Halloween Festivities

We spent family home evening the Sunday before Halloween carving our pumpkins.  We decided to try it on the kitchen floor so Jackson could participte too.  He was actually pretty in to it!  He tried several times to eat the goo and seeds, but really had fun just squishing his fingers through the goo. 

Adam did a really good job cleaning out his pumpkin and then told dad how he wanted his pumpkin carved. 

 Jackson is ready to dive right in!

I was hoping for a better picture out on the front porch, but I thought this one was kind of funny! 

 Here we all are!

 And here is the closeup of the carvings.  Scott did a fabulous job again!  I think the nose on Adam's is so funny.  He really wanted his to have a big nose!  When Scott was finished, Adam used a little saw and started making little cuts in the top.  Both Scott and I thought he was going to ruin it, but it actually turned out pretty cool with the slits at the top.

 Since Halloween was on Sunday, we opted to not go trick-or-treating that day.  We were a little sad that it would be our first Halloween since Adam was a year old that we didn't spend it with our neighbors, the Terry's.  Our ward does a trunk-or-treat every year,which we have never attended - we decided this year would be a good year to attend - for two reasons... 1. The trunk-or-treat was held on Saturday and we could get trick-or-treating in for Adam and 2. I am the activities committee chairman in the ward, so I had to be there.  (good reason - huh!)  So, we decided to invite the Terry's to the trunk-or-treat. 

It actually ended up being really fun.  It was super crowded!  There are normally 3 wards in our building who all do the trunk-or-treat together, but one of the buildings in our Stake recently burned down, so the two wards that met in that building had to find new homes and one of them is now meeting in our building.  (So, yes, we have 4 wards in our building - fun times!!) So, at the last minute, we invited that ward to join us for the trunk-or-treat.  There were probably close to 400 families in attendance (we went through over 500 cups for the hot chocolate).  The trunks went all the way around the building and then some.  Adam's pumpkin bucket was full to the brim and overflowing with candy.  The Terry's had so much fun that they are ready to join us agan next year!  Scott and Jeff have already started planning a joint trunk decorating venture!

Here is the annual costume picture! 

 Jackson was super fascinated by everything around him.  He had lots of fun practicing his walking and just watching all the craziness.

Happy Halloween!

This is the way we eat our dinner

After our trip to the pumpkin patch, we stopped at the mall for some dinner.  Jackson really enjoyed his macaroni and cheese!

He's saving some for later!
(And, yes - we are good tippers - and not just because Scott works in restaurants.)

Thirteen months it is!

In honor of Jackson turning 13 months old today, I have finally done his 1 year old post.  I dated it back to September 21st, so you have to go back there to read it.  I'm not quite done, but it's a start!
Now I just need to go back and do Adam's 5 year old post!!  Slowly getting all caught up!

So very busy

Scott and the boys called me at work yesterday morning.  This is a normal ritual on those two days a week I am at the office.  I'm sure my co-workers love how my voice gets three octaves higher as I talk to Jackson and try to get some sort of response besides just heavy breathing.  I always talk to Adam and ask him how he slept, and if he's helping daddy.  Well, yesterday, I knew that the dishwasher needed to be emptied because we had run it before heading to bed the night before, so I asked Adam if he was doing his job and emptying the dishwasher.  Here is our conversation:
Me:  "Are you helping daddy and putting all the dishes away."
Adam: "no."
Me: "Why not."
Adam: "I'm busy". 
Me: "Oh, what are you doing?" 
Adam:"Walking around and stuff." 


The life of a 5-year old....

Punkins at the Pumpkin patch

We have been blessed with perfect fall weather here in Washington.  Fall is definitely my favorite season - especially here!!  The mornings and evenings are little chilly and you can feel a little crispness in the air!  When the sun shines, the sky is bright blue and the leaves are beautiful as they turn from green to red and orange and yellow.  The colors are amazing up against the green of the pine trees.  There isn't a better place to live!  Saturday was one of those perfect days!  The sun was shining, as it has been all week.  There was a little nip in the air, but not enough that you needed a heavy jacket.  We decided it was the perfect day for a trip to the pumpkin patch.  One of Scott's employees had told him about a place out in Snohomish called "Bob's Corn".  He thought it sounded pretty cool, so we found the address and set out with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was a great place and we had so much fun!!

We found it pretty easy and were surprised at how many people had the same idea we did!  We parked and headed up to the farm to check everything out.

It was amazing to watch this guy carve these pumpkins! 

 We took a hay ride down to the big pumpkin patch.  Jackson didn't like the hay ride - I think the tractor was too noisy for him.  He was very glad to get off!  The hay ride took us to this great big pumpkin patch that you could walk through to find the perfect pumpkins.  Adam, of course found a mud puddle to play in as soon as we got off the hay ride!  (You can see the corn field in the background.  There was a big corn maze, and Adam wanted to go in so bad!!  He kept begging to go through the maze.  When Scott went to check it out, they told him it was over 2 miles long from beginning to end, so we decided not to try it out.  Adam was not very happy!)

