I am overwhelmed with gratitude as I review our October happenings. We are so blessed with dear friends and family and we sure love these kiddos. They are growing up so quickly!
They are so creative. After a fast, hard rainfall, the kids went out to play in the water. They were all soaked, but they were pretending to navigate their ships through the ocean while Joy was a sea monster. They were all laughing so hard!
When I dried the little sea monster off and put her down for a nap, I came back outside to discover their play had taken a more artistic turn and they were sitting in the water and making "bum prints" on the wall. I was the buzzkill that told them they could only continue to playing if they kept their underwear on. Summer and Smith continued, but Boyd stayed firm in his opinion that it wasn't as much fun with underwear.
Elias has been working extra hard this month, so we haven't been able to see him as much as we like on the weekends.
Luckily we have been able to take advantage of the gorgeous Santa Fe weather.
The kids are learning new tricks on their bikes
and we are taking advantage of our empty cul-de-sac and the walking paths around our house. 
We've enjoyed some fall crafts
and many trips to the park.
One Sunday after church we joined some friends up the canyon for a bonfire dinner
and a chance to take in the fall colors.
I do want to document the day that I took all the kids to the doctor's office for a surprise attack of flu shots. We had them all in the room before they had any idea what was about to hit them. Then when the nurse walked in with four needles, it was as though I threw four cats into a pot of hot water. There was screaming, crying, gnashing of teeth, gnashing of nails...Joy picked up on the panic and jumped right in, not knowing why. It was all the nurse and I could do to rip their pants down and stab them. One by one, after they each received their shot, each individual would make a statement such as, "wow...that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be..." and we would move on to the next screaming, flailing kid. By the time all four were completed, no one was crying, and I think they were all stunned wondering what had just happened. Amidst the shrieks I mentioned to the nurse that this may have not been the best approach, but even looking back on the chaos I'm not sure I would have been able to get all four to step inside the building had they known what was coming.
We sure miss Summer while she is at school, but these three and I have fun in the mornings all on our own. It's fun to watch the boys play on their own
and we often go to park hopping.
Summer is getting the hang of full-day kindergarten. She takes school so seriously and wants so badly to do everything perfectly. I tried to convince her that parent-teacher conferences were nothing to worry about but she sure stressed out about it. Her teachers had nothing but the highest praise to give her. She is an incredible student. She continues to make signs to express herself. As much as it breaks my heart, I have to document the first non-love note she gave me. She was mad at me and made this sign with an X over it and a broken heart. She was just bawling when she handed it to me.
She has such a tender heart. As soon as she gets upset with me, all she wants to do is cuddle until we both feel better. I'm happy to say that the rest of the signs this month looked more like this:
(Note: that monster on the bottom of the sign is a "Dia de los Muertos" mask that has been showing up on everything this month...our kids are being raised in Santa Fe.)
I had the incredible opportunity to meet up with two of my best friends from high school and their families in Albuquerque.
It was so much fun to catch up and
to watch our kids play together.
Joy continues to crack me up.
She is confident that she is one of the big kids and is actually great at helping bring in groceries. And wow, she gives some great cuddles.
The big kids worked so hard to earn their Halloween costumes this year. As a team, they performed 160 kind or helpful acts of service without being asked. 
It was a great experience for all of us and they loved picking out their costumes. We ended up with Smith as Panthro the Thundercat (we have never seen or heard of this show, but Smith was very impressed by a male substitute that he had at school who told him all about the Thundercats), Summer the witch, and Boyd the Red Power Ranger (another show that we have never seen before but Boyd has learned about through kids at school and is confident he is an expert on the subject). Joy bounced between a witch and a frog,
A highlight from this month was our much-needed trip to Durango.
Our friends Kim and Nick Hatch from our days in San Francisco, reached out to see if we wanted to meet them in Durango for a long weekend. Considering it is only a four hour drive from us, we couldn't refuse.
It was so fun to catch up with the Hatches,
and such a blast to spend time as a family.
Durango is awesome and it was fun to watch Elias really cut loose.
We spent one day exploring Mesa Verde.
I remember being fascinated by this place as a kid so it was fun to take my own kids there. 
Unfortunately we couldn't get close due to recent rock slides but the kids enjoyed it (especially Summer with her fascination for all things Indian). Except for when we gave everyone Indian names...some liked that more than others but I felt like a good parent just for making the experience a little more corny.
The next day we went swimming, explored Durango,
and got dressed up for a Halloween train ride to Charlie Brown's Pumpkin Patch.
The fall colors were still out
and we enjoyed many of Durango's beautiful parks.
Boyd is his happiest when playing chase.
Elias then had to travel back to London, but we were blessed to have my sister Corie come party with us. Having no kids of her own with her, she took it upon herself to totally spoil mine.
She provided non-stop treats and excitement
and read to them for hours.
She even watched the three younger kids so I could attend an all-day field trip with Summer's class at the pumpkin patch.
It was fun to spend a little one-on-one time with my girl.
Corie's awesomeness continued as she cut and died my hair, built the kids a gymnastics bar and turned our car into an award-winning trunk at the ward Trunk or Treat.
I couldn't have done all four kids at the Trunk or Treat without her. Thanks Corie! You're amazing!
My parents surprised us with one of their 48-hour visits right before Elias arrived home (and right after one of the pipes in my garage sprung a leak).
They saved the day with their plumbing skills and were able to join us for the gender-reveal party Corie planned for us.
Since I had my ultrasound while Elias was out of town, we decided to wait to find out the gender so we could all be there together. And so with cans of silly string in hand, we all celebrated the news of our healthy baby girl! We are SO excited!
It was extra special to have Corie, Nana and Grandpa Peter there for the primary program. Summer of course took it very seriously, nailing her part and singing her heart out for every song. Boyd was literally trying to hide behind his teacher's hair and though he didn't say his part in front of the crowd, he sang most of the songs and did exactly what his teacher asked. Smith delivered his part on cue and joined his class for most of the songs...when he wasn't playing pirate. I am so grateful for the amazing support that we receive our families though we live far away. Thank you so much for everything Corie, Mom & Dad!
And after all of that celebrating, it was exhausting to realize that we still had Halloween day itself. Joy and I loved celebrating with the boys at their school. Boyd was so protective of his little sis
and Smith was awesome at the songs his class performed.
I sure love my boys!
From there, we picked up Summer from school and headed up to Elias' office for the annual trick-or-treating. (I love that at 8:30 the night before Elias mentioned that his team was all supposed to dress in Star Wars costumes. We put together a last-minute tie fighter costume, but forgot to paint the back of the cardboard. And what kind of cardboard did we use, you may ask...the only kind we have at our house...diaper boxes. So if he didn't have his arms in just the right position, he just looked like he had two extra babies hanging off his arms. Classic.)
From there we headed home for a night of chili, pumpkin-carving, and handing out candy.
It was kind of perfect.
Our crazy kind of perfect. Ya know, the "carving with three kids that can't really handle a knife and a toddler that is dying to, all while dealing with sporadic rings of the doorbell that cause four pumkin-pulp-covered kids running for the door" kind of crazy.
What a month!
Love you all,
Brittany et al.
1 comment:
Hooray for a baby girl!! That's so exciting! That's so awesome Corie could be there too. And I love the recap of the primary program. Sounds about right! ;) Your pumpkins turned out great!
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