"Gourd" Times On Halloween Weekend

This year's pumpkin: the silhouette of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

It's always a little bit of a bummer when Halloween falls on a weeknight. Everyone has to work or go to school the day of, and you can't stay out late without worrying about how exhausted you'll be the next day. Or maybe some people can, but I'm not one of them. We're early birdies in this house. Anyways, we were able to do some fun Halloween activities this weekend, and I'm so glad we did, since tomorrow will be pretty low-key over here.

We found out that our ward was going to have a Halloween party on the 28th, but they decided to buck tradition and not provide any trunk-or-treating activities. I was a little bummed, because Jace can actually walk this year, and one of his favorite words is "treat," so I was getting excited to be able to take him trick-or-treating. I knew we probably wouldn't go out on Halloween night, because our neighborhood is kind of hilly and remote and nobody trick-or-treats over here, and I didn't want to drive all the way into town to take my 21 month old trick or treating to three houses before he decided that he was over it. Thus, we felt the right thing to do, the ONLY thing to do, was to head down to my parent's house  for the weekend, seeing as their ward had made the correct decision and decided to include trick-or-treating as part of their Halloween party festivities. 

We drove down Friday afternoon, and Jace spent the remainder of the day playing with Papa and getting muddy in the backyard. In the morning, we went for a walk/run at a local park, and Jace carried a soccer ball up and down the hilly trails the whole time. After he woke up from his nap, we decided to spend the afternoon at Fir Point Farms, a pumpkin patch in Canby that we frequented every year when I was growing up. It's definitely changed a lot since I was a kid; they've gotten fancy with tractor rides, bounce houses, and more extensive dining options. But it's still beautiful, and Jace loved the slides, homemade cinnamon sugar donuts, and the animals in the petting zoo. He had so much fun. 

Also, just because I don't want to forget this, I have to share what happened when Jace went on the tractor ride at the pumpkin patch. First off, it's imperative that you know that within the last month or so, Jace has started calling me by my first name. When I leave the room, or if I'm outside his line of vision, I'll inevitably hear his little voice calling for me: "Sami...Sami? Sami?!", followed by him barging in on me as I'm trying to use the bathroom. When this began, I thought maybe he was just stringing random syllables together, because he'd often say my name over and over again for no discernible reason; however, countless witnesses have independently concluded that he is clearly using it for beckoning purposes, and we are now operating on a first-name basis. So, the story: Fir Point hooked up a train of little cars to the back of a John Deere tractor, and you could pay a couple bucks for a ride. My dad offered to take Jace on the tractor-train, and although little man was excited at first, he became a bit apprehensive once they boarded their car, and the tears started to flow. We knew once the ride began he would love it, but I felt bad that he was a little nervous. Anyways, the tractor started up and sure enough, Jace stopped crying, but he still looked a little bit worried. The train looped around on it's way out and crossed in front of us spectators, and as I smiled and waved to Jace, he reached his tiny arms out to me and plaintively wailed "Saaaaaammmmmiiiiii!" as he passed. It was hilarious and a little heart-wrenching, but mostly hilarious. I don't want to ever forget it, because I assume he'll decide to start calling me "Mama" again at some point, and I think I'll miss being his Sami. And, just for the record, Jace ended up enjoying the ride immensely. 

After an hour or so at the pumpkin patch, it was time to head home for dinner and get ready for the Halloween party! We decided to dress Jace up in the same costume I wore when I was his age: a blue crayon. My mom made the costume  for me 27 years ago, and put it in storage after all of us outgrew it. But she pulled it out, cleaned it up, and JJ got to wear it this year.  He also got to use the Halloween candy pails that we had as kids, and I think it made my parents a little nostalgic. As long as we didn't use the chin strap on the hat, Jace did a great job keeping it on, and he really seemed to enjoy all the action at the party. He loved trick-or-treating room to room inside the church building (although he was too shy to ask strangers for a "teet," so he just smiled and grabbed his candy, ha!), had a great time playing Halloween games, ingested way too many sweets and punch, and stayed out well past his bedtime. He had so much fun, and Colt and I got a kick out of watching him enjoy himself. I love that little boy (and my handsome man, too).

On Sunday, we were able to go and see my sweet Grandma Carol and visit with her for a little bit. Then we packed up and drove back home so we could get a head start on the week ahead. We had such a great weekend. Thanks mom and dad for letting us crash your party! I hope we didn't tire you out too much. 

Since we had such an eventful weekend,  I feel ok about not taking Jace trick-or-treating tomorrow. I think I'll dress him in his Halloween jammies and his monster hat, we'll make dinner in a pumpkin, and probably watch Curious George's Halloween Boo-fest for the last time this season. And I'm sure we'll munch on a little Halloween candy, for good measure. 

Happy Halloween! I hope all you ghouls and boys have a frightfully good time :)

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, our pumpkin was carved last weekend, not this weekend. Just needed to get that off my chest.

