summing up october

Boo!
I didn't take many photos this week. I did follow Liv around with the camera for about 10 minutes one morning:

It seems as though Liv is trying to say her brothers' names now, but it's hard to tell. She still doesn't talk much, but is certainly able to communicate what she does and doesn't like (and will use a very high-pitched scream on occasion--none of our boys did a high-pitched yell). The other day I let each kid pick out a piece of Halloween candy and Liv finished her piece of chocolate and then acted like she wanted Hewitt's sucker. He gave it to her without hesitation and said, "Liv can have mine. I don't want her to be sad." Such a nice gesture and I have to laugh because I can't see Hewitt giving up candy to one of his brothers quite as easily.

Burke's hair is getting longer. See, I did take a photo of someone besides Liv this week. :) The Friday before Halloween was "Pajama Day" at school and Burke was really excited to bring his pillow and some books for the 'read-a-thon' his class had. I'm still very happy with Burke's class and teacher, although his homework can be time consuming some nights and every assignment last week was some sort of math game to be played with an adult. It is difficult for me to sit and help with homework until Rob is home (and there is another adult to help with kids). He is already doing some math (terms mostly) that I'm a bit rusty at. Time to brush up.

Tosh and Rob were playing with cars on Sunday afternoon and when Burke asked to join in Tosh said, "Burke, this is just for daddies and guys with curly hair." This made us laugh, but is really an exception. Tosh is such a sweetheart and is generally the one in our house that is quick to give a compliment or to say, "I love you" out of the blue.

I volunteered for Hewitt's kindergarten Halloween party on Friday. It is fun to see him in his school environment. Rob took him to a special "Spider Night" they had on Wednesday evening for the kindergartners. They did all sorts of spider-y crafts and science and math games. He LOVED it and I was really glad we skipped soccer so he could participate (he scored three goals at the game on Saturday!).

After soccer games on Saturday morning, we headed south to Tucson to hang out with Rob's friends Tate and Andi (from BYU). We had a great time with their family and they even let us tag along to their ward's trunk or treat and Halloween carnival.

Liv had no interest in keeping her witch hat on, but at least we got a couple of photos with it:

The whole crazy bunch (Witch Liv, Hippie Tam, Soccer Star Burke, Pirates Hewitt and Tosh, and Rocker Rob):

Is it so hard to just get ONE good photo of everyone? Yes.

Can't you just imagine a sweet power ballad coming out of this mouth? No words.

And a close-up on the sweet zipper at the ankle (these are really my guess jeans from the '80s):Sunday was a little "Wah, wah" (sad trombone sound). My allergies were acting up like crazy and I felt so exhausted from a very emotionally draining week. I cried through much of church. It was one of those situations were the floodgates opened and I couldn't get them to close. I crashed and took a long nap after choir and the other meetings. We fed the kids some dinner and then made some Halloween treats to take around to some families. Rob home teaches an awesome older couple (the Tarwaters) that have eight grown children that ALL live in Arizona. They have a huge Sunday dinner every week and have told us that we are always welcome to join them. We stopped by to say hello after they had already eaten and only a few families were there, and they convinced us to come in for some food and dessert and to visit while our kids played with some of their grandchildren. This couple is about my Dad's age (mid 70's) and it meant so much to be around an extended family environment--we miss it. Sister Tarwater gave me a huge hug and kiss as we were leaving and it was so genuine and sweet. Just what I needed. What a wonderful lady.

Liv looked incredibly cute at church on Sunday, if I do say so myself. She is only two weeks away from the official nursery age, so the teachers just told us to leave her without one of us staying anyway. Hooray! Happy Halloween.

p.s. My Mom's biopsy results came in and she has Autoimmune Hepatitis. Hopefully the treatment she is starting will help her to feel much better and prevent damage to her liver. Thanks for all of your concern and prayers.

forgotten funnies

I took these of Hewitt a couple of weeks ago (the day before we left on vacation). I just realized I hadn't posted them...and omitting them would certainly be a shame.

