Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!!

For Halloween this year, the girls decided back in August that they wanted to be the Ninja Turtles. I was excited about it because there are four of them and all four girls wanted to do it. Plus, it was decided back in August so I had plenty of time to prepare. And it was something different than your usual princess or ballerina. I ended up crocheting hats and masks for their costumes, and Tyler found toy weapons. Aubrey was the instigator because the newest movie came out this past summer and she quickly became a fan and was determined to see the movie and dress up like a ninja turtle for Halloween. (We haven't even seen the movie yet and probably won't let them watch it for awhile since it's PG-13, but they liked all the hype and toys and merchandise with the Ninja Turtles on it every time we went to a store. Even Taryn would recognize them quickly and point out "the red one" because that was the one she was.

A double bonus was that Abby's Activity Day Daddy-Daughter Party was super hero theme, so Abby and Tyler went as the Ninja Turtles with one of Abby's friends. Here's Abby with Tyler for their party. Most dads and daughters were just wearing super hero t-shirts, so I was proud of Tyler who really got into it with Abby. And the school let them dress up this year as their favorite super hero, so all three girls got to dress up in their costumes for school too. Getting to wear the same costume multiple times in one Halloween season was awesome! 

Here are our four Ninja Turtles:

 

We spent one family night carving pumpkins. Here are their creations. Abby really wanted glasses on her pumpkin and Tyler's carving of it turned out so cool.

We did do a little trick-or-treating around our neighborhood on Halloween night. The girls got too much candy as usual. The coolest house was the one with a pet macaw bird. It would talk to the owner saying things like "hello" and "pretty bird." It was hard to get the kids to move along to the next house. It was pretty awesome.

Taryn Turns Three and Gets Three Staples!

The month of October brings us to Taryn's birthday. This year Tyler's parents drove down to be with us to help celebrate. The girls were so excited to have Grandpa and Grandma come visit. They kept asking if they'd be staying until Halloween. Sadly, they couldn't stay that long, but with the Columbus Day holiday right before Taryn's birthday, at least we had a long weekend. Tyler had Columbus Day off from work, but the kids were still in school, but we took them out a little early so we could celebrate all together. 

We spent the afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese so the girls could play some games. Then we ate dinner at IHOP since pancakes are one of the few foods that Taryn will eat. With Abby's school choir concert, and Tyler's scouts happening on Taryn's actual birthday, we weren't sure if Taryn would get a birthday cake on her actual birthday, so we took our candle and let her blow it out on her chocolate funny face pancake. It took her a few tries, but she quickly figured out how to blow out the candle.

Taryn and I took Grandma and Grandpa to the school on Taryn's birthday to have lunch with each of the girls. After school was over, we had quick pizza dinner and let Taryn open her presents. She got some awesome gifts, like a Sofia LeapPad with games, an Elsa and Anna blanket, new shoes, a baby doll, and a Wheels on the Bus game. She also got to play one of her favorite games with Dad - Minnie Mouse Memory.

I went ahead and decided she needed an actual birthday cake, so I found a recipe for rainbow cake and made a small cake with cupcakes. It was quite involved in dividing the batter and adding the food coloring. I'm glad they turned out as well as they did, but I probably won't make it again! 

The time went by too quickly, but we enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa with us while they were here.

I grabbed one picture of all four girls before church one Sunday, so I thought I'd include that here. 

And finally, since it's a post about Taryn, I'm including our incident with a head wound. Taryn fell backwards on our dining room chair and cut the back of her head. I didn't know it was a cut until after seeing blood drops on her back. It was hidden in her hair. After picking up the girls from school and Tyler coming home from work early, we decided to call the doctor's office. After they said they could see her and any stitches or staples necessary could be administered there (we didn't want to have to go there and be sent to an urgent care or somewhere else) we decided to take her in. She did indeed need staples, but she was not happy about it. She didn't want anyone to touch it (obviously) and she did not like getting it cleaned either. It took the doctor, three nurses, and me to hold her down long enough for the doctor to put in three staples. And because they administer numbing medicine through a needle, they said it would be the same number of pokes anyway, so they just stapled her head without any numbing beforehand. It was not fun for her or me, but it was over in a matter of seconds and then she was fine. Actually, she was fine after we left the office because right after she got the staples, she was so upset that it made her cough and when Taryn cries, is upset, and coughs, more often than not, she throws up. So she did throw up a couple times while the doctor was making sure everything was okay, but by the time we were in the car and on the way home, then she was fine. Here's the picture I took after she got the staples. Right in the center of her head, you can see the little silver strips.

We spent the rest of the weekend referencing the staples and basically doing everything for Taryn. If someone asked why about anything like why Taryn got something they didn't or why we were going to a specific place, the answer was always, "because Taryn has staples in her head!" Taryn also had no problem telling anyone who talked to her over the next couple days, "I have staples in my head." It was pretty cute. Grandma and Grandpa Black sent a fruit bouquet as a get well gift, which the girls enjoyed eating. They loved the "fruit wands." 

She had the staples in her head for one week. They were removed Halloween morning. It reminded me of when Tessa broke her leg like 6 years ago. She got her cast on the day before Halloween. Apparently that holiday is surrounded by accidents for this family.

