Our October around the house

 We have had a lot of fun adventures this past October.  I have been watching quite a few kids, so we stuck around the house a lot, but still had lots of fun.  My kids sure know how to use their imagination to make anything fun.  (except chores...still working on that one.  ha ha)  I love when I'm cleaning up at night and finding some of the things they used during the day.  It kind of tells a story. While I don't love the clean up, I do know I will miss seeing things like that when they grow up. 

 One of their favorite things to do is take the cushions off of the couch and making a tippy tower.  Then they try to balance on it without falling off.  

 I'm surprised nobody has gotten seriously hurt playing this game yet.  :)

 Sadie loves it when Riley will snuggle with her.  It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does she eats it up!

 Before church picture.  If you look at the outlet cover to the left, you can see a chip in it.  That was from them messing around while I was trying to take the first picture.  Then I lost my patience and they all stood really still for this one.  Oops.  Even moms mess up sometimes.

 The girls couldn't resist this huge puddle at the store.  And since it has been a warm October, they were all wearing flip flops or crocs, so I let them walk in it a while.

 Riley fell asleep at the computer listening to music.  This almost never happens.

 Picture day.  Sadie - 3rd  Zac - 1st.  Wow.  My kids are cute!

 Riley.  She keeps us laughing.  I sure love her little personality. 

 Zac with his buddies Bryant and Grayson.  They all looked so handsome in these glasses so I snapped a picture.

 Riley's first pig tails.

 Before church picture with the bats.

 

 Crazy.

I watched an 8 week old baby and Riley was kind of jealous at first, but then she warmed up to him and was his mom the rest of the day.

Trip to the Hogle Zoo

 Rob's brother called us up a few weeks ago and said they were going to the zoo and asked if we wanted to go with them.  We thought we had something in the morning, so we decided to try an afternoon trip.  Turns out we could have gone in the morning, but it was still a great time at the zoo.

We started off by looking at the giraffes.  We got there at a good time because the worker was feeding him.  It was fun to watch.

 Giraffes are really cool. They have a statue that we had to walk past and this was the best picture I got.  It makes me laugh.

 Riley couldn't resist all of the statues of animals.  I had to lag behind the group because she would be talking to them and petting them.

 These two.  They were so cute.  I loved it.  

 This monkey looked so sad.  I hope he just has a sad face and it really happy.

We came upon a little water section which I was sure would be close since it was October.  But of course, it was opened. And the kids were instantly soaked.  But they had a blast.

 William and Riley stuck together and ran around giggling.

 Rob was a good sport and waded in when necessary.

 Our little birdies in their nest.

 Snapped a quick family shot.  The kids did great.  Riley got a little bit out of control near the end because she hadn't taken a nap.  But overall it was a great time.

All the kids on a lion. (I think that is what it is).  

At the end we stood in line for about 10 minutes to get a tiny cup of free cereal.  We had to go up and spin the wheel to see what kind of cereal we got.  I think Rob thought it was silly that we stood in line for that, but the kids were so happy that they got that little bit of free cereal.  I'm glad we did it.  

Thanks for inviting us to the zoo with you Luke and Taylor!

Student of the Month

 Sadie was selected student of the month in September.  Every month has a different theme but every year they are the same.  So every September it "being proactive".  This is the third year out of four that Sadie has gotten the award for being proactive.  Ha ha.  I have to admit, she is very proactive!  We sure love our Sadie!

We were way in the back, I had Emery, Riley, Kassie and an eight week old baby with me, so this picture is not very good.  But it was a fun assembly to go to.

Gardner Village 2016

 It's Halloween time again!  That means it's time to check out the witches at Gardner Village again.  I love to go right at the beginning of October to beat the crowds and to avoid the parking fees.  :)  We went twice this year, once with a neighbor friend while Sadie and Zac were at school and once with Uncle Scott. I always feel guilty doing "fun" things with the kids while the older ones are at school.  So I try to do the extra fun things twice so they can be included. The witches are still so fun to see.  Riley wasn't so sure about them at first.  Now when I ask her to make a scary face, she says "Scary witches!"  ha ha.

 This was the first witch we came across.

 I think this was a new witch.  I don't remember it from years past.

 These two were funny.  They didn't want the witch's arm around them.  ha ha  And I tried to put Riley in that empty spot on the bench, but she was not having it.

She wanted to lay on the ground instead.

 Sadie is always in charge of holding the paper for the scavenger hunt.  She does a great job marking them all off too.  :)

 Uncle Scott.  These kids love Uncle Scott.  He needs to come visit more often.

 Emery slid down that old wooden ramp.  It gives me the chills just thinking about it.  Fortunately she didn't get any splinters. 

 Sadie wanted me to take this picture.  She staged it herself.  ha ha

We thought it was cool to see this green grass growing in the bales of hay.

Zac and the tomatoes

One day last week we invited some of Zac's friends over to play.  There were probably about 6 boys (including Zac) playing out in our backyard.  That morning we had pulled out our tomato plants and put all of them along with the tomatoes in a big pile.  I should have suspected something like this would happen:

After all the boys went home Zac come up to me and said "Mom, we accidentally threw a bunch of tomatoes down into the pit."  I had to keep myself from laughing.  "Accidentally" throwing a BUNCH of tomatoes.  ha hah ha  It wasn't that bad when I went outside to see the damage.  But we had him clean up the mess and talk to him about making good choice.  Then Rob asked him if it was fun to see them explode.  HAH!

Playdate with friends

 We visited our friends the Hatch's again.  It worked out that our kids had the same Fall break this year, so all of our kids got to play together.  Yay!  We hung out at their house and met their new baby sister.  She is adorable.  I got to hold her for a good long time, which I loved.  :) 

 Charlotte and Riley.  Two 2 year olds playing with baby toys.  Love it.

 Sharing a rocking chair.  They were so cute that day.

 All the kids outside playing "crack the egg".  

On the way home Riley fell asleep and She stayed asleep when I brought her inside.  She never does that.  Sadie kept sneaking in my room and saying "she is so cute!"  Then she offered to take a picture of us.  I love it. I let her sleep on me until she woke up (which was about 15 minutes).  I loved every minute of it.  My kids don't fall asleep on me anymore!

Piano Recital

The kids had their fall piano recital a few weeks ago.  They were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes so that was fun.  I wish I had suggested taking a group shot.  There were some cute costumes.  This was Zac's first recital and he did great.  Sadie did great too.  I accidentally forgot to push record on her individual song, but I got her duet.  :)

Maybe I'll post the videos later...its taking forever to upload to Youtube.  They are too big to post directly on here.

https://youtu.be/od6GTQBzKaU

https://youtu.be/I5ZgnDBPHKw 

https://youtu.be/tiZBuiDF3dU