It got cold, it warmed up, it's cold again

That is our week in a nutshell :). We have also been getting ready for Thanksgiving. It is my very first one away from extended family which is a crazy thought. I think it will be good though and we are excited to have a break from school.

 These are Charley's preschool preparations for thanksgiving, I think he did a great job :). William brought home a little paper turkey today that isn't pictured but he did a great job also.

 Brevick loves to eat his baby cereal but sometimes he is hard to feed. Like this time when he was sucking on the highchair tray in between each bite or when he sucks on his bib. He loves to suck on the rag after I was his face so he can get the water out. He is still spitting up quite a bit so we are in the process of changing his formula I think he throws up about 50% of what he eats. We are working with him on sleeping in his crib instead of his swing and that is going. . . 

 Emmerlyn's snowman (can you see it with the carrot sticking out there in the middle?)

 Charley's snowball making a snowman.

 William's snowman, the face was melting off. The kids kept saying that it was going to be summer, boy are they in for a long winter!

 Church day. She had her hair "curlied" and she looked so pretty. At church she told her old nursery teacher "evry'one hates raindeers ya know that?" I hadn't realized that tidbit of information! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

William Says

At breakfast today out of the blue and very matter-of-factually William said "Ya know in 1972 my friend Aiden died?"

Dad "ok so I guess you'll have to tell him you can't talk to him anymore."

William "I can't he's dead."

I  can't believe how serious he is and why 1972?!

It's Cold Outside, and We Love it!

Yep you read that right. We are loving the freezing cold temperatures right now. (Ask us again in March if we are still loving it and we might be singing a different tune :). It is so nice to not have the bugs that we have been really enjoying ourselves. We had to get out all the winter gear and with that we discovered some of the stuff that Grandma Allen brought and the end of last winter (I think) The kids we all giggles and Charley is loving that he can use that hat as a scarf also. Ben was laughing because it was like a blast from the past. They were a little bummed when I wouldn't let them out to play that day because it was like -3 outside which I think is a little too cold to be outside playing but they have gotten some good snow playing in so far this year.

 These were my young women's handouts for Sunday and I am putting them on here so in a few years I can find them and maybe use them again :).

 William was doing a little wall decorating in his room and wanted me to take a picture. It's looking pretty spiffy don't ya think? On a side note he was complaining because his picture fell down and he didn't feel like the tape was doing a good enough job so he said "can't we just use the glue stick to make it stay?" Ben chimed in with his wisdom explaining from experience that we don't glue things to the wall because it never really comes off and your parents get really mad :). So we just added a little more tape!

 Emmerlyn got some much needed new shoes (she had grown out of or worn out of all of her shoes).

 She wanted to model both pairs both ways. 

It took us about 20 minutes for her to decide which ones she wanted, she had to try on a whole stack of shoes and she was specifically looking for a pair of light up shoes (she has been waiting for a pair ever since a couple summers ago Grandpa Rydalch helped the boys each get a pair). We did find her some though and then she finally settled on a cute pair of pink church *aren't they so her*. 

We went to Billings for a super quick trip on Saturday just down and back to get a few things that we have been needing. It was nice to get out of town for a whole 12 hours or so :). We took the kids to the new Scheels and they have a cool fish tank and a Ferris Wheel inside so everybody except Brevick rode on it. Emmerlyn and Charley loved it, William was a little nervous but he did end up waving to me while he was on there. It was funny though as they were getting clipped in the guy told them no cell phones out and not to rock the chair well as they started to go Ben leaned back and the chair rocked (obviously) and William snapped "Dad!! Don't rock the chair!!!!" Poor cautious boy, he gets that from me, I wasn't real thrilled with going on it but Charley wanted to ride with me so after William, Ben, and Emmerlyn went we gave Brevick to Ben and then I went with Charley and he had no problem leaning everywhere so the chair would rock!

Fall Pictures Sneak Peak

Isn't he cute??? Maybe soon I will get the rest of them up here. This is about how the day went, I was flying solo, the bugs were eating us, and Brevick was crying. I got some good ones though hopefully they will be ready soon!

Winter in the Fall

Yes, it finally snowed here and really got cold. Saturday was beautiful, sunny, and in the 50s. Sunday hit and was like 5 degrees and snowing. My kids have argued with us every time we say that winter is here because it is not winter yet, it is fall. Sorry dudes, mother nature doesn't care what the calender says, it's winter. 

They look so cute in their snow stuff don't they? Unfortunately we need to get 1 new pair of snow boots and 3 new pairs of gloves before we are set to go but they did have fun playing out in the yard.

This is a story that William wrote for Halloween at school. I wanted to save it.

