a week worth of halloween celebrations

we had such a great halloween. it really is true that kids make everything so much more fun! logan loved trick or treating and let's be honest, why wouldn't he?! free candy (after all, he is my son!)! we celebrated over the period of about a week and rather than doing multiple posts i'm just doing one long one. prepare yourself for lots of pictures of a cute fireman and darling ducky!

the week before halloween we went to the trunk or treat at my parent's ward. i always love visiting their ward, it still feels like home to me. this was logan's first experience with trick or treating. whenever he would say trick or treat he would hold up his arm (like the picture on the left). it was pouring rain so rather than going car to car, people lined the halls of the church with their candy. it got pretty packed (like claustrophobic) at times but it was worth it for candy (can you tell how much i love candy?!)!

is that not the cutest duck ever?! 

thanks to kari and sterling for lending us their japanese kimonos!

logan got his face painted (obviously...not a necessary caption)

they had a harry potter room that was really cool. logan sat on a stool and was sorted into a house (yea gryffindor) and this was him getting his wand from mr. ollivander!

the saturday before halloween the weather was beautiful and i thought it would be the perfect day to visit the zoo. it wasn't until we were pulling up to the zoo and saw all the kids dressed up and nowhere  to park that i remembered it was "boo at the zoo." after driving around for 15 minutes looking for parking (and getting mighty frustrated) and parking a 15 minute walk from the zoo, we finally made it. we looked like the total slacker parents because our kids weren't dressed in their costumes (i seriously think i only saw one other kid without a costume and there were a lot of kids there). luckily logan was oblivious and just thought it was fun to see the animals and more importantly, fun to get candy!

the day before halloween we went trick or treating to gammy and pappy's house. halloween is kathy's favorite holiday and she goes all out decorating and spoiling the kids. i think the picture below on the left perfectly captures her love of this holiday (and her grandkids)

finally the actual night arrived. we went trick or treating around our neighborhood with our friends the gordons and it was so fun! logan thought it was great and would push his way to the front at every house (not so great). he said "trick or treat" and "happy halloween" and we couldn't get over how cute he was. we visited one house that goes all out decorating. i'm personally not a fan of inflatable lawn decor, but this house was so festive we had to get a picture. plus they must have had between 12-15 intricately decorated jack-o-lanterns. they were incredible (and sadly by the next day all the decorations were down and the pumpkins were in their trash cans).

logan with the 2 cutest ladybugs

we came home and logan had to check out his loot. i think this picture is funny because he is lining up his candy that is the same size and shape. and dave and i had fun passing out candy to the late trick or treaters (i think it is one of dave's favorite things about halloween). it was the perfect end to a great week of celebrating. we also celebrated by attending our nephew josh's halloween birthday party but sadly didn't take any pictures :(

let's just say i have eaten more than my fair share of candy. i could relate to what one of my friends posted on facebook, that for every one piece of candy her son eats, she eats five. that sounds about right to me. one of the first things that logan asks for when he wakes up is a piece of candy and then he begs for it for the rest of the day. aahhh! it does work well for bribery though (like bribing him with candy if he would be reverent during family scripture study tonight)! happy halloween!

choose to become

last month i went to "time out for women." it was a day and a night full of inspiration and the spirit. the theme was "choose to become" and i left feeling rejuvenated and more determined to become who the lord wants me to be. but as often happens, once i left that spirit filled room and stepped back into "real life" it was easy to forget what i learned, what i felt and what i had resolved to do (and of course "real life" is really where i needed to remember and apply what i had learned).

last week in particular was a hard week for me. i had a lot to do for my calling and was feeling completely overwhelmed about doing it all, not to mention the day to day stuff of life and trying to be a good mom and wife. nap time, that precious time each day where both kids are sleeping and i have a chance to do something for me (or take care of some of the business of life) was being taken up by relief society stuff and i felt like i was treading water and barely keeping my head above the surface.  i had a few breakdowns. one by myself, one to my counselor and one to dave. all them included tears and me saying, "i can't do this," "what was heavenly father thinking when he called me? there must be someone better for this job,"and "there's not enough time to do everything." i know these feelings aren't unique to me, we all feel them at some point, to some degree. but i needed to be reminded that my heavenly father was aware of me and loved me. dave gave me a priesthood blessing and it was the reminder i needed that my heavenly father is there.

i've thought about the theme, "choose to become" and i am grateful it emphasizes choice. it's up to me who and what i become and even the little choice each day matter. and the process of becoming like christ isn't an easy one and it isn't a quick one. it is filled with overwhelming moments, moments of inadequacy, moments where we think we can't do it, lonely moments and hard moments. but there are also moments where the spirit whispers who you are, a son or daughter of god with incredible potential, and you feel it and believe it. and with that understanding, you can overcome and learn from all those hard moments that are inevitable parts of life. and i guess even those moments are good, because they are usually the moments when we look to god and turn things over to him. when we learn to trust and really rely on our faith, because we remember we can't do it on our own.

i want to be able to remember (and apply) some of those spiritual whisperings from time out for women. because clearly i need them in my "real life."

