Halloween Carnival

Our ward had a carnival and Trunk-or-Treat on the Wednesday before Halloween. That worked out well for us, since my parents were going to be here on Halloween, and we probably wouldn't want the kids to do much trick-or-treating that night. I'm not sure where we would have gone. Not around our apartment complex, I don't think. :)
Costumes weren't too difficult. Jaina was excited to wear the same Carebear costume she wore last year in Arizona, and we had the choice of an elephant (that Reilly wore at 12 months old) or a bunny rabbit in her size. The bunny had elastic all around the head, which I didn't think she'd go for, so we opted for the elephant. I thought she'd be fine with it, since (when we were trying on other costumes) she seemed to like wearing the head around a few days before. She was NOT impressed when I put the whole costume on her, but we were a little late and in a hurry, so she just had to deal with it. She relaxed pretty quickly; she loves to get out of the house for any reason! Reilly decided he wanted to be a cowboy, which took a little thrift-store and Wal-mart searching. We found a hat and a belt, but he had to be content with dinosaur rainboots. There aren't a lot of boots floating around here in Virginia... He doesn't know enough about boots for that to have bothered him though. :)
The kids had fun at the carnival, and both won something at the cake walk. They loved going from car to car collecting candy (nice candy too, like lots of chocolate, which has been bad for my diet) while Katy handed some out with Daddy. After they were done, I took Katy to 5-6 cars. She was really getting into it, but many people were out of candy by then. :) It is exhausting taking 3 little ones to something like that. I'm so glad Jeremy was there to help, and that we all had a good time!

Backpost: Random pictures

Some little things we've been up to:
We finally got the kids into the office to get NUCCA corrections recently, and they did great! We already had x-rays on them from when Jeremy took them to a NUCCA doctor out in Iowa last year, but neither of them had been checked or adjusted since we were in Provo, I think! Katy had been having a really rough time with her teething, and colds and stuff, so Jeremy and Allen (the senior associate where he works) took on the exciting job of getting a set of x-rays for her. It was fairly entertaining, and took a while, but they managed it. And then she was remarkably still for her correction, and didn't even cry. It was a small miracle, with how much she DOESN'T like to be restrained in any way, or compelled to do anything that isn't her idea. We didn't get any pictures of all that, because it was taking all of our energy and concentration. :) Here are some pics of the other two though.

We managed to grab an HP TouchPad at the "fire sale" they had when the discontinued them recently, and we are now a two-tablet family. This is kind of nice when my computer is being especially difficult and freezing a lot. Some days it does that. It is also great to have for Katy to watch something on if we have a long car trip (she's still rear-facing and can't see the DVD player) and it's nice for entertaining if things get dicey at appointments or something. :) It's not nearly as nice as Jeremy's iPad, and doesn't have a lot of apps available, but it's a nice little browser/music/video player!

While Jeremy was gone to his NUCCA Conference we did really well the first few days. Here is a picture of us making mini pizzas one night! And the next one is our cute munchkins right before we took Jaina to dance class that same day. She's still really enjoying that!

Jaina and Reilly have recently started unloading the dishwasher (as well as some other chores) and it's nice to have some help around here! (Even if Reilly sometimes creates some leaning towers with his creative stacking while Jaina does the silverware...)

We WERE doing well with Jeremy gone until Katy got sick. I know "they" say you can't run a high fever with teething, but I don't know. Maybe Katy's defenses get low when she starts teething, and she picks up viruses too, because this is the third time she's gotten flu-like symptoms with a high (over 102º) fever while cutting teeth. She now has 3.5 molars and is working on at least one canine. It was a pretty rough couple of days trying to do it all myself though. She was miserable, and when I took her temperature at one point, she had 104.3º! Poor baby. Thankfully a bath brought it down quickly and some motrin that night helped keep it down, because I just didn't feel comfortable dealing with temps that high while single-parenting it. We don't get worked up about fevers, but that one was a little much for me in that situation. Thankfully a few days after Jeremy got home she was feeling better and he helped me get caught up on my sleep! We were glad he got to enjoy his conference, but we were REALLY glad to have him back!

A bunch of the LDS NUCCA guys at the Conference. Some doctors, and
some still in school!

They sure love their daddy!!

THIS one...

is driving me crazy. I would argue that she is more strong-willed than either Reilly or Jaina at this age, and there is no giving in: No quarter, no surrender, no SIR! If she's throwing a fit (or even just starting to fuss) about not being allowed something or having her diaper changed or what-have-you, and I start to sing a little song or in any obvious way try to get her to calm down (and do what I want), intensified body-arching and screaming commences. She does not like to be controlled even a little tiny bit. (As a side note, we were able to take fairly precise x-rays and get her adjusted at Jeremy's office last week, which I'm still marveling at. No small miracle, folks.) She goes back and forth about diaper changes, and that's rather annoying, but not life-changing. She yells to get my attention, she yells if you tell her "no," (much of the time) she screams, Screams, SCREAMS if you're trying to get her to sleep (or back to sleep, at 5 in the morning) if she doesn't agree with a sleep decision. The sleep is really the biggest deal, though the rest would be nice to be able to address. It was more or less not a frequent problem until she was sick this last week, and I was up with her 2-3 times a night with coughing and wheezing and such. But sadly all the "responding" I did while she was sick, both at night and during the day, has intensified some of her less-than-desirable traits. Now I'm not saying she's a terror. She's super cute much of the time, and thinks she's just as big as everyone else, and we're totally in love with her. She just has an opinion (about pretty much everything) and there's no changing it. It's exhausting at times, especially since my other two have their own opinions too, and since I'm -trying- to do something with them.

