A Weeklong Celebration

Our Beautiful Little Ballerina

Halloween was a week-long event around here. We enjoyed going to a local pumpkin patch as a family the Saturday before Halloween to pick out our pumpkins. Maggie loved the hayride and also had fun playing in the sandbox, being toted around in a wheelbarrow, and playing with hay. The only sad part of the story is I never got around to getting a pumpkin carver and none of our large knives are serated (I know...cutting bread is a challenge...I need to buy a serated knife), so we didn't get to carve them before Halloween. But they now can double as Thanksgiving decorations on our front stoop! We'll just have to make sure we get rid of them before Christmas. Last year was kind of ridiculous.

On Tuesday, the librarians put on a darling little party for the toddler storytime group. Maggie and her little friends got to hear a Halloween story, make a craft, trick-or-treat around the library and across the street to city hall (where Maggie's daddy works), and have a yummy treat. Maggie loved it. One lady gave her a lollipop and Maggie held on to it the whole time, even while collecting other treats.

Friday afternoon, a friend in town had a Halloween party for the little ones. She did a great job and had crafts and little goody bags for all the kids. It was so fun to get a sneak peak at all the Halloween costumes.

Then, Friday night was our ward party. There was a chili/soup dinner, carnival games, and a trunk-or-treat. Maggie especially liked the trunk-or-treat. Some people gave her more than one piece of candy, so after she got her first piece, she started putting out her hand again, hopefully. She was pretty cute. Then when we started moving on to the next car, she would often say "dant-doo" ("thank you"). Here is Maggie on stage for a parade of costumes, trying her hand at the penny toss, and cake-walking with Dad.

Finally on Saturday the big day arrived. Halloween was fun and we began the day with a trip to the cousins, then visited a farm, and finally went trick-or-treating around our town square. Here are pictures of Maggie waiting with the other trick-or-treaters to go in, taking a break with Mom on a park bench, "ruffing" at a dog in a Halloween costume, and tasting her goodies with Dad. Halloween was definitely a success and Maggie's new word for the week was "coh-goh" meaning candy. But even though she loves candy, she's been good so far when we only give her one piece and then put it away for the rest of the day. (Or at least until after the next meal....:) )

Autumn Walks

It has been crisp and cool and this past week somewhat rainy. But Maggie and I took advantage of the break in the moisture today to take a walk. It was cold enough for a hat and gloves, so I pulled out Maggie's set from last winter. The mittens still fit fine (though at first I think Maggie was rather perplexed and frustrated by them); and though the hat no longer straps closed, it still covered the head, so we were good to go. Here is a picture of Maggie all bundled for our walk.

Maggie and I like to make our walks count for something, so today we walked to the bank for some business I had to attend to. Other recent excursions have included the library (for toddler time), the school (for a playgroup), the store (to shop) and the park (just for fun). We do also take pleasure walks without a destination, but for some reason having a destination just makes it more fun for me. We are enjoying the sweater weather, the fresh feeling of being outdoors, and the beautiful fall colors. Today Maggie found a pretty orange leaf as a souvenir. Don't you just love this time of year? It passes all too quickly for my liking.

What We've Been Doing

Well, obviously we haven't been doing much blogging the past couple months, so what have we been up to (besides eating cake as you learned previously)?

1. Celebrating my 24th (it's been over two months since that happy day, but I just wanted to share my candle victory with you all)--Mike's parents watched Maggie for us and Mike took me to see Pixar's Up which was fantastic, but for which I was completely unprepared emotionally. Luckily I had a pack of Kleenex in my pocketbook. We enjoyed lunch afterwards at On the Border. I had never been there before and was impressed with their food, prices, and service. Then we went back to our place and enjoyed a yummy ice cream cake provided by my family (yum!) and featured in the clip below.

2. Swimming--Yes, that's how long it has been since we wrote. You may remember that Maggie enjoyed the beach quite a bit, when we went in July with my family. She enjoyed the pool immensely as well this summer, both the large pool and her small splash pool. Here is evidence.

3. Visiting family--Two weekends at Mike's parents, where we enjoyed Labor Day and Conference Weekend for our church, and a week with mine, for my grandmother's funeral services and visiting. Maggie loves spending time with aunts, uncles, cousins, and, of course, both sets of grandparents!

With the Wanlasses--

At the Gotfredsons'--

4. Cheering the Cougars to victory--I don't know if I've ever seen Mike as excited as when BYU beat Oklahoma Labor Day weekend . I think he even started, but never finished a post about this. He watched half the game at his parents, then we had to leave to get Maggie to bed, so he listened to it on the way home on this choppy radio station where he could only hear about twenty seconds out of every minute. He rushed to the computer when we got home and excitedly watched the rest of the game. He was so excited with the unexpected victory, he stayed up late watching replays and couldn't sleep. I was very happy as well. Go Cougs! We hope you continue to have a great season, though we do lament that Florida State loss. Oh well. :(

5. Going to the pumpkin patch--Maggie and I broke in the season with a trip to the pumpkin patch with some other moms and babies in the area. Maggie loved riding in the wagon. However, she was not too interested in posing for pictures by the pumpkins. Here's what I got.