 My little helper. The kids have been doing a little bit more to help out around the house these days (mostly to their dismay :). They all help out with the loading and unloading the dishwasher even Emmerlyn can unload it all by herself. I am amazed at how much they are capable of even when they are so young. 

 They got these trick-or-treating so they waited for Ben to come home from work like this.

We had Young Women in Excellence on Sunday (I am glad that it is over :) So we made some decorations for it. Ben built them for me and Emmerlyn and Charley helped me paint them. Brevick helped by crying in his crib instead of taking a nap like he needed to and then forgiving me for letting him cry for a minute so I could finish these.

  We had one casualty on the way home.

 We are reading my favorite books :) The kids love them, I think that they just like to be read to no matter what the book but William  has been really into the story. 

 We got Jetta a dog house for outside since it is freezing cold out there.The kids love it, Jetta has yet to go in there. 

 This guy has been exhausting. Cute, but he just won't sleep! Maybe he is just growing and it will get better next week? His latest accomplishment has been to grab his feet but now he pulls off his socks. This is how I found him when he woke up and one of his socks was in his mouth. It's really too bad that he own socks are now a choking hazzard. Silly boy. 

He can roll pretty good from his stomach to his back but not the other way and he is still loving baby cereal. His favorite thing to do right now is drink out of my water bottle he has mastered straw drinking.

I think that is about all we have been up to. Have a great week!

Happy Halloween

Emmerlyn has been refusing to go to sleep at rest time and then staying up until 10 or 11 every night. She fell asleep in the car on our way home from picking up William and I made her walk in the the house (because I really prefer that she doesn't take naps after 3pm) she made it this far and slept there for about an hour.

 We were busy getting treats this year that is for sure. We had our ward trunk or treat on Wednesday complete with spud-nuts and hot chocolate then Emmerlyn, Charley, and Brevick had the story-time Halloween party on Thursday and then on Friday William and Charley had their school parties. We went trick or treating when Ben got home and then got more candy than we have ever had before. This was the first year in our marriage that I have had to stay home and hand out candy, we have never had trick or treaters until this year. It was kind of fun but Brevick wasn't impressed.

 They made a cute little bunch.

 He was a vampire (but I am a terrible mother and did not order him vampire teeth with his costume so he has reminded me daily since then that his costume was ruined.

 Our little pirate. She was going to be a fairy princess but when I told her that she had to wear clothes under her costume because it is cold AND her costume was see-through she refused to wear it. I told her then to look through what we had that would fit her and see if there was something she would rather be and this is what she picked. She did get a lot of complements on what a cute pirate she made.

(I also ruined her costume because it didn't have an eye patch with it.) She made her own for Halloween night.

 Charley was a ninja. Which I feel so guilty about because he wanted to be no-nogin (this is a character from a Curious George Halloween movie who is like a scarecrow without a head) but in my awesomeness I couldn't find a hat to for him to wear and I didn't have time to figure out how to make one so I talked him into picking something else out at Shopko. He was excited to wear it though so I guess it is ok. (this is the second time I have talked him out of a costume because last year he wanted to be a ghost but I was too sick to put it together so he was spider man instead.)

 So stinkin' cute. I did ok with this one except when we put it on to go to storytime, the zipper broke so for Halloween we had to pin it. (Epic mom-fail for Halloween this year I was 0 for 4 on happy kids.)

 A friend of mine gave us a gift to congratulate us on having Brevick (she had a busy summer but still wanted to give us something.) She also used to be my visiting teacher where she discovered Charley's love for marshmallows and she saw these ones in Billings and had to get them for him, he promised he would share. . . .

 Playing a game.

 A little bit of Autumn art. Some days breaking out the paints makes all the difference.

We got out the highchair this week. He looks so small (and like he is going to sneeze) I was holding him while I mixed up his cereal and got everything ready and then I put him in this chair and he burst into huge alligator tears right up until I gave him his first bite then he was fine. I think he watched me get his food ready and he was so excited to eat it and then when I put him in a new spot to feed him he didn't think he was going to get it. Poor baby, it almost broke my heart. He doesn't cry anymore when I put him in here. (I am amazed at how fast their little brains pick up on things and how much they learn!)

 Charley was unloading the dishwasher (he was also "making science")

 He had done his chores and earned some computer time and he picked a popcorn ball out of this treats and was playing while he was eating it (yes I had to wipe down everything when he was done) as he was doing it I heard him say to himself "I got my popcorn and a computer game, this is soooo nice " :) I love that kid!

 He has really been working on his had control the last couple weeks so he is playing with his toes. I love it when they do that.

Next Year

For Halloween next year Charley wants to be a spider and have his extra legs move too. Because people would be "so freaked out!"