In case it wasn’t clear: I am rather enamored with this autumnal season. Today, as I was walking to the church and looking at all the trees in full color along with leaves on the ground, I got so giddy that I started giggling to myself in elation! I love that it is chilly enough for a sweater, but you won’t die without one. I love the smell of fallen leaves! And Halloween is approaching and it is all so marvelous! To me, autumn is a strong manifestation of Heavenly Father’s love for His children. And it is even more fun to live it through the lens of childhood again! Everything is more magical to children, and so having them around makes things more magical for me!

Here are some pictures of the kids a week or so ago just enjoying the leaves in the front yard. We have one tree that dumps all its leaves before any of the others have really started to change. It means we get leaf jumping fun for extra long!

We piled up as many leaves as we could for some real jumping! The parents kept the pile nice and high; and the kids would run from all the the way across the driveway and yard to leap into the pile. This went on for probably 15 minutes.

Fay saw some autumn wreath-making-kits at the craft store and really wanted to get one. I told her the worst words a mother can say, “Not this time.” But she recovered when she had the idea to make her own autumn wreath at home. 
Several weeks ago I had made some simple wreaths out of the vines off our back fence and Fay wanted to help. So she helped with some and made one almost exclusively by herself. She used that wreath and glued leaves and berries she found outside to create her own autumn wreath. It is beautiful, 100% made by Fay, and definitely cooler than the foam ones you could make with the kit! (Though, in all fairness, those did look really cool.)

Also, HALLOWEEN! Things are getting pretty exciting around here! Josh has been cooking up a great themed haunt for this year of which he gave a sample at our ward trunk-or-treat. 

Also, we went to my sister-in-law Chelsea’s work for a Halloween carnival. The kids loved getting to wear their costumes again as well as everything they had there. I was very impressed with everything. There was full on dinner, candy at every turn and so many carnival games that I don’t know if we even got to them all! It was so much fun! Thanks, Chelsea!

Another great and fantastic thing about this season is that some pretty fantastic people were born in the autumn. Yesterday it was my marvelous missionary Mary’s birthday! I love her so much! I’m so proud of all the work she does sharing Christ’s love with people in Romania! Though, I must confess I miss her sharing Christ’s love and Mary’s love with me in Utah. sigh…

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Isn’t she just beautiful?! I just love her all the days!

I think one of the reasons autumn is basically my favorite time of year is all the traditions we have! We haven’t gotten to all of them yet–and who knows? We might not this year–but here are some we HAVE gotten to!

First is General Conference! I remember being a kid and feeling like Conference never ended. ever. But now it goes by so quickly! It was fun to go to the Women’s Session with Mother and the sisters (though we missed Mary significantly); but mostly I feel like I have so much more direction for how to make my life more of what I want it to be. I’m grateful for a living Prophet, and especially the knowledge I have of the Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He lives and that He loves me and is mindful of me and my family. He wants even little old us to have every good thing in this life! What a glorious message!

Another autumn tradition I love, and the kids love as well, is doing toilet paper mummies for Family Party (aka: FHE). This year, after we had all been mummified (except Carter who wasn’t feeling up to being wrapped up), we had a toilet paper fight! It was so fun I wouldn’t be surprised if it became part of the tradition!

This is how Helen enjoyed the festivities.

Another tradition that was sort of thrust upon us, but we love, is taking pictures at the library! They put up photo backdrops every year to go along with their Halloween movie series, and we were the very first people to take pictures this year! We are so famous!

And, of course, we have to go see all the witches!

Now for some information about Josh. Josh was riding his scooter (a self propelled Razor scooter) to work two Mondays ago when he crashed onto the cement chin first. He came home saying that his jaw really hurt and with blood dripping from his chin. We took him to instacare where he received 5 stitches in his chin. They also told him that his jaw was swollen, but didn’t appear to be dislocated or broken. Also that a concussion was very unlikely. (Phew!)

So we carried on with life hoping the jaw would feel better soon. By Wednesday the jaw wasn’t feeling any better, so we decided we needed another opinion. Josh went to the dentist on Thursday followed by an oral surgeon. He got a 3D model of his head taken in X-rays which showed very clearly that he had a partial fracture in his jaw. He was sent home with strict instructions to not chew and come back in a week to see if the fracture had spread. He went back this past Thursday and, to our great joy, found that it had NOT! However, we also found out he has a fractured rib.

