October

If you asked me what having 3 kids was like, I'd tell you that it is like running around all day always feeling busy, having 10 things to do at once, and then at the end of the day having nothing to show for it.

Well, this has been a really busy month, but I was able to make it up to my parent's house for the first time since Reddic was born. The fall colors were so pretty. I miss fall.

My mom and Reddic on his first trip to Lakeside

When you are 2, going to grandma's house is all about eating candy and playing with sticks, and if you are really lucky you can do both things at the same time.

Love this picture!

I just can't look at this picture without laughing. Maybe you would just have to know my mom to understand. And no, this picture was not posed at all. 

Love this one too!

The main reason I went up was to see my brother Jeffrey. He's going to BYU, but came down for the weekend. I finally got to play board games with him for I think for the first time since he came home from his mission! I love my nerdy board-game-loving family!

Reddic turned 2 months old on Monday. One one hand I feel like the time has just flown by way too fast since he was born, but on the other hand I feel like we've had him forever and that he has always been part of our family.

On Monday we carved pumpkins for FHE. Grady was my helper. We (I) made a scary pumpkin. Luke helped dad.

 I title this picture "Being 4 in 2011".

Saturday night we went to our ward's trunk-or-treat. The big boys were super heros and Reddic wore the good ole turtle costume that the other boys wore when they were babies. Call me lazy or call me frugal, but I spent $0 on costumes this year and put about 5 minutes of effort into the costumes. Next year I'll do better. I still think they were pretty cute though. I might try to take pics again on Monday of them in their costumes since Grady was just not in the mood for it.

My heros.

Well at least today I can say that I did accomplish something. I updated my blog. :)

...and he smiles

Apparently we take our Pee Wee soccer pretty seriously

Luke icing his knee before practice today. Don't worry. He just had a tiny little scrape from the day before on his knee.

Another Luke funny from this week- We got a new phone book dropped off in our front yard this week. Luke excitedly ran out to retrieve it and said " I think it's a smart phone!". I'm still laughing about that one. Love this kid!

The Sweetest Thing

On Sunday night we made a fort, or fork as Grady calls it,  for the boys to sleep in between their beds in their room. They turned on their kids CD, played with their flash light, stayed up together, and had a lot of fun. That was pretty adorable on it's own, but then when Ty and I went to check on them after they had fallen asleep, we found them holding hands. My heart melted! I love how these two are becoming best friends. They really do love and care about each other, which is not something I could have said last year at this time! They still fight all the time, but they are friends now too. I recently read an article about siblings that said that on average siblings fight every 15 minutes. That made me feel a lot better. It is normal for my kids to fight all the time, but the point of the article was how important it was for the children to act like they love each other at least for a little bit in between the fighting ever 15 minutes.

My kids in their fork.

On Sunday after church, I thought my kids looked exceptionally cute, so I made them sit together on the couch for a picture. I wasn't expecting anything great. They absolutely refused to touch each other. Oh well, at least they all look somewhat happy!

Friday was Ty's birthday. Luke was insisting on getting Ty a hamster (zhu zhu pet) and a hamster house for Ty's birthday. Luke also really wanted to get his dad a hamster birthday cake. Somehow I got away without buying another zhu zhu pet or hamster house. I did put the hamster we already had on Ty's cake. It was actually smores brownies this year instead of cake. I called this beautiful creation "Hamster in a Ring of Fire."

It was also Fair weekend here in Graham County. Growing up, I never went to the county fair, but around here it is a pretty big deal. They even give the school kids a day off from school! I got to judge the music competitions this year at the fair. Thursday night I judged instruments, and Saturday morning I judged singing. It was a good experience. I also got to hang out with my friend Jordan Keith who was one of the other judges. Friday morning we went to the parade with my mother-in-law. Check out that dude riding backwards on his horse!

Saturday evening we went to the fair. I love going to the fair and just walking around and seeing everything there is to see.  I will say that taking the kids to the fair was a lot easier before Luke realized that he wanted to ride all those expensive rides, eat all the expensive treats, and buy all the expensive toys. Gone are the days when just looking at all the cows was enough entertainment! We let him ride one ride, and somehow we managed to get some free cotton candy. He was pretty satisfied with that.

Thursday night was a big night for Luke. He got his yellow belt in karate! They put the kids through a pretty strenuous work out, and he had to do his form in front of Master DePalma who came down from Gilbert, and his teachers. He did pretty good for only being 4 years old and this being his first belt exam. I've been really impressed with this karate program and the instructors. I was very proud of Luke that night!

Luke doing his Dragon Coma form in front of Master DePalma and his teachers.

Luke receiving his yellow belt.

After the belt exam we went out to celebrate!

When we got home he wanted to put on his new yellow belt and do some karate moves in it. That night in his prayers he prayed that he could get his orange belt (the next belt), then all the different colors of belts, and that he could get his black belt. So cute! 

The Usual Stuff

Where to start? Well, Reddic is getting bigger. He is loosing some of his fuzz. His hair line is no longer connected to his eye brows on the sides and his forehead is considerably less hairy. His ears still have plenty of dark fuzziness left on them though. I love my hairy baby! He is gaining weight really well and out grew those size newborn clothes and diapers a while ago. Most exciting though, I now know that when he looks at me he recognizes me and sometimes he even gives me a smile! I love those little smiles. I'm pretty sure that his eyes are going to be blue, and I'm starting to see a little bit of blonde hair growing in. I hesitate to say this, but he is starting to sleep better at night. Hopefully, those nights of him waking up 5x a night are behind us! I'm loving having a baby again.

Now that the weather is nice, and my body is feeling good, the kids and I have been going on walks again.

How could you not love this little face?!!!

Reddic loves his little activity mat. I love this picture, because if you look closely you can see his reflection in the mirror of the star. It is almost like he is looking at his reflection.

Reddic falling asleep at random times and places.

It's me! I do exist!

Grady making one of his signature faces.

We even attempted to make banana chocolate chip cookies one day. Everything was much easier to do with only 2 kids. It probably took me most of the day to recover from this mess, but it was worth it!

I thought I could use some new pictures of Grady, since I wasn't very satisfied with his 2 year pics. I glad I did. I love these.

My personal favorite.

This last weekend Necia and her family came to visit. I felt so special that she came to see me! We had fun! My parents even stopped by on Sunday for a few hours on their way home from Tucson with Devin and Martin their exchange student. It was a regular party. Here's a picture of Traejan. I love this kid!

Necia, looking very good, and Traejan

I also did my first real photo shoot post baby! It feels good to be back in the photography saddle again. This couple were married a year ago, and just got sealed in the temple. She's a friend of mine, and she asked me to do a few pictures of just her and her husband at the temple on their special day.

Ty and I have also been busy coaching soccer. Pictures of Luke playing soccer are coming soon. I have yet to bring my camera to a game! I have been so busy lately, and it doesn't help that it seems to take twice as long to do everything with a newborn. This week, I have 3 photo shoots to finish editing, I need to finish writing the Primary program, we are really busy with Luke's karate this week, I am judging the music competition at the county fair... It never seems to end, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

P.S. I don't think I ever shared this picture on here. It's from last month. It's my favorite ever! And just so you don't start thinking my kids are perfect, let me say that this was a very brief moment in time!