot and tries again.

I borrowed my mom's button tin to finish Sarah's Halloween costume. She had so much fun looking through all the funny buttons.

 She especially liked these fancy things although we have no idea what they're for.

Erica got "ready for the dance" which means putting on tons of elastics as bracelets and headbands as necklaces and sweatbands. She looks ready for something. She didn't want me to take her picture so this is the best I could get.

Sarah got the closest guess for where my nephew Tyler is going on his mission. She guessed England and he got called to Scotland and Ireland. He brought her doughnuts for winning. We are all so excited for him! No one is more excited than Sarah.

Here at the library James is taking a break from pulling books off the shelf and is playing with toys.

 Erica loves her some tablet games. I don't have games on mine so she is all about it at the library. I told her she looked fancy in her scarf.

 We went to the park one day during fall break. We were so excited to play in the leaves.

 Erica liked to throw them.

 James liked to do yoga in them.

 Sarah and I made a leaf house. I did this all the time as a kid---making a floor plan with the leaves.

 Sarah is lying in her leaf bedroom.

 I don't know if I made this up or if my older sisters did but it was so fun to do again after 25+ years.

 On Saturday Sarah had a piano recital. She wasn't too nervous and she did great!

She loves the piano and it's hard to get her to stop practicing some days. It's fun to hear her teach herself songs now that she's pretty good at reading notes.

 Henry's selfie of his feet.

 Henry finally finished his all about me poster back to school. He got this on the first day. Oops. I don't think the teacher uses it until their birthday so I guess it's okay.

I have no idea why he put peanuts as his favorite food. He doesn't know why either. "I guess hamburgers and chicken nuggets are really my favorite." He wants to be a dad when he grows up. So sweet.

I don't know if it was the smartest thing or the dumbest thing for me to show him how ask google about sports scores. Every morning he says "okay google, who won the game last night?" and then he spends forever looking at sports scores and telling Sarah and I all about them. And he's found links to video highlights. Sigh. At least I don't have to look them up for him anymore. I also hear him say things like "Okay google, what kind of dog should I get?" or "What should I have for lunch?"

James and Erica having fun with their shadows one morning.

I love me some October weather. I hope these super sunny, high of 60 days never end.

 So my next door neighbor unloaded about 60 tires between his house and mine. They were stacked neatly but tall and wide and were there for a few weeks. Who wants to see that everyday? Not me. What do you do with a bunch of old tires?? It was ugly and I was afraid of the vermin that would soon take up residence.

And then this morning, this beautiful truck rolled up.

 Here I am stalking them a little more discreetly.

 And now from upstairs. I've never been so excited to see a semi before. B-bye old tires!

Now if they'll do something with the appliance graveyard in their backyard.

The Day I Didn't Mother Anyone

Last Saturday I went to Logan with my parents. Without my husband, without my kids for 12 hours. I wanted us all to go but we would either have to drive 4 hours in a day with James or sleepover at my brother's house with James. Neither option sounded great so Justin insisted I just ride up with my parents. I got to be a kid, sister, aunt but wasn't in charge of anyone. So weird.

This. This is why I went.

Every year USU puts on an agriculture day for the local growers and for $12 you can eat all the food you want. Yes, that's a lamb kabob in the center. Pork loin, beef strip, lamb sausage, onion rings, salad, roll, corn on the cob, Gossner chocolate milk, cheese sandwich, Sanpete turkey. Not pictured: apple, dried cherries, ice cream sandwich. I went back for a second kabob but forgot to get my free tulip bulbs. They've been doing this for several years and my sister and parents go but I hadn't been until now. It wasn't as crowded this year because it didn't coincide with Homecoming. I thought it was the best thing ever.

My dad, brother, brother-in-law and nephew went to the football game so Lisa and Jaana and I took a nostalgic tour of campus. Old Main is my most favorite. We could see the A from our house in River Heights when I was little. I had 3 classes in this building while I was a student and I loved it.

Looked the same inside, just empty on a Saturday afternoon.

I can't believe how much campus has changed and how much I had forgotten in 14 years. "Has this building always been here?" I'd say about a building built in 1899. Uh, yes.

