Always playing catch up

Despite my best intentions to record things when they are current instead of trying to remember and "catch up," I just struggle to sit and write. Even though I think about life in terms of blog posts or facebook statuses, I rarely actually do it.

Friday, October 25th, we moved Isabel out of our room and into her crib in the girls' room. I had wanted to move her earlier because I wasn't sleeping well with her in the room. The grunts, strains, and other baby noises kept me up sometimes over an hour in between feedings. However, I was worried that the same things that were keeping me up would wake Lexi up. Plus, I really didn't want to be getting out of bed to go feed her until she was sleeping longer in between feedings. I decided to make the switch over a weekend so if things went terrible, at least we didn't have school or work to wake up for. The first night went awesome! Baby went 4 hours at a time, Lexi didn't wake up, and I felt more rested than I had been in weeks! I don't want to jinx anything, but her sleeping (at night) has only gotten better since we moved her. It was pretty funny when Lexi asked me several days later, "mommy, how come Isabel isn't sleeping in my room?" She had every night, but we typically put her down after Lexi was asleep and took Isabel out before Lexi woke up.

 Saturday, the 26th, we spent a good part of the day doing chores & getting things ready for Marc's parents to arrive. I remember feeling so much stronger and having ten times more energy than when we tried to clean house while I was pregnant! That was encouraging. We had our ward Trunk or Treat & chili dinner that night. It was the first time we had taken Isabel out in public and let her be held by lots of people. I hate trunk or treats. I think its a good alternative when Halloween is on a Sunday, but I dislike how they are replacing trick or treating door to door. I think too many people abuse them (there were several families that just showed up for the candy & left to hit as many as they could) and the kids don't have to work for the candy! I just feel like it takes most of the thrill out, but that's just me. With that sai
d, we still participate. After the activity, we drove out to the airport to pick up grandparents, that was probably the best part of the whole night for the kids.

Bob and Deb were here for a little over a week. The first Sunday (the 27th), they got to watch the kids primary presentation, which was awesome! I love watching the little kids sing and their giddiness of being up in front of others.

Monday, the 28th, Tyler & Bryce were out of school. I had a dental appointment in Boise, so Bob, Deb  & all the kids drove down with me, dropped me off and went to look for ninja costumes. After finding two costumes, same size, different colors, kind of hard to do! After that, we all went to "Planet Kid," and indoor play gym place. The kids enjoyed running around, playing tag, and playing on all the equipment. We met up with Marc to have lunch, had some down time, then watched "Despicable Me 2" and went to dinner at "Outback." It was a full day! We were all pretty wiped out!

Wednesday, the 30th, Bob, Deb & I went with the kids to a pumpkin patch to get pumpkins. You couldn't just go pick them, you had to pay for the hayride to go out to the more distant pumpkin patch. The kids picked as big of pumpkins as they could carry, and we made sure to grab an extra big one for Daddy.

Thursday, October 31st was Halloween. The boys' teacher had asked if I could bring string cheese for all the kids, and also help with the party. Everyone but Marc went to the school. The school kids do this parade through all of the classrooms. I didn't realize adults and siblings could participate too, otherwise I would have brought the girls' costumes. Grandma took Lexi around and I stayed behind to put out all the treats onto the kids' desks. Oh my word, there was so much junk for these kids to eat! I would have been way better off not knowing what they were getting. We stayed for awhile while the kids ate their treats, then left early with Tyler & Bryce.

 We stopped to get pizza on the way home. Marc met us right after we got home and we went to work carving pumpkins. 

After pumpkins, we ate dinner, got the kids dressed in their costumes and the kids went around the neighborhood while Marc and I stayed home to pass out candy.

 I was shocked at the number of adults that were trick or treating for themselves. There were some that were dressed up and had huge ol' pillow cases! Or some adults going with their little babies and asking for candy. It was weird. Lexi came back early with Grandpa. She was thrilled to help pass out candy. After the boys got home, they sat down and chose candy to fit in a little sandwich ziplock bag to keep, and the rest went to the "Halloween Witch". They cheerfully give up most of their candy, and in return, the witch leaves them a brand new book.

Here's a few random pics during the week: