Pumpkins, Parties and Pirates

We did all sorts of celebrating this year:
Fri: Rt 66 School Parade and class parties. That night was the school Fall Festival
Sat: Carved pumpkins, Sean made his chili and we went to our ward Trunk or Treat party (and came home with all sorts of extra candy)
Sun: Just ate candy
Mon: Megan's preschool Halloween performance and potluck. That night I took the kids trick-or-treating to Walmart and Beehive Home Assisted Living. That night we had Family Home Evening and talked about the Holy Ghost (appropriate, don't ya think?).

And I think we went through about 15 costumes between all the events:
Sean and I were Fred and Wilma Flinstone.
Caelan: Taylor Swift, a Vampire (gone soft - she didn't want to wear the collar or teeth) and a witch
Ben: Ninja and the Grim Reaper
Megan: Clown, Princess and a donkey
Nathan: Bob the Builder, Shrek and a pirate
Austin: Bat, an alien and Tigger

She looks so grown up in this picture. Yikes.

Megan and her best bud - cutie pies

Our Shrek

Carving Pumpkins. I gut them and Sean carves.

Fred and Wilma (I think we are dating ourselves because most of the kids had no idea who we were).

The crew.

The Grim Reaper

ET Pumpkin (I think this one was my favorite this year)

Awesome Halloween pumpkin

The pirate and the donkey

Adorable little Tigger

Pumpkin Patch

We love to go to the pumpkin patch. It's like the intro to Fall (and we LOVE Fall) and the beginning of the holiday season. We found a fun little corn maze pumpkin patch to take the kids to this year. We meandered through the corn maze (and had to find little dinosaur stations along the way), the kids climbed on huge piles of hay, they pet some farm animals (and Megan picked up a chicken), we ate cinnamon roasted almonds and pecans and fresh fruit smoothies and picked out a few pumpkins to take home. Fun times.

Happiest 10 Years

Sean and I celebrated our 10th anniversary last week. Can't believe it's been 10 years already, but in other ways I feel like we have been together for a whole lot longer than that. I guess time flies when you're having fun, right? In 10 years we have:
-Both graduated from BYU
-Owned or been in possession of 11 cars plus a scooter
-Lived in 5 states, 7 cities and 11 addresses
-Brought 5 children into this world
-Visited 19 temples and been temple workers
-Hiked the Tetons, Grand Canyon, The Subway (in Zion Nat'l Park) and Mt. Whitney
-Vacationed in Hawaii, New York, Victoria Island (Canada), Florida, 8 National Parks, and 2 Mexican Riviera cruises
-Experienced loss (a miscarriage, my Mom, my grandma Sorensen, my great grandma Blatter, Sean's Grandpa Dick)
-Gotten jobs, lost jobs, transferred jobs, etc
-Served in LOTS of callings in the church: everywhere from Nursery leader to Student Ward Bishopric member
-Snorkeled in Catalina, White water rafted the Snake River, 4-wheeled in Southern Utah, ziplined in Cabo, rode bikes down Palomar mountain

-And also enjoyed all the little things: driving to and from CA and AZ for family events (we could probably do that blind folded), watching Netflix movies at night together, making fudge every Christmas time, camping (whether it's big trips or short over nighters), Sunday afternoon walks as a family, working on household projects, exercising together, texting each other throughout the day about little things, holding hands, carving pumpkins into awesome shapes (I do the removing of the "guts" and Sean carves), sitting outside on summer nights, playing with our kids, quick ice cream runs to Walmart and all the other small things that make life feel full.

10 Years Down - and an ETERNITY to look forward to....

Ben's Lost Tooth

Ben knocked into something last week which made him cry (he's not usually a crier when he gets hurt, so I knew it must have hurt in just a certain way). He said his mouth hurt. I looked in his mouth and noticed that his bottom tooth was loose (whatever he hit knocked that tooth loose). I told him that if he wiggled it around it would probably come out in the next few days. The next morning he woke up with a hole in his mouth - his tooth had come out during the night. Caelan helped him find it in his bed. He was so excited to get to put it under his pillow. Our tooth fairy isn't very punctual - she missed the first night, but did come the next night. Ben found a silver dollar under his pillow, plus she even left the tooth too. He was thrilled. And he is looking so great with his little toothless smile.

