So here's something I love about blogging. You know those days when you think, "Have I ever done ANYthing fun with my kids, or do we kind of just exist everday, and clean up messes and try to stay sane?

But when you put together a blog post, and condense all the exciting parts together and leave out the blah, you can say, "Hey, I guess we HAVE done a few fun things in our lives!" And there are no pictures of dirty laundry, no pictures of dishes, no pictures of bills to pay, no pictures of Ethan tormenting Jake, of Jake having accidents at the grocery store, or of me being frustrated with my kids! I know some people get nauseated reading blogs because we all tend to put our best foot forward when we post--but today I found it quite refreshing to look through all of our pictures of October and just remember some of the highlights of the past month.

So here's the montage:

Ethan had a short-lived fling with silly bandz. He saved a few weeks of allowance and bought some, LOVED trading them at school and wearing them everywhere, and then his school principal asked that silly bandz not come to school anymore. So a few days later, they were just boring bracelets instead of the coolest thing ever he could share with his friends. Funny, isn't it?

Ethan loves to dig through dress ups and/or winter clothes and make up crazy identities. This day, he called himself "cone cuff." I think because the hat was sort of cone shaped and he was carrying around handcuffs to capture the bad guys. Now anytime any of us puts on a winter hat, Jake says, "Oh, you cone cuff!"

One night we watched 7 kids at our house so 4 of our friends could go to the temple. We're content with just our own 2 kids for now, but we had fun!!

And here's general conference!! This was my dream come true to be able look through the "window" over my kitchen sink and see and hear everything! What great messages. What an awesome blessing to be guided by prophets!

My parents came to visit that weekend too! (Why don't I have a single picture of THAT?! Hmmm... Well, it was fun to show my dad our house for the first time and go on bike rides and revel in the awesomeness of watching your parents love your kids.




And here we have Ethan and Jake in their "Jersey Boys" T-Shirts. My brother is getting married (in just a few weeks!) and his fiancee finished her last Broadway performance of Jersey Boys in August. We were so sad to not be able to go see her in it, but Nana brought home T-shirts for the boys. Jake's say, "Walk Like a Man." We love you Heather!

One day, we picked apples and made whole wheat apple muffins. It was SOOOOO much easier for me to let the boys help when we said "forget it" to the muffin cups and just spooned it straight into the tins. They were yummy!

This may have actually been September, but we ate home grown corn on the cob several times! Now the garden is done and all ready for the cold, but Kyle is already plotting what to plant in the spring!

Ethan as "Old King Cole" on Nursery Rhyme day at school...

This was the "fun run" that the whole school participated in. The Kindergartners ran .75 miles, starting and ending at the school. What a cool idea! It was neat to see so many parents there to cheer on their kids, and to see the teachers running with their classes. We love Franklin Elementary!

Cruel and unusual punishment? The things kids put their parents through. :)

We opted out of carving this year and tried a different approach
No knives, mess, or fire, but still funny faces!

And here are some candid ones of the boys just hanging out in the backyard. I love love love that they have such a great place to play!

Jake may be destined for greatness cast in the next big action film, don't you think?

Ahhhh. So, life is good.

This picture, especially, reminds me that as we press forward with optimism, the negative stuff in our lives will ultimately fade away, leaving us with just the joy that we choose to focus on. And truly, we find that it was worth whatever it took to get there.

That reminds me of what C.S. Lewis said in "The Great Divorce:"


“Son,” he said, “ye cannot in your present state understand eternity [...]. But ye can get some likeness of it if ye say that both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. That is what some mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say ‘Let me but have this and I’ll take the consequences’: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, ‘We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,’ and the Lost, ‘We were always in Hell.’ And both will speak truly.”


Whatever points to joy, in the end, becomes it. I feel that already.



Well, onward and upward!! November will bring pictures of California and my brother's wedding!
Disneyland, here we come!!!!

The Construction Team

Ethan is such a boy! He loves to flex his muscles in front of the mirror and is constantly telling people to look at them. ( I even overheard him saying it to a girl on the playground the other day. What a crack up.)



And Jake, with his hammer and phone...

Trick or Treat! (well, trunk or treat...)

Just cute.

and Ethan helping Jake eat a pixie stick. Once Jake realized how tasty it was he kept snapping his neck back and saying, "ahhhh." Hilarious.

Happy Halloween!!

And Jake turns 3!

1, 2, 3!!

The boys wanted to help make the cupcakes (i.e. get to snitch and lick the mixers...)

Jake's birthday dinner of choice was macaroni and cheese and a fruit smoothie. With "Little Einsteins" cups, plates, and hats!

"Lumpy" (the heffalump) and Pooh bear got to come too

Hooray!

We had a terrific Little Einsteins birthday party the next day with friends, but I guess I was too busy going on a musical mission to take any pictures. It was fun even if I can't prove it. :)

We love you, Jake!! We're so glad you were born!!