October 2016

This blog isn't in exact order of events in October, but it's all here :) I remember in October really thinking that Ella was getting a little personality. She started inteacting with her toys more and was starting to turn into the baby the kids were looking forward to. Since she's my last baby I've really tried to soak up all her babyhood and she's sure letting me. She won't fall asleep unless you rock her and now we spend a lot of time in the rocking chair.

We did our annual trip to the pumpkin patch and had a little visitor with us this year. My niece Brelee came up to visit for Fall Break and we had a blast having her here.  Kyles sister Kellie and my brother Chris live pretty close to each other and since Kellie and her kids were coming up we talked Brelee into hitching a ride with them. Macy and Brelee played all day every day with very little interruptions.  When Kellie comes up Bentley & Lincoln and London & Ava play so well together and Macy doesn't have a friend her age. It was a nice switch-up for her to have a friend too. We did a lot of crafts and finished it up with the pumpkin patch and our typical Trappers dinner and pie. Yum!

 There was one day that Kyle wanted to go to the temple and we really wanted to be with him. Instead of doing a session we decided to take the family and do a little lesson about how important the temple is. We got some pretty cute pictures of the kiddos and then walked around and sang primary talks and talked. It was a fun family trip.

 The girls school does a cute program called I'm A Kind Kid and they focus on being Bucket Fillers instead of Bucket Emptiers (fill someone's bucket with kind words and deeds). London and Macy both have gotten Bucket Filler awards this year and it's always nice to hear when your kids are good while you're away from them.

Speaking of kind kid- London is such a little Mom. She loves to carry around Ella, play with her, read her stories, and just love on her. I makes me wish I would have spread the kids out a little bit so they could remember having a baby in the family but they'll jus thave to soak up Ella like I'm trying to do :) 

Halloween this year was super fun! The kids had their Halloween Parade and got to dress up in the costumes and walk around the park. Bentley was very excited to see all the costumes and kids. There were lots of super heros and princesses. The next night (I think) was the 31st! The town did their annual Halloween Party which was a lot less crowded than last year thank goodness. They added a spooky hayride that the kids loved. Somewhere in October the Shumways threw a Halloween Party and invited just about everyone. We had a fun scavenger hunt that I swear we should of won- we went so fast I'm not sure how the old people beat us :) Kyle was Jake from State Farm and I was a Petrified Forest Marathon Finisher. We had ran the water stations for the Marathon that day and it's all I had haha.

September

September! It seems so long ago. This is why I love blogging right when it happens, you remember so much more of the little day to day details that you take for grated. Our days mostly were spent getting the kids to school, Kyle to work, and little Ella sleeping and eating. I'll go over the highlights and then just add some cute pictures we got throughout the month.

We always go Labor Day camping in September but I was pretty nervous to take an infant in the cold. Instead, we opted to go up early one morning and just go home that night. The kids were a little confused about going camping but not taking the tent. We usually just hang out at camp but this year we decided to go check out the Ice Caves. We brought the baby carrier for Ella, strapped her to me and headed down into the cave. Getting into the cave was a little tricky but it was smooth sailing after that.

London was born on Labor Day and her birthday is always pretty close to it. We are going to have to do a birthday party at home pretty soon but this year we were able to do a party camping again. She got lots of shopkins and loved her chocolate cake.

Bentley, for some reason, was having a particularly hard day and didn't want to go to Primary. We ended up just taking him to Grandma's house and he hung out with Kyle's brother Brent and Marie. Brent came down for a couple months to get some medical help and then headed back to New York.

This years Homecoming Parade was much different this year- we just had Ella and Bentley and Kyle was actually able to watch it with us. It was low key but the kids got a ton of candy and had fun. We met up with the Larson's and Mollie and Bentley had a great time sitting next to each other.

Our friends, Steve and Beth Miller, were headed off to a mission to Madagascar (so cool!) and we decided we needed one last date night with them and the Reidheads before they left. We usually do dinner in Snowflake or Show Low but we decided to make a whole afternoon of it and go to Flagstaff. Kyle and I found a fun game on Pinterest about Uno Bowling and decided to try it out. First we stopped at Oregano's and introduce them to Pazookie (a pizza cookie)- which the loved. So yummy. Then we went bowling! It was so fun and I'm pretty sure the entire bowling alley wanted to join us. You bring a deck of cards and just draw from the top. Each number had a different way that you had to bowl (spin in a circle, hop on one leg, other players choose). We love our Miller/Reidhead dates and are really going to miss them! That wraps up September!

