The last few weeks have flown by & here we are almost halfway through October. Owen & I have been passing our afternoons together by filling them with nice long naps while I work on the computer for KimKaps. We have gotten into a nice routine & the fact that he is napping again has pretty much been my salvation since he was SOoo grumpy in the afternoons while the boys were at school.
We started a Lunch Bunch group with some friends in our ward & we get together every Wednesday to play, visit, & eat. Kamden joins us since he doesn't go to school until the pm class & it's been fun getting to know more people.
Our nephew, The Vaughnster, comes to play Wednesday, Thursday, & Fridays which Owen has been loving being 'Big Brother' to his cousin. We will really miss them when they move to Burley at the end of the month but we are so happy for them & the great opportunities they have been blessed with.
Jeff has been out of town a few times during the past several weeks, going to Twin Falls & Idaho Falls while we hold down the fort at home. The boys have adjusted to having dad gone a few nights a month & we appreciate all of his hard work. He is staying busy teaching the 12-13 year old Sunday School class each week & getting a few more rounds of golf in before it gets too chilly.
One night when Jeff was out of town, I was painting my toenails & Owen kept insisting that I paint his "notails"...he settled for using the nail file on his fingernails for a few minutes instead.
The boys' school was doing a fundraiser & selling tickets to a local corn maze/pumpkin patch, so we went with Brian, Sierra, & Vaughn at the end of September. We went around lunch time & it was such a warm day we were hot & miserable wandering around in the corn maze so we didn't spend much time navigating around in there.
Brian attempted to push Vaughn through the maze in the stroller.
It didn't work out so well...
There was also a small straw maze, a barrel train, petting zoo, corn box, & jump houses.
I love Kamden's expression in this picture, he is SO excited to be riding that barrel train...Ethan had something in his eye & Owen was trying to figure out what was going on, but Kamden is excited enough for all 3 of them.
Here is Owen in the corn box...
Never mind that there was a girl who must've been about 8 or 9 shoving handfuls of corn down her pants just a few feet away...
After we had our fill of the farm, we stopped by Sonic for happy hour (who can pass up 1/2 off drinks from 2-4?) then went back to our house before Sierra & I went to dinner with friends while the guys watched the BSU game.
Some things that I have been up to (besides raising 3 boys, working from home, & trying to keep up with the household) are doing my beautiful niece's senior pictures & also a maternity session for my oldest niece who is due in a matter of weeks & I will be a Great Auntie! I can hardly wait to meet baby Braylee & tell her all the reasons why I should be her favorite :)
I also went to the baby shower (for some reason I appear ghastly white in this photo...almost vampire-ish...I need a tan) but maybe my complexion is offset by the pink clothespins clipped to my shirt as I was kicking some booty at the "Don't Say The Word Baby" game.
& we spent the weekend in Emmett while Kristen was visiting from Oregon (we are SO ExCiTeD that they are moving back this summer!!!)
While in Emmett my parents shared their tomato harvest & I was able to do some canning. I am a lazy canner & only do tomatoes because the thought of all that work overwhelms me.
But aren't the tomatoes pretty?
Thanks for your help, Mom!
I have also been trying to take the time to be crafty, which I didn't realize I'd been missing so much until Pinterest came into my life. After protesting it for so long because I just didn't feel like I needed one more thing to take my time & cause me to be online even more, I gave in & joined when I had to do a page for work.
It's addicting!
But it's also a lot of fun & here are a few things I've made so far:
A wreath for the front door...I don't want to get up to take another picture so I copied this from my FB page & for some reason the bottom is cut off. So if you want to see the whole thing, you'll have to come visit me :) You should, because now we have a guest room since Owen decided he wanted to move in with his brothers.
But we're getting off topic, back to Pinterest.
I've really been feeling like I need to organize my life & I found a few things that have made a big difference.
A menu planner:
This was a magnet board that Jeff originally got me for Mother's Day, but it wasn't terribly cute so I spruced it up with some fabric.
(Even Jeff was disappointed when it arrived in the mail, so I'm not being rude by saying it needed improving. Thanks Honey!)
I'd seen a lot of menu boards around but I knew I wanted something with the recipe & a picture would be nice because then the boys could be involved in planning out our dinners.
I made the recipe cars on the computer & had them printed at WalMart on photo paper & made a magnet for each day of the week.
This has been so handy & relieved my biggest stress in life...
What's for dinner?
Well, now I know. & I also know what ingredients I need & when I go grocery shopping I know exactly what I'm buying & why.
Another stress in my life has been getting the boys to help out around the house without major protests & sometimes tantrums & even tears. I saw some great chore charts on Pinterest & adapted them to the boys' routines & it has helped tremendously.
