The Klein/Allen Clan: October 2014

The month of October came and went fast. We solidified our school routine, my belly grew a ton, and Eric's been pretty busy with work.

Here are some of the highlights--

I think this was one picture that Andi took when she was on a raid with my phone. I include this picture because I think it really shows how much Ava looks like Eric. She definitely has Zimmerman in her, but sometimes I'll catch her at certain angles and I think she's just a mini-me of Eric.

Here's Abbey posing with the "world's largest praying mantis" that Eric discovered in our yard one day while mowing the lawn. I was kindly informed this was no grasshopper...it was a tried and true praying mantis. Abbey loves bugs, so Eric got her to pose with it. :)

Here's the beast crawling on our fence.

A Saturday morning spent on the Lagoon trail with Harry and my mom's dogs. A good way to get the girls' energy out and hopefully a help to my mom who's trying to recover from knee surgery.

Usual nighttime goofballs.

Eric took the girls on a hike in south Farmington between sessions on conference weekend.

I think the hike starts at Memorial park, which is why they're standing at a memorial of sorts.

They even took Harry. Love it!

One Sunday evening when I was in the garage, I looked up at the pretty autumn mountains, complete with a full moon overhead. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try to capture the beauty of it all. I truly love where I live and I love this time of year.

My two boys taking their Sunday afternoon positions.

Showing off her dance shoes and just basically how cute she is. :)

Abbey being the incredible girl she is...writing in her journal on a Sunday night. A new goal she's tried to do and I'm proud of her.

Ava at the park behind our house with Bowen and a newfound friend. Look how big she looks compared to these babies! She's the baby in our family so I often forget how much she's grown since I got her at age two.

This particular day we were tending Bowen because his sister Chloe was in the hospital with the Enterovirus. Very stressful time for his family, but fun for us to be with him.

Check it out....Goin' to the Daddy/Daughter party for activity days at the church. A great way to kick off the Halloween season. I personally loved Eric's choice of tattoo sleeves. Nice touch!

The girls made cards for Chloe while she was sick in the hospital. Here's Andi's card to Chloe.

Ava's card to Chloe. Abbey helped her write the words. Very cute.

Abbey's cleverly written card to cousin Chloe.

I was tending Bo and I couldn't help but get a shot of his cute face. Isn't my nephew beautiful?!

A very worn out Harry on Andi's bed. All that work on my iPad must have worn him out. :)

While I'm still working on the last coat, you can see that progress is being made in Andi (and Abbey's) bedrooms. Excited to finally have it done, painted, and back to normal for them. It's been quite the drawn-out project for me as I've attempted to paint while growing more and more pregnant.

October 11th: Farmington Elementary School's color run race!

Right before the 5k race with our race shirts on and all.

Andi and Abbey getting sprayed with color as they made their way through the coarse.

Ava and I were speed walking buddies during the race. The first color was pink, as you can see. She kept a pretty good pace!

The finish line! Eric and these two went ahead of Ava and I, and they made a good team.

The finish line for Aves and me. We got splattered with tons of color!

I think this little one was more excited about the race than anyone else. Her teacher had talked it up a lot to the kids and Andi's been all about "getting involved" in the school. Love it.

Here she is playing around with the purple coloring....a corn starch-substance that was surprisingly quite washable.

At the end of the race the runners gathered in a field and threw all the extra color packets up in the air.

The result of all the fun.

I took the girls to "Scary Hill" one evening. Grandpa Ron and Grandma Joann were in town and met us there. Here's Grandma Joann with Andi and Abbey on the scary hay ride.

Grandpa Ron with Andi and Abbey at Andi's cousin Lizzie's baby blessing. (At Aunt Bethany's house.)

Eric was a sport on the day of my niece, Lizzie's, blessing. Not only did he join the circle, but he wore a PINK tie. Seriously awesome. He made his wife Lisa one happy woman that day.

Sometimes on those days when I get to be with all my family combined (the Allens, Schmitzes, Eric and the girls), I feel so much love and gratitude for the power of families coming together as one. Whatever awkward feelings there are can be easily dissipated by my sincere gratitude for every member of my family, stemming both from my first and my second husband.

I am so blessed to have all of them. Maybe our life's situations aren't always easy or ideal, but we are ultimately connected and I feel great power from that gift and blessing.

Some fun shots from the day of Lizzie's blessing.

Grandma Joann holding baby Lizzie.

Harry lovin' on Eric at home after the blessing.

He seriously loves to cuddle with Eric. It's rude.

Andi drew her intials on my hand and it was so cute I had to take a picture of my new tattoo.

I got to go on a field trip with Abbey's class to the Hogle Zoo.

Here was our "group" for the day. Such cute girls!

So nice to have some individual time with Abbey...She is such a sweet, kind girl with a big, big soul. She does well at so many things...Some of which include her peacemaking abilities and her ambition to do well at her endeavors.

Look at how well her two front teeth have grown in this year!

She's looking so grown up.

Abbey took tennis lessons this fall with her Luke cousins.

Abbey, Luke, and Chase waiting to hit the ball.

Andi making poses while she waited for Abbey to be done with tennis.

Love this picture.

All the cousin tennis buddies.

