Wait, I missed a month?

Oh yeah, October has flown by and I haven’t posted a thing! I better play catch up and get it all in one post…

Our garden yielded two perfectly sized pumpkins for two perfectly silly kids. We decided to paint them at the beginning of the month so they could decorate our porch. Here are their masterpieces…

A scary face and a ghost pumpkin!

Of course, Natalie couldn’t leave her pumpkn alone the next day and dropped it on the floor for reasons I never figured out and it busted. So we cut it up and baked it and pureed it to make a pumpkin pie later. And then there was one.

October also brought on PRESCHOOL!! Yay! I cannot express the excitement of these two. Luke would know how everything works since he has been there before and Natalie finally gets to go (she cried qutie a bit when Luke would go without her).

They were happy to head right in and loved all the attention they were getting. They attend a preschool “lab” at the high school three days a week, for three hours. So there are half a dozen high school students helping with everything and teaching little lessons and two teachers for the dozen kids in the class. Needless to say, they get a lot of one on one time!

The second day Natalie was a little shy going in, I had to walk her in and help her hang everything up before she would venture around, but that shyness has worn off and she goes in confidently now. They love to bring home their creations and tell me who the leader was and what they had for snack. They have two friends in the class so they really feel “at home.”

I’ve been enjoying the time to myself, getting Natalie’s baby book finished, visiting teaching without kids, grocery shopping without kids (my cashier at Kroger was totally surprised!), etc. Soon enough I’ll have that baby with me though and that will change things up. For the next couple of months, I’ll try to catch up on other projects!

Along came Canadian Thanksgiving, and the kids were happy to celebrate. Our tradition is to go out to eat. Often because I forget until that day and because I don’t want to cook a turkey for just us. Maybe one of these days I’ll plan to invite friends and family over and go all out. That would blow Darin’s mind. Don’t hold your breath.

Sometimes we get a little silly. Daddy’s clothes are the most fun to dress up in, but my shoes are quite a hit too.

And my lipstick…

October was a beautiful month of fabulous weather, and the changing colors. We tried to spend lots of time outside.

We even went camping the first weekend at Stone Door, but our trip got cut short with a rainstorm in the early morning, so we tore camp down as quick as we could at six am and headed home to make our “camp” breakfast. We then snoozed a bit before conference started!

Since I’ve been called into Young Women’s the kids have attended quite a few activities and love the youth. One night when it was our turn to help clean the church, Natalie kept asking if the “young womens” were coming and couldn’t understand why we would be there without them!

We also had a ward activity that we couldn’t get a babysitter for so I flew solo since I was helping with the games. Darin told me NOT to do a good job, so they wouldn’t ask me again (I helped once before). I don’t know if I accomplished that or not.

We’ve had lots of play dates, got to spend a Saturday at Dustin’s Kings Cup Soccer Tournament, and plenty of family dinners, but we never went to the pumpkin patch. What, you say? I know, I know. I’m disappointed in myself too.

However, we left the kids with Grandpa and Grandma and headed on a fun trip to Atlanta. We found a cheap decent hotel, enjoyed a fabulous morning at IKEA (Can you just see me grinning when I say that? I just love that place!), then enjoyed the BYU vs Georgia Tech game. We killed them and it was their homecoming game, heehee.

And along came HALLOWEEN! There is lots to do here Mac-Minnville… After preschool, we headed to Trick or Treat on Main Street with our friends. Then there was the Ward Trunk or Treat that evening followed by the Trail of Treats at the Civic Center and then trick out treating around our neighborhood!

I let the kids pick what they wanted to be. Nat was set on being a giraffe and then my mom and I found a costumer at a consignment shop for six bucks, SOLD! Luke wanted to be the red power ranger, so he got the homemade version since at the store was a bit more than I wanted to spend. He was happy though. And we adhered to the no masks policy and went with face paint. Our neighborhood doesn’t get hit by too many kids (houses too far apart), so the kids raked it in being one of the few! All in all, they got almost eight pounds of candy EACH! They were happy. They get one or two treats a day, so it should last them a good while, depending on what Mom and Dad eat!