Dressing up...

 Isaiah and his friend, Elle...

 

Isaiah has been discovering how to play with some of his toys!  He loves to put the balls into the gumball toy and then push the lever to make them pop out again...

and he'll put all the shapes into this bucket, and then dump them out to start over again!  He's also discovered that doors are lots of fun to open and close, and has locked himself into one of the bedroom several times now!  We'll hear him calling and pounding on the other side of the door to get back out!  He's figured out the drawers and cupboards and still loves to open them, but now he knows to move those fingers out of the way as he shuts them!

This boy LOVES the bath!!!  We have been keeping the bathroom door closed, so that he won't get to the toilet, but I realized this morning that he just wants the bath!  He crawled into the bathroom this morning, and went straight past the open toilet, and I found him behind the shower curtain, pounding on the edge of the bathtub...

 and trying to climb in!!  We often start the morning with a bath because I can't stand to see him so upset when I take him away from the bathroom!

Just some happenings...

Hannah, being a dalmation...

and then a pretzel...she sometimes will sit and watch TV like this!

Lizzie is still a boy....it's been almost 2 months now.  She picked out this spiderman toothbrush, and continues to raid Isaiah's closet for clothes.  She also asked me to cut her hair short "like a boy's"....so I did!

 Clara dressed like a boy, too, to be one of the brothers in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers....I LOVE that my girls want to watch this movie all the time, just like I used to with my sisters!

It had been a while, but we got out the popcorn popper again recently, and the girls think it's magic!

 Clara must have gotten a hold of my camera, and some of the random shots were pretty cute!

Co-op on Wednesdays is exhausting.  We have to leave the house by 8:15, pack snacks and lunch for everyone, and keep the 3 little ones who aren't taking classes entertained and out of trouble for 4 hours.  So, instead of dropping out and realizing my limits, I let Clara add another class for the 4th hour time slot, and Hannah gets to join her.  It's ballet, which is going to be integral to their development and bring lots of money in college scholarships, right? ;)  They started today and absolutely loved it!  Hannah was so excited to be taking a "class" with Clara and packed her own backpack this morning (with coloring books, workbooks, and her leotard!)  Sweet Eliza was devastated that she couldn't be in the class, too, but was a good sport and participated from a far!

 It actually went quite well today (which I do NOT expect to happen every week!).  Isaiah took a later nap in the Ergo, so he hung in there until the class got over at 2:00, and he had lots of practice crawling backward down the carpeted stairs in the theater room.  He also enjoyed eating cheese puffs and drinking out of his sisters' water bottle :)

 Their teacher was super sweet, and let Eliza participate with the bean bag dance at the end and go up on the stage with them....Eliza was so happy!

ten months...

is sounding too old!!  Isaiah has changed quite a bit over the past couple of weeks....new climbing, talking, exploring, eating, playing, yelling, demanding, arching, screaming, waking in the night....never a dull moment!

He enjoyed "helping" me make brownies...

 He loves to open this bottom drawer on the stove and play with the muffin tins, and he has discovered that if he reaches up and grabs the oven door handle, he can climb up onto the drawer...

 and reach the stovetop controls!!!  We might need to do a bit more baby-proofing than we have in the past!

 This boy loves his gadgets!  We've given him his own remote with the batteries removed to avoid the constant channel changing and annoying of his sisters!

 3 teeth poked through...all on the top!

 Playing with his sisters...he follows them everywhere, trying to be involved in their games.  My mom swears that he "colored" with them the other day while I was gone....but that is coming from a Nana, so I'm not sure just how much he really participated ;)

 Clapping, waving, pointing to everything.....If he hears the front door open or close, he immediately starts waving "bye, bye"!

 Getting into Clara's schoolwork...

We are enjoying the joys and challenges of this busy boy!

Clara's end-of-the-season soccer party at Dairy Queen...so many sweet girls!!

 2 of her favorite people, Kenzie and Kayla :)

 We managed to make it through the season with only one rainy game day, and it really only sprinkled....I'd say it was a successful season! ;)

I heard some noise in the girls' room a while after they had been tucked into their beds, so I went back to investigate....apparently this "nighttime workout" takes place frequently, with all three of them up on Clara's top bunk, following her lead of various exercises!

 I had them quiet down a bit so that they didn't wake up Isaiah, but they were having such a fun time together....making memories....

Happy Halloween!

What a fun group of friends!

 Our little turtle got his first chance to climb stairs, and LOVED it!

The kids had so much fun trick-or-treating.  The parents had a hard time keeping up with them!

 The girls carved pumpkins with Daddy on the afternoon of Halloween.  I have to say, I wasn't too sad to miss out on that "fun".  I'm not sure how he managed 3 big pumpkins and 3 eager little girls with sharp tools.....there was only one injury, though, so pretty successful!