Halloween

 This year it seems like Halloween lasted forever. It started with an early October trip to the pumpkin patch. Then our ward Trunk or Treat was in the middle of the month this year, then Halloween, and finally Graham's school party wasn't until November. The kids enjoyed the trunk or treat. I had a lot going on that weekend, so decorating the trunk just did not happen. I did make a white chicken chili though, and it was the hit of the night. If there had been a competition, I would have totally won. :) I tried to link it up for you, but my computer does not like the ourbestbites website, so just search for it there if you are interested. Anyway, this year we had Captain America, Cinderella, and Snake Eyes from GIJoe

Oh yeah, and Jesse went as the Avengers. All rolled into one.

Olivia fell asleep on the way to the trunk or treat. Sleeping Beauty meets Cinderella.

Graham and Olivia both got their face painted. Graham got a ghost, and Olivia got a little cat.

 

There were other games there too. The kids all had a great time that night. They especially liked sitting in the back of the van eating their candy.

Then came Halloween. This is our first Halloween in this neighborhood. Our old neighborhood was not a great one for Trick of treating, and we didn't ever go out there. We always traveled to a friend's neighborhood. As it turns out, we have an awesome neighborhood for trick or treating. I took the kids out first, up the street in one direction and back down. Then Jesse and I traded spots, and I stayed back with Olivia handing out candy, while Graham and Nate went out and got a lot of the rest of the neighborhood. Olivia loved handing out candy, although was a little stingy, with wanting to give only one smarties roll to each person.

We finally ended the month long celebration with Graham's preschool party.

He and Ethan having fun at the party.

Pumpkin patch

If you know anything about our family, you know that the pumpkin patch is one of our favorite fall activities. This year we didn't go as many times as we have in the past, but we still got our fair share in. :) We started with Graham's preschool field trip. We took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch, and they were all able to pick out a little pumpkin.

 

 It was a little misty that morning. It was kind of neat though.

 After that we were able to go and feed the goats. Graham really didn't want to do that, but Olivia enjoyed it.

 So much so, that when we got to this other part of the farm where there a bunch of activities, Graham ran off to do those, and I looked around trying to find Olivia, and she had gone off on her own to see the other animals.

 They had a few different slides, and the kids really enjoyed them.

 Doing the little hay maze.

We next went to Mayne's tree farm, which is our closest pumpkin patch. It was our first time there. We invited Grammy and Grandad to come with us to pick out a pumpkin.

 We did not get one this big.

 We did get some big ones. We left with the intention of just picking one pumpkin for the whole family. However, thanks to Grammy and Grandad, we left with 4 large pumpkins.

 After we did the pumpkins we went to do face painting. Olivia was this pink cheetah. She was so good while getting it done. The painter gave us Graham's face for free because Olivia was the best 2 year old she'd ever painted.

 We ended our season with a night visit back to Gaver (where we went with preschool.) Last year Jesse took Nate to a night corn maze, and we decided to take all of the kids this year. They all had fun doing it, even though they claimed to be scared. We then did all of the activities again in the dark. It was a great way to end the pumpkin patch season!

Catch up

 OK, so I've kind of been absent on here lately. So we'll try to catch up. Graham is in preschool this year. He is in the same school that we had Nate go to. It's a bit of a trek for us, but the thing is, there really are not many options that are closer. One of the disadvantages of living in the country. He really enjoys it though, and unlike Nate, he actually talks about the other kids in his class, and how much he likes them. He can now write his first name, and he knows our home phone number. Little fun fact about Graham: he is a lefty. We've known that for several years now though.

We also are doing a preschool co-op with the people from our ward. We were invited to join in the last few months when we moved in, and now we're starting from the beginning. For our first preschool activity, we went to an apple orchard. Both Graham and Olivia are able to participate, and they love it. Plus, it's a great chance to get to know other people in the ward.

 In September Jesse participated in Tough Mudder. It was a 12 mile race with 25 obstacles in it. We were planning on taking the kids to go and watch with Grandad and Cammi, but the planning of the event was lacking. Mostly, they didn't really plan on the traffic problem, and all of Frederick was gridlocked due to this event. As it, it took people hours to drive through Frederick instead of the 5 minutes it should take. So we took the kids to the park for a bit, and then went to lunch, and then tried to head over to the event. We were ready to wait out the traffic situation (It took us about 2 hours to make it less than 2 miles) However, as we were sitting in traffic the skies opened up and let loose all that they had. It was pouring for a very long time. I decided that the kids were going to whine and complain about being wet, so when it came time to finally get to the part where we could turn left to park, or go straight to exit, we went straight to exit. Oh well, at least we tried. Jesse, I think, enjoyed it, although he didn't feel prepared, so he said that he won't do it again unless he is totally trained for it. Plus, he got a few injuries from falling off of a balance beam.

It seems like September was a very uneventful month. Just getting used to being back in school and having a routine. We have my mom's cat while she is on her mission, and so there was quite a lot of meowing and hissing among the 3 cats in our house now. October on the other hand, there was not a moment's rest for us, we'll get to that one next.

Grandma's send off

 My mom was recently called to serve a full time mission  for our church, serving in the Church history and family history mission. She will be helping those who come to Salt Lake City to research their genealogy, as well as learn more about the history of the church. She will serve for 18 months.

18 months without Grandma!!!!! How will we survive????? But we're really happy that she is doing this, and the great example that she is setting for her children and grandchildren.

We took her to the airport last week to send her off to Salt Lake, and had a little bit of extra time before she had to go through security. As expected, there was a lot of whining and fighting, especially over who got to pull the suitcase. But we sent her off, and I think that she was still sad to see us go despite the crazy she was leaving behind!:)

We got a few pictures. Olivia was not at all interested in a group shot.

 Nate and Grandma.

 Graham sitting on the coveted suitcase.

 Graham and Grandma. (both kind of making funny faces.)

 Liv is finally smiley! And the kind of sad thing is that Olivia has just started to say "Grandma" in the past few weeks.

We'll miss you Grandma, and are so glad that we can email and call you as often as we want!!!

Ode to Olivia

So I thought that I'd start blogging again. Right after I posted that awesome video which at the end announced the coming arrival of number 4, I went in for my 13 week check up, and found out that the baby had died a few weeks earlier. So August was not the funnest month for me. Anyway, but here I am back. The good news is that I'm not too far behind on the journaling of our lives. I was caught up before vacation, and we didn't do anything in August, so really, it's just vacation and current events. But I was looking through the few pictures that we have, and I thought that there were a bunch of randoms about Olivia, so here is an Olivia post! :)

 First of all, say goodbye to paci face! Olivia must be teething right now, and she started to chew through all of her pacis, so when she chewed on the last one, we were done. It's been since Saturday that she has not had one, and she seems to be doing well. When we took Graham's away, we just stopped giving it to him, and he never asked for it, and that was that. Olivia seems to be doing much the same. She is a little fussy going to bed, but she is not crying for her paci. I think she knows it's gone. But now that paci face is gone, we can make room for cute Olivia face!

 Here she is in the cute dress that Grandma made for her before she left on her mission.
And below, well, here she is channeling her inner Olivia Newton John. In the middle of Wegmans. With the paci.

 Graham started preschool, and Olivia had gone to the open house and now equates the room with Disney World (not that she knows anything about Disney World or anything) She cries so much when we have to drop him off, and she can't stay. Just 2 more years and it's your turn little one!

We read the Olivia books regularly in this house, and it makes it so that constantly I am thinking, you know, you really wear me out, but I love you anyway. She is a highly busy child, but so sweet 90% of the time, so we keep her.