We've established chore charts, but it takes a lot of effort to "help" them complete them each day, and they kind of suffered last week with all the sickness. Okay, we didn't do them. Except the things that they already do anyway that are on there. (like getting dressed, brushing teeth, etc.) And pre-school time has suffered as well. Most of the problems with schedule seem to come from me, so I guess that's the first place I need to try to make changes.  A friend referred me to this mom's blog: http://www.myblessedhome.net/?p=1560 and I've been getting some good ideas as I've read through some of it. I think this particular link is to something that REALLY applies to me. She talks about yelling in the home and why it happens (from us a moms). Here are some triggers she identifies that I could have written myself (if I had managed to be so introspective):

• "Frustration over a discipline issue that keeps creeping up, and I am tired of dealing with it.
• I may have neglected to take action in an area of discipline for too long, and a behavior has gotten to a point that I am overwhelmed by it.
• A manifestation of laziness. I simply don’t “feel” like stopping what I am doing in order to deal with a misbehavior, and I try to use the volume of my voice to do the work instead.
• My own moodiness, which has nothing to do with the level of misbehavior among the children.

My reasons are not good reasons, but it is important to know what might set me off, so that I can be aware and take action to “discipline” myself! "

I'm really going to try to work on this, as well as setting up some plans of action for when my kids exhibit some of their less-than-desirable behaviors. Maybe we can all work on our failings together! This means a little less time on the computer for me (as important as what I'm doing at the moment seems) and more energy to keeping our schedule, spiritual goals, and behavioral goals on track. Wish me luck. Especially with THIS ONE:

Neptune Festival

October is here (and partially gone already!). Kind of crazy. We've been here 3 months now, but in some ways, it seems longer. We are mostly happy. There are the minor day-to-day problems, little illnesses, making everything fit in a small space, trying to find friends and comfortable places, moments of homesickness. But in all, we are doing well, and glad to be here in Chesapeake. So grateful that Jeremy has a job where he is learning and gaining experience in what he is so passionate about. We are really looking forward to the fall that is coming swiftly. The cooler temperatures are nice, and the leaves are (finally) starting to change. I don't know about Jeremy, but I'm so excited for the coming holiday season, and I hope I can make it fun and meaningful for my family. I hope I can make the effort (and with these three little ones, it definitely takes some!) to do some fun crafts and baking, and maybe start a new tradition or two.
The rest of October is going to be very busy. Jeremy is going to a NUCCA conference in Reno (which he's very excited about, and we're both excited that his work pays for all of his expenses) for like 5 days, and for the 2 weeks after he gets back they have their biggest publicity event (maybe of the year?) every afternoon/evening and through the weekends up in Suffolk (about 45 minutes away). So we'll be seeing less of him for a bit, and he'll be doing some extra traveling. But we also just found out that at the end of the month my parents are coming to visit us, and that is VERY exciting!
Last Friday Jeremy came home and said they were having the "Neptune Festival" down at the VA Beach boardwalk, so we decided to go, and about 30 minutes later (after packing a picnic dinner) we were headed that way. Traffic was pretty crazy, and it took us almost an hour to get to the coast! We were glad we went though; it was a beautiful evening, with lots to see and wonderful smells to enjoy. Think a fair, without the rides.  Just live music and vendors all along the boardwalk. The kids wanted a treat so badly, but we didn't really want to spend the money they were charging for ice cream and such, so Jeremy ran into a Walgreens (right there on the boardwalk) and got drumstick ice cream cones for everyone. They were impressed. :) While he was in there, I took the older two down onto the beach because they were begging to play in the sand. Unlike the rest of our experiences, the sand was cool under our feet(!) though the water still wasn't that cold. They had a great time. :) We were all pretty wiped out by the time we got home, but we were glad we took the time to check out this fun event! (though we wished we didn't have to get tired kids home, or we would have stayed and enjoyed the ambiance and beautiful weather for a while longer!)

View of some of the festivities (and the Neptune statue) from the second
story of the Hilton (where we had parked)

Taking the chance for a classic giant-hermit-crab photo op while Daddy
checked out some Fiats. (I think)

 

Not sure where this face came from...

Disclaimer: that 30 minutes of preparation did not include time for me to do
anything to my hair or remember to put on makeup...

Enjoying the ice cream Daddy brought!

Ice cream is happiness.

Our 5 Year Old and other VA Adventures!

