Baby Shower!

We were so excited to get to celebrate my cousin Danielle's impending mommyhood!  She was expecting a baby girl in December, and so in the beginning of November we drove out to her mother-in-law's house for her baby shower!

Danielle, the mommy-to-be

More party guests (family)

This is what happens when Jack tries to give Luke a hug... they haven't quite figured out the balance-and-lean part of hugging, yet!  They're working on it all the time, though!

Luke never seems to mind that Jack knocks him over, though... he just loves his big cousin!

The kids definitely had fun at the shower... they really enjoyed chasing each other and playing together!

Since there was such a beautiful background, I decided to take that opportunity to get a picture of Sam!

It didn't take long, though, for Luke and Jack to notice that Sam was down and available for hugs and they started to pounce...

Luckily grandma was right behind them and snatched him up before they cold smother him in love!  So, we took that opportunity to attempt to get a picture with grandma and her boys!  The boys were definitely not having it, but it was a fun attempt!

It was such a fun shower, and we had such a great time celebrating the impending arrival of our newest cousin! 

Finishing Up October

This year I was going to let Jack pick, again, what he wanted to be for Halloween.  Also, since Jack, at a very large 6 months, required a Halloween costume in size 18 months, I wasn't able to reuse Jack's first costume and had to come up with something for Sam!

It was really hard to get Jack to pick what he wanted to be for his first Halloween. He knew, though, that Sam should be a bee and he told me that every single time I asked him. However, he kept telling me that he wanted to be "nothing" for Halloween, and when I told him that if he didn't wear a costume then he couldn't get any candy he said that he didn't want candy! I couldn't figure out how to get him to change his mind and participate in Halloween... that is, I couldn't figure it out until one day when we were reading his Waldo book. He gets to excited to read Waldo, and he can pick Waldo out on the pages before I can even start reading the words on the page! On this particular day he was talking about Waldo's hat and shirt and that he liked them, so I said "Jack, you could have a hat and a shirt like that and you could be Waldo for Halloween!" He got so excited and smiled and said "Oh yes, I would love to be Waldo for Halloween! I was thrilled that he finally made a decision and that we finally had a plan, and I called my sister to ask her to make the hat and set about getting the rest of the pieces of the costume... and we had a Waldo! 

He absolutely loved his costume and he really surprised me that he wore the hat and glasses the entire night!  He even refused to return the glasses that night, telling us "No, I need them to see!" and when we got home that night he told me "I'm not ready to take off my costume yet, I still want to be Waldo a little while longer!"

Jack got his way about Sam's costume, too!  We ended up finding a very cute bee costume, and Sam surprised me by also leaving it on the whole night!!!  Luke's costume was a little tight around his face, though, so he didn't wear the hood all night, but he was definitely the cutest dragon!

Jack got a kick out of everyone recognizing him... all night people would shout "I found him!  I found Waldo!"  or "I can't ever find him in those books so it's nice to see him walking around out here!"  Jack loved the attention and he made us call him Waldo or Waldo-Jackson all night!

We were going to go to the Reformation Carnival at my parents' church, but first, we had to stop next door to trick-or-treat at Grammy's house!

The first thing we did when we got to the Carnival was to set up Dave's truck for Trunk-Or-Treat.  His design was a Fire Station that was on fire, and he did a great job!  I was so proud of him!

Then I took the boys over to the game area!  Jack had a blast with the games, but mostly he loved the bounce house and slide!

(I just realized that I when I hurriedly made that  .GIF file I forgot to rearrange the frames so it looks like he's sliding up the slide!  Oops! Oh well!)

After the games it was time for Trunk-Or-Treat!  Here is a picture of Dave's design in action.  I thought it was the best one there, and others agreed... he won a prize!!!

Amy also made a Trunk-Or-Treat, and her car was definitely the cutest one there... she decorated her trunk as a Dragon's Lair and Luke stood in the middle of the cave, dancing!  I didn't get a photo of him actually dancing, but he sure was having a blast!

We definitely had a fun Halloween! 

Again With The Blue

Even though we went to the pumpkin patch twice in two days, I just couldn't bring myself to purchase pumpkins at their outrageous prices!  So instead I took the boys to the grocery store and let Jack pick whichever pumpkins he thought each of us would like.  He picked a huge "Big Daddy Pumpkin" for Daddy, a nice sized "very circle" pumpkin for mommy, a "little like a baby and a long stick" pumpkin for Sammy Wammy.  He still hadn't found a pumpkin for himself, though, even when I started picking up pumpkins and trying to "sell" him on each one.  He looked like he knew exactly what he was looking for and that he was absolutely certain that he'd find it, but still he rejected every single pumpkin that we saw.  Finally I asked him "Jack, what kind of pumpkin do you want?"  I should have asked him at the beginning, because as it turns out, the solution was easy! "Mom, I don't want an orange pumpkin, I want a white pumpkin!  But I don't see any white pumpkins here, so let's find them!"  So, we made our way to the other side of the Fresh Fruits & Veggies section and found the perfect white pumpkin for Jack!  I was curious, though, why he wanted a white pumpkin, and so on the way home I asked him.  "Because there is not a blue pumpkin, but I can paint this one blue!"

And paint it blue he did!

We, of course, invited my mom and sister and Luke over for pumpkin painting, and we had a lot of fun!  Jack was very diligent about painting the pumpkin blue, and we managed to convince him to use a few other colors as well!  Luke wasn't incredibly interested in painting the pumpkin, as he really enjoys running around in our fun backyard, so Amy painted most of it for him.  Sam, of course, was too young to paint (he was more interested in chewing on the stem) so I painted his pumpkin for him.

After we finished painting pumpkins we took a break for lunch and to get the cars ready for Trunk Or Treat.  Dave had a great plan for his truck which involved a smoke machine... Jack had a great time watching him try to figure out how to work it!