Pumpkin Time

We spent last Monday night out at the Comstocks' pumpkin patch. (I then spent Tuesday deleting the pictures I had taken. Apparently I shouldn't be allowed around the camera while pregnant! Thankfully Erin is nice and gave me some pics.) The Comstocks had several extra pumpkins this year, and they were nice enough to share. 

This also gave Devin and Ally a good excuse for a wagon ride. They didn't get the whole pumpkin-picking experience at first and really liked the small soft ones because those were the ones they could actually lift! 

 After making some decisions, we all ended up with some great pumpkins. Devin was just thrilled to get free tomatoes, to see a dog, and to get to play with Ally.

 

We carved up our pumpkins on Sunday night. 

Devin didn't really understand about the carving, but he certainly wasn't shy about cleaning out the pumpkin's insides! 

 

 

 I thought for sure he would hate it, but he was awesome at pulling everything out. He was also awesome at trying to sneak pumpkin seeds into his mouth while Daddy was not looking. He stopped trying to do this once he got a mouthful of goo.

After about 5 minutes he stopped caring so much about the pumpkin activity, so he was kept occupied with a ring pop. And since I didn't get on top of things and actually decorate for Halloween this year, this was Devin's one Halloween-y activity for the month (though Grandma Millett was kind enough to bring him a ghost flashlight that he loves).

 

Rich carved Devin's ABC pumpkin and his own, so he wins for best pumpkin by virtue of just doing two pumpkins. And also because I do pretty much the same pumpkin every year.

Boy or Girl?

Our special Halloween treat was our 20-week ultrasound! 

We were very excited to see the baby again to make sure everything was looking good and to find out the gender. 

This little guy is most definitely a BOY! We are happy, for sure. We happen to like little boys around these parts.

This is me at 20 weeks. Good pregnant times.

For some comparison and memories, I was going to post a pic of me pregnant with Devin at 20 weeks, but apparently I was bigger that time around so instead I will just enjoy being pregnant with this baby.

Grandma and Grandpa Millett

Devin has been thoroughly spoiled the past two weeks, as he's gotten to see all three sets of grandparents. I think he's going to be pretty sad when the next weekend rolls around and no grandparents appear!

Grandma and Grandpa Millett got into town on Tuesday night and stayed till after sacrament meeting on Sunday--so it was plenty of time to play and have a great time. 

We spent most of our time at home just visiting and allowing Devin to entertain us. And entertain us he did. 

He was definitely up to the challenge of putting on a show for the grandparents and had a great time teasing Grandpa, especially. 

 

We also introduced Grandma and Grandpa to garage sales, where we all found some good finds and narrowly dodged taking home a set of singing dogs that someone tried to give Devin.

 

I thought he might be getting confused with all the grandmas and grandpas around since he'd only seen them in pictures for the past 6 months, so we told him Grandma and Grandpa Millett, specifically, were coming. Thus, Devin started calling Grandpa, "Grandma" and Grandma, "Grandma Millett." By the end Devin was calling Grandpa by his real name again. 

We always love visitors and were happy to have more grandparents to love on Devin.

Working on the Yard: Rock

After the wood chip project came the front water easement. (Again, this post is way late in the post order.) Being the resourceful man he is, Rich collected all the rocks from various places around our yard, which meant we didn't have to buy any rock at all! We had enough big rock, little rock, and pea gravel to finish the ditch in front and to make the parking area look nice. Yes, all that rock was from our yard. Who knows what the previous owners were thinking when they "landscaped" the yard. Rich worked really hard to engineer this area, and so many nights were spent cheering him on that Devin constantly refers to the rocks as "Daddy's rocks." In fact, when we see rocks elsewhere, he still thinks all rocks belong to his daddy.

Again with rock found in the yard, we decided to fill in our half-moon area. I was toying with planting flowers, but we decided, for now, we'd save some money and water and just have this area be rock. We did finally run out of free rocks and spent a month discussing what to do with the remaining area. We are still undecided, so an outcome is forthcoming, thus why I'm posting this mid-project pic instead of a finished project.

