October 2014, still blogging!

I'm officially a year behind in updating my blog on our family activities. Sigh. With instagram and facebook, is a blog a bit redundant? Maybe. However I like the archive aspects of it and making a family book out of it at some point as a family record. So I'm going to keep plugging away at it for now. But moving, working, homeschooling and having babies really makes the blog a low priority. I should be doing something else right now in fact. Anyway... on to October 2014.

First lost tooth!

We had a first lost tooth for Princess and many school projects of course. Dinoguy went to a merit badge fair for scouting and earned First Aid.

Building graham cracker houses for a school project.

Checking the family first aid kit

Mentos coke experiment for school project

He can make his own sandwich!

Newly 4

Brothers!

Happy dancing baby

 October is still sports season and we had two sets of soccer games each Saturday to attend. Trainboy and Princess loved playing soccer and had a lot of fun. Dinoguy chose to do wrestling this year and so only had practices in October. It was nice to not have meets yet for him honestly.

Princess is in Orange on the far left

Watching his little sister play

One of my favorite pictures of him all year

As part of soccer, Trainboy, Dinoguy and I attended a women's soccer game at A&M. Trainboy helped escort the players on the field at the start of the game, earning us free tickets. The boys enjoyed seeing the game, it was fun to watch people who know what they are doing play the game. However during the game I realized both boys needed updated glasses prescriptions as neither could see the scoreboard.

My little guy had his 4th birthday. He is growing up way too fast and I don't think I'm cherishing it enough. He's pretty wonderful. It is hard not to compare him to his older brothers though. He has a similar temperament to my second boy which is endearing most of the time. He spends a lot of time asking if he's big enough for things the older boys do though. Since he has older siblings his childhood is very different from theirs. I am a different mom too. I'd like to say its all improvements because I'm more patient and loving but I also believe I probably don't spend quite as much time with him as I did them at this age. We do preschool activities and play games but I have so much else going on...well he plays well independently and with his sister at least. I find comfort in the fact that kids left to their own play are doing important work and developing creativity.

Breakfast in bed

Great candid photo of him!

Cupcakes on his birthday

His official birthday cake two weeks later

My oldest boy turned 12. His birthday was on trunk or treat day so we did cupcakes on his birthday and a cake two weeks later after we all came out of our sugar comas. This birthday was equal parts exciting and terrifying to me. He gets to go to youth group at church now instead of children's classes! He gets to go on more camp-outs and do more with the scouting program! He is getting so old though! He is growing nicely overall and I am really lucky to have him around, he is a huge help to me in so many ways. How do you have lots of kids? You have older kids to help with younger kids, that's how.

Every kid got to paint a pumpkin this year.

Two kids to a pumpkin this year. They were still happy!

Traditional pumpkin face and Lord Business from Lego movie.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We did our first (and probably only year ever) themed family costumes from Despicable Me 2. Fixitman was on board because it meant shaving his head to be Gru. I was Lucy, and we had two good little yellow minions and one awesome little purple minion. The older two boys chose literature themed costumes that I didn't really know much about, but made them happier than being minions! Dinoguy was a dark elf named Drizzt and Trainboy was Cadderly from the Cleric quintet. We went to a costume contest at Fixtman's work and won 2nd prize. Fixitman took the older 4 trick or treating for a little bit and they collected plenty of candy, in addition to all they received at the trunk or treat at church.

A co-worker was Dr. Nefario being carried by a minion. Natural grouping!

Minion family!

September 2014

The biggest thing to happen in September was baby started walking. At 9.5 months! I was not prepared for it! Additionally there was the Improving Birth Rally, the beginning of a school year, visits from family, trips to museums, the beginning of soccer for Trainboy and Princess and wrestling for Dinoguy.

Mmm, homemade minidonuts!

Littleguy was not happy that he was not also starting soccer. I heard about it at every practice and game. I think a large part of it is this year he began thinking of himself as a "big boy" and therefore he should do all the things the big kids do right? Ah well.

Oh, and I got a horrible itchy rash all over my arms and legs and wanted to pull all of my skin off for most of the month. After two doctors and a steroid shot, it appears I am extremely allergic to poison ivy that our dog Sarge must have accidentally rubbed on me after playing in the park. I also lost pigment in my skin where the rash was in several places so you could see where the rash was for months. (no pictures!)



Baby walking! Since the older four kids walked between 11.5 and 12 months, I thought I knew what to expect. But this kid took his first steps this month and just kept going. He was walking all over the place by the end of the month. At the beginning he held out both arms like Frankenstein for balance. It was adorable. I have two videos, one from the beginning of the month when it was just a few steps and one from the end of the month when he was really getting good at it.


The birth rally...I was not as excited to do it this year but felt it was important and no one stepped up to take over. We held it on a Saturday instead of Labor Day hoping for bigger attendance at the rally and we did get it. But we also didn't get media coverage because it was an A&M football game day. Oh well. I had fun overall trying to bring awareness to a cause I believe in and I had support from friends and my sister was there!

 

Face painting at a party...he says it is something from Lord of the Rings

He loves all things dragon!

My brother, sister, brother in law, and nephew visited! So they actually came for some football game between BYU and Texas over in Austin but I was excited to have them visit. We went to several museums and had a great time. My sister also helped me re-cover my kitchen chairs and bench. She's awesome.

Picture with Uncle!

My sister came and helped me recover my chairs.

New shiny bench cover thanks to my sister.

I got in trouble for letting him touch this thing. 

4 kids all engaged in the same part of the museum? Take a picture as proof!

At the Texas History museum, trying on armor is something my kids always love to do.

We started "official school" in the second full week of the month. Even though we homeschool and learn year round, it is nice to have a small celebration for the beginning of a new school year. I also like taking the pictures. I often don't realize how much older kids have grown until I look back at old pictures. Also, Princess is officially school age this year. I can't believe she is so big!

This year Dinoguy decided to try wrestling instead of flag football. He enjoyed it from the start. He would come home exhausted from practices. He lost some weight and gained some muscle from all of it. It seemed to be a sport that was right up his alley. Princess was excited to begin playing soccer like Trainboy. She loved it from the start. She isn't shy at all on the soccer field. She goes for it! It's fun to watch her age play, they are mostly all learning the basics. Trainboy was on a good team that won most of their games. He ended up getting lots of time playing goalie which he says he enjoyed.

She's the tall one!