October 2014.

A typical Thursday afternoon. The boys have their piano lessons, and then we babysit our piano teacher's kids while she teaches more lessons.

Just our cute two-year-old. She had her check-up and weighed 26 pounds. Isla started (sort of) potty training in October. She is great... as long as she's totally naked! So not potty trained at all in public yet. She says more and more words and sentences every day. We love it.

We logged some great park time in October. My girls could spend hours and hours at the park! This one is at the YMCA conveniently right next to the fields where Carson plays soccer.

Faye (she's right by me and insists her name is actually Gina) holding her baby, Ruby/Isabella/Julianne. 

And Everett, usually at the highest spot he can find. One afternoon, at another park, I observed Everett doing several sets of push-ups in a row, using various parts of the park as inclines. I got closer and heard him counting, "86, 87, 88..." About an hour later I wandered over to hear, "345, 346, 347..." He did 500 push ups, finishing up the last set as everyone else was buckled up in the car waiting for him. It was incredible.

At the Kiddie Park for a friend's birthday party. I like that Carson is still a kid enough to do stuff like this and not feel embarrassed!

Isla did this one about six times in a row.

Time to get costumes ready for Halloween! Thankfully everyone's requests were quite simple this year. Faye had been talking about being a jaguar for months leading up to Halloween. Not a cheetah, not a leopard, a jaguar. She begged me to take her to the fabric store, and when we finally got there we saw this pink juguar (ish!) fabric for only $2 a yard! Sold! so we took a black shirt and pants she already had and doctored them up. 

At the church trunk-or-treat. At the last minute, Faye decided to be a pregnant jaguar.  

Everett the knight. We had lots of fun with tin foil, aluminum roasting pans, foil muffin tins, and hot glue.

Isla was Everett's dragon. Sponges! Gold duct tape!

And I'm afraid most people probably thought Carson forgot to dress up. He was Brian Arnold, from American Ninja Warrior.

Everett modeling a suit Rick wore when he was five.

Another lunch at the park. I love hanging out with these girls. (Notice Isabella in Faye's lap. She always around.)

Sometimes we get to babysit cute little Ollie. The girls love taking care of him! And Faye honestly does most of the work. Isla did sit here for about five minutes "reading" him a book.

We had an awesome neighborhood party for National Night Out. Isla loves the little train rides. I would just send her off and somehow she would come find me a while later.

The boys rode bikes to school one day, and I jogged alongside them. I wish we could do it every day! But we have carpooling responsibilities, and unfortunately the way there involves a busy enough road that I can't send them alone.

The reason we rode to school was so their bikes would be there for the annual bike rodeo. We had gone there earlier to practice, and the boys did great on each event.

Our practice paid off; both boys won first place in their grade level! (It helps that a lot of kids are disqualified due to training wheels. Faye is going to rock the bike rodeo next year.)

Our church broadcasts a semi-annual conference in October. Carson and Everett prepared a concession stand, and they left a menu under each chair.

Read-to-a-dog day at the library! The kids all had appointments with Cinder, a nice therapy dog who is trained to "listen" to books.

Carson read a Ramona Quimby book.

And Everett favored Cinder with our current favorite, Fly Guy.

Isla was wary of friendly Cinder, but she still wanted a picture. This girl says cheese like she means it.

So much going on here. She was certain this outfit combo would impress her teachers at the Y that morning, despite me trying to teach her about proper pattern mixing. Her hair is a total mess by the end of the day. Never any shoes on those filthy feet. And happy as a clam about all of it.

Pumpkin patch time! 

This was a really cute little pumpkin patch. They even gave a wagon ride through a home-made haunted forest.

The chosen pumpkins.

Rick was in charge of pumpkin carving; I think I was laying down inside. I spent most of the month of October feeling really awful and/or having coughing fits in the bathroom. I think it was bronchitis plus a sinus infection plus who knows what. I am still with this stinky productive cough, but I'm feeling quite a bit better. Being sick for this long sure makes me appreciate good health!

Our wonderful friends the Franciscos throw a killer Halloween party each year. The pinata was a new addition this time!

The party-goers.

And now, the actual Halloween night! Faye toyed with the idea of a mommy jaguar with the baby in her "carrier," but I pointed out that Julianne (yes, the name changed again) was a human baby rather than a baby jaguar. In hindsight we should have made her a little costume as well.

So, she became the pregnant jaguar again.

Brian Arnold with his accomplished obstacles. Carson won't let me live it down that I labeled one "cannonball incline" when it's actually a picture of the "cannonball alley." (And he just came by to correct my misspelling of the work cannonball.)

Look at that shining armor!

Here comes the dragon...

He's sneaking his sword out of the holster. Poor little innocent dragon!

Got her!

And apparently the diapered dragon fights back.

That's a crazy group right there! We had such a lovely evening trick-or-treating. The weather was perfect, everyone walked up to the doors and said their thank-yous quite independently, Isla let me choose Butterfingers for her at some houses, Everett let out a really great scream when a fake spider jumped out at him, and best of all my dad was in town and accompanied us around the neighborhood. (I am so disappointed that I failed to photograph most of my dad's visit!) We had a few good laughs at Faye's determination to swiftly correct anyone who called her a cat or a leopard. So fun to just watch these kids' little personalities develop.

Happy knight with his loot.

The Sunday after Halloween, we let the kids binge until they were done, and then they agreed to get rid of the rest of their candy. It's nice to get it all done and have it gone!

There's our Pappy! He spent much of his visit helping us around the house. That means my kitchen backsplash FINALLY has grout!! And my big square kitchen table is back in business. Very, very happy about that. He also fulfilled Carson's dream of having his very own American Ninja Warrior obstacles in our backyard. (Will take pictures during his Ninja birthday party this month.) I like having my dad around, and for more than his home-improvement help.