October

Only 3 weeks until this baby is due! I had a doctor's appointment last week and we had an ultrasound. The doctor said everything looks great! Her head is down already and according to her measurements she is around 7.5 lbs! I have a lot of fluid in the uterus, which is good for the baby, it just means that everything is so stretched out. That's part of the reason I've been feeling so huge! Anyway, because of these things the doctor doesn't think we will make it to 40 weeks, which I'm okay with! I'm at weekly doctors appointments now, and am hoping to see some progression and maybe a baby next week ;) I had some mild contractions last night, but nothing too exciting. It's the hurry up and wait stage!

Anyway, since all of that is going on I thought I better post October so far, so it doesn't get lost!

Dylan is absolutely loving this down time before Edward Jones starts in December. He decided he wanted to do something with his antlers (they've just been on a shelf in the garage). He watched a bunch of youtube videos and looked at  what some other people have been doing then just ran with it! Dylan created a base around the antlers using plywood, concrete, and plaster of paris. He wrapped them in leather then created wooded mounts for them. He used some birds eye pine Grandpa Aldrich gave him, some reclaimed wood, and some salvaged walnut.

Drying out the base

wrapped in leather! Each one got a little better than the one before.

Very first buck, very first mount.
He was anxious to just get one up on the wall so
he just eyeballed the wood cut out. He also learned a lot from
creating this base and wrapping it in leather, so the others look a lot
more clean.

I love doing breakfast and morning scriptures with this boy.
I am such a blessed momma!

Hendrix got up from his seat and walked around the table to grab this
pipe wrench. He just held it while he ate his breakfast. Occasionally
he would stop eating and strum the wrench like a ukulele. He is
already writing his own songs! I love his creative mind :)

King of the Mountain!

Carly and Shem spent a couple days car shopping and buying a new van! They finally joined the club too :) It meant I got to spend a couple days with the kids and it was so much fun! Hendrix LOVES his cousins, and now that he is getting bigger he keeps up pretty well. He loved chasing the girls around the house and scaring them. We still have nice weather and the leaves hadn't really fallen yet, but Stella really wanted a leaf pile, so she raked up all the little helicopters that had fallen from the trees. These kids were in heaven!

Snack time in the fort!

Stealing Dad's leather. "This is mine now!"

The finished antlers. *note I told Dylan a long time ago that I didn't ever want antlers in the house. I love that he hunts and provides, I'm fine with mounting the antlers, but they can go in the garage. Or if he has his own office/studio space again in the future, but I don't like them in the house.

Well, anyway, these are now on the wall in our BEDROOM. I'm such a pushover. To be fair though, 

they do look great. And there is no animal hair on it.

Hendrix loves to put a blanket over his head and run around scaring us. Atticus was his victim this time! Atti is so patient and nice to Hendrix, although still gets annoyed with him sometimes ;) 

Can't wait until he can go hunting with Dad!

This was between Deer and Duck seasons. Dylan went to pour
himself a bowl of cereal and grabbed a plate instead (he grabbed a bowl just
before I snapped the picture). He said "I'm just so sleepy and all I can think about is duck season!!"

It's a dark picture but Hendrix is learning how the duck call works!
He loves it when Dad uses it and follows Dyl around with his hands
over his mouth (like he is holding a call too) trying to copy the sounds.

Lisa, Natalie and I all LOVE to make soap. One of our favorite places to buy soap supplies was having a sale so we all got something and shipped it together to save on shipping, and then my Mom was just going to bring me my things when she comes for Thanksgiving. Well, we all got pretty excited about what was coming and really wanted to do a soaping weekend. Natalie and Lisa about 2 hours from each other, so it would be easy for them to get together. I live 6.5 hours away and am HUGE, so I told them to have fun and I'll be there in spirit, but if I were to soap with them they would have to come here. Lisa said "okay! the 9th works for me!" and Natalie didn't have to work that weekend, so they drove all the way here just to make soap with me! I am so completely spoiled. It was a much needed girls weekend and we made over 72 lbs of soap! Hendrix was awesome the entire weekend, and Dylan built Lisa a new soap cutter, (when he wasn't out hunting). It was just a really good time. Natalie and Lisa got here at 2am Thursday and we made soap all day Thursday and Friday, went to the farmer's market on Saturday, then they were on the road by 2pm on Saturday. It seriously was exactly what I needed. I love my sisters!

Trying a new swirl tecnique we've been drooling over. 5lbs of peppermint soap! The bars from this swirl would have been so lame if it weren't for the awesome soap cutter Dylan made! (It cost $200 to buy. Dylan made it for around $25!)

Sending kisses to Grandma! We wish she could have made it too :)

Duck season opened on Saturday and Stella went out with them this time. She is so
cute in her camo and had a great time. It's not long before she will be shooting too!

