Happy Halloween!

Monday night we carved pumpkins for the first time since we've had kids.  We had intended to do it when my parents were here, but it just didn't happen, so we did it for family night instead.

 The boys drew pictures of what they wanted and we did our best to replicate. :)  They had fun scooping out the seeds and stuff!

 See the resemblance? :)

Then Tuesday we had a Trunk or Treat at church.  It was packed and noisy and a little overwhelming for my little cherubs, but it was fun.  They had a bounce house, a little fishing game, bean bag toss, face painting, bowling, spook alley, cotton candy, popcorn, cake walk, you name it.  Pretty intense.  And then we ended the night with of course the trunk or treat.  I handed out glow stick bracelets this year. :)  I may be one of those wacko anti-candy-moms, but the glow-sticks were a hit!  Winner!
















Jeremy and Anna with our Bishop.  Haha!

Lovely vampire teeth from one of the games.

 The boys dressed up as construction workers this year (they're really into matching these days).  They were pretty darn adorable.  The costumes were super easy (and cheap, the only thing we didn't have were the safety vests) and they looked great!

 And this year we had our 3rd little pumpkin!  She may get the award for cutest pumpkin-to-date.  She certainly has the best pumpkin cheeks. :)  We were worried this cute little chub wouldn't fit in the costume, but she did!

 She does this sweet little look all the time, I just love it:

And for a side-by-side comparison, here are all our little pumpkins over the last four years.  Love them! (Eli 2009 ~ 6 mo. old; Connor 2011 ~ 7 mo. old; Anna 2013 ~ 8 mo. old)

Tonight we'll probably go around to a few of the neighbors we know and call it good (unless it's raining)! I'll also attempt to get a better picture of all three kids together.  Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!

Parents!

I have a lot to catch up on from this month, but to start off, my parents came to visit us last week!  We were very excited to have my mom AND dad come to see us.  My dad never made it to Pittsburgh, so it had been at least 2.5 years since he'd come to see us, so that was a real treat!  The boys were very excited and were happily surprised to hear that Grandpa was coming along too. :)  Our weather was all over the place and very different from what was forecasted, so we changed plans a few times, but still had a wonderful visit.

Thursday we went to Sauvie Island, which is a river island and is one of the largest river islands in the U.S.  Who knew?  So we left the house and it was sunny and then got there to some seriously dense fog.  I was bummed because I had heard it was so beautiful, but we couldn't see much.  I should have known better than to assume it would be sunny there, but I learned my lesson.  

We still had a fun time. They had farm animals and a HUGE pumpkin patch, hay pyramid, corn and hay maze, hay rides, etc.

I didn't pack coats for the boys, (or even a sweatshirt for Connor), so we had to improvise...

 Hahaha, my mom shared her jacket with Connor.  Best picture ever.

 On top of the hay pyramid...

 I love this picture of Anna and my mom!

 Haha

 Yes, Connor also wore Anna's hat for awhile:

It was chilly, but when we got back home it was sunny!  Friday we just stayed close to home.  We went to our neighborhood park and rode bikes and walked around, played on the playground, and then that evening we went to the temple, the visitors center, and then out to dinner.  It was very fun!  My dad brought his nice camera so we took a LOT of pictures.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Then Saturday we had originally planned to go to Multnomah Falls, but the forecast said fog and clouds, so I didn't think that would be a good idea.  Well, we woke up to no fog and only partly cloudy skies so we decided to go the opposite direction (west) to the Tillamook State Forest and check out the Forest Center.  It would have been fun to continue on to the coast and tour the Tillamook Cheese Factory, but we had a late start and didn't make it that far.

When we got there though, the sun came out and it was a beautiful day!  The Forest Center was really fun.  It was their Fall Festival that weekend, so they taught us all about bats and then had a bunch of crafts for the kids to do, which they loved.  It was neat to hear about the forest.  They had a huge fire in the 40s and then in the 50s they planted 72 MILLION trees (!!!!) to rebuild the forest.  Totally amazing.  After we looked around the center we went on a little walk along the river and ate our lunch.  It was a fun day!

Sunday we had a long morning relaxing and playing together (our church isn't until 2pm).  My parents were able to attend Sacrament Meeting with us before they had to go and it just so happened to be our Primary Program!  Eli was awesome!  So far any time the primary has sung or done anything he has refused because he's been too scared.  But he went right up there this time and sat with his little Sunbeam friends (4 yr-old class) and sang and everything.  I was so proud! :)  The sunbeams even had their own little musical number and he did great.  Way to go Eli!

Anyway, we were sad to see them go, but excited we get to see them again soon. It's always fun to have our parents come visit.  They love us and love our kids and we always have a good time.  And it's really nice to have other adults around the house! Oh, and I forgot to mention Friday and Saturday night we rented a couple end-of-the-world movies.  My parents are party-animals! We watched Oblivion and World War Z, and they were both pretty good!  I about died of suspense-stress in World War Z, but it was exciting.  Good times.

I'll try to get caught up on the rest of this month's happenings sometime soon...

Rain, Apples, and Crawling

So...it rains a lot here.  Haha, big surprise, eh?  We are on our 12 or 13th straight day of rain I believe, and apparently this September was the wettest on record in Portland!  (Previous record was set in 1920).  That strangely makes me feel a little better about being waterlogged.  I guess the rain usually doesn't really start until late October and then it's just a constant drizzle until April, but we've been having pretty good downpours off and on for 2 weeks.  Whew!

(Rain makes me want to bake - this could turn into a real problem...)

So we've been inside a lot and if the sun ever comes out, we now know we have to throw on our boots and coats and head out while it lasts (for 5 or 10 minutes, but hey, it helps).  I don't mind the rain though - yet.  It's been fun to listen to it and have it really feel like Autumn.

Speaking of...it's apple season!  After not buying apples all summer, we bought a 20 lb. box of Honeycrisps (for $23!!!) a couple weeks ago and they have been amazingly divine!  This girl at church has the hook-up for all things food and now I get weekly emails from this awesome wholesale produce guy and we have been eating these apples night and day.  They are huge and gorgeous and crisp and sweet and everything a good apple should be.  I finally found a place to go apple-picking around here too, so I think we'll do that soon.  There are a lot of orchards around, but not many that let you pick your own. Eli has been wanting to go ever since we went last year though, so we better do it! :)

(Random old phone picture - so nice to have Anna sitting up in the cart now! And can I get three cheers for Costco's giant carts?)

In other news, our not-so-little baby girl is CRAWLING!  Seriously, Anna?  Yeah, she's barely 7 months, and she started officially crawling on Sunday after approximately 2.5 days of army-crawling.  Not cool.  She's way ahead of her brothers at this age and I'm afraid she'll be walking long before she hits her first birthday.  She is one busy girl!  Anna has also finally discovered the joys of eating. :)  She pretty much attacks the food I give her and is especially liking oatmeal, pears, brown rice, apples, squash, and avocado.  She will not be spoon-fed, but I really don't mind that.  She goes at her own pace and manages to suck oatmeal off her hands and of course makes a royal mess in the process, but it's all good!  I just wish it was warmer so I could strip her down when she eats...

So that's the latest here!  The sun should make an appearance this weekend, so we're looking forward to that.  Our yard is like a forest right now, but it's been too wet to mow, so that's on the docket for this weekend too.  And of course we will be watching General Conference on lds.org!  We are really looking forward to it!