halloween time

Logan has been obsessed with pumpkins lately. He reads pumpkin books, sleeps with his mini pumpkin and loves the big pumpkin that we carved.  When we first brought home the big pumpkin, he kept giving it kisses. Since then, he will give me kisses any time. I think before that he was confused about hugs and kisses, which was which.

Our ward had a Halloween chili cook-off and a trunk-or-treat.  It was really fun and we were able to enjoy food and see all the fun costumes. Our bishop and his family were all dressed as smurfs :)

Some of our friends had a Halloween party at their apartment.  Logan was a monster (again) this year. It was way too big last year and a tiny too small this year, but it worked.  Here is Logan and his friend Jackson, as a tiger.

I wish I would have at least gotten a picture of Darrin's costume on him.  He was a golden robot.  We used two of our many moving boxes and spray painted it gold, adding beads and caps for buttons.  He looked awesome.  I chose to be nostalgic and be pippy long stocking (which I was when I was about 8 for Halloween).

We carved our big pumpkin. This year we just used a template of a cat on a pumpkin instead of doing our own face.

Here's Logan watching while holding his precious mini pumpkin (that he likes to sleep with sometimes)

Darrin looking thoughtful and Logan in time-out for screaming.  We just can't seem to figure out how to make him stop, or exactly why he does it. 

Happy after time-out :)

Something else Halloween brings: my dad's birthday!!! Happy birthday, dad.  We love you and love remembering you while munching on sweet things!

keeping warm

It has started to get a little bit chilly here. We decided to go on a walk and so we bundled Logan up.  Don't you love his sweater?! It was Darrin's when he was little.  It cracks me up. 

Notice how the shoes match the sweater?

Enjoying his many books. I now check out a bunch of books for him at the library so it's like he has new books every week and he loves it. 

a few of his favorite things

As Logan gets older, he lets his preferences known, sometimes loudly :) Here are his favorite pajamas and his favorite blankie. He would wear these all day and pull his blanket around all day if he could.

A new favorite activity is pushing a laundry basket around and putting things into it. He also likes to wear jackets.

He also likes climbing, but thankfully he's not great at it yet.  He got on this rocker and was so proud of himself.

I had to show this picture (sorry about the quality of these...) because it shows his Bronson smile.  My smile isn't very big, so I know he gets it from his daddy. Isn't it contagious?!

birthday and conference

Last Friday was my birthday, and it was so much fun. It was really relaxing and just perfect.  I didn’t think I would enjoy it much being away from most of our family, but I was wrong. Darrin cooked me an omelet for breakfast and we mostly hung around the house in the morning. Right after lunch we went to Walmart so I could buy a few favorite snacks with my birthday money. With our budget so tight lately these snacks were a real treat!

My sister, Mindy was so kind and gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure so I got that done while Logan was napping at home with Darrin.  The lady was so cute and very relaxing.  My first pedicure, I think it turned out cute—Thanks, Mindy!

It was also General Conference weekend for our church.  Since we don’t have internet or cable, we went to the stake center for the sessions.

Of the talks I heard (Darrin and I took turns going to the afternoon sessions because it was during Logan’s nap time and we would have been miserable taking him) my favorite was probably M. Russel Ballard’s talk on service. Usually he is a little hard for me to listen to without getting sleepy…but he really wowed me this time.  I think it was just what I needed to hear. He challenged us to ask in our morning prayer to recognize opportunities to serve others.  If we do that we will be able to be truly converted and make service and charity a part of our natures.  I’m taking his challenge, and I hope you will too!

sundays

Hard to get pictures of toddlers running away. First Sunday wearing a bow tie (it was Darrin's when he was little) how cute.

My boys. I'm in love.

finally on to spokane

Over that last year or so we have been asking for camping equipment for birthdays, Christmas, etc. We have finally acquired all the things we needed so we went camping on Labor Day weekend for one night.  It was sort of funny because it was like camping in a park, but it was still fun.

Logan loved playing in the dirt and ashes (before the fire was built). Poor little guy took a tumble and it looked like he had a tiny black eye that night.  It was gone the next morning.

Using Darrin's new lantern.

The first week we were there we decided to give Logan a haircut because his hair was looking terrible.  Fruit snacks and licorice were very helpful in the process.

Darrin did a good job.

The back of his hair before.

And the after pictures! Kind of hard to see in the pictures, but it turned out cute. Now it has grown back considerably.

He sure loves his bellybutton! 

catch up 2

Last catch up from Portland! The week before we left, some of my family came to visit.  My parents have been visiting Portland during August for the last while and this time my sister's family came too.  We got to spend a little time with them and it was such a good change of routine for me, plus it was great to see them.

We went to the Rose garden with them.  Here is Matthew playing in the water fountain thing.  He picked a few coins out and was excited he "found" some money :)

Here's Rose sitting by the fountain. She loved the water.

Hannah and Hailey loved running around and smelling different roses.  We discovered how different roses can smell if they are different types. 

We also went to the beach. We got up pretty early so while the kids played in the sand, dad took a nap on the beach blanket.

Angela didn't want me to take her picture, but I think it turned out cute.

Here's Matthew playing in the sand.  The kids all took their pants off because they got wet? I'm sure it made the playing more fun!

The girls digging holes that Logan loved to fill back in.

I love this picture of Hailey.  She thought it was so funny how Logan loved to fill in the holes.

catch up 1

I still have some catch up from our last bit in Portland. We did some fun things that I didn't want to forget to document. 

First, a hike that I remember doing at least a few times growing up visiting family. It's called Multnomah Falls.  It is paved all the way up so we (Darrin) pushed Logan all the way up in his stroller. Here's a picture--we hiked to the top of the falls.

Logan relaxing in comfort...he didn't mind! :)

At the top

I took Logan to the Lloyd Center, a mall in Portland.  There was a mini splash pad there and although I forgot swim trunks for Logan, I let him play a little in the water.  He was very disappointed when we left.

One time I left a bag of cheerios on the couch. I didn't realize Logan could reach that far and this is what I found about a minute later. Oops

We went to a Koi fish festival.  Darrin likes these fish a lot and these ones were HUGE! He was quite impressed.

We went on an aerial tram over downtown Portland. It wasn't quite what I was expecting but the view was cool.  Looking out from the tram:

Another tram about to pass us:

Right before we left we went to a blueberry farm and picked 8 pounds of blueberries.  They were only $1 a pound since we picked them.  They were huge and delicious.  We froze most of them and we are about halfway done with our last bag :(

Delicious!