November

November felt wonderful. It was finally cooling off and I loved it! I traded our older double jogger in for a newer single, and Shawn and I took lots of walks. We spent more time outside, and enjoyed the almost-fall weather.

Jeremy was really sweet and put kids to bed two Saturday nights in a row while I drove out to Maricopa with my parents and brother, Phil, to watch Spencer's play off and championship football games. Pima took the Division V (what used to be 1A) state championship, which was really exciting. The only sad part of that whole football-extravaganza was when I realized my phone was missing during the playoff game and finally discovered it two stories below, on the concrete, where it had fallen from my jacket pocket in the bleachers. Amazingly, it wasn't damaged, aside from a shattered screen...

On Veteran's Day the kids were out of school and wanted to do something fun. I took them to Tumbleweed Park in Chandler (which was a madhouse), and then we braved the Chandler Mall, and visited the Lego Store, Build-a-Bear, and the Disney Store. All sorts of craziness.

We spent a large portion of the month (and December, and parts of October and January) at the Budo Shingikan Japanese School of Martial Arts. There was a Groupon for a 10-week trial and we wanted to see if martial arts would make a difference for a few of our kids' impulse control and frustration. They have a great program there, and all three kids were in the same class, which is the only way we could have managed it, since they were supposed to go at least twice a week, and it was a 15-20 minute drive each way. They really enjoyed it, and if it had made a big difference, we would have tried to figure out a way to keep it going, even though the tuition for multiple children added up to a small car payment every month. Even though we didn't see many changes, we could see the value in it and we're trying to figure out if it was something we could swing.

This year we drove down to Pima for Thanksgiving, along with Emily and Phil's family. We really missed David & Nicole, who were stuck at home in Kentucky, getting ready to welcome their second baby. Reilly and I had signed up to do the Turkey Trot (5K) but our training had been a little lagging, and we did way more walking than jogging. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, even without pit-roasted turkey this year. I had to drown my sorrows with pecan pie, chocolate silk pie, and delicious cheesecake.:) it was fun to be together with everyone, if a bit chaotic. There was one particular night I think very few people got much sleep. I had also come down with a rather nasty cold a day or two before We headed down to Pima, so that put a little damper on things. Thankfully everyone else was mostly healthy.

We came back Saturday so we could be ready to put all of our Christmas decorations up on Sunday. Sunday's are crazy around here, especially since Jeremy has a lot of EQ responsibilities, so by the time we got to it it was a bit rushed, but it got done. Another slight expectations vs. reality. Those happen fairly often, but I've found it helps when I label them that way and push forward. :)

November ended with a bit of a bang when we found out that we were (very unexpectedly) expecting our 5th child. The way it all worked out, it's very obvious that this baby was in "the Plan," even if we hadn't been read in on it. It did help us make our decision about continuing martial arts. The way my pregnancies go, there was no way I would be able keep up the twice-a-week classes across town. And Jeremy stays pretty busy between working on his chiropractic business and EQ responsibilities. Not something that would fit in this year! When we have a baby, it kind puts us out of commission for about 18 months in many ways...

September and October

Catch up. Haha. Like that's even possible. I enjoy each of our children, and my life is good, but I get frustrated at how I can't live this life and also keep up on documenting it. But I can't just stop trying. It's too important to me! So I do what I can here and there, and when I catch up on some family videos, or family scrapbook, or individual scrapbooks, or my blog/journaling, it does bring me joy. So here goes.

