Holidays

 I thought I had posted after Halloween, but I guess not.  So this may end being a pretty long post!  

Our Halloween preparations (ie: costumes) were figured out pretty quickly!  I noticed that Goodwill was putting out their costumes the first week of September.  So I went in then and got all their costumes for about $10!  I don't like spending a lot of money on costumes that are only going to be worn a couple times and the costumes at Goodwill can actually be pretty good quality.  The girls got Cinderella and Aurora dresses and Asher picked out Spiderman.  So that was a lot less stress for me!  Last year Asher was still trying to figure out what he wanted to be like 2 days before Halloween.  I wasn't sure if we would actually go Trick-or-Treating because of Covid so I let the girls wear their dresses all during October.  And November.  And they still fight over who gets to wear the Aurora dress in the middle of December...

Probably the only picture I have of Ava actually wearing the Cinderella dress.

The kids got into my closet and decided to try on all my dresses.  They are the main reason my house is never clean no matter how much I try to keep it that way!  Good thing they're cute. ;)

I asked Ava if she wanted a blanket for bed.  She grabbed a towel.  She also took the towel when we drove Asher to and from school the next few days.  I don't know why.

For Halloween I decided we would probably do some Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood because I knew a few people in our ward would be expecting kids to come around and Asher really really really wanted to go.  But we weren't sure how many people would be answering their doors so we organized a Halloween get-together with my family!  It was all outside and the weather actually cooperated and was pretty nice!  Last year it was snowing and icy on Halloween.  Each family came dressed up in costume and we all spread candy out on my parents front yard and had an Easter-style dash to get candy!  Each kid got a pretty fair amount of candy and they all thought it was pretty fun.  My nephew dressed up as a vending machine and had all the younger kids come up and "order" what they wanted from him.  It was pretty cute!

Ava refused to wear the Cinderella dress.  I really try to let my kids make their own decisions as much as I can and I figured having her wear regular clothes was better than her having a meltdown because I forced her to wear the dress.  She had fun and so did everyone else and that's what's most important!

The grandkids!  Plus Lisa and Tyler.  Their whole family dresses up every year and they always do a really great job! 

Halloween!  Ava agreed to wear Asher's old Pikachu costume and it was so funny to watch her little legs waddle around the neighborhood.  Only about half the houses were answering their doors, but they didn't mind and we had a great Halloween!

I have so much fun with them while Asher is at school.  I try my best to set aside some time every day where we all just play.  This particular day they got pillows for Mia and some toys and Ava read them all a bedtime story!  The other day we were having lunch and they wanted to imitate things.  They kept wanting me to be a pirate, Mia wanted to be things like a dog and kitty, and Ava wanted to be things like a tomato and an angry sheep.  It was hilarious and I enjoyed every second!  I know I'm going to enjoy some alone time when they start Preschool next year, but I'm also really going to miss this time with them.

One night it snowed and they were so excited they went out at 7pm to lay down, make snow angels, and look at the stars!  I watched from the warmth of the house.

I walked downstairs to find Asher watching TV like this one day. ;)

A new girl came into Asher's class and he said he was too shy to go talk to her.  So he wrote her a note asking if she would be his friend and I thought that was the most adorable thing ever.  He said she wrote "Yes" on the back of the note.

We went to get pizzas one night and it wasn't until we were at the store that I realized I maybe should've made a few wardrobe adjustments....but at the same time this really represents my kids the best!  Asher loves to be comfortable and always tries to wear shorts/sweat pants and flip flops to school, even in the middle of December.  Ava gets attached to random objects and doesn't care what anyone thinks, so she wore Asher's old bike helmet.  She is the quirkiest kid I know.  And Mia loves all things girly and wore her Aurora dress.  She channels my Grandma Haroldsen a lot because she is quite the fancy lady.

I feel like this is a cliche' thing to say at this point, but it has been a very difficult year.  My anxiety has just been getting worse and worse as the year has progressed (as I'm sure it has been with everyone) and things are just frustrating right now.  When President Nelson announced he was going to be giving a short message I looked forward to it so much, and it really helped!  I didn't love the posting on social media for 7 days part (I don't really post that often...)  but trying to find things every day that I was thankful for helped switch my thinking.  It helped me feel a little better and like I could handle things for a little while longer.  

