October. 2014. aka forever ago.

All right, well this post is a bajillion pictures long, so anyone who successfully reads the whole thing deserves a pat on the back and one of Jack's famous (maybe infamous...) kisses, seen here inflicted upon his baby sister:

Kid's got some moves, right?

And since today is Jack's birthday, we'll start off the October recap with another shot of the wee fellow. Ohhh he's cute!

The first weekend in October was General Conference. Chuck had to work, so the kids and I holed up in the living room for two days and watched. It was incredible. Carma cooperated fabulously on Saturday and I got to watch most of both sessions and there were a couple different talks that were just so, so soothing to my soul. A few favorites: Elder Andersen, Elder Robbins, Elder Klebingat, and Elder Ballard.

The older boys kept busy reading old issues of the Friend magazine, courtesy of Emily's garage sale a couple weekends before:

Jack stayed busy being almost naked and running around like a crazy man.

Grandpa came over on Sunday afternoon to watch the end of that session with us and then help the boys get out some energy with bubble guns and pop-its :).

Oh, Carma hit some milestones in October - most notably rolling from back to front! She'd been rolling front to back for a while, but this direction took some real concentration and at times we were a little freaked out that her neck was just going to continue to swivel...

For Family Home Evening one Monday early in the month we headed over to Linder Farms to use the leftover tickets and tokens from my dad. We had loads of fun:

Things we learned: A) Chuck is so smart in corn mazes. B) I am not. I would become lost and stranded and left to waste away if on my own - even with the map. It's cool though, because I still fit into a barrel for the barrel ride, so what more could I want in life? C) Will IS a cowboy. (Bill Engvall reference there...). Jack got on the little pony ride but turned his body sideways and clung to Chuck, who walked alongside him for the duration. Clyde fell somewhere in between - he liked the pony ride all right, but you could tell that he couldn't decide if it was 'cool' or 'not'. D) Swings = best smiles ever. So cute.

We followed the old rule of thumb that as soon as three-fourths of the kids have cried, it's time to go. So we called it a day, but not before asking a random stranger to take our picture. It turned out suuuper well:

Seriously, what are the children all looking at?? I'm still bummed out that Clyde and Will failed to coordinate properly - one of them clearly should have glanced upward so that all bases were covered.

Oh, these pictures just make me laugh. Jack calls that little Fisher Price barn his lunchbox, because it looks eerily similar to the lunchbox/cooler that Chuck takes to work everyday. Every morning Jack wakes up and asks where Chuck is, and if I say that he's at work, Jack very seriously inquires "He take his yunchbox?"

So naturally Jack feels the need to take his 'yunchbox' on most errands with us. Hilarious.

Clyde (and Deion) needed to go on a half hour bike ride for a Cub Scout belt loop, so we turned it into a family activity. Swell plan. Three crashes, two heart attacks/sprints by me (don't ask. I'll just tell you: at one point Will turned around on the path and rode for home - despite me yelling his name as I ran behind him... loud enough for people to come out of their houses... he maintains he thought I was telling him to keep going...), forty-five minutes, one little boy decided he wanted to walk (leaving me to carry his trike) and mayyyybe a mile later, we were back home. Ahhhh!

But Clyde got that bike loop at Pack Meeting, so all's well. Clyde and Deion also decorated their own cakes for that night, and Will won the cute Halloween game they played and was SO excited. Hilarious.

October girls' night!

Emily K skipped out (she was in Disneyland. Again. We think she goes there deliberately to avoid us...) which was sad but what was SO HAPPY is that we were also celebrating Nycole and Brandon's amazing news: he got new lungs!! Such a miracle. So emotional. Nycole is amazing and blogged a lot about the roller coaster of those few days; initially it was a pretty difficult recovery from the surgery, but blessedly things are going so well for him and their family now.

Oh, we had to say goodbye to one of our favorite missionaries, Elder Wilson, who was headed to... Caldwell. I think. Pretty sure. Super great guy, excellent teacher, loved the gospel, and one time hit Clyde in the head with a dodgeball hahahaha :).