Other Exciting Things That Happened in September:
* We went to a 9/11 thing in downtown Mesa with Jeremy's dad. The kids enjoyed seeing the firetrucks and climbing around on them. It was really still too hot too bit out even at 7 PM, but it was nice to do something different.
*A lot of our Weech family was in town at the same time (even Nicole and Carlee) and we got to celebrate my nephew Hudson's first birthday. Always fun!
*Jaina decided to try tumbling this year instead of dance, and her classes (Monday afternoons) started.
*Shawn starting learning how much trouble he could get into if employing our tall stool to climb up to reach things.
*Shawn and I went to Makutu's Island with Carlee and Nicole for their toddler time. It was crazy, but fun.
*I finally took the box of t-shirts I have been hauling around for 10-15 years and cut them up and turned them into a blanket. One side is mostly high school, and the other side is BYU and some stuff we've done since we got married.
*We got a new vacuum! This was very exciting, since our previous one is one we got for $50 (highly recommended though) when we first moved to Iowa. It just was NOT picking stuff up anymore. We got a Shark from Sam's Club, and it was amazing what it managed to pull out of the carpet in it's first day or two on duty.
*Reilly and I got a chance to go to one of Spencer's football games down here at Phoenix Christian. They hadn't had any really close games yet that season, but it was a really tense, fun game (that we thankfully won). Reilly usually goes to bed by 8:30 though, and he was dragging by the time it was over around 9:30.
*Reilly turned 9 and had a fun friend party at Mesquite Groves Aquatic Center. They had a blast, and there was very little planning/clean up for us. Win-win!
*We got to spend an evening checking out the Supermoon Lunar Eclipse, and went to our friend's house, the Shoemakers, to check it out through their fancy telescope.

October: 

Great, awesome month. 

Early in the month we used our POGO passes to take the kids to a Diamondbacks game with Jeremy's dad and sister. Fun, but they usually go a little late when our kids are used to being in bed by 7 and 8. Riding the Light rail is always fun though, and they loved exploring Chase Field.

We took advantage of October break and of the (very large) nest egg I'd been saving up, apart from our budget (by selling things we didn't really need and by doing a painting for my dad) and went on our first real family vacation since we went to Disneyland in early 2013. One of my best friends helped make it possible by offering to let us stay in her family's beach house near Carlsbad. It was a great trip! My friends and their families joined us for the first two days, and it was so fun to be all together and to enjoy the beach! In October many of the places around San Diego do kids free deals. We took advantage of that to visit Legoland (the kids had been dying to go - we had fun, but I don't see repeat trips in our future) and the San Diego Zoo, which was awesome. We also went to the Mornin Battalion visitors' center and stopped to see the San Diego Zoo. Our AZ Science Center membership hot us into two big museums in San Diego, and we checked out Balboa Park the same  evening. It was a busy trip, and we wore ourselves out a bit, but it was fun.

In true feast or famine style, we got some nice pictures of our whole family together on our vacation, then also finally got some official family pictures taken by Debe Jorgensen. We did them at the Mesa Arts Center, and they turned out amazing! It was a good choice to do them outside instead of in a studio, which I think would have been a disaster with our busy group.

We finished up the month of October by celebrating fall and Halloween several different ways. We had dinner and did a fun pumpkin patch with Jeremy's mom, Ashley, and Chloe, and the kids got to pick out pumpkins and do a Halloween craft at home. We carved/painted pumpkins for a family night activity. Then the day before Halloween the two little kids and I did trick-or-treating on Main Street, and we did some regular trick or treating Halloween night, as well as dinner at Chipotle. But I'm glad we did the other stuff earlier, because Halloween night was one of those "expectations vs. reality" nights, and it was a little rough here and there. Especially when Reilly ended up home throwing up instead of going around the neighborhood, and Jeremy was wiped out after several days out of town and didn't feel up to much gallivanting and celebrating.

A Day in the Life

Mr. Shawn is 21 months now. Craziness. His favorite foods are probably peanut butter, coconut yogurt (which he tried for the first time recently) and french fries. He loves to go places with us, playing any kind of electronics, and being outside. He is a silly, and likes to tease. He finds himself very amusing. :) He isn't saying much yet, at least not recognizably, but understands things quite well. Words I can recognize: Mama, Daddy, Reilly, Katy, Jaina, Grandpa, Go, Eat, Please, Car, Drink, Kitty, Up, More, and Moo. He has been working on 2-year-molars lately, I think, and has been pretty whiny, cry-y and not sleeping well. But today he seemed to feel fine. And he gave me a run for me money. :) I had a cutesy first-person perspective of his day halfway written on my phone (most of which I did while sitting outside his door waiting for him to fall asleep), but apparently if I don't push "save" and come back to it an hour later, it doesn't feel it has to stick around. Grumpy. Anyway, we'll just have to go with a list of Shawn's activities today. He fit in a lot.

