October

This was a big month because of a trip to St. George for me and the kids, birthdays for Isaac and Lucy, Halloween, cousins coming to town, and Isaac's baptism.

We started things off right with our last trip to the zoo. How sad to see those winter clothes on kids at the start of October!

The kids love to pull out blankets and play sleeping downstairs. The mess isn't too bad and I love the mellow idea.

We decided to go to this park by the zoo, but we left quickly because we could smell marijuana and there were more adults there than kids.

We took the kids to the one and only pumpkin patch to pick out pumkins, and we also let them ride the train there. They loved it.

I knew my sister and mom were coming for Halloween, so I dangled a picture of this cute little boy in his Halloween costumes as incentive to ease the burden of packing things up for a whirlwind trip. He does look cute, and I don't regret spending $20 on his outfit, even if I should have gotten him a bigger one.

Then I packed up the family to go to St. George with Peaunut's family and Mom and Dad. I was dreading the trip because my kids don't sleep well together, but everyone was really nice and gave me the master bedroom and another room--both with walk-in closets. This allowed me to put Cason in a closet with Lucy and I sleeping in the master bedroom, and Isaac was in another closet, with Brooklyn on the bed in that room. It wasn't fair, because Peanut and Eric had to sleep on a fold-up couch, but we all did sleep well, which was amazing.

The kids on one of our kikes. Our days included hikes, pool time, and plenty of food. Isaac and Lucy even had a surprise birthday party, and were overjoyed.

Here Lucy is in her birthday outfit. The clothes are from Peanut and the boots are from me.

Perfect poser.

And Issac officially became a cub scout with his incredibly expensive scout shirt and some face paint.

Here Cason is wearing his daddy's outfit from when he was a baby. Cason looked smashing.

Here is a screenshot of my Adobe room in October when I was planning a meeting with my colleagues. I was a teaching group leader for three years, and I have officially retired from that responsibility. I loved getting to know teachers well through supervising them and going into their classrooms, but I wasn't paid enough for all the time this job requires. I am testing teaching two classes this semester, rather than being a TGL, and I enjoy it so far.

Brooklyn dressed up as Cinderella for her preschool Halloween party. I even let her wear her slippers, on principle, although she knows she can never wear those slippers outside the house except when she is dressed up for a  Halloween party at preschool. I asked my mom for more pictures from Halloween and Isaac's baptism because she took several.