October!

The beginning of October was hard for me. I took Jude in for his 2 week well child check and he wasn't gaining weight. He had been 7 pounds 12 ounces since he was 4 days old. Dr. Taylor told me to bring him back in a few days and have him weighed again. I took him in again and he was still 7 pounds 12 ounces. I felt like Jude was eating well, so I didn't know what the problem was. I had already been stressed out for the previous 2 weeks, and now my stress went into overdrive. Dr. Taylor told me to nurse Jude, then pump and give him a bottle when he was done eating. I did that and Jude slowly started to put on weight. After a week I didn't have to take him in for weight checks anymore. I also had a lactation specialist come over and watch me feed Jude. She reassured me that he was indeed latching on well and transferring the milk and all that. She suggested that I eat more fat in my diet to help Li'l Jude out. That's been a real struggle. (Not.) Jude is doing just fine now. I haven't been pumping extra for him for a while. But it is nice that he will take a bottle, because Kate and Gray did not. Jude is also the champion spitter of the family. Colin spit up a ton. Kate and Gray spit up less than Colin, but still more than any other babies that I know. But Jude outspits them all. He basically explodes as soon as he finishes eating. And then you might think he is done, but he's not. He will continue to spit as long as he is awake. The only time he isn't puking his guts out is when he is asleep, and that is because he sleeps with me in the recliner. I'm just now trying to get him used to sleeping on his own, but I'm sure it will be a long adjustment. I know you're not supposed to hold babies when they sleep, but I felt like I had to do whatever it took to survive and help Jude gain weight. Judge if you will, but I stand by my choices. Okay, on to the pictures.

My Mr. Potato Head masterpieces. Gray was less impressed with my than I was with myself.

Parenting fail. Thankfully, we haven't gotten any more notes like this. Colin and I have been working hard on this. Mrs. Tanner says he is getting better. And at his SEP conference in the middle of October she said he was doing much better. He got 1s (the highest "grade") for all his academic stuff. He's passed off everything they will learn for the entire year already. He also got four 2s, for things like participating/raising his hand, sitting still, and listening.

Jude is such a sweet li'l guy.

Kate and Gray thought they were so funny running around wearing mom and dad's sweatshirts.

Uncle Seth holding Jude, who is wearing his "My uncle is a great catch" shirt.

Random shot of a naked baby.

Kate wanted a picture taken of her in her BYU shirt. Nate brought these shirts home from work and the kids love them.

A mini photo shoot with Handsome Jude. Just 'cause he's handsome.

Cute hair, but a crazy outfit. I don't know why I let her dress herself.

Some awesome notes from Colin.

"No grls allod and no makig messisis."

"I love you dad. X your secret admyr."

"I am gowig to love you forevor. X youre son. Secret admiyr."

An awesome picture courtesy of Gray.

I took the kids to the pumpkin patch in Springville one Tuesday as part of park day with my ward. It was great because there were other kids for them to play with and other adults for me to talk to! The pumpkin patch had even more fun stuff for the kids to do this year, with several mazes, giant slides, a corn pit, a tractor hayride, and haystacks to climb.

Gray on the hayride with me.

Kate and Gray at the top of the small haystack.

There were a bunch of animals for the kids to see, including:

A teacup pig.

A three-legged goat.

An enormous pig.

Kate and Gray climbed to the top of the giant haystack. I helped. Gray decided that the haystack was a little higher than he liked and was more than ready to get down.

Colin wrote this note to Nate after they went out on a special date. He can be so sweet and thoughtful sometimes.

He's a handsome one. And a spitty one. He puked right after I snapped this picture.

Colin stole my phone and took this picture of me while I was making apple crisp. Gotta love my post-baby body, in all it's lumpy glory.

Kate loves to hold Jude. She asks to do it all the time. I love these pictures of the two of them together. I know I'm a little prejudiced, but I swear that girl of my could be a model. She's so so pretty.

My favorite football shirt again. I've watched a lot of college football this year. I record like 5 games each Saturday and then watch them late at night when I'm up with Jude.

Long and skinny, just like his siblings. (Well, all except for Gray.)

Painting pumpkins! Way easier for mom and dad than carving pumpkins. The two small white pumpkins were grown in our garden from seeds from last year's pumpkin. The giant pumpkin came from Granny's neighbor. Gray was in heaven. He kept calling it his "pumpkin patch."

I finished Jude's costume like 2 hours before our ward's Halloween carnival. It turned out awesome!

Yep, that's a Silvey kid all right. No questions there.

Jude puked all over me one evening, so I had to change my shirt. I put on my Gunthers shirt, and then all the kids had to put theirs on too. Kate didn't want to be in the picture, but I had to show Nate how silly they were.

Gray and Jude. Gray loves to hold Jude. Jude has mixed feelings about it.

Gray being the best child ever and quietly playing by himself. Win. He's been really into playing with the toy cars lately.

Some more notes from Colin. I love to see what he comes up with when he is quietly writing by himself.

"Rise and shine the cougrs are out"

"UT BYU The football Univrsity Notr Dame Best State Ever." Not bad for a 5-year-old.

Heather went to Ireland for graduate school. Then she decided that it wasn't for her, and she came home. She brought home presents for the kids. Colin and Gray got these sweet old man hats. I think they might need to be Newsies for Halloween next year.

Happy 6 weeks Baby Jude! He's learned how to smile, and it just melts my heart.

Colin's school Halloween program. I took a lot of video, and if I ever go through it I'll post some of my favorite songs.

Colin with his teacher, Mrs. Tanner. The three kindergarten teachers were the Three Good Fairies from Sleeping Beauty. She had a sweet hat too, but forgot to put it on for the picture.

This IS the droid you are looking for! Jude's costume turned out the best. I'm exceedingly proud of it. So dang cute.

I entered my homemade bread in the bread competition, but I neglected to put my name anywhere on it.  Which is why instead of my name the award says "? Plastic Bag." And I was out of the room feeding Jude when they announced the winners. But hey, 3rd place ain't bad! (Although I obviously felt like I deserved 1st place.)

Here are the kids in all their costumed glory, getting ready to go to the Halloween party at Granny's church. Princess Leia, a Jedi/Jawa, and a Clone Trooper. Gray really did look super cute, but he often did not want to cooperate with his costume.