anxious

We are quite anxious to have this baby.  I made a bad decision and let my midwife check me at 36 weeks (dilated to 3, 70% thinned), and 38 weeks (4/90%).  So instead of just expecting something to happen within a few days after my due date, like I did with all my other babies, I thought I would go early.  So annoying the more time that passed.  So now I'm a day before my due date and assuming I will never have the baby, so am finally getting random stuff done, i.e. updating the blog.

At the beginning of the school year, Lily started bringing home "I Love You" notes/art work every day.  I remember when I did that when I was young.  So cute!  It began accumulating quite quickly though - I couldn't bear to thin down the pile, wondering when I would stop getting them.  So I figured I could eternalize them in the blog books!

She is such a cutie, and loves giving presents.  Her love language is definitely gift giving - I need to remind myself that A LOT because it is not natural for me or Adam.

She was pretty excited about the one for Dad, where he has a mustache.  Also the trees and blue sky is a picture she drew of Jackson Hole for Jack.

 And Halloween begins!  It is so fun to experience the holidays with kids - so much excitement!  Lily and Jackson set up this photo shoot and took quite a few pictures posing with different decorations.

Another fun thing this year was leaves!  Jackson got the idea from somewhere that Santa would not come without snow, and snow wouldn't come if there were leaves (the last part was from me - he didn't want to bag the leaves so I told him we needed to because if the leaves were on the ground when the snow came, it wouldn't be good for our grass and would get icky).  So it would be logical to get out the leaf blower and blow the leaves off of the trees to hasten the process, right?

The kids were such good little leaf rakers this year, but it wasn't until I went out there with bags that I was super impressed - all I had to do was hold the bag open and they shoveled in the leaves!  It was amazingly fast and effective!  They had filled a few bags themselves without pressing the leaves down, so I showed them how to 'squish' the bag so there would be more room.  They called it magic.

Jackson had a field trip at the Fire Station - he was so excited!  If you look closely at the picture you'll see him holding the firemen's hand - he was just staring at him in awe.  He loves to see the process of things like that.

The boys came along with me to Lily's field trip to Black Island Farms - at the pumpkin patch!  Isaac was much more interested in throwing his pumpkin than anything else.  A week or so earlier we had gone out as a family to go to Pumpkinaze - with the corn pit, corn maze, and big slides.  After driving around forever we realized it doesn't exist anymore.

The kids were so sad!  So I was glad we got to go to this place.  No corn maze or pit but they did have slides!

 Jackson went down this big one over and over and over - I didn't realize how impressive that was until I went to the back and saw that he basically had to climb a rope to get to the top.  He would come down these crazy ways - side ways on his belly - yelling wahoo!

Lily on the other hand was my super duper helper - luckily for Isaac!  I was pretty worthless with my big belly in getting him up the hay stack, so she patiently helped him and would help him go down the slide.  It was so nice of her!  She is such a sweet big sister, these boys are so lucky.

And finally time for Halloween!  Liz sent costumes for all of the kids. Jackson requested Batman for him and Isaac.  Lily requested a girl pirate but ended up wanting to wear my adult witch costume (lots of feathers).  I said she could wear it around the house but not out (obviously - way too big).  So a few hours before her school party she tells us she wants to be Batwoman.  Not enough time, sorry.  So she ended up being a rock star.  She was pretty upset we wouldn't let her wear her mini shorts and short sleeves, as she has drawn swirls all over her legs and arms.  I actually thought she was just being adult, until I heard her tell someone she was a rock star.  Funny girl!  Adam was pretty upset I didn't prepare well enough to supplement Liz's Batman accessories, so kept on calling Isaac 'half Batman'.  They were so cute though, and just in heaven with all of the candy and sugar!  They wouldn't even listen to any proposition about selling their candy this year - we said they could buy a movie, or we could go to a movie theatre and get popcorn and drinks - big fat NO.  This fun set up was at Adam's work party.  The kids got to do a pinata - Lily used one arm to weakly hit it, then Jackson got it and went to town, yelling "ya!" for every hit.  It was so hilarious.

November went by pretty fast with school, and I got into a major nesting mood and organized so much of the house (helped a TON when Adam took the kids to St. George for the weekend without me - you can get a lot done without kids around!).  Mom and Dad came for Thanksgiving, and Adam was determined to do his own turkey - he did such a good job!  It was so yummy.  Only feeding 4 adults made for a simple meal and fast cleanup - wonderful!  Amanda and Tyler visited one day, and the Saturday after we were able to go down to Provo for Sam's blessing.  It was a nice week; would have been so much nicer without the baby expectation I mentioned at the beginning of this post, but it really was nice.  Always so much to be thankful for.