We're glad Taryn's okay and as traumatic as it was at the time, she has made a full recovery. We love our three year old little girl. She's happy, helpful, and loves following her sisters around and doing whatever they are doing. She can quote full conversations from multiple movies. Her favorites being Frozen and Sherman and Mr. Peabody. She loves to sing and record herself on my phone and/or iPad. She's definitely not a baby anymore. We love her so much. Happy Birthday Taryn!

September - The Month of Camping

September always seems to be filled with camping weekends. This year was no different. Our ward's annual camping trip is always in September. This year we decided last minute to go (just like last year) because the weather was questionable again. It was supposed to rain the entire time, but after hearing other families were still going, we decided we would too. We didn't even take a tent. We planned to sleep in the van thinking that would be better if it rained all night. Well, it hardly rained at all, so the weather held out and clean up in the morning was so much easier without having to put up a tent. The girls stayed toasty warm in the van (except for Abby who was next to the back of the van), so even sleeping in the car wasn't bad.

 

The girls got to spend time Saturday morning running around with their friends and as always doing the little zip line. The bishop's daughter celebrated her birthday while we were all up there, so we had cake after breakfast and the kids got to break open a pinata. They had a lot of fun.

 

On our drive back home, we decided to stop at the little zoo in Alamogordo again like we had a couple years earlier. With our El Paso zoo membership, we even got in free! Abby liked the bald eagles and Aubrey liked the huge tortoise. (That's also Tessa's favorite animal.)

 

The girls also really liked the playground and would have stayed there a lot longer if we hadn't rushed them along.

 

We were excited to hear that the kangaroos had new babies, and we even saw the baby joeys sticking out of their pouches from far away. We really liked the deer too because they came so close to the fence. Tyler even helped feed it the leaves that it was trying to reach through the fence.

 

A couple weekends later, we decided to camp again. This time we went just as a family into New Mexico because it was their other free fishing day for the year. We went to Ruidoso again (like we did in the summer) and we camped the night before. The most exciting thing that happened that night was when I woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of heavy animal breathing and stomping. I was scared that it was a bear, but it sounded more like a horse from how it was breathing and walking, so I figured it was a big buck or something. I thought I was the only one awake and I was trying to be super quiet so I didn't say anything until the morning, but when I did Tyler said he had heard it too. He thought it might have been a wild horse, which signs had warned us about on the drive up the mountain. He found a few tracks in the mud around our tent that made him think that it came around the trees and had had to slide to a stop when our tent was right there. It was crazy.

 

We got there too late to take any pictures in the evening, so while Tyler put up the tent and all our stuff in the morning, the girls played on these logs that were right behind where we put the tent. My phone had also died so I had to take all my pictures on my iPad. I was glad I had that, so I could get some pictures. They loved this big trunk that had a little step and perfect seat on the back side.

 

We even had to take videos of the girls walking along the fallen tree like a balance beam. The best video was of Abby who slipped and fell half way through. She even loves rewatching it and laughing every time.

 

After leaving the camp area and finding donuts for breakfast, we headed to Grindstone Lake. This is where we fished over the summer when they had a huge kid's fishing day. Tyler was hoping with less people this time and getting there earlier we would have a better time of catching fish, but it was still kind of busy and we had to walk a quarter around the lake to even find a spot. It was right near a lot of rocks so at least the girls had fun playing on the rocks, using chalk, and helping Tyler fish. I only took a few pictures but this first one of the girls helping Tyler fish is one of my favorites because you can also see the view we had.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, we didn't catch any fish this time either. Tyler was a little bummed. On our way home from the lake, we stopped at a pistachio farm where they have a structure of the world's largest pistachio. Of course we had to take a picture. The girls were having fun pretending to hold it up. They had a lot of flavored pistachios to sample, which the girls loved trying.

 

We really enjoy making these family memories and doing outdoorsy stuff together like camping and fishing. We've been having a lot of fun.

A New School Year Begins

Another school year begins and we now have 3 in school!! I feel like that is so crazy, but they were all excited to start school. Now we have a 4th grader, a 2nd grader, and a Kindergartener. I usually do posts for each of the girls to recap their entire year, but for now, I have at least first day of school pictures plus some picture day photos I took myself since I didn't want to pay for school pictures. So that will be this post. I forgot to take pictures at home, so I grabbed these pictures in the parking lot of the school before we walked in.

 Aubrey was so ready to start school. She didn't seem nervous at all. At one point I had to leave to take Abby to her class and Aubrey was a little hesitant for me to leave, but once she started coloring, she was fine. When I stopped by one last time to say goodbye, she was almost too busy to even talk to me. She was already deeply engrossed in what she was doing. I knew she was going to be fine and she was.

 

I had the girls dress up for their picture day which was around the 2nd week of school. But then I made them pose in the front yard before we left for school so I could take my own pictures. I thought they turned out great.

 

 I got real smiles and laughs from them by telling them: "think of daddy in a dress" and it worked every time.

 

Taryn was still in her pajamas but she did not want to be left out of the pictures, so I took a few of her too. Always adorable.

That was the beginning weeks of school. The girls are still enjoying it, so that's good too. Taryn is managing being home alone with just mom. We read a lot of books, do puzzles, and still have fun with exercise classes, park days, and music class. She does ask quite frequently where the girls are, but she doesn't seem to mind that it's just me and her for now. They are all doing so well.