Pumpkin Carving

One of our favorite Halloween traditions is carving pumpkins. We have been getting together with our friends Mike and Stephanie Geist for the last five years to carve pumpkins. It has been more difficult as we've added kids into the mix these last couple years, but still lots of fun. Stephanie has a 2 year old son, Tony. We let Abby and Tony paint their pumpkins while Jeff and Mike played Star Wars Battlefront on the PS2 (that is their favorite tradition!). They had lots of fun mixing paints and making a general mess of things. They insisted on covering every inch of pumpkin with paint. We then had them make Halloween jell-o jigglers. They loved that and we had so much fun watching them. After entertaining the children, we finally got started carving our own pumpkins. Of course by then the children were getting tired so we called it a night and I finished my pumpkin later. So now here it is all finished up and now sitting on our front steps. In case you were wondering, Jeff was trying to match the face on his pumpkin in his picture. Silly guy!

A Day at the Park

This week I took the kids to the park with my friend Stephanie and her son Tony. This was our first time at the West Jordan Park. Abby loved it! When she first saw it she said, "Mom can I play in all the little houses?" She loved running in and out of all the little buildings and swinging on the swings. I think Abby would swing all day long if I let her. Nathan loved having some rough terrain to practice his walking skills. He wore himself out and promptly fell asleep on the way home and took a four hour nap. Maybe we will have to do this more often!

Stats

Abby and Nathan had their 3 year and 1 year check-ups this month. Abby is now 36 3/4 inches tall (40th percentile) and weighed in at 23 lbs. 8 oz. and is in the 25th percentile now! This is good news because Abby has been underweight since she was 6 months old and this is the first time she has made it on the charts so the doctor and I were glad. I was surprised because Abby still never seems to eat much, but apparently she has been gaining weight. Yeah Abby! Nathan weighed in at 23 lbs. 3 oz. (60th percentile) and is 30 1/2 inches tall (70th percentile). So he is still our big boy, but that growth is slowing down. I thought he would catch Abby this time, but not yet. They are both healthy and developing normally. I couldn't ask for anything better!

Heidi's Wedding

Jeff's sister Heidi got married on September 26. It was a beautiful wedding and it was so much fun to be a part of it. While we were waiting outside for Heidi and Winslow to come out of the temple, Abby was spinning around and around. She loves to watch her dresses spin. Then when Abby saw Heidi come out of the temple she said, "Oh mom! Heidi is a princess!" She later made Heidi spin around so she could see her dress spin. Then that afternoon, I spent TWO HOURS doing Abby's hair for the reception, but it turned out so cute. She loved her fluffy green dress and spent most of the evening spinning around. When we walked into the gym for the reception Abby said, "Oh mom! Is this Heidi's princess castle?" She was enthralled with everything and wanted to stand and hold Heidi's hand all night. And now she has been staging weddings at home ever since. What a funny girl. Anyway, it was a great day and we are so happy to welcome Winslow to the family. Congratulations you two!

Heidi's Wedding