Trick-or-treat!

This is the first year that Nolan carved his pumpkin entirely by himself. That was nice for me! He wasn't so sure at first about the pumpkin guts, but then he was all smiles and went to work! I wish I had a picture of the finished product. He did a great job!

Lucy was sure interested in Nolan's face makeup. He is one handsome Jack Skellington!

We had a great Halloween night. It was so warm, probably 60 degrees or more. Grandma K., Karen, and Wayne stopped by for dinner and to trick-or-treat for a bit. The kids were so excited to show off their costumes.

Ezra was only interested in doing about 12 houses because he wanted to go back to the house with Grandma. Nolan and I headed out and ended up staying out too long and going too far. By the end, Nolan said, "We can just walk back now, I don't need to knock on any more doors." It was little boring because it was just the two of us. I think we should arrange to go with cousins or friends next year. But Nolan got lots of candy and he shares freely with everyone, especially his Mom!

After Halloween, we had the cousins come over for Family Home Evening and a yummy apple dessert. The kids built a haunted house in the basement. Here's Ezra's showing off some of his decorations.

Nolan in Second Grade

Is there anything more amusing than school pictures? They have such talented photographers. That's a little sarcasm, for ya. I do love how kissable Nolan looks in this picture. And so innocent. Love him and his "Alfalfa" hair, too!

Girl's Weekend

UEA weekend brought about another girl's weekend for me and some of my close friends. We weren't able to go last year because several of us had new babies. We began our trip at the Salt Lake temple to do some initiatories. It was such a beautiful morning! Then we rode to Midway where several more ladies met us and we had reservations at the Blue Boar Inn for lunch. It was such a neat place, and very yummy!

Back row: Marissa, Marilee, Monica, Me

Front row: Brianne, Amy, Michelle, Anne, and Jordan (Samantha joined us later that evening)

Then we went to Park City where we stayed at a condo in Bear Hollow. We did some shopping, a little crafting (made a wood Fall sign and etched a serving bowl), and we made lots of jewelry! It was so fun to learn something new. I think I'm addicted. My friends have convinced me to wear dangly earrings so now I have 6 or 7 pairs! We stayed up late (past 1 a.m. each night) laughing and having a good time. It was such an uplifting weekend and a good break from managing the home and children. It was my first trip away from Lucy though, and I did miss her! Justin is such a wonderful husband and Dad to let me have some time away!

Fold your arms

Lucy now folds her arms when we say prayers. Seriously, it is the sweetest thing! The other morning at breakfast, she even stopped eating, got our attention, and then folder her arms so that we would say a prayer.
Lucy had a hard time falling asleep for her nap last week, so I brought her out to sit on the couch with us. In 3 minutes, she was out. And Nolan couldn't resist a good photo bomb!

Fun Stuff in October

October always has the very best weather of the year, so we tried to do lots of fun stuff outside this past month. We headed to the zoo with the Nelsons since she had free tickets... what a treat! It had been a while since we'd gone on an outing with them.

I love this picture of Ezra. I don't think he realized he was making the same face as the elephant!

Take a good look at this picture. Nice. Nolan and I had a good laugh. Then he told me to crop him out, but I just can't. We have to save some pictures like this to show his girlfriends when he gets older. 

For playgroup, Ezra had a tour of our local grocery store. The kids were so well-behaved. Ezra only had one sulky moment. Success! Their favorite part was receiving a one-dollar gift certificate. He and his friend, Spencer, both chose gum. Such fun to buy your own treats!

Nolan has been busy with soccer practices and games. He seems to enjoy soccer, but he isn't all that aggressive on the field. He typically plays defense, but is always happy to be the goalie, too. That doesn't always end up well for his team (he always lets a few slide by), but he gets better and better and we're just glad that he is having fun. There have been two or three times when the ball got kicked right into Nolan's face and that was pretty upsetting for him. He would storm off the field toward the van and say, "I'm just going home!" We didn't let him go home. But other than that, he had a good season. Justin says that he plays just like himself when he was young. He kind of does a side gallop around the action, then he gets in a good kick or two, and then he let's the others take over. 

In the spring, he will be playing soccer again instead of baseball. Kind of sad to see him give that up, but he just couldn't get the hang of catching. Sort of essential so I can understand why he wouldn't love the game.

While we waited for Dad to get home from singing in the Conference choir, we headed up the canyon to see the colors. Turns out the colors weren't really out too much, but we still had a good time outdoors. Lucy was just learning to walk at the beginning of the month. I love her little wobbly legs!

Sampling the dirt.

Nolan really got into the spirit of the photo shoot! Work it, buddy!

On a Monday afternoon, we decided to head to Red Butte Gardens. We surprised Nolan and excused him an hour early, and even Dad took the afternoon off of work. The gardens were so beautiful! The kids area was really fun, with lots of places for the kids to explore and play. It felt good to relax, especially for Justin since he had had some busy weeks with work, travel, and choir practices. At one point, Nolan lost his shoe in a little pond where he was going across some stepping stones. He refused to reach in and try to find it. It was a lush, little bog of a pond. I tried to poke around but was pretty fearful of the muck myself, and what could be hiding in it. Dad saved the day and rescued the shoe!

Lucy discovered corn on the cob and the joys of licking the beater! And Dad also introduced her to a family favorite... Creamies!

Ezra had a preschool field trip to Cornbelly's. It was the most beautiful, warm day and I even took Nolan out of school so that he could join us. Well it turned out to be a pretty frustrating day for me. I ended up losing Nolan twice! I wasn't too worried about his safety (since he's not as young as the others), I was just so annoyed that he couldn't stay with me. I spent nearly an hour of our time just searing for him. There were some really fun moments, like playing in the giant corn "beach." Nolan managed to find some girls that were willing to bury him. Ezra loved dumping it on his head. Lucy was content to just dig around in it. It was good to go to Cornbelly's for only $3, but it was frustrating that there were big signs that would say, "Not included in field trip admission." So I had to explain to the kids that we weren't allowed to do some of the funnest activities. Overall, I decided that Cornbelly's is not for us. Last year it was extremely difficult to keep track of the kids as well, so I think we won't be going back. 

 Toward the end of the month we had our ward Halloween party. This is always a fun night as many people wear costumes. When it was time for treats, Nolan brought over a large plate filled with goodies that we could all share. Well, it turns out that Lucy could not be stopped from eating and eating more treats! She went nuts! At one point, we took the treats away and then she wandered away and found a cookie on the floor. We stopped her just before she took a bite. I even talked Justin into wearing a hilarious mullet wig. He paired it with his Dad's old fraternity shirt. It was pretty funny!