Conference Weekend

The first weekend in October (and April) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints always has something called General Conference......where we listen to our prophet, apostles and other church leaders speak to us. One of the broadcasts is for the men and young men who hold the Priesthood. 

THIS year Camden was old enough to attend. Beforehand Brooks always goes out to dinner and they've found their new "traditional" place to go before Priesthood Session..... Tucano's. 

A Brazilian restaurant that brings out meat after meat after meat. The boys thought it was the neatest thing and are already excited for April to come around.

During the other four sessions (2 hours each) the whole family watches.

I think this was when Elder Cook was "bare"-ing his testimony?........ or was this when he "cracked" a joke........

My sweet girlies getting their food. Their bored expressions crack me up.

Between the Saturday sessions the kids took Brooks' phone outside (while they were blowing leaves to make a huge pile) and his phone came back with these lovely pictures. haha.

(Royce coming up from behind.)

I love their smiles, Conference........ and I love fall.

Month o' Birthdays

October is a busy month of birthdays for us.....starting with Kellyn's on the 5th of October.

She UN-surprisingly picked a Minnie piñata.....again. But this time she wanted a red bow.

And she wanted her hair like Minnie's too.....just "like Aunt Wa does it". Sheesh, THANKS Wa. ;)

4 years old.....packed with more animation than any other child I've seen!

I pulled a genius move with her party this year. I didn't want to have all the older kids there ruining the party-vibe and the excitement of it all. PLUS, Kellyn keeps asking for me to invite her friends over for a playdate which I haven't done since I've had the babies. SOOOOOO, I decided just to invite two friends over for 3 hours during the school day...playdate style and call it her birthday.

And since I didn't make the cupcakes beforehand, it was perfect to tell them that one of the party games was to MAKE the cupcakes and then decorate them together. Here they are each cracking their own egg into the cupcake mix.

They all loved it so much.....AND it took up a lot of time. Total score.

She wanted to eat popcorn and strawberries with them too. Got it. I can do that.

Then it was time for the piñata....that didn't have a string attached to it. Which means Minnie was placed on the driveway and they went at it smashing her in the face.....and I did get pictures.... boy did I EVER!!!! They just happened to have a naked Everly in. every. one. So there goes that. I can't post any, but here is the proof in all it's sucker glory.

Brooks' birthday was the 13th...... 39 years old. How did THAT happen?! He got his cheesecake for dinner and a new Cardinals hoodie. Other than that, he didn't want anything else nor did we take any pictures..... his request. (we are so different)

Aleeya turned 9 on the 17th.

Our family celebrated her with an orange cake (her favorite color) with Pokemon minis on it. 

She was clearly pleased.

Junkbox action and she wanted those adult-very detailed coloring books with a bunch of coloring pencils.

That week she was the spotlight kid at school too. Her poster cracked me up...... look in the "things I don't like" part for a group of dots..... apparently those are lice. And she doesn't like them. :)

Her wish was that she could hold the babies whenever she wants. (so sweet) And when she grows up she wants to be "a Mom".....and that's obviously how moms look. 

Her teacher told me when she presented it to the class one boy (who it's a GOOD thing I don't know who he is!!!!) said, "Why would you want to be THAT? You don't do any work!" And she responded, "Yes, I would, I would take care of all of my own babies." And then she said she wanted to be like me.  #blessherheart

Seriously people, when her teacher told me that I just melted!!!! It's no secret Aleeya has the biggest heart, but also the biggest mood swings now, and sometimes I don't deal with them how I pictured I would. Like I said, BLESS HER HEART FOR SEEING PAST ALL MY FLAWS!

Her birthday party was that weekend. She wanted to go to a park with her friends, have pizza, mint chocolate cupcakes with Oreos on top and have a soccer ball piñata.

We went to our favorite park here. She here is Aleeya with her friends on the cool merry-go-round. If you look waaaay back you can see a wedding going on. Yes, you read that right, someone was getting married in a city park. The girls started chanting, "Kiss her kiss her kiss her."

We had a wedding there, her birthday party and a baptism. Well sort of. There's a creek there and one of the girls had a little slip up and Emerson grabbed her out. So I brought her home in Aleeya's clothes, with a bag of her wet ones. I sure know how to make an impression with parents to her new friends......

And me driving with all the girls.....and Emerson......it got reeeeeeeally.....um.....loud? Here's a little taste of it.  (the girl in the second bench wrapped in a blanket, wet, is the newly "baptized" girl)

drive home

The piñata was the most embarrassing thing ever. I procrastinated because I was busy with Halloween stuff and never got it fully dry before I painted it and popped the balloon inside. It immediately started to dent. And I didn't get the pattern right with the paint and I couldn't believe what a disaster it was. But she was pleased anyway. Phew. 

It was a big and eventful day....and it actually was a lot of fun. Well, unless you were the one to fall in the water.....or the one that had to walk her up to her doorstep and parents after......but besides THAT, it was great.

September

For the sake of my documenting-paranoid-nature here are some glimpses into our month of September.....since I have some major catching up to do.

There was a really special event with Camden going to the temple for the first time with the youth of our church. He was able to take some names of his ancestors to do baptisms there.

And luckily his ancestors don't care about the belly-button-rule-breaking Camden does with his pants.

Emerson has joined a Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh battling club at the library and really looks forward to it on the Saturday he goes. It's mostly older kids than Emerson, which makes his victories better to him.

