'Just' a Mom: Our October Family Memories

Looking back at our pictures from the beginning of this month is so crazy. Conference and those memories already feel so far back. It was a good month for our family, and we made a lot of fun memories together. Holidays are one of my favorite times of the year, especially with little kids.

I know it's a little before the end of the month. I'm planning on doing a separate post for Halloween next week. I already did one post about when the girls and I went to the corn maze :)

Lots of naps for Oliver boy 💗

One fun thing I did this month was figure out a "summer" meal plan versus a "fall/winter" meal plan. It has been fun to make cozier meals as the weather has cooled off.

The first weekend of the month, Ashtyn got to take care of Chris and Ashley's cat for them while they were out of town and she absolutely loved it! She told me it was different from how she had thought it would--she had envisioned staying at the house all day, knitting and reading to the cat. It was the cutest thing 💗

I also cut Parker's hair. It was my first time cutting a girl's hair (I've used a razor to do Ben's hair before). Parker was really happy with how it turned out, which is the most important thing, and I learned a lot for next time.

During Sunday morning sessions of conference, Oliver decided he didn't want to nap. This is what he did instead.

Some Rylee selfies:

Oliver loves climbing inside stuff and it's my favorite.

More sleeping boy!

We had some leftover s'mores stuff from September, so we tried Air Fryer S'mores.

I think everyone was a fan (though I don't love s'mores in general).

Us, trying to teach Oliver to drink out of a straw. It didn't work. We've also tried sippy cups to no avail. He has relearned how to drink out of bottles and can drink out of a cup very badly.

Oliver's bed head got so cute before we cut his hair!

Oliver loves all things balls, and also likes to stay right by Mom whenever we got new places.

FaceTime with cousins 💗

Oliver learned how to do the slide by himself and it is my favorite:

I love him!

More S'mores! Chris and Ashley invited us over to celebrate Ashtyn's birthday!

We've had deer, cranes, and turkeys in the field behind us and is such a fun way to bring in Fall.

Oliver looking at the deer! He calls them dogs 😂

Then the turkeys came into our yard, very noisily, while Ben was trying to record videos for his new course 😂

Ashtyn turned eight in the middle of the month, and we had a good time celebrating. Here's my post on that.

Melissa got Animal Crossing for Ashtyn for her birthday and Ashtyn has absolutely loved it! Parker now wants to save up her money to play it.

Singing "she put the music in me" ...

... and singing "I wear high heels, she wears short heels", trying to sing "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift 😂

On Ashtyn's birthday, Danny and Lindi watched the other kids while we took her on her date. While being babysat, Rylee decorated their stove to be "creepy and terrifying" for Halloween, with magnet blocks. They also read books, collected leaves and made leaf art, and watched movies with Grandpa.

Bath time for Oliver! I love his hair!

We didn't get to the park this year as much as I would have liked, but we did have some park days and it was the perfect weather for it!

Rylee had our first sickness of the season, but it was pretty mild.

Rylee coloring during Ashtyn's piano lessons. She loves coloring!

Rylee and Parker made a palace for Huggie Wuggie.

This is them playing "spa" 😂

My blueprint to get a book to publication. We'll see how it goes!

Earlier in the year, Ben was asked to come speak at the BYU Game Dev Club and we were able to do that in October. We found a babysitter and I tagged along. He did such an amazing job and the people there loved him. A majority of them had heard of his channel before and the Q&A portion of the evening ended up being longer than the presentation (and he had more people coming up after for pictures and with more questions). He was such a rockstar and it was so fun for me to see him thrive that way. I am so proud of Ben.

Ben also got another test copy of his book this month and it's going to be his focus in November, now that his course is close to being finished.

Oliver stopped nursing at night, and started biting me instead (as in, instead of latching on, he'd just bite me). This was his reaction to one of my reactions to his bite.

And ... now he's on a nursing strike. I really wanted to make it to 18 months, but he won't do it. He either cries when I offer or he bites me. I don't know if he's refusing because of my reaction to him biting me (it was over a day later that he started) or something else, but I'm really sad to be leaving the nursing stage 😢

We also got invited to do an escape room with some friends and it was really fun! We got out with ten minutes to spare.

Now for some homeschool/Halloween activities:

We did these witch potions using baking soda and vinegar, and then learned about reactions.

Lots of library trips! Because we go to storytime at the same time every week, the girls have become good friends with the librarian there and she is really just the best librarian. My girls couldn't love her more.

Pumpkin pancakes! I took our regular pancake recipe and added pumpkin as well as pumpkin spices. They were so yummy, we had to make them more than once.

We also did lots of Halloween crafts. This haunted house is one of my favorites because I remember doing this with my mom when I was girl. I think the girls' favorite was the one from the dollar store.

We also watched lots of Halloween movies. My favorite is It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. The girls love The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and Toy Story of Terror.

We also had a fall leaf hunt. We ended up getting lost for about 5 minutes, which the girls found pretty traumatic, so we went for ice cream cones afterward.

I wanted to do a little leaf photoshoot with Oliver, but he didn't think it was such a great idea 😂

Then we used our leafs to do some graphing and make leaf people.

We also did a science experiment about leaf colors.

Once we were done with our leaf activities, I took the leaves outside and let Rylee cut up as many as she wanted.

Parker has been learning to read this year and she'd doing so well. Now she has started making her own books and I love them all.

Our leaf people!

We spent a lot of time in the second half of the month outside so that Ben could record an insane amount of videos for his course. Luckily, the weather was really nice! This day, I made some Halloween colored playdoh and gave them some Halloween toys so they could create monsters.

This was Ashtyn's owl that she made.

Another day, we did an experiment to see which liquid would dissolve candy corn fastest. Rylee was the one who got it right (even over Ben and I) 😂

Another day we painted pumpkins. Their Grandma Leah had given them these wooden wands to go with their witch costumes, so they also got to paint those.

We also had a day where we decorated sugar cookies with their cousin Navy! We always love playing with Navy!

And of course, carving pumpkins!

Rylee decided on a sad face with tears this year (every year until now she's wanted a mad face).

This is her trying to make the same face as her pumpkin 😂

Parker was excited to draw her own face (and Oliver's)!

And this is her making the same face as her pumpkin.

Hugging her pumpkin!

Ashtyn also did a sad face with tears. This year, she carved the whole thing herself and was so proud!

Ashtyn trying to make the same face as her pumpkin.

She loved it!

Oliver just thought the whole thing was interesting to watch!

Oliver trying to do yoga with his sisters!

As it has cooled off, we sometimes do yoga inside instead of doing a walk outside. I'm too wimpy.

The girls loved the witch potions so much, we decided to do it again. It had cooled off at this point, so we did it inside on trays. I gave them cups with baking soda and containers with vinegar so they could do it themselves.

The other thing the girls did this month was their golden ticket dates with Grandma Lindi and Grandpa Danny. They get a golden ticket for Christmas and then during the year, they get to pick an activity to do on a date.

Rylee's date was hiking at Moonshine Arch and getting ice cream afterward.

Parker's date was going to the arcade at our bowling alley and getting ice cream afterward.

Ashtyn's date was swimming at the rec center and getting ice cream afterward. She had to do her date in two parts because the pool for kids wasn't opened the first time they went, so they got ice cream and then tried again a different day. It was worth the wait for her!