Pumpkin Carving

Our annual FHE pumpkin carving took place last night. And as always, we are full of creativity around these parts. 

 

Devin's is by far the winner of the most imaginative. He helped/directed me to draw what he wanted. He really wanted a monster. I'm going to have to up my carving skills next year to please this boy. After finishing his scary face he directed me to carve out arms, which I did. Then he wanted ears. So there are cuts all over his tiny pumpkin. But that makes it glow great.

 

I stripped Landon down because he is the messiest child, but that didn't really help. He still required a bath after this activity. Mostly due to the sucker I let him have while we were busy cleaning out pumpkins. I cannot get enough of his cheeser grin.

Our obligatory family shot with the final products:

Devin has been loving all our Halloween books from the library and is super excited to go trick-or-treating. Now that our pumpkins are complete, he feels we are totally ready for Halloween day.

Pumpkin Patch

We met up with Marinda and Kathy at a little corn maze/pumpkin patch in Kelseyville last week.  Even though this corn maze was small, having small children in a corn maze makes the whole experience scarier. My children were running wild and blazing the trail, making me me fear I would never see them again!

Marinda is super talented and creative and put together some fun activities for the kids in the center of the corn maze. Devin thought Bingo and the relay game were great. Of course, anything that involves candy passes his coolness test. Landon was mostly intent on stealing Kathy's iPhone.

After the fun we headed to the pumpkin area to pick some out for carving. Devin was all about this and was hucking pumpkins into our wagon. We had to put a lot back. This was also the most stressful time. I was trying to pick out some apples to buy too, but the children were more intent on eating the grapes sitting on the low-lying table. Don't they know I have to buy them before they can eat them!? At any rate, the boys had a great time and were worn out. Plus Devin got to sit on a tractor. So the day was definitely a success.

Landon Boy Cheeser

Obviously this needs to be saved for all time. He's just so happy. Love that tomato-eating boy. Even if all his clothes are stained with tomato juice!

Hidden Valley Halloween Party

Our HOA's Halloween Party was Saturday afternoon. I had a Primary meeting that day, but since I got back earlier than planned, Rich waited for me to be able to come. Course, this meant we were going right at the end, and when they say 1-4, they really mean 1-3:30, so we missed out on some of the fun games, but the giant bouncy slide made up for missing the other activities. Landon wanted to go down the slide really bad, so Rich took him a few times and then let him go by himself. He's stoic in pictures, but he didn't want to get off. Inside the boys got to watch a puppet show by a younger boy and his mom. Devin thought this was hilarious and Landon loved the puppets. Who knew the puppet show would be such a hit!? They boys had a great time and it was a good trial run on the costumes. Hopefully Landon will keep his hat on just as good on the actual Halloween day.

19 Months

I'm just loving this boy so much that I have to keep the monthly updates going. 19-month-old Landon is hilarious and adorable and increasingly stubborn.

He loves music and has started singing along with "I am a child of God" and "Heigh, Ho!" and pretty much anything else, but he can actually carry a tune with those songs and they sound like he's closer to the words than with other songs. He plays the piano and does a little bounce.

One day he wore overalls. I loved it. He looks so sweet. Mostly he was really just interested in the TV more than letting me take his picture.

He's such a sweetheart most of the time, but he has an angry side. And he is VERY stubborn. He will not eat food if I try to feed it to him. And if he doesn't get his way he lays down and cries, yelling "No!" repeatedly. And he is a tease. He loves to steal the remotes from the drawer and the utensils from the dishwasher and run away laughing.

He's talking a lot and jabbering even more. He has a lot to say, I just wish I could understand it all. He does really great animal sounds--my favorite is the cow--but his favorite is the duck. Everything about him is pretty great.

Brother Germs

Sometimes they like each other enough to share their suckers. It's rare, but super cute. And also kind of gross.

Rockin' the Bow Tie

It only serves to make him more like the little man he is. 

 

I love this so much.

San Diego Girls' Weekend

I was able to go on a girls' trip to San Diego to meet up with my mom and sisters. I headed out on Thursday night and met up with everyone late that night. We all slept in on Friday morning--obviously we were all worn out! After a late morning we headed to the San Diego Temple for a session and then to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site, where I was given the grand opportunity of dressing up as a old-time soldier.

The trip was mostly planned around The Color Run, which was on Saturday morning. The whole race experience was a new one for me--thank goodness this was a low-key event. It was so much fun to walk and get all sprayed with color. Wendi so thoughtfully threw her color pack right into my eye, ensuring I looked like Jem the whole time. I couldn't open my eye for awhile, but it was actually very hilarious. The whole thing was great, and I'm so glad that we decided to do this.

After the race we got cleaned up and headed up the coast a bit toward La Jolla to see the sea lions. Love the beach, could've relaxed there all day! 

 

After the beach we went back to Old Town San Diego and did some shopping. I couldn't find anything I loved for the boys, so I got them suckers instead. I knew a lollipop would do the trick, and I was completely right. Sticky, happy boys indeed!

One of the suckers I brought back had a scorpion inside it. I thought that Devin would be blown away by this, so I promised Wendi I get a video of his first reaction. Sadly the first video was crappy since the sun was behind him, but this video is pretty much the way he first reacted. It's long, but I promised Wendi. :)

Coming home was so sweet. The boys had so much fun with their daddy while I was gone, but I was glad that they were full of grins when they picked me up from the airport. It did my mother heart good when I glanced back at Landon and he was just grinning at me with his adorable smile. Gosh, I love those boys, and though the girls' trip was fabulous and much needed, I was happy to get back home to my family! Since I took the camera with me, these are the only pics Rich got of their boys' weekend. Clearly we never feed Landon. Stinker keeps picking my peppers and eating them as apples!