October 29, 2017

  She did it!  I'm in the picture because this piece of paper represents freedom for me too.  I'm saving about an hour a day by not having to drive her to early-morning seminary and school and back.  Not to mention an extra hour on Thursdays when I had to drive her to piano lessons.  What will I do with all the extra time?

  Tuesdays are ridiculous days of busyness around here.  At the end of this long day, Bailey and I found ourselves in particular grumpy moods.  We decided the best cure for that would be to change into our pajamas right after dinner and read Halloween books on my bed until bedtime.  It worked.

  She is nothing if not tenacious.  She knows where the power cords are and will do anything to get to them.

Seminary cinnamon rolls.  Mmm.

 At the school Halloween party, my Frankenstein posed under to her Crankenstein poster.  Her poster says, "Sometimes I feel like Crankenstein when I go on a long drive or when my brothers make loud noise early in the morning.  I get so CRANKY! But...when my brothers watch over me that Crankenstein goes away.  Until a nuther day."

This granny was very popular at the party.

  Saturdays in October are the busiest of the year.  This morning Bailey had soccer...

I took the boys to cub scout Spook-o-ree...

  And Sydney had a region choir concert.  Not surprisingly, I ended this day in my p.j.s, in my comfy chair, watching a cheesy Hallmark movie.  I'm kind of sorry to admit that.

  On any given Sunday, you'll find Ryan wearing this camouflaged shirt (with camouflage p.j. pants), having a Cherry Coke in his can cozy.  We were joking at dinnertime that of all the stuff he loses throughout the week, every Sunday he knows exactly were his can cozy is.  He says he has a special spot to keep it so it's never lost.  Would it be so hard to do the same thing with his shoes?

October 22, 2017

   Sydney used to easily be the shortest of her friends group. She's catching up.  I had to miss her choir concert tonight to be to a church meeting.  Luckily Jeff was able to go.  Apparently she had a solo part I didn't know about.

 We now get to go to middle school orchestra concerts.  Erik is learning the violin.  Costumes were optional for the concert.  Erik is a stick figure.

  My kids love cooking competition shows.  Right now their favorite is Halloween Baking Championship.  We held our own version tonight.  The kids had to create a Halloween scene and embellish it with decorated sugar cookies.

                                  

I think Brynn was the winner of the championship for being just so darn cute.  I don't know what is so funny about a cookie cutter hitting the wood floor.

 A mummified Bailey at a friend's birthday party

  Sixteen and definitely sweet.  She says she's been waiting for this birthday since she was eight years old, because 16 was her favorite number back then.  This is a lovely girl.  She's a great oldest sister, caring for all of her siblings down to Brynn.  She sets high goals for herself and works hard to achieve them.  And she's funny. And smart. And beautiful.

October 15, 2017

 If she's going to drive herself to seminary and school every morning, I guess she'll need something to drive.  When we picked this up, the salesman kept asking if she was super excited.  Actually, she was studying for a couple of tests.  We're hoping this car lasts nine years, long enough for Sydney, Erik, and Ryan to get through high school. How is it possible that that's what will be happening in nine short years??

  The kids are anxious for Brynn to start crawling.  Me, not so much.  Bailey was giving her pointers, like "Buns in the air!"

  Apparently, she'll lick anything.

  I'm really trying not to make this the Brynn Blog.  I'm failing.  But sometimes this is all I get a picture of in a day.  This is how she always ends up in her crib.  Those curtains outside her crib are especially fun to play with when she's awake and waiting for me to come get her.

October 8, 2017

  One of the problems with sharing a bathroom with your two brothers is that they don't care how gross the toothpaste tube and lid get.  Bailey brings it to me every morning, disgusted.  

 The kids had the day off of school.  I guess there's only so much t.v. and video games they can take.  Eventually our day evolved to this.  

  Erik can't handle a noisy baby very well.  Evening is usually Brynn's grumpy time, but not tonight.  She sat quietly on the couch with Erik, holding his hand.

 Family game night.  Sydney won, Shelbi lost.

Brynn also won.

October 1, 2017

   Bailey has been anxiously awaiting the cooler weather so she could start wearing her fall clothes.  The 60 degree weather finally came this week.  She picked this outfit when we were school shopping in August.  I found the same one in Brynn's size.  Bailey was thrilled!

  Brynn was grumping when I was trying to make dinner, so I plopped her in the high chair.  Bailey helped by reading her stories. The headphones are so she could hear herself read over Brynn's cries.

  This is usually the look Brynn gives me when I try to feed her baby food.  She is not a fan.

   Friday Night Lights!  The high school homecoming game was this weekend.  I took all the kids, but the older girls spent the night with their friends.  If you ever get a chance to go to a football game with Bailey, do it!  She made this sign and proudly held it up every touchdown.  Of course, I had to tell her when we scored the touchdowns. 

  The homecoming mums were out in impressive force this year.  These ones lit up and blinked!

  Making the traditional conference weekend pies.  

  Erik finally convinced Ryan to play an NFL football video game with him.  As they are nine and ten years old, there's lots of trash talking, "In the house!" and "All day long!"  Here Ryan won on the final play of the game.

  A new thing to lick.  Once she discovers those huge tags, she'll never want to get out.