Other October Occurrences

The beginning of October marked Chuck's ten-year anniversary at his work - he got a pretty cool certificate and a duffle bag and all my admiration and gratitude for being such a stellar juvenile detention officer. I've always said I couldn't do what Chuck does; he is such a great balance of being authoritative and holding kids there accountable but also being approachable and a great mentor for them.

Chuck's parents came to town for a wedding and were brave enough to take all four kids with them to the reception. Clyde and Will loved getting to know some second cousins and Will now asks regularly when we are going to Wyoming to visit :). 

Grandma and Pops with the kiddos after Stake Conference the next day :). It was a quick trip but way fun!

Girls' night was hosted by Kara and baby Gideon, yayyyy! Suuuuuch a sweet baby. And Kara is a freaking superstar because I'm pretty sure the labor/birth process was like 97 hours long. Maybe a little less.

Fun fact: With Justus in August and Gideon in October, we officially got to 24 kids between the seven of us in our girls' group... ages 9 and under. Aaaand in the seven months since then (will i ever catch up on this dang blog? all signs point to no...) we've added one more baby with another coming this month and another coming later this summer. HOLY TOLEDO. No wonder we need a night on the town on a monthly basis. Another round of pie shakes for me and my friends, please!

Random Savers trip. The pink sneakers were purchased, the Darth Vader mask was not...

Speaking of Jack and Carma: such cute little napping buddies!!

We got to have the ridiculously cute Alayna over a couple times in October while Emily was at the hospital with Justus, so we hit up the library one morning. You can tell Jack really likes Alayna because he's willing to share his beloved chair at the check-out desk with her hahaha.

Have I mentioned lately that Carma is pretty spoiled with love and attention from her big brothers? Here are some examples with Will and Jack. Love!

We got into a habit of playing Apples to Apples Jr. quite a bit and my favorite thing (that I learned from someone else and can't remember who(m?)....) is after the game, everyone reads aloud the cards they 'won' as adjectives describing themselves hahaha. In this case Will was fancy, pretty, and cute; Clyde was mean and soft, Jack was something I can't read and wild, and I was fat, short, fuzzy and weird. Obviously now I refuse to play ;).

More crazy Carma. Grandma Izatt brought her that pom-pom from an SUU football game (Chuck's amazingly talented cousin Nickie is on the dance team there... I'm honestly pretty sure she runs the dance team too... at least that's what I tell people...) and she looooved it. Carma also loved the awesome 80s outfit I created with the help of candy corn leggings and a yellow headband. That facial expression in the middle is all Carma, though, no assistance needed ;).

More random pictures. Top left is Carma's look of shame/ire at getting in trouble because she DREW ALL OVER THE WALLS as seen behind her. Grrrrrr. 

 

 One of Chuck's and my faaaave things is making our kids sit through movie classics from our childhood - they're always initially hesitant and then real on board once they realize their parents have fantastic taste. This particular movie night was 3 Ninjas and it was an instant favorite.

Oh, one day with got Alayna aaaand Bailey! They organized a little picnic outside and it was darling.

Sometimes at 11pm you find your little night owl practicing her scissoring skills in the playroom, so you redirect her to the ipad for some slightly less hazardous fun...

 The kids had another couple days off school for parent/teacher conferences, which I took all four kids to, followed by a trip to the library aka one of our fave places.... as evidenced by Jack shooting me, GRRR.

 Grandma Pam watched Carma for us so that we could take the boys to 'Inside Out' at the dolla theater. Oh man, tears were shed! Good show.

One night the Curtis family was out on the path playing with Jason's awesome kite so we invited ourselves across the street to check it out.

My dad found amazing pink and green light up wand things for Jack and Carma and they loooooved them.

 Oh, another set of pictures from the 'Midnight Adventures with Carma June' series. She might be a vampire.

Jack and his monkey and various modes of transportation in the front yard hahahahaha.

Okay one night Carma jumped on and around a sleeping Jack for like ten minutes.... while I watched and took pictures. He opened his eyes once, briefly, and was then out again. Bodes well for his future as a dad, sleeping soundly while his wife takes care of kids ;).

More library fun! Including the Tale of the Missing Library Book - we couldn't find it annnnyyyywhere and we had renewed it the maximum times and so naturally I hit up facebook for ideas and my amazing friend Maren came through with the suggestion to check the shelves and see if it had missed getting checked in - AND IT HAD! There it was, on the shelf! I'm sure it was one of my kids mis-using the automated return system but I'm just so glad it's found and I'm not out $34 to replace it!!!!

The school had a way fun carnival Halloween weekend that we sent Chuck and Clyde as our family representation.

 

And then it was Halloween! Enjoy these shots of my kids. They are apparently contractually obligated to take turns looking different directions to ensure my blood pressure gets as high as their sugar intake for the night...

It was painfully clear that a group shot wasn't going to happen, so here's the round-up of costumes: Clyde was Percy Jackson, Will was a Madagascar animal scientist, Jack was NO ONE aka himself, Carma was some sort of fairy? butterfly? who discarded her wings about two minutes in, and Chuck and I were Agents Otto and Olive from PBS' Odd Squad aka cutest show ever! (if we continue our tradition, next year will be a group family costume... I'm already crying haha).

Okay, onto November!