The Eve Before Halloween Eve

 Starting the pumpkin carving

 Kira obviously thought it stunk!

 My cute Panda and husband

 They loved going to stores and getting candy on Saturday!

 The start of the Costume Parade

 Kira

 Emma with our babysitter

 Ben bobbed for apples and got one!

 I LOVED watching Leah dance in the cupcake walk!

 Part of my group next to our decorated Trunk

 Ben and Kira on the Hayride

 Seriously, an adorable Panda!

Yeah, that's it.  We had lots of fun the day before yesterday!  What a full day! 

Fantastic FHE

Yesterday after my third class, I got home for Scott to announce that we were going to the Park.  Okay...  So, I put Cecilia in her seat on my bike and Kira hopped onto the Bike extension thingy on the back.  Ben and Emma were in Scott's trailer with Leah in the little seat behind Scott and we headed out.  We made quite the crew going down the road and did pretty well!  We had fun at the Park and I took a lot of pictures.  The lighting was fantastic!  Leah got dirty.  No surprise there!  They did so well that we decided to go to Braum's for our FHE snack and got ice cream.  The kids were thrilled!  We had our ice cream and bought a few groceried to head out and be waylaid by some interesting people.  The guy was smoking and the lady was in my personal space asking if we planned on having more kids and I was not a happy camper! Grumble, grumble...
 I am absolutely sick of people asking me personal questions because we have five kids!  I am working my tail off to get a degree and be able to provide well for our children (and really to be a better mom)!  Scott's going to graduate in December and we are doing the best we can for our five kids!  I understand that in a few places people think that many children is leading to overpopulation, but we're in a small town and THERE IS PLENTY OF ROOM!!!  So, I just don't understand why people are so nosy and just plain rude!  I can just smile and laugh when they say we have a handful, because we do!  We have five kids and five fingers on each hand-so technically five is a hand full.  But, enough of the questions!  I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and know that Heavenly Father wants us to help children come into the world.  We are not trying to "populate it ourselves" nor are we planning to have more than six.  I'm not trying to have a TV show, because of my family.  It really is no one else's business, but ours and Heavenly Father's.  I love being a mom and I love my children.  There is nothing wrong with that!  So, in case you're tempted to do something without thinking and ask a COMPLETE STRANGER how many kids they are planning on having-please refrain yourself!  Thank you!
Now off my soap box (I think it's sufficiently crushed)!  We did have fun, even with the interesting people and our lesson was on family and how we should be kind.  We repeated our little motto-"We are Westhoffs!  We are a family!  We love each other!  We help each other!  And we don't fight!"
Hurray for family!  Now onto the pictures!

 It says:  "My Dad is a Superhero!"

 She took a step!

 Our green transportation

I let Cecilia have the last bit of my cone, because it looks like a baby cone!  She loved it!

Great day trip!

Last Sunday we found out about the Ward Temple Trip yesterday and signed up to go.  I decided we should all go, because I really want to get the peace of the Temple in my kiddos' heads.  It's really hard to explain it, unless they are there.  That and I desperately wanted a Temple picture with my family for my 10th Anniversary and really didn't want to do it in the snow (Our anniversary is in December)!  So, I worked incredibly hard to get a little ahead on homework, stayed up late on Friday night to make sure we were mostly ready to go when we got up in the morning.  Scott woke me up at about a quarter to five and so the day began!  We got everyone dressed and Scott packed up the car for me (what a sweetheart)!  Then we were out of here about a quarter to six.  We had to go to the store to get the rest of the stuff we needed (a car plugin for the laptop, snacks, and Redbox movies)!  And then we were off!  For some reason I thought it was a five hour trip and it was only 4 hours, so we got there a little after ten-with no stops!  Our kids did fantastic!  They just watched movies and were fine!  Cecilia slept most of the way and was only sad the last bit, but was fine after some juice.  We went to the Visitor's Center to:  watch a movie, let the kids dress up as pioneers, and learn more about pioneers (because somehow after watching "Legacy" a ton of times, they still just don't get it)!  Ben and Kira pushed the handcart, and all of the kids saw the tiny cabin that would house two families and I think it really helped them to "get it" better!  We had lunch and Scott went to his Session. 
I took the kids to a park.  There were a ton of HUGE leaves, so I took some pictures of Cecilia in them!  Awesome!  We were having so much fun, until I needed to push Emma in her swing.  Then I heard this kid swearing like crazy (I mean there would be one word in a sentence that wasn't a bad word)!  Yikes!  So, I hightailed my kids out of there and asked if they had heard what he was saying.  Kira just thought he was singing and she didn't understand a word he said.  I informed them to never say any words that they had heard him say!  So, in order to help them be happy again, we went to Walgreen's and swapped out the Redbox DVDs (I'm telling you, whomever came up with that idea-GENIUS!)!  Then they were happy again!  Phew!
Then I got to go to my session!  I had to hurry, because there wasn't much time for Scott to get out there (Poor guy)!  I was super tired, but I really enjoyed it and learned something new!  When I got into the Celestial Room, tears filled my eyes, because-FINALLY-the peace was there that I really, really needed!  This was one of the main reasons that I drove four hours with my husband and all of my children!  Then I left, because I knew there were a ton of people in the Session, and not many seats.  I looked into the Sealing Room where Scott and I were sealed for all eternity!  How lucky I am to have this church, the True Church of Jesus Christ to help me!  To seal my family together forever!  I feel very blessed! 
I changed and went outside to see Leni Hester-a family friend and fantastic photographer!  She did our Wedding pictures and I asked if she could come take a family picture for me, and she did!  Although she was super busy (she has her own studio), she and her husband did what they needed, so she could come take our family picture.  Seriously, what an awesome person!  She dealt very well with Ben, who had decided that now was not the time for family pictures and he wasb't interested in behaving.  Bummer!  I still think she did a fantastic job and I'm looking forward to seeing how it came out!
After that we walked around and I took individual pictures of the kids and the Temple and a few of just the Temple and the kids together.  It was quite the ordeal!  They did so well though, we ate Taco Bell on the Park lawn before we headed back on that long trip!
We only had one long stop and then Scott took over driving!  I was able to take some scenic pictures and watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2!  A great movie!  We got into town, returned the Redbox DVDs, got a few groceries and were home!  Hurray!  We made it through!  Then Cecilia was wired, so it took her awhile to go to sleep!  It gave me time to download pictures, but I'm still pretty tired.  As usual, I will continue to eat to stay awake and hopefully I can go to bed earlier tonight!  I hope, I hope!

 My little Pioneers

 Pulling for all they're worth!

 Cecilia and Emma

 I liked both of these!

 Oh this face!  She cracks me up!

 Emma climbed the Giraffe!

 Kira climbed the web!

 Ben reading in the middle of the web!

 After the family pictures.  So, Ben was still throwing a fit and Leah refused to sit by her siblings!  I kept having to drag her back over!

 Our picnic before leaving Omaha.

 Watching the new Barbie movie for the Second time!

I was very excited to get this picture!

Emma is touching this butterfly.  This was at the Visitor's Center, but for some reason won't let me move it up to those pictures.  Oh well!

Another one of these too, I love this stained glass!  Beautiful!

October!

So, although it's been October for almost a week, I've been frantically trying to keep up.  Some days my five kiddos really are a "handful!"  Other days aren't a problem at all!  We got to go up to Olathe on Friday evening.  I made four shirts for birthday kiddos on Thursday night to prepare for all of the fun.  (Although two shirts went to a friend's kiddo).  I made a whole Birthday outfit for my niece, because I refuse to buy her toys (she has plenty)!  It turned out very well!  Hurray!

She really liked it!  She even wore it to IHOP later!  I hope it washes well!

I also made a tractor shirt for my nephew and he loved his too, see?

I love family!  We're so lucky to have big families that want to share celebrations with us!
This week I had a midterm almost everyday this week, except Monday when I had to teach (with a partner) our class about the Skeletal System, as they acted like first-graders.  There are some very good actors in our class...  But they liked all of the activities!  We did the Skeleton Dance, made Skeletoni and had a Skeleton Relay using the felt bones I velcroed to fabric!  Fun times!  I'm really looking forward to teaching the actual class!  On Friday I had lots of fun taking out my new backdrops and taking pictures after velcroing them up.  Woohoo!  I should probably upload those pictures.  Maybe later.  Today I got to shop for my kiddos and got a super awesome present for me-a triple jogging stroller!  Hurray!  I'm going to start running with my kiddos in the morning as I drop Ben and Kira off at school.  I can do it!  I need to lose a lot of weight and I desperately miss running!  Kira went with me to help close up the sale (it was one of those consignment sales)!  Poor kiddo had no idea what she was signing up for!  I was incredibly sore when I got home, but not so much anymore.  Phew!  If I get my bottom in gear, I'm going to make a healthy menu and actually plan before grocery shopping.  Ben has to do it for his Wolf, so I'm thinking that that will help!  I'm going to "Keep Moving Forward!"