It has been a nice autumn. We were able to take a trip down to St. George during October for UEA weekend. Ashley held a big family party where the kids got to carve pumpkins. Always a favorite, and ours lasted the drive back home. Halloween wasn't nearly as overwhelming as other years, candy-wise. I got the idea to have the kids sell me their candy to get money to buy a movie - they agreed! Of course I let them eat as much as they wanted when they first received it, but then I got the rest! It was wonderful, and they loved giving their money to the clerk to buy Madagascar 3.
Lily was very happy to be Ariel, and for our date she and I went to the Treehouse Museum where they had an awesome little set up where the kids went around in a group and met a bunch of storybook characters while they tried to find Peter Pan. It ended in the theatre room where Peter had given them instructions on how to get rid of Captain Hook and his pirates. Lily was so into it! We snuck in the theatre where Hook and the pirates were on stage, and she was so nervous, and was clinging to my hand. When it was time to yell out "Imagination!" (which hurts pirates' brains because they don't have any) she shouted so loud. Then to get rid of Hook the kids yelled "tick tock" for the crocodile. It was very well done. We wish Jackson could have been there since he *was* a pirate (thanks to Liz for all of her hand me down costumes....she saves us a lot of money). And then of course we had our little monkey Isaac. I really wish Adam would dress up as the Man in the Yellow Hat one day, but the chances are probably next to none...
Lily and Jackson are both happy in school. Isaac started moving around
on his feet a bit more, and we learned that he LOVES trampolines. I
think it has been a bit more challenging for me to have three kids know
that Isaac is a bit bigger and more independent. Newborns are easier to
get around with, anyways. In September I met up with a friend from
high school, Simon. He was a German exchange student and has worked for
IBM for many years, traveling around the world. He was with his
fiance, who is Chinese, and works for Dell. Adam was in Philadelphia
for work so I was alone with the three kids. We went to the Cheesecake
Factory down in Salt Lake, and started around the kid's
bedtime.....yeah. Total disaster, although the conversation that DID
get across was super interesting. Lily was learning Chinese, Jackson was bored tearing all of the bread into pieces and so began whining "let's go, let's go, let's go" while pulling, kicking and hitting me, pretty subtly and easy to ignore, and Isaac was grabbing for anything just so he could chuck it somewhere else. So when the sparsely seen waiter came by towards the end of my salad, I (slightly) yelled at him "I need a box and a white chocolate macadamia nut cheesecake to go!" right before Isaac dumped my water glass on us. Fun!
On the way home, I was struck quite bluntly with the stark differences of me and Simon, and laughed to myself that I had never in my life felt so much the stereotype of being a mom with lots of kids that she can't handle. Which I would maybe be embarrassed about had it not been about an hour past bedtime, after an afternoon of Ikea and Aunt Carol's for the kid's to get extra tired from anyways. See, I always make sure to give myself a ton of slack. No use being too hard on yourself!
Our Thanksgiving trip to St. George this year was nice. I was preoccupied with Ogden-related matters, and Lily's birthday party was going to be at Janet's house since she requested a cousin party and Janet very generously offered to take care of the majority of it, so it was a busy week. Amanda and family was in town this year which made it awesome! We got to go out with Amy one night to celebrate her getting into PA school, she made a cake for Lily's birthday, and we spent the day after Thanksgiving hanging around the Crack in the Red Hills. Jackson joined Lily and I this year going all the way through, after roaming the red rock with Adam for so. long. Adam said he was running and climbing around so fast. He found a little tunnel in the rock and went through over and over again. I was getting vertigo looking up at some of the rocks he was climbing with my heart dropping over and over. I told Adam I don't think I will be able to survive these boys! Good luck Mindy!
We ate dinner with Adam's family, and I got to do rolls - it was fun
being able to contribute to the dinner since we normally just show up
from out of town. So many things to be grateful for this year, like always.
(I love this picture - Jackson had so much fun with his cousins!)
We celebrated at Mom and Dad's house since Amanda and Tyler were leaving early Saturday morning. With that and the following day's party at Mimi's house, you would think Lily would be all partied out. Not so! She got a TON of art stuff and makeup, nail polish, more makeup, and then some more makeup! I said if Santa brought her anymore she would drown in makeup!
Our camera is broken. I have no pictures of Lily's party at Mimi's house - but it was amazing, like all of the parties at the Bird's. The next week she was sung to in Primary, we took oreos to share with her class, and she was still asking when her party was. Lots of lessons learned this year! Like don't celebrate too early. Can't believe my baby girl is 6 years old. She is one of the best parts of my life, and we love her so much.
