Misc October

I never thought the day would come, let alone before Greta even turned 3! But I signed her up for a dance class. My sister told me about a friend of her's that was doing a pretty simple class in her basement. Once a week for 45 minutes for $23. She got REALLY excited about the idea of doing it and I thought it would be fun for her to have something that was all hers to do, since she seems to get left behind a lot when Harvey is doing things. So we signed up a month late but she was so excited to go!

She was super shy the first day and Cami, the teacher, said she barely did anything. Haha. That's kind of what I expected and figured this was a low cost way to see if it was a total waste. But, ever since the first one she's been a lot better about staying and participating. She really likes it! We'll see how her first "concert" goes!

There are lots of sleeping pics scattered through here, just fyi.

Harvey's megaladon.

They wanted to go visit Russell. Or maybe they were taking him the lego's we got him from LEGOLAND. I can't remember. But they were so cute walking together with the umbrella's.

I remember this picture making me happy. Harvey staged it for us. He wanted me to hold both girls in front of the little puzzle thing he had put together. It just makes me feel happy. I have plenty of body image and self hate issues but this picture feels so happy. So content with my role as a mom and who I am. I don't think I look ugly and I have my little people all scooped up around me and life is good. And none of the other stuff of life that creeps in to try and rob peace and happiness don't seem to matter. (But let me tell you - as I'm typing this I'm in a really grumpy mood and don't feel any of those things, so it's nice to look at this and remember that most days are not like today and there is much happiness and today will end and hopefully tomorrow will be better).

Tanner got to go to a baseball game in Colorado over conference weekend. I had to work Sunday night so we went down Sunday morning to watch conference and hang with my parents. Then they watched them that night and sent me lots of pictures of their fun :)

Harvey asks me a lot lately to take his picture. Hahaha. Little model.

His secret stash of lego things he's created. I love it.

Planking at McDonald's. Haha. We met one of my ministering sisters there while Harvey was at school.

And this little miss made her official cross over into walking this month. I think it was October 18th that my babysitter texted and asked if Lottie was walking. All I had ever got her to do is a few steps (maybe 5) from a chair to me or in between Tanner and I. Apparently she decided that day to start going for it more herself. Awesome (but sad she started the day I wasn't there). These videos are a few days apart. The first one I think was the day or 2 after she started and then the bottom was like a week later. Catching on like a champ!

We had some really nice fall days that we tried to make the most of. Didn't get up hiking as much as I would have liked, but the kids had fun at the parks!

We made some rearrangements with cars. Tanner sold the Porsche back to Mason, which was sad and I felt bad we needed to do it, but it made it so we could pay off all our debt! Which was huge! And then we sold the Subaru and Tanner got a sweet truck. A year weight has been lifted off my chest and head and soul. Haha. It is so glorious. And I don't miss the Subaru at all and really like the truck. And both cars actually fit in the garage. It's fabulous!

More art work/school work from Harvey :)

Only a couple more months and I will have reached my goal of going to the temple every month! I love it. Wish it wasn't so complicated to find a day to go and figure out what to do with the kids. But it's been so nice to go regularly again. And I REALLY love the Ogden temple.

More staged photos' by the kids. They specifically placed these animals and Greta wanted her picture by them.

Another "take our picture" moment from Harvey.

This one too. Hahaha.

He created this and I'm not sure when we'll be allowed to destroy it and put it away, but he wanted a photo of it.

We attempted the zoo one day with Laura which seemed like a really good idea. It was probably my least favorite zoo experience ever. I'm trying to remember the good parts of it but it was mostly just hard. The kids were mostly awful. Whiney, crying, fighting, etc. And Lottie was so hard. Laura rode with us so we didn't have space for big strollers, so we took our wagons. Which should have been fine but Lottie would NOT stay in it or sitting down, so she almost head dived out of it multiple times and ended up having to walk or be held the whole time. And it was SO crowded. There were a bunch of field trips that showed up right as we did and so I was super annoyed and overwhelmed by that. Ugh. 

We actually did get to see the tiger eating, which I feel like half the time we don't even see him at all, so at least that part was cool. And the weather was amazing so that was nice too.

Figured now that Lottie is well past one, I ought to at least let her use a spoon. Harvey had it mastered by about 8 months I feel like. I've been more lazy with wanting to let her try it. But now that I have, she doesn't want to eat unless she's in control - and that is with everything.

Another park day, before our family Halloween party at my moms. It started out windy and overcast and way colder than I thought, but then it finally turned to amazing 70 degrees and felt hot. The kids had a lot of fun. Brooke met us there for a little bit too. Yay for fun parks and beautiful fall weather.

Probably one of the last park days of the year. This time we went to one in Bountiful and met Brooke there again. This time we actually had more opportunity to talk and interact. It was a lot of fun!

A rare opportunity for a date night! We went and saw Free Solo, a movie about the guy who free solo climbed El Capitain in Yosemite. Holy cow it was AMAZING! So cool. And then we went to Sonora for dinner. So fun all around. Great food, movie, conversation and company! These sure don't happen enough!