A favourite month

I've a couple of wee posts to catch up on, but for now I best put up a couple of nice Halloween themed pictures before this jolly day comes to an end!  

We went to our favourite pumpkin patch, Bauman's, with our friends near the beginning of the month.  It poured with rain like mad the entire drive there, but eased off almost immediately after arriving.  The great thing about this patch is that it's mostly covered anyway, so come rain or shine we were going to have a fab time.  

All three boys and little Charlotte played in a pit of walnuts, took a ride in a wee bumblebee train, slid down a massive pumpkin hill, jumped on bouncy castles, and made their way through a few haystack mazes.  Brill fun.

Last year we took a picture at this same spot, but left the sleepy 2 month olds in their pram.  What a difference a year makes...our wee lovelies were not to be kept down this time.

Look at these magic pumpkins that were there!  Absolutely amazing.

We took a quick weekend trip to Reno in the middle of the month to attend the baby blessing of our new nephew, Eli.  I'll write a post on that soon enough, but we imposed a little on our old friends from BYU at the last minute who live half an hour from Reno.   It was wonderful to see them; we miss them terribly.  

Ryan and Brett chatting away like old times...it was very nice seeing them together again.  I just can not believe Lindsey and I have given birth to all those children up there!  Haha! Ryan and I were married on the same day as Brett and Lindsey...it's mad to see how much our families have grown in the last (almost) 8 years.

And here's some final pics:  decorating Halloween cupcakes that we baked for family home evening, preparing for some pumpkin carving, and dressed and ready in our costumes for the ward's 'Trunk or Treat' Party.  If you can think of any great costume ideas I can use for my wee twinies next year, let me know.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to top 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2'...they looked great! 

"The Happiest 5k on the Planet"...

The Colour Run's slogan was right! This run that I did, with two friends from my ward, was such a great time.  We pretty much laughed throughout the entire thing.  Sometimes at the ridiculous attire of others, occasionally that we'd actually paid money to run and get splattered in chalky stuff (although it was for a good charity), but mostly we laughed at the pure nic of ourselves.  But really, I think we all pretty much loved every minute of it.  

The run took place at the Portland International Raceway.  We parked downtown and took the tri met along with a ton of other colourful folks to our destination.

In the "colour zones", Anne and I made sure to get up close and personal with the people chucking the colour...we hoped it wouldn't be too difficult to wash out...well...Anne more than me.  She wasn't sure about going to work with multicolored hair, whereas I'm pretty sure my boys would love seeing me like that every day.

Next year, we're all taking our families with us.  It was way too fun to have them miss out again.
P.s. Jack laughed hysterically for a solid 10 mins when I arrived home and asked repeatedly when he could go get "colour attacked".

Footy practice

It's a miracle of sorts that I'm posting again so soon! I'll tell you one of the main excuses I had for not posting regularly.  I was using Ryan's old laptop and letters 'P' and 'O' on the keyboard had been broken off by one of our lovely wee ones.  I couldn't hack cutting and pasting those letters in anymore!  It was a bloomin' nightmare.  For Ryan's birthday we got him a Nexus tablet...which I kind of use more than him, but typing on that wasn't ideal either.  So, Ryan got me an ace wireless keyboard to use with the tablet; yippie! Problem solved.  The twins are taking their wee morning nap and Peter is playing with his superheros while I get a short blog in and wait by the window for Jack's bus to arrive.

Something I forgot to post about yesterday was Jack's football practice (aka soccer).  When he turned 3 we put him in a district program called 'Little Big Kicks'.  When we showed up to the weekly Saturday practice we found out that it was in fact just a bunch of teenage girls playing red light green light with the kids, etc.  Maybe I should have expected that, but still I thought they might have had an actual coach.  None of that really mattered anyway because Jack was terrified/overwhelmed and refused to play for the first 5 weeks of the 8 week program.  Then the last 3 weeks he had the time of his life!  We waited a year before deciding to try football again and so, he started in a "real" team at the beginning of this month.  There is an actual coach this time; Coach Murray, and about 6 boys on the team.  We started with closer to ten boys, but the numbers have dwindled as school started and some boys clearly hated being there.

Jack is thoroughly enjoying himself.  He is silly and laughs when he gets a good kick at the ball, and even when he's first out over and over again when they play a "musical chairs" type game but with targets to run to, he is always laughing and having a blast.  I have, much to my own astonishment, become a total side-line coach.  Oh dear! Sometimes I have to really stop myself from getting too into it...I'm the most embarrassing at their Saturday matches.  I feel like the coach hardly says a word to them when they're on the field, but he is really good at encouraging them when they take turns coming off during the match and at the end.  They don't keep official scores, but at our first Saturday match Jack was playing against his good friend, Joey's team and he was so devastated that they hadn't scored a single goal and the other team had about 20ish, that he came running to me crying.  It was hard for him to be losing so badly even though he's generally a good sport.  After a brief pep talk he was back in it and even though they never did score in that particular game he was ok with it in the end and congratulated Joey.  Since then they have done better at the matches, but I really hope he just continues to enjoy the sport (plus, I'm kinda liking it too.)

