Happy Halloween!

Halloween is always such a fun, festive, memorable time of year! I love the crafts and baking, and all the time spent making fun Halloween costumes. I love the food- pumpkin pancakes for breakfast, Pumpkin Pot Chili for dinner (or Jack-o-Lantern Chili… the kids never agree). I love all of our fun traditions, like Caramel Apple Bar and making gingerbread haunted houses and trips to the pumpkin patch.

This year, we enjoyed all of the same traditions that we usually love. We didn’t to a Halloween Open House like we have often done. It’s just a lot of work and not really worth all the time and money in the end. But we did do our other normal traditions and added a service project as well.

A few favorite highlights…

We visited the pumpkin patch. There is always so, so much to do at this place and we all had a blast.

Our kids LOVE service projects so I am always thinking of something else we can do. This year we bought a bunch of Halloween prizes, treats, games, and other little trinkets, along with Halloween candy. We packed everything up into festive little bags- about 30 in all- and took them to the local hospital. This way, kids that are sick, injured, hospitalized, or in the ER on Halloween will still have a little treat bag. The kids loved this! They asked if we can do it again next year, but they want to take treat bags to a homeless shelter in addition to the hospital.

Of course, Trick or Treating is always a highlight! This year our Trick or Treat Line-Up included Taylor Swift (Brenna), Harry Potter (Joshua), a cute cowgirl (Maddie), a garbage truck with real headlights (Braden), a baby dragon (Asher), a little froggy (Jacob), and a cuddly lion (Drew).

The kids all looked SO cute! Each costume was just perfect for each one of them! Brenna looked beautiful as Taylor Swift and Maddie was the most adorable cowgirl ever. Joshua, with his long hair and blue eyes and round face, looked just like Harry Potter from Sorcerer’s Stone. Braden’s garbage truck took so long to make, but he loved it and he looked awesome. The little guys were darling. Asher was perfect as a baby dragon because he always pretends to be that anyway. Jacob looked so cute in his froggy costume and I loved that he chose it himself. Baby Drew wore the same lion costume that his three older brothers all wore when they were tiny. It’s cute and warm and cuddly and seeing another baby son wear it really brought back memories for me.

Jacob was so funny tonight! I’d planned on him being the cute monkey in our costume box, but he dug through and found an old, forgotten frog costume.

“Soggy! Soggy!” he squealed and his mind was made up. He wanted a be a froggy!

He was also cute while Trick or Treating. He was very, very somber and he gave out candy rather than accepting it. At each house, with his binky in his mouth and his brown eyes so serious, he would reach into his own bag of candy, fish out a treat, and solemnly offer it to the person handing candy out to all the other kids. No one knew what to make of him. They would chuckle, accept the treat, and then drop it into his bag again along with another piece of candy. So he did get candy, even though he kept trying to give all of his candy away. He even said “tink oo” (thank you) a few times.

Braden got tons and tons of comments on his costume. It was a hit, just like his robot costume from last year. One man even took pictures and Braden was pretty sure that people were giving him extra candy because they liked his costume so much. (My laptop is not working again, but I will add more pictures once it is!)

The big kids zig-zagged back and forth across the street and hit twice as many houses as the little boys. When the little guys got tired and were too busy eating candy to actually go to the doors anymore, we took them home. I stayed with the four little boys while Rick took the older three kids out for another hour and a half.

I dished up Pumpkin Pot Chili, cornbread, and hot apple cider for the boys. Braden devoured his and asked for seconds. Jacob ate bites, but never finished. Asher pushed his away immediately and said, “No thanks, Mom. I have my own food now.” He gestured to his bag of candy.

Asher did finally toss lots of candy into his chili bowl. He also spit cornbread into Jake’s chili and put gum in his own hair. He has a large bald spot on his head now, where I cut the gum out.

It has been such a fun Halloween weekend, with all the Halloween fun and Jacob’s birthday too! After all the thought, planning, and prep work, I can’t believe that Halloween is actually over now.

Now we can settle in for a nice November. The kids have testing for school, wrestling starts officially, and I’m really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year.

Asher Has More Cracks

Asher has cut his fingers five times in the last week. Nearly every day he has come to me with a bloody hand that needed to be cleaned up and bandaged. Today he sliced his pointer finger open with a razor blade. It’s a really messy cut, still dripping blood out of the bandaid that I wrapped around his finger.

