What a month...

Welp. There goes October. Crazy how that happens. October was a good month for us.

Sugar Plum turned three. Man, what a darling little thing she is. It'll be interesting to see how this next year goes, though--because for my kids, it has been the threes that have been 'terrible.' And I can already see the craziness showing up in Danin. She's started throwing fits and developing a temper that she's never had before. Uh, huh. I've seen this before. Great. But anyway, for her birthday, we went to Chuck E Cheese. We had never been there as a family before. Interesting place--one that I am WAY too cheap to frequent. Thanks to the special occasion and an on-line coupon that came with 100 tokens, my kids got lucky. And they loved it. We all did, really. Brian and I joked that our 100 tokens would probably earn us just enough tickets to get the kids each one tootsie roll, but would you know it? Brian hit the "Bonus" on one of the games and it spat him out 190 tickets all in one shot. So you'd think that'd be enough to get like a radio or a huge stuffed animal, right? Nope. TWO tootsie rolls AND a plastic frog. Man, those places are crazy. But whatever. It was Dan's birthday, and she loved it.
Becky came up just in time for Camp's birthday. It's become kind of a tradition. She spoils the kids by making them fancy cakes--the likes of which I do NOT have the skills for, and they all totally love it. She even makes and decorates a cake for Jane's birthday while she's here and puts it in the freezer so that Jane will have a fun cake, too, come her birthday in late November. Anyway, for Camp's birthday, we ate Subway and went bowling and then returned home for cake, Oreo blizzards and the new Karate Kid. They did a pretty good job on that remake-- I've gotta say--except that a 12-year-old romance is a bit ridiculous, and NO ONE could EVER replace Mr. Miagi (how the heck do you spell that?!!)
Lucky for the kids, I forgot to send Becky home with Rachel's costumes that she had sent up with Becky LAST year for Halloween, and upon going through the bag, we discovered that there were costumes that fit the kids this year that hadn't last year. So Dan was a butterfly, Jane was a vampire bat, and Camp (again) wore the very same karate outfit that Brian had worn when he was a little guy. So awesome. ( I really am sorry, Rach, for forgetting to send those all home with your mom. You really have saved me every year.) Unfortunately, I never got a picture of Danin in her costume even though she wore it for like three day straight, but I did manage to get photos of the kids with their jack-o-lanterns and of them with their candy, so that will have to suffice. Being that Halloween was on a Sunday this year, things were a little different, but everything turned out really well. Early in the month, I had determined that I didn't feel comfortable with the kids trick-or-treating on Sunday. I wanted them to realize that keeping the Sabbath day holy often times means sacrifice. So anyway....I managed to broach the topic with them one evening, and the idea of not trick-or-treating did NOT go over well. I reassured them, however, that whatever happened--I would make sure they got lots of candy. (Sacrificing can only go so far, after all.) So as it happens, I had a handful of neighbors who found out (either because I told them or they were told by another neighbor) that we would not be going trick-or-treating on Sunday, and were totally happy to have us come on Saturday evening, instead. Now that might be normal in Utah, (and I swear we went trick-or-treating on Saturday in Vegas when Halloween fell on a Sunday) but I can tell you this--the Lacouture kids were the ONLY kids in Florence out trick-or-treating on Saturday night. And even though we were only able to hit about seven houses, those seven houses took care of us. (Man, we are so lucky to have such kind neighbors.) Additionally, this year I made an extra effort to lobby for trunk-or-treating in our ward, which has never been done here (that I'm aware of). Another mother and I made sure that the ward party would have candy and games and everything to make little kids happy, and our ward members really delivered. Some of you have got to be thinking, Does it really matter THAT much? It's just a pagan holiday that involves tons of candy! Yes, it does. Halloween memories of sorting and trading mounds of candy are among the sweetest (pun partially intended) of my childhood.
As my siblings will remember, our childhood started out with my mom being the one to take us trick-or-treating every year. And every year, she would give us a little brown lunch sack and take us to the houses of a handful of ward members and the neighbors whom they recommended as being safe. One fateful year, though, the responsibility of taking us trick-or-treating was delegated to my dad, and though none of us would ever have guessed it (no offense, dad) that absolutely changed everything. That year, we were armed with pillowcases and those suckers took in a good load of candy. And we just could not believe our good fortune. Needless to say, mom was never invited back. What's a few razor blades in a whole pillowcase full of candy, anyway?
So, yeah. It matters that much.

Other than that, Brian's turn for a birthday falls on Sunday, so on Friday, he and I will be heading to Ashland for a day or so where he will be running his THIRD marathon in just over a year. Crazy. And this one is a 26-mile TRAIL run. It's no coincidence that I finally bit the bullet and got Brian some life insurance. He BETTER not push it too hard.

And I'm doing just fine. Like I've said before, I love being pregnant--and part of that is because my body looks so much better this way. It's the only time I have an excuse for no waist and ugly legs, AND I'm finally filling my 36-B cup again. Pitiful. Absolutely pitiful.

With that, I'm about out of words--so I'll just let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Oh, one more thing. I apologize for the additional pictures of the house, but I rearranged some furniture and got a couple of fun yard-sale finds, and I know Brooke (if no one else) will appreciate seeing the changes. I've included a couple of the before pics of my kids' rooms so you will know why it is so special to have these rooms clean. Anyway....