Apology...

Okay, so I had such high hopes to be better at adding blog entries but as you can see, I think I've gotten worse. So, sorry folks...I "promise" (with my fingers crossed) to do better!

If you eat your dinner, you'll grow big and strong

So last night at dinner, we had lasagne and Jackson liked it (he doesn't like much and dinner is usually a FIGHT). So, he was eating it faster than I think I've ever seen him eat dinner and he says, "I think I just grew a little."

Love it!

Things Mikey says...

Right now, at 16 months old, these are the words in Mikey's vocab:

- mama [so precious]
- was that?
- hello [loves to talk on the phone or anything that he pretends to be a phone]
- hi
- bye bye [always way after the person leaves, but hey]
- shoes
- socks
- hut hut [hike]
- honk honk [while squeezing someone's nose, of course]
- go [state]
- uh oh
- we think he said jack today too!

And a bunch of other "chinese" ... as JT from daycare thought Michael spoke since it was all jibberish!

Oh, I am beginning to "like" Halloween

Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays. However, in the past few years now that we have kids, it is really becoming a fun holiday (still not a favorite, but it's at least more fun).

The night before halloween, we carve our pumpkins so they are fresh and beautiful! This year, we had a mummy, frankenstein, bats and the good old standard. This year felt like a Star Wars year so Jackson was Darth Vader and Michael was Chewbaca. They had to be the cutest kids ever!

Jackson had a fun party and parade at school, then Jeremy came and got them both from daycare to bring them to my work for more candy. They had a great time touring my work and getting candy from everyone.

Then, as the clock struck 6pm, and the blow of the horn went off, Jackson and his dad went out to into the darkness to scower the city of free candy. It was pretty cold and windy that night, so Mikey and I decided to hang back and hand out candy. Which he thoroughly enjoyed. He was so excited to hold the candy bucket and pass it out and everyone loved his outfit.

Almost 2 hours later, Jackson and dad showed up with about 15 pounds of teeth-rotting candy. They ran into a kid from Jack's class and his dad so they ended up trick or treating with them. Oh, so much fun. Despite how cold it was, Jackson came back dripping in sweat. Unbelievable!

Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

One of our favorite things to do is go to the Pumpkin Patch as a family. It sets the tone for the upcoming holidays and it's just plain fun. We absolutely love to hand-pick our pumpkins at the St. John's Apple Orchard, ride on the wagons, go through the maze, and of course play on the huge inflatable jumpers. Oh, don't forget the donuts and apple cider.

This year was a little different, in that Jeremy wasn't able to join us for our first trip to the pumpkin patch due to his work schedule. We still went since it was getting so close to halloween, we were afraid that the pumpkins would be gone if we waited another week so, Grandma went with us and we had a good time considering how cold it was. However, everyone in our side of the state also decided to go as well so it was absolutely insane. We couldn't even get cider and donuts b/c the lines were so long. I guess that meant another trip with papa was going to have to happen! Oh, too bad! :)

Michael had a great time exploring the patch and touching all the pumpkins. He also adored riding in the wagon with Jack, his hero.

The case of the missing teeth...

Jackson's bottom 2 teeth have been loose for a while now and for whatever reason, he just wouldn't let me pull them out - not sure why not?!!? So, on Oct 9th last week he was at daycare wrestling with his friend and oops, got one kicked out! He was so excited to put his tooth in the tooth pillow that his great-grandmother made (thanks Helene for keeping this stuff!) and for the visit from the tooth fairy. It was a very exciting day! The tooth fairy did make a quick appearance, well we believe she must have but we didn't actually see her, because there was a non-crisp $1 bill under Jack's pillow in the morning.

Then, the very next day we were driving along to go somewhere and the next thing I know, Jack says mom my second tooth just came out! So, we got another visit from the tooth fairy and yet another dollar. Thanks tooth fairy!

Michael is walking!

Michael has been dabbling a little here and there with a few steps but over last weekend he started to try more often and go further. Of course, mom and dad were out of town for a wedding so we didn't get to see it first hand. But he quickly showed us what he could do. Here he is at Jack's football game.