We love fall!!

Have I mentioned how much I love the fall here in Ohio? Well, here's more evidence, in case you haven't seen enough. The first few pictures are from last Sunday when we went for a drive to look at the leaves, and we ended up in Hudson. We found an open field where we played tag and had a leaf fight. It was perfect weather, and it was so fun!
The other pictures are from when I took the kids to Squires Castle, and we walked around the woods behind the castle. It was another perfect fall day. I wish our camera could capture the brilliance of the leaves, but I guess you'll just have to use your imagination.

Picking Apples

At the beginning of the month we picked apples at Patterson's with Brigham's preschool group. A few days later we went again, this time with Chris. We seriously love this place and I'm so sad this is our last fall season we get to hang out here! I'm hoping they have pick-your-own apple orchards in Minnesota.

All the mums!!

At the fun fest, they have this loooong slide that Chris and the kids raced down.

Playing in the hay bales

The trees are just right for kids to pick their own apples

Hudson couldn't leave them alone. I came home with a load of apples with one bite out of each of them!

The day we went with Chris was so mucky from the rain we had had all week, so this is what the bottom half of all of us looked like by the time we went home.

It was a good day

The other day I was home with Brigham and Hudson, and it was one of those glorious fall days - sunny and temps in the 60's. Brigham and I were working in our yard, trying to plant grass seed (he was helping me with the dirt). Right before lunch the three of us decided to go on a walk to the small park a block away. As we started down the sidewalk, Hudson said "hand" and reached up to take my hand. We walked by a tree that was a brilliant orange/salmon color, and we all picked a leaf to keep. As we got to the park, Brigham pointed out a huge pile of leaves. We spent a few minutes racing and jumping into the pile. Even Hudson joined in, saying "go" and falling into the pile. We threw leaves on each other for awhile, then decided to head home for lunch. We walked home with leaf bits stuck to our shirts and shoelaces, and I wished I had brought the camera. This whole experience was probably 45 minutes, but the whole time I felt so very very grateful that I have chosen to be home with my kids, especially while they're young. I've discovered that once they start school and other activities, experiences like the one I had with Brigham and Hudson are so few and far between.

Later I thought that I needed to record this so I wouldn't forget it, and I realized that in my attempt to not have a falsely rosy blog, I probably dwell too much on the things that go wrong in our family, and not enough on the truly rewarding parts of being a stay-at-home mom.

Now, I don't always feel like I did that day - I often feel overwhelmed and irritated with my kids. I also feel underappreciated much of the time. I don't blame my kids; I know I didn't appreciate my mom nearly enough, except for the time she took up a part time job for a few months. Two days of the week she wasn't home when my brother and I got home from school, and I hated it. Anyway, I don't know that anyone can truly appreciate what their parents do until they are parents themselves.

I also wanted to record this because I recently read a post from my sister-in-law describing a typical day with her 19 month old. She was feeling frustrated with the fact that she ran around doing things all day, but then felt like nothing was accomplished by the end of the day. In Elder Ballard's April 2008 conference talk, he said, " . . . the joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard and frustrating times. But amid the challenges there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction." I love that, and it helped me realize that I really don't appreciate those moments enough, and I could probably do more to create those moments. It truly is remarkable that as a stay-at-home mom, I have the ability to create the kinds of days I want for my kids. Now I'm not naive enough to think that things always go according to plan (and I know that you're not naive enough to believe it even if I said they did). Before Annie was born I used to dream about the wonderful days we would have together, baking cookies, snuggling on the couch and reading books, going on educational walks where we would gather items from nature, then go home and create lovely collages from those items. Reality hit as soon as she was born, and has continued to hit as we've added 3 boys to the mix.

I hope I'm not babbling too much, and I hope I'm getting my intended message across. I guess what I'm trying to say is that being a stay-at-home mom can be frustrating, and mundane, and unfulfilling at times, but I wouldn't want to do anything else. The experiences that I have like the one described above make it all worth it.

We are so funny

Noah got these gag glasses at the elementary school's annual Pumpkin Affair. No more words are needed.

Cedar Point - Two Months Late

More summer adventures: in August we went to Cedar Point with our friends, the Andersons, because we all got tickets through HSSA, the Cleveland Clinic spouse association. Summer and I are officers, which is pretty much the greatest thing ever because we get free tickets to every event that HSSA sponsers. So, instead of sinking over $200 into a day at Cedar Point (which we would have never done) we went for free!! And being the resourceful people that we are, we even packed all of our food for the day.

There were many good reasons for these free tickets - not only did we save a load of money (which we wouldn't have spent anyway), but also because Annie was sick, and it poured for the first half of the day. You can tell we're all soaked in the pictures. You can also see in the pictures which winner Mom forgot to bring jackets for the family. We were all pretty shivery!

Annie was such a good sport all day, even though she felt rotten. The night before she woke up with a fever, and I was ready to stay home with her. But she insisted on going (I don't blame her - this was her only chance to go to Cedar Point before we moved), so we packed some ibuprofen and took off. She actually did pretty well as long as we kept up with the drugs.

This is the Woodstock Express, which was just the right size for Brigham and Logan. Even the older kids had fun on it.

Annie, Logan, and Brigham went on the bumper cars, and I laughed so hard watching them try to drive! That in itself made the whole trip worth it.

Hudson loved splashing in the puddles (there were plenty to splash in).

