I believe in blogs with pictures. Since I've been babbling instead of illustrating of late, here's a make-up picture post. I'll start in October:

Soccer - Ben played in the VIP league again this season, but this time in the U8s which play actual games against other teams. Thanks to hours playing soccer on the arcade game at the Sunriver house, Ben was ready for team playing. Here's assistant coach dad leading Ben through warm-ups:

And a throw in during the game:

Ben's favorite: the after game cheer (2 4 6 8) ... though he always cheered for his own team.

Happy soccer player in front of the Flame Throwers banner. Ben loved pointing out his name on the banner when he arrived at the game each Saturday morning.

A Month of Halloween - It always seems that Halloween fesivities go on and on and by the time trick-or-treating rolls around I am Halloweened out ... We made our annual visit to the Clayton Pumpkin Farm. Cute place.
Eliza spent most of October wearing this 75cent witch hat and making witches brews. She even renamed her favorite cat, from Snowflake to Blacky.

We enjoyed the "Trunk or Treat" at church where, in only fifteen minutes, the kids can load up on candy by going car to car in the parking lot. Here's Ben, Dominic (friend) and Ethan gorging on their take.

Thanks to Granny and Papa, our lucky family was treated to Disney on Ice on Halloween day. Eliza was captivated, and the boys enjoyed it too. I'm always impressed by the production elements - lighting, set, and costume design - Disney always does it to the hilt.



And at last, trick or treating.
Little Red Riding Hood:

Boba Fett (from Star Wars):

and an Elephant (for the second year):
Ben was our best trick-or-treater. He led the family and rang the doorbells and said in his loudest, Forrest Gump voice, "Trick or Trayaet"

Then on to November. It started on an emotional note with the passing of my Aunt. My sister and I flew to Utah and spent a couple of days with family, remembering the vibrant life of Aunt Taffy. I love my Carlston cousins, all of them, and adore my dear Uncle Wayne.

Swimming Ben is swimming! Since early this summer, he's been taking private lessons and is getting so close to being completely independent in the pool. No more under the water phobia! The lessons are in a private backyard - they put a bubble over the pool for the fall/winter months so the pictures are a little steamy.


MARBLES I'm participating in a research study with the UC Davis Mind Institute. It's a pretty extensive commitment of paperwork, interviews and samples of various body fluids. Here's Ethan generating a saliva sample - all three boys gathered around the kitchen table to spit together ... this time with permission =)

Bear Cub Scout Ethan, with the diligent help of his dad, completed his requirements for the Bear rank in Cub scouts. Somehow, at the pack meeting, mom always gets the credit for helping him. But in our family, we know it's really thanks to good old dad.

Life Keeps Going

Well, it's been a month since my last post, or rather, announcement. I'm vomiting less, accomplishing more, and have a little bit of a better attitude ... most days.

So what's been going on?

Ethan is consumed with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He gets a good laugh out of that mischievious Greg, as do I, and all three kids love to chant "somebody farted farted farted farted farted" everytime any gas flies. Just to warn you -- you can't get away with it around these kids ... anywhere.

Ethan and Eliza play together for hours in their pretend world of the good animals vs. the bad animals. They've just been such buddies over the last couple of months. Even when they are not playing together, the pestering has decreased dramatically. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh .... I'm just enjoying this phase.

Benjamin is loving the piano, and we love hearing him play. I'll play through a song that I think he'll like and then he'll spend the next week sight reading and learning it and pretty soon he can play it all the way through.

In the last three months, Jeff has officially achieved sainthood. He's definitely clued in this 4th pregnancy that my apparent uselessness is not by choice. He takes the boys to school in the morning and goes to work and then comes home to restore some order to our home. He indulges my cravings and shrugs off the number of receipts I pile up from dining out. And that's only the beginning. I'll spare you all the details, but just take it from me, my husband is a saint.

I've been watching more television in the last 3 months than in the last 3 years combined. At night, instead of trying to eat (again!), I curl up in a ball in my bed and catch up on the DVR material while trying to ignore all the physical woes of pregnancy. I've found that as soon as I'm done watching a show, I pretty much forget about it. My life is no fuller or more satisfying with tv. But it does provide a "getaway" experience and then I close my eyes and find a few hours of relief. But a few shows have grown on me ... Community ... Glee ... and I still enjoy good old Monk.

This may be my longest ramble on blog record.