Up at 5:40 AM (I was just glad he slept that late, and that I was able to get him to lay down and try to sleep for another 20 minutes while I laid in Reilly's bed in his room. Reilly has been sleeping on the couch the last few weeks, because he can't go back to sleep when Shawn wakes him at 5 o'something, and Reilly doesn't get enough sleep as it is.)

We went for a walk at 6:15, since it was finally under 80º this morning. A little muggy though. Shawn likes stroller rides, until he gets bored, and then he started "uh, uh, uh-ing" any time we don't seem to be going towards home instead of away from it. He prefers to have a little bowl of Cheerios to work on while we walk.

Back home at 7, oatmeal for breakfast, since we were out of almond milk. Shawn loves oatmeal. I don't love how he likes to hide smears of it in his ears and hair that I somehow always miss with the rag when I clean him.

Scriptures at 7:40. Or 7:45-ish. Katy slept in this morning, and we were still trying to do her hair at 7:40. Shawn loves scriptures. He isn't always quiet, though, and sometimes he gets mad if there's something he wants in the other room and no one is coming to help him with. He likes to kneel down for prayer, and watches everyone carefully to do exactly what they are doing. Sometimes this is good, sometimes it is not.

Usually Jeremy takes the kids to school in the mornings, and Shawn cries like his heart is broken. Today I was taking them, so he got to go. He loves to go to drop off, and doesn't mind leaving them at school nearly as much as he minds them all going out the door without him.

We went home for 30 minutes to clean up the kitchen a little. I suspect this is when Shawn might have found dirty forks and spoons on the counter and/or table and put them in the silverware drawer for me to find later. Awesome. Thanks for the help, bud.

Off to Wal-mart and Riverview Park, where I was meeting with a few friends. It was still under 90º, which is unheard of lately. It was actually pleasant in the shade. Shawn LOVES the park. He and his little friends went up and down and through the equipment, and ate snacks off the ground after they dumped them, which is his favorite. We squeezed in 20 minutes in the splash pad at the end, which is also his favorite (much better than pools, where he can't move around as well) before we had to rush home to pick up Katy. That 11:20 bus pick up is going to be the death of me, I swear... (but I still think half-day kindergarten was the best choice for her).

Lunch, and got the boy in bed for a nap by 12. But he didn't nap. Instead, he filled his diaper. Then when he was clean, he wasn't sleepy anymore, and spent his energy throwing everything out of his bed (including his pacifiers) and crying about it, and in trying to tear the dark curtains away from the wall so he could see them cleaning up the last of the giant tree limb that fell outside our house a few days ago. And at some point, doing who-knows-what, he managed to fall and hit his head on the crib hard enough to leave a mark.

He kept fussing and then crying after being quiet a while, so I would go in to hush him/stand by his bed if needed, then he would hit the deck when he saw me and pretend he was asleep. Over and over. Sigh. I finally got him up about 1:10, at which point he played with the markers (trying to take off and put all the lids back on) and really made a mess of himself and his shirt. But he wasn't crying, so I didn't really care, and just let him.  (see his forehead mark there?)

The next few hours he took books out a box, whined for a turn on the kids' computer (where he pounded on the keyboard until he fell off the stool and cried), dragged me into the kitchen over and over to find a more satisfactory snack than we had in inventory, played My Little Ponies with Katy for a while (I bribed her to let him), dumped a few different containers of toys all over, and sat by the front window (on top of the coffee table) yelling at the kids outside. He actually whined at me less than usual, and way less than I thought he would after not sleeping, which was nice. He always wakes up so grumpy.

For dinner he was thrilled to discover we were having a favorite of his, pizza. Cheeseless for him, which I totally don't get, but he thinks it's yummy. After that, it was bath time. Between this morning's oatmeal, the chlorine at the splash pad, the (washable) markers, and the pizza sauce, he was SO ready for one.

He managed to get into trouble in there, too, though. As I was starting the original blog post on my phone, he figured out how to work the pump shampoo, and managed to get it in his mouth. Sigh.  Thankfully after all his activities today, he was pretty worn out, and didn't protest a slightly early (6:45 vs 7-7:15) bedtime too much. That kid. He is something else.