Halloween

This year we had 2 witches and a fireman for Halloween.  They were so excited to go trick or treating.  We made them go visit their grandparents first and they could hardly wait to get back and go.  Matt look them around our neighborhood while I stayed home to answer the door.  Bailee only made it about half way and then was cold and wanted to come home, but the older kids wanted to keep going.  They thought it was a blast!

At Grandma Karen's party, every year they take the kids on a walk through the witches forest (a trail from their house down to a near-by park).  The last couple years Matt has dressed up like a witch to scare them.  I think it is mean and I told my kids they didn't have to go.  I HATE to be scared and I don't think it is fair to make them be either.  I left early to go to a baby shower and Cole wouldn't go, but the girls did.  This year, Matt went all out -- face paint, face teeth, a dress, and dried ice.  The kids were terrified!  Bailee was riding on Grandma's shoulders and Grandma thought she was going to be bald the next day because she was pulling so hard on her hair.  The other kids ran by as fast as they could.  They were glad to find out it was just dad!

Carving Pumpkins

Cole and Bailee started carving their pumpkins while Brooke was at dance.  They didn't want to touch the insides and lost interest in cleaning them really fast.  They were excited to carve their faces though.  Bailee wanted a nice one and Cole wanted a mean one.  I tried to help Brooke by cleaning hers out for her, but when she got home from dance she was mad that it was clean and wanted to do it.  I put the guts back in and she was happy as could be to take them all out and carve it.

Fall Break

We decided to take a little stay-cation for fall break.  We stayed at a hotel, went to the zoo, and out for dinner.  The kids had lots of fun!

The zoo was the busiest we've ever seen it.  Bailee was really concerned that the animals were going to get out of their cages so she was terrified until she figured out that they weren't going to get out.  The favorites of the day were the swimming otters, rhinos, elephants, and giraffes.  The baby elephant was sleeping and kept swinging its trunk and hitting the mom.  The kids thought that was pretty funny.

I think the favorite part of the whole trip was swimming at the hotel.  The kids couldn't get enough! They definitely are not afraid of the water.  Brooke is getting really good at swimming - even without water wings.  Cole is not far behind.

On the way home we stopped and visited the Weese's and each of the kids got to choose a toy at Toys-R-Us.  It was a nice little get away.

Jaden's Party

We had great neighbors in our old house!  We miss living next to them lots.  On Jaden's birthday we went down for his party and to visit.  They had a face painter come and paint all the kids' faces.  What a fun idea!  The kids had a blast and didn't want to wash their faces for days (don't worry I made them)

Cole Turns 5

Cole turned 5 September 28th.  We had a party at our house with all our family.  This year he has been really into toy story so he had a Buzz cake with Toy Story cupcakes and his gift was Buzz and Woody.  We have found him sleeping with Buzz and Woody many times since.  I think it is safe to say he likes them.

Cole at 5
Favorite Food:
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Cole loves doing anything outside and being with his dad.  He is very tender hearted and generally nice to everyone.  He has the most awesome primary teachers and I have seen a lot of growth in him spiritually this year.  He can be shy when he wants, but competes with his sisters to talk.  He enjoys preschool and has started playing soccer this year and loving it.  For being the only boy, he is pretty good to play with his sisters and let them boss him around, but his all time favorite thing is still playing firefighters.  We love you little buddy!

Soccer

Cole played his first season of soccer this fall.  It was awesome!  He loved going to practice and games.  He also had a great coach and great team and they had a lot of fun together.  Not to mention they were pretty good :-)

Emergency Room

Bailee took her first trip to the Emergency Room for eating a whole bottle of Tylenol.  The night before I had bought a new bottle and opened it to give Brooke some.  The next morning, I got off the treadmill to find the bottle empty.  Bailee told me she had eaten it.  I immediately called poison control and they had me weigh her and asked if I knew for sure how many she had eaten.  I found one on the floor and I knew Brooke had eaten 2 the night before so it was likely that she took almost the whole bottle.  Luckily, because they were children's Tylenol and not junior, poison control told me just to watch her but that she should be fine.  She seemed fine most of the day, but that afternoon she started throwing up repeatedly.  I called poison control again and they still said she should be fine.  But, being the worrying mother then I called the doctor's office and they though I should bring her in because that is a lot of Tylenol.  Long story short, after about 10 phone calls to different people and finally talking to the actual doctor on call, I decided I better take her up to the ER.  She threw up again on the way there and we were admitted quickly because the doctor had already called and told them we were on our way.  Bailee was terrified and not happy that they had to draw her blood.  She was very brave though and only cried a little.  After they drew her blood, they kept us to monitor us while they checked it and also had her give a urine sample.  After being there for a few hours, they let us go home and said she should be fine.  She was back to her normal self the next day.  A few weeks and a nice bill later, we learned a valuable lesson... poison control knows what they are talking about.  Listen to them.  

Kickball

Cole had a lot of fun playing kickball.  He was almost a whole year older than most of the kids that played because of his birthday... he just barely made the deadline to play one more year.  He was one of the few that actually understood the rules and what you are supposed to do (it helps when your dad is the coach).  He could kick the ball fairly far and loved running the bases.  I love when he has things to entertain him and get some of his energy out.