The big 4-0 and Halloween

 Tom spent the last day of his 30s playing a soccer game.  This wasn't a planned thing.  Zac's last soccer game of the season was the last Saturday of October.  Tom was home for the morning so he was able to go.  We showed up a half hour early like usual for the players to warm up.  As the half hour passed the parents and coaches started realizing there wasn't another team showing up.  The other team never showed.  So the coaches decided to make it a kids vs. parents game.  Dads and a few moms played.  Tom told me not to take pictures.  I only had my phone so I told him not to worry.  But another parent took pictures and sent them to everyone :)  

Everyone had a great time and the parents won.  After the game I took a picture of just Tom and Zac.  Tom said they had to stand in this pose.  Something about it being how the professional soccer players stand or something.  He can correct me if I'm wrong.  

They had a good time and Tom was sore the next few days.  I guess that's what happens to an almost 40 year old. 

The day of Tom's birthday was Sunday.  Tom doesn't like to celebrate.  So I asked what he wanted to do for the day.  He said nothing.  The day before his birthday was our neighbors 40th birthday.  Her family has a tradition of embarrassing each other on their 40th birthdays.  So for her birthday they put signs all over her yard.  As we drove by Tom told me, "It's a good thing you aren't going to do anything like that."  At church I saw this neighbor and asked about her birthday and mentioned it was Tom's 40th birthday and that he was glad I wasn't doing anything similar to her family.  When we got home from church all the signs were moved to our yard.  I may have mentioned that would be a great idea.  

I did get a birthday menu out of Tom.  He wanted steak, crashed potatoes (so delicious), any vegetable (expect brussel sprouts) and chocolate cake for dessert.  I added in some frog eye salad since it's his favorite.  Leave it to Tom to have some cheesy smile or something for the picture.  

Abbi in her thoughtful way made Tom a cute birthday card with coupons for walking on his back and doing his hair (his favorite).  Gavin also generously gave him the $5 Abbi had given him for his birthday.  Tom came up with the cheesy poses.  

Blake had never seen helium balloons before and thought they were pretty neat. 

The Monday before Halloween our neighbors always put on a haunted yard.  Abbi has become good friends with their daughter at school so they had to go this year.  It was a bit chilly since it didn't start until 7 (it has to be dark for a haunted yard right?).  Tom took them and I stayed home with Blake.  It was a long line and a bit scary but they always have homemade donuts and cider so you can't beat that.  

Blake and I often talk in the mirror during the day.  He is the sweetest and this is the closest I get to cuddling with him.  He is not a cuddler.  

We met Tom at a pumpkin patch near the fire station to pick out pumpkins.  Carter can't quite get the natural smile down....

The day before Halloween Gavin had his preschool Halloween party.  He was excited to go and to dress up.  They had a cute program for the last 15 minutes singing Halloween songs.  

On Halloween Zac was out of school for the day so he, Gavin and I went to the elementary school parade.  

In the afternoon we finally got around to carving the pumpkins.  Well, Tom, Abbi & Zac did.  Our kids are lucky to have a dad that takes so much time helping them with their pumpkins.  He really does a great job.  Gavin got a ninja turtle, Carter got a incredible sign, Zac did another ninja turtle to please Gavin and Abbi did a Gru sign (from Despicable me).  

Blake watched.  

For dinner I always try to do something special on Halloween.  This year I decided to try dinner in a pumpkin.  It was a bust.  The recipe for the casserole type meal inside wasn't very good.  I should try to come up with something different because it is a good idea but just not a good recipe. 

Before they walked out the door to go trick or treating we had to get our annual picture.  Zac wore his BYU football jersey (can't miss out on the candy). Abbi didn't even want to dress up (this is probably the 5th time she dressed up with carnivals, dance, school, etc) but I told her she had to dress up to get candy.  So she didn't put all the effort into her hair and such but she dressed up.  Gavin had a glow in the dark Leonardo mask just for the night.  They went with the neighbors and the weather was fabulous.  Some of the best Halloween weather we've had.  They went trick or treating for hours and got loads of candy.  I think almost 5 pounds each.  