Left to right: Luke, Carter, Abbey (the only girl), Connor, and Chase.

Their teacher fondly referred to them as Larry and Mary.

The kids responded well to her goofiness. :)

Andi playing with the tennis teacher's dog, Simon, who happens to love to fetch tennis balls.

Such a cute dog! :)

Eric's birthday gift from me.

I spent time on this thing, so I had to take a picture. :)

It included a new playlist, sunglasses, and a bunch of other commuting supplies for his work truck.

On October 18, my mom's birthday, it was eight years since my brother passed away. EIGHT years. I can't believe it sometimes. Love and miss him so.

Eric on the birthday saddle at Texas Roadhouse, celebrating his 37th. Ridin' cowboy.

Eric's brother, James, met us for a little dinner on Eric's birthday night.

A good outing.

Eric and his mini-me, Ava

On Eric's birthday gift scavenger hunt.

My poor baby Harry had surgery on his foot this past month.

He had a cancerous growth that had to be removed.

It was a scary few weeks, not knowing if it was malignant or not.

It turned out okay, gratefully. I hope to spend a good few more years with him.

Since the surgery, he's had to wear a baby sock on his foot so he won't lick the wound. It's been quite a feat trying to get him to leave it alone.

Love this picture. Captures his misery of this past month so well.

More birthday gift scavenging.

I took the girls roller skating during Fall Break and they all did quite well! Look at Ava go!

Abbey kickin' butt on the rink

Andi gettin' her groove on

Races at the skating rink

Abbey and Andi...Two cute skater girls.

Ava was very happy to have a treat after skating.

Eric and I decided to go on a weekend getaway up to Snowbird's Cliff Lodge. We figured it was one of our last chances to have some alone time before the baby.

Here we are on our hike on Saturday morning.

Out our room window.

Celebrating Eric and my mom's birthday at our house one Sunday evening.

Mom, Dad, and Lori.

Bo and Leslie

Eric's mom, Janet, watched the girls for us the weekend Eric and I got away. She stayed for the birthday party as well. She did a great job with the girls and even kept the house spic and span.

The cousins having so much fun together that they got shushed by the rest of us.

Eric and my mom and their cakes.

Harry's new indian name around here is "Sock on Foot."

The girls with their Farmington Elementary principal, Mr. Forsgren.

Andi was so embarrassed to get her picture taken with him...you may be able to see.

We went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner that night since proceeds were going to the school. Mr. Forsgren was there on clean-up duty. I've really liked him and I love the school.

Andi showing off her scarecrow in front of her classroom.

Ava showing off her pumpkin in front of her classroom.

Eric replacing our old shutters on the side of our house. A much needed project to be done, but as you can see, a huge pain.

I went with Andi's class on a field trip to the Farmington Fire Station and my mom decided to join us. Here's my mom, Andi's teacher, and Andi. Andi loved having Mom there.

Andi with her 6th-grade buddies at school. She waits for "buddy day" all week.

This was a picture her teacher emailed me.

Andi enjoying Grandma at the fire station

Pumpkin patch fun

Pack's Pumpkin Patch in west Farmington

Look at the beautiful Fall scenery.

I was recently released from my calling as Relief Society secretary and I was put in primary.

Here is our cute Relief Society presidency holding a nice luncheon for me as a farewell gesture of sorts. They made the best food and they spoiled me rotten. They recently showered me with baby gifts as well. I have grown accustomed to our Tuesday meetings so it will be weird not seeing them each week. They have been great friends to me and have helped me get to know the ward so much.

Relief Society presidency selfy.

Here's Abbey at a park one day after school.

On Tuesdays, Ava goes to music class in Kaysville so Andi and Abbey and I typically wait for her at a park nearby and do homework. This is a good illustration of Abbey's hard work ethic. She's often eager to spend time together to get her nightly reading in and to get smarter. :)

The day finally arrived this month when Andi was able to show me that one of her two front teeth was very loose!

And just one day later, she's toothless!

My favorite part about this story is that she pulled the tooth out all by herself...while at school.

Her friends kept telling her it didn't hurt that bad, so she did it during music class. Then she went to the office and to claim her long-awaited tooth treasure box.

The tooth (totally Michael's teeth, by the way)

The treasure box

Pumpkin carving night

Abbey did a witch hat in her pumpkin. Ava drew stuff on hers. Andi did a funny face, and Eric used his cool green pumpkin to make one scary-lookin' dude.

I worked on other things that night (making Halloween games for the girls classes the next day) so I missed out on the fun.

Farmington Elementary Halloween Parade, 2014

The Skeleton of the hour

The glamorous witch

The pretty "potion witch"

Grandpa Luke came the morning of the parade to help me make it to all the girls' different programs and such. He is so good to Ava and she loves it!

Somewhere under that witch hat is a little Abbey waiting for her Halloween program to begin.

Andi the witch in her classroom during the Halloween party

Abbey playing "hot pumpkin" during her Halloween party

Andi in her classroom

The morning of Halloween...All dressed up just waiting for places to go!

Ava during her Halloween party

Grandma Cathi threw a Halloween party of her own on Halloween day for her grandkids. The girls didn't have school that day so it worked out perfectly.

Here's little Lizzie as Peter Pan.