The Balloon Fiesta

Sean's sister and her friend came into town for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We decided that we didn't want to wake up at the crack of dawn and be out in the cold so early in the morning with a one week old newborn, so instead we just found a dirt field right by the Balloon Fiesta park and watched the balloons launch from there. It was great - no crowds, we didn't even get there until 7:40 AM, it wasn't too cold by then, we ate cinnamon rolls in the car and we still had a fun time watching the balloons go up. It started to get windy about halfway through so lots of the cool huge balloons that we saw last year didn't actually fly: they blew them up on the field but they didn't go up into the air, so we didn't see those, but we had fun watching all the others. Afterwards we went over to the Botanical Gardens where they were having a Harvest Festival: we watched them make fresh apple cider (and bought some to take home - YUM!), rode on a wagon pulled by a tractor, saw the animals and made a corn husk doll.

Austin Thomas

Our little baby is here. Actually he has been here now for a little over 2 weeks. I woke up on Sunday morning (Oct 2) at about 5 AM feeling some contractions. I was four days late at this point. They weren't too hard, but they were definitely contractions, and since I don't ever get Braxton Hicks, I was pretty sure they would eventually turn into some action. I got out of bed at around 6 AM because they were getting more and more consistent (not hard, just a little more regular). I got dressed and started to pack my things. I wanted to wait things out at home for as long as I could, so I just hung out at the house and waited for things to get more serious. A couple hours had gone by and the contractions weren't getting any harder or closer (they were still very easy to get through). They they actually started getting farther apart (this was a little annoying). I decided to take a walk down the street - which definitely helped while I was walking, but when I got back home and sat down they were irregular again. Sean kept asking if I thought I was ready, but the labor didn't seem hard enough or close enough to go in. We live 30 minutes from the hospital so I also didn't want to wait too long, but I had never waited too long before (my labors have never been super speedy ones or anything). So, at 10 AM we turned on General Conference and started watching the morning session. After the hymn in the middle (around 11 or 11:15 or so) I felt a good one, and then another one right after. I actually had to get up and brace myself for these. I went upstairs and had another one, and another one after that. At this point, I thought we had better head to the hospital. We dropped the kids off at our friends house at 11:45 and headed to Albuquerque. I had some good contractions on the way there, but still very manageable. We checked into the admissions desk at 12:33 AM. They sent me into the triage room to monitor me and this is when the seriousness began. The contractions started coming right after another and were getting harder and harder. They hooked me up to the monitors (which are totally uncomfortable - I mean I know why they do it, and especially this time when our little guys heart rate dropped pretty low at one point - but sitting up with monitors around your belly is not a very comfortable way to be in labor). I knew I didn't want an epidural but I asked about getting something else for pain. The nurse said that the midwife was on her way and would check me and then we could do something about the pain. The midwife came in - I had another strong contraction at which point my water broke. She checked me and said, "You are ready to have a baby." I was fully dialated and the baby was in position. They wheeled me up to the delivery room and had me change beds (YIKES). Pretty much the moment I got on the other bed I started pushing - the feeling to push on this labor was stronger than any I have ever had. I even gave a little yell (which surprised Sean - I'm usually not too vocal when I'm in labor) and then I pushed that little guy out. He was born at 1:00 PM (27 minutes after we got to the hospital) - BEST LABOR EVER (mild and easy at home and then BAM - painful but quick at the hospital). Sean said the room was kind of chaotic - people setting up and getting things ready - I didn't notice a thing....he he he. Everyone there was great - pretty much let me do things how I wanted and were just there to help me in any way they could. There was some meconium in my water so they had someone from ICU come up just to make sure everything was fine with the baby (it's procedure). He came out quiet, but then did some good screaming and yelling (the nurse from ICU quietly left). He laid on my belly right after he came out and while I finished up. He was perfect! He weighed 7 lbs 8 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long and had the longest fingers. We stayed in that room for a couple hours and then moved up to my recovery room. He was a great little eater - nursed for 40 minutes like a champion. I went home the next day at 1:30 PM. It was a great hospital stay: nice and fast. Sean went and got the kids and they came to visit on Sunday evening. They were all in love and wanted to take turns holding him. We didn't really have a name picked out and weren't even sure about one until later that night when we decided on Austin. And his middle name, Thomas, is also Sean's middle name. He is a perfect little guy: usually very calm. He has moments when he is so alert (especially for a newborn) and just looking around taking things in. He sleeps okay at night - gets up to eat often but then goes back to sleep until about 6 or 6:30 in the morning when he likes to wake up for a good couple of hours. We are so happy to have him here and healthy.

