Halloween Week Fun and Games

I was super excited for Halloween this year and I wanted the fun to last as long as it could in our house, so, we did a lot of fun activities during the week to get pumped for the weekend.

We played Halloween Bingo many many times.

I put together a Halloween sensory bowl for Xavier to play in.

We made our very own pumpkin pie play dough. It smelled so yummy I wanted to eat it. (but I didn't) It smelled delightful in our home though and that was enough to satisfy me.

We used the play dough to make a Haunted House scene complete with a witch, a house, a cat (Xavier added the tail), a fence, a moon, ghosties, and Xavier added the BIG mommy ghost in the upper left hand corner.

We did lots of crafting activities. Our pumpkin plate.

Bat with cheerio eyes and Xavier's own hands

Pumpkin seed collage. The best part was eating the extra seeds when we were done.

Orange paper collage pumpkin. Xavier loved ripping the paper into small pieces.

Xavier's ghosty feet. This was his favorite craft we made because he got to paint his foot and he loves ghosts.

On top of all this fun we sang some fun Halloween songs to get pumped for the big day.

Halloween Fashion Show

It wouldn't be Halloween in our house if Xavier didn't try on every possible costume and dress-up attire we own. He even had to try on Gavin's bumblebee costume. Surprisingly it fit okay. Well, it might have looked along the same lines as Chris Farley's Fat Guy in a Little Coat skit, but it was still hilarious. Tim and I got a big kick out of watching him try to move in the outfit and so did Xavier. He's quite the comedian these days. To top it off we watched about 10 different versions of flight of the bumblebee on YouTube so Xavier could dance around in the costume.

Halloween Week Kick-off

After we picked our big and fat and fine pumpkins from the pumpkin patch we had to kick our week off with a good old pumpkin carving night.



Xavier did a great job scooping out the pumpkin guts! This was the most perfectly round pumpkin I've ever seen.



Xavier specifically wanted a smiling jack-o-lantern. Daddy carved the face. I think Tim did a perfectly traditional pumpkin face to match our perfectly shaped pumpkin. Well done boys.

MARS Fall Fest 2010

Every year Mars throws a Halloween Party for employees and their families. We couldn't wait to attend this event for the first time. Beware there are lots of pictures. WE had so much fun and can't wait to go again next year.

Gavin was a little bumblebee

Xavier dressed up as Bumble Bee the Transformer

(I wasn't really going for a costume theme with the boys this year. Xavier insisted on this costume and I got Gavin's at the last minute. But the "bumble bee" I guess in a round about way became the theme.)

Mars rents out an entire corn maze/pumpkin patch for this event.

Finding Nemo was the theme for this year's Fall Fest. At the first activity tent Xavier had to throw a ping pong toward a bunch of cups with colored water. He ended up winning a goldfish.

This was my favorite tent. You can't go wrong with Grease.

Xavier's favorite spot was the bounce tent. It was a Pirate theme. Arrrrgh!

They even had a bumble bee M&M. How awesome is that? If Gavin wasn't sleeping I would have had all the girls in their bee costumes take a picture with him.

Super heros galore. Xavier got to meet Batman, Superman, Wolverine, Spiderman, and Super woman. It was Super!

Xavier then got to go on the "Polar Express" to get some cookies, hot chocolate, and sit with Santa.

Mickey Mouse was even a guest at the party. Xavier got a kick out of giving him high fives.

Giddy up cowboy!

A gigantic pumpkin- we were in awe!

We took a hay ride up to the pumpkin patch. I don't think I've seen people pick pumpkins as fast as everyone this day. (It may look sunny, but it was about 50 degrees and super windy. Brrr!) Everyone ran to get their pumpkin and hopped back onto the tractor as quickly as they could. Xavier was proud of his and I quote "big, and fat, and fine pumpkin".

What's a Halloween Bash without the cider? I'm usually not a fan of cider, but the cider was delicious.

This event sure beats any trick or treating we have coming up. We got so much candy that we can pass some out to our trick or treaters.

