October, part 2

The day after his birthday, Mitch was able to wear his new birthday suit (haha!) to church.  Matching with his dad was the best thing ever.  He looked so handsome and we love how much a nice suit means to him.

A goofy picture was a must.  Boys will be boys!

Jocie loves a good snuggle with Grandma Forsythe!

The middle to end of October, things finally got started on our house.  We couldn't have been more excited to see something on our lot besides dirt!

Forms up and foundation poured!

The kids were most excited about all the dirt to play in.  Every time we would take them with us to the lot, we would come home with a car full of dirt and dirty, dirty kids.

Jocie had her 6 month check up, which meant lots of shots!

Her poor little shot areas on her legs got very red and swollen.  Poor baby!  She handled it well, though.  She just looked terrible.

Jocelyn at 6 months:

Weight: 14 lbs, 1 oz (13%)

Height: 25.79 inches (42%)

Head: 16.46 inces (35%)

Jocelyn is our little girl!  She is little but not unhealthy.  She continues to gain weight, just slowly (and much slower than her 2 oldest siblings!)  She has been exclusively on breast milk up to this point (formula occasionally when I'm gone), but no solids yet.  She is such a happy girl.  I have had some happy babies, but there is something just extra happy and chill about this baby that is unlike any other baby.  There is chill and mellow, which she is, but she is super, super happy.  She is very smiley and loves to look at people and have them play with her and give her attention.  She is very interactive.  When she smiles, her eyes light up and it's like you can see into her very soul.  Her whole countenance smiles and shines.  She is pure joy.  Life with her is truly magical.  6 kids has been a lot of work but she has also made it a pleasure.  Good things are worth the work and Jocie has proved this ten fold.

She is not quite sitting alone yet- just started trying it recently.  She has to be propped up with pillows to even attempt it and just recently started grabbing at toys and being able to hold them my herself.  She sleeps fabulously.  She naps 2-3 times a day for 1.5-3 hours per nap.  If she takes a third nap, it's usually a shorter one, about an hour or so.  She goes to bed between 6-7:00 p.m. and sleeps 8 or 9 hours her first stretch, eats quickly, then back to sleep until 7 or 8 a.m. 

FINISH

More shots of the lot!

And...more dirty babies and clothes!

It is beautiful dirt- fine and lovely to the touch.  But so, so messy.

Towards the end of the month, Jocie had her first taste of solids.  We started with applesauce and rice cereal.  Spoon feeding a first time eater can be time consuming but luckily she has lots of older siblings who are almost always willing to take a turn.  She took to eating solids better than any baby we have ever had.  Usually it takes weeks to get the hang of swallowing but Jocie was a pro right from the beginning.  

Olivia's simple pleasure in life is walking with me to take the twins to the bus stop, just a short half block away.  She is usually in her pajamas and loves to run and get her crocs on all by herself.  I sometimes try and sneak out the door without her seeing me so I can be fast, but she is usually such a sweetie on the short walk and makes her so happy that I feel bad that I don't let her go every time. 

We met up with the little cousins at McDonald's one day.  They look cute here, but boy did those 4 make the biggest mess with those ice cream cones. 

We love pumpkins but didn't make it to a big or fancy patch this year.  On the way to Chloe and Mitch's school we saw a house that was selling pumpkins in their driveway, stacked on hay bales.  It was also a "pay what you will" type of deal.  Easy, easy- just up our alley.  We stopped by one afternoon late in October and I let the kids pick a few out.

One of the pumpkins they desired was the biggest one in the whole batch.  It took all 4 of them to haul it to the car.  I love a good team work scenario!

We came home to carve it that night, but with homework and other nightly duties, we only just scratched the surface.

It took a few nights to get it done and only the big one got carved.  The rest that were picked out were just decorations on the porch.  Better one than none, I guess.

In conjunction with his birthday, Mitch made a "Me" book at school.

I thought some of his responses were quite comical.  His best quality, he thought was "fiting" (fighting).  By that, he meant play fighting/wrestling.  A noble "best quality" to have, really. :)

5 sisters, zero brothers.  That's my boy.

He has put on multiple things over the years that he wants to be a professional sports player of some kind, mostly soccer.  And why not, since he's "good at it."

He specified that his favorite food is nachos (true) and that you better not make him eat "fish."  I love that his favorite dessert is "ice cream."  He is a boy after my own heart.

It was cold and rainy one evening for the twins' soccer game.  Jocie was hardly bothered by the weather, though.  She looked so sweet and was such a doll all bundled up in the bear snow suit that we received when Mitch was a baby.  I realized that night that she is our only non-Seattle born baby, so it was interesting that she didn't seem to mind the rain. :)

Lexi's got skills!

Chloe is hard to miss in her bright orange shoes during one of her games!

Halloween was a busy day for us- Chloe and Mitch both had soccer games that overlapped and Ben was gone hunting all day.  The highlight of the day was opening Halloween cards from Grandma Cynde.  Boy, do we miss her.

Chloe played goalie during her game.

The fan club!  Windy day, too.

Mitch played goalie for the first half of his game.  He was very good at stopping the ball.

He was even better at booting the ball all the way to the other goal post after stopping the ball.  He almost scored a "hole in one" goal from his kick off more than once.  That little dude has a strong kick.

Olivia decided that the wind was making her hot instead of cold and tried to take off her shirt mid-game. #ohlivy

The cuteness began when it was time to get into costumes.  Baby's first Halloween!  We borrowed this adorable lady bug costume from Aunt Megan and it was perfect.  Jocie is perfect.  She balanced all by herself for this picture for a few seconds.

And then she fell over and was still cute.

Lexi the witch (she loves the green face the most).

Leah the Spiderman, back for another year

Mitch, the self-proclaimed Zombie Doctor (because there really could be one of those someday).

And Chloe, the bleeding Spider Countess lady, or something. 

Olivia really did like wearing her pumpkin outfit, but appeared very somber for the photo-op.

The whole group, ready to hit the streets and bring home the candy!

Jocie rode in style in her stroller.  She was absolutely perfect.  The weather, however, was not.  It rained almost the entire time we were out. It was very light at moments and then a down pour the next.  We joked that it was the rainiest Halloween we've ever had and that's saying a lot from where we moved from.  We actually almost always got lucky in Auburn and had dry, nice Halloween's.

I looked down right before we were done and found Jocie peacefully sleeping in her carriage.

She perked right up at home and tried her first taste of candy.

Dad tried to scare her with his mask.  She handled it well.

My parents texted me this picture that evening of the costumes they wore for their ward Halloween party.  Hilarious!  They have always been huge Halloween fans and dress up very inventively and extensively every year.  I love it!  When I'm not getting 6 kids in costumes one day, I want to dress up too.