A Slow month

So November has been a super boring month around here. Nate's been going to school, I've been staying home, blah blah blah. I don't even have any pictures of the kids from the past month. A whole month of their lives, gone. OK, so perhaps that's a little overly dramatic.

One notable thing to mention for those of you not on Facebook, is that we are expecting baby number 3. That is probably a big reason why this has been such a boring month. Either I've not felt like doing anything, or more recently the doctor has put me on certain restrictions. For almost 2 weeks I was told not to bend of lift. Yeah, good luck with that! But I'm now up to "just take it easy, and no purposeful exercise" So that means that I have to start doing my share of the work around here. Jesse was great about doing the laundry, and helping out with the cleaning and stuff. (I am currently rethinking the wisdom in having a third child considering my first child is driving me bonkers!)

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we'll be at my mom's house this year, and I'm excited about that. Thanksgiving is always a fun time. And I have a lot to be thankful this year. (Yes, even the whiny first child is on that list.)

So here's wishing you a happy Thanksgiving, and hoping that you all have a long list of things to be thankful for.

First Pony Ride

Today we took another trip to "the pumpkin patch" or rather the corn maze. We went with Nate's cousin, and the women from Jesse's family. It was a different one from the one we went to with Nate's school, so there were a few different things to do, including a pony ride. As expected, Nate had no desire to ride the pony, but Graham thought it would be a good idea, so he got his very first pony ride, which also happens to be the first pony ride in our family.

We tried our hand at the corn maze, and despite Nate picking many many dead ends, we were able to do both paths in not too long.

There was also another of those jumping pillows, and we all had a great time jumping. It was much less crowded, so the adults got to have some fun as well.

The last thing that we did was to ride on the cow train, which was also the first time that anyone in the family had done that. Nate has always been wary of it, and Graham didn't so much want to do it this time either, but I forced him, and he did have a fun time. So it was a great time. It's possible that we'll get in one last fall adventure this week by going to a night time corn maze. October was a wet month out here, which made doing things like that a little too damp for us.

Halloween Tricks and Treats

So this year Halloween started on Thursday afternoon for us. Nate had a party at preschool, and got to wear his costume to school. I wasn't able to stay due to nap time, but he said he had fun. From there we went to a friend's house to have a party with the original playgroup-- the ladies I met when all of our babies were just tiny babies, and we became fast friends. Now that our kids are in school we don't see each other very often anymore, so it's fun to get together for parties. We tried to get a group picture of the kids in their costumes. You can see that Mummy Graham's alter ego is the Incredible Hulk. And.... did you notice who was missing?

Nate absolutely refused to come and have his picture taken. He was mad at me for making him put his costume on.

Then on Friday night was our ward Trunk or Treat. The kids had a great time running around, eating lollipops, and eventually Graham started to give candy back to those who would take it.

Jesse had a day full of crisis at work, so he spent some of his time like this.

We won the vote for the spookiest trunk that night. As I mentioned, I covered the trunk with a sheet, put a sleeve in it, and put different bowls inside my trunk. I think that the adults were more afraid of sticking their hands in than the kids were. I guess they were afraid that there was someone in there waiting to grab them. Oh, and just a future FYI, if you ever need to peel grapes in a large quantity, blanch them. You know, stick them in boiling water, and then in an ice bath. So much easier.

On Saturday night we went over to the Kigin's house, and had a wonderful chili dinner, followed by trick or treating. To recap, we had a mummy, a SWAT officer, and Jesse went as Hawkeye Pierce from MASH. (We don't have an adult size Cowboy hat...)

So what a busy few days, and boy am I glad it's all over with. It was fun, but I'm ready to get into a week that is just full of normal things. :) Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween as well.

Happy Halloween

So I have a few events that I'll blog about-- the Trunk of Treat, and a playgroup party, but for now, just a few fun pictures of how we are celebrating Halloween. Hope you have a spooky fun day today!

Bad to the Bone

The other day was fire safety day at school, and Nate came home with temporary tattoos. He loves them, he's such a thug.

The Pumpkin Patch

Nate's preschool class had a field trip to the pumpkin patch this past week. Graham and I came to have fun with him. The kids had a great time. We had been having cold rainy weather out here, but the day of the trip it was a sunny warm day. I felt bad for the kids wearing long sleeved shirts. And it had been dry for a few days, so it wasn't muddy either. There was a hay ride, slides, duck races, a corn box, mazes, a jumping pillow, and picking out pumpkins. It's hard to say what their favorite part was. It was torture to get them away from each activity, but then they loved the next activity just as much as the previous one.

Graham sometimes had trouble getting to the top of the hill, so he tried to sit down on the hay and slide down. I don't think he had as much fun....

Baltimore Half Marathon

So I finally had my big race. It was a little unfortunate because I had a cold for the two weeks leading up to the race, so I just was not feeling all that well that day. It was by far the hardest thing that I have ever done. Well, maybe not by far, maybe it ties with hiking to the top of Mt Washington. We did fairly decent considering all, we finished in 2:40. My friend that I ran with was a little concerned about me as we were running, and that I was going to drop out, since she could see how badly I was struggling, but I'm not a quitter, so she never had to use her "don't quit" speech that she had planned out in her head.

Jesse and his dad took the kids down to cheer me on. They were waiting at mile 12, and the picture they got of me shows me perhaps a little more cheery than I was actually feeling. (I was feeling like sitting down, curling up in a ball and crying.)

But we did it! And we'll probably do it again despite all of the vows that I made throughout the race. Just maybe not in 3 weeks as my friend tried to talk me into.... But that's another story.