Hee Haw Farm

I got to join along with Ethan's class for a fieldtrip to Hee Haw Farm. We had fun seeing the great big pumpkins, picking our own little pumpkins out of the field....


Going on a hay ride...


Going down slides and sitting on a tractor...


and petting some animals.

I was watching from outside the animal petting area with Austin, and I was suprised to see how adventurous Ethan was being. When in a new situation, if I'm around he sticks right by me, so when he went in and started to pet the animals it was fun to watch him. This picture is one of my favorites from the trip.

October's happenings

Rather than posting a bunch of little posts, I'm going to just sum October up in one gigantic post:



Devon was Dracula in a small play called "Almost the Bride of Dracula" that our ward put on for a dinner activity. The group only practiced a little over a handful of times and had about a month to put it together, but they all did so well. Everyone was so impressed with Devon's skills... skills I don't think he even knew he had. He was on the stage pretty much the whole time, so he had tons of lines to memorize, and I don't know that he even messed up at all. It was so much fun to watch. We are hoping to get a copy of it on disc soon, and I'm excited for the boys to see it.


Jennifer Mosteller (almost bride), Jodie Visker (almost bride), Ann Robinson (Dracula's mother), Devon (Dracula), Marla Brannum (almost bride), Dale Dawes and Lorrie Crandall (parents of one of the almost brides)

He looks so different with a pasty face, dark hair, and fangs don't you think?

This little car that Austin got for his birthday is a huge favorite of his. Ethan actually got it for Christmas a few years back, but it has been put away for about a year, so he doesn't really remember it ever was his - of course that doesn't mean he doesn't want to play with it. Austin has has so much fun walking around pushing it, riding on it, pushing the buttons, and has even started to load things in the front of it.

He has gotten really good at walking over the course of October, going from only a couple steps, to now being able to walk from room to room. He still falls down regularly, but goes to a wall or furniture to stand himself right back up. He doesn't seem to realize he can do it on his own - we know he can because we have seen him do it occasionally, but he hardly even tries to.

This is just a random picture. I have one almost the same of Jayden at about the same age, and I just think its so funny to see the kids put raspberries on their fingers.

Ethan loves to walk behind Devon when he mowes... couldn't pass up this picture either.

I cut Austin's hair again, this time I really like how it turned out. I went a bit shorter, and I think it turned out a lot better. I never really took an "after" shot, but now when I do his hair, I can spike it and it turns out pretty cute. This time my method of madness to make the hair cut possible was licorice. It was fabulous. He sat almost completely still this time as he chomped on the licorice. Three licorices later we were done. My only mistake was leaving a comb within reach and his red sticky fingers picked it up and he tried to comb his hair, which just put red sticky mess into the hair I was trying to cut. If that's the worst that happened (well, that and clipping the edge of my knuckle twice with the scissors - I was trying to hurry), then I think we did pretty good.

"Here Mom... want some?" No thanks!

Halloween

With Halloween being on a Sunday this year, the upside was celebrating Halloween all week long, the downside was... celebrating Halloween all week long. It was fun, it was busy, and we ate a lot of candy. We started out with a ward Halloween Carnival on Tuesday. The costumes we ordered ended up coming a day too late (grumble, grumble), so the boys wore costumes from years past. Some of them fit a little tight, but they worked just fine.

Do you love the candid picture that didn't work?


Here's a better one.

I love this picture =)

Then on Thursday Ethan had his class party, on Friday we had Dylan and Jayden's class parties, as well as each of them having parades at different times since Jayden is in the morning kindergarten class.

Then after the parades, we headed to Devon's work for their trick-or-treating from cubicle to cubicle. Here the boys are gearing up for the fun. As we headed in, Ethan was saying "Darth Vader needs some candy." Another fun thing about his costume is that I splurged ($5) and bought the sound device so that he could sound like Darth Vader breathing. He had fun pushing the button and showing people.

I love this little Yoda costume. I saw it in a magazine when Dylan was a baby, and always thought it would be so cute. So, when all the other boys were set on being a Star Wars character, I was excited to get this for Austin to wear. Dylan was Plo Koon (one of the Jedi's), and Jayden was Darth Maul.

Since we live in beautiful Utah, trick-or-treating was on Saturday night. The whole week before had been beautiful (and the week after), but starting about two hours before trick-or-treat time, it began to get windy and rain. It rained really hard, so as we were getting the boys ready to go out we put a poncho on Ethan. Luckily, just as they went out, the rain slowed to a drizzle, and had completely stopped before long.

Austin and I hung out at the house passing out candy to the trick or treaters. He was so cute because he would walk up toward the door every time I opened it, and with his new little walk, it would remind you of how Yoda would probably walk.

Tidbits

A few random things at our house:

1. First off, the big news at my house... I finally got it clean and back into working order after a two month hiatus. It has gotten so messy and I couldn't stand it. So I roped the family into helping me on Saturday and I am loving having things more orderly.... now to keep it that way.

2. I have never left a child in a store... until Saturday. I had Ethan with me as I ran to the store to get a few staples.... you know... milk, cereal, and a few other things. His two favorite things at the store are riding in the truck carts and getting a sticker from the bagger. He was sitting in the little truck as I checked out, and I heard him ask for a sticker. They said they were all out. I finished checking out, got my change, and headed out the door. As we walked I was telling Ethan how its too bad they were out of stickers, but maybe next time we would be able to get one. I got to my car, unloaded the groceries into the car. I was kind of suprised Ethan hadn't gotten out of the cart to help me, but it is so much easier to do it myself, I didn't question it. Once done, I said "Okay Ethan, lets get in the car.....Ethan?.... Ethan?" He was no where. Not in the cart, Not next to me. Not anywhere. Kind of freaked me out, but I figured he must have stayed in the store. As I headed back to the store the guy that had been behind me was walking out of the store and asked me if it was my kid back there. Uh, yeah. So there in the store at the customer service desk is Ethan, with two candies in hand and some stickers. I seriously have no clue when he got out of the cart. He was in the cart when he asked for a sticker, and it was seconds later that I left. Seriously... did he make a dive roll out of the cart as it was moving... I really don't know. But... he did get his stickers. (Sure they were out??) To top it all off, on the way home Ethan was asking me when he would get lost and talk to the police. When I told him that I hope not ever, he said with a whiney voice "but I want to." Kids' perspectives can be so funny, don't you think?

3. Jayden loves to play the piano. I have been trying to get Dylan to start in the Primer books, but he hasn't been too interested. Jayden, however, began to beg to learn to play the piano. He started to just play and play on it on his own with no direction. So I pulled out the primer book about two weeks ago. He plays the piano at every chance he gets- morning, night, and day. He is so excited about it, and it is fun to hear how well he is doing, and I get a lot of chances now to listen to him play. I have been trying to get into him the idea of working on a couple songs for a week, but he has been playing so much that we are already a third of the way through the book, because he has been getting the songs down so well that we may as well move on.

4. I am now the wolf den leader in our ward. You may remember I was the wolf leader a few years ago. This time will be very different as Dylan will join the den in about 4 months.