Sutter's Ridge & poor Wesley

 On a gorgeous fall day we went out to Sutter's Ridge farm and had a fabulous time in the beginning.

 Wesley really wanted a green pumpkin since green his his favorite color!

 Nora wanted the biggest pumpkin she could find. Our rule was everyone had to carry their own and she could barely carry hers.

We did the apple sling shot, which was pretty fun. After this we went to the apple orchard and had just picked about 7 pounds of apples when Wesley was running through the orchard and ran into a wire that was fencing off some trees. It sliced his tongue, cut and bruised his gums and knocked four teeth loose! Wesley freaks out over a hangnail so this was pretty intense. He didn't want to show us and he was bleeding a lot so we hurried and left. It stopped bleeding in the car on the way home so that was a good sign. I was pretty worried about it, but Brian wasn't. I knew that the doctor doesn't do anything for tongues/gums unless it won't stop bleeding and was really severe (I did text my friend who is a doctor just to make sure!) So we took him home and gave him some medicine. He slept pretty bad because every time he swallowed it hurt his tongue. I took him to the dentist a few days later because I noticed his top tooth had shifted a bit. They did x-rays and said his teeth may turn gray but the roots were okay. Now it's been almost a month and his tongue is still not fully healed. There's a piece of it that he keeps accidentally biting so we'll see how long it takes to get better. Poor boy!

 The only time I could get a good look was when he was sleeping. This shows a bit how his gums were bruised and torn. I never got a good picture of his tongue though.

He was such a good boy at the dentist!

Blessing Day

Sullivan was blessed by Brian on October 12th. Because of how crazy busy Sundays are I didn't get any great pictures of us as a family. Darn! It was a wonderful blessing! A friend in our ward wrote it down for us and that was so nice because with Miles and Wesley sitting by me I didn't hear some of it. I love baby blessings. So thankful for our sweet Sully.

The fab 5

These 5 keep life pretty exciting! Being a mom is really the best thing ever. And the hardest thing ever. But I feel so very blessed to be a mom to these great kids. I truly love it.

Sophie continues to be a bookworm and is really enjoying Middle School so far. She's looking forward to basketball starting next month!

Nora filled up a "good behavior" chart she'd been working on since the epic meltdown on her baptism day last summer. Her reward was going to Build-A-Bear. She was quite excited about this. And even though it's only been a few months I can honestly say she's been handling her emotions pretty well these days. Part of that is probably that she's growing up more, but we'll also attribute it to the chart :)

This boys' smiles light up our home.

Wesley has been taking his "homework" quite seriously. It's pretty cute. I haven't signed him up for real pre-school or anything, so he and I do some worksheets every day.

And here is Miles playing basketball with our imaginary basketball hoop! Ha! Funny thing is I looked on Craigslist all summer to buy one to put up but never found a good one. Hopefully in the Spring!

A quick visit.

 One of Brian's mission companions lives in Canada and was in Chicago for work last month and decided to come up to Madison for a quick visit. Chicago is still a 2 1/2 hour drive away so it was very kind of Chris to come and see us for such a short time! We had a great time getting to know him a bit and hear about his family. He's holding Sully like a natural because he and his wife Joy have 6 kids! Hopefully we'll get to meet them all one day.

He drove up for dinner and then drove back to Chicago that night, but the next morning he came back because his work meetings were cancelled. I think he's an electrical engineer and he fixed our basement lights (now I can see in our craft area!) and replaced an outdoor light! Hooray! It was so nice of him to use his time to serve us.

Soccer boy

Miles played soccer this fall and looooved it! It was so fun to watch him play and he was pretty darn good for never playing before. It was great to spend our beautiful Saturday mornings watching our little guy play!          

He would get super excited whenever anyone on his team made a goal.

Wesley's birthday

Somehow I missed posting about Wesley's birthday. I think it may have something to do with having a new baby around. But I couldn't skip it! Wesley turned 4 in September and had a practically perfect day, which for him meant swimming at the YMCA, coconut gelato, brownies, Lego minifigures and lots of family time.

Oh, this boy. He loves superheroes, ninja's, legos, play-doh, playing Lego batman on the Wii, the color green and wrestling/play fighting with Miles and dad. I can't say he's our easiest four year old because he's often feisty and demanding. But he brings a lot of love, laughter, excitement and happiness to our family and we sure love him. And well, nobody is perfect! :)