My little skeleton and I sat home and passed out candy to the trick or treaters.  Blake makes this cute sound all the time that sounds like "aaah" in a deep voice so I called him the scary skeleton.  We had a little candy ourselves.  Blake likes chocolate :)

Gavin's 5th birthday

Gavin's birthday celebration started on the first Sunday of October.  We ate dinner at my parent's house (without my parents) and had birthday cake.  Gavin had really wanted a pinata so we got one and did it with the cousins.  It was a ninja turtle pinata of course.  All things are ninja turtles when it comes to Gavin lately.  

 

The kids all had a great time with the pinata.  It even lasted long enough for all the kids to get a turn to hit it. 

Gavin wanted a ninja turtle cake with ninja turtle toys on it. The only ninja turtle toys I could find (that fit on a cake) was this ninja turtle cake topper on amazon.com.  Someone who bought it had put a picture of the cake they made and when Gavin saw it he said he wanted his cake like that.  So this was it.  

After blowing out the candles this is where Carter went.  If you know Carter you know why.  He has a hard time when it's someone else's birthday.  

The next Sunday was 2 days before his birthday and we went to Grandma and Grandpa Haynie's house and celebrated his birthday again.  Same cake topper, easier cake.  

On his birthday he woke up and opened his presents.  It was all ninja turtle toys, weapons,etc.  He insisted he wanted to go to Classic fun center.  Abbi and Carter were off track but we waited and took all the kids when Zac got home.  They had fun riding scooters and bouncing on the bouncy houses.  I also bought a few token to play some arcade games.  

Afterwards we went out for dinner at Firehouse Subs. 

Then we had birthday cupcakes with ninja turtle rings.  

Abbi made him a cute card with $5 and two tickets to play with her hair and to play her ipod.  Gavin and Abbi have a sweet relationship.  

We love our Gavin.  I can't believe he is 5.  It seems like yesterday that chunk of 10 1/2 pound baby came into our lives.  He has been such a sweet kid and I sort of hate that he's getting older.  In the past year he's definitely seemed older and likes more grown up things.  He likes playing the wii and going outside to play with all the kids.  He used to be my sidekick and be content just sitting on my bed with me. Not anymore.  He still loves playing with hair and if you see him his hair is usually sticking up in the back from playing with it.  He loves playing with long hair so he loves mine, Abbi's and Blake's hair. He loves playing with Carter and those two can be the best of friends or the worst of enemies.  Gavin is very reserved and quiet in a group.  His preschool teacher mentions she has to make sure to check on him when they are doing work because he doesn't speak up that he's done or anything.  But get him with some boys and he's a crazy boy.  He misses our dog Maia a lot but is warming up to Molly.  His current favorites include:

 ninja turtles- Leonardo is his fav

candy

 not eating dinner

 preschool days

 playing with Tegan

 riding his bike (he just learned without the training wheels and picked it up in minutes)

McDonalds

staying home

watching Paw Patrol and Team Umizoomi

toast with nutella

cousins

superheroes

Disney Infinity on the wii

when the kids are home from school

Happy birthday Gavin! 

Never throw an old guy in the fire

Gavin's preschool has field trips every month.  In September they went to a fire station close to our house.  Gavin's been to a fire station... a few times.  His teacher wondered if he was even excited to be there.   He loves fire stations though so it was fun.  Nothing he hasn't seen before but still fun.  Before leaving for the field trip he got mad at me because I made him change his shirt so his clothes matched.  We arrived and realized he was supposed to wear his preschool shirt.  Oops.  

Abbi was checked out of school to go to the research place for her follow up appointment for her meningitis shot.  Carter was very jealous.  He loves being checked out.  It was lunchtime so we took some of her "research money" and went to lunch.  I always like going to lunch and so does Abbi.  We went to a new place called "Pizzeria Limone" and it's delicious.  Abbi got the pizza with blackberries, basil, fresh mozzarella and proscuitto.  I got the same but mine had pears and no sauce, just olive oil.  Delicious!  Gavin just watched us eat & got a drink.  He thought the pizza was weird.  

Molly is enjoying Blake's new eating habits.  I let her lick the baby food jars.  Maia did the same years ago.  Speaking of Maia-- everytime we pass a cemetery Gavin wants to know where Maia is buried.  I just have tell him I don't know.  I can't really tell him what happened to her.  Can you imagine?! Breaks my heart.