We think everything is on its way to healing; but it will take time. So, for now, we are eating a lot of soup and a lot of smoothies, and trying to get Josh to stop helping move pianos downstairs. I’m just grateful he doesn’t have to get his mouth wired closed!

Anyway, here are a few more pictures not advertised by the title of this post.

Also Helen turned 7 months this past week! I chose this picture of her because it is SO CUTE and also because it is probably the only picture you will ever see with Helen looking pouty. She is the happiest, most take-everything-in-stride baby ever! Oh how we love her!

I am SO excited for autumn! I didn’t have an autumn kick-off party this year (in part because I am just trying to keep us all alive most days), but I think I’m going to have to do something at some point this season! It’s just too delicious a season to not celebrate!

This evening we went to Josh’s parents’ house for dinner and the presentation of Grandma’s pumpkins! She planted 2 pumpkin plants in the spring hoping to get enough pumpkins for each of her 7 grandchildren to have one. Well, those plants ultimately yielded 25 big, beautiful pumpkins! 

Some other goings on include: Halloween preparation for Josh. No spoilers. But trust me: it’s going to be good! 
Also, I felt like a Halloween photoshoot with the kids; so I got them some cute stuff to wear and we attacked a wall with balloons and kind of just let them play in front of the camera. Please be advised that these pictures are ANYTHING but pinterest-perfect. But I know that if I didn’t post anything until it was perfect I would never post anything. So enjoy some fun Halloweeny imperfection!

Something we have been doing in the past few weeks is trying to do one-on-ones with the kids each week. We cycle through the three big kids and switch off with Josh and I so we each get to spend time with each of the kids. The kids love it and so do we!  This past week was my turn to go out with Portia. She chose to get ice-cream from “the ice-cream restaurant” and get a spider balloon from the party store. 

Here are some other pictures from everyday life.

If you haven’t heard about Helen’s hips, here is some information. When Helen was born breech all the doctors told us that her hips would need to be closely monitored for hip dysplasia. She had an ultrasound at 6 weeks old that showed that her hips were still slightly immature (whatever that means). Because of the results of that ultrasound she had another at 12 weeks that showed all was well. But apparently you can’t see everything on an ultrasound and so–from the beginning–an Xray was planned for when she was 6 months old. We got that Xray a week and a half ago.

I went to the appointment in full confidence that all would be fine. After all, the second ultrasound came back great. So I was a little alarmed when the nurse from our pediatrician’s office called to tell me that Helen did, indeed, have hip dysplasia and that I would need to get in touch with the orthopedic specialists at Primary Children’s. I made an appointment, but had to wait for five days for it. I, naturally, spent those days worrying.

I went to the International Institute for Hip Dysplasia website and looked at potential treatment options. I read there that between the ages of 6 and 18 months the most successful treatment is surgery followed by a horrible thing called a spica cast. I watched a video of how to change your baby’s diaper while she is in the spica cast and I nearly cried thinking about my sweet Helen having to wear such a thing. 

Finally the day of the appointment arrived and I had a whole slew of questions I was prepared to ask, particularly about the long-term repercussions of performing surgery on a 6 month old baby. But as the doctor looked at Helen’s Xrays (and I finally got to see them as well!) and the severity of her dysplasia, he seemed to find it quite manageable. And before I even had a chance to pull out my slew of questions he said “We’re not going to call the surgeons if we don’t have to. I don’t want you to even meet those guys.” And instead of surgery, casts, and a million trips to Primary Children’s, I went home with just a brace and an appointment for 6 months from now.

She has to wear the brace for the next six months, but it is only at night! I don’t have to buy special clothes that fit over casts or even the brace! I don’t have to watch her try to figure out mobility through the brace! I just have to reach out a little farther when I switch sides feeding her in the night! 

We prayed that she could be healed with as little intervention as possible, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the way Heavenly Father answered our prayers! 

That being said, we do know that this treatment isn’t necessarily the end of her dysplasia. We will only know what is to come after we get her looked at again in six months. But for now, we are just enjoying this blessing!