Which was followed by Thanksgiving

Sheesh I should have caught up on my blog.  I started this month and had the thought, "What did we do for Thanksgiving this year?"  It took me a LONG time to remember.  Embarrassingly long time.

But then I remembered and I am determined to write it down so I don't forget again!  Cause we had a really fun Thanksgiving!  We took off for Prescott, AZ to hang out with the Stouts.  They had just bought a new house they were remodeling and Jon came down with some guys to help them get a few of the big projects done.

Ashley and the kids and I played.  We had a great week.  We ate lots of good food, our kids played like they did when they saw each other every day.  Our babies tolerated each other, occasionally stealing a toy or two but generally getting along.  And we talked away in the non stop way we are always able to do together.

We had to take off Thursday for Phoenix because my parents were coming in town and we were going to hang with them for Owen's blessing.  So the Stouts changed Thanksgiving to Wednesday just for us.  Ashley made a killer, Martha Stewart beautiful turkey and it was all seriously delicious.

There was one part of the trip that was not so fun and its definitely embarrassing to admit out loud but it is combined with a part I would like to remember, so I feel like it needs to be recorded.  Please don't judge me too harshly.  So to get around, we would all pile into their Excursion and head around.  All of the babies were in car seats, and with a little double buckling, all 11 of us fit.  It was an official clown car.

One afternoon we ran several errands in a row.  By the time we got back in town from the new house, the kids were pretty hungry.  So we stopped by McDonalds to feed them all.  A few dozen chicken nuggets later we threw them back into the car and headed to Lowes to go find some paint samples for the new house.  We had been in Lowes for about 10 minutes when Ashley turned to me and said, "Where's Asher?"

We looked around, he wasn't there.  We went back to the previous section we had just been in.  He wasn't there.  At this point a store employee got word that a kid was missing and they called a Code Adam and shut down the whole store.  It was then I had the clear thought, he's not in the store.  I grabbed the keys and headed out to the car to see if he hadn't gotten out with us.  The minute I reached the car, I had the distinct impression that he was all the way back at McDonalds.  I was pretty doubtful, thinking someone would have noticed if he had been missing that whole time, but I hopped in the car and headed straight to McDonalds.  Then I saw a police car in the parking lot.

I just started crying as I walked into the store.  He was sitting on a bench, surrounded by McDonald employees eating an ice cream sundae.  He looked up at me when I walked into the store and said, "Mom!  I couldn't find you!"  The policeman asked me a lot of questions (super embarrassing by the way for your brain to choose that moment to really have to dig to remember your child's birthday).  He told me CPS was on their way and if they had beat me there they would have taken him away.  Oh my goodness I just can't even imagine what that would have been like.

I asked Asher where he was when we left the store and he told me he was hiding from the kids.  I told him that I had prayed to find out where he was and Heavenly Father had told me that he was at McDonalds.  We had a very sweet talk about the Spirit and how much God loves him and how much I love him.  It was a very sweet moment after a very terrible on preceeding it.

Asher still gets really nervous if I am heading to the car ahead of him.  "Don't leave me mom!"  About a month after it happened, he was putting on his shoes and I walked out to go load things in the car and he said, "Mom!  Don't forget Asher!  Remember that time you forgot me?  Don't do it again!"  That stung.  But all is well and a lesson was learned.

Then we got to head to Phoenix.  I remember so little about the order of things on this trip and I am sure I will screw something up.  But when we first got there Thursday night it turns out my family had decided to do a little Thanksgiving cooking so we got Thanksgiving two days in a row.  That I didn't have to cook.  Talk about a sweet holiday.

At one point, I took my kids for a walk around the Mesa, Arizona temple grounds.  I don't really remember what everyone else was doing but it was beautiful and a lot of fun.  I think the boys were golfing...

We got to visit some distant family from my mom's side.  A lot of people I barely remember but we had a great time visiting and eating.  Hey, I remembered way more than I thought I did!

Things that may or may not have happened in November

And the rest of 2014... with as much information as I can scrape together almost one year later.

Me: (at target) Rhode, get back in the car!
Rhode: mom i want to help you unload the cart. Girls don't have to do all the work, you know.

Jon found this old shirt he and his cousin made in the mall when they were jr high age.  Not sure men should be proud to be able to fit into a shirt they wore pre puberty....

We took the kids to see Big Hero 6.  We loved the show.  Jude was beastly and was uninvited from all further movie going outings.

Rhode gave a presentation in school... on something.  I'm sure he did a great job.  Even though his mom took a lousy picture.

Oh the Jude, that kid loves to feed himself.  And honestly I know I'm in the minority but I would way rather clean up the mess than have to spoon feed him all the time.  I'll wash that smily pudding face any day.

I have no idea if there is a story behind this picture or not but here's a cute story from Asher this month

Asher got out something after I asked him not to. I took it away and he was pretty ticked about it. I walked away and say on the couch for family scripture study. He came towards me with fire in his eyes and I thought he was about to get himself in big trouble.