A great haul from opening day of duck season!

Most of our soap! We made a wide variety. I can't wait for it to be cured!
My house smelled so good but also weird. It was a lot of different smells going on!

Lisa, Me, and Natalie!

I absolutely love homemade apple cider and found a good price for apples. So after Lisa and Natalie left we headed to Nana and Papa's to make apple cider! We used the cider press the boys made last year, and, for the first time, the one my parents gave us. It was so much fun! But we started a little too late in the day. I left a huge mess at Nana's house and am a terrible daughter! Hendrix LOVES apples and was in heaven. He wanted to help with everything and ate an apple all the way through, core and all. He just isn't a baby anymore, he is getting so big!

Hendrix's first day in nursery full time! I go in to do singing
time with the kids for about 15 minutes. Dylan snapped this picture
through the window during that time. Hendrix doesn't know the words
to the songs but he sure loves to sing! He was the loudest one in there :)
The kids get props and things to sing with and I was really worried Hendrix wouldn't
give them back, or would hit the other kids with them, or would want to sit in my lap
the entire time or something, but I had nothing to be worried about. He watched what
the other kids were doing and did what they did. When he saw them giving me the props back
he didn't hesitate. When it was time for me to leave it was snack time so he was distracted and
didn't even know I left. I was the one that had a hard time walking away!

After church I was making dinner and it was really quiet. I thought Hendrix was watching
Dad out the window (he was grilling) and I stepped around the corner to take a peek. He was just
completely zoning out laying on the couch. Silly boy.

The leaves hadn't fallen off our trees yet, but we had a huge windstorm overnight and ended up with leaves in our yard. Jess and Terrah were over for dinner and so after we ate we raked up a pile for the boys to play in. Hendrix dove in no problem. Troy took a little convincing at first but loved it. 

bed head!

aaaaannnnd we are back in the leaves.

We had a house showing and our house needed some attention. I'm so huge
and it's difficult for me to get some of the chores done, plus I'm trying to wrap
up a lot of my graphic and web design projects before I go on Maternity Leave at the end
of the month. Both Dylan and I had a really stressful day and Dylan had mentioned it in passing
to Carly. Ten minutes later a pizza delivery guy showed up with dinner, and a half hour later Carly
and Glenda were here with a box of cleaning supplies! Shem came over after work and him and Dylan
cleaned up the garage and yard while Carly and Glenda did the entire inside of my house. I was so incredibly
grateful. I seriously hit the jackpot with my family. They all worked so hard and I'm sure were exhausted but Nana
couldn't say no to Hendrix when he brought her a book. I had to capture this tender moment!

Our van has a safety recall part on the electric ignition. Everything on the van still works, it
just doesn't turn on. They are backordered 2 weeks on the parts needed to replace it so we were in
a pickle! I could go into labor really anytime, and we can't all fit in the truck (Hendrix can't ride it
it safely yet!). We knew we needed to get a commuter car once we were in Arizona, but Dylan had been looking
for the past couple weeks. He found a really good deal on a car and went in to look at it but it sold right before
he got there! He found this corolla and it fit all the criteria and the price was right so......we have another RED car.
I was so embarrassed by the red van (I thought it was way too flashy) but it's grown on me. People are going to think
we love red cars or something.....Anyway we've been getting around in the Corolla while we wait for the van to be fixed.
I'm so grateful things worked out and we have another car (plus Dylan wouldn't have had any time to go car shopping in AZ!) but I sure miss driving my van! That's right, I said it, I miss my van okay!!

Dylan typically does mostly just waterfowl hunting but decided to do some more upland game
this year. He's been having so much fun! And we've been experimenting with new recipes.
It's been so awesome to have him go out hunting in the morning, bring home meat, and
cook something new for dinner! I'm practically off the hook for dinners half the week :)

This boy loves his green smoothies!

Dad is cutting up pheasant (he cooked it in the crockpot in a really creamy sauce and we ate it over rice).
Both boys are sitting begging for scraps.

Another! He wasn't even gone for 40 minutes before he
came home with this one. (Hendrix was still asleep when he got home!)
This is going to be a curry I think. I'm so excited.

Some friends in the ward do a cider pressing party every year.
The weather was perfect and we had so much fun! We brought our cider press too,
and it was fun to be able to get so many people involved. I didn't get a final count, but
I'm sure there had to be at least 50 gallons made. Dylan and I ended up with 4 and I feel so spoiled

We went to Nana and Papa's after the cider party to celebrate Stella's 8th birthday! She is getting baptized next week and we are so excited for her. Since it was such a nice day we couldn't stay inside! (these pictures were from yesterday. See! I'm doing a little better with October!)