Life in October...

Life is good in October. The weather gets colder, so we can bundle up and drink warm drinks and yummy delicious soups. It's also a time for husbands to cut your daughters hair. Oh, your husband doesn't randomly cut your daughters hair and ruin it? Only mine. That's strange. I came from out of Jackson's room one night putting him to bed and Taylor was in the hallway with wet hair. Just out of her shower. She looked at me like she was guilty of something. Then I went into my bathroom where Ben was cleaning up something and he looked like he was guilty of something. I looked at what he was cleaning up and it was a ball of hair. Isn't usually the kids who cut off chunks of their hair themselves, not the adults??? :) It wasn't too awful, but it was definitely an inch or so shorter on one side. He said that he was just going to do a trim and then it kept getting shorter and shorter. I had to make an emergency visit to Meg, and luckily she was able to fix it pretty easily. I snapped a picture, and this was the beginning of the end of my phone. All of my pictures were blurry no matter what. But, I also just wanted to document this kitchen because I have spent many an hour in that kitchen while Meg works her magic! :)

Tucker also got his school picture taken, and I was so happy with the way it turned out. Such a handsome boy!

This was the first year that we didn't have to do a retake.

Also, one night at gymnastics Tucker was playing on my kindle, but I had also asked him to keep an eye on Jackson so I could watch Taylor practice. I looked over and saw this. Not so good at the watching his little brother part, but I'm sure he's killing it in the kindle game!

Our fruit flies were SO freaking bad this year. I don't know why, even well after the summer was over, there were so many flies. Everywhere. It was so so so annoying. I had set up some apple cider vinegar traps and you can't see it well from this picture, after just a few days this thing was FULL!

Tucker drew this awesome dragon and I wanted to document. I actually want to frame it for Ben for Christmas along with drawings from the other two kids, as well. We'll see if that happens. :) Tucker loves drawing dragons, and I just loved this one and the colors.

This lady leads a rough life. She gets to go to cute cupcake shops for lunch. This is my favorite cupcake shop in Spokane (and the best) called Sweet Frostings. It's downtown, and my friend Heather and I make frequent stops downtown just to go there. It is seriously the best and the cutest shop ever. I want to have Taylor's birthday party there this year. Maybe I'll just have a party for myself there! :)

Family home evening with daddy one night. I love Taylor's face in this picture, it looks like she is getting in trouble or something, and maybe she is, I can't remember!

OK, I had no idea I looked so homeless on this particular morning. Hermana Judd and Hermana Quinn came back to Spokane for a visit, for a quick weekend trip. Hermana Judd called me and wanted to see me, so I told her I'd feed her. I really wanted to take her to Cda for dessert at the resort, I always told her I would take her there if she ever came back to visit. It was something they couldn't do as missionaries. Anyway, we didn't have time for that, so I made them breakfast one morning, and I invited our current missionaries, Hermana's Walton and Robles. Hermana Judd had trained Hermana Walton, so I knew they wanted to see each other. It was so much fun to have them all at our house. I love all of these ladies so much! I was so busy making breakfast, I made them a breakfast casserole and also we had a yougurt parfait bar. It was so fun, but I didn't have time to get ready, but I thought that since it was breakfast, I could still be in my PJ's and it would be fine.Anyway, once I got this picture back, I realized how homeless I looked. Oh well! :)

My mom was here visiting to see Angie and the boys and my other sister in law, Kelli sent her this picture from their ward Trunk or Treat, I believe, of my nephew Gage. I made her send it to me, too because I thought it was so freaking cute!!! So, here is cute Gage in his robot costume. So darling!

Also, while my mom was here, Ben and I snuck away for an overnight getaway. Finally celebrating our anniversary. We stayed at the Red Lion downtown right on the river. It was so perfect and a great little getaway. I love getting to spend some time one on one with my hubby!

When we came back from dinner, this was literally the ONLY spot left in the hotel parking lot. And the two knotheats on either side had parked way over their lines. So, Ben, being the man he is, decided he needed to teach these guys a lesson. We had to turn in the mirrors and I got out before he parked all the way in, and then he climbed out his window. But we got in! :) I wish I could have been there in the morning to see how these guys got into their cars! :) ha ha. Only my husband would go to such measures to make sure these idiots paid for their bad parking jobs.

Also, while my mom was here, she brought with her a blanket that was found at my grandma and grandpa's house. It say, Ida Paddock, that is my great grandmother. My mom's mom' mom. My grandma's mother. We aren't sure who made it, but she wants to find out when it could have possibly been made. So, she brought it up to my sister's grandmother in law who is really good with things like that. 

I loved all of the bold, rich colors in the quilt.

Another norm for our life right now is headphones during church. How many kids can say that they have to wear headphones to church? They dont typically last very long, but eventually we will either have to go back to an English speaking ward, or I'll have to teach my kids more Spanish. Or they'll have to wear headphones for the rest of their lives to church. 

This stinker is just causing havoc during church. That's all he does.

It's a good thing he's so freaking cute, and I get this smile out of him every now and then, or I'd be tempted to leave him on the side of the road somewhere! :)

Teaching Tucker the fundamentals. Eventually, I'll be letting him take over on diaper duty! :)

And I'll leave my October post with this awesome face. He is such a big TURD! Always has to sit in the sink while I get ready, and always has to play with toothbrushes.

 

 Also, this month Jackson decided to lock himself into my dad's truck while we had it. The two big kids had practice for the Primary Program, so I thought I'd head to Walmart with just Jackson one Saturday morning. We weren't in there very long, but luckily while I was in there, I happened to see Emily Christensen. So, we come out, and I give Jackson my dads car keys to play with while I unload the cart into the back go return the cart. I had his door open, but as I was returning the cart I all the sudden heard the car door bang closed, no biggie, and then all the sudden a beep beep. Jackson had locked himself inside the truck with the keys he was playing with! My phone, wallet, everything were already in the car. I talked to him through the window hoping he would accidentally unlock it again and I could open it quickly, but no luck, he continued to play with the keys, he locked the doors over and over and over again. And eventually the keys fell on the ground. I was pretty panicked at that point and I'm sure people thought I was crazy for talking to my baby through the window. So, I ran back in and found Emily, she was just finishing up checking out. She came out to the truck, and gave me her phone and headed to her house. She was going to get Tanner, so she could have his phone, go up to my dads house, get the spare set of keys in his kitchen and come back with the spare set. In the meantime, I was to hang out with Jackson. He eventually got so sad that I wasn't coming in the car and started crying and it just broke my heart. But I spent that half an hour singing to him, and playing peek a boo with him, and he eventually calmed down. I'm pretty sure he was super confused, but he was happy as long as I was talking to him or singing to him. And sure enough, about a half an hour later, Emily, my savior, came back with the spare keys. I feel so lucky and blessed and thankful that she was there and was able to help me! What would I have done without her??? Heavenly Father was totally watching over me! And I learned my lesson about giving Jackson the keys to play with. I have to remember that not all cars have the sliding doors that don't shut!!! :)