When he reached the couch, he said, "mom, I am so mad! But... I'm also cold" and then gave me a great snuggle.

Oh this kid.

If anything else happened this month (i.e. large national holidays usually celebrated with travel/family) I don't remember.

The Rest of October

In mad blog catch up style, here is a random smattering of pictures from the month of October that I will try to remember their origin.  There will be a lot of inaccuracies and truth stretching, but that's mostly because my memory is worth about nothing these days.  And, like my father before me, I am very aware a little embellishment makes a story way better.

I took my kids to the pumpkin patch this year, as usual.  But this year I was feeling spendy and actually let them ride some rides.  

Scarlet and Rhode went in costume... pretty sure because they had dressed up for school.  But, no guarantees on that one.  Sydney tagged along too.  Or Jude has a twin I have not mentioned yet.  Duh duh duhhhh.

Jude didn't do a lot of wandering.  He just hung near my leg a lot.  He really likes to be held.  Like really.

I was feeling spendy until I got there and saw how much the tickets were.  Sheesh, are these carnies crazy!?  And why are there people walking around with handfuls of these tickets worth more than gold?

Asher spent some of his precious few tickets on the wagon ride.  I keep telling my kids they look more fun than they actually are.  They usually prove me wrong by loving it.

Babies!  Stop ruining the cut out pictures!  So the kids basically got to do two rides each with their tickets and they were out.  But right there at the end, some lady hands me another 15 tickets that they don't plan on using.  How many did you start with that you have this many extra?!  But I put that aside and stuck with grateful.  My kids did a few more slides and we called it a day.  See guys?  An example in record of me not being the cheapest mom in history.

Jon decided to coach the kid's soccer team this year.  So not only did we get to have two kids on the same team, but we also got to decide when all of the practices would be held.  It was brilliant on our part.  We had a cute little team and Jon did a great job with them.  Sometimes work would get in the way and I would have to step in, but luckily I am still better at soccer than 7 year olds.  Next year... well I may have to practice a little

The Henderson league photographer schedule was on a bad day for our team, so Jon just took the photos himself.  We gave them free to the players, pretty cute right?  Scarlet had a great soccer year.  She scored a goal almost every game.  She is not very fast, but she is really good at staying near the goal and finding her opportunity to shoot.  Rhode is still a little distracted while playing but he had some great in the game moments and definitely got a few goals.  

I finally decided it was time to drop the baby Jude pounds.  I signed up for a diet bet at dietbet.com.  You pay $35.  If you lose 4% of your body weight in 28 days, you get your money back and get to split the money of the people that didn't win. You have to submit photos to prove it. Here's my before.

To win I had to lose a little over 7 lbs.  I tried to keep my calories lower but I ate a lot of whole foods high in protein and I kept my treats to a bare minimum.  I also exercised every day.  In the end I lost 12 lbs!  The diet bet was major motivation for me.  I would walk into the kitchen and then think, no way am I losing 35 bucks.  Plus I made an extra $20 in the end.  Sweet deal.

Dress like a pirate day with free Krispy Kremes.  Best day ever.

In October, our cousin Owen arrived a little early to Brad and Jules.  His lungs needed a little more help so he spent a few days in the NICU.  We said some family prayers for Owen and Scarlet made this for him as well.  So glad he is a big healthy guy now!

I picked up matching shirts for my kids at the Disney Store and Scarlet wanted in on the matching action too.  The coordinating thing was more fun than I though it would be.

And a sad story.  We cleaned the church one Saturday and as we were wrapping up, the people in charge told my kids there was hot chocolate in the kitchen if they wanted some.  They rushed in there before I could get there.  Once I grabbed Jude and headed in there, I saw that they had put water into one of those old school coffee urns.  Then there were packets of hot chocolate nearby.  The water out of these suckers is so ridiculously hot and here are my kids filling cups to the precarious brim.  Asher was just about to get some when I set Jude down on the counter to reach out my hand to stop Asher.  At the same time, the water hit Rhode's hand and burned him, so he threw the cup... on the table where Jude was sitting.

I instantly threw him into the sink, clothes and all and started running cold water over him but the burn was big and nasty.  This happened through his jeans.

It was so brutal.  I had one sad baby.   But it has now cleared up and only the faintest of marks remains.

On a lighter note, this is how Asher decided to put on his flip flops one morning.

Scarlet loves a good pictures opportunity.  She has gotten so old looking this year.  It keeps freaking me out.

Whenever my kids climb to the top of anything, they call my name and say,  "I'm on top of the world, hey!" and sing the Imagine Dragons song to me.  I love it.

And this my crazy little Juder bug.

He LOVEs throwing the rocks in the front yeard.  Much to his dad's dismay.  But sometimes, if it will buy me ten minutes, I think its totally worth the sweep.

Everyone tells me he looks exactly like Asher.  I don't see it.  Probably too close to the situation to view it accurately.  He's just my Juders.