The only negative that comes from having signed Jack up for football, seems to be hanging out at his practices for an hour with the other 3 wee ones. Peter attempts to whack trees with enormous sticks. Penelope is constantly wandering away, and Olive nearly chocked herself to death at Tuesdays practice....she's really into tasting the bark and leaves that scatter the field.  And she thinks it's brill fun to run directly into any area the boys might be tackling in.  So I try and hold her for as long as my arms can manage before the body flailing and screaming just becomes too much or I'm utterly embarrassed.  It's always a real treat.

Aug/Sept....late as always

I want to make excuses for not having posted in donkeys again, but why bother...my life is busy and so is everyone else's.  On to a recap.

August 19th marked the 1st birthday of the wee girls.  I love getting to know their personalities, but really, it's a little weird how much their personalities also match their brother look-a-like's.  Olive is climbing up on the couches, the kitchen table, throwing marvelous hissy fits when she doesn't get her way, very chatty, and a total charmer.  Interestingly enough Peter continues to be much the same.  Penelope is still very needy, clingy, quiet, a great avoider of any potentially dangerous situations (sibling wrestling), and loves to give me wee kisses, which aren't actually kisses at all...she sniffs my face.  Jack isn't quite the same anymore, but can still be very needy and is extremely sensitive like Penny. 

For their birthday I made a Peppa Pig cake and we had our friends, the Stocks, the Platt's, Auntie Callie, Uncle Josh, and baby Zoe over for a couple of hours after church.  It was nice, and all the kids had a jolly time.  

Olive thought the cake was delish and Penny was somewhat disgusted by it.  So Olive nicked hers and helped herself to both.  I'm really having a hard time believing that it's been over a year since their birth.  I miss having a wee baby in the house, but definitely not in any rush to have any more any time soon.  We had my niece, Zoe, come stay over night a few weeks ago and oh dear, adding another wee 4 month old into the mix was total exhaustion! 

My not so wee Jack started morning kindergarten on September 6th.  He was feeling a little nervous and so was I as we attended the orientation the day before, but on the actual morning all seemed to go fairly well.  He let me take all the posey pictures I wanted but as we walked into the school I could tell he was a little unsure again.  I didn't realise he was supposed to go into the gym to meet his class and from there would go to their room.  The second we entered the gym he froze and dug his feet into the ground.  He was so overwhelmed by the room full of children/teachers that I had to lift him over to his class.  He began to cry and then so did I.  His teacher, Mrs. Haupt (our bishop's daughter-in-law), is so lovely, and came rushing over to tell me and him it would be ok. Haha.  I comfoted him for a minute and then left quickly to stand outside while she held his hand.  Moments later he was fine and on his merry way to the classroom (by this time another crying kid was holding Mrs. Haupt's hand).  When I picked him up he told me he had had the greatest time and couldn't wait to go EVERY day, Brill. 

By Monday morning he was asking me if he could ride the bus home.  I asked the office and that very afternoon the bus brought him straight to my door! Pure fab!  I guess they do that for all the wee kindergartners.  Jack thought it was amazing that he didn't have to wear a seat belt and it was nice for me to see how many wee pals he has too.  They were all screaming "Bye Jack" for ages as he got off the bus.  Every day has been a great success and I'm so happy with how much he's enjoying it all.  He just looks so bloomin' grown up!   He's such a good wee guy.  

Peter misses Jack in the mornings, but really, it's such a short time that he's gone and he's back before we know it.  He makes a big production of saying 'goodbye' to him in the morning when he leaves with Ryan, and he totally loves waiting for the bus to arrive.

Speaking of Peter...he's been having a hard time going to bed and staying there lately.  He tells us he's scared of shadows.  We have tried turning his wee nightlight off and just keeping the hall light on so as not to make so many shadows in his room, but that's not working.  If you have suggestions, please share.  He's driving me mad! I find him asleep in the ugly brown chair in our living room, tucked in all cosy in our bed, and occasionally in the twins room...everywhere but in his own bed.  It's actually quite comical wondering where we'll find him when we go down to bed.  The other hilarious thing is that he's usually got our wedding album tucked under his arm lying there conked out! He says it's his favourite book! Ha.

 

A June birthday late and some of July...

I think about sitting down and writing a blog post a lot, but here we are in July now and I've missed writing about birthdays and other fun-ish stuff that has happened as of late.  So here's a wee catch-up.  I was feeling a little like maybe I shouldn't even bother having a birthday party for Jack and Peter this year...maybe just because I always feel a little overwhelmed with my life right now! Ha.  But, dear oh dear, that boy, Jack, had been going on and on about his upcoming birthday since Christmas and how magical a time he was going to have...so I found it hard to disappoint him.  We have established a new rule now, however, that there will not be a birthday party every year.  Well, we'll have a party, but sometimes it'll just be a family one, which are just as fun. :) The Monday before their birthday we spent the evening at Bullwinkles...a happenin' place to go I tell you! The boys each took a shot speeding around a race track with their dad on a go-cart, brill fun! Then we played more arcade games than I have ever encountered in my life!  Ryan won them approximately 10 small toy dinosaurs..he won every kind you can imagine, except the pterodactyl, which, of course, Jack had his wee heart set on.  We'll be back for more arcade fun and that reptile one day! Friday was their actual birthday which was pretty relaxed and quiet.  They played contently with their new toys while I was ready to tear my hair out because I had decided at the last minute to try and make a fondant iced cake based on the "Avengers" theme I had going at the party.  It turned out a winner in the wee guys eyes, which is the most important thing, but if I do that again, I'll be leaving myself a wee bit more time to make it.