The day after he gave his message my nephew was baptized!  Ledger and Asher are less than a year apart and have always been friends.  It was so great when we moved back here and they got to see each other more often!  It was just family that attended (with my brother and his family in Florida Zoom calling in) and my sister and I did a violin/viola duet as part of the program.  Ledger is the 3rd grandchild on the Mitchell side to get baptized, but the first that Asher has been able to see.  It was adorable to see all these little kids watch the baptism!  When Ledger walked into the font they all started waving and saying "Hi Ledger!" and after he was done they started clapping.  At the end of the program Ledger wanted the closing song to be "Gethsemane" and Asher was so impressed/touched by the song that he started clapping at the end of that too!  I guess we'll have to talk about how to express appreciation at church a little more.  But it got Asher so excited for his own baptism in less than a year!  How did he get old enough for that???  But it was a great day!

Asher and Ledger!

The girls also wanted to be in a picture.  Someday we'll get a picture with everyone smiling and looking at the camera!

The week after that was Thanksgiving.  We were going to go to Missouri to have it with David's family (Most of them I haven't seen since the girls were babies and some I haven't seen since I was pregnant with them!)  But because of Covid concerns we decided not to go.  We had Thanksgiving dinner for the second time at our house and invited my parents who were just going to go to Chuck-o-rama or something for their Thanksgiving.  It was low key and relaxed and I loved it!  I am proud to say I did the turkey by myself and I think it turned out pretty good.  Since then we've been getting ready for Christmas!  I hope next year will be better, but I am working hard to make the rest of this year the best it can be!

Fall Stuff

 This post will mainly be September with a little bit of August and October thrown in.  It just felt like a good time to post.

August seems like such a long time ago.  At the beginning of the month we had our last summer get-together before Andy, Keny, and Milan headed back to Florida.  We went to the park, rode the Carousel, and had pizza!  The kids all had a blast and it was a great way to end the summer!

Mia and Audrey waiting for their turn!

This picture makes me laugh every time!  To be fair, I don't know if Sorren and Ledger knew they were in the picture.

Handsome baby boy!

All the kids got cotton candy afterwards.  It was sticky and messy and lots of fun. ;)

Playing in the sprinkler!  Asher and Ava loved running through it and Mia loved watching them.  She didn't like actually getting wet.

David and Asher started school at the end of August.  They have been going 4 days a week in school and having online school Friday's (although David still has to go to the school and attend teacher meetings and work at the school).  I was so glad Asher got to go back to school!  He really missed his friends and couldn't wait to meet his new teacher.  He does well with a good structure and reliability to his day so school is good for him.  So far he has done great in class and tells me all the time about all the friends he plays with.  One day I was picking him up from school and it was taking him forever to walk over to the car.  I asked him what took so long and he said "I had to say goodbye to everyone!"  He has a little of his Grandpa Mitchell in him. ;)  This year I decided to take him to school and pick him up every day.  I was a little paranoid about all those kids on the bus together spreading germs, but what made me decide more was that all the kids would have to sit in families, so he wouldn't be able to sit with his friends and I knew that would be really hard for him.  So I explained to him that this would probably be the only year we do this, but I would drive him.  He has a hard time when I drop him off in the morning because he is still my velcro baby and has a hard time leaving me, but I know he has fun at school and is always smiling and happy when I pick him up!  Next week the high schools in our district will start only going to school 2 days a week because they have had a lot more Covid cases.  It means a lot more work for David.  It will be so nice when things can go back to normal!

First day of 2nd Grade! 

Masks are required for everyone all day.  Grandma Mitchell made Asher a few masks for him to wear to school.  He really hasn't complained at all about having to wear them.

Every month we look for the full moon!  Grandma Clay has a deal going with her grandkids - she sends them a dollar coin if they call/video chat/etc with her on a full moon.  Asher took this picture and I actually think it's pretty good!

I was headed to bed one night and found Millie being a spoiled rotten dog.  When I come to bed she'll just lay there and look at me.  I scoot her big butt over to David's side and get in bed.  David usually comes to bed after me and as soon as she hears him heading for the room she'll jump down and go to her pillow.

I had to get some pictures of the girls in their "Rainbow Dresses" my mom made for them.  They are almost too small and have been worn so much that they're starting to fall apart. 