Apparently our frequent talks about Dangerous Sharp Things just isn’t sinking in yet…

He doesn’t like having cuts (or cracks, as he calls them) on his fingers so he tries to “get them off.” He picks and picks at his cuts, trying to get rid of them. We talked about this and how his body will fix the cuts if he leaves them alone, but he still feels the need to try to “get the cracks out” of his skin.

So… Asher still keeps me busy every day.

Jacob Dwight, two years old!

Jacob turned TWO this weekend! My intense, fearless, cuddly, jovial little bundle of energy has sure changed a lot in the last two years! And I have the pictures to prove it!

These pictures were the last “belly shots” of Jacob’s pregnancy. They were taken at 37 weeks, just one week  before our handsome little guy arrived.

  

And here is our baby boy just after he was born. We named him Jacob Dwight after his Grandpa. His sweet Grandma was in the room when he was born. He was 6 pounds 6 ounces, our cute little pumpkin born just two days before Halloween.

All cleaned up and in Daddy’s arms

Here are all the kids just after we got home from the hospital. How little they all were just two years ago!

He was such a serious, observant baby

But he had the best smile too!

And I have always loved those big brown eyes! They melt me!

Jacob, just before his first birthday:

This is Jacob last spring because I think it’s worth noting how much he has changed since then:

And here’s Jacob on his second birthday:

Jacob is an amazing little guy. He thinks he can do anything the big boys can do- and he’s usually right about that! He loves to run, climb, jump, and wrestle. He is completely fearless. He uses the playground in ways that is was not designed for.

We were at the park recently. Jacob was up to his usual playground antics. He was climbing outside the play structure, swinging on safety rails, dangling his legs out off the high platforms, climbing the slides from the bottom and then going down backwards, maneuvering himself out onto a horizontal pole and then hanging on with one hand six feet off the ground, leaning as far as he could out of the very top of the play structure and then yelling, “Hey, look me!”

I was busy too as I followed him around, reminding him to “be careful” and always poised in my ready-to-catch position.

There was a dad there with a girl about Jake’s age. She sat quietly on the platform and watched the kids play. Then she slid down the toddler slide. Then she watched again. There was such a contrast in these two toddlers!

The dad noticed it too and commented, indicating Jacob who was still climbing like a fearless monkey, “Wow, he really gets around, doesn’t he?”

Yup, he certainly does!

Jake is an intense little boy. It’s such a dominant feature in him. He is intensity defined. Everything that he does, he does with intensity and determination. He is one of my most physically affectionate kids and even his constant snuggles and hugs are very intense. He snuggles like he’s trying to win a wrestling match.

Jacob is a helper. He loves to help and he’s very obedient when I ask him to do something. He doesn’t stop until the job is done.

He’s the obedience police around here too. If I ask Joshua to put his shoes away and Josh doesn’t move, Jacob grabs the shoes, drops them in front of his big brother, and sternly commands, “Shoes, Shosh!” (Shoes, Josh!) He bosses all the older kids around with great authority. He dotes on Drew lovingly and is a good big brother.

Jake loves to read. He is still delayed in language, but he’s talking a lot more now. He makes everything plural so Daddy is Daddies, baby becomes babies, puppy becomes puppies. He comments on everything and repeats everything I say with perfect inflection. He surprises me daily with a new word that he has learned. And he says thank you (ank oo) frequently.

Jacob’s actual birthday was a busy day so we held off and celebrated the next evening instead. We kept it simple like we always do when our little ones are too tiny to notice the difference. Jacob was absolutely delighted by every single thing! It was very cute.

Jake helped me bake his own cake in the morning before church. The entire process delighted him. He loved smashing the butter with a fork, he loved dumping ingredients in himself, and he screamed with glee every time I cracked an egg and added it in.

I gave him some frosting to sample afterwards. Yum!

He loved his balloons:

And his presents:

And he loved his cake:

Happy birthday, Jakers!! We love you, darling boy!!

How to Make a Taylor Swift Dress

Your cute daughter wants to be Taylor Swift for Halloween? Here are 14 easy steps to make a cute Taylor Swift dress for her!

STEP ONE: Dress seven children, fix their hair, change three diapers, wipe four noses, find 15 shoes, load everyone into the van, and drive to Walmart.