three down, one to go

Exciting news: Tosh is potty-trained! I tried to force the issue in July and he clearly wasn't ready. I was asking him about every 5-10 minutes if he needed to go and was spending lots of energy bribing, coaxing etc. I gave up when he was kneeling on a kitchen stool and said, "Hey! Where did all of this water come from?" right after he had wet his underwear (about 5 minutes after he had just gone in the toilet). I decided at that time to wait a bit longer. For several weeks now I've been telling him that it would be time to wear underwear-only when we got home from our trip to California. So last Saturday we said "no more diapers" and it was literally an overnight process for Tosh! He has been awesome and totally independent about the entire thing (I never have to ask him if he has to go). He has been dry every night for an entire week and Rob and I are starting to wonder how he could be our biological child! Way to go, Tosh! I am starting to see the light at the end of the long diaper tunnel (and if it really is faster and easier for girls then we could be finished in a year!).

Thumbs up!



Woo-hoo! Diaper free!

My cousin Bob, and his daughter (Janae), son-in-law, and grandson are in town and came by to visit on Saturday afternoon. My kids love Bob and his dog, Carmella. Carmella is the sweetest dog and loves to play ball with the kids. They wore the dog out!

Janae's baby is so cute. He is almost a full year younger than Liv but is already bigger than she is and outweighs her by two pounds!

I woke Liv up from her nap so we could get a photo of these two cuties. (She seemed slightly confused at having another baby and dog in the house.)

Kason started pulling at her pigtails and ears. She wasn't quite sure how to respond.

After my cousins left, Rob's brother-in-law and nephew arrived. They were in town for a reunion and we were able to spend a few days with them. We took all of the kids to a "Harvest Carnival" at church. We were in a mad rush to get ready and get out the door and I only took a couple of photos (none of them great). In case you are wondering, Rob was an 80's rocker (he was actually wearing some of my guess jeans from the 80's) and I dressed up as a hippie.

Liv wasn't cooperating, but looked darling in her witch costume and hat.

Tosh had a blast with his cousin, just 20 days older. They played with construction trucks for hours outside, and did some skinny dipping in the freezing pool. We love cousins and were sad to say goodbye.

Here are some other random shots:

Getting ready for Halloween (the boys made lots of decorations for our windows):

Speaking of Halloween and the scary (ha!), we had some professional make-up artists come in to talk to the Young Women for an activity. They taught about skin care and some make-up basics, and then did some demos just for fun. They did "candy eyes" on me and it was a little shocking when I looked in the mirror (and it took about 10 minutes to wash off). It was a fun night, but let's just say that I (and Rob) prefer a more "natural" look. Is anyone else floored by the fact that this is the last week of October?! The month has flown by and I feel so disorganized and a little out of sorts. Time to pull it together (at least I'm changing fewer diapers)!

memory monday: it's a girl!

We've received some exciting news this week; Rob's older sister found out that she is expecting a baby girl, and Rob's youngest sister is expecting twins!!! We are so happy for both families, and hooray, I get to be an aunt again!

In honor of this wonderful news, I thought I'd share a favorite memory today. I had an ultrasound with baby #4 about two weeks before Christmas in 2008. I had the technician write the results in a card, and then I placed the card on top of our Christmas tree. Our angel (my aunt made this angel and it was on our tree when I was a little girl), held the result in her hands until Christmas morning. I have never been more excited for Christmas to come in my life! We opened and read the card with our boys and both sets of grandparents after Christmas breakfast and all other gifts had been opened.

I never posted this photo (it seemed embarrassing at the time- I was so weepy!). It was taken just after getting the news that we were going to have a baby girl!

A snippet of video from that morning:

This was such a special occasion and a memory that I will always treasure. I am so grateful that we were able to share this special Christmas Day with both sets of parents.

p.s. My sweet mom is having some health problems and is currently in the hospital (they do not know what is wrong yet). Prayers would be greatly appreciated. Love and thanks, Tam

the beach (vacay part 3)

We spent three days at the beach (Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday). Saturday was sunny and warm, and it got progressively cooler and more overcast each day after that (ahhh.). The kids love the sand and water; and the beach is always Rob and my favorite part! I got a little carried away with the camera...believe me that I'm only posting a fraction of what I took.

Day one:
Day two:

Day three: