Trick or Treating

This year, our preschool president invited all the families from our co-op over for a Halloween party. It was so much fun. I think 9 families were able to attend. We at pizza at her house and then went trick or treating around their neighborhood.

Before we left home...

Josh was Dumbo the elephant. At first I was worried the costume wouldn't work. It was too long and he kept tripping over it. He was a sad little elephant. 

Then Devan tucked his pants into his shoes so he wouldn't trip and he was a contented little dude. 

 Hannah was a pirate princess.

And Ben was a fireman.

Lots of our preschool friends.

 All ready to go...

All that practicing paid off.

They were trick or treating pros.

And when Hannah ditched Ben, he did great all by himself. He even went up to the scary houses alone. 

After we went trick or treating, we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa at their houses. It was a great Halloween!

Getting Ready for Halloween

With the stress of the move 3 weeks before Halloween, we didn't do as many fun fall things as I would have liked to in October. We did a few things to make some good memories, however.

All year long Hannah likes to play trick or treating. She taught Ben how to play last year after Halloween when he was only 1. This year they stepped it up a notch. They figured out costumes for themselves and Hannah came up with the idea of the little house.

They made themselves some peanut butter sandwiches after. I helped a little. 

On the Saturday before Halloween there was "trunk or treating" at church. It was raining, so we did it inside instead of having to go from car to car in the parking lot.

Josh was pretty content as soon as he got a couple of pieces. He chewed on this wrapped snickers bar for quite a while.

Then they gave us doughnuts.

The Monday before Halloween we were invited over to a friend's house to carve pumpkins. Both Devan and  I are really unmotivated when it comes to carving pumpkins, so it was good we went or no pumpkins would have been carved this year. 

They had a scary man on their porch, but my kids are brave. 

Yesterday I was cleaning out the room where I throw everything I don't want to deal with at the moment (Hannah's room) and I found some Halloween stickers, cookie cutters, and fall sprinkles that I'd bought earlier in the month. I really did have great intentions. Maybe next year...

Timing is Everything

Today I was at an open house for a preschool friend, Amy, who is moving away (tear.) At one point I looked over at Amy holding a baby girl and made a comment about how cute the baby was. Someone asked me if it was making me want to have another and I said, "No, no, no!" Everyone knows that I want to have more babies, but now is not the time. I made a comment about how strange it is to not be thinking and planning about when I'm going to try to get pregnant again, but it's not even on my mind right now. My friend Maya said, "You just wait, you'll get into your new house and have a little room to spread out. You'll get past the holidays and come January, you'll be twiddling your fingers and that itch will come back." Later this evening we were all in the living room watching our family's (minus Mom's) favorite movie, Cars. I remembered that cute, funny story. I opened my mouth to tell it to Devan and to ask him if he thinks it will be time to start thinking of the next baby this winter. Before any words have left my mouth, Josh sits up, leans over, and vomits big chunks of peanut butter sandwich in my hair. As I'm in the shower a few minutes later, all I can think is, we'll have another baby someday, but not now. So not now.

All joking aside. We are in a good place right now. It's so nice to feel joy and completeness in the family I have right now, at this moment. And yes, my children still never wear clothes.

My return to blogging

It's been a long absence and I know my many, many readers have missed me. So, to reward your patience, here is a glimpse into life at the Steele home. The day was today. The time was 7:45. Dinner had been eaten, Dad wasn't home yet. The mother was mentally checked out. She peeked in at the 3 children playing happily in the bedroom and then had the audacity to sit on the couch and read for 20 minutes. She could hear them jumping on the bed, but as previously mentioned, she had clocked out for the day and was ignoring everything. Dad gets home, notes mother sitting glassy eyed in her pajamas on the couch, goes in their room, and calmly says, "I don't know how this was allowed to happen." An entire Costco-sized box of goldfish crackers had been dumped out all over the bedroom.

I don't know how it happened either. As previously mentioned. I'd JUST checked on them and didn't see any giant box of crackers in their possession. They are evil. They look so cute but they are so EVIL. All of them. Even the little one.

So, I went in and started putting the fishes back in the box (because if you know me at all, you know that there's no way I'm letting an entire box of snack food go to waste.) Still mentally checked out, but at least making an effort to go through the motions. From somewhere far away I hear the oldest and most evil of the three repeating a phrase over and over. It finally registers as, "Squish 'em in, squish 'em in, squish 'em in. It sure does take a long time to squish 'em all in!" Yes, Hannah, it does take a long time to squish all those crackers into your bed.

Hannah went to time out. I went to a fetal position in my bed. The crackers are still in the bedroom.

Ben learned how to climb out of his crib a couple of months ago. Since then bedtime has been a nightmare. Tonight I decided to lower his mattress all the way to the floor to see if I could trap him in his crib. Hannah had to sleep in our room all alone, which is one of the worst punishments for her. This isn't a problem for us because we sleep on a mattress pad on the living room floor, which we drag back and forth from our bedroom every morning and evening, just to keep up the appearance of civility, but still allowing us to pass out in front of the TV every night.

