I am 30!

In case anyone wasn't aware of this, I am thirty years old.  I say this because I still get comments about looking young.   Not that thirty is old, but it seems that I don't even pass for an adult.  I was really hoping that I was finally starting to look older since I have four children and all.  About two weeks ago, I was at the park with Bristol and Aspen, and a woman there asked if I was their babysitter.  She looked like she was within ten years of my age, and it wouldn't surprise me if she was actually younger than me.  Anyway, she didn't think that I looked old enough to have kids that age.  Well, Bristol is only three so I can't believe I don't look old enough to even have a three year old.  I shocked her when I said I was thirty and that I also have an eight and five year old.  She told me that I looked really good for my age, and that's nice.  It would just be kind of nice to not look like a babysitter or a teen mom.  Or maybe I should just be the babysitter and have the father of the children pay me for my work. 

Happy Halloween

For Halloween, Brooke was an Egyptian girl, and Jade was a bride.  Bristol was a bee, and Aspen was a butterfly.  For the last couple of years, I've tried to keep Halloween costume expenses to a minimum and buy as little as possible, but this year I did buy all of the kids' costumes.  I have to say that they look really cute.

This is really the only picture I have of them in their costumes, which is too bad because you can't see much of Brooke's costume.  Aspen was really good about keeping her antennae headband on her head for most of the night.  Bristol also had a headband, but she was not good about keeping it on.

We went to our ward trunk or treat on Halloween night.  Then Brooke went trick or treating with her friend Mercy and her family.  Trent and I took the other three to some houses in our neighborhood but had them back home at about 7pm so that they could go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Birthday Girls

Bristol had her third birthday on October 20.  We didn't really do anything special other than cake and presents, but Bristol was perfectly happy with just that.  She was really spoiled getting lots of presents, but she really loves them.  I also made her a red velvet cake.

 

Don't mind her being unclothed except underwear.  She usually ends up that way at some point almost everyday.  I don't really care when we're at home, and of course, I make her wear clothes out in public.

 

 

Aspen had her first birthday on the 25th.  I didn't want to make an entire cake again since Bristol's birthday was less than a week previous.  So I just made chocolate lava cakes.  They were way faster and easier to prepare, but they were also way messier.  Look at how chocolatey Aspen is!

I removed Aspen's shirt because I didn't want it to get all messy.  She was cute and funny eating the cake and ice cream.  At first, she was getting upset because she kept wanting to pick up the ice cream with just her hands, but it was too cold.  She didn't like that and would cry everytime she tried.  Anyway, she also was spoiled with lots of presents and seemed to kind of enjoy opening them.



Fall Break and More

This past week has been Fall Break for Brooke and Jade.  We started it out by going to a funeral on Monday.  Sadly, one of Trent's coworkers was killed on October 2.  He was also in ward until August which was when they changed our ward boundaries and that family was put in a different ward.  We didn't know them that well, but from what I did know of them, they were/are really nice.  I feel bad for his wife and two little girls.  Anyway, I was worried that my children wouldn't behave too well during the funeral, but I had a nice talk with them beforehand so they did behave pretty well.  We also opted to attend the broadcast of the funeral at our church building rather than attend that actual event at the stake center.  That way I wouldn't have to be so paranoid about the kids' behavior.

On Wednesday, we went to Mesa so that we could attend the temple.  We stayed in a hotel that night, and Trent went to the first session of the day on Thursday.  When he came back, I went to a session, and Trent took the children swimming while I was gone.  While it wasn't too much of a hassle having to go to Mesa to attend the temple, I have to say that I am really excited that there will be one in Tucson. It will be so much easier for us to go. I just hope that it doesn't take too long to get it built.

After we checked out of the hotel, we went to an urgent care center down the street.  Jade had been complaining a little bit about a sore throat for a couple of days, and it seemed to be getting worse.  I didn't want to make her wait another day to see our pediatrician.  She tested negative for strep, and the doctor said that she did have something.  He just didn't know what it was, but he did give us some antibiotics.  Jade has still been complaining about her throat a little, though, so I may end up taking her to the pediatrician afterall.  At the urgent care center, I was reminded of how it's such a small world sometimes, especially for Mormons.  The doctor was also Mormon, and he was telling me how he had just returned from visiting Nampa.

For the rest of the week, we pretty much stayed home and attempted to get some organizing done with kids' bedrooms and toys.  Unfortunately, we failed pretty miserably in doing that so I am hoping that I'll have more success with that tomorrow.  Since Friday afternoon, Trent has been feeling sick off and on so that hasn't been really conducive to accomplishing those things.

Today there was an October 14th miracle.  Bristol actually went to bed within about ten minutes of bedtime.  I only had to put her back in bed two or three times.  Then she actually stayed in bed and quickly fell asleep.  She has continued to be horrible at bedtime for the last few weeks.  She still gets out of bed over and over.  We did play at the park for a while this afternoon, and she didn't have a nap today.  Maybe that's why she was better at bed tonight.  I don't really know, but I hope she does this well every night from here on out, though I'm not counting anything.