 Jackson loved the pumpkins!  He still isn't quite walking yet, but we took him out of the stroller since there wasn't much mud.  He crawled over to this pumpkin and didn't want to leave!

 Adam found a great big pumpkin that he thought was the perfect one.  It was too big and heavy, so Grandpa helped him carry it over to the wheelbarrow.

 After more looking around, Adam decided he wanted this little bitty one instead.  He could carry this one all by himself!

 We pried Jackson away from the big pumpkin (kicking and screaming!), but soon put him down next to another one.  While we searched for the perfect pumpkins, Jackson enjoyed stripping the leaves off of the plants and banging on the pumpkins closest to him.

 Here we are with our pumpkins.

Apparently, the stem of the pumpkin tastes pretty good - just ask Jackson!

 After tearing Jackson away from the pumpkin stem (there are little teeth marks on that stem!), he was ready to get a move on!  He tried pretty hard to move this thing!!

 We decided to walk back to the farm instead of listening to Jackson scream on the hayride.  Over at the farm they had a fun playground and a bunch of other things for kids.  Adam got a pumpkin painted on his cheek.

 He also enjoyed a pony ride. 

 And we all enjoyed some delicious roasted corn!  It was so yummy!  I think Jackson enjoyed it the corn more than any of us.  He didn't want to give it up!

 It was the perfect way to spend a beautiful October afternoon! 

Bakugon Battles and THE MONSTER!!

Adam loves anything Bakugon!  Every night before bed, he makes sure that all of his bakugons are lined up and ready for the next day.  They help protect him as he sleeps from bad dreams and other undesirable things that could happen in the night.  (Scott's sister, Laura sent him the awesome circle, that is actually supposed to be used when playing the game - but Adam hasn't quite figured out the whole game thing yet, so it's the bakugon headquarters sign!)

 This morning as I was helping Adam button his shirt for church, he was telling me all about his bakugons.  He has named several of them, very weird names like R2, garbage can, drago (which is the actual name of one from the cartoon), spinner, blaster and several more that I can't remember (I need to have him tell me sometime so I can record them all).  The amazing thing is that he remembers all of their names and talks about them and what the are good at and what they do during the days.  It's pretty entertaining to hear him talk about them.  In the middle of our conversation Adam suddenly said, "Oh no - it's the monster!!"  Can anyone guess who/what the monster is????

 Here he comes!

 The monster loves bakugons as well.  Any chance he has to get his hands on one, he'll take it.  They often end up in the monsters mouth, because when they are folded up into balls, they are the perfect size and shape!

 Adam says that the bakugons get really quiet and are unable to talk when the monster comes in the room.  They are too scared to say anything!  (how can anyone be scared of this cute face?)

 The monster proceeds to pick up the bakugons and toss them aside.  He works his way from one end of the table to the other.

 Leaving a path of destruction in his wake.

 The bakugons are all stunned into silence!

This is why no babies are allowed in Adam's room.

(Disclaimer: no bakugons were injured in the production of this blog post)

Dishwasher duty

Adam hasn't been too keen on his chore of emptying the dishwasher lately.  Jackson's ready to take over!

New Games

Adam loves to spin in my office chair.  Jackson decided he wanted to give it a try too.  They had fun spinning together.  Everytime I tried to get Jackson out of the chair, he screamed at me and tried to climb back up!

 Jackson has become a pro a climbing up the stairs.  He'll get to the middle landing and likes to play peek-a-boo.  Such a fun kid!

Catching up

I'm not sure what's happened, I was doing so well - and then September happened! I have a long list of things that I am planning to add to our blog (September is a busy month around here!!) - and I will do that over the next couple of days. This little blog has become my journal, and I'm feeling a little sad that I've slacked off! I really enjoy going back and reading about the things we've been doing, and I love looking at the pictures (which is why all of my posts have so many pictures in them!) What better way to keep a journal! I've been researching several different websites that can be used to have your blog printed in book format, and am planning to give that a try, soon! I didn't do baby books for my boys and I don't scrap book, so I'm hoping to be able to print my blog so my boys will have a journal of sorts from me when they get older. (Poor Adam - I started too late for his first couple of years!)
Anyway - just wanted to let me readers know that there will be some back dated posts coming up, so don't be surprised if something appears on September 13th, even though we have started into October!!

Sleeping

I love going in to check on Jackson at night before I head to bed. You never know what position he might be in. This is what we found last night.

I don't know how babies get any rest - at least my two babies. Both Adam and Jackson move around so much in their sleep! You never know what you'll find when you check on them.

(By the way, the process of taking this picture woke Jackson up, and he was NOT happy!! This little boy loves him some sleep!)