Maren started school and is doing well. She seems to like her teacher quite well. Eliza is stuck with her mom as her teacher for another year. She is doing well and is starting to get the idea of reading down. Henry recently got to see an uncle "crash cars" in a derby and now he loves to talk about and reenact it. When he does he gets so animated! Emiline has been on the move the last couple months and has figured out how to go from sitting to army crawling to sitting again. She is starting to try to pull herself up to things, but hopefully it will be a little while before she masters that. She likes to wave "hi", jump, and put things in her mouth. 
Emiline tried and ate her first bowl of spaghetti about a month and a half ago. I was holding her and had just got myself a bowl of spaghetti when a child needed a piece of buttered bread. So, I sat down my bowl and my baby on the counter by the bread so I could keep an eye on her while I got the job done. After she had a good start on the bowl I noticed what she was doing. She was so cute and messy I had to get a picture...
The first part of October we were able to have some cousins over. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun. It is kind of crazy to think my children have 33 first cousins, so far, with the latest that was blessed the following weekend. We are exited the have little William be part of our family. We really enjoyed our visit. When we got back from our trip we decided that Lady (our lab puppy) needs more than we can give her at this point in our lives. So, after finding a nice family that wants another puppy, has an older lab, and has two big girls that love playing with their dog, we decided to give Lady away. Maren was heart broken, but I am sure when our kids are a little bit bigger we'll give the pet thing another chance.Eliza turned 5 years old in the middle of last month. She told me she had wanted an "Alpha and Omega" cake (from the cartoon wolf movie that came out in 2010). I couldn't find any cheap wolf figurines so she found some glow-in-the-dark butterflies at the dollar store that we used instead. For a gift she told me after going window shopping that she didn't care what she got as long as it was "girly". She had a nice day a now she feels real big.
The last weekend in October I got to go down to Ogden for a "Time Out for Women" weekend with some friends from Vegas. Jon kept the three older kids and I took Emiline with me. I had such a nice time and got to hear several good speakers.
Halloween was fun. Maren was a bunny, Eliza was a swan, Henry was a fireman,
and I dressed up as a farmer. I brought Emiline to show off my good crop this year. Of course, we experienced too much candy passing through all of our hands. Maren turned 7 years old the day after Halloween. She wanted a "my little pony cake" and a new art kit. That is what she got.
We are looking forward to parent teacher conference next week and getting to visit with Maren's teachers. I have been able to volunteer in Maren's class once a week. I enjoy getting to see the teacher and how she teaches and the children and get to know their personalities. There is a neighbor who also likes to volunteer in her oldest child's class. We are able to swap babysitting so I don't have to take my younger children. I am grateful.
So the question isn't "what has happened?" it's more like "what hasn't happened?"
