I forgot it was October

I've been told its fall. I mean I guess that makes sense because its October 1st, but its still 105 outside. I guess we don't get fall here.

To be totally honest I don't really care but I am sick of wearing my summer clothes. They are so tired. Its time for a change in the wardrobe but I guess that doesn't happen here. Oh the things we are learning. 

September was awesome.

Ethan turned 29 and football started again. 

Kelsey started school and plays with Jordyn and Kathryn EVERY DAY

Madison learned to crawl, nap, stand, scale, and eat solid foods comfortably

Cami finally hung up pictures in the house, painted a dresser, and made a skirt that accidentally fits a 12 year old but a skirt none the less

Arizona was hot.

This phone is my nemesis right now. The girls fight over it ALL. THE.TIME! If Madi has it, Kelsey wants it. If Kelsey has it Madi wants it. Kelsey drags it around and teases Madison and I swear that Madison knows she is teasing because when Madison has it she looks at Kels and smiles.
Every now and then when Kelsey is gone or when Madison is asleep, each girls gets time by herself with the phone. You would think its Christmas when that happens.

Not much to say other than Kelsey sprayed her with the hose. I mean we were outside running through the sprinklers but still. Luckily Madison LOVES the water and tried to eat the sprinkler afterwards anyway, but still :)

Happy Birthday!!!

By the end of September we were able to go outside and play in the mornings. Our house faces East and West so in the mornings our front yard is totally shaded and about 10 degrees cooler than the back. The mornings have also started getting so much cooler. We even saw 75 once! Pretty much every morning from the time Ethan leaves until about 9 we play with the girls, ride bikes, visit with the neighbors, and play chalk.

We took Kelsey so a little amusement park in Encanto AZ and she had a blast. I just love how grown up she looks in this picture.

Kelsey and I went to IKEA one Saturday while Madi was sleeping and I lost her. I was looking around and I found her in this "library" "reading." It was so adorable. (We talked about running away from mom after it was cute)

BYU had another incredible game vs Boise State. The girls were asleep so Ethan couldn't celebrate as much as he wanted too, but that didn't stop him from being as happy.

I mean...

Madison loves to stand up! This is how she greets us when she wakes up. We really need to lower her crib.

 

She also figured out stairs but only one time. She climbed up one, sat down and fell over. So actually no, she can't do stairs. 

 

 Shopping with mom

Kelsey was trying to be helpful and put her water bottle on the counter. She chose to put it on the tallest counter and when she tipped it, to put it down, she poured it all over her face. It took her a minute to realize what she was doing wrong. It was so funny to watch her process the whole thing.

Ethan rode a bull

Kelsey and I went to the Children's Museum

Killing time at the park

We were in Gilbert and decided to stop at the temple. By the time we got there Kelsey and Madison were both asleep. Since we were on our way home we didn't wake them, but my goodness it was beautiful and HUGE!!!!

We are not potty trained. I don't really want to talk about it, but in September we did have one successful potty attempt. We tried to bribe her to continue this habit but it didn't work. However, we had a win and we will take what we can get.

Scorpions under black light (we now scan the girls rooms at night. It gives me peace of mind)

I made a skirt! It fits a 12 year old, but its a skirt!

Kelsey is obsessed with making "houses" lately. She builds herself into a complete semi-circle with anything that she can find. Once inside her circle she will read, or cook, or feed babies, or work on her computer, or work at her office, or call people on her phones, or whatever, but she will only do these things if she is circle with toys. It would be cute, but she gets very territorial about anything in and around her house. She always builds these houses on the floor in little sisters reach and so it has presented us with MANY learning opportunities about sharing and playing with babies that now can crawl.

But we still love this face so much!

Ethan recently attended an Eagle Court of Honor. "Do you think any one will notice that I haven't gotten a new shirt since I was 12?"

I can not express enough how much this girl loves water!

Its exhausting being awesome

 Kelsey grabbed my phone while I was doing something and then proclaimed, "Mom! I took a picture of baby Belle." I don't know why this cracks me up as much as it does.