Jack and Peter got totally fab books from their cousins, Samuel, Isaac, and Ena and Auntie Margaret and Uncle John.  They insisted on reading them every single night for about a month...good thing Ryan and I loved them too!  

Another wonderful gift came from Auntie Alisa, Uncle Euan, and cousin, Eleanor.  Check out that amazing cousin memory game! My brother, Daniel, and his wife, Martha, welcomed wee Daniel after we received it so I'll need to make another card set of him to add to it.  All the pictures are so gorgeous...I look at them a lot! Ha.  

So, here's the finished cake.  I gained a whole new appreciation for the talent my sister-in-law, Margaret, has when it comes to using fondant.  It was really hard to manage and it took bloomin' ages! 

On Saturday (the day of the party) we had 12 wee energetic boys in our home under the age of 6!  Sheer madness I tell you, but it all went surprisingly well and I didn't feel as overwhelmed as I had expected.  We had 4 additional adults come along with their children and stay, so that helped greatly.  Peter really loves superheros too, but he also really likes a wee programe called, "Jake and the Neverland Pirates", so I made a "pin the eye patch on Jake" game for him and his wee pals.  We started with that, then pass the parcel, I read the new books(pictured above) to the group(which was a big hit!), then opened presents, ate the cake, and finished with a pinata.  Jack and Peter loved every minute...success! 

Moving on...the wee lovely twin girls are doing wonderfully.  Penelope started walking on June 7th and Olive took her first steps later that month on the 22nd.  Penelope really loves her new found walking independence.  She can climb the stairs at lightening speed, and if we are all downstairs during the day I find myself calling her name the most just to figure out where the devil she's walked off to.  She's got a really funny wee personality. She always has to have something in both hands...most of the time it's superheros, or a copy of "The Friend" magazine in each one, or a baby wipe.  My mum and I call them her "wee dusters"! She walks around with them like she's ready to do a spot of cleaning.  Unlike Olive, Penelope is fine playing by herself and isn't too thrilled about the occasional 'wrestle cuddle' she'll get from Jack and Peter (in the past she would cry immediately, but lately she seems to be getting used their boyish ways and doesn't cry). 

She's still very fond of being with me, but she's actually getting a wee bit better at going to others now without having a wee emotional breakdown or two.  As shown in the picture below, when Olive is close by, Penelope likes to be either holding onto her, grabbing for her hand, or when seated by Olive in the pram she'll always link arms with her...pure cuteness.   

Despite walking two weeks after Penelope, Olive was much more interested in crawling to get where she needed to go.  This behaviour wasn't something I was used to seeing! Ha. Both the boys walked so early too, so I never really got to see them crawling much.  She has since changed her mind though, and for about a week now she's been almost solely walking.  I've never had as social a baby as Olive either.  Smiling at everyone she sees gets her quite a bit of attention from strangers and friends alike.  She's always in the the thick of the complete chaos that Jack and Peter are having and usually I'm pulling her out from fear of her getting hurt...that's when her tears come! She can't stand being away from them.  The second they move to a different corner of the room she's right there with them and usually killing herself laughing at whatever they are doing.  Peter absolutely loves her.  He calls her "Ollie" and when he wakes up in the morning he almost always asks if she's awake yet.  Also, pure cuteness.

Other fun stuff that's been going on?
-My mum bought us a zoo pass while she was here in May (how lovely of her).  We've been making sure we get maximum usage out of it while this great weather has been hanging around.  I think we've been once a week for the last 4 weeks now! We take different friends each time we go and it's really great fun.  I really enjoy that I don't feel like I need to make it round the whole (giant) zoo each visit.  It's a nice wee leisurely visit that always ends in a picnic on the beautiful grassy area by the....stinky elephants. Ha.  Jack really likes those elephants!

-Ryan celebrated his 32nd birthday and we managed a nice night out by ourselves to play some mini golf and eat a lovely Mexican meal.  We almost didn't even go because that morning Olive woke up covered in hives! And we still don't know what caused them.  It was very strange...they lasted two days and then disappeared as fast as they'd shown up.


-On the fourth of July we spent the morning with some friends from our ward.  There was a baseball game going on, lots of wee children running around and some activities set up for those same wee children, but they mostly ran rather than sit.  We ate some great bbq and then retired home for a short while before heading back out for park fun, fireworks and blizzards..yum.  It was certainly the best 4th I've experienced here yet. 

Hopefully it won't be another couple of months till my next post!
p.s. I have no idea why some of the text is highlighted in this post and neither does wiz-kid Ryan... sorry!