happy halloween

the kids picked the easiest costumes ever this year

noah was a ghost

 we bought this butterfly costume on clearance a few years ago and hazel never wore it

so i was glad olive decided to wear it

and i'm really glad she got past wanting to be a cinderella mermaid...sounds hard..

hazel wanted to be a witch

i planned on making her costume but our friend lent us one instead

easy peasy

 i made myself a bat cape

 i'm going to be 18 weeks tomorrow

holla

 we decided to make eleanor a black cat to go with hazel being a witch

she's so cute

i might put whiskers on her every day :) 

 i made michael a vampire cape using the same fabric as my wings

which happened to be a black sheet from the as-is section of ikea

 we went to the kids' school for their costume parade

 and ran a booth at the carnival

it was such a fun day

we didn't plan on michael skipping school altogether but with olive having speech this morning

and volunteering at the kids' school...it was so nice to have him with us

after their school we went to martial arts and then home to eat pizza and go trick or treating

i even decorated the door a little

the trick or treaters got a kick out of it

and just for fun... a picture of the kids early yesterday morning in their halloween clothes

they were still a little sleepy if you couldn't tell

the cutest little top ramen eaters

the kids wanted top ramen for dinner (fancy sunday dinner, right?)

and to eat it outside at the little table
noah came in and said, "grab the camera and take our picture"

the little sillies all sat on the same side of the table

it was so cute

 and i love their little feet, too 

way too many pictures

i've been trying to capture cute little moments using the good camera rather than my phone

so i've kept our camera out the last few days and it helps remind me to grab it when the moment arises

i am having a really hard time narrowing them

but i suppose i'd rather post a million pictures than forget the cute moments

i love the stages our kids are in

 hazel and eleanor have a really special relationship

hazel is like a little mommy and eleanor loves her

they sat this way for at least 20 minutes 

 eleanor thinks she's so awesome when she makes her way into the doll stroller

 noah loves to be in the front yard

olive wore this (too-big) dress up dress all day a few days ago

i love these pictures of her holding her dress up so she can move

 mid-air

 spinning

 glowing in the sun

 this bouncy ball was a prize noah got at school

 hazel was busy coloring inside but she came out long enough for me to take her picture

 eleanor has turned in to such a daddy's girl lately

and she loves to greet him when he gets home

it is the absolute cutest to watch her little arms flap as she runs all the way to him!

 the girls did some leaf art this morning

and then needed to paint

 it's their favorite

 this was right before we loaded in the car for ballet

and eleanor insisted on bringing my shoe

and olive brought like 3 blankets

(aren't eleanor's new moccasins the cutest?!)

 just hanging out in an empty toy bin

 the pig pile on dad got a little crazy

 ahhh, he's getting so big! he'll outgrow me before i know it

this doesn't have much to do with anything

but my sister sent me a link to an article written by a woman who's pregnant with her 5th also

and it was supposed to be uplifting for mothers but it felt really negative and defensive to me

i'm lucky that i don't get negative reactions to our pregnancy/family size

and i love, love, love being a mom

it's literally what i've wanted since i was tiny

and it makes me so happy

eleanor loves to snuggle in the crook of my neck lately and it's the best feeling in the world

olive spends as much time with/on me as possible and i'm sure one day she won't

hazel and i are like best friends. i talk with her like i would a girl friend and she loves to be just like me

noah isn't embarrassed to kiss me goodnight or hold my hand. he still thinks michael and i are the coolest, smartest people

i already love this baby just like the rest

i am sooo grateful to be a mom to these children and i hope it's known that i love this

i don't see it as negative or a burden

it's what i'm supposed to be doing

pumpkin carving and caramel apples

 hazel was so grossed out cleaning her pumpkin out

even wearing gloves

 michael nailed all the carving

i made the mistake of letting the kids carve/and or paint their pumpkins

it got waaaay messy

so i had to have them change clothes after we started getting black paint everywhere

noah worked best on the table

just stirring the caramel for our apples 

they were delicious

 eleanor was so patient during all the festivities and helped by eating cookies and caramel

 left to right: michael gave eleanor's a curl, olive painted hers and then michael carved it, we didn't do anything to baby's pumpkin, and i just did polka dots on mine 

 hazel, noah's and michael's

yikes

i am a little in shock that we're doing this again

it makes me super nervous knowing all that i know like...

i'm going to get huge and losing the weight after gets harder each time,

recovering from c-sections is hard, especially when your kids just want you to hold them and you can't,
nursing a baby can be stressful when other kids want your attention, 

kids are kind of hard sometimes and adding more is just harder..

but i also know we are going to love this baby so much

and it will be worth it

day before noah was born

day before hazel was born

the day olive was born

the day before eleanor was born

at least i know i won't go way past my due date this time! 

sat a day

we had the best start to our saturday

marie and her girls came over early this morning

i love this girl so much

we had breakfast, i gave them some haircuts, and we had such a nice visit

i am so grateful for the friends we made in pullman

(poor caitlin, in the middle of her haircut michael was leaving so i had him take a picture and she was so patient)

thank you for coming to see us, marie!!!

 we thought it was high time noah and michael got some boy time in

so today they went and bought a fishing pole and michael took noah on his first fishing trip

 i love this boy and his sweet pose

 within the first ten minutes noah caught his first fish!!

 it was pretty small so they let it go but i am so proud of him!

they stayed a few more hours and didn't catch anything else

but noah was sad to leave, he totally loved it

 these pictures are cracking me up

we were at savers (value village) and the kids took advantage of the photo op

 sillies

 this is how olive rode around :)

i was walking past where the kids were playing with toys and saw a creepy guy

sitting on a couch under a couch

oh, just michael

he totally cracked me up down there

i love him