And Baby Makes Four

Well, it's probably about time that I share our exciting news here on our family journal. You read that right; we are having a baby! In March! AND, both my sister and my sister-in-law are also pregnant. My sister is having her little girl at the end of December/beginning of January, and my sister-in-law is due with a baby boy at the end of March. Our due dates are within two weeks of each other, so technically her baby could be born before ours. Or they could be birthday twinners! I'm so glad our little one will have cousins the exact same age, because cousin friends are the best friends. As for the gender...

WE ARE HAVING A BOY!!

Two little boys...I can't believe it. When I was growing up, I always thought it would be fun to have all boys (maybe because I grew up with all girls). That certainly seems to be the way we are headed! Early on in the pregnancy, I was super excited at the possibility of having another little boy, because is there anything cuter, crazier, or more fun than little boy brothers? But I was pretty sick the first trimester this time around, and I wasn't at all when I was pregnant with Jace, so Colt and I kind of started to assume we were having a baby girl! We exclusively discussed girl names, and I really only looked at girl nursery decor and clothing (I did the same thing the first time around with JJ. Will I never learn?)...but right before the ultrasound, C and I told each other that because we were so sure we were having a girl this time, we would probably find out we've got a little guy on the way. Sure enough, the universe surprised us (again)! 

When they pulled the baby up on screen, we got a perfect view of his little profile. We pointed to the baby's face on the screen, and Jace immediately tried to feed the image of the baby a goldfish from his snack container. My mama heart may have melted just a little bit. It took awhile for the ultrasound tech to identify if it was a boy or a girl, because the umbilical chord was positioned right between baby's legs. Ain't that always the way? The suspense was killing me. Towards the end of our appointment, we finally got a good look. She gasped, looked at me with a big smile, and I asked her: "Is it a boy?" She nodded yes, and my first thought was: "But we already have one of those!" Haha!! But just as quickly, I fell in love with the idea of another boy, and of little brothers, especially as I looked at Jace and realized how lucky I am to have two boys to love so much. I can't wait to meet this new, precious boy! A few people we've told have made off-hand comments about how they wished we got a girl instead, but I am seriously over-the-moon to be having another boy. Now that we know, I can't picture our family turning out any other way! I love that I still get to be the only girl in our family, that Colt will have two buddies to go camping with, ride motorcycles with, and wrestle with. I love that my Dad gets another grandson, that we get to give him my Grandpa's name, that Jace will have a brother to grow up with (something neither Colt nor I ever had)...I can't wait for all of the fun and special experiences we will be able to have with our little men. Heavenly Father is sending this special spirit to our home, and I feel so honored that the Lord entrusted me to be the mother of boys, of these boys. I hope I can live up to the responsibility, and raise them to be the men He needs them to be. I'm so grateful, so happy, and a little a lot scared to have a newborn and a toddler. How do you other mamas do it without going crazy?! Tips and advice are appreciated. ;) Wish us luck! 

First Pumpkin Patch Trip of the Season

I have a lot of catching up to do on this little blog! It's kind of overwhelming, so I'll have to start just a post at a time and see if I can get caught up sometime in the next couple weeks. Since my last post, we took a family trip to Disneyland (need to organize some pictures and videos before I write about that grand adventure), I started work, we completed our first trip to the pumpkin patch of the season, and I fulfilled a lifelong dream and dyed my hair red! Yep, you read that right: I'm officially a card-carryin' redhead and I'm loving it.

My parents came up for conference weekend, and we were able to do a few fun things while they were here. On Friday afternoon, Colt came home from work early to meet with someone about hooking up our generator to the propane tank. We took advantage of his half-day and spent the afternoon adventuring around our favorite pumpkin patch. Jace has been so excited to go. We've been watching a lot of "Curious George's Halloween Boo," and I always point out the pumpkins at the grocery store and let him touch the ones they place outside. As soon as the pumpkin field came into view, he ran over and started climbing all over the pumpkins. He loved the big hay slides, and had fun looking at all the farm equipment and animals in the petting zoo. He claimed a tiny white pumpkin as his own, and is currently snuggling with it upstairs as he naps.

I made my first-ever batch of cinnamon rolls for conference breakfast, and I must say, they turned out pretty darn tasty. I'm already dreaming about the leftovers tomorrow...

Storytime: At the patch, my mom was trying to make Jace laugh by making a big show out of lifting the heavy pumpkins. She would grunt and groan as she picked up a large pumpkin, and he would giggle and try to help. Well, the next day at home, anytime he touched a pumpkin, from the normal-sized ones to the tiniest mini-pumpkin, he produced the most unearthly grunting sound I have ever heard in my life. I seriously bust up laughing every single time. We can hear it in the kitchen when he's outside in the front yard, and I can only imagine the rest of the neighborhood is wondering why I don't address my toddler's obvious digestive issues.