I was going to post about the brand new 5-year-old we have in our house, as of yesterday, but when I went to grab the pictures off both cameras, I realized there are several things I haven't posted about in the last few days.  I'm going to try to catch up here... (SORRY if the formatting goes crazy. I've been fighting with it)

Portsmouth Children's Museum
Last Saturday Smithsonian Magazine was offering 2 free museum passes to many participating museums. So we took advantage of the offer to check out the local Children's Museum (which normally runs $10-11 per person). We're interested in getting a membership there (only $80 for the year, which is 2 visits for our family...) and this was a great way to see if it was worth it. What I SHOULD have gotten a picture of was the line outside to get in! We arrived about an hour after the museum opened, and on that gray, rainy day, there was a 20 minute wait just to get INto the museum. (And about another 10 minutes inside, with 3 tellers admitting people). I guess a lot of people had heard about the special, because it was a bit of a madhouse. When we left, 2 hours or so later, the line was still just as long!  I couldn't have taken a picture very well though, because Katy had fallen asleep on the way there, and actually stayed asleep when I got her out of her carseat. So I was holding her during that entire wait until she woke up about as we got into the exhibits. I was so glad she had slept, but my arms were SORE the next day. She's almost 25 lbs now! They had a children's museum in the Quad Cities in Iowa that we really liked, but this one was much larger! It had all sorts of informative and interesting exhibits, with most of it being hands-on learning and lots of pretend play stations. I'm excited to take the kids back on a quieter day (or quite a few days, hopefully!) and let them really check out some of the stations. Here are some pictures we took:

At the model trains exhibit. Katy still trying to wak up.

Really, Jaina? For some reason she didn't WANT to wear that...

Looking through at Katy & Jeremy from the bubble room.
Reilly and I had just been in a giant bubble!

Checking out the controls on a big tugboat model.

We kind of hurried through some of the last exhibits because
we were all tired and hungry. I look forward to checking
this one out more later!

Have to love the touchable art. Half of the top floor was
devoted to different kinds of art, and there were lots
of hands-on areas.

Including this huge theater room where they could
dress in all sorts of costumes and check out
different backgrounds, lighting effects, and sound
effects.

A little damper and worn out than when we started, but a pretty good
adventure for a mid-Saturday!

Reilly's 5th Birthday!

Reilly - about 6 weeks old

Yesterday our "baby" turned 5.
Just a little crazy. Technically, here in Virginia, he made the kindergarten cut-off, but we decided to wait a year. He may be ahead of the curve academically, but emotionally and vertically, he's not quite ready for such a big step. ;-) He sure is excited to be 5 though, and loved every minute of his birthday! We had shaped birthday pancakes for breakfast and opened some presents, picked up Daddy at lunch time to pick out a balloon and get more presents, and in the evening we went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner and fun! After that we did his birthday cake, which was possibly the most anticipated event of the day! He is such a sweetheart, and we're constantly amazed with what he picks up and understands. (When we're not totally worn out from all his questions)

Our big 5-year-old with the Cars cake I attempted.

She always thinks she's pretty hot stuff, and as big as everyone else!

Very excited about the Nerds she picked at Chuck E. Cheese.

With his balance bike and new helmet. Don't mind the clothes. I try
to let him dress himself however he wants if we're not going out... :)

Other Happenings

Things are going well. Nothing too new to report. Today we took the kids to a park in Virginia Beach for Reilly to test out his balance bike, and the tricycle and push-car for Jaina, as well as R's new soccer ball. The ball was by far the favorite, as it took the least amount of coordination. :) Our kids, sadly, seem to take after us. ;-) It was also in the low 90's, which is a much hotter day than we've been having lately. This toasty day ended with a huge thunderstorm that even sparked 7-inches-per-hour amounts of rainfall in VB and tornado warnings there as well. I don't think we were ever under a warning, but I did take the kids in to have a bath at that point. It's not like they even HAVE basements most places here, and being on the second story, the safest place is the kitchen or the bathroom anyway. (On an inner wall, no windows)  The thunder and lightning was pretty impressive though.  Here are a roundup of pictures from the last several weeks that show the sorts of things we've been up to. :)

Jaina's taking a creative dance class and really enjoying it!

Jeremy works hard all day, but his job is going well. (The kids are
sort of rubbing his feet here)

There is much dress-up time to fill, and Katy definitely
wants to be involved when that's going on! (She's
sporting a pillowcase cape and a Halloween skirt
shawl here...)

Capes are popular in general. I may have to attempt making some
before Christmas come around.

Katy loves to sit on the couch, especially if everyone else is, and she's started
actually enjoying watching little shows for 5-10 minutes at a time.

The weather's been nicer, and we've been making an effort to make it
to parks a few times a week to get some energy out. This is the sand
pit (filled with beach sand) at one of our favorite, closest parks.

The top of Katy's head just as she disappears feet-first down a twisty slide.
She is getting so big and can do the stairs and slide (over and over)
all by herself!

She's into cuddling a little more than she used to be, and will give us hugs.
A nice change, believe me!

The ice cream cake I made for Jeremy's birthday, WAY back in August. :)

Our little climber. Not sure what to do with a
climber after the cautiousness of R & J!

To celebrate fall, Jaina helped me make some delcious
pumpkin muffins on Sunday. She LOVES helping
in the kitchen!

That's all for now, folks!