6. Shopping--Cars and clothes and couch

Much time was spent in September car-shopping. We must have test-driven five cars and looked at three times that, besides what we looked at online. But, alas, we decided (again!) that it would make more sense to wait a little longer and buy a bigger car, rather than a smaller hatchback, since Baby #2 is almost here and we do not want to have to strap three kids across one backseat if we end up having a third in a few years.

The car we almost bought. Isn't it cute? It was fun to drive too.

Maggie's fall wardrobe--we hit the sales to get Maggie some warmer clothes for the new season

The couch we did buy--we were able to find a very good deal on a sectional, so the futon is moving to the guest room and the family room now has a couch!

My new rocker-recliner--so we can rock in comfort with the new baby...and Maggie too!

7. Perfecting our pizza skills--Over the past several months, we have made a family tradition of Friday family pizza night. Mike has become the master at perfect crust. I make the dough in the KitchenAid and he adds some butter and shapes it just right so it comes out thin without being crunchy. It's nearly as good as being in NY.

I Love to See the Temple...

...we went there yesterday!

Mike and I went with his brother Robrt's family to the temple in Omaha. We planned to watch each other's kids while the other couple was inside the temple.

The trip started off on an exciting note when after only being on the road for an hour, Maggie got carsick for the first time. I was just thinking how she was being uncommonly quiet and peaceful, even for her, when I looked back and saw her looking a little pale. Next thing I knew, she was throwing up on herself and the carseat.

Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. There was a diner/gift shop just up the road where we were able to pull-over to clean up Maggie and her carseat. Being pregnant, I was even more sensitive to smell than normal, so I was fighting not to lose it myself when I was cleaning up the carseat. And I was kicking myself, because I had been meaning to bring a change of clothes, but had forgotten it in the rush of leaving. Still in a hurry to make it to the temple for our scheduled appointments, I rinsed off both her sweatshirt and t-shirt in the rather sketchy bathroom and tried to dry both with a combination of blotting with paper towels and the air dryer on the wall. Meanwhile, Maggie stood by shirtless and patient. She was such a trooper. We had been hoping to buy Maggie a new shirt there at the gift shop, but unfortunately Mike could find nothing in the toddler/small girl sizes. The sweatshirt had gotten the worst of it, so we put her t-shirt back on, cleaned up the carseat a bit more and on we went. Then we had to drive to the temple, rolling down the windows now and then to get some fresh air. Looking back it was kind of a funny situation.

We couldn't believe it when we saw snow on the ground as we got closer to Nebraska! And we had Maggie running in a t-shirt!! Fortunately, we had a blanket to wrap around her.

We pulled into the temple parking lot at the same time as Robert and Lisa got there. I grabbed my nephews and neices and their stuff and Robert and Lisa hurried in to make their session. We really couldn't have timed it any better if we tried.

It was fun for Mike and I to try our hand at managing four kids, two under two. There were Sarah, 5, Amy, 3, Neil, 10 months, and Maggie, 16 months. We took the kids to the visitor's center and they all did very well, though I think a few people there thought I was crazy, seven months pregnant with a baby and a small toddler. :) Amy and Sarah were good helpers and enjoyed watching a movie there and looking at the displays. Maggie kept giving her cousins hugs, nearly knocking Neil over in her exuberance. She really liked looking at the displays with the bigger girls and helping a friendly missionary push a carpet sweeper over the carpet. Neil was very good for me, despite getting a little hungry there at the end, and enjoyed crawling around and playing with blocks. We all had a fun time.

Then we headed back across the street to the temple and switched places with Robert and Lisa. It was wonderful to be in the temple again. I had been trying to get there for several months, but it seems every weekend the past several months has been scheduled with holidays, family gatherings, or church assignments. I was glad we finally got to go and was grateful things worked out as well as they did. I hope to go again before Baby #2 makes her appearance, because after she comes it will probably be hard to get there again for a while.

As for pictures, if I had realized that I had my camera with me earlier, I could have gotten a cute picture of all the cousins in the visitor's center or in front of the temple, but I was too busy being mad that I forgot it to check for it. So this is what we got--a picture of Maggie and I in the temple parking lot (above) and a bunch of random shots at IHOP afterwards. What can you do?

Pictures from left to right: Amy, Lisa and Neil, Sarah and Maggie, Mike and Robert (I think Robert likes having his picture taken), and me and Mike (courtesy of little Sarah)

For the record: We did not make Maggie drive all the way home smelling like throw-up. We stopped at Target and got her a new shirt.