Carving The Pumpkin

Happy Halloween! A couple of weeks ago we carved our Jack-O-Lantern. I have always loved carving pumpkins, but the older I get, the less I enjoy getting my hands dirty. Shaun did most of the work this time.


Spencer was excited!


And Ethan was too, but this is one of I think two times he stuck his hand in the pumpkin. He doesn't love getting his hands dirty either. He spent most of the time "mixing" the seeds that were on the table with a spoon.


Spencer enjoyed playing with...


and tasting the leftover pumpkin. (And, yes, he does wear that shirt a lot.)



And here's the final product. Ethan designed the eyes. I designed the nose. Shaun designed the mouth and tweaked my nose design (it was supposed to be an oval). Isn't he cute?

Lately

I have gotten behind on by blogging so I am playing catch up today. Here are some pictures of what's been happening in our house lately.
Ethan tried to take Spencer's shirt off again. He didn't seem to mind...



But Daddy didn't like that Ethan was undressing Spencer, so he showed Ethan how it felt. He wasn't so happy with that.


The weather is cooling so it is finally time for Spencer to strut the Carhartt's that he got for his birthday. I think he looks pretty cute in them, but I need to find a shirt that matches better.


Shaun bought some Pop Rocks a while ago and shared them with the boys. I know this is way too many pictures of boys eating Pop Rocks, but they turned out so well.
As you can see, Ethan was pretty excited to try them.


Here's Spencer's first go at them. I love how happy Ethan is to watch him.



I think it's hilarious that Ethan is opening his mouth here while Spencer is being fed. Why do people do that (like while feeding a baby)?


The Pop Rocks were definitely enjoyed...


Even by Daddy.


Edit: Oh, yeah. Ethan's favorite word to yell out at random (even in public) since he started potty training last week is the name of a part of the male anatomy. And it's not Adam's apple!

St. George/Mesquite Trip

We spent October 3-12 in St. George and Mesquite to visit with family. Grandpa and Krista were visiting from Canada and it was fun to see them. We even surprised them and went down a week before we told them we were going to. We were so busy having fun that we forgot to take very many pictures, so there aren't many to share.
One of the reasons we went to St. George was to see Aunt Kayla run in the marathon. She did great and looked much better than I would have after running just 1 mile. Here she is with Grandpa after the race.


And here are Spencer, Krista, and Grandpa after the race.


Ethan and Addie were inseparable. They really love playing together. Here they are holding hands while riding on their Daddy's shoulders. It was pretty cute.


One day we spent some time playing in the park with Journey and Addison. Spencer was a very brave climber. He went all the way to the top of the playground.


After some convincing and examples from his cousins Ethan finally decided to go down the slide all by himself. It was hard to get him to stop once he started.


These are just random pictures I liked from the park.



The ice cream truck came by while we were there. Yum!


We also spent some time at the pool and made our first bowling trip as a family. I actually got second place under Krista, so the girls totally dominated! We had a great time on our trip. We love hanging out with family and the weather was so nice down south.

Tales Of The Potty

Note: This post is mostly for me. If you don't want to know almost every detail of Ethan's first few days of potty training, I suggest you stop reading now.
It looks like we are truly potty training now. This has been a long time coming. Not only because Ethan is almost 3 1/2 years old, but also because we started talking about the potty with him almost a year and a half ago. He has shown some interest before now, but he has only gone pee in the potty once before this week, and it was sort of an accident then. Since Wednesday (when he first decided to wear underwear) he has only worn a diaper twice. The first time was Wednesday night because I was afraid to let him sleep without one. The second time was Friday evening because he was refusing to go potty after holding it all day and he wanted a diaper. We had to go to the grocery store so I gave in. That night, though, he went potty twice before bed and asked to sleep in underwear. He stayed dry ALL NIGHT! On Saturday he went potty in the morning then held it all in (except a few drop here and there) for almost 10 hours until he finally went potty at about 7:00 pm. He wet his bed last night, but he is getting more and more used to going on the potty. I still have to coax him most of the time. Sometimes he sits and sits and doesn't go and other times it happens pretty quickly (like after holding it for 10 hours). Pooping on the potty will be a whole new fight, but at least we are getting somewhere. I have been giving him Hot Wheels cars (that I got for this purpose at Christmas time last year for really cheap) every time he goes, and I only have one left. I hope he doesn't lose all motivation after we run out!

Spelling

This morning Ethan and I were lying in my bed and I asked him to spell a word for me. He didn't want to. Instead, he decided to turn the tables on me. He asked me to spell words for him to repeat. This is how it went:

Ethan: Spell door.

Me: D

E: D

M: O

E: O...

and so on.

After Ethan searched around the room for several things to spell, he turned to names. The first name was Spencer.

E: Spell "Usher" (Spencer)

M: Ok, S

E: S

M: P

E: P

M: E

E: No, Mommy, U!

M: Oh, you want to spell Usher?

E: Yeah, Usher.

I guess if you can't say a name correctly there's no reason to spell it correctly either.


Oh, and by the way. He's wearing underwear right now because he wanted to (to get a car). Yay! He has also sat on the potty twice today. No pee in the potty yet, but I now have some hope.