STEP TWO: Find a “country pop star” dress in the Halloween section. It is cheaply and poorly made and it costs $20.

STEP THREE: Convince yourself that you can manage to sew something nicer than that! Nevermind that you have only sewn one blanket, one quilt top (the actual quilt was never finished), and a set of beanbags in the last ten years. Surely you can sew a dress, right? Right!

STEP FOUR: Buy cute sparkly fabric. Splurge on matching shoes because you are saving so much money by making this dress yourself.

STEP FIVE: Overconfidence gives way to a feeling of nervous foreboding. In a panic, write a facebook status update asking for help from anyone who knows how to sew. Nervously check back every 15 minutes for responses.

STEP SIX: Resolve to do this alone. Watch youtube sewing videos. Feel more confused than ever. Check facebook again.

STEP SEVEN: Stay up all night working on the dress. Sketch, measure, create a little pattern. Cut, fold, cut some more. Cut, cut, cut. Oops. Why is everything so crooked?? Measure, measure, cut, cut. How can this be so crooked???

STEP EIGHT: After working for several hours and only making things much, much worse, it’s time for a good cry. Sob for a while. Go ahead and laugh when your 5-year-old (who is up way, way past his bedtime) notices your tears, sits down beside you and sympathetically sighs, “Mom, I thought you would have learned how to do this by now…” Laugh at how cute he is. Then cry ’cause he’s right.

STEP NINE: Go to bed with puffy eyes. Dream about sewing dresses.

STEP TEN: In the morning, on a great tip from your sister, run to Costco. Find a darling dress, cute and sparkly and very “Taylor Swift-ish.” Smile as your nine-year-old holds it up to herself and grins with delight. It even has a cute little jacket so she can use it after Halloween too! And best of all, it’s only $18 dollars!

STEP ELEVEN: Pay $50 to renew Costco membership. Pay $18 for the dress.

STEP TWELVE: Ask daughter if she is happy with her costume. Cry when she says yes.

STEP THIRTEEN: Feel proud that you saved money because this dress was $2 less (and much cuter) than the first dress you found. Then realize that you also spent $10 on fabric, $10 on shoes, $5 on a wig, and $50 on a Costco membership in order to get the second dress. Try not to think about that…

STEP FOURTEEN: Feel relieved because your daughter has a Taylor Swift costume that she loves. Feel happy because she is so happy. Vow to never, ever attempt to sew again.

Let the Frenzy Begin

Braden didn’t want to wrestle last year. He tried a little, but didn’t like it enough to continue. We told him that was fine and that he could do anything he wanted. We told  him that we just wanted him to be happy. There’s no reason all of our boys have to be wrestlers just because Joshua is.

Something happened this summer though. I am still not sure what sparked the change. Braden suddenly got very, very excited about wrestling. He wanted to practice a lot with Josh and was eager to learn new moves. He wanted to do push ups and sit ups and other exercizes to get stronger.

We started getting him together with another little guy to practice. Braden was a lot more advanced than this boy and able to really work him over. This only boosted Braden’s confidence and love for the sport. Suddenly he viewed himself as a great wrestler. He talked frequently about wrestling at real practices and real tournaments and was very excited.

When a few of the team boys started getting together for practice, we let Braden try. He did great in a real practice. He listened, followed instructions, wasn’t disruptive or distracting, and he dominated his cute little practice partner.

We decided to buy Braden some wrestling singlets to use in the upcoming season. We found a store online that makes singlets in all sizes (even toddler sizes!) This was perfect because we wanted smaller singlets that would fit our 35-pounder nicely.

We let Braden pick one singlet to start. He picked out a red singlet with blood-shot eyeballs on it. Oh boy, did he love that thing! He was SO excited.

When the singlet arrived in the mail, Braden was absolutely thrilled! And the quality was so good that we decided to go ahead and order Braden one more singlet, something blue because wrestlers need a red singlet and a blue one for the freestyle season. Braden picked out a “comic book” singlet and was just as excited when it arrived too.

Both singlets fit nicely- not too big, but with enough room to grow for a while. They both have his name on the back too.

Here is our handsome, tough little wrestler in both of his singlets. The red one came before his haircut and the blue one came after.

Braden can’t wait for the season to start. His first tournament is in two weeks (but he is begging to attend the big tournament that Josh is going to next weekend). He is so excited! I think we are going to have a really fun season with these two boys.