So, Ben's crib situation lasted about 2 minutes until he figured out how to climb out. Not willing to endure another night of sticking him back in bed over and over for two hours, Devan constructed a cage for the boy.   

Devan stuck the walker on top so he couldn't lift it off of himself. I think Hannah was responsible for the addition of their entire stuffed animal collection. I love his little hand sticking out the side. He'll be glad for such careful documentation when he has to tell his stories in therapy as an adult.

Once he was asleep, I took the cage off of him. See, he could have slept in a very nice bed, complete with animal friends and sheets. Instead, he will be spending tonight and perhaps every night in the future on the floor under a cage.

And so reader, you can leave your "thank you"s in the comments section because, as always, WE MAKE YOU LOOK SO GOOD!

First Tooth Day!

For the sake of recording... Josh got his first tooth on June 11, 2012. At least that's what I wrote down. I actually think both his front bottom teeth popped in on the same day. Either way, he didn't seem to excited about it.

Happy Birthday to Us!

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. Since it fell on a Saturday, I think it may have been the first year we went out on our actual anniversary. We took out our bikes that we got for my birthday for the first time. We don't have bike trailers yet to take the kids with us, so it takes the stars aligning to be able to go on a ride. But it was so fun. On the way back we went to Applebees. Actually, we got Applebees take out and then went home and ate it in a completely silent house. We laughed about how we're getting so old. Sitting in a noisy restaurant on a Saturday night having to be interrupted by a server every 10 minutes sounds like zero fun anymore. The silence was beautiful. We picked up the kids, got them home and to bed and then, as usual, couldn't make it though a 30 minute TV program without one of us falling asleep. Not the most exciting, romantic date anyone ever had, but it was what we needed. I completely owe my 5 years of marriage to regular date nights. I go more than a couple of weeks without a few of hours of quiet to talk to my husband and I'm about ready to throw in the towel. Just kidding...sort of.

Sunday was a wonderful day. We got home from church, got Ben down for a nap and then worked on getting ready for our family birthday party. We tried our hand at Brazilian cooking since we weren't in Salt Lake to go to our traditional anniversary dinner at Rodizio Grill. It was pretty delicious.

This one came out blurry, but I love Devan's laugh so much. And I love Josh looking up at him in the background. Hannah took this picture.

And she took this one. Pictures of Mom and Dad together are hard to come by these days.

As usual, Hannah stayed at the table for a very short time and then was off to play. She found my roller blades and came back saying, "Look Mom! I can skate now that I'm 4!"

She spent the next hour and a half skating between the living room and her bedroom. She went from barely being able to stand up in them to being able to skate anywhere with carpet. She's been keeping very entertained with those skates for the last couple of days when it's been raining outside.

During dinner, Ben learned how to smile and say cheese when his picture was being taken. We practiced a lot.

Josh tried beans and rice. He didn't love it, but he was a good sport.  

We played for a while after dinner, then got in our pajamas and had our birthday cake.

Hannah wanted to do a silly face first. Look at how wet her hair is. That's sweat from skating so much!

First-time-Mom Alex would have smacked me in the face, but I gave Josh some cake. He got a couple of licks of frosting of my finger, which he loved, then I gave him a little bit of the cake part. He didn't like that very much. He really doesn't like any food except for rice cereal. He won't even eat pureed fruits and vegetables unless they're mixed with cereal.

Mom went crazy and even let the kids have seconds on dessert.

Hannah wanted me to take her picture with Joshua and then at the last minute they both looked away. That's just a wall off to their left, so I don't know what they were looking at, but it made me laugh.

Trying to get a picture of all 3 kids is always a challenge, but I like all of these, even though none of them are perfect.

What a lovely 5 years it has been. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one thinking it, but being married is hard! It's hard to consistently put another adult's needs in front of your own. It's hard choose to love someone even when you're feeling tired or lazy or selfish. I feel like Devan does a better job of pushing through these human inclinations than I do, but I'm working on it.

I feel like these 5 years have been so intense with so many pregnancies and so many babies in such a short amount of time. I feel like I'm always being pulled in so many directions that it's hard to give my marriage the time and attention that it needs. I feel like I live my life for those 20 minutes we have together after the kids go to bed before one or both of us pass out from exhaustion. Sometimes I feel like I live a very small life and I'm embarrassed that I haven't seen more or done more. But then we have days like this, when I realize that we are so blessed.

I realize that the years are flying past and we will look back at this time as being so sweet and so simple. I'm pretty sure that life only gets harder the longer you live it. The good news is, I'm also pretty sure that we'll grow stronger together to bear whatever comes our way. Someday we will sleep through the night again. Someday we'll be able to get through a conversation without interruption. Someday I'll find something new to whine about. But for now, I'm glad that I'm the person that Devan Steele chose to spend his life and eternity with. Even when it's hard, he's the person I most enjoy spending time with in the entire world. I know that he puts my happiness above everything else in his life and I'm trying to do the same. I fall so, so short, but I'm trying.

Happy Birthday to us!