Gavin's enjoying his loot. We kept moving the candy around him and the noise of the wrappers crinkling freaked him out. He looks happy in this picture, but he wasn't smiling for long. Sorry about that mean old "trick" Gavin. Maybe next year you can actually eat some of this delicious candy.

Mars sure knows how to celebrate Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

3 Months

Our Chunky Monkey

This post is so super late but I have to post about Gavin's latest and greatest. He is still his happy content little self most of the time. He's at least 16 lbs. if not more. We don't have his doctor check up until mid-November so I don't have an exact number yet. He's starting to grab and hold toys and loves to suck on anything close to his mouth. He's sleeping at least a good 7 hour stretch at night. Yeah!

He is super close to laughing. He loves it when I tickle the sides of his head, his sides, or the inside of his thighs. He squeals when I put him on his changing table. I have a few pictures and toys hanging for him to look at and it's probably his favorite spot in the house.

He has rolled over a couple times, but stopped doing it, so I'm not sure if it was a fluke or what happened. But he does this little backward scoot where he digs his heels into the ground, arches his back, and scoots along the carpet or turns in a different position. There have been several mornings I've gone to get him out of his crib and instead of being parallel in his crib, he's perpendicular.

When I lay Gavin down for a nap or bed he instantly starts kicking his right leg. It reminds me of Thumper when he does it. He also gives me a big smile and coo as if he's ready to play instead of nap. I guess he knows it's the only moment in his day when Xavier isn't battling him for my attention.

Gavin loves to suck on his middle and ring fingers together. If he can't have his pacifier this is a great substitute.

It's the oddest thing, but when I clean out Gavin's nose with one of those bulb things, he smiles. I've never known a baby to like having that done, but he seems to be entertained by the feeling of it. He also smiles when he spits up and he spits up a lot. If I were him I'd be screaming my head off every time I had to spit up. Yuck!

If you'll notice Gavin's shirt, it's a gorilla. This was part of Xavier's gift to Gavin at the hospital. I'm so glad he fits in it now and he looks so cute in green.

Another month has past and our love for Gavin has grown even more. I can't even remember life before he entered our home. He has such a sweet demeanor and we are so glad to have him as part of our family.

It's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's......

...the number 11!

Every time Xavier and Gavin are lying next to each other Xavier shouts "Look mom, we're the number eleven!" It makes me laugh every time. What will Xavier think of next. He is quite a character, which he definitely got from his daddy-o.

GO SPARTANS!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

SPARTANS!!

Here are my two Spartans cheering for their green and white! 8-0. It's a great year for Spartan football.

Chris and Katie Tie the Knot

The main reason for our visit to Michigan was to attend Chris and Katie Cho's wedding. They had a beautiful ceremony at a Catholic church and then had a reception at a hotel banquet hall in Novi. The wedding colors were white and navy- so classy looking.



Here is the happy couple! Chris was a really good friend of Tim's at school and I got to know Katie from Tim and Chris's friendship. They are an awesome couple and we are so glad we were able to come to their wedding.



Gavin was a little charmer at the wedding. He would smile and coo at everyone that looked his way. (although I couldn't get him to smile at the camera)

Now that Tim isn't in school, most of our friends live all over the country. Many of them came into town for the wedding. It was like having a mini MBA class of 2010 reunion. Bonus!

Xavier was, I think one of about 3 kids at the wedding. He must have been sneaking Coke from the bar or something because he was extra spicy and energetic. He ran around the dance floor like it was a race track. At least he was staying within the square of the floor and not attacking the wedding cake or bumping into the beautifully decorated tables. At one point I think he was crawling around the floor pretending to be a cat. He cracks me up with the things he comes up with to entertain himself and everyone around him.

All my lady friends. Kim, me, March, Annie, Courtney, Maria, Ali, and Leoni. It was fun to see all these girls and catch up on new babies, new jobs, new homes, and new chapters in our lives.

Congratulations Chris and Katie! You are a dynamic couple and we are glad to be your friends.