In the middle of the afternoon the sun broke through the clouds, and it actually got a little hot. We were able to enjoy some dry rides for awhile before Annie had had it and was ready to go home. Summer and I volunteered to take her and the younger kids home while Chris and Bryan stayed later with Noah and Andrew. I couldn't believe what a daredevil Noah was! I think some of it came from peer pressure because Andrew was all set to go on any of the big roller coasters he could. Chris and Bryan took them on the Millenium Force, which I don't think I would even dare go on (that actually doesn't say much - I'm kind of a baby when it comes to big rides). Noah was barely tall enough, and they had to wait for over an hour in line. The first hill is 310 ft. tall, it shoots down at an 80 degree angle, and it gets up to 93 miles an hour. Chris said Noah was just about to break into tears as they kept climbing up and up and up the first hill, and as they sped down, Chris said Noah looked like he was in a cartoon where his lips were flapping out because of the force of the wind. Although I think it must have just about scared him to death, Noah talks about it all the time. He's glad he went on it.

We made some good memories that day!

Hudson update

It's been awhile since I've done one of these, which makes me a little sad because Hudson is doing so many cute things and he's getting so big!! I'll try to give a good overview of the last few months.

I'm not sure why these pictures are so small; probably something I did, and I don't feel like trying to figure it out. Anyway, these pics are from when we picked raspberries at Rosby's. Hudson just kept eating them; he was kind of out of control! But we didn't try to fight it, as long as he wasn't eating the white ones or the rotten ones. He did the same thing when we picked blueberries in July. Some nice man who had a really nice camera took these pictures and emailed them to me.

Hudson pretty much did the same thing when we picked apples in October. He kept trying to take one bite out of an apple, then he'd throw it down, and find another one to take one bite out of. He loves fruit!

Hudson definitely has a sweet tooth - sorry buddy, you inherited that from me! These are mini ice cream sandwiches we had one night for an FHE treat.

And these are marshmallows. I finally had to put the bag up, because Hudson refused to be distracted away from the temptation.

Hudson loved loved loved the garden this summer. We'd always find him picking peas from the garden and trying to open the pods. He also loved the rocks around the garden plot; he couldn't keep from throwing them into the dirt.

He loves throwing any rocks, in fact, and especially into the water. This is at a This is Kirtland! cast party at Lake Erie.

This is what Hudson does with his feet whenever he is in his seat.

Hudson is so funny with hats. This is one of the rare times I got him to keep this sun hat for more than a few minutes. . .

. . . but he loves wearing this hat! Chris got this for Hudson when he was in Boston, sort of as a joke, and mainly just so we could get a picture of him wearing it. But when we put it on him, he walked around, patting it and saying "hat" over and over.

One evening right before bed, Hudson kept pulling his beloved hat over his eyes and trying to walk around. What a ham.

Speaking of being a ham . . .

Hudson has discovered the magic of magic markers. He loves to go down into the basement and play with his cars or trains, and he just recently figured out how to open the craft cupboards, despite my best efforts to thwart him. Luckily they are portable craft cupboards, so they now reside in the laundry room behind closed doors.

Hudson loves his siblings,

and he loves his daddy. Whenever Chris comes home from work, he yells, "Daddy!" and (almost) runs to him.

Hudson is starting imaginative play. He's feeding his lunch to his bear.

Hudson can't get enough of books, which makes me sooo happy. He likes to flip through pages by himself, but he especially loves to be read to. It melts my heart when he grabs a book, and backs himself up until he reaches my lap, then plops down.

He also loves Annie's friend, Hadley, who is reading to him right here. I think she was the first person outside of our immediate family that Hudson would let near him. Now whenever she's around, he says "Habee" and follows her around.

Hudson has discovered the piano. He's learned to turn on the automated songs and max out the volume.

*A few other things about Hudson: he's talking up a storm! I was wondering how his speech would be, because Annie spoke a lot very early, then Noah was a bit later, and then Brigham didn't really talk much until he was two. So I thought Hudson would probably be mute until he was at least three. But not so; he pretty much says anything, and he's starting to string some words together.

-He is obsessed with cars and trains. His two favorite things to do at home is drive his cars around the coffee table, and to push his train cars around the train tracks in the basement. He also likes puzzles and mega blocks.

-He loves to go on walks outside. He doesn't mind being pushed in the stroller, but he really loves to do the walking. If we have the time to let him stop and examine every rock and blade of grass, he will walk the whole way around the block.

-He just started nursery last month. After the 5th week, I think he has finally discovered that it's a fun place. Today was the first time Chris and I were able to leave him without tears. Afterwards he didn't want to go home and he kept talking about "Hannah" (his girlfriend) , "goldfish" (his snack), sitting in his "chair," reading "books," and he kept putting his finger to his mouth and saying "shh shh shh" because they sang "Wheels on the Bus." Sure love those nursery teachers!!

Framily camping trip

In June, we reunited with our "framily" from Outerbanks, in order to say goodbye to the Chipmans who were leaving us for a job in Colorado. We camped at Punderson Lake, and I'm kicking myself that we have been in Ohio for 5 years and we haven't camped there before- it was so beautiful, and it's only about 40 minutes away from our house. Thanks, Angie, for the post title idea- did you notice that I copied it?

All the kids!! I always end up taking so many pictures of our kids and their friends. I wish I took more pictures of the adults just to show that Chris and I have friends too.

Treasures - 2 caterpillars and a frog

The dads cooked breakfast for us . . .

. . . which included fritters. I must admit, I've never eaten one before, and the thought of eating pancake batter fried in 2 inches of bacon grease kind of grossed me out. . . but not enough to not try it. I'm telling you, that was about the best thing I've ever eaten!!

Results of less than 18 hours of camping - KID LEGS!!

*Just a couple of thoughts on camping: We don't do it very often, and now that our kids are getting older, not often enough. We had a terrible night's sleep (the older kids were up past 1:00 a.m. which meant we were too), and everyone was completely, fantastically filthy and smelly. But what great memories: trees, dirt, fireflies, frogs, caterpillars, cool early morning walks, roasting marshmallows on the fire, fritters (YUM), and for me, none of that stuff has to be tracked into the house.