This is where Blake slept for about 6 months of his life.  He eventually learned to turn his head a look for me to walk through the door.  In the past couple of weeks he has moved to the playpen... still in our room.  One day he'll have his own room & a real place to sleep. One day...

Abbi and Tom had a fun activity days Father/Daughter night at the church.  They were supposed to have a team name and dress up.  They were the "Team Real" (the only matching clothes they have).  They had fun "Minute to Win it Games" and had brownies and ice cream. 

  

As I mentioned before we have had tons of melons from our garden this year.  I would guess we had over 20- mostly cantaloupe and crenshaw melons with a few watermelons.  I would call this the summer of "should have picked the melons sooner".  We didn't eat many because they were mostly overripe.  Lesson learned....maybe... we'll see next year.    

Blake had a turn wearing Gavin's fire station hat.  Always got to try the things on the cute baby :)

At the end of September we went to baby Sloan's blessing. Sweet Sloan looked beautiful in her dress.

The cousins were so thrilled to see each other and spend time together.  It's been tough from going from seeing each other every week to just once a month (occasionally more).  Zac brought his favorite race track and the boys had fun playing with it again.  This is one of the few toys Zac continues to play with and all the boys love it.  

Gavin had fun dressing up with the hulk gloves and the werewolf costume.  

Figuring out what to cook for dinner can be a chore.  I asked Gavin what he wanted for dinner and he requested ninja turtle pizza.  I looked it up online and ninja turtles seem to like all pizza so we made homemade pizza.  

Gavin loves to dress up and let Blake in on the fun one morning.  

We introduced Blake to a doll.  We don't have many dolls around here but he thinks he'll play with her again.

At the first of October Zac had parent teacher conferences.  It was a student led conference.  We went to his homeroom TA class and reviewed his grades and papers from every class.  If we had any concerns we could visit his teachers.  He had straight As and is doing really well.  Instead of a book at the book fair (we are running out of room of books that aren't read) he got a shake from Arctic Circle on the way home.

Blake had discovered he really likes Molly. He like watching her & pulling her hair.  Molly is quite gentle with him but likes to lick and find spit up spots on his clothes.  So we still keep them at a supervised distance.  

I have been in love with Blake's hair since the moment I saw him. It doesn't stick up anymore I think because it's gotten longer.  He definitely has the same curly hair as Abbi.  This is him right after a bath with his sweet curls.  

Gavin has been loving preschool.  He comes home with the cutest things.  One day he came home with a policeman with safety tips for our house.  It got a definite laugh out loud! Those are some important tips!

Blake tried out sitting up in the cart.  I'm not sure it was the most comfortable thing and we haven't tried it again. 

We watched conference on the first weekend of October.  Our new tradition the kids won't let me forget is to buy candy and put words on each bag.  When that word is said they get the candy.  We made new limits this year to 2 pieces of each candy for each talk.  So it was sugar overload and I'm not sure I heard much of the talks either.  Oh well, I'll read them.  

I warned Tom we had to put a Blake's hair in a ponytail at least once.  He thought it was a horrible idea so one day while he was at work Abbi & I did it.  He has great girl hair. I loved the pigtails best. I'm sure he'll enjoy seeing these pictures when he gets older!

We visited the fire station the afternoon of Sunday conference.  Zac had all the symptoms of strep so Tom swabbed his throat and took it to the hospital to test it. Sure enough he had strep.  We kept him isolated in his room (thank goodness for an ipod) and luckily it didn't spread.  We can be strep magnets! While there the kids enjoyed the recliners.

Zac and Abbi have started up piano lessons again.  We found a piano teacher that I think will be really good.  She gives the kids a letter grade at each lesson so I really know how they did.  They have been doing really well.  Zac has been enjoying playing "Eye of the Tiger" and Abbi has been playing some Indian Wigwam song (I know, great description).  The day of his lesson Zac isn't very thrilled.  They always tell me they don't want to take piano lessons and I tell them one day they will be glad they did.

Blake had his first haircut.  It was getting really long and wavy on the top and there were long wispy pieces on the sides and back.  Here's the before-

And after-

You can't tell that much but it definitlely looks a lot better.  I ended up trimming the front a bit more too so it's not long on his forehead.

Carter and Abbi had 3 weeks off track.  With Blake's naps we don't have much time to do things.  We did have to get the van's alignment fixed so we went to McDonalds while we waited.