• (mary ellen edmunds) there is an all out war for my identity. satan doesn't want me to know/remember who i am because if i do, he can't make me miserable. and nothing feels better than remembering who i am.   talking to my heavenly father and reading the book of mormon protect me from identity theft. 
• (heidi swinton) president monson said one of the sweetest experiences in mortality is to be an answer to someone else's prayer. the spirit doesn't justify or explain to us (when prompting us), it just expects us to respond - immediately!
• (hilary weeks) extraordinary moments happen in the middle of ordinary days. ask heavenly father each morning in my prayers what is the most important thing for me to do that day.
• (emily watts) we learn something about ourselves when we do hard things, it is how we learn and grow. be careful about judging. we usually don't see the whole picture or know the back story. develop a thick skin because others may judge us without seeing the whole picture or knowing the back story. 
• (kelly ogden) we have every reason in the world to be happy. "don't be a pickle sucker" gordon b. hinckley. we can have a bad day but have a good life. the spirit of god (and things that bring the spirit of god) inspires cheerfulness and brings happiness regardless of circumstances. 
• (merrilee boyack) be bold and fearless. blaze my trail and pray that the lord will help me know who to serve along the way. women do incredible things!!
• (emily freeman) if i want to become the lord's, it will require ALL of me. i can't hold anything back.

i already can't wait for next year.

emma: 6 months

i know this sounds cliche, but i cannot believe emma is 6 months old (actually she is closer to 7 months now, but i did take the pictures right after she turned 6 months. i've just been slow to post). the time has flown by and it is hard to imagine our family without her. we're all crazy about her! 

here are her stats:

14 pounds 5.5 ounces - 25th percentile

25 1/4 inches - 30th percentile

42 cm - 40th percentile

• she continues to be super smiley and happy
• she sits up like a pro (and has very good posture i might add). she likes to sit and play with toys.
• she grabs whatever is in reach: my glass of milk (she pulled it over a few weeks ago), the cupcakes at her cousins birthday party, my hair (which is falling out like crazy), the zippers and drawstrings on hoodies
• she is starting to giggle. dave is the best at getting her to laugh.
• she puts everything into her mouth: paper, toys, her hands
• she loves rice cereal and starts making excited noises as soon as she sees it
• she loves baths and kicks around like crazy. it doesn't even seem to bother her when she gets water in her face (which is good since she takes a bath with logan and she's bound to get splashed on occasion)
• she loves to touch faces and squeals when she gets your face
• she's starting to get the hang of the jumper and is actually starting to bounce
• she loves her brother. when he's in the room she tries to watch whatever he is doing. she's looks like she is so eager to be a part of whatever he is doing. 
• she gets so excited when we go to get her out of bed. she gives us a huge smile and usually a squeal. and if logan is with us she is even more excited!
• she's a good sleeper except when she has had teeth coming in and then she'll usually wake up in the night and need a little love. 
• she loves to be held and be with people. she wants to be included with whatever is going on and doesn't like being left in a room by herself.
• she is a hit in the kid's club at the gym. i wasn't anxious for emma to grow up, but i was excited for her to reach 6 months so she could go to the kid's club at the gym!
• she was able to go off her reflux medicine and seems just fine! so hopefully that means she has outgrown it!
• she only likes to sleep in her bed. she will rarely fall asleep in our arms or her carseat (unless we're driving somewhere) even if she is really tired.
• she has stopped sucking her thumb and seems to be committed solely to the binkie.

everything eventually ends up in this girl's mouth

whenever i am taking a picture of emma logan insists on joining her.

when i look at this picture i just imagine emma saying, "hey-a" (just the way her mouth looks). i can't figure out how to type it phonetically the way i hear it in my head! oh well!

anderson farms

a few weekends ago we headed north to erie, colorado to visit anderson farms. it was the perfect fall day for a visit and a bunch of other coloradans must have thought so too because we had to wait in a long line to get in. but it was worth it. there were so many fun things to do. we did the pedal karts, rode the mine cars, the barrel train, logan climbed on the tire mountain and the hay bale maze. we decided that next year we need to get there earlier because the kids started to fade before we could do everything. we assumed they would both crash on the way home but logan was hyped up on kettle corn and was acting hilarious! and he must have been entertaining emma because she didn't sleep at all. 

nice face, eh?! and check out the little girl's hair in the background. awesome!

in case you've been missing these two...

i am so behind on blogging (i only posted 3 times in october. what?!).

so here are a couple of pictures of the kiddos that just melt my heart to hold you over until i get my act together.

 

botanic gardens

it is currently snowing outside, so i decided it would be nice to post these pictures from the beautiful day we spent at the botanic gardens a few weeks ago. it was free day and initially i thought it might be too chilly to go. but i decided we needed to get out of the house, so i packed blankets and coats, only to discover once we got there what a beautiful fall day it was. we spent the whole morning at the new children's garden. i didn't even know they had a children's garden and i'm grateful for the person walking in ahead of me that asked the worker about it. it was a big hit with logan!

 we spent a lot of time at the little stream. of course i didn't pack a swimming suit
(remember, i packed blankets and coats instead), so we improvised and had some diaper time. this kid sure loves water!