Halloween & Fall Pics!

We had a great Halloween yesterday! At lunch time Grandpa Mike came over and had lunch with us. He brought Logan 6 snickers and 4 of them were gone by the time Dave got home from work. Logan and Grandpa got to play trains and had a fun time! It was great to see him.

Logan was devastated at the idea of carving our pumpkins, so we didn't this year. We'll just leave them on the steps to decorate until Thanksgiving is over, or until they rot. They made for a cute photo shoot though! Logan lined up the pumpkins and wanted to sit in the middle of them.

We had to take a few breaks from posing to crunch in the leaves, but over all we got some good pictures. He had fun picking his costume and telling everyone that he was a fire man!

I asked Logan to say "candy!" and this is the silly face we got with candy.

We went to the trunk or treat at our ward building and Logan had so much fun! The first 5 cars, he was pretty shy, but once he got the hang of it, he would say "Trick or Treat" and even "Thanks" when he got candy. He was very honest too, only taking one at a time.

After Dave and Logan did a round, they came back to the car and helped hand out candy. After that we drove back to our street and trick or treated the old people on our street. One lady had a whole scary show she put on for Logan (she was dressed as a witch). After a few minutes Logan decided she wasn't giving him candy, so he started trying to give them to her! The lady was so impressed she gave him a stuffed animal along with his candy. He was very impressed with the whole concept of the night!

This morning Logan and I decided to go play in the leaves! Usually at this time of year we have tons of leaves, but this year, they're still hanging on the tree. So we raked the whole yard so we could have something to play in.

He would run back and forth in the leaves yelling "CRUNCH!" Then I would tell him to take a picture, and he ran right over to the tree to pose.

I asked him to sit by my pumpkin and he started singing a song about pumpkins. He loves to make up songs right now. Most of the time it's about Dave, but this one was very fall-ish. It was so cute.

I couldn't get him to smile at me in this pose, there was just too much to enjoy.

We'll probably go finish up the leaves this afternoon with Dave and see if we can get a few good pictures of him sitting on the fence.

Other than that, we've had a fun week. Tuesday Dave's parents treated us to a Halloween concert put on by the Utah Symphony. She babysat Logan so we could go out. We grabbed a quick dinner before, and walked over to the concert hall. It was fun, and we got some great costume ideas for next year. I have to get Dave to commit to one, and I'll start sewing. Well, maybe in a few months. After the baby is born and he's sleeping through the night.

Baby #2: Coming Soon!

This week has been a crazy one! Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment and was told I've started progressing and could have the baby any time (she gave me a week to a month). I was dilated to 2 cm, 80% effaced, and the baby is at a station 1. So we are moving in the right direction. I'm hoping for 2 more weeks before the baby joins us, just so I can get a few little things done. Nothing necessary, just nice to have done things. I'm not due for 3 more weeks, so It would be nice to follow that time table.

Wednesday my mom kidnapped Logan for most of the day and I got some time to myself! It was nice to get some sewing done. I also got 4 gluten free freezer meals cooked and in the freezer. I'm sure these will be helpful after the baby is born. I wanted to have something put away for the first few weeks of new baby survival. 

Dave's sister also had her first baby girl (Morgan) Wednesday, and we were able to go meet her on Thursday after Dave got off work. She is so cute, with chubby little cheeks! Holding her was fun, but she's bigger than Logan was. It was surprising how much difference 3 lbs makes.

We're done with the front door! We got the 3 coats of polyurethane done this weekend, and fortunately it was such a warm, sunny Saturday that we were able to get the door up before dinner that night. I'