Our October

Alright... so in the same spirit as the last post, here is what we did in October at the Clements' household. Enjoy! (Oh, p.s., you'll have to click on the collages to make them bigger.)

I got two boxes of apples (about 30-40 lbs. each) for $10 a piece. So we spent a couple of days canning apples and making apple butter. The whole family helped out, and it was quite the production. Brinley loved pulling the apples out of the boxes and taking a bite... just one bite out of each apple. Silly girl. Levi was a pro at working the apple peeler/corer/slicer. Sam helped out with everything, and in the end we ended up with more apples than we'll probably use in a year. Also, I just have to give a shout out to my stove. Having 6 elements is a huge help with a project like this!
Brinley loved to be under our table. Now she is too tall... well, kinda... Anyway, I was the same way and have a picture of me under the table when I was a baby. Brinley wasn't so cooperative and this was the best shot I got. Brinley reminds me of me in so many ways: she looks like me, she walked early like me, and she loves to climb-- just like me!
We have several pictures of Levi sleeping in funny positions and we had zero pictures of Brinley sleeping. This is because Brinley is not a great sleeper. If we tried to take pictures, she would surely wake up and then we'd spend way too much time trying to get her back to sleep. With that in mind, I thought I'd better snap a picture of this: sleeping with daddy.
Brinley was done with her car seat and I was done with Levi being a slow poke following me around Walmart. So I made a little switcheroo. We got quite a few laughs and comments from fellow shoppers:

Like I said before, Brinley is a climber. She loves to climb up this stool, stand there for a minute, and then screams for me to come get her down. Oh, how to answer when people ask me what I do all day!
Brinley with cousin Kamora
We went to my nephew Nate's soccer game, and the whole time I had to hold Levi back from running onto the field. Honestly, he'd be just as good as the 5 year olds out there, but he wasn't on the team so of course I couldn't let him. :) So after the game, Uncle Joe took Levi out on the field and kicked the ball around with him. What a great uncle Joe is! Levi shot a scored a few goals. (Great uncle... not a great goalie. Just kidding!)
Ahh... October was the month that Levi learned to play computer games. Hmm... the explains why I didn't do much blogging since then (before then... I have no excuses...). Levi went from only knowing how to click the one button when I told him to, to being able to play several games completely on his own and totally navigate the Nick Jr website in just 2 or 3 days. It is incredible how fast he learned to use the mouse.
Brinley loves pasta. Here she is eating ravioli. Yummy yummy sauce!
Who doesn't love a rocking chair?
Levi was pushing Brinley up and down the hallway in his giant Tonka truck. That toy was a great purchase. Brinley now climbs in the back of the truck and screeches at us until we push her around.
Wahoo for fall! It is seriously one of my favorite things. I raked up a big pile of leaves and let Levi go to town. He mostly kicked his football through the leaves instead of jumping in the pile. Brinley did not love sitting in the leaves, but she sure looked cute. (Token picture of me in the upper right corner to prove I was there. Thanks Levi for knowing how to use a camera!)
I love my little pumpkin!
Sam's sister Becky and her family came for Halloween. It was super nice outside, so we headed to the park. Here are some pictures from that outing.

Every kid loves to throw rocks in the water. Here's Levi and cousin Isaiah (he's Levi's same age).
Isaiah, Levi, Eric, Eli, and Becky
For a while there, Levi didn't go anywhere without a football or two. Not even to bed.

Halloween! Brinley was a pink leopard. Levi was... well that's a funny story. First Levi was supposed to be a knight, but the outfit I bought him on clearance last year was WAY too small. Poor kid. Then he was supposed to be a tiger, but he didn't want to and pouted until we took off the costume. I also tried to make him a mini-Sam (I dressed him up in one of Sam's shirts and ties), but he hated that too. So, we gave up. A few minutes later, Levi came out of his room with a green hat, golf club, and golf ball. So he went as a golfer. Oh, I guess he was also Lightening McQueen for 5 minutes. Another little boy at Trunk or Treat wouldn't wear his costume either (seems to be a theme there...), so Levi tried it on for size. I was a "fairly good mother." Sam was "the good father." Also pictured is Arina (Sam's youngest sister). She went as Cleopatra.
Brinley loved the chocolate... another way that she's like me!

