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.