Blakely's Birthday Party

Blakely's birthday was back in September but she really wanted Valerie to be at her birthday party.  I told her we could make that happen but she would have to wait about 6 weeks for her party.  She decided that was what she wanted to do.  It worked out great because by then football was over.  Plus the place we wanted to have her birthday party didn't actually open it's doors until October.  Blakely invited all the kids from her sunbeam class at church and they all had a great time!

Blakely's party actually ended up being on Valerie's actual birthday so they got to celebrate their birthday's together!  Later that night we took Valerie out to eat at Lulu's.

They have a little beach/water area where the kids can play while waiting for their food!

Halloween!

This year our theme was Harry Potter!

McKinley went as Hedwig (Harry Potter's owl)

Here are the kids right before we were leaving to go trick or treating.

Nathan dressed up as professor Lupin.  At one point I was thinking about dressing up as Tonks (she eventually marries Lupin).  Then I was going to dress up as a bird cage and carry McKinley on me as if she was in a bird cage.  However, since I wasn't going to be at our ward's truck or treat I didn't bother with a costume.  When I was in Washington shopping with my mom I came across this Harry Potter shirt and decided this was going to be my Halloween costume this year.  Kind of lame but at least it went along with the theme right?

The kids came home with tons of candy!  In fact we still have Halloween candy.

Blair went as Ginny Weasley.

We attempted to dye her hair red with Kool-aid.  It worked better than I thought it would and it also washed out better than I thought it would too!

Blakely went as Hermione Granger

Dyer took off his robe before I could get a picture and of course he refused to put it back on.  I'm actually shocked that he let me take his picture but the agreement was he had to have a handful of candy in his picture!  Silly boy!  Dyer went as Ron Weasley.  We also dyed his hair.  

Easton also took off his robe before I could get a picture.  Luckily I was able to get him to put the glasses back on at least.  We probably should have dyed his hair too but he didn't care so I didn't care!  Easton went as Harry Potter.  Originally I wanted Dyer to be Harry Potter and Easton to be Draco Malfoy but Dyer insisted that Valerie be Ms. Weasley so he could be her son.  Once Dyer has made up his mind there is no changing it...

Valerie was Ms. Weasley 

Ron (Dyer) and Ginny's (Blair) mom.

My Mom's Wedding

A week after Nathan got his eye surgery I left with McKinley to Washington to attend my mom's wedding!  Her and Alan got married on Oct. 28th in the Portland temple.  It is so nice to see my mom so happy!  I got to come a few days early so that I could get some last minute mommy time!  We went shopping one day and then drove down to Wade's.  My brother just got selected to be the DA in Crook County so we went down there to see him sworn in.  While there I got to see where my mom will be living.  The wedding ceremony was nice and it was great to see family again.  I was so glad that I was able to be there but at the same time it made me sad that the rest of my immediate family couldn't be there too.   I feel like my kids miss out on a lot of extended family gatherings.  Not only on my side but Nathan's as well.  It's times like this where I wish we lived closer.

Bride and Groom

Bride and Groom with all the daughters

Bride and Groom with most of the kids (two sons missing).

Bride and Groom with only 1/2 the grandkids (11 grandkids missing).

Sisters!

 Sisters!

I also stopped in to see my dad and Sharon after the wedding.  I saw them at Wade's ceremony as well.  It was a short but very nice visit!

End of football

Dyer:

Boom Boom Bowl:

Dyer's team lost their bowl game but they ended up 3rd place!

Dyer's team had an end of the year party but we weren't able to go.  We still hasn't gotten his trophy which probably means it's not going to happen...

Easton:

Easton's team

End of the year party.

Blair's piano recital

Blair started piano again with a different teacher in September.  Her original piano teacher (Sis. Kibler) moved away at the end of the school year so it took a while to find her a new one.  Her new teacher (Sis. Asmus) does piano recitals so Blair was able to participate in her first ever recital.  I think she was a little nervous but was also excited!  It was around Halloween so the kids were able to dress up if they wanted which was nice since her recital was the same night as her ballet class.  We were actually late because the recital started the same time her ballet ended.  Blair played two duets with her piano teacher's daughter.

McKinley at 8 months

At about 8 1/2 months I finally moved McKinley into the girls room.  The first 2 nights were rough but she is sleeping really well now (and so am I!).  The girls didn't even flinch the first two nights she was constantly crying.  I was worried that she would keep them up so that is why I waited so long.  If I would have known that it wouldn't have fazed the girls at all I would have done it sooner!

She is eating really well now!  I can't shovel it in fast enough now!  She screams at me if I'm moving too slow for her.  I've started to give her chunks and sometimes she does alright but most of the time she gags on it.  She does love the baby cereal and yogurt melts that dissolve in her mouth.  She's grabbing those like a champ which is nice for me when I'm trying to make dinner!

 I was never able to get her on camera doing it but this month she started rolling her r's.

Here's a video of Nathan trying to get her to do it but of course she wasn't going to perform for the camera:

I think dada is her favorite word right now unless she is sad and then it is most definitely mama! 

Not happy!  If you look closely you can see her first tooth coming in!

 McKinley loves playing with toys!  She is actually starting to entertain herself for longer periods of time now that she is more interested in toys!  Yay for me!  I don't have to take her with me all over the house as much anymore.

 Moving backwards:

Shaking her body:

Blair's 3rd grade Musical

The 3rd graders put on a musical celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month.  Nathan was gone getting surgery on his eyes so I wasn't going to be able to go to her performance at night (the boys had football practice at different places because of the mullet festival-it was a CRAZY week!).  Luckily, I was able to drop Blakely and McKinley off at Beckham's house and sneak into the school performance.  Blair even had a speaking part! 

Blair saying her part.