Getting Ready for Halloween

I think the month of October is Dallin's new favorite month (until December comes along).  He thought nothing could get better than Easter.  In fact, he still asks to die eggs at least once a week or he suggests a new game where we put candy in eggs and hide them (so sneaky...trying to trick me into giving him candy.)  The idea though of saying "Trick or Treat" and people just giving him candy without him having to earn it, may make this holiday even better than finding candy in eggs (he doesn't remember doing it last year).

He loved playing with pumpkin guts

And he is very proud of his jack-o-lantern

 Dallin practiced his Trick or Treating/roaring skills at the church Trunk and Treat getting ready for the big day

 And Gavin practiced his alligator crawling skills (or he may be attempting a get away from the posing for the camera.)

 Giving an alligator growl

Cutest alligator ever

We are ready!  Have a Happy Halloween!

Halloween Fun at Preschool

We had a lot of fun at preschool getting ready for Halloween.  

 The cutest monster ever (Gavin thinks he goes to preschool too)

Preschool boys sporting their masks (they all picked the same one to make) and their bats flying from the straw

Scary Monsters

And Scary Pumpkins

We made a spooky lunch and invited the moms.  Our menu consisted of mummy dogs, cheese stick fingers, skeleton bone bread sticks, monster apples, jello worms, and spooky sugar cookies (recipes from Our Best Bites and Mels Kitchen Cafe

We had a lot of fun getting ready for Halloween and the boys crack me up!  Whether they are pretending to be bats or scary monsters, they are fun to teach.

The Sweeter Side

 He's silly

 And sometimes scary

I'm amazed that he hasn't broken a bone yet with all his jumping and flipping.  He plays with cars sometimes, but his favorite activity is running and jumping.  He also has a reputation of being high energy and as a result, a harder kid to teach.

Dallin has a very sweet side though.  This is the side that Zane and I get to see so often, and we love it.

Here are some of our conversations:
D: "I love you to the moon and back."
Me: "I love you to the sun and back."
D: "I love you to the milk (any object that he sees) and back"

D: "Gavin is my boy.  Call Gavin my boy because he is my boy."

The I love yous and hugs and kisses can go on for awhile whenever he is saying goodbye or good night.  If I try to walk out of the house by blowing him a kiss instead of giving him a kiss, he will run after me saying he needs a kiss.

Situation: Gavin is in his high chair and starts crying.  I'm in the other room getting ready.  Dallin is on the couch watching TV.  I come into the kitchen to see why Gavin is crying and he has stopped and now playing with a toy.

M: "Dallin, how did Gavin get this toy?"
D:  "Gavin was crying and I wanted to make him happy." 

Dallin is a really good brother.  He has his too rough moments, but he loves his baby brother.

D: "Gavin is my favorite brother."
M: "He is your only brother.  Do you want another brother?"
D:  "I want a baby sister then two more Gavin's."

Dallin loves to pick flowers for me.  The rule is he only picks flowers he finds in the grass.  Once he picked a dandelion for me and a dead one for my grandma.  I don't think my grandma knew what to say.

Lastly, Dallin loves to tell me that I'm pretty especially when I'm wearing a dress.  He is great for my self esteem.

I'm glad we have both sides of Dallin, the super fun boy and the sweet boy.

Big Changes

Getting a truck can't really be called a big change, but for us it is.  Our first car that Zane and I bought together was a Corolla.  I had a long commute, it was reliable, and it worked for us.  Zane then graduated from college and got his first job.  We thought he would be able to take the bus at the park and ride (it is a bus for business commuters going downtown) but because of where his clients were located, he couldn't.  We were in the process of buying our first house and needed a second car quick that had good gas mileage as we were now both commuting.  We went with what we knew worked well and bought another Corolla.  We were teased of course for owning two Corollas and when our neighbor had parties, we knew we weren't invited solely because we didn't own a truck (after all, everyone that came to the party had a truck.)  A few weeks ago, Zane's Corolla broke down and so if was time to trade it in.  We can now say we own zero Corollas and maybe we will get invited to the next truck party.

Now for the really big change...Zane is no longer a public accountant.  He has worked for one of the big four accounting firms for the last seven years.  It has been a great job giving him the experience he needs but it has required a lot of hours.  Although his new job is still downtown (he can take the bus to this one though), he should have a more manageable schedule allowing him to spend more time with us.  We are all excited for this huge change!

Fall Fun

We have been enjoying lots of fall activities and wishing for cooler weather (although we did get a few days of it.)  Here are some highlights.

 Pretty good picture for taking it ourselves while we enjoyed a train ride!

 Gavin's first experience riding a horse and he loved it!

I love how happy Dallin looks.  He rode the horses 4 times!

Hayride at a pumpkin patch

Taking a train ride- Don't you love Gavin's smile!  Despite Dallin's deer in the head light look, he had a great time too.

Love this picture of the cousins

Being tortured by the big brother (being forced to stand up and hold still)- the first picture Gavin wasn't smiling

Taking a picture with mom can also be catorized as torture...

 because sometimes you just want to roam

 or lay

Now we just need the cooler weather!

He Sure Knows How to have Fun!

 No matter what we are doing or where we are, Dallin has a good time.

Things that Gavin does to Make Me Smile

 Gavin makes all of us laugh all the time.  He is silly, loves to flop on the ground, loves to flop in the bathtub and make huge splashes (this doesn't make me smile all the time...), loves to flop on us when we are laying down, crawls on my lap when he needs a cuddle, and giggles when you tell him no (which makes it so that I'm not mad at him when he throws his food over the high chair.)  Here are the newest things he draws to make me smile.

Drinking from a straw

 This makes me smile because we drink a lot of green smoothies in our house and it gets really old to feed him a cupful with a spoon.  The problem now is I know he can do it and yet sometimes, he just wants to be fed by a spoon.  He is still stubborn!

 Loves Reading

Gavin finds books on the ground or on a low bookshelf, pulls them off and starts flipping through them.  I love reading, taught reading for 6 years, and love it when my boys enjoy reading.

Obsession with Pacies

When we get Gavin out of his crib, we say, "All done pacies" because they are only for sleeping (and church when we are desperate).  I will pull the paci out of his mouth, and he will put the next one in  his mouth.  Notice he has two in his hands.  When we get to the last one, he will bite down trying his hardest to keep his paci as long as possible.  He then gives up and enjoys snuggling with us while drinking his milk.

Peanut Butter

Dallin and I love peanut butter.  Zane was kicked out of our club a long time ago because he complained of peanut butter spoons in the sink.   I couldn't get Gavin to eat his peanut butter sandwich, so I gave him a taste of just peanut butter.  He went crazy and wanted more and more.  I had to hide the peanut butter and distract big time.  So now Gavin has joined the club.

On the Potty

 My sister-in-law mentioned her kids are number 2 trained by 18 months.  I tried putting Dallin on the potty when he was 12 months old.  He didn't have much success so I wasn't as consistent as I could have been with putting him on the potty although he did train pretty easily after he turned 2.   I realized though that Gavin had a bowel movement every morning usually before 9 and then another one in the afternoon.  It was kind of like clockwork.  I would plan it in my get ready and out of the house schedule to change Gavin's diaper twice, once when he woke up and then when he had a bowel movement a little later.  We started putting Gavin on the potty at the beginning of September.  I think he had success the first time we put him on.  We rarely change a poopy diaper any more!!!:)  Gavin giggles when we put him on the potty because he enjoys the attention, clapping for himself, and loves reading stories with me.  Not having to change poopy diapers really makes me smile!

 We had our first preschool fieldtrip this year to the fire station as we talked about fire safety.  The boys thought the truck was awesome especially when they got to sit in it.  They also thought the huge tires (which were bigger than some of them) were pretty cool.

There is something adorable about a baby with a fire hat.

 At least Gavin is adorable with a fire hat.

Dallin the fire fighter rescuing the stuffed animals.