This lady in the center is also why I went. This is my niece Jaana and it was also her 21st birthday! What?! If she's 21 then I can't be 26 and I am definitely still 26 so there's something going on here. She's a junior-senior this year. And her mom and USU alum Lisa is on the right.

After that we rounded up my sister and her boys and my mom and went to a corn maze and the American West Heritage center. I hadn't been there for awhile either and it looked totally different too.

They had some fun activities for the kids and since I didn't have any kids with me, it was up to me to make use of them.

 This made my legs tired.

 Jaana won Big Jenga.

 On our way out I saw this super cute baby cow. I took a picture for Erica.

Then we got dinner and then sang happy birthday to Jaana and then I rode back home with my parents. It was so strange not buckle anyone in a seat or worry about feeding or cleaning or looking after anyone. It's been at least a year since I'd been "on my own" for so long. It was a nice mental break to just go with the flow and not be in mom mode. I'd make it a tradition but Justin and the kids would enjoy it so much and next time I want to enjoy it with them.

James at 11 Months

Wow last month went by so fast. One more month until his birthday! How the??

Here's what's new with James. 

He's got a cute face (not new). His hair is long and shaggy and I don't know how to cut it. I'm guessing a buzz cut is on the horizon.

He loves his blanket. It's soothing like a binky. If he's getting cranky, one of the kids is sent to fetch it. James's reaction is usually something like this.  He also holds it to his mouth or just straight up sucks on a corner.

 I wonder where he learned it.

His favorite place to play is on Henry's and Erica's bed. He also likes Sarah's room because there's lots of stuff to pull onto the floor. He likes to be outside but he puts everything in his mouth and has no qualms about heading straight for the road so it gets a little tiresome having to watch him so closely.

He also likes to crawl up into my lap just like this. I'll rub his back for a minute then he'll crawl away. All. The. Time.

He's still a pretty loud and whiny baby. When he's content and just quiet and hanging out, we almost don't know what to do. "Whoa, he's being so happy." He'll snuggle with Justin while watching TV but he never does that with me. He'll read books on my lap longer so I guess it's fair. I'm hoping those moments will increase and his boo-hoo-ness will decrease. Justin and I take turns roaming the halls with him at church. He just has to be busy all the time. His favorite thing to do is crawl around and pull things onto the ground, empty out drawers, try to climb on things. Typical baby stuff.

Luckily I have this girl to keep him entertained and contained. She'll try so hard to play with him while I'm in the shower. He spends the whole time crying at the door but I can hear her drag in tons of toys to get him to play. It's so sweet of her.

 He gets so excited to see her every morning. "Good morning Jamers!"she says.  She's the best sister. She asks all the time when he's going to be small again and does not like it when I tell her that someday he'll be taller than her.

Henry Takes his Love of Football to New Levels and We Go To the Zoo Again!

Henry used his birthday money to buy a Patriots outfit for Halloween and everyone wanted to try on the helmet.

Heisman!

No one can pull it off quite like Henry though. He's worn his helmet at least part of the day every day for a week. He asked me to iron on Tom Brady's number on the back. He's watching the Patriots play in this picture. I've got tons of video clips of the game on my phone that he took but I'll spare you.

We went to the zoo again. We've been several times over the course of Sarah's life but not for awhile since Erica didn't remember any of it.

 Hey they do look alike. Now I see what strangers keep commenting on. (sarcasm)

 I hope these were intended to be climbed on because my kids can't resist.

 I love it when the animals are close to the windows. Don't love it when they just sleep the whole time but I'll take it.

Just hanging out 12 inches from a lion like it's no big deal, Mom.

 Erica did not want to squat down.

 My little apes.

 So many pictures of Henry. Mostly because he likes posing.

 My favorite was the new polar bear. He swam back and forth in front of the windows putting on a good show. So cute.

 These are snow leopards. There are only like 40 left in the world.

 And it's no trip to the zoo without the lion drinking fountain. I think it's the only thing left from my childhood days. Well, the small reptile house aka "stinky house" is still there too.

Then we went home and Justin and Henry went deer hunting for the evening. Henry is a good hiker but wanted to get back to the truck asap so he could put his helmet on.