September
First, swimming on Labor Day. The kids were so excited to have Daniel come to the pool with us (during the summer we usually went when he was at work). Cindy jumped in to him about 500 times.
We had decided to make it a super fun Labor Day, so after swimming we took all the kids to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch (Jack Allen’s Kitchen), and then we finished up our fun day by doing fondue for dinner. First a cheese course, and then chocolate.
Here is Oliver with the plant that he gave me for Mother’s Day a few years ago. It started out as a little tiny broken-in-half root in a plastic cup full of water that I thought would never survive, and then it turned into this monster. It is very easy to care for – sometimes I water it, and sometimes Oliver waters it again that same day, and then sometimes we both forget for a week. After I took this picture I took a little clipping, regrew the root in some water, and we started over. The new one is now a more manageable size, but it’s growing quickly.
Cindy knows that proper ladies do their stacks of puzzles with a Batman cape and mask on.
Tristan at their 2nd football game. He got hurt and didn’t get to play much.
Game 3 he was back in. Here he is tackling (he’s number 15).
There was a lot of football during September.
And a lot of cozy fort building.
And playing with set-ups.
And a lot of whatever this is. Lizza and Henry were some sort of adventure team. I kept hearing Henry say things like, “okay, now let’s go on the mystery of the lost waterfall adventure!” They were also animal hunters and trappers (Henry’s favorite animal trapping tool is my kitchen strainer).
Nobody was safe from Lizza’s archery skills, even poor Cody, Henry’s horse.
They also let Cindy join their crew, which was a good thing, since she kept them from starving with her bucket full of food, and got them out of all sorts of terrible predicaments with her backpack full of useful survival tools.
More football. Game 4.
Playing around in the backyard.
Me and Daniel at an Imagine Dragons concert in Houston. We drove to Houston (about 2 1/2 hours away), went to the concert, and then drove back that same night. It was pretty great. Our seats were really close to the stage (we’re standing in front of our seats here).
More football. Game 5.
I think I have said this before, but I really love when my kids fall asleep in the middle of reading at night. It warms my heart.
October
We started out October with Daniel’s birthday (the first of three October birthdays in our family). Henry’s present to Daniel was to let him build a lego set with him. He was very pleased with himself for coming up with such a thoughtful present.
The happy 36-year old with his kiddos and some banana splits:
More football. Game 6. That’s Oliver in white in the middle.
It was still really hot in October, and swimming season was not yet over, so my friend and I had the grand idea to take the younger kids swimming at night while our husbands and Tristan went to the Priesthood session of General Conference. The only problem was that about an hour before we left for the pool a cold front blew in, and the temperature dropped by 20 degrees. We decided to still brave it, but it was freezing!
Even though they were freezing, they wanted to stay until it got dark so they could see the lights come on at the pool.
There is something so magical about night swimming with the lights on. I love it.
Cupcakes are also fun.
More football. Game 7 was also their Homecoming game, so the boys got to be escorted across the field by the cheerleaders. Oliver was just relieved that his cheerleader wasn’t taller than he is.
But before that happened, this happened (it was very exciting):
Happy boys:
After the game we went over to our neighborhood amenities center for a fall festival/chili cook-off. The kids got some pretty fancy face painting done.
Plus we came home with a prize with our chili.
Here is Tristan with his cake model of a cell. I can’t believe I have a child old enough to be doing this project.
And speaking of children getting older, Cynthia turned 3 in October.
She wanted the same dinosaur volcano cake that I have made for some of my other kids, but because she’s Cindy, she also requested that it have Batman and Gollum on it. Whatever, Cindy. (If you look closely, you can see them)
This was her prayer that she said at dinner on her birthday:
“Please bless me to have a wonderful birthday. Thankful for Henry to have good manners. Thankful for me and Henry to be good friends. Thankful for me to get presents. Thankful for me to have an umbrella. Thank you for this wonderful dinner.”
Then five days later it was my birthday. Here I am with my six children and the new Kyle Van Noy jersey I got for my birthday.
Then it was time to get ready for Halloween. Henry (being the miniature Oliver that he is) was super concerned that we were not decorating our house well enough. He kept saying the exact words that 5-year old Oliver used to say to me: "is this ALL the Halloween decoration stuff we have? Like, is there any more in a box somewhere that I could use?" I finally gave in and took him and Cindy to Garden Ridge so they could each pick out a little decoration. They were ecstatic. Cynthia chose this bat, which she says is not a nice bat. She wanted it to be really creepy.
And Henry chose this awful little skeleton thing. Which maybe was not his best move, because that night he had a horrible nightmare about not only his little skeleton fellow, but about the whole Halloween aisle at Garden Ridge. He ended up freaking out and jumping out of his bed and running straight into the edge of Lizza’s dresser and splitting his nose open (you can see the wound in this picture). He has a pretty good scar now. I’m sure he would say it was worth it. Every day he was out there, rearranging his skeleton to put him in the scariest spot possible.
Also in October, Tristan got to go on his first temple trip with the youth in our ward to do baptisms for the dead.
Here are the younger four playing at the park before one of the boys’ football games.
And playing house under the bleachers during the game:
And here’s Oliver tackling. Watch for the flex at the 8 second mark. It’s my favorite part. The ref had to tell him “no flexing” after that.
The younger four again at the ward Halloween party (Tristan and Oliver were at football practice, and felt too old to dress up anyway this year):
A ballerina:
Fancy Nancy:
The cutest witch ever (but she says she’s really creepy):
And Knight Henry:
They also got to go to a Halloween party at Daniel’s work:
And finally, Halloween night; Tristan and Oliver were our treat hander-outers, and for some reason this involved them dressing up all in black and trying to scare anyone who approached our house. So I guess they’re in that in-between stage of being old enough to feel embarrassed about wearing a costume to Dad’s work, but young enough to still think it’s super cool to put a cape over your face and make creepy noises at people.
Oliver with a jack-o-lantern head, and Lizza with some starburst/tootsie roll art (I was impressed by her creativity).
And then of course, our annual Halloween candy draft. There was a little bit less candy in the pool this year, due to both Tristan and Oliver not trick-or-treating, but there was still plenty to go around.
The end.