Another great milestone this month: subjecting our kids to "The Mighty Ducks". It was somewhat like pulling teeth initially - they were notttt on board with this selection for family movie night, but Chuck and I pulled rank and stuck it in and the boys never looked back. Chants of 'QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!' were heard frequently over the next few days.

We spent a pretty good portion of October hanging out in the front yard. The weather was soooo perfect, so we'd just set up shop out there and play and play.

Grace and Clark are some of our favorite neighbors and we love when they stop by on walks to hang out. One morning they brought Gigi too, and a mini-think tank was established on the sidewalk:

Will engaged any willing adult to play his animal guessing game - he draws an animal feature by feature and you have to guess what it is. I LOVE his drawings (even though Chuck always beats me in the game. Whatev).

The two littlest children and I had fun dressing the part in October:

I've worn those orange and black tights to church the Sunday before Halloween every year since I got them, and just for Holly, here's a collage of that:

2011, 2012, 2103, 2014. 

Awkward: I for sure didn't remember that I had worn the black dress/orange belt combo last year when I put it on this year. I'll try to switch it up next year...

Random shots of me and Carma, contemplating our hilarity and mutual adoration:

And gettin' serious at the end. We've got a lot to contemplate, yo.

Aaaand finally, Halloween!! Carma and Jack and I took a field trip that morning to visit my dad at work and be treated to lunch :).

It was super fun, thanks again Dad!!

That night it was go-time for debuting our awesome costumes at the ward trunk-or-treat. We did a family theme this year:

I don't even want to talk about the ratio of hours that went into these dumb outfits to the hours that we actually spent wearing them. Ridiculous.

And for those of you who may not have yet experienced the Lego Movie and thus cannot truly appreciate our costumes, here's a play-by-play:

Benny the Astronaut // Will. I'm not gonna lie, probably the one I'm most proud of.

Wonder Woman // Carma. I took a decent amount of creative license with this one, but I think it's clear who she is, ya know?

Bad Cop // Clyde. Usually we don't really roll with bad guy costumes, but this was just too perfect. Thanks to D.I. for the hat!!

Oh, and Clyde's sweet schoolteacher invited all of her students to trick-or-treat at her house so she could see their costumes so we stopped there on our way home that night. So fun!

Wildstyle aka Lucy // Jana. Let's not focus on the fact that despite staring at the dumb picture for hours and hours, I still couldn't manage to get the jacket and hair lined up correctly... whatever. True story: this costume is almost exactly what I wore for Black Widow two years ago.

Emmet // Chuck. Can I just take this opportunity to express how patient and long-suffering my sweet husband is? Seriously, why would he go along with all of this? Love him, love this costume.

Batman // Jack. OH MY GOSH, THIS WAS INSANE. So originally Will was going to be Superman. Perfect, we already had the costume from last year. Jack was going to be Benny. BUT our favorite two-year-old freaked out and insisted that he be Superman... so Will very sweetly obliged and switched him. Buuuuut then an hour before the trunk-or-treat Jack freaks out again and will NOT put on his Superman costume and I'm only slightly ashamed to admit that I probably cried. Grammy Pammy and I tried everything to get the dang kid into the costume... or any costume... it was, looking back, hilarious. Finally he agreed to don a way too big Batman shirt and his pajama shorts and NO SHOES OR SOCKS but whatever, we rolled with it. Have I mentioned that I love Jack? I really do...

My mom really did save the day; Chuck met us straight at the trunk-or-treat from work, so Grandma Pam helped with all the last minute costume stuff and then helped wrangle the kids at the church. Love her. And her zombie red eyes. (Unintentional, but fitting for the holiday!)

Ahh, congrats if you made it through that, hopefully some of it was at least slightly entertaining. Alas, the prize has been downgraded from a heated kiss to a slightly mauling hug.

You're welcome!!