Carter and Gavin have been into taking long baths lately.  They think it's an exciting treat for them to get to play.

Blake still enjoys eating his feet.

We visited Grandma and Grandpa Haynie in Logan one Sunday after church.  Their cousins came over and it was a fun day.

Sweet April loved Blake- just like any 2 year old girl would.  She loved getting him his binki and taking care of him. After I took a picture of them together she would look at it and get so excited to see herself.  It was cute.

Dallin loved Abbi and wouldn't leave her alone!

We celebrated Gavin's birthday with a ninja turtle cake (that started to fall apart).

Before we left we got a picture with Grandpa and Grandma.  It was fun day.

We are still potty training Molly and she is kept in the kitchen with baby gates in the meantime.  She really is doing well and seems almost there but not quite.  Tom lets her out with us sometimes.  Here she got to join in on family night.

 Gavin had fun field trip in October to Wheeler farm.  We had a fun tractor ride and a nice tour and even saw a blacksmith.

After the field trip we stopped at the mall.  Gavin made a purchase at the Lego store with his birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa Francom.  He bought ninja turtle legos of course.

On the first day of Fall break we went to Gardner village with Melissa and the cousins.  We always show up extra early to beat the crowds.  We got our cookies at the beginning to beat the crowds too.

We saw lots of witches and the kids just loved being with their cousins.

Molly slides all over our hardwood floor so Tom decided to trim the hair on her feet to help with that.  I'm not sure she liked it but she tolerated it.  Now she can actually sit on the floor and not slide around so much.

We had Sunday dinner at Scott and Melissa's.  Tom decided he could handle both babies.  I joked with him that we could have handled those twins.  We couldn't have. One day when we're perfect we'll be able to.

Our neighborhood carnival was on the 20th.  It's always stressful to get the costumes ready early but at the same time it's good to get them ready early.  I love that Zac doesn't really want a costume.  One less costume to get ready.  He wore his cloak from last year for a little bit.  The other kids are a ninja turtle, Dash (from Incredibles), a skeleton and a purple minion.

 Uncle Kurt came to dinner one night while Alanna was out of town.  I always feel like it's crazy town here when he visits.  Maybe that's just because we have 5 kids but also dinnertime is usually crazy, grumpy hour.  Kurt drew some ninja turtles with Gavin.  They are both ninja turtle lovers.

Carter, Gavin and I had an exciting game of Life (the electronic version with credit cards that they love).  Carter had to read Garfield in between turns.  He's still reading Garfield all the time.

Tom took a break from working on the basement to read Gavin a book.  

While Abbi was at dance the little boys and I went to Walmart.  Carter and Gavin had fun in the Halloween mask aisle.

We all get a good laugh looking at these pictures.

Blake turned 7 months in October!  7 months!  I saw a brand new baby this week and commented that it feels like yesterday that I had a brand new baby.  It really does.  He is so sweet and so fun.  This month he's definitely discovered his voice.  He grunts and makes all sorts of noises.  He loves to smack his lips and loves when you do it too.  

He loves to read baby face books and laughs when we get them out.  

And have I mentioned he loves to eat!  LOVES it.  Don't eat in front of him or he freaks out.  I went out to dinner with some friends and of course Blake came too.  I ordered some soup for him and some salmon for me.  My salmon came before his soup and oh my!  He was grunted and flailed his arms wanting some food!  He was so upset.  I tried giving him some salmon but he couldn't quite chew it and it would fall out of his mouth every time I gave him a new bite.  By the time his soup came he was so upset he barely ate it.  

On the last day off track we took Abbi, Carter and Gavin to lunch at Applebees with the free kids meal cards they had got from the summer library program.  

 I usually don't feed Blake table food for lunch so I wasn't planning on him eating too much.  I brought 2 rice crackers in case he wanted something.  He did want something.  

He wanted everything and made it well known.  As he eats he's constantly grunting wanting more.  He ate the rice crackers....

He then ate some french fries....

And then ate all of Gavin's yogurt.

Tom finally left with and walked to a store because he couldn't stop grunting and wanting more food! I'm sure he'll get picky one day (and there are some foods he doesn't really like and spits out) but until then he'll keep eating everything he can!