And now for the videos:

Levi can be such a spectacular big brother sometimes!

Man! Just get caught up already!

Alright, I'm tired of trying to play catch up. I had some different blog posts planned, but they just aren't happening. So, I'm just going to throw all my pictures into a couple posts. Here is the rest of our September (i.e. Just for reference, Brinley turned 9 months old the middle of September. Levi was 2 1/2 years old):

Brinley really started to get into the business of mess making. Amazingly, it really hasn't escalated too much over the months since. A lady in our stake gave the advice that whenever your kids made you want to scream or cry, grab your camera instead. I have lots of pictures.

Here are my cute kiddos at the McDonald's playground. One day, while Sam was out of town, the three of us went out to lunch. I was amazed at how Brinley just climbed right up there. She went just as far as Levi did... which is not very.

I can't believe these pictures were just three months ago. It was still so warm then! Here we are at the park by our house. Brinley loves the swing. Levi was such a sweet brother and was so good to push her.

Levi and his friend Andrew doing "supermans"

Did anyone else do "spider" when they were young? Needless to say, this ended in tears (for a minute, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get them out... oops!)

Levi--wearing my sunglasses upside down. Not an unusual sight.

I made these for Sam's sister Arina's 12th birthday. Sam's family aren't big cake lovers, so I had to get creative. These are mock-peanut butter cups.

My adorable kids... the not adorable mess they were making when I took these pictures follows.

Ahhh.... so sweet!

Nothing more peaceful than falling asleep in the midst of your toys...

I got these zucchinis from a lady in our ward at church. I have made lots of yummy zucchini bread (that's how my kids get their veggies) and still have loads of frozen shredded zucchini in the freezer.

I just love this picture of Levi taking a picture. Brinley holds much more still for him than me!

My kids love riding their bikes on the deck. I love our huge deck for that reason. This is towards the beginning of the month, so Brinley still wasn't quite walking still. She'd hold onto the back of the trike and push is.

Why do all babies LOVE the fridge?

And now, here are some videos:

"What is in your ear?!?!?!?"

One day (October 12th to be exact), Levi walked past me, and I noticed something in his ears... a lot of something. Upon closer examination, thie is what I found:





Blue marker. Seriously, where does the kid come up with this stuff?

Camping at Tucannon

In September, we were thinking about how we did not (1) go camping and (2) go on a trip with just our little family. So we decided to pack our bags and try out a new adventure. We picked a campground out of book and came up with Tucannon Campground on the Tucannon River. It is in the Blue Mountains near Dayton, WA. The trip there was longer than anticipated, and as we got near it was... ugly. I was not too thrilled. Then we couldn't find the turn-off because the sign was gone. But then, when we pulled into the campground, it was actually quite pretty. We found the perfect campsite: it was down off the road and pretty secluded, had several flat places, and had a shallow stream flowing through it. Although short, it was a very enjoyable camping trip. We wouldn't be sad if we ended up there again.

These pictures are in a totally random order, but I didn't feel like organizing them. So here they are!

Oh my goodness, Brinley loved the dirt! Thank goodness for Shout Advanced Gel and Tide with Bleach!

The Tucannon River at the entrance to the campground.

My kids love LOVE water!

Throwing rocks in the water... what is it about this simple thing that is just so great?

Daddy and Daughter

Levi at the stream in our campsite.

Sam, the fire guy.

Brinley loved sitting in the camp chairs. I wish I could have left her there, but I was way too afraid she would fall off or the chair and she would fall together. FYI, Brinley was 9 months in these pictures.

I set out this tarp with intent of having a clean place for our crawler to play. Good intentions... laughable ones, but good.

Mommy and her baby girl.

In the tent, getting tucked in for the night.

I think Levi is a total stud!

The night we got there, after setting up in near dark, we had tinfoil dinners for dinner in the dark. They were very yummy, if I do say so myself!

Look how filthly! Camping is a kid's best friend!

Levi played with this brush and dustpan almost the whole time. He swept the tarp, the bench, the table, the dirt, everything!