October 2015

October seemed like a whirlwind around here.

It started out with a visit from Grandma Morris and Connor.  They were coming to see Jex and Kara, but Connor and Skeeter ended up staying with us for a week.  Lisa stayed here for 3 days while I was gone.  My mom's brother, Aaron, was in a plane crash and passed away.  I went to Denver to see my family and go to the funeral.  It worked out nicely that Lisa could be here while I was gone.  That weekend was also general conference, so we got to watch that.

I had fun seeing Lindsey's and Alan's families on my trip.  We were able to spend a bit of time together without all of the kids around and it was fun to talk and goof off.  We all stayed at Danelle's house.  Luckily she has plenty of space for 12 of us to invade!

We've been getting our house put together.  I really wanted shelves in the closet in the downstairs bedroom.  I figured out what I wanted to do and Kirk helped me get them in.  I am really excited because it will give us storage space and make that room more useable.  We also bought a table to put the computer on.

I had a doctor appointment in the middle of the month and was measuring about 3 weeks small (29 instead of 32).  The doctor wanted to do an ultra sound at my next appointment to check the baby and make sure everything is fine.  Luckily, it is.  Baby was measuring about 5 lbs, right on track at 34 weeks.  I have another ultrasound this week (36 weeks) to compare, but I think everything should be fine.  We have the baby room almost ready to go.  Lisa helped us set up the crib and fix the drawer in the changing table.  I washed the clothes and bought some wipes.  I still need to get diapers and a rocking chair, but we're getting there.

Kirk and I have been able to spend some time together this month too.  We went to the Lourdes physician dinner one weekend.  Another weekend we went with the Collette's and Hamilton's to dinner and a wedding reception.  We took the kids to Bills Berry farm and went on a hay ride and played some of the little games they have there.  We also spent a Saturday exploring.  He really wanted to go see some places in the mountains above Yakima and we packed up the truck and kids one day and headed out.  We ended up following a dirt road for a long time and hardly saw any other people.  We stopped twice to go hiking.  On the way home we stopped in Yakima for dinner, even though it was a little early.  It ended up being a VERY good choice.  There was an accident on the freeway and we got stopped.  We got home about 3 hours after leaving Yakima.  Usually it takes an hour.

Cade has been loving preschool.  He tells me about who he plays with and what they do each time.  He loves the craft projects and coloring pages.  Cami and I got to go with his class on a field trip to Country Mercantile.  They kids got to climb on the hay bale pyramid, see the animals in the barn, wander through the hay bale maze and take a tractor ride out to pick a pumpkin.  They were both so proud of their pumpkins.  Cade has really been into Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles since starting preschool.  He watches the shows on You tube and tells me about all the bad guys the turtles have to fight.  He now turns everything into a sword and is constantly fighting bad guys.  He has also loved coloring and is pretty good at staying in the lines.  We bought a few coloring books and he and Cami keep ripping pages out of them and coloring.  I'm not sure why they have to rip them out, but that's what they do.  Cade has also been learning to read.  I got the Bob books at Costco and he is through the first 18 books.  They have a few sight words and lots of 3 and 4 letter words to sound out.  He is doing pretty well.  Cade still loves to dress up.  One day he insisted on wearing his superman cape to Costco.  A few people commented on it and asked if he was Superman.  He said "No, I'm super ninja!" When we took our drive down the dirt road above Yakima, we were looking out the window for animals.  I spotted an owl and we stopped and took pictures and Cade and Cami could see it too.  A few minutes later Cade said he saw a baby elk.  Kirk and I did not see it.  Cade continued to tell us over and over how he was so lucky because he got to see the baby elk and nobody else did.

Cami still loves princesses and anything pretty or pink.  She is now potty trained.  She wakes up dry 1-2 times a week, but still has a hard time at night.  She does pretty well during the day as long as we rush into the bathroom as soon as she says she needs to go.  We made her a potty chart and when it was all filled out she got to get new high heels.  I don't know how, but she can run in those things!  She loves to put flowers and bows in her hair and get her nails painted.  I got her 2 new dressed to wear to church and she gets so excited every week to pick one and put it on.  She still likes to watch Frozen and Sophia the first.  Cami is learning a lot of new things.  One day Cade told her to count to 6.  She spouted out 1-2-3-4-5-7-8-9-10-11-12-17-18-20-21-6!  She got most of it right.  She can count objects up to 5 and knows about 6 different letters and their sounds.  She loves to sing.  We've been going to music time on Tuesday mornings at a friend's house.  She sings louder than the other kids and loves it.  It is really cute and fun to watch her.  When we went on our dirt road drive by Yakima, we got out to hike in one place.  Cade wanted to go up a big hill we told him it was too steep and Cami started calling it the bad way.  She and Cade decided that there was a dragon hiding at the top of the hill.  She has reminded me several times about when we went hiking and there was a "bad way."  It is crazy some of the things they remember.  Cami loves to take baths in my big tub, play dress ups, play with her friend Elaine, read stories and eat treats.

Cade was Leonardo for Halloween.  We went to our ward party a few days before Halloween.  They had a few games set up for the kids and then we ate dinner and they had a costume parade.  I was shocked when Cade said he wanted to be in the parade.  He has really come out of his shell in the last couple of months.  Cami wanted to be in the parade too and so they took off together and did it.  Cami dressed up like "blue princess" and won the prize for the prettiest costume.  Cami and I went to Cade's halloween party at school.  They got to make Jack-o-lantern hats, decorate magnets and play.  Each kid got to decorate a sugar cookie too.  They got to go trick-or-treating around the church and get a few little prizes.  They both thought it was awesome!  On Halloween, we went furniture shopping in the morning for a dining table.  Scott, Kara and Jex came over for dinner and trick-or-treating.  We had scones and steak for dinner.  Yum!  Then they stayed for a couple of hours after we put the kids to bed.  We had fun hanging out.  We haven't seen them much since Jex was born, and it was fun to just relax a bit.

 November seems like it just started, but it is already the 10th.  We had the Hamilton's and Collette's families over for dinner one Sunday.  I made taco soup, creamy corn chowder, bread sticks and jello.  We had 18 people eating here, but it was fun.  I am glad that we finally have enough space to do something like that and it isn't too crowded.  I ordered a dining table today.  It would have been nice to have it for that night, but at least we will have it for the next round of visitors.  We've been doing some Thanksgiving crafts.  We made turkeys out of pom poms and felt and gave 2 to Cade's preschool teachers.  They loved it and it was fun to show Cade how it feels good to do nice things for other people.  We made turkeys out of pinecones, wreaths out of leaves and paper plates and hung up our thankful tree.  I've been trying to get Christmas shopping done and am getting close.  The weather is getting colder and the days are getting shorter.  This winter could be kind of hard.  We are not going home for Christmas and will have a newborn so it may be harder to get out and do things.  It will be good though.  I am glad that we are in our house and can play in the back yard.  We have good friends around that we can spend time with too.