Halloween 2016

I can't believe that Halloween has already flown by! Fall has been super mild (albeit we are having problems with air quality as a result) but it was great for our outdoor activities!

Miles carved his own pumpkin this year! I wish had taken a picture of the front when he was done. It was some sort of many-eyed monster face.

Benjamin was really enthusiastic about our forced family fun...

Even this little lady came outside and watched the carving. 

Here's our princess fairy (who wore her costume for less then 5 minutes because she hated everything about it. I should have bought her a ninja costume instead...) and ninja protectors. The boys were SO excited to wear their ninja costumes! Tommy of course wanted to be whatever Miles was. I love how serious Miles looks here. Their accompanying ninja moves were awesome : )

Here they are checking out their winnings. They wanted to trick-or-treat in our own neighborhood this year (as apposed to Grandpa and Grandma's like last year) and I was so impressed with all their walking! Our neighborhood is literally on the side of a mountain so lots of uphill walking was required but I think they would have walked all night if I hadn't made them come home at 7:30. They were so fun to trick-or-treat. Tommy wanted to pause at each house to admire everyone's Halloween decorations and would compliment each person as they opened their door: "I really like your pumpkin!" "I like your spooky skeleton!" "I really like your spider!" It was so sweet. And Miles, WOW, that kid is brave! One house had made a tunnel of sorts out of a big tent that you had to walk through to get to the candy, and the tent was filled with super creepy stuff (strobe light, hanging skeletons and scarecrows, fog, etc and at the end as he was getting his candy a masked guy sprang out with a fake chain saw. Miles (who did later admit that he was a little scared) stood there staring but didn't show any sign of fear, just took his candy and walked out. I would have peed my pants and cried when I was 6. Not my Miles! (Tommy was too scared to even walk in the tent. It was seriously creepy.) Anyway, these boys really earned their candy this year, and even Miss Elaine did great in spite of being out later than normal. Love special times like this!

Disney World!!!

Well, we did it! We took our first family vacation to "The Happiest Place on Earth"! And I'm not going to lie, it was AMAZING! Benjamin's work was sending him to Disney World for a conference, and so although we would definitely not have planned this trip this year, we jumped at the chance and I'm so glad we did. The school district (Benjamin's work) was paying for him to stay during the conference at the Grand Floridian (a swanky Disney resort) so we paid to extend the number of nights  so we could enjoy family time in the parks. It was so fun to see the kids' excitement, both before the trip and once we arrived. I know they will probably not remember any of our trip because they are so little, but I will never forget Miles exclaiming, "Tomorrow is going to be the best day of my life!" as we were driving to our hotel the night of our arrival and fireworks were going off overhead. It made my heart feel like it might burst to see his happiness.

To tell you the truth, the trip was a LOT of work to plan and pack and and we all were exhausted by the end because the kids were up late and Elaine slept terribly. I also have to confess that I lost Miles, and not only did I lose Miles, it was at our resort and our resort was where that toddler was EATEN earlier this year by an alligator! I suppose technically he wandered off while I had my back turned paying in a gift shop, but still it was 45 of the most terrifying minutes of my life until he turned up in the hotel tower across from ours. He apparently thought he was going to our room and got confused (obviously) about which building was ours. But we had talked before about what to do if you get lost (find a mom with children and tell her you need help) so he waited outside the door of a hotel room that had noisy children inside until they opened the door. It makes me feel anxious just thinking about the whole thing...Just for the record though, I should tell you that I had all 3 of the kids alone (Benjamin was at his conference) and pathetically hadn't even left the hotel with them. I will say we did much better sticking together the next day at Magic Kingdom! But it was totally worth the stress and insanity because look at these beautiful smiling babies:

Dumbo ride selfie on our dad-less day

Riding the fairy between our resort and the next on over

Love that toothless smile and "cheese" face!

The kids LOVED the resort pools. We spent almost 5 hours swimming one day. There was even a big "beach" area where they had brought in beautiful white sand to play in

 Mother/daughter selfie waiting for the show to start 

Grandpa Johnson gave each of the kids $20 to pick a souvenir on their trip. I chose this baby Pooh bear because I always loved Winnie the Pooh as a child and Elaine was too little to request a Frozen doll like every other girl under age 10 in America would have done

Minus not sleeping well at night this baby was an amazing traveler. Her only naps every day were in the stroller or my arms, but she never was fussy or cried and was such an angel!

This handsome boy and Elaine and I got to spend some time together waiting for Miles and Dad to go on the few rides Tommy was too short for. Both boys were all about the rides and rode EVERYTHING possible, including all the roller coasters and the Tower of Terror! 

Tommy insisted on walking basically all day, every day, and was SO tired by night time!

We tried to bring a lot of our own food since everything in the parks is so expensive, but we did enjoy a lot of fun snacks. These smoked turkey legs were HUGE and Tommy and Miles licked the bone clean on the one they shared. 

Overall it was just a truly magical, amazing trip. We are so blessed!

Pretty baby

Love this beautiful girl. We had a big scare with her last week in which she terrified us by falling off the kitchen counter. She was sitting up there in her Bumbo seat [foam chair for babies learning to sit up solo] while I cooked dinner. I turned around for literally a second and for the first time ever she pushed back in it and over she went onto the hard floor! It was terrifying although she seemed mostly okay other than really really angry and then kinda dazed (there wasn't even a mark on her head). Benjamin and I were both just too worried though so we took her to the ER at Primary Children's Hospital where after vomiting once she then proceeded to smile at everyone and act completely happy and normal. All they did was observe her for 3 hours and said she probably had a mild concussion. Needless to say, I felt like the worst mother ever and we won't be putting the Bumbo anywhere but the floor now. So glad she escaped unscathed from this scary incident. I'm holding her extra close and saying extra prayers of gratitude this week!

Big Guy Starts 1st Grade!

This big boy started first grade this week! I seriously can't believe it. Amazingly enough we both had dry eyes his first day. Miles is actually endlessly brave when it comes to trying new things (he nearly gave me a heart attack attempting a back flip off of the diving board last month). However, all summer long I have been having moments of tearfulness and anxiety at the thought of him beginning first grade. (It hasn't been helped by the fact that mid-summer we decided to start him in the fall in a Spanish dual immersion program in a new far-away school). The truth is I know he's going to do great as far as first grade goes, but I'm mourning the fact he's not my baby anymore that I get to keep safely within the walls of our home. I'm anxious about this being the beginning of a whole new chapter with different challenges I know nothing about and feel ill-prepared to help him with. The real world is hard and kids are being faced with every ugly aspect of it so early these days. I'm now worried about whether or not kids will be nice to him, if he will be nice to other kids, if he'll do what's right even when it isn't popular, if he'll be safe for all those hours we are apart. I feel like those precious few years when we were each other's whole world just sped past like a car accelerating onto the highway and now he's full speed ahead and I'm just hoping I taught him how to drive safely. It's scary, more for me than him because I understand what's coming and the risk involved.

The first few days of school haven't been a picnic for him, though. He is convinced that he cannot learn Spanish when that is all his teacher speaks to him in and he supposedly doesn't understand a word. I remember when I studied Spanish in Costa Rica I felt the exact same way. My teacher would explain things and I had literally no clue what she was saying and the whole thing felt like an exercise in insanity. But I did learn it (as much as one can in one short semester) and I know he will. He honestly already knows quite a lot of words and is using them at home. He is smart (sometimes too smart! His need for a logical explanation for everything can be exhausting!) Along with being overwhelmed by Spanish he also is having to make all new school friends. Fortunately the school he is attending (Canyon Creek) is newly opening this fall so all the kids there are in transition to at least some degree with kids from two schools merging and no one knowing exactly where things are and whatnot. He is very gregarious so I'm hopeful that making new friends will come fairly easily and he will feel at home soon.

Well here's to the beginning of a new era in the Onofrio home! So glad we get to be on the roller coaster of parenthood with this guy next to us!

(I also have to point out that he chose to wear the same shirt for the first day of school this year as last year although it's getting snug. Nothing tells the other kids you're cool like Minecraft!)

Miss Elaine is six months!

This beautiful girl is six months old today! She is so cute I can hardly stand it. She is all smiles for her brothers and they mutually adore her (although they sometimes try so hard to entertain her that they squeeze her too tight, yell too loud, get in her face too closely and it inevitably ends in tears from little sister). She is rolling over (although she doesn't like to since she prefers being on her back) and can sit up alone quite well (although we still have to set up a protective ring of pillows around her if she is truly sitting solo). At her well child check-up we found that she is 15 lbs 14 oz (49th percentile) and 26.5 inches (78th percentile). She is still nursing like a champ, hates baby food, but will try to snatch regular food out of your hand in spite of the fact she has no teeth.

She has a generally very sweet and easy going disposition and overall is a fairly flexible baby. For several months we jokingly gave her the title "Best Baby Ever!" because she was so content and slept so well. I was shocked to find a baby actually existed that could put herself to sleep without being rocked since that was a struggle with Miles and a literal impossibility with Tommy for months after he was born. But having a little baby, even a very good-natured little baby is so very hard at times, and it's even harder when there are siblings also needing attention. I feel like someone always needs something and I'm always falling short in some way. The house is usually a disaster because meeting everyone's basic needs (such as getting everyone fed, dressed in clean clothes, diapers changed, bums wiped, tucked into bed, etc) requires so much time that the bits of time in between have to be used for other essential activities like grocery shopping, exercise, outings to the pool, park, etc., reading together, and playing. Now Elaine is six months we are also struggling with sleep and having nights where she wakes up over and over, which makes me less productive during the day. I 'm pretty sure she is teething which makes things hard, but I also partly blame myself for her rough nights because the poor girl is dragged all over as the boys and I go here and there attempting to make the most of summer and prevent cabin fever. She just doesn't get consistent, solid rest during the day and it's carrying over in the strange way it does with babies in that being more tired makes them sleep less...or who knows. I could be assigning a totally wrong meaning to her poor sleep because really all baby sleep theory is pretty loosey-goosey and it could be a hundred other issues actually keeping her awake, such as who the next president is going to be since it's such a troublesome issue this year...Anyway, not sleeping enough is terrible for all parties involved. It's funny how you forget between your children just how hard it is to go for months without a single night of uninterrupted sleep. It's exhausting, to say the least. But she's worth it! The silver lining of being awake at night is that I get to snuggle our sweet baby and it truly fills my heart with joy when she reaches up for me from her crib and when she hugs me tights when I pick her up. Here's to another six months of  random sleepless nights and lots of snuggles!

Father Son Camp Out

Father son camp out time! Last year Tommy caught wind that Miles and I were going to the camp out and he met us crying in the driveway. 

This year we had the full compliment of Onofrio men. The morning of the camp out the boys lept out of bed after Miles exclaimed, "today is the father/son camp out!" Miles then helped Tommy get dressed without being asked and then they packed their bags for the trip.

Those boys did really well and we had a blast. We stayed up late, ate smores, and explored the beautiful Uintah Mountains. We got really lucky with the weather. It was beautiful and escaped the rain entirely. 

This is about 10 minutes before Bubs completely ran out of gas. We were in the middle of a spiritual thought when Tommy says, "I'm pretty tired. I'm tired. Can we go to bed? Will you put me to bed?" I guess even our little dynamo runs out of energy after 10:30. 

Twizzlers. The boys got some fun camp toys. Tommy is holding onto a foam pirate sword and Miles has a helicopter.

The boys thought it was really funny not to look at the camera when I tried to take photos at breakfast. 

Seriously, I could not get these guys to pose for a photo.

More of Little Miss

Daddy's girl

She's filling out! Love the little double chin!

Watching her brothers snuggle her never gets old!

Sometimes she doesn't appreciate constant affection as much as I do...

Angel girl makes her first appearance at church!

Look at that smile! She's almost 2 months old!