a few things round here..

we got our knobs on! 

it's amazing!

 olive loved dressing up for her preschool party

 hazel's favorite thing is raking the leaves in our front yard

 to jump in them of course

 olive doesn't mind, either

 speaking of olive, she got a nasty bruise on her cheek at preschool

during recess

it looks awful

like we beat her

which we don't..no matter how tempted we may be ;)

 i have this terrible feeling that eleanor is nearing the end of her naps

hopefully not too soon

i'm not ready!!!

look how darling and peaceful she looks napping in her crib..

 michael worked late tonight

and for some dumb reason i made a real meal for dinner

chicken enchiladas

noah was the only one who tried them

and he didn't like them

so everyone ate chicken nuggets and meatballs instead

at least they ate the cantaloupe and smoothie i made them...

(noah's nugget was too hot)

 look who helped me with the dishes after dinner!

this little bear makes me so happy

i love his curiosity and having him right by my side

 just taking a practice spelling test before scouts

the kids are very excited for halloween tomorrow

and michael and i are excited for pay day and more projects!!

santa baby

after henry woke up in his santa jammies this morning

i realized they're getting tight and there's no way he'll still fit them in two months

so i had to snap a few pics of him

isn't he the cutest santa you've ever seen?

i just love him and his naturally rosy cheeks, too

henry is seven months!

can you believe our little boy is seven months old?

time flies!!

this week he's been caught trying to climb the stairs

and yesterday i watched him pull himself up at this basket

busy, busy, busy

we took a few pictures this morning to remember this special day

 eleanor and olive needed in on the fun

 henry's sneeze face is the cutest

 since henry is a busy boy that can't sit still for long these days

i got the blocks out for him to play with

i am so in love with this little boy

but so nervous at how busy and active he is already

i know he's going to keep me on my toes

every time he's in his jumper i worry we're letting his legs get too strong

and i watch the way he studies the bike and scooter wheels

this little boy is going to be on the move verrry soon

i just hope we can keep up!

and, did i mention he can eat a ton!

he gets super mad if we don't feed him quick enough

and if we give him baby mum mum

it's gone super quick

he is such a big eater! it's a different experience than our other kids

they were more indifferent about food

and not so big like him

but we love him for it

olson family fall festival family home evening

we've been anxiously waiting for today so we could carve our pumpkins

we thought it would be best to save it for the monday before halloween

and do it for family home evening

i kicked things off by making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

for the kids to eat after school

 then we ate dinner

and afterward we got everything ready to carve pumpkins

 i made caramel from scratch for our caramel apples

 michael said it was the best caramel apple he's ever had because of it

and said i need to make it every year from now on for our kids and grand kids until i die...he's sweet

 noah ate two because olive decided she didn't want hers after all

 here are michael and hazel's pumpkins

 here they all are

michael's, eleanor's, noah's, olive's and hazel's

somehow henry and i didn't end up with pumpkins

but that's ok, i don't think either of us cared much

 spooooky

i think our little fall festival family home evening is my favorite one every year

it's so fun

we had music on and the kids were having dance/singing parties

i loved it

sunday best

the kiddies had their primary program today

so we tried to dress them a little extra fancy for the occasion

 i let hazel and olive wear their new Christmas dresses from costco for the first time

 holding henry is a full time job

he is so heavy!

hazel is welcomed to stop growing up any time.....

she looks so old and way too pretty!

 it was such a good program

the spirit was strong and the kids did great

and....look who thinks he's big enough to climb stairs..

he's not even 7 months yet!!

sheesh

this kid is going to be a busy one..i just know it

trunk or treat!

we had our ward trunk or treat tonight

we were all so excited because our last ward didn't do them

so it's been a while

it was a good motivator to get our costumes in order, too

eleanor went as super girl

 olive went as a firefighter

michael really nailed her firetruck

and i thought hazel's rain boots were a nice touch

 hazel is a bee because her school teacher likes bees and she's a teacher's pet

so win win

henry was a monkey

 noah went as a police officer

michael made him a sweet hat

and he made himself tickets to give people

and had fun handcuffing people 

 henry was being a naughty little monkey

trying to eat everything on the ground 

 i love these kids

michael and i thought it would be fun to dress up

so we went as clowns 

i told michael i might be a clown

and he said he'd be one, too

so i said, "if you're a clown, i'm a clown"

like the bird line from the notebook

it was funny

and i wish i'd realized how terrible i looked...oops

oh well

 they did a costume parade around the parking lot

 and then went and got lots of candy

 eleanor loves the girl abby in the background of this picture

she has super curly hair just like her

and it was so funny they happened to wear the same costume

 henry slept through most of the trunk or treat

 i love that our kids have good friends here already

 eatin' lots of candy

for an after party, our friends the hunts and ayers came over

between us we have 15 kids! it was super fun

we just drank hot chocolate and chatted about our large families

i love having friends with 5 kids, too 

and that they're going to grow up together

it makes me so happy to be settled in a good spot