Who Doesn't Love a Kid in Costume?

We love Halloween out here. We had party after party and the kids just adored it all. Here are a few pics of the kiddos in costume:

The Bitty Bat

The Rocket/Helicopter/Airplane
Whatever Duncan was feeling like that particular day

Sleeping Beauty

Rosetta: Tinkerbell's Friend

Cinderella

Different Definitions

So, I am pretty sure that in the past two days I have said the phrase, "Duncan, BE SOFT TO YOUR SISTER," hundreds of times. Sometimes I feel like I am constantly putting out flames and stopping WWIII. In the past two days Duncan has:

Hit Grace with his hand
Hit Grace with Lightening McQueen
Hit Grace with Thomas the Tank Engine
Hit Grace with his sippy cup
Hit Grace with the King and Chick Hicks
Pushed Grace into the window
Kicked Grace so hard in the face that he split her lip
Bit Grace ON THE BACK hard enough to draw blood

And honestly, this is just what I remember. I'm sure there were more encounters. So, today in a fit of exasperation I had this experience with Duncan:

Katie: "Duncan, can you please be soft? Why can't you be soft to your sister? Please, show me how you are soft."
At this point Duncan looked at me, looked at my chair, and then proceeded to head butt the chair and then chest bump it.
Katie: Completely flabbergasted

Well, I guess if that is his definition of "soft" no wonder we are experiencing difficulties. I really need to higher a wrestling buddy for him or something.

To Utah and Back

So, a couple weeks ago Ricky and I flew out to Utah. We kind of made a spur of the moment trip to give Charlotte a name and a blessing surrounded by family. We were lucky because Ricky had an entire weekend off. We flew out of here Friday morning, had a family portrait taken Friday afternoon, stayed up until all hours of the night (midnight for me, 2 a.m. for Ricky) playing these mind numbing quizzes on sporacle.com with my mom, Stew, and Emily (this website is so addictive!, try Time Magazine covers), blessed Charlotte on Saturday morning, hung out at This is the Place State Park on Saturday afternoon with the fabulous Irion clan +Auntie Em, watched the babies run around playing "You Can't Catch Me" with Grandpa, made sure Nana snuggled Charlotte, finally went to bed, woke up, said good-bye to Ricky and then started a week just as jam packed as the weekend.
It was such a great trip. Besides giving half the family stomach flu and the other having coughs and aches, we really played and played. We really are blessed with such fabulous family members. Thanks for making our trip fantastic! We adore you all!

Our very serene Charlotte. She was perfect and looked like a little angel in the same blessing dress that Grace wore. My fantastic grandma and mother-in-law made this treasure. It is quite a piece of work.

Our attempts at a family picture! Yes, included in our family are
Chick Hicks and Lightening McQueen.

Natural History Museum
The kids loved the dinosaurs and insect section. I'm telling you, wolf spiders
are huge, scary, and incredibly disgusting.

All the Cousins! (well, minus Duncan. He was in the car refusing to put
on the Pooh Bear costume. To give him some credit it was like 80 degrees
and he probably would have roasted in that costume.
He would have looked cute though.)

Our Adventure at This Is the Place State Park
Ashlyn, Grace, and Ali.

Ok, this one makes me tear up. Gracie and her closet cousin Ali. We love this girl to pieces.

Look at these good looking people. Ricky and his brothers and sister. That adorable sister Lindsay is heading off to St. Petersburg, Russia in January to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is one amazing lady!

Sweet Duncan and the sheep. He loved these guys.

One cute 7 Week Old

Just had to share. How could I not?? This little bug is a dream baby. Love her to pieces.




Just the look on Charlotte's face is priceless to me. She has some very loving siblings.

Hanging Out With Some Pumpkins

Today we participated in one of the mandatory fall activities: going to a pumpkin patch. Don't get me wrong, I adore the fall. I really do but today was so weird. Today it was hot.
Ok, just for the record, it is never this hot in Wisconsin in October. It was a balmy 80 degrees today. 80 degrees!! It is like we live in California or something. Today we left the house only to almost sweat to death at the pumpkin patch. I'm in a sweater. Grace and Charlotte are in long sleeve shirts. We had planned to stay at the farm for a while. Pick some apples, pick a pumpkin, have a bowl of chili, some hot chocolate, go on a hay ride, you know, just enjoy a nice fall day. Ok, after we waited in line to buy tickets to the hay ride and then waited in line again to get on the hay ride and then waited in line again to leave the pumpkin patch, all without shade, we called it a day.
Even if we didn't get any apples we did get some fabulous looking pumpkins, some great pictures, and a great memory. Plus, Ricky got a very bright red forehead.
Suckered our friends Anna and Tim Hassell to come with us. We love having them come anywhere with us. We get great conversation, tons of laughs, and two very helpful adults. They pretty much become our nannies. Oh, and they brought our friend from the branch, Nile. He was dragged along too. Good sport.

