Fall photos, fun...not

I treated myself to a remote for my camera (the best $15 I have spent), but I kept forgetting to hide it!  And I should have moved the blanket...

nice stranger in the background (need to crop that out)

I think this is the best kid one we got

best of the 7 of us, if I ever get Christmas cards out this will come to a mailbox near you

even with the tripod I was still getting up-shots of us

Caleb was so tired both times, not up for smiling

Caleb cut his 3rd tooth already!

So I love photos, taking good ones, but I really like looking at pretty pictures and if you have ever been to our house you can I agree I have a lot of pictures out.  So I do this every so often, I buy a Groupon or Living Social deal that is a great price, but then have no picture to use for it (I have done canvases several times and photos transferred to wood).  Rather than spend the big bucks to pay a professional (which would defeat the "great deal", and Justin's fabulous photographer sister, Melanie, is too far away), I try to take photos myself.  Epic failure this time around, well, maybe not epic, but a frustrating process anyway.  Our kids don't like taking photos for the most part, apparently I have over-photographed them (and of course it is too sunny or cold or they are upset they aren't holding the baby, whatever, it was beautiful sunset with 70 degree temps)!  So we took two different rounds of photos, well over 100 photos and finally got a few decent ones.  On a boring day in November I will post the bloopers because there are some goofy faces being made!

The month of ill

Caleb has a thing with Justin's beard, it's like he is trying to take it off :)

can you tell they are related

ugh, not framed right, but wanted to remember those piggies

Cough, cough, hack, hack over here, still!  We are calling the last month "the month of ill"!  We have generally been healthy the last few years, but this virus just keeps on giving.  Heidi started it out at the end of September and now Luke and Emily and Caleb are still fighting it (Justin keeps coughing too, but it's slowly improving).  I did finally have to take Luke in for a nebulizer treatment; he missed 5 days of school because of the fever/cough (Em and Caleb haven't had the fever part).  I was really impressed with our school though, they called me up this past Thursday morning just a few minutes after I dropped Luke and Emily off.  It turns out that more than half of Emily's class was sick with the same gastrointestinal germ and they wanted me to come get Emily so that she wouldn't get sick.  And knock on wood, she hasn't (it was a bad bug).  So hopefully this lovely weather will clear out the final germs, just in time for the holidays to get rolling.

Everything else is pretty routine here, the girls are enjoying their instruments quite a bit this year.  They like to practice at the same time, so our house can get pretty loud and sometimes squeaky.  Caleb is moving around all over the family room; it's not a crawl or a scoot, it's like a combination of moves that gets him inching forward.  I had Luke and Emily's parent-teacher conferences last week.  Emily's teacher loves her sense of humor and she is just a great friend to everyone (she really has an awesome group of kids in her class).  Luke is doing well in math and writing (I keep all his "weekend news" journals, they are so full of detail and great memories to have).  He is really struggling with anxiety, and thankfully his teacher is very understanding. I barely got him to school on Thursday, he threw a very uncharacteristic fit in the car.  He was embarrassed and so overwhelmed by the work he missed (even though we were working on it while he was home).  Monday is going to be a hard morning, so if you think of him around 9, please pray for him.  Justin's work is steady, lately he has been closer to home and able to sleep in until 6:15 or so, which is a real treat (he is more of a night-owl).  Well, today is 70's, but I heard the temps are supposed to drop significantly by Halloween, go figure.  Enjoy the weekend and the end of October already!

October's dreary days

Heidi's first middle school concert, afterwards she decided to join jazz band and will also learn the tenor sax!

I love the look on his face

Anna's first middle school concert, she did great, and has only been playing the violin for 4 months

It's another rainy morning here and I have another sick kiddo at home.  Luke is the next one down, though his seems to be along the lines of the stomach flu, rather than the coughing thing.  Justin got sick after Heidi, his became full blown bronchitis last weekend.  Caleb was in for his 6 month check up yesterday, so I wouldn't be surprised if between being in the doctor's office and the sickies at home he will get some bug too.  His appointment went well, pretty simple, thankfully.  He is up to 18 lbs 9 oz and 26" tall!  He has been sitting solidly on his own for the last month or so and is starting to get moving while on his bottom, so I think he might be a "scooter"!  Luke also visited the doctor, twice.  The pediatrician first said that he thinks the stomach issues are dairy related, and suggested we take all dairy out for a week and watch for improvement.  I thought that was a little too willy-nilly so I called up the GI and got in quickly (I should have just started with the GI, but I thought maybe the ped would do some testing first).  Anyway, the GI (same doctor we have had since Emily was 4 months old) thinks plain old IBS is the problem.  He did order several blood labs and other tests just to rule out some things (he was a little concerned with the amount of bruising on Luke's legs).  So, after Luke recovers from this illness we will get that all done and go from there.  I was kinda hoping gallbladder as it is something you can remove and see improvement, IBS is such a blanket diagnosis, that basically says, "yes, your tummy hurts, too bad".  Well, that's about all folks, I am off to disinfect some more. 

Picking pumpkins early

Justin got his "country" fix twice this weekend

I think Luke is doing most of the work ;)

Emily is now interested in clothes, seeing what matches and picking out things in the store or catalogs, it's fun to see her opinion come out (besides the love of blue)

his entire wardrobe is either camo or Blackhawks (2 more days!)

looking more and more grown-up, the girls will be taller than me in no time

all 5 are mostly smiling

Justin doesn't know how to adjust the lighting on my camera so this one is a little too white

his eyes, I don't know where he got those, but I love them

I am trying to play with/learn the settings on my camera, but doing things fast is tricky!

This past weekend we went out west a little (not as far away as we used to) to pick out pumpkins.  It was kinda chilly and windy, but weather in October is so unpredictable so we decided to do it earlier rather than later.  And Justin and Luke will be busy most Saturdays for a while, trying to catch themselves a deer.  Nothing else too newsy here, we take Luke to the doctor tomorrow, he had a bad attack this weekend, and it seems pretty obviously gallbladder related (for sure food-related anyways).  Heidi and Anna have concerts and Emily has a field trip.  Her g-tube feedings are going well, she has decided to have a friend sit with her each day while she is hooked up.  And for the first time she is worried about being hungry (her field trip is during her usual feeding and she will miss it/postpone it).  I wish the hungry-ness would equate to willingness to eat more variety or even a larger quantity, but it doesn't seem to be yet.  Caleb is having a rough stretch on sleeping, he is not napping long enough and then being a basket-case by the end of the day and waking up during the night (not eating, but it is disrupting).  Ok, happy October already, I love pulling out the sweatshirts and seeing the colors!