August!

August! August was quite the month! At least the first week was. First we had Bentley's birthday party! He turned 4 this year and wanted a party with Uncle Brians bounce house. We are so lucky that they own one and let us borrow it. We just let the kids play outside, had cake and ice cream, and then opened presents. It was low-key but the kids had a ton of fun between the bounce house and the trampoline. Bentley wanted a Jake and the Neverland Pirate cake and for whatever reason every store in Flagstaff, Holbrook, and Winslow decided to not stock up on Jake and the Neverland Pirate anything that month. Luckily I had Derek and Alison and my parents coming up from the valley that stopped and got a few supplies. Thank you!

The next day we blessed our new little Ella in church. Kyle gave a beautiful blessing and Ella cried. All went well :) Steven, Chris, and a few of their kids made the venture up as well as Kellie's family and Mike and Trish. We have such supportive and awesome families- we need to do better at that!

 The following Wednesday was the kids first day of school! Macy is in 2nd with Ms. Alley, London is in Kindergarten with Mrs. Allison, and Bentley has moved on to 4 year old preschool with Mrs. Ceccareli.

 London has been so excited to go to school and eat breakfast in the cafeteria. Macy despises it but is a great helper and will go with London in the mornings if London wants her to.

 Now it's just me and this sweetie in the mornings. She has started her first smiles and she's so sweet! She's a fiesty thing and definitely knows exactly what she wants when she wants it- but she's sweet when she wants to be :)

 Macy, London, and Bentley are constantly wanting to be involved with whatever Ella is doing- they love having a baby around!

 August 6th we took quite the adventure. Kyle's brother Keith is staying near the Washington/Oregon border right now and Marie wanted someone to go up to visit him with her and asked us to tag along. We flew Allegiant airlines and they fly out on Thursday's so we arrived in Washington on Thursday, drove to Yakima, and then drove the rest of the way to Seattle on Friday. We spent quite the day walking around and seeing the sites. We hit the most touristy places like the Market Center (That had the most GORGEOUS flowers) and did the underground tour of the city. We had dinner at a fancy little restaurant that was way too expensive for the portions we got. I ordered crab legs and really just got a leg. Marie got a caesar salad and man was it fancy- they didn't even cut it up! It was just like 6 pieces of whole romaine lettuce. Then we hit the Space Needle and called it a day. The next day Marie and Kyle went and saw Keith while I got to hang out with one of my life long BFF's Whitney! We hung out at the hotel, took some beautiful pictures of Ella, and then went to eat and did some shopping. We hung out until Kyle and Marie got back and then Kyle and I went to a really yummy place for dinner while Marie stayed at the hotel. We ventured over to Whitney's house and spent the evening laughing and hanging out. On Sunday we drove around the country for way too many hours and then flew home. It was a great trip!

 My Mom came up and watched the kids for us so they wouldn't miss the 2nd and 3rd day of school. She's awesome like that. Kyle got a super cute picture of London being the saddest/cutest little ladybug.

 The next weekend (so like the teen something) we went back down to the valley for Ryan's homecoming! He just got home from Russia and gave a great talk. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Kyle's family.

 And the big news of the month... Macy lost another tooth!! I think we are up to 4!

 I just had to document this sweet baby's hair. Right after a bath- this mane is crazy! Check out that frow! Macy was a little concerned that Ella didn't have a favorite "stuffy" yet so she let her borrow the beanie baby that Barkley had given a nose job too. Oh the love.

The kids did great in school and are loving their teachers. Ella is doing good- but we did have to switch her up eating a little bit. She was a good nurser (well, she ate) for the first month of her life and then one day it just all went down hill. We probably went a week with her screaming during every feeding and things just weren't going well. She had a check-up coming up and I decided to talk to the doctor about it. He was a concerned because she was born in the 20th percentile, lost a little weight (normal!) and then got back up to the 20th percentile, but now was down to the 8th. He wanted me to give her some formula to see if that would help the screaming and weight gain. I thought a lot about it and decided I would just pump and see if that would help. Well, it did. She wasn't crying at feedings anymore and after 2 weeks was back up to the 20th percentile. If she were my only child, I would've totally kept up on pumping- but after a month, I was done. It was way too much work for this mom. She is gaining weight and eating MUCH better now. Everyone's happy :)