As usual, our October weather has been all over the place. The week before Halloween was gorgeous, perfect weather for jumping in the leaves. Photographic evidence of doing too much: baking and packaging three dozen cookies for the kids' school carnival, finishing sewing Alaina's costume while babywearing, then cooking dinner for ten and carving pumpkins. Doctors say that most cases of mastitis are due to a mom not getting enough rest, and sure enough, I had a fever within hours. Carving pumpkins at Ryan's Alaina didn't want to follow a pattern or accept any help and loved hacking away at her pumpkin. Connor was quite proud that he did all of his carving by himself. The kids (including Ryan's girlfriend's) After carving pumpkins, we "Boo-ed" some neighbors. I took Alaina to Anthony's work to trick-or-treat around the building. The Cornstalk Carnival is the kids' school's biggest party of the year, and the kids loved playing all the mini games for prizes. Alaina's finished Rainbow Dash costume: Connor as Iron Man: Harrison as Superman: Gettin' all the bad guys: On Halloween, Nana called me to make sure I'd be home for drop-off of the golf cart. Um, what? They rented one for trick-or-treating, and at first I was shaking my head at the extremity of the idea, but it DID prove to be quite handy as an adult shuttle, even allowing me to be out with the kids for a few minutes while leaving the baby at home with Nana. We picked up Connor from the bus stop in it. He was thrilled! To offset the inevitable dinner of candy, I had prepared some more healthy options for snacks. It didn't really work, but it did assuage some of my parent-guilt. How cute is this carrot/hummus pumpkin patch?! Monster smiles: Anthony's brain defined in one photo: All ready to get that candy! Alaina with her best buddy, Mady.

I don't know what's going on with the format of my blog and don't care to fix it at the moment, so sorry for the ugly/confusing layout!

I'm slowly trying to dig out and catch up. I had been feeling so good physically after having Harrison that I made it my goal to continue life as close to normally as possible, but it caught up with me this week. I got mastitis which knocked me on my butt for a few days and taught me a lesson about taking it slower. Three weeks ago (!), Kelly came to visit. We celebrated her August birthday a couple months late.
Connor adores Harrison and always wants to hold him. In the middle of October, Mom and Dad came to visit! It was a bit of a shock to see Dad get out of the car with facial hair! Connor and Alaina loved having them here, showering them with attention, and even back-to-back trips to McDonalds. :) We had our first snow of the season while they were here. Snowball fight! I had intended to take a picture of our yellow leaves against the beautiful blue October sky, but this is a visual representation of how I feel like time is just getting away from me lately! Dad was great to bring stuff to have the kids help him spruce up their train track. Harrison has long, beautiful fingers, and may be getting sick of the camera in his face. Mom had fun activities planned every day for Connor and Alaina that kept them happy and engaged. It was nice to let Mom and Dad take the reigns and just park my tush on the sofa. Did somebody say "milk"?! Alaina has slowly but surely warmed up to Harrison as the days go by, and has just recently asked to hold him. I think the older kids will really start to enjoy him once he starts to laugh.