The clipboards are their daily tasks like brushing teeth, making their beds, homework, etc. Each day they check off the task & each day gets checked off by mom or dad. On Saturday they get a ticket for each day they got a check & 25 tickets gets them a family outing of their choice.
Another idea from good ol' Pinterest, I used a cookie sheet & made my own magnets for an allowance board. Instead of just handing my kids money every week for allowance, I want them to learn to work & understand how to earn money. So throughout the week if they are asked to do a chore & they do it without complaining, they will be paid for it. But if they throw a fit about helping out, they do it without being paid or one of their brothers can choose to do the chore & earn the money themselves instead. It has done wonders for my sanity & greatly diminished the tantrums when I ask that the dishwasher be unloaded or that some vacuuming be done.
I have a few more projects in the works, like putting the guest bedroom together & I want to try painting some upholstered chairs like I saw on, you guessed it, Pinterest.
I might need an intervention.
But I do find time for other things in life, I went to help out in Kamden's class last week when the Firemen came & I was the designated photographer. Can you spot Kamden? He did his own hair that day:
We finally cut Kamden's hair, the shortest he's had it since he was a little baby...& I must say that he looks quite handsome with his new 'do. He also got his cast off last week, although he insisted on keeping it & it is in a plastic bag in the top of his closet.
When the nurse cut it off, there was one of my black hair elastics crammed down there & it was white, crusty, & stinky. I was surprised that was the only thing in there. He also had pen marks down his arm from sticking pens down there to scratch.
Kamden is doing really well in school, we had parent-teacher conferences this past week. He loves riding the bus home, recess, & snack time. We are working on the concept of rhyming & sometimes he comes up with the most vague words that he insists rhyme but they usually start with the same letter/sound but don't end the same. He is getting better at it, though.
His teacher had great things to say about him & said he has lots of friends & gets along well with all of the kids in class, that he is very well-behaved, respectful, & follows directions well.
It was all things I needed to hear because sometimes at home it's a different story...but we are working on that, too.
Kamden is really excited for his birthday in a few weeks, of course it's crazy to think he will be 6. He is looking forward to going to Chuck E. Cheese, which is what he's been wanting to do ever since last year when he saw a commercial for it right after he turned 5 & wanted to go. He is in a hurry to grow up & has been asking when he gets his own phone, he thinks that because the 11 year old neighbor has his own phone that Kamden should get one when he's 11. He also wants a wallet, keys, & "a boy purse so he can carry his wallet, keys, sunglasses, & chapstick around."
This week Kamden & I went on a date to get him some pants for school & pick out some coloring supplies for him to have at home. He also insisted that he needed his own chapstick.
Owen is completely potty trained, even at night.
Which means that after almost 8 years of buying diapers & having 2 in diapers twice, WE ARE DONE WITH DIAPERS!
It's awesome.
I mentioned earlier that Owen now sleeps in the same room with Kamden & Ethan, & that has been working out pretty good. Since Owen naps during the day we sometimes let him stay up while the boys go to sleep since they have school & when they are all 3 in the room they tend to talk a lot. But Owen hasn't been having screaming fits every night when it's bedtime, so it's been worth it.
When he doesn't get his way, Owen likes to run to mom & dad crying, saying "The boys bein' bossy!" or "The boys bein' mean to me!"
We are working on being better about sharing & taking turns. I am enjoying spending my afternoons with him, he has become so much more talkative since the boys started school & he loves to sing & ask questions.
Ethan is also doing very well in school. At the conference with his teacher she said that he is so quiet, reserved, & polite, a very mellow boy. He enjoys science & is doing well in all of the subjects they are studying. He needs to work on his writing process, getting the correct punctuation & expounding thoughts & reasons.
He likes PE & computers & enjoys picking out books each week from the school library. He has become quite the social butterfly around the neighborhood & sometimes he comes home, puts his backpack away, & runs right back out the door to play until time for dinner & homework. He did take me on a date last night, so I get to spend time with him every once in awhile.
I can't even explain how excited he is to turn 8 in December & get baptized. Ethan has been wanting to be baptized ever since he was about 3 years old. We are also looking forward to taking the boys through the Boise temple, which has been recently renovated & is open for tours through November 10th so if anyone wants to join us, it is open to everyone until then.
For more info, click here
We would love to have you!
PS~It's beautiful inside, I was able to go last week & help with some of the preparations for the open house & it looks gorgeous.
So excited for it to reopen!
Well, that's a bit of what has been going on in our lives lately, if you read all the way through this post you deserve an award.
But you'll have to pat yourself on the back instead.
Now, on to the rest of October!