Gavin's Blessing

We took the opportunity to bless Gavin while we were in Michigan. This is always a special day and we wanted to make sure we had some family that could be there for it. We blessed Gavin at Tim's parents house. Grandpa John, Dave, and Tim were able to perform the blessing together. Gavin was an angel. No crying. Tim's dad said he had his eyes locked on Tim the entire time. He has such a gentle spirit and a sweet soul. We are grateful Tim's parents, Dave, Katie, Kameron, Allison, Jen, Celeste, and Amelia could all be a part of this day with us.



Our calm, cool, and collected little man.



It's a good thing we did it over General Conference weekend. If we waited any longer I don't think Gavin would have fit into the blessing outfit.



Our forever family. This was the only picture where all four of us were looking at the camera (definitely not professional, but we at least captured the occasion on camera.)

Fun with Friends

We took a trip to Michigan for the first time since we moved. It was a super crazy time leading up to our departure day, but we had a blast visiting family and friends. Tim had two business trips in the two weeks leading up to our trip. The second trip was from Sunday September 26th to Tuesday September 28th. On Tuesday night Tim took a red eye flight from California to Michigan. He got home at about 10 am and then we left soon after that for Michigan. Tim had about 2 hours of sleep and managed to do the entire drive to Michigan. (Despite what you may think I offered to drive many times...) So for Tim he did about 25 hours of travel with 2 hours of sleep. What a trooper. I managed to take care of the kids, get us all packed and ready to go by the time Tim walked in the door. I was proud of myself for managing all the preparations for our first road trip with two kids.

A 10 hour car ride with two kids, especially an infant, may sound a little brave to some. I was hoping it would go smoothly and to my surprise it did. Xavier had no accidents in his pants!! SCORE! Gavin was happy for the most part. By the 8th hour he was a little sad. All I had to do was sit in between the boys during the last leg of our trip and Gavin was content. Plus, we only made 3 stops. I felt like Tim and I were pros or it was beginners luck.

The first night we stayed with Jenny. We got there pretty late and Jen has an amazing basement with every kind of early childhood learning activity and toy you can imagine. Well Xavier loves snakes, lizards and dinosaurs. So Jen brought all of her dinosaur toys, snake toys, and books to go along with these things upstairs for Xavier to explore on our bed. He was happy as a lark for a couple hours. By the time 1 or 2 am rolled around we thought it time to hit the sack. Xavier slept with a bucket of snakes and a smile on his face the size of Texas.

The next morning we headed to East Lansing for some fun time with friends.


First stop, the Prossers. We just so happened to visit on Skyler's birthday, which was extra fun. We had a yummy dessert and surprised Skyler with a fun present of princess items. Stephanie and Mitch got to meet Gavin. I got to play with miss Gracie.
Xavier and Skyler picked up right where they left off. It was as if they'd just seen each other yesterday. Buds for life.

Hopefully these two will hit it off just as well as the older kids. It looks like they're pretty happy to be laying side by side.

We stayed with John's family that night. Xavier loved hanging out with Zack, Eli, and Abbi. Plus they had transformers too. Cousins and Transformers- what more could X-man ask for? We also got to see James for the first time since he got home from his mission. It was so great to see him in person after 2 years. It was like having my little brother back home again.

Our second day started with a visit with Bauer. These two boys have an equally high energy level and enthusiasm for anything crazy fun. They played with their toy skateboards at the park until we had to say goodbye.


The backward slide cheesy smile!

Stay tuned for more of our Michigan adventures.

Apple Picking

Xavier and some friends from church headed to Gulick's Orchard for some apple picking. Little did I know when I planned the outing that it would be 80+ degrees. We were definitely hot and it felt a little strange picking apples with shorts and t-shirts on. Our fall weather is a little behind....

Xavier had a blast pulling and being pulled in the wagons.

The BIG apple picker- not sure what it's official name is.

Connor- where are the apples?

One of the four rules at Gulick's was that you couldn't climb trees. Why am I not surprised my son was the one breaking the rules? Apple picking and climbing trees- don't they go hand in hand?

Toby, Jaden, Connor, Bethany, Calvin, and Xavier enjoying the fruits of their labor.