Quotes of the Day

L: Mom, I know there are real guns. I saw one at Martin's Cove.

M: Yep, that's true. People use them in wars sometimes or to protect their families - but do you think it's ok to use a gun or weapon for other things?

L: No. Definitely not. If you go to use a weapon then you could turn into a bad guy and then you will lose. Bad guys always lose. I'm never going to turn into a bad guy.

M: I'm really glad to hear that buddy.

L: Yeah. Plus, guns are not the best weapons. Swords are way better anyway.

(on the way out of the store)

P: Hey Mom, when I ran to the car did you say "Hey! Where are my kids?"

Halloween

I know this is late, but we've been busy!! Well, mostly I've just been sick at night when I typically do any blogging. Why am I sick you ask? That would be because I am pregnant! We are very excited to have #3 (and I am very excited to be done with the first trimester!). Anywho, on to Halloween:

We let the boys help with carving pumpkins this year. Someone was VERY excited to wield a sharp object:

Parker loved poking out the pieces:

Mr. Confident:

The finished product. Nothing fancy, but the boys loved it!

It was too cold to sit outside and look at the pumpkins, so they both had their little noses smashed up against the window to get a good look. And those marks you see? Those are from ENDLESS handprints that appear on that window daily. I think I'm done windexing it until they get older!

Trick or treating!! For the ward trunk or treat we were a family of snails (but I didn't get a picture!). It was really cute (and all Parker's idea). On Saturday night, Landon was Jack Sparrow and Parker wanted to be a bear...but then wanted to be a pirate...so he went for a mix of both. Pirate bear complete with a goatee!

Parker-Bear-Pirate looking at our shrunken pumpkins. I think it added to the creepiness:

Landon got very into his pirate roll:

Doing the requisite parental gleaning of the treats :). The boys actually just chose a few favorites and then gave the rest to me in exchange for $5 to spend on a toy at Target. And let me tell you - they have LOVED those toys. Worth it!

Fun with Friends

We have had a really fun-filled month. First, we've been so happy to have our good friend from Berkeley here in Colorado! They are off on their own adventures now, but we hope someday they'll come back :). We got to see them the week before they took off and the boys were in heaven. The kids played on the swings:

Who knows what game this was....Landon trying to get Penny to eat a stick??

Then we picked some carrots for a snack:

Avery got a fatty of a carrot - seriously, that thing is huge!

Then the week before Halloween we had Everett over to make Halloween cookies. Here they are decorating the different shapes:

We also got to see Brad, Lisa and Eden for an evening. It was so fun to be able to catch up, even for a short time. I don't hope that Eden has to come back to Denver Children's hospital anytime soon, but hopefully something ELSE will bring you up our way :).

We had to play Dance Dance Revolution. Brad is crazy good at this game:

Me, Lisa and Eden. I can't believe how big she is!!

Finally, Audrey got to come hang out with us one Saturday. We played out in the yard while we worked on getting the garden ready for winter. These cardboard boxes become part of our garden permaculture, but before we used them, this is what the kids did:

Audrey, just don't tell your parents that we were teaching you how to be homeless :)

And this is what Scott was doing while the kids played:

Gotta love a hard-working man :)

It's Autumn Time...

We have had so much fun with Fall this year! It is our first time having a yard....with leaves!! We have so many leaves in the front and backyards - the kids have loved raking and jumping in them! One day we just went out and rode bikes, then the boys did this over and over again:

Endless entertainment! A couple of Saturdays ago, we went with some friends to a local farm that sells some pretty amazing squash and pumpkins. We bought hundreds of pounds of it (for SO cheap!!) to last us through the winter! The goal is to cut our grocery budget in half by storing up for the winter (canning, freezing and storing fresh fall produce). Basically, we've decided to be squirrels :). We'll let you know how it goes! Here is our trunk after our shopping trip:

And this is our gargantuan squash:

This one has already been completely devoured!