October 2011

It's still funny to see Caleb and Levi often sleeping in the exact same positions! Shortly after this, we rearranged rooms - the plan was to put Ellie in with Ian, but he kept getting sick. So then I was going to put Ellie with Levi, who rarely gets sick anymore. But the day I was going to do it, Levi got sick! So, I moved Caleb in with Ian anyway, and moved the crib into my room, so for now Levi has his own room and Caleb and Ian share. Of course, nobody has gotten sick since then, but it's still working out letting Ian get used to sharing, and to split up Levi and Caleb - they go to sleep so much faster these days! Soon we'll switch so Caleb has a chance to have his own room.

We went to a nearby apple orchard to pick our own apples. Then we spent a really long day making lots of applesauce! This was the set-up, inside and out.

The boys were excited to help, and figured out their own rotation - one squished it down, one turned the crank, and one watched to make sure nothing overflowed. It worked out pretty well, leaving me to fill the bottles, etc.

Our shed before, it really needed help!

Our shed after painting - it still needs green trim, but we ran out of paint and warm weather.

Halloween! Halloween seemed to have lasted forever. We went to the hospital where Ellie was born one weekend to attend a NICU reunion Halloween party. This is where this picture was taken. Then the next weekend our ward had a trunk-or-treat, where Ian and Ellie stayed with the same costumes (Ian is a spy) but Levi and Caleb chose new ones - a cowboy and Winnie the Pooh (we have enough dress up clothes they kept changing). Then on Monday Caleb and Levi could wear costumes to school (Winnie the Pooh and a train driver) and then they went trick or treating at night (Ian was sick) and they were both firemen. They had a fun holiday!

Levi was a very cute cowboy!

And Ellie finally became a stable sitter! And, her top two front teeth finally came through. She still has four more I can see ready to come in!

Also in October, Ian played soccer. I don't have any good pictures, though. Could have something to do with three younger siblings to keep happy during the games. There were only two third grade teams so they just kept playing each other every game. He improved with each week, which is great!

All three boys are still loving school. Ian is learning cursive, and loves it. It's fun because he's learning to write letters and Caleb and Levi are learning to print their letters! Ian is also studying chemistry which he likes. Levi and Caleb are both doing well with starting to recognize words and to sound some out. At first it was really hard but they get better at it every week!