October

 ^^ October started out with a bang ...literally! Poor girl took a forehead to the corner of the bed! ^^

 ^^ Three cute babes in their "Nana's Beach shirts"! This was also the day Judah decided to take off walking! The day before he turned 11 months! ^^

 ^^ Lots and lots of school in October - We took a week break in September for vacation, and November and December both have holidays we take time off for, so it was our first solid month of school in the first semester! The unit? Insects! Uriah was loving it and we all got wrapped up in it - so many bugs! We focused on a different insect each week: beetles, ants, butterflies and bees. Our side subject was praying mantises, as we collected quite a few throughout the month! ^^

 ^^ Park days in the October sunshine! It was a beautiful month! ^^

 ^^ Uriah and I made a bug house for our soon to be hibernating insect friends and called it school for the day! ^^

 ^^ Lots of time with friends this month! I love the way these boys love on Judah - so sweet and patient with him! ^^

 ^^ Gosh, these brothers...! Early morning snuggles and play, Uriah just makes all Judah's dreams come true with his attention! ^^

 ^^ More friends - Friday morning Side by Side Bible study. These girlies are so cute together! Ezra's never had friends her age that were girls, so I get extra excited when she takes off playing with them! ^^

 ^^ Saturday morning at the pumpkin patch with friends! The Stripe family has been a huge blessing to us - I was in contact with Cara through side by side since the day we matched and she was so sweet and helpful in answering all of my questions! Our kiddos are the same age and they hit it off right away. They've shared their church, their time and their resources and it's just been so great to get to know them! Benny is in the cardiology department as well and I love that Stephen has a Christian superior to seek advice from. Also loved this pumpkin patch...! We'll be making it a yearly tradition! ^^

^^ More school... onto the ants! We had plenty of them to observe in our backyard ;) ^^

 ^^ Judah's first time coloring! Obviously, he loved it! ^^

 ^^ We harvested our pomegranates during the month of October! Yum! We have loved to watch the fruit grow in our own backyard and were all anticipating the day we could open them up! We've had pomegranate seeds on our cereal for the last three months and were able to give plenty away to friends and neighbors. Until next year...! ^^

 ^^ Our little home... Gosh I love having a fireplace to decorate! But I love even more the sight and sounds of these three hooligans playing together in the early morning hours! ^^

 ^^ A Side by Side playdate at the park and this kid decides to age himself and make me cry...?! He was off eating his lunch and casually came up to me and asked, "Did I lose a tooth?" I freaked out (of course!) and he just calmly smiled and said, "Huh! Cool!" It either fell out and got lost among the grass or he swallowed it, but the wrote the Tooth Fairy a cute little note explaining the problem and she still left him four quarters. He's still talking about it today ;) ^^

 ^^ A Saturday afternoon at the park while our husbands sleep off work and/or are actually at work...! So happy to have friends who simply get it - Residency/Fellowship is hard! We are truly blessed by these friends who are walking the road with us. And when our husbands aren't at work (or we happen to have a mother-in-law in town!) we get to venture off for an early morning antique faire shopping! ^^

 ^^ Baba came to town and we made our way to Fairytale Town for a morning of playing! Judah can now climb around on the equipment and is loving trying to keep up with Uriah and Ezra! ^^

 ^^ More school... More insects! We had a cup of caterpillars delivered to our door so we could watch them eat, grow, shed, eat, sleep and turn into butterflies! We also found a female praying mantis among our roses at the start of the month. We named her Rosie and kept her nice and safe and fed - she has one deformed arm and Uriah took her on as his own responsibility, catching her food and cleaning out her cage (I'm typing this now in December and she's still around!) The last jar on the left is a second praying mantis that we found one evening while checking the porch before bed - our first male - we named him Slim! ^^

 ^^ Ok, model baby...! ^^

 ^^ Watching caterpillars turn into butterflies! It truly is a magical thing to witness! ^^

 ^^ Our best friends from Palo Alto went a little crazy, rented a 13 passenger van and drove to Sacramento with their 9 kids for a day trip...! Crazy! But totally and completely wonderful. They arrived at Uriah's flag football practice and we spent the first part of our day playing at the park and having a picnic lunch. We made it back to our house for more play, a lasagna dinner and a backyard dance party. O man, were we feeling the love! So grateful for these women and their families! ^^

 ^^ On to butterflies! I get more enjoyment out of writing on this chalkboard than the kids do using it for school...^^

 ^^ An exact replica of an outfit Uriah had on at 15 months in one of my very favorite videos of him walking to the co-op in Boise. This kid is younger but just as cute! ^^

 ^^ Post church with my baby boy who isn't looking much like a baby boy these days! He's half my height! ^^

 ^^ We had friends over for dinner and the kids stayed up later than normal after a day of no naps. Ezra asked if she could go lay down in my bed and I of course agreed. I went to check on her as our friends were leaving so she could come out and say goodbye and I found her like this. Can't remember the last time this happened...! Oh I was loving it! Such a sweet babe. ^^

 ^^ We were about to let Slim go when we decided maybe we could try mating them...?! Ha! What is this life I live?! We had done a lot of reading on praying mantises, so we knew Rosie might eat him, but we were going to let him go anyway... We put him in her cage at night and in the morning we found them like this! Talk about a science lesson! They stayed like this for more than 24 hours! Eventually we were able to get him out and let him go. A few days later, she laid eggs! ^^

 ^^ Nana and Papa and Great Grandpa came to town for Judah's first birthday, but they also got in their fair share of snuggles, books and school. They also got to watch Uriah at his flag football practice (while Ezra played with her cutest girlfriends!), eat out with us and partake in all the in-between ^^

 ^^ All but one of our butterflies made it (one fell as it was forming it chrysalis and it never emerged) and it was so fun to let them go - the kids were giddy that they chose to test out their wings on their hands before taking off! We've done this before (with Spike!) but it was just as magical the second time around. So fun to witness! ^^

 ^^ Ezra almost always insists on wearing one of her stuffed animals on our evening walks. I love that she has picked this up from me wearing Judah! ^^

 ^^ Our church held a trunk or treat in October and we set up a trunk for the event! Uriah had been listening to the Wizard of Oz audiobook and loved the story so I was able to convince them to do a family theme ;) The event was a success and everyone loved the costumes! Looking forward to next year! ^^

 ^^ We finished our insect unit with a trip to the Entomology Museum at UC Davis. My parents and Grandpa were able to make the trip with us - we held different types of walking sticks, saw different types of praying mantises and tarantulas (and Papa held one!) and hundreds of dead beetles! It was so fun to see all that Uriah had learned in the last month! ^^

 ^^ "Mom, I love you. Thank you for taking care of me." I hung it up in my kitchen where I see it every time I'm making food to remind me - he sees me. And he cares! ^^

 ^^ We started taking daily walks in October. Most often in the morning before starting school, but sometimes in the evening before dinner. It has been one of my favorite things! The kids didn't love the idea at first, they're such homebodies and love our lazy mornings playing after breakfast, but after a few days they stopped dragging their feet! We practice our memory verse and Spanish words, count all the colors in the sunset, collect pretty leaves and nature findings and stop somewhere along the way for a selfie ;) ^^

^^ On Halloween, I made a big pot of chili and lots of cornbread muffins and my parents, grandpa and the Wishy family joined us for dinner and trick or treating! It was a bit of a surprise that both our husbands were actually able to make it - all the more reason to celebrate! Our neighborhood was sleeply, but it gave the kids the freedom to run around a bit more and they still scored plenty of candy! ^^