Ava especially would wear this dress every day if I let her!  This is by far her favorite dress.  She has her own style and gets very mad when her favorite outfits are in the wash.  Sometimes I'll hide her dresses just to make her wear something else.  Don't tell her I said that....

This girl.  She is so quirky and spunky and just full of life!  This is how I'll always remember her at this age.  "Rainbow dress", "Dancing Shoes" (any shoes she really likes), crazy curly hair bouncing around, squeal coming out of her mouth, and Bear in tow.

Mia is so much more subdued in public than she is at home.  At home she is always giggling and laughing and running around right behind Ava!  They really are best buddies and love playing with each other all day.  I hear the words "Sissy, come here!" over and over and that's how I know they're having fun!

I'm normally very cautious about making sure we follow all the rules so we don't get Covid, but one day I let Asher invite a friend over and a neighbor girl did Ava and Mia's makeup.  I told my mom we'd probably all get Covid and pink-eye, but all three kids had so much fun and loved every minute that it was worth it.

This is how they said prayers one night after scriptures.  My kids think they all need to be sitting on someone during prayers.  It's going to get really difficult when they're all teenagers. ;)

Ava LOVES to hang on my neck when I'm sitting down.  Sometimes I get annoyed and make her get off, and sometimes I tickle and kiss her until I'm worried she's going to pee her pants!

I was really on the ball this year and went to Goodwill the first week in September and got Halloween costumes for all the kids.  Asher got a Spiderman outfit and the girls got a Cinderella and Aurora dress!  The Goodwill actually usually had pretty good costumes.  I also got boots and snowpants for the kids there and those were all in really good condition too!  Ever since I got the dresses the girls want to wear them all the time.  They have been worn to the gas station, Wal-Mart, and the vet.  I'm getting my money's worth! 

I always think of the scene in Friends where they're lounging around in wedding dresses when I see the girls watching tv or eating snacks in their princess dresses.

There's a little park right by the river that we sometimes go to and walk around.  It's kind of a Zen Garden type thing and very pretty.  I want to get family pictures taken there next time we get around to doing that!  Until we get family pictures taken I'll just take pictures with my phone. 

I don't know why but it is so hard to get Mia to smile for pictures!  If she is ever smiling in a picture it's a candid shot where I pretend to chase her or something and she starts laughing.  She has a hard time smiling on command.  But she does have the cutest little face!

This is how all the pictures look when I try to take a picture of them together.  Asher is making a weird face, Ava is laughing and her eyes are closed, and Mia is half smiling and looking at something off to the side.

David's mom gave Asher that little baby thing when he was a baby.  It has still survived and is actually still a little bit of a favorite! 

Ava is so quirky and it always cracks me up.  I told her we were going to pick up Asher from school.  This is what she grabbed.  We had to stop at the post office before getting Asher and she almost wore it inside the store!  But she changed her mind at the last minute.  She lives life on her own terms!

One morning Asher and I got into a big fight when I was dropping him off at school because he really didn't want to go.  I felt horrible about it all day and knew I needed a different tactic.  So at first I told him we would do some stuff on Pokemon Go (we've really gotten into that the last year or so!) and now I ask him what he wants to do after school.  If he goes to school without complaining we'll do what he wants and it gives him something to look forward to.  One day he picked making No Bake Cookies (his favorite) so all three helped me make them!  Any time I do any kind of food stuff Ava and Mia will drag chairs over to the counter to "help".

One day I looked over and saw Ava watching TV like this.  That girl is very thin, but all muscle.  And, seriously, she lives life by her own rules!

I'm sure I forgot a bunch of stuff, but that pretty accurately describes life for us!

Asher Turns 7!

 On August 5th, my little boy turned 7!  He always gets so excited for his birthday, so I did my best to make sure it was a good day!  We went to my parents house to go swimming with cousins, and then had cake and ice cream and presents at home.  I asked Asher what kind of cake he wanted and he made a very specific request.  He said he wanted a chocolate rectangle cake with half blue and half orange frosting and candy flowers and on the cake he wanted it to say "Happy Birthday Asher!"  I couldn't find candy flowers, but I was able to do the rest!  I was actually a little worried he was going to be disappointed when he saw the cake because I'm no professional, but he thought it was great!  I made him another cake for when we had a party with my family and he requested a strip of green at the top of the cake.  Even though he really did like both cakes, he didn't have a single bite of either.  He really doesn't like cake.  I think from now on we'll do donuts instead of cakes because he likes those a lot better.  

