Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins at Grandma and Papa's house last night. Matt's brother and fam are in town for the weekend so we had a big carving party. It's nice making a mess at someone else's house instead of my own! My pumpkin is the way cool cat, by the way.

A couple of Luke funnies

Two funny things Luke said this week: 1. Paul and Elyse were fighting in the car and after the apologies, I tried preventing round two by making them sing a verse of "I Am a Child of God." We sing it every once in a while, but not often. Luke joined right in singing several of the words. When they were done, I said, "Wow, Luke. I didn't know you knew that song. Do you sing it in nursery too?" "Yup," he said. "Hmm," I said, "Sometimes you really surprise me Luke." Silent pause. "SURPRISE!" he yelled. I guess you had to be there, but I nearly busted a gut laughing. 2. Yesterday while they passed the sacrament, I was having a hard time getting Luke to hold still and keep his arms folded. I pulled him on my lap and clamped his arms together. He leaned his head back, looked up at me with one eye mostly shut and whispered, "Argh!" like a pirate. He did it like four times and I ended up being the irreverent one while I was trying to suppress a fit of giggles. At least he whispered it. I've decided to take the baby ticker off the blog because it is driving me crazy, especially when I click on how many days I have left. It'll kill me if I think of how long I've yet to go. Maybe the ticker will come back when I'm like 35 weeks pregnant.

Pumpkin Farm and 8 year old pics

We went to a local farm market up the road from us for our pumpkins this year, instead of one of those huge commercial farms with the hayrides, mazes, etc. Mostly because I just don't feel up to it. Frills aside, this place had the most awesome pumpkins. Over the years they've hand picked seeds from their pumpkins to breed ones that have long, thick, curly stems. They were beautiful and pretty cheep. We took some of Elyse's 8 year old pics while we were there. She took the longest picking hers out (close to half an hour), while Luke was determined to find the smallest one in the patch. He can carry it in one arm and so far has taken a bath with it and snuggled with it watching cartoons.

FHE Ghosts

Paul's been after me for a couple of weeks to help him make some ghosts out of some cotton batting he found in an old box. So today I was feeling well enough for a craft project, albeit a short one. We stuffed tissues with batting, drew on faces with a marker, and wallah, I had one happy boy. He decided he wanted to make new fhe markers with the ghosts, so we took down the old hearts and made ghosts for each member of the family. This might be fun to do for each new holiday if I can think of some cheap and easy things to make.

Luke and his potty

Luke is sort of thinking he wants to go in the big boy potty. Once or twice a day he pulls the seat out and sits on it, but nothing every happens. While I was in Boston, Matt said he actually went #2 in there once, but nothing since. I'm not pursuing it too hard at the moment--not until I can stomach it. But he sure gets a kick out of his potty seat. This is how he carries it to my bathroom from the guest half bath. Once he actually starts using it, we'll have to discourage him wearing it on his head.

The Kitchen is finally done

I finally finished the last few decorating touches in the kitchen. I had it painted months ago and put up the kids display area months ago, but the walls have been pretty bare. Here's a couple of pics to show what we did to finish things off. I'm so not a decorater, but I kind of like my kitchen. I wish I could somehow put our family tree somewhere in there, but I haven't figured out yet how to do it. For now I'm content, though.

Trip to Boston

Last week I flew to Boston to spend conference weekend with my sister Katie. She's going to the North Bennet school of ....I can't remember. Anyway, she's in the book binding/conservation program. Together we went to Salem, MA (where there was nothing to see or do, so don't ever waste your time), walked through the Longfellow house where Washington headquartered during the seige of Boston and later Longfellow raised his family, and we ate lots of yummy food. While she went to school one day I walked the feedom trail and saw tons of history: the site of the Boston Massacre, Fanueil Hall, Old Town Hall, a few graveyards with the important people like Paul Revere, John Hancock, the first govenor of MA, etc., the Old North Church (which is two doors down from Katie's school), Bunker Hill, and the U.S.S. Constitution. It was fun to get away for a weekend and pal around with my sister, but it's also nice to be home again with the kids and my husband.

Oh, and for those of you who don't know, I'm pregnant! It made sight seeing a little difficult, but my sister took such good care of me. And walking around in the fresh air is one of the best things for morning sickness. Baby is coming June 1st so I have quit a ways to go. I'm not sure how I'm going to make it through the holidays this year. Maybe a miracle will happen and the morning sickness won't last very long this time around. Keep your fingers crossed for me.