Pumpkin Masters

The Blacks hosted a wonderful pumpkin carving party again this year. 

 Two years ago when we carved our pumpkins at the Blacks Scott was Owen's age, Ryker was Scott's age and there were a whole lot less babies around.

Fast forward to this year and there were 4 toddlers and 3 babies and another on the way (not ours!)

And in the whole group only one girl: Crystal's niece Maya.

Football was on and Brian was EXCITED.  Poor guy, he hasn't gotten to watch any sports lately, we don't miss having cable but he definitely misses sports.  

Owen was taking an ergo nap so Brian was in charge of carving our 'patch'.

Scott and Ryker were interested for less than two minutes

Pumpkin master at work

Ryker, Scott and Sebastian played in the dirt while their parents carved their jack-o-lanterns

Adam helped Brian with a sip of his beer since Brian's hands were covered in pumpkin guts.  Bromance.

Brian's female carving counterparts.  Love these girls!!!

 The book that had some pictures you could use to carve your pumpkin from was called "Pumpkin Masters".  Trish commented that she would like to choose from the 'pumpkin beginners' book as the one she had chosen was proving to be more complicated than she hoped! HAHA!  We went with the easiest one of the bunch I think!  Oh and mommy also bought us a really really small pumpkin, sorry boys, I'll choose better next year.

Maddox on trash duty.

Up from his nap, Owen was ready to get in on the fun!

Slimy

I kept missing Scott's good smiles while holding the pumpkin...

Cheeseball fake smile...

Waiting for the gopher to stick his head up so they could chuck rocks at him.  He never returned.  Probably knew better.

Happy Halloween 2012 from the Campbells

Science

 The big boys got to experience their first chemical reaction the other day.  Baking soda + colored vinegar = FUN!

They did a great job taking turns

 I wish I could say the fun lasted for hours.  Maybe 10 minutes.  But fun nonetheless. 

Then we did "cartwheels"

October

I think October is my favorite month.  Fall has finally truly arrived (although its seems to be coming and going) I can legitimately decorate for fall.  All things pumpkin!  The holidays are on the horizon.  Halloween is fun but Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner makes me giddy.  And bonus: we got married in October.

This October I feel a little behind.  I haven't decorated much, which I attribute to not being totally settled in the new house yet and not having many surfaces to put things on (need: mantle, side tables, coffee table).  Plus after having the major sickies around here and I realize that October is nearly over and we haven't done all the things I planned on.

We have a pumpkin carving party to attend tomorrow and fingers crossed that we make it to a pumpkin patch before Halloween (we kind of went a week or so ago, but I don't really count it, Owen was beginning his sickies and it was HOTT and miserable and we only stayed like 20 minutes).  So in the meantime here are my fall pictures so far...warning: picture overload

Scott has done a few fall crafts.  Outside.  In just his chonies.  Its been that warm.

At the pumpkin patch.  All Scott wanted to do was see the goats.

 Hot and miserable.  "I choose this one mom, now can we go!"

 When we got home from the patch this day we even ate popsicles, which is just wrong, we should have been having cider and hot chocolate.  But we did have wonderful visitors: Auntie Al and Auntie Kay!

Lil O in his Skeleton jams/costume

Studying his pumpkin

Feeling healthy again and loving Halloween

 Scott has been telling me for about a month that he wants to be a T-Rex.  Once or twice he has said other things like shark or alligator but mostly T-Rex.  Last year I waited until the last minute to buy his costume and got a killer deal. This year I was hoping for the same effect plus time just got away from me and whoops....no T-Rex to be found.  Luckily I found a dragon costume.  You know.  I know.  Scott does not know.  Please oh please just call him a T-Rex!

 And since most days he is a T-Rex anyways its only appropriate that he has been wearing his costume around the house!

My Halloween babies...

So hopefully I will have more fall fun to share with you in the next few days as we wrap up my favorite month!

"Let's do it!"

Scott, ever the enthusiast, has taken to saying "alright, let's do it!" to anything we ask him to do or if he wants to do.  "Hey Scott want to take a bath." "Alright, let's do it!" "Hey Scott want to go to the park." "Yeah, let's do it!" HI-LAR-IOUS!

I'm also thinking of starting a side business by lending him out to people who need a little fitness motivation. Last week while running:  "mommy, don't stop.  you need to go faster."  "mommy, fast again....FASTER."  "Mommy that man is running faster than you." (thanks buddy, he is also not pushing a double wide bob with 2 children over 20 and 30 lbs each, just for the record)  "mommy, good job, you are such a fast runner."  (that one was in the exact tone we tell him how fast he is when we have him running back in forth in the yard/park etc.  coming from a two year old it sounded a little patronizing, hopefully I don't sound patronizing when I tell him.)  He also reminds me every day that its time to go to cardio barre (even when it isn't), he really really really likes the kids room.   So if you need someone to get you in gear for working out...I got your guy!

7 months

 7 months old today!

Gettin' so big!!!  With Scott everyone told me how big he was for his age because he was such a chunky monkey!  Its now starting with Owen but I think for different reasons...he is SOOO long!  And what's funny to me is that he is bigger than Scott was at this age, just not so chunky.  Guess we are gonna have two big boys on our hands.

Owen continues to be such a happy kid.  Wakes up happy, gets fussy when he's tired but is generally happy the rest of the day.  He is trying to keep up with Scott in a major way and we try to emphasize to Scott how important his big brother job is.  Scott takes it very seriously and really looks out for his brother (when he is not tackling him, yes, it has begun...).  

Owen is pulling up on everything but thankfully not walking yet!!!  He's a pretty efficient crawler.  The step downs from our entry to our living room and our playroom to our living room are nearly killing me because Owen has taken more headers off them than I can count.  I'm excited for him to have those down...but then he will probably start walking and we will have the battle of the steps all over again.

Still not on solids.  I finally made a batch of zucchini and a batch of pears to freeze so at least we have some ready to go when we start.  I gave him a few tastes of the zucchini and I think it made him a little constipated last night (something similar happened last week with avocado), so that tells me he is probably not completely ready...so maybe another week or two and we will try again.

He is loving park time (and its finally cooled off a little so we go A LOT now, well until today...this week is supposed to be hot again, really? REALLY?  ENOUGH - fall...PLEASE!!!).  He loves the swings and the sand box and has even gone down the slide a few times with me!

He is also becoming SUCH a daddy's boy!!!  Brian gets home and he lights up like a Christmas tree!!!! And he hollers and leans out of my arms until Brian takes him.  And he watches every second when Brian and Scott wrestle and play, and I know he just  can't wait to get in there!!!

"Oh here mom, let me hold that for you!"

We love you little O!!!

These two...

 Just love these crazy boys...

Do we have the best dog in the world or what?  He takes so much abuse and always comes back for more!

Owen's looking so big these days.

The other day we hit the park twice (not uncommon) and we happened to go both when school was about to start (all the kids were playing outside before class started) and then again right when school was letting out and kids were walking home.  I couldn't help but fast forward to a time when both my kids will be in school (sniff) and I realized that whole time in between our park trips I would be without them.  I'm really going to miss them!  Don't get me wrong I'm sure my days will still be full with errands, work, cleaning, work, errands etc. but I couldn't help but feel sad, it really made me cherish these days I have with them even more.  Someday they will be spending most of their day without me so I'm enjoying every second right now!