Other than this area, the yard is COMPLETE! Rich did a fantastic job on everything, and our yard looks amazing. Total before and after pictures to come soon.

Working on the Yard: Wood Chips

**Disclaimer: This post was started long ago (the wood chips were delivered 4th of July weekend), but I kept waiting for more pictures, and then eventually just decided to wait until things were even closer to completion, so the tenses in the post are weird, and Devin is much younger in some pics.**

Just when you thought you were done raking, 12 yards of wood chips get delivered! That man of mine just never stops working. The wood chips were delivered on a Friday afternoon, and Friday night he was out removing dirt (he will not admit that perhaps we were over on dirt by about 1 or 2 yards of dirt) from the play area to prepare it for the wood chips.

Devin had just awoken from a nap when the dump truck arrived. He stood in one spot and stared with this exact face during the entire delivery.

Prepping the yard for wood chips involved cementing in the play set and creating borders around the different areas so the wood chips didn't spill into our neighbors' yards. These projects involved more raking and many, many trips back and forth to the wood chip pile. Sadly, there is only one picture of Rich shoveling wood chips! What was I thinking!? Rich also had to dig out a space in the play area to lay a foundation for the playhouse the previous owners left. The playhouse was pretty rickety, but Rich, the handyman he is, secured it up right nice and painted it all pretty so Devin could have a little place to play in.

Devin is of the opinion that the wheelbarrow is really only for giving him rides. He does not like it when Rich actually has it full of tools, leaving no room for him. Rich put wood chips into the play area, the garden area, and on both sides of the house. Another big project done! (Though to Rich's credit, this project was done awhile ago and I just never blogged about it till now.)

BYU vs. Oregon State

We are not the most impulsive of people. But we decided on Tuesday to make a weekend trip to Oregon to see Grandma and Grandpa Downing and to go to the BYU game. Corvallis is only an hour away from his mom's house, so we called to see if we could come visit, and if they would watch Devin while we went to the football game. We're nice like that--"Hey we'd like to come visit. Can you watch our kid?"

Devin was great on the Friday drive up, and we made it in enough time to have a great night with Grandma and Grandpa. Devin was so happy to see them and was crazy, crazy from being cooped up in the car all day, so he provided much entertainment. 

The game was on Saturday, and we had great weather, and it was a great game. 

Our tickets were in the middle of Oregon State fans, so we tried to keep our enthusiasm to a minimum, but it was a fun game to be a Cougar fan. We like it when BYU doesn't fail at life. 

It was so nice to have an afternoon with that man of mine enjoying something we both love. And since it took us an hour to get from the game to the freeway, we had lots of time to talk and share our feelings--much bonding!

Devin had a great time playing and hanging out with the grandparents and kept telling us on the drive home that he had "one, two grandmas!" (We count everything as "one, two" these days.) It was too short of a weekend, to be sure, since we had to head out after sacrament meeting on Sunday. But Devin got some good cuddle time in with Grandma during church, so it was a good way to say goodbye. 

Devin was not super excited to be back in the car again, but he was pretty good until the last hour and a half, when he hit his wall. We had a great weekend, and we're so glad we were able to visit and go to the game.

San Francisco Zoo Trip

Devin and I made a fun trip to the San Francisco Zoo today. We met up with our friends Michelle, Andrew, and Adelynn. I was excited to meet Michelle's new little girl, and Devin loved having someone his own size to play with. I am so happy we decided to make this trip, and I loved talking to Michelle and swapping parenting/homemaking ideas.

It was a perfect day for the zoo. The weather was wonderful the whole time and there weren't crowds of people. 

The only downside to the zoo: no elephants! We also missed the lions because we forgot to go back after they were out for the day. Next time, for sure.

Devin liked seeing all the animals and, of course, loved riding the train. 

He likes talking about the giraffes, zebras, and "choo, choo," when asked about his trip. 

Also, apparently watching the giraffe eat some lunch left a big imprint in Devin's mind! 

His report to Daddy included many mentions of "giraffe eat."

What a wonderful day with my boy.