Quick Ashland Trip

When we found out that our Stake Conference the first Sunday in November would be a broadcast shown throughout Oregon, we decided to head to Ashland for a quick trip and watch the conference from down there.  It was a nice relaxing weekend.  The older boys went to preschool with my mom one morning and all of them to ScienceWorks the next.  They also loved jumping on the trampoline!  We walked through Lithia Park one afternoon and saw the beautiful colored leaves.  The weather was gorgeous and it was a nice quick getaway.

This first morning, after waking up, I found these two kiddos looking pretty cozy in Grandma and Grandpa’s bed watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Ethan and James are about six months apart, and they are becoming quite the buddies.

 

Trampoline time was definitely a favorite activity for the kids, and they went out there a few times during our quick visit.  Their favorite game to play was “crack the egg,” but they also liked taking turns alone jumping as high as they could.

     

The trees at Lithia Park were gorgeous, and brought back many memories of fall walks through the park!

  

      

(James and Ethan never quite got the throw-the-leaves signal the same time as the other kids.) 

  

It was a great relaxing trip, and we also enjoyed not only watching a great Stake Conference broadcast, but we also got to hear both my parents speak at the Stake adult session on Saturday evening.  It was a much needed break from every day life!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween this year started out as a rainy day, but by late afternoon, the rain stopped and the sky cleared for a beautiful evening that was dry and actually quite warm. 

In the afternoon, we decorated some sugar cookies and took them to Shane at work. 

     

After Shane’s work and a dinner of mummy dogs and macaroni and cheese (the ultimate kids dinner), we went trick-or-treating.  We went around our neighborhood, and the boys had fun filling their pumpkin bag full of candy. 

This year, Landon was an astronaut, Davis a bat, and James a monkey.  I only had to make Landon’s astronaut pants, so it was an easy Halloween year for me!  The bottom picture is at our ward trunk or treat the weekend before Halloween.

  

ABC’s

James has recently started singing the ABC song off and on all day.  It is especially because of the Leapfrog ABC magnet game we have on the fridge that I finally bought new batteries for.  He carries it around with him, singing along with Leap, the frog on the game.  Sometimes I find him sitting behind the curtains singing, sometimes in his chair in his room.  I caught a video of him this week singing by the couch.  I especially love his rounded lips for the “L, M, N, O, P,” and in this video, his continued singing despite the gum he’s chomping on and his distracting brothers.

Pumpkin Party

Saturday, we had a pumpkin party at our house, with all sorts of fun pumpkin activities.  Here was the official announcement:

Pumpkin Pizzas:  First, we each decorated our own pumpkin-shaped pizza.

      

Finished pizzas:  Top left: James, me; Bottom left:  Davis, Landon, Shane.

Carving Pumpkins:  After eating pizza, we started the pumpkin carving.  The boys did a pretty good cleaning out their pumpkins, and then they drew a shape on it with a dry erase marker for Shane or me to carve out.  Davis had been saying all week that he  wanted to do a “ghost” pumpkin, meaning a ghost mouth, so he got right to work.  James wanted a ghost pumpkin too, so Landon’s was the only one a little different.  Shane and I always forget how much work it is to get the boys’ pumpkins carved, and then we’re pretty worn out by the time we finally start ours.  (I had some camera issues, so I didn’t get to many pictures of the actual pumpkin carving.)

       

One time, I looked over to see James licking off his spoon after pulling some stuff out of the pumpkins.  He seemed to like it! 

 

The finished pumpkins:

Left to Right:  Shane’s, Davis’s, Landon’s, James’s, and mine – bottom is Kelly’s sick pumpkin.

Pumpkin Rice Krispies and a Pumpkin Show:  After carving pumpkins, we made and decorated some pumpkin rice krispies from Grandma Morris, then watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”  It was a fun night!

       

Tree Painting

On Friday, we painted some leaves onto a tree using q-tips.  The boys had fun making their pictures and painting the leaves.  I drew a circle for them to put the leaves in, but they also thought it was fun to paint some falling leaves too.  Here they are at work: