October 2018

I bought magnetic paper when Kaylee was a toddler because I saw an idea to make a paper doll craft with your own kid's photo but I could never figure out a way to make it work. I finally had this lightbulb moment where I realized how I could make it work so I took a picture of Brooklyn and found a few things to print off to dress her up.  I thought they were so cute that I ran to buy another pack of magnetic paper and we did pictures of Kaylee and McKenna too, plus a whole lot more accessories.  I thought it was so fun!  We were very entertained playing with them while we watched General Conference.  

Not only was this Conference historic with the announcement of the shortened church meetings, but it was also Kaylee's first time watching Women's Conference with me.  It was really fun to have that special thing to do with just her and I.  Even better was the fact that after Pres Nelson gave his four challenges to all the women, (1.Take a 10 day social media fast 2. Finish the BoM by the end of the year 3. Go to the temple regularly 4. Participate fully in Relief Society) we talked about what it meant for us when the prophet says something like that.  Since she doesn't do social media, Kaylee volunteered (with no prompting from me!) to give up all media for 10 days instead.  She also is going to read the Book of Mormon with me to finish it by the end of the year.  I was so proud of her! And it is great to have that time with her every day to read. 

We haven't gone to as many festivals and activities this year but we did hit two for fall.  One was a family night at OSU where they had crafts and food and games through the Alumni Association.  I was shocked how much they had because they do these family nights every month. 

The other was a festival we have been to a few times before at a garden center.  They have bounce houses, hay rides, giant pumpkin carving, the turtle lady, and carnival games to play.  

We were lucky enough to have Grandma come visit again!  Unfortunately, we went straight from hot summer weather to freezing cold.  But we still managed to have a lot of fun.  The first day we went to the Olentangy Indian Caverns and went to the petting zoo, played mini golf, went in a treasure maze and did gem mining.  

Saturday we trick-or-treating twice, one down Hilliard Main St and once in the Tuttle Mall. Then Grandma took Kenna birthday shopping which is all Kenna has been talking about for weeks! We also got to both attend the adult session of stake conference while Mom stayed and played with the kids. 

The girls went back to school on Monday and Brooklyn got to pick what she wanted to do with Grandma. We took her to the Conservatory so she could see the new children's garden and the interactive art display we love. Then it was already time to say goodbye.  I swear her visits feel shorter every time!

We had our ward Halloween party the Saturday before Halloween.  I had been planning on being an angel for a few weeks but didn't plan on Richard dressing up since he usually won't dress up with me anymore.  I was so happy and surprised that he said he would do a couples costume with me and he went as a devil.  We didn't think anything of our choice of costumes until we got to the church and multiple people commented on the fact that he must be really brave to dress up as Satan at a church function.  Oops!  

Kaylee also wanted her hair in little braids to go with her her Uma costume. I told her I would only do it once so we spent an hour and a half braiding her hair for the ward party and then we tried to keep them nice as best we could for the next couple days until Halloween (We also tried dyeing it blue but you couldn't see it at all).  It brought back lots of fun memories of doing these kinds of braids for girls camp!  And I thought they looked really cute with her costume.

We went trick-or-treating with some new friends in our ward that have a girl Kenna's age and it was really fun. There is even a older lady in our neighborhood who goes all out and buy presents for each kid who comes to her house.  AND still gives out a bunch of candy to each kid. She was very sweet and it was a great night for our kids.  This is the first year that they got really into sorting and trading their candy and it was fun to see them do the same kinds of things I would do with my siblings when I was little.

 

September 2018

Richard got two tickets to the OSU game from his boss and tried really hard to get me to go.  But since it was going to be 90 degrees for the first half and pouring rain the second, I had even less desire to go than usual.  Luckily, Kaylee was up for it and they got a fun date out of it.  They had to wait for over an hour for the rain to stop in the middle of the game but Kaylee was a trouper and they were gone pretty much the whole day. 

McKenna had to sneak in a daddy daughter date a few days later and of course she chose her favorite spot- the pet store. I wonder if she will ever get sick of that place? 

Because of the mess I had with moving and no time to potty train Brooklyn, I ended up having to give up her spot in the preschool we had signed her up for in February.  A few girls in our new ward were doing a preschool co-op and we decided to give it a try.  The first day starting with her screaming her head off and clinging to my leg and not wanting me to go so hopefully she will get used to it soon or I might have to drop out.  It's hard enough dropping my kids off when they are happy to go, it was killing me to do it when she was begging me not to leave!

The girls spent one entire Saturday making "potions".  I was shocked at how long it entertained them!  They had so much fun with it, they even face-timed Madeline to show her and got her making potions at her house too! It was a GIANT mess to clean up so this definitely isn't something I want them doing all the time but they definitely had fun with it!

Because Richard had to leave early and then was going to be at work really late on his birthday, we decided to celebrate his birthday the day before. We took him out to dinner and then had the Solano's over for cake.  It was also two days before Tati left to go to BYU-I so it was also good to get to say goodbye to her. 

I have been wanting to get a trampoline for a long time and so I kept my eye on facebook marketplace to see if we could get a good deal on one at the end of summer.  We finally found a really good one but it was 40 mins away from us.  We decided it was worth it and drove all the way up there and then spent about 2 1/2 hours on a very hot day trying to take it apart.  It was a terrible experience but it all ended up being worth it in the end!  The girls have been out there every day and it has been really fun to have our first big toy for our house. 

We finally had a gorgeous day and we wanted to get outside.  We hadn't been to the little hidden waterfall for years, probably since Brooklyn was born so I wanted to take the girls back.  I was excited to see their reactions but I was really surprised that they had no interest in it at all.  In fact, they barely glanced at it before asking if we could leave.  It kinda made me sad but we left and went to their favorite spot at the river and had fun there instead. 

August 2018

On July 31st we went to a bookstore where they were having a few fun activities to celebrate Harry Potter's birthday.  I entered a drawing for a gift basket and a few days later they told me I won!  I was so excited, mostly because I never win stuff like that and also because the basket had one of the wands that works at HP World!  Since Kaylee has been begging to go (and I have always wanted to), that will definitely come in handy one of these days!

I have been feeling that I need to do more things with my kids, especially creative crafty things like I used to.  I was searching Pinterest for an idea and came across a box slide someone had created on their stairs.  I must have been in an insane mood because I showed it to the girls and we decided to try it out!  I was a terrible mother and let Brooklyn go first and the boxes were too thin and she started bouncing halfway down and almost flipped forward and landed on her head!  Oops, maybe next time I shouldn't let the toddler try out my deadly activities first...  We added an extra layer of boxes and even put some blankets in between and finally got it working pretty good.  Brooklyn didn't trust me after that and wouldn't try it again and McKenna was terrified to try it but once she did she loved it.  I was impressed with how brave Kaylee was.  Even though she tried it once before we added the extra padding and said it hurt, she didn't hesitate at all to try it again the next time!  It ended up being a lot of fun and they had just as much fun tearing it apart and jumping on all the broken boxes when we were done.  I told them this was probably a once in a lifetime project though!  But we'll see if I ever get in a crazy enough mood, maybe it will happen again!

The girls started at their new school and I think they were both more nervous than last year.  This year they ride the bus and I have really missed walking them to school and seeing all the faces of the friends and teachers they talk about.  I was worried that Brooklyn would really struggle with them gone so I took her to the park and then out to eat at her favorite restaurant- Wendy's.  I think she actually really liked having mom all to herself again.  

One day when Richard was mowing the lawn, he almost killed this little frog but luckily he saw it in time.  The girls loved it and McKenna wanted to keep it.  She is obsessed about any kind of animal and spent two solid days outside doing nothing but taking care of (and probably torturing) this little guy.  She was so sad when we told her it was time to let him go!

I knew that I wanted to get a punching bag for Christmas this year but I was still feeling so stressed, anxious and bitter about our move that I was hoping I could punch some of my frustration away so I convinced Richard to give me my present four months early!  I was SO excited when it came and it has been exactly what I needed. The box it came in was enormous and the girls had so much fun playing in it.  We ended up making it into a Rapunzel tower which they decorated with markers and stickers and they played with it for a couple of weeks. 

July 2018

The girls get all kinds of crazy, completely impossible ideas of things they want to do from YouTube.  One that seemed more manageable was the Pancake Art Challenge so we decided to try it.  We put four different colors of pancake batter in squeeze bottles and we all designed whatever kinds of pancakes we wanted to.  It was a little more chaotic than I thought it would be, Brooklyn got burned on the griddle, and it was way harder to make them actually look decent than I thought!  But overall it was still fun and I'm sure we'll do it again now that we can learn from our mistakes!  Because it was a little intense I didn't get a ton of pictures but it was fun to see their creativity with what we tried to create.

We went to a friend's house for a 4th of July BBQ with a bunch of other people in the ward. We played a few games, the kids got to play in the water, and we had yummy food but it was crazy hot and humid!  Those are the days I really hate living here...  I didn't get any pictures except for capturing Kaylee and Maya covering themselves head to toe with shaving cream.  They definitely do not mind getting messy!  Brooklyn had a hard time adjusting to sleep after coming back from Utah so I just took her home for bed and Richard took the girls to fireworks at the park. 

Having to move this summer was more than just a little stressful.  The rental company would not budge an inch on the move out date even though we couldn't find another house to move into.  Six days before we had to move, we still had not signed a lease!  I'm not sure we've ever been so stressed!  Both Richard and I were having panic attacks and on Sunday we felt like we couldn't even breathe.  We decided we needed to get away from the house and try to relax so we went to one of our favorite places- the Scioto River to throw rocks and find seashells.  I'm not sure it helped us relax but it was nice to get away for a little bit.  

Even with all the stress, we still had to make it to Chick-Fil-A day for free food!  Kaylee was sick so we left her home and the rest of us got our spots on and went out to eat.  Chick-Fil-A is seriously the best!

We signed a lease for a new house just in the nick of time and got ready for a crazy move.  It was terrible timing because all of us got sick and Brooklyn had a double eye infection.  Moving day was one of the most exhausting days of my life!  Not only were we sick and had to do a ton of the moving ourselves (at least out of the old house, we did have a lot of people show up from our new ward), but the house was NOT ready for us and was DISGUSTING.  Everything was filthy, they had left tons and tons of garbage and the entire garage and front yard was littered with things they hadn't wanted to take with them.  It was such a disaster and took us forever to take care of their stuff before we could even bother with our stuff.  Not a moving experience I would wish on anyone!

One fun thing about the new house is the giant tub in the master bathroom.  The girls have loved playing in it and Brooklyn has asked me to take a bath every day.  Once we finally got things cleaned up, we are very happy with our new house and the girls are loving that they all get their own room here!

I love to see McKenna's creativity.  She has a really good way of bringing things to life that she envisions.  She wanted to put on a camp so she built a campfire out of paper, drew a sky with birds to put on the walls to make us feel like we were outside, and made us all sorts of games and activities for us campers to do.  It was so cute and creative! 

The conservatory has always been one of our favorite places in Ohio and they recently opened up a new children's garden/play area so we wanted to check it out.  They had a few water places to play in and lots of things to climb on and explore.  

I thought it was so sweet- we had only been to our new ward twice but one of the families was having a birthday party for their triplets who are Kaylee's age and they invited Kaylee to come so she could get to know the kids from her Primary class.  It was incredibly thoughtful of them to include her last minute and she had a blast at the party, especially because it was Harry Potter themed!