Nathan is 3

Yesterday was Nathan's third birthday. He has been pretty excited about it all week. In fact a week ago we were at the store getting a little toy for Caelan to take to a birthday party. Nathan wanted to buy a car. I told him that we weren't going to buy it that day. He really wanted it. I told him maybe he would get something like that for his birthday - that is was almost his birthday. So, for the next week he used that as a reason to try and get me to buy him things every time we stepped into a store. "Can I get this for my birthday?" - He's a smart one, that kid. In fact, Ben and Nathan and I went to the store on Saturday morning. I was trying to be sly and sneak little things into the cart, but he pretty much knew exactly what we were doing and starting putting his own things in the cart. He snuck up to our bedroom on Saturday evening and opened all of his presents (except for one) - silly boy. He wanted a dragon cake, so that is what we made for him. He told everyone that it was his birthday - he was very proud of it. It was a great day.

Some fun things about Nathan:
* He is potty trained - YIPPEE (and let me just say he was leaps and bounds easier to train than his older brother)
* He loves cheese sticks, apples, crackers, cereal, eggs, plain rice, and almost anything with sugar in it
* When we have cake and ice cream for birthdays he will almost ALWAYS eat the cake and leave the ice cream (that is a total mystery to us)
* He loves to take a bath (or a shower) and will ask for one pretty much every day
* He also loves to swim in the jacuzzi
* He is a little talker and can pretty much communicate anything he needs to
* He loves to get my attention by saying, "Mom?" and then when I answer him he responds with "nevermind." He'll do this over and over again.
* He likes to play on the iPad and the computer and can maneuver around fairly well
* He loves cars, trains, balls, swords, little characters, riding the big wheel on the deck in the backyard, playing at the park and pretty much anything that his brother and sisters will include him in.
* He used to always ask for me to "spike" his hair, but in the last month or so he has switched over to always asking for it to be "down" (combed to the side). I think his brother is rubbing off on him.
* He loves to be tickled. He'll ask Dad or I to do it over and over and over again.
* He is a big helper when it comes to setting the table - even when it is someone else's turn he wants to be the one to put the plates and silverware on the table.
* He points out motorcycles, busses, police cars, big trucks, fire trucks and any other special kind of vehicle when we are driving.
* He regularly makes his way to our bed sometime in the morning and falls back asleep with us.
* He likes to tell people what to say to him ("Mom, say 'what'." or "Caelan, say 'what are you eating'?")
* He loves to get out of bed for some reason or another several times (when it is bedtime) and then he asks to be re-tucked in after every time (this is not our favorite routine of the evening, but it is pretty funny).
* He can count to ten (and sometimes up to 13 or 14) but he almost always skips the number 5.
* He loves to "help" people say the prayer.
* He would be happy to run around in his underwear all day every day.

We love Nathan to pieces. He is pure entertainment and joy in our home.