Speaking of the library.....this was Everly's outfit when we went to pick Emerson up. I was lucky she even HAD clothes on. #noshame #shesowningit

The boys had a Father-Son campout scheduled (which ended up being rained out) so I put the younger babies to bed early and I taught Aleeya and Iris how to sew.

Proooooooooobably a little more than I needed to bite off at this point, but a friend of mine is collecting pillowcases for child cancer patients at the hospital for Christmas. 

I know what you're thinking, pillow cases are easy. But we decided to do the burrito-method, so a bit of ironing and measuring.....and a LOT of sugar needed.

Aleeya posted some rules for her room on the wall that I found quite amusing.

The last one says "No Peaing".

I'm just wondering if peeing is a thing?

Should I be concerned?

("don't come in without any clothes"?!?!?)

#doublenegatives

I still spend a HUGE amount of my day pumping milk but things seem to be going well now.

#HOLDINGHANDS #sortof !!!!! 

AND as an added bonus the pump provides a lot of entertainment for the other kids to suck their belly buttons.....and other body areas which I put a stop to and did NOT get pictures of.

Kellyn and Everly are quite the pair. They get into EVERYTHING (while I'm busy with the twins/pumping/thinking of showering, etc.). Because of this, I usually have to keep them by me most of the time. They love helping me make dinner. I'm sure you can see how helpful they are. I'm cutting my lettuce and they chop scraps of everything else.

I walked into the bathroom one day and saw this. I couldn't help but think that it described that particular day perfectly.

On a POSITIVE potty topic, Everly is potty-trained.

She's been wanting to be since before the twins were born and kept taking off her diapers (hence the reason I insisted she wear onesies so she couldn't take it off) but I just wasn't ready for it.

In September I was ready to tackle it and she did so well.

Because everyone loves having their picture taken while on the jon.

She maybe had a few accidents and other than that, she's pretty much 100% now. Easiest child I've had I think. 

Which is PRETTY spectacular considering she is anything BUT my easiest child right now. But look at this crazy face..... #atleastsheiscute

I just love these girls.

I think that's why Everly has such a chance to tear everything up because I can't stop looking at these two and kissing on their necks. (Iley on the left, Wynn on right)

Emerson's class had a field trip to some place where they all have different occupations and get "paid" for it. Emerson was going to be the Hospital-CEO guy that makes the most of everyone. But I guess all the kids in his class wanted that same job (imagine THAT!). So Emerson asked to be the (un-contested) DJ for the city of BizTown.

He was SO excited for it and even wanted us to buy him a gold chain (this is the best we could find) and we made him a shirt "DJ SMITH"

He said DJ SMITH stands for "Disc Jockey Smith Masterpiece In The House"

Which apparently he said over and over again while he was playing music on the field trip.....with the emphasis on "Hooouuuuuuuuuse"

Oh man. Not sure if I dare show my face at Parent Teacher Conferences....

Last Cardinal Game of the season.

TOO BAD they didn't make the Wild Card.

We really REALLY like being by a pro-team to go to games. And tickets are pretty cheap too.

The last weekend in the September was the Women's Conference Broadcast that girls ages 8+ are invited to attend.

Aleeya and I went out to eat first at Ruby Tuesday's.

She loves going on little outings like this.

I was so uplifted by that Conference and motivated. 

I had been praying all September for enlightenment on the subject of "faith" and man-oh-man did I receive some information in that Conference as an answer to prayer. In particular Elder Uchtdorf's talk

And now comes October and all the busy events that come along with it.

#Igotthis

Because it's just been too long.....

I used to document more what Aleeya decided to wear to school........ it MAY seem like I'm just singling out one child to take pictures of. Well, that's because it's true.

Aleeya has her own unique view of clothes, herself and confidance. 

We let the kids wear what they want to school as long as it is neat, clean, not ripped and not athletic clothing. Other than that, they have free reign.

This year she has also done her own hair.

Here are a few samples of her outfits this year.

I call this Peaceful Cheetah Explosion.

A lot of colors accented with a cheetah pattern bow and her favored side-ponytail.

The Under-lace

She's going to singlehandedly bring in the fashion of people wearing see-through tops as their UNDER shirts. The stripes/floral was just an added bonus.

(Kellyn's face is so cute)

Totally Turquoise

Because if it's in the same color scheme, it matches.

(I actually love that outfit)

She has ALSO started braiding her hair in a bunch of braids when she gets out of the shower at night all by herself so her hair is kinky the next day.

When you pair that hair with the brightest skirt possible, it's a total win.

The Rainbow

And because a see through lace shirt seems to be a favorite, it can sometimes be put on the outside, and again paired with kinky hair. I'm assuming she doesn't play much on monkey bars at reccess in this?.......hopefully?

The Sharp-as-a-Pencil-Skirt 

Layering has really been her thing lately. EVERY shirt is layered for the past two weeks. So there's always a peek-a-boo of another pattern poking out the bottom of her top.

Her new thing? Glasses. 

Oh no, her eyes are just fine. She can see great. But she bought some non-perscription glasses so she can wear them too.

Layered Smarty Pants

We don't let her wear the glasses to school anymore because we aren't sure if they are a distraction to her in school. But whe wears them non-stop around the house. The first day she had her glasses on she was in the other room looking in the mirror (by herself) and Brooks heard,

"I look good. I look SO good......

I look REALLY good."

Regardless of the actual clothing she is wearing at least she goes dressed in confidence every day.