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.