Happy Halloween!

It was the perfect fall day on Halloween. There were colored leaves everywhere, and it was warm - we didn't even need jackets. Halloween here in Shaker is ideal. The houses are close together, so you can cover a lot of ground in a minimum amount of time; a lot of houses go all out with the decorations (flashing lights, graveyard scenes, smoke, spooky people jumping out at everyone); and there are kids and parents milling around everywhere.

This is the only picture I got of Brigham in his Luke Skywalker costume (he and Noah were supposed to match). He'd been sick all week with a bad cold, which turned into a sinus infection. I got him on antibiotics Halloween morning, so he still wasn't feeling very well, as you can see from the picture. This was taken after the kids' costume parade at Lomond. When it was time to go trick-or-treating, Brig didn't want to get into his costume, so he just carried around his light saber.

Hudson and his girlfriend, Hannah.

I love this picture!!

This is what I got when I asked Annie for a scary face. A breeze picked up right as I snapped the shot - it was the perfect effect!

We went trick-or-treating with our friends, the Andersons and the Shupes.

Mom diatribe

Okay, so I'm going to complain a little bit. As you all know we have four kids, and I LOVE being a mom. I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with them; I wouldn't want to do anything else. Having said that, I feel that for me, I need to be able to have time to do other things, so that I don't end up burning out.
Along with being a mom, I would like to be other things, like a reader, a writer, a semi-organized housekeeper, a gardener, a yoga master (ha ha, not exactly master, but at least a yoga doer), a runner, a wife who has time to spend with Chris, and yes, even a scrapbooker/blogger. Mind you, I don't try to do these things all at once, but throwing even one of them into the picture usually means TROUBLE. I say this because when I try to take time out for myself, a few things are bound to happen: I don't pay as much attention to the kids, which means while I am reading my book the boys are outside throwing mud from the garden all over the driveway, on the garage, and on each other. This means the kids fight more, sneak food into their rooms (which is found by me days later covered in ants), and Hudson cries more. It means I get less sleep and the kids are late for school.
I also notice that when I try to do my own thing, I get irritated with the kids when they need something. How dare Brigham ask me to pour him some Cheerios when I'm in the middle of yoga? So what this all comes down to is that when I try to be something other than a parent, I end up a stressed out, sleep-deprived mom who has her scrapbooks updated.
What is the solution??? I have no clue. If you have any thoughts on this, I would love to hear them!

Carving pumpkins

Chris invited Dr. Saad, a transplant fellow, to carve pumpkins with us. His family (wife and three kids) are all in Egypt, where he's from. He had never carved pumpkins in his life. We had a great time with him.

Ghost in the graveyard scene

Brig wanted his jack-o-lantern to look just like the one in a book called Just So Scary. It was one of his favorite Halloween books that we found at the library. Nice smile, Brig.



Annie ended up carving most of her pumpkin herself. Way to go Annie!

The finished products!

Picking out pumpkins

Another one of our favorite things to in the fall is to pick out pumpkins at Pattersons fruit farm (followed by their homemade doughnuts - YUM). This year was a little hairy because Chris was on his transplant rotation. For those of you lucky souls who have never experienced a month of transplant, I will tell you:

Transplant = no life

Friday, October 24, was the only night there might be a small chance that Chris would get home in time to go with us. Miracle of miracles, he did, but by the time he made it home, and we got on the road, it started to rain.

We quickly picked out our pumpkins, posed for a few pictures, then rushed in to choose some of the last doughnuts of the day (the store was about to close). It wasn't the most ideal, but we got our pumpkins, and . . . look how happy everyone is! Actually we were just excited to have our dad with us.

Block party

Life was crazy this summer and early fall, so it was

the middle of October before we could have our

block party.The pumpkin affair, Lomond's annual fall

party, was earlier that afternoon, which was where

Noah got the sweet face paint.

It was cold that day!! Instead of the usual lemonade or

cold beer (for the neighbors, not us) we broke out

the hot chocolate.

Jane lives next door to us. She is the kids' surrogate grandma, and she's the best neighbor we could ask for!

Catching up

Yes, I know it's November. I'm going to try to catch

up on the month of October before I get to this month.

I'm probably asking for it because by the time I get to

November it will be Christmas. AHH!! Will I ever

get ahead? Stay tuned . . .

Horseshoe Park

In between General conference sessions we played at
one of our favorite places - Horseshoe park.

Correction - Chris and the kids played at Horseshoe
Park. As usual, I was in the van nursing Hudson. . .

. . . okay, here we are!!

Picking apples

One of our favorite things to do here in Ohio

during the fall is pick apples.

We went to Edy's fruit farm on October 4th

with Brig's preschool group.

Look at this monster apple!

Hmm. . . I need to find some recipes

that use a lot of apples!!

We finally did it!

It is what you've all been waiting for - our BLOG! When Sharene first suggested that I do this, I wanted to cry. My days were so overwhelming already with four kids, one of whom was nursing all the time. I hardly had time to take a shower, much less create, then regularly update, a blog. But as the weeks have gone by, Hudson has gotten older, and I've found that I have a little extra time now. Plus, since we have taken a good chunk of the grandkids across the country, I suppose the least we can do is show you pictures of them.
I feel like I also need to comment on my choice in layout! Last night I decided to spruce up the background, but it took me forever to find one that I was kind of excited about. As time ticked by and I attempted (over and over again) to put it in here, Chris' words rang in my ears "Don't let the blog stress you out!" So I finally closed down the cursed blog - minus the cute background - and crawled into bed. I decided today that the reason for this particular blog is to let far away family members and friends know what we're up to, not to have a really cute layout. This can also serve a purpose for all of you out there with similar simple (or as some would say "boring") blogs - rest assured; there's another blog out there that's just as boring.