A few days after his birthday, we had a get-together with my family to celebrate Asher's and Milan's birthday.  My sister in law Keny (Milan's mom) made 2 different pinata's and they were both awesome!  She made one for every birthday this summer.  She's basically amazing.  So we had a BBQ and pinatas and presents and cake and it was just a fun time!

 

Some things about Asher:

•  Very social!  He had a really hard time when the school got canceled and church was canceled and he couldn't see any of his friends.  But school has started again (for now) and he is much happier!  He also loved being able to hang out with cousins all summer!
• Favorites right now include Pokemon, Minecraft, Ben 10, Beyblades, riding his bike, antagonizing his sisters....you know, all the typical 7 year old things.
• He is an excellent brother.  When he wants to be.  He also likes to push buttons.  But most of the time he is very helpful and is willing to do what I ask him.  He loves helping to put the girls to bed and takes it a little personal when they want me to read them a book at night instead of him.  The girls love him and get upset when we drop him off at school and get very excited when we pick him up in the afternoon!  
• He loves to ask questions and I do my best to answer him.  He asks me questions all the time that really make me think about things in a different way.  When I tell him I don't know the answer to something he makes me look it up on Google.  He wants to know everything and will keep trying to figure things out until it all makes sense!
• Feels all the feelings.  This is good and bad.  He gets ecstatic when he is happy and completely distraught when things don't go his way.  He is devoted and passionate and also gets frustrated and angry.  We've been working a lot on controlling our emotions and he's really been working hard at it!  
• Loves to explain things!  He is very detail oriented and likes to explain things in a step-by-step manner.  I try not to get frustrated at this when I'm tired and not really in the mood for a 10 minute story about putting his shoes on, but I love that he pays attention to things in such great detail!  Well, things that he wants to pay attention to...
• Great student.  All his teachers say he's a great student who does fabulous in class.  He is also an excellent reader.  When we read scriptures he'll usually take a verse or two and does pretty well!  He doesn't love reading on his own, but does love reading with someone else there (that social-ness of him kicking in). 
• I think he's just pretty dang cool! 

He sure loves that Pikachu!

Us making up how to play Pokemon cards.  Someday we'll learn the real rules.

He loves a good cuddle!

He thought this was the coolest thing!

He always wants me to take pictures of things so he can always remember them.  I actually think it's pretty adorable. ;)

Sleeps with his "plushies".  This picture was at the height of his hoard.  Right now he's down to 2 - Pikachu and "Woofless" (a little stuffed dog he got from his new teacher, named after the manner of the dragon in How To Train Your Dragon)

Loves having his buddies!

He gets really excited when people make things for him!  He wanted to add googly eyes to the hat, but I never got around to it.  He's a funny kid with very creative ideas!

He had been working on climbing higher and higher up this thing.  Every time he reached a higher spot he would want me to take a picture of him!  He's not naturally adventurous and really tries to push himself to do new things.

Swimming is probably his favorite thing in the world.

What a cutie!

 When Asher was a baby, things did not go super smooth...  He hated sleep (still does, if I'm being honest) and if he was awake, he was crying.  I would take him on walks in the stroller around the neighborhood and he would be crying the entire time (I was doing what I could to survive).  I got many strange looks from people passing me.  This went on for a good 4 months.  I know most people love the newborn stage, but with all my kids it was hard to really enjoy them the first 6 months of their lives because of problems with colic and food sensitivities and difficulty sleeping.  During those first few months he would get up at 5am and want to be awake for awhile.  David was still going to school and working, so I would get up with Asher and take him out to the living room and watch TV until he was ready to go back to sleep.  This was the only time of day he would be awake without crying and actually seemed a little content.We lived in a tiny 700 square foot apartment and had about 5 channels we could watch, one of which was MTV (don't ask me why).  Most of what is on MTV is reality shows, but at 5am they actually did show music videos.  They would show the same ones every morning so I got to know those songs pretty well.  I would sing along with the songs while holding Asher in front of me.  He would just watch me quietly and it was honestly the best part of my day.  To this day, whenever I hear "Cups" by Anna Kendrick, I am brought back to that matchbox-sized apartment in the wee morning hours singing along and enjoying my little baby boy.