So hide your 35-pounders because Braden is ready to wrestle!

Jake’s Owie

Poor Jake. He runs too fast for himself, jumps off of everything he can, and frequently loses his balance. Although his accidents have lessened as he’s gotten older and more coordinated, he is still a head injury waiting to happen.

I am not sure what happened yesterday. He either jumped or fell off the stairs. I heard him wailing, which usually isn’t an alarming sound, but then I heard everyone else screaming that there was a lot of blood.

Jacob just sobbed as I held him, cleaned him up, and assessed the damage. I think he bit his lip. There were several small tooth marks, and one large, deep cut as well.

The deep cut worried me right away. I wasn’t too worried about its size, but I was concerned because the edges of the cut wouldn’t stay together and the cut was just gaping widely.

Stitches? I wondered to myself. But, knowing my tendency to overreact, I called Rick to get his opinion. He said not to worry about it, that mouth injuries rarely needed stitches.

When he got home late that night, he said the cut was bigger than he’d imagined and wondered if maybe it did need a stitch or two. So I called the nurse. She told me that mouth injuries usually heal pretty well and don’t need stitches very often. She added that if he did need stitches, we’d need to take him to the ER because the lips were too sensitive to stitch in the office and because Jake was young enough to need sedation for the procedure. She recommended keeping the cut clean and moist and just letting it heal on it’s own, but said we could take him to the ER if we wanted to.

So we decided to keep Jake home. An expensive and traumatic ER visit didn’t seem like a good idea if his lip would likely heal quickly and easily on its own anyway.

Weekend Running

On the agenda for this weekend… a trip to the pumpkin patch and corn maze, wrestling practice, gymnstics meet, Halloween party, and our big Jacob turns TWO!

Braden’s Haircut

Josh is growing his hair out so that he can be Harry Potter for Halloween. He plans to shave his moppy hair off the day after Halloween.

Braden has also been growing his hair out. I’m not sure if he wants to be like Josh, or if he prefers it long, or if he just hasn’t wanted to sit still for a haircut. But, for whatever reason, Braden hasn’t wanted to cut his hair.

Today, I asked him again if he wanted a haircut, hoping he would say yes because I’ve been ready to give him a shorter, less shaggy look for a while now. To my surprise, Braden agreed readily. Then he specified that he wanted a mohawk. He was very excited and told me that a mohawk would be especially great for wrestling.

So I got out my haircutting scissors. I trimmed the back and sides up nice and short. I cut the top and evened it out, but left it longer because he wanted a “big” mohawk. Then I spiked up the top with some gel. Braden was thrilled when he checked the mirror. It’s definitely just a faux-hawk look and not a real mohawk, but he loves it. It’s very cute on him and it’s a nice change after growing his hair out for a while.

Talking with Jacob

I walked into the living room and found Jake sitting on the floor with school supplies scattered all around him. Asher was standing on the other side of the room, obviously not in on the action. As soon as he saw me, he pointed and stated, “Jake did it.”

Jacob’s head popped up instantly. “No ah don’t!” He cried indignantly. ”Bay-in did it!” he accused.

“Braden did it?” I asked with a grin.

“Yeah, Bay-in,” Jacob affirmed with a bob of his head. Then he scolded, even though Braden wasn’t in the room at all, ”No, no, no, Bay-in!”

***

Jacob crawled up on a stool and watched me as I made tuna melts for lunch.

“Makin?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

“I’m making lunch, Jake.”

“Sunsh?”

“Yes, I’m making lunch… What are we having for lunch?” I asked, gesturing to the bread and tuna fish and cheese.

“Byed!” Jake grinned.

(Translations: makin = making, sunsh = lunch, byed = bread)

***

Yesterday during a diaper change, Jake began singing loudly, “Tinky bum! Tinky bum! Tinky, tinky, tinky bum!”

***

Jacob has a name for each member of the family. Brenna is Nenna (which is what she called herself when she was tiny), Joshua is Shosh, Maddie is May-a or May-ee, Braden is Bay-in, Asher is Ahhhha, and Drew is Zoo.

***

Jake tells the dog to “hush” and he scolds the big kids with “no, guys, no.” His most used words are: no, mine, don’t, move, and hey. He also follows me around saying Mom, Mom, Mom.

Trampoline