Sometimes BYU plays really really REALLY bad. So bad in fact that they don't score and we have to turn the game off. I'm not even mocking him. It was a sad game.

I learned how to trim a palm tree. The thorns were brutal but it was a lot of fun.

 

This is how I do sit ups now. Its way more fun

And there you have it. September.

October 1

Its October 1st 2015 and I haven't blogged in about a month. I am having a real hard time deciding how/if I want to keep blogging. Its been hard because there are so many ways to journal your pictures now a days that I am noticing the same pictures over and over. I love my kids and think they are awesome, but having the same pictures in 4 different spots might be a little excessive. So I write this to my future kids:

Before you judge me and think that Kelsey has way more post than you do, please stop and take a few things into consideration:

 

1.Yes. She does. When you have your first baby you too will understand.

2. Its not out of more love for her, its out of mom's availability and laziness levels. They ebb and flow: also something you will learn as you get older. I was baby 5 and still felt very loved so we can talk in person if you are still bothered.  

3. Learn this lesson sooner than I did in life: things change and change is okay. Its okay to not do the same thing every year for Christmas and its okay to not do the same thing for all your kids. The sooner you learn to change and adapt the sooner you will just learn to love everything about life. Change is hard, but it is going to happen. Learn to deal with it positively and know that just because you might have lasagna instead of turkey for Christmas dinner, that doesn't mean that Christmas is cancelled. It might just mean that clean up will be easier giving you more time to watch Muppets!!!! 

4. That being said, I love our family journal and hope to find a happy medium between living our lives and writing about living our lives. While I do that bear with me and know that I love you all so much! You are my world!!! Please know that! 

Mobile

This post is about 4 weeks over due, but yes its true. Madison can crawl! 

How this happened is beside me. I tried putting her in dresses to slow her down and tried to push her over, but much to my dismay she can now crawl. She is still really slow which is hilarious, but she gets there. She just wants to be where everyone is and much to KELSEY's dismay that typically means around Kelsey's toys. We thought we knew how to share but we are quickly learning that we didn't actually know a thing in the category.

"Kelsey. Why is Madison in the hall?"
"Oh. Well she was getting my stuff so I slided her away."

Before she figured it out, Madison would put her feet on the ground and stick her butt in the air and just stand there. It always freaked us out because if she slipped she would fall on her face, but luckily that never happened. She also would stick her bum in the air and then put her face down and scoot her face on the ground. I never caught this on camera but it was hilarious. And then she did the typical things like drag one leg, rock on her bum, rock back and forth, etc. But alas she does it and does it right now. Its only a matter of time before she gets really fast.

My favorite thing about her crawling is that when she is in a hurry she starts panting and laughing. Its so cute! I also love listening to her practice. Sometimes Kelsey and I will go into Kelsey's room and Madison will be in the front room and we call for her, and then we can hear her come. It takes a while but she gets there. Its actually less mean than it sounds!

For the most part Madison can get where she needs to be, but sometimes she tackles obstacles that are just a little too big and she gets stuck. I wish I would have filmed this instead of taken a picture. It was so funny. 

 I love when babies crawl and put things in their mouth. They are so cute!

Now that we can move we HATE being confined. We have since packed up the exersaucer.

Teaching Preschool

Kelsey and I have been loving preschool. She love the social aspect of it and I love that I get 6 weeks of one child for every one week of teaching. Its a win win.
That being said, when I taught the letter A for a week, it really was a lot of fun and the kids are so well behaved.

I don't remember much about the week that I taught but here is a rough outline of how the day went:

Kids come, find their letter and sit on it
We look at our story board (that KaMilli made) and figure out the weather, day, month, and time
We have stories and snack
We talk about our letter (with stories, tracing, outlining, games, singing, dancing etc)
We have a craft, game, an/ or activity
We have play time

There are a lot of kids but it really is a lot of fun.