Love Languages

Ok, when you have a newborn baby and two other smallish children you really can't leave the newborn on the floor without supervision. It doesn't go well because the five love languages of toddler love are:

1.Smothering
2. Touching A TON!
3. Talking very loudly in ears
4. Patting a.k.a. hitting
5. More smothering

These languages do not go over very well with the newborn. I guess the toddlers aren't reading her memos when she mentions that her love languages are eating, gentle cuddling, and diaper changing.
Usually, mom of above mentioned toddlers and newborn, does not leave the newborn unattended but this morning was crazy and the baby was left in the room with her brother and sister for a moment. Here is what this mom saw when she came back:

Now, this may not be an official love language but I think this may be one of the sweetest moments I've witnessed between little Charlotte and Duncan. Duncan is actually sharing his prized McQueen car with his sister. It really was such a sweet moment. I sat there for a minute watching and watched as Duncan put McQueen on Charlotte and said, "Charlotte's car." That is quite a triumph because this kid lives and breathes Cars. If that wasn't all, I also witnessed Grace's love for Charlotte later in the day:Yup, Gracie just decking Charlotte out for a day on the town. Just making sure the little lady looks good. Good thing this little girl is one of the calmest little souls because she sure is smothered, touched, "shouted" at, "patted," and smothered some more all the time. Love this girl and her darling siblings.

When did this happen?

How in the world do I have a little girl who is already going to school? Didn't I just graduate myself? Sigh. Back here in the good 'ol Midwest there is this thing called K-4. This is a grade commonly referred to as "pre-kindergarten." It is exactly what it sounds like. It is a class that is preparing kids for kindergarten. Grace goes every afternoon to the elementary school down the street. She brings a drink, has a snack, brings home a folder filled with notes for me to sign and assignments. She goes on field trips, will be the star of the week sometime, and learns about letters, numbers, and how to socialize with other little four year olds. She comes home and talks to me of her teacher, the bell, playing on the playground and making up puppet shows. I know, she is not old enough to be doing this.
Is someone making sure she doesn't fall down the slide? Does her teacher know she has a hard time getting her jacket on and off still? Do the other kids know she adores My Little Ponies and loves to imagine and pretend? Does she know how much Duncan and I miss her when she goes and how it brightens my day to see her smile when I pick her up? Does she understand that while I cringe to buy her 5T clothes and to send her off to school I am also beyond thrilled that she loves learning, her teacher, and growing up? This parenting stuff sure isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be.

And who said this little bug could already be 4 weeks old? Come on kids, stop growing up. I'm not emotionally prepared for this.
I was reading Real Simple magazine the other day and I came across a quotation that perfectly explains my emotions right now.

"Living with your kids under the same roof is a long exercise in simultaneously wanting them to reach the next phase of development and wishing time would stop completely. Once your child is potty trained, you long for those chubby legs squirming under your grasp on the changing table. Once your child can brush his own teeth, you miss the silly clown act you had to do to get him to open his mouth for you. And as soon as your child is old enough to schedule his own playdates you feel a pang of sadness every time you watch him walk out the front door without so much as a backward glance." -Kristin Van Ogtrop

This describes me to a "t" right now. I want Charlotte to sleep through the night but I also cherish the moments I spend looking at her at 3 a.m. without any distractions. I want Duncan to talk and communicate and to learn not to scream but I love his messed up sentence structure. I want Gracie to learn how to tie her shoes and buckle herself in her booster seat but I honestly tear up thinking about her turning 5. So, there you go. I'm an emotional basketcase who can go from laughing one minute at something Duncan does to crying the next because I need him to stay my baby. Anyway, life definitely marches on.

On a completely different note, how in the flip do I have a month old baby and still manage to look 5-6 months pregnant depending upon the shirt. I'll never get used to this "having a baby thing but still look pregnant." What's up with that?