OCTOBER

The kids were very active this month.  Both Ava & Kasen finished their sports.  Kinsley continued in music and dance.  Dallin never stops moving so he stayed busy as well!  Ava decided not to play YMCA volleyball this year and joined a volleyball academy instead called Rise.  She improved a lot and gained a lot more control.  She practiced 2x a week all fall for 1.5 hrs.  She also attended 2 tournaments at the gym this fall.  She really liked learning how to keep score. :)  Volleyball has been a lot more enjoyable for her than basketball.  At the end of her session she decided to try-out for the winter program.  She was accepted and will start again in January.

 Ava is still in her braces.  We thought she might be out of them by now, but it took a lot longer that the orthodontist expected for her tooth to move.  The left picture shows where her tooth was when she started and the right picture shows it now.  It has pulled all the way up, now just needs to turn the right way!

Dallin is getting much more animated when he talks.  These are a few pictures I snapped in a matter of a minute or so as I was rocking him one day.  He was making all sorts of sounds trying to tell me a story.  It really cracked me up.  Then a little while later I went upstairs and saw this map on the whiteboard.  Kasen and Kinsley had planned a route to scare me downstairs.  This was their map.  It cracked me up too.

Dallin is still really wobbly and can't sit up alone yet.  He is getting stronger on his tummy though.  The kids had a spirit week at school in October during Red Ribbon week about saying no to drugs.  They were supposed to wear their favorite sports team shirt, so of course Kasen wanted to wear his Peyton Manning Broncos jersey.  He also wanted me to have Dallin wear his Broncos outfit too.  I have to say they are the two cutest boys I've ever seen.  Dallin keeps growing and getting bigger and bigger.  Now that he is rolling I can't wrap him up in the Miracle Blanket (insert sad cry).  I bought these blanket type things called Zippys.  They make him look like a starfirsh.  The hands are covered and the blankets are supposed to help with that jerk reflex that wakes babies up a lot.  It's also supposed to feel more restrictive than nothing at all so the baby sill still calm down and sleep like when they were swaddled.  Dallin has done ok with it.  It has definitely halped, but he isn't sleeping as good as he was before.  He really struggles during naptime.  It is like he just cat naps now.  So a lot of the time he will get sleepy in the carseat and fall asleep if we are out during naptime.

Since I call Dallin my "Little Bear" and because he reminds me of a roly-poly cub I bought him this cute bear suit.  He can wear it for Halloween too.  It is really really soft and keeps him toasty.  We tested it out one night at Kasen's football game and Dallin stayed happy and content. This month we also had some visitors - the Peterson family.  They came up for the BYU vs BSU game.  We got together before and had pizza and went to the game with them.  The bad things was that our seats weren't together so we didn't get to chat enough.  On a last minute whim I wore Ava's BYU sweatshirt instead of my BSU one.  Our tickets were from Trena and right in the middle of the BYU fan area so I was glad I was supporting the right team!  Jed felt a bit more awkward.  We both cheered for BYU though.  After being the minority religion everywhere we've lived we almost feel proud and obligated to support the Mormons!

This fall has been all about football for Kasen.  He loves playing flag football and tells us all the time how he is "pretty much one of the best players on my team."  His team is really good again this season.  They were ranked #2 going into the playoffs.  They had two games on the last night for the championship.  Both my parents were here so they were able to see both games.  Kasen was pretty excited about that!

Both games Kasen's team really played good and really blew the other teams away.  I like the 2nd picture of Kasen's expression.  It was after they won the first game and knew they'd play for the championship.  After they won their second game the team went to Idaho Pizza for the award dinner.  My parents took the kids home and played games while we went to the banquet.  We always have a great time when they come.  It was really fun watching Kasen play this season.  He had a lot more confidence in himself because he had learned the game so much better.  It is so great that Jed can be one of the coaches for him too. I really love watching my kids participate and have fun in their activities.

Another birthday for me this month - 36 yrs old - that came fast!  When you are a kid the time from one birthday to the next takes forever & when you are an adult it comes much faster than you want!!  My birthday was on a Sunday this year which was ok (translation pretty boring!)  Jed took the afternoon off of work on Friday and we went out for lunch which was a nice surprise.  The kids all made me sweet cards and did things during the day to make me feel special.  Ava made me breakfast in bed of course.  She loves doing that for me.  I had to take my yearly picture with the kids.  I like seeing how much they've grown each year.  It was a good birthday and I'm thankful I made it to another one even if I don't like how the numbers keep getting closer to 40.  Yikes!

The picture of Ava & Dallin (above) wasn't on my birthday, but I put it in here because it was on another Sunday afternoon.  Dallin just adores Ava and lights up when he sees her around.  This year has been a big year for Ava.  I feel like she has really grown up and isn't a little girl anymore (which is also a little sad for my heart.)  She has gotten a lot better at handling her emotions and we have a lot of fun with that sweet girl in our family.  Although she enjoys beating me at chess way too much!  On another Sunday evening, we were invited over to the Wards house for homemade donuts.  This was a pleasant surprise!  They apparently do it the Sunday before Halloween every year.  This was our first invitation though. haha Deborah told me that once you are invited though your invitation is good for life so that is good for us!  Jed was sick so he stayed home with Dallin.  They truly missed out because the donuts were to die for.  We even got to help roll some out with this amazing homemade donut cutter.

I was a pretty big party pooper this year when it came to Halloween.  The kids begged me to decorate the house outside, but I really hate Halloween decorations.  I've never like them.  I did feel a little guilty about letting my kids down, but seriously they will live.  There's always a billion parties and such with Halloween anyway.  Kinsley got to dress up for her dance class and went as a ballerina.  Ava got to dress up for volleyball and went as a mad scientist.  We also had the ward Trunk or Treat (which the priests & laurels were in charge of - I was glad to have that over with!) and they all had Halloween parties at school.

I think this was the first year we didn't have multiple costumes for at least one of them.  They all knew what they wanted to be and stuck with it through the whole season of parties.  Halloween night we trick or treated around the neighborhood.  Kasen was Peyton Manning, Jed was his agent, Ava a mad scientist, Kinsley a ballerina, I was Goldilocks, and Dallin was Baby Bear.

I love these silly little rascals.  They didn't want to Trick or Treat too long and Jed was forcing them along like he does every year.  He is so funny about them getting as much candy as possible.  ??? It is pretty great being part of this family though.