October Wrap-Up

Now for a completely random smattering of pictures from October that didn't make into another post. Back on the 2nd of October I finally tried making homemade bread for the first time! My dear friend Shauna (domestic goddess, unlike myself) has always been willing to help teach me how to make "buns" (cute Canadian), so I finally took her up on it. I wish I would have learned back in Iowa when we lived down the street from each other and were together every day, but better late than never right? So! Between sessions of general conference (semi-annual, televised world-wide conference for our church) I called Shauna and she walked me through what I needed to know to get started. I must say that it wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated, and I actually quite enjoyed pounding down the dough! Also, I must say that a few days before that I called Shauna for all sorts of tips on making raspberry jam too, which I did - and it turned out delicious. And so...viola! My first attempt at homemade jam and homemade bread. And it turned out pretty good, even if I am saying so myself.

Random bath picture of our boys. Three things I love about this picture: Their crazy hair, their expressions, and the contrasting colors of their beautiful skin.

Sadly, I don't remember all these months later what this owie was from...just that the bandaid helped. And look at that expression.

Noah has been really into pirates. One afternoon while was being a pirate he laid down on the floor for a minute and sacked out. I had to snap a picture of course.

This picture is actually from another afternoon that Noah was playing pirates. He liked to put on his pirate shirt, as well as his red hoodie (since Captain Hook wears a red jacket), and since we don't have a pirate hat Noah sometimes pretends that his cowboy hat is a pirate hat. Good imagination. This afternoon Noah requested that I take a picture of him and "Tigo" (that's what he named his tiger) in their cowboy/pirate getup.

And, on cue, little brother searched for a reason for me to photograph him. This is what he came up with - and he urgently requested that I take a picture of it:

Early/mid October we drove back home for a visit (and a medical procedure). I've already posted most of the fun pictures from our trip, but the rest of this post will be random pictures from that trip that didn't make it into a previous post. My brother Chris snapped this picture of Mark & me.

Enjoying a delicious dinner at my parents' house with my parents (duh), brother Chris' family, and my grandparents.

Chris & Chelsey's family (plus Noah) were at this other table.

I love this picture that Chris snapped of Audrey and Noah running outside.

Emily outside with Audrey, Noah & Lincoln.

Emily, me, Chelsey.

Noah went on a picture taking rampage one morning at my parents' house. This is me trying to give him the "don't you do it" look. Of course he did take it...and he was so pleased with himself.

That same morning we got this shot of Lincoln and daddy as they were waking up.

Mark decided that morning snuggles were lots of fun, so he climbed into bed with Noah the next morning. Of course Lincoln wanted in on the action and quickly climbed up onto the bed, between Mark and Noah, and under the covers.

And to add one more sleepy-time picture...here is Noah asleep in his car seat on the drive back to Arizona.

We stopped at Glen Canyon Dam to stretch our legs and snap some pictures.




And that's it for October.

Trick-or-Treat!

The boys had three opportunities to trick or treat this year! Two of which were at trunk or treats, and the last was by invitation from a girl in Noah's class. The first trunk or treat was the one put on by Noah's school and it was fantastic! Here are my three wild animals:

Noah's preschool is part of a Lutheran school that also has K-8th grade, so their school activities are big. We still managed to run into some of Noah's classmates though! Our Noah with Noah C.

Lily and Noah.

Noah and LeeAnna (little mermaid was a popular one this year I guess).

Lincoln caught right on to the trick or treat system and thought it was a pretty cool idea.

Many of the trunks had little activities or themes. Some people even had bigger prizes for winners of their games (getting a bullseye, etc). This one had a little toss the fish into the penguin bucket to "earn" your treat.

This one you just had to pick your team before getting a treat...

This one had real horses!

And a pirate themed one which was decorated out of an actual boat instead of a trunk (a huge hit for Noah), had this decoration you could put your face through for a picture:

Our church also had a trunk or treat. Here are some friends from church - Stephen & Tessa with their darling girl Mazarin (this photo turned out blurry or I'd post it larger...they looked adorable). There was a chili dinner, costume parade for the kids, cake walk, face painting, and of course trunk or treating. I wish I would have gotten pictures of how cute the decorations were too, but the boys kept me busy enough not to have gotten many pictures.



Our friends Dani & Jayson borrowed parts of our Woody & Jessie costumes from last year. Aren't they cute?

Here is Noah getting his face painted

And, true to Noah style...here he is "in character" as a wild cat - finding a tree to climb. Well, he enjoyed pretending so anyway, this picture is actually turned sideways (he's laying on a limb pretending to climb it anyway). We got a chuckle out of it anyway.

Bailey (in the pink) who is in Noah's class invited all the classmates to her family's Halloween party and trick or treating in their neighborhood. Here is Noah with some of the girls.

Lincoln tended to trail behind our group most of the time, but he was super cute. Here he is leaving one of the doorsteps.

Another doorstep.

Noah and Bailey held hands and chatted most of the night. Pretty cute. I loved listening in on the things they would talk about. At one point I heard Noah ask her, "So, have you ever been in a car accident?" She said, "No, but our house was robbed once"...followed by the story. So matter of fact. Cute little 4-year-olds.

Quick shot of my cute little zebra.

Apparently I was pushing it when I asked for him to pose for a second picture, and I got this expression. However, I found it pretty funny and decided to include it in the post too.

Bailey and Noah before we headed home for the night.

After getting home we let the boys pick a few pieces of candy to go to town on, and Lincoln was particularly excited about chowing down on this gummy that came in a package my mom sent the boys!

Oh how I love Halloween time.

Noah's class Halloween Party

Back at the end of October, Noah's preschool class had a Halloween party. It was really cute and the kids had a great time. There were various crafts and activities at different stations. This station was where they decorated Halloween cookies. I got a kick out of watching lots of the other kids continue to add more and more icing and candy to their cookies until there was more of that than cookie. Not Noah. A couple of smears of color and he was satisfied with his minimalist design...and was ready to eat some of it (this kid has never had an over the top sweet-tooth anyway).

Our Noah painting his pumpkin:

There are actually 3 Noahs in this preschool class (which Noah thought was pretty cool). Here is Noah S. painting his pumpkin:

The class singing a Halloween song with fun actions:

Noah taking a whack at the piñata.

Classmate Lily taking a whack at the pirate.

Miss Tammy and Miss Lisa distributing goodies after the piñata was broken.
Noah's class and teachers...Miss Lisa far left, Mrs. Rainer (kind of hidden), Miss Tammy and Mrs. Hollahan (background on right).

Noah requested that I take 2 specific pictures wearing the witch hat (that I'd been wearing)...first this picture of Noah C. and him with their vampire teeth:

And secondly, a picture of him with Miss Lisa.
It was a fun little party and I was so glad that Lincoln was so good while there too so I could enjoy all the festivities and snap these pictures!