The Crazy Yates: Fall 2012 Updates

September

Well as much as I would like to say that after coming home and getting settled, our lives slowed down, unfortunately that was not the case. If anything it became crazier.

The kids having fun around the house.

We knew that Misha had likely become pregnant over the summer, so we had been preparing ourselves for her to give birth sometime in late October/ early November. What we did not expect was her to go into labor the night of September 14th. While face timing with Dave in Texas, we welcomed 8 puppies into our family by midnight. Misha did a great job and instinctively knew what to do. The next morning the kids could hardly wait to see the new puppies, not that I blamed them because they were absolutely adorable.

A few weeks later Dave came home from Texas to be back with his family. We decided to cherish the time and knock some things off our fall bucket list. So the next weekend we got started with making a fire pit for marshmallow roasting and putting up the tent for a night under the stars. Dave and the older kids attempted to sleep outside. They made it to about six o'clock in the morning before they were too cold and fled to the warmth of the indoors.

With Misha's puppies growing up, we started introducing them to the outdoors. A few of them were a bit sceptical of the texture of the grass, but like dogs do, they all got used to it and before we knew it, they were running around the yard chasing their Mom and driving her crazy.

Jocelyn was picked as the star student of the week towards the end of September. She was instructed to fill out and color a large poster all about herself. She presented her poster to her class and then brought a few items and pictures to show them also. My favorite part of this special day was when her classmates were asking her questions about the puppies. The best question was "where was the puppies daddy?", that was one of those questions that led to other questions which I was not prepared to answer and ended up changing the conversation.

October

Amazing picture of the four oldest kiddos actually watching conference.

Okay so every October and April I make it a point to try to find some way to get my kids to watch even one session of conference. We've tried coloring games, quiet activities in the same room as the TV, and even special surprises for watching with no luck. So this year I tried out the treat buckets, basically you print a picture with a gospel essential (i.e. faith, prayer, scriptures...) and place it on a stick in the middle of the bucket. Then you fill the bucket with a treat of some kind; I have learned the smaller treats are better. Then during conference the kids listen and when that word is said they get to get a treat from the corresponding bucket. It worked great and the kids were cracking up during Elder Andersen's talk on Faith because I had chosen smarties for the Faith jar and he said faith a lot. Needless to say my kids were completely wired on candy for the day but they listened.

October was a big month for our family as our sweet Jocelyn made the decision to be baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. October 13th was such a special day. Lots of family and friends came to support her. We followed up by having a little get together at the house with lots of food and treats. We are so proud of her decision and of the amazing girl she is growing up to be.

With the puppies getting larger we decided they needed more space than the once toy room, so we moved them out to the garage. Although this was a good idea we also realized that 8 puppies in a closed space results in major stink, so we took every advantage of nice weather days.

The puppies got their very first collars.

Luckily as busy as the puppies kept us we did find some days to just relax. Although, I have to admit having 3 little ones at home is not so much relaxing but more so entertaining. They come up with the funniest things to get into.

Random happenings around our house in the month of October

For the last several years my step-dad Todd has been apart of the band for the dinner show at Gardner Village's Witch's Night Out. This year we couldn't make the actual witch's night but we did a Saturday Witch's Day out instead. This was Jocelyn's second year going and we had so much fun. I made Tulle witches skirts for all of us and my mom made awesome witch hats. We were able to see the dinner show "Witchapalooza: The Taming of the Brew" and then do some fun shopping. I love getting to spend time with my mom and Jo.

With November approaching quickly we started to get the puppies ready for selling on ksl. We bathed them and did a photo shoot with each one for the ad. They were so cute!!

ksl ad pictures

Jocelyn and Ethan were doing great in school and this year the pta had the kids draw a self portrait for their school shirts fundraiser. It was so cute and clever as they did the shirts by class.

Jocelyn's self portrait is the last picture on the bottom left and Ethan's is the first picture on the top right

The weekend before Halloween we decided to buy a couple pumpkins to carve out for the front porch. We've learned power tools are the best way to carve pumpkins. The big kids were not thrilled to get their hands slimy but our little ones had a blast squishing pumpkin guts in their hands.

Every year I have the high hopes that we will be one of those cute families that dresses up in a family themed costume and each year I am shut down... oh, well. This year we had several dress up events, a Halloween party with friends, the elementary school's annual costume parade and then of course, trick or treating around the neighborhood. We all had a blast dressing up and having fun with friends.

Dave: Batman, Amber: Selena Kyle (aka Cat Woman), Jocelyn: Clawdeen Wolf, Ethan: Spiderman, Caitlyn: black kitty, Preston: Mario riding Yoshi, and Adalyn: Tiny Witch

November

Since Disneyland was not in the budget this year we decided a close second would be to take the four big kids to see Disney on Ice. It was such a fun evening. We went out to dinner at Rumbi before and then went to watch the show. The kids had so much fun seeing all their favorite characters and listening to their favorite songs. By the time we drove home they were completely asleep.

At the first of the month we listed the puppies for sale as they were now 8 weeks old. Fortunately for us they sold very quickly and we were only down to one sweet puppy by the time we needed to leave to go to Washington for Thanksgiving. Our good friends Thomas and Sharlie took the pup from us and helped us sell her while we were out of town.

The puppies all grown ready to go to new homes.

We drove out to Washington for a week to visit for Thanksgiving this year and to visit my amazing Grandma Battson. The kids always have so much fun when we travel out to Washington. They totally get spoiled by their grandma and grandpa Battson. Dave and I had a blast too because we got to do some fun after Thanksgiving Day shopping with Miriam while my Dad watched the kiddos. He did an awesome job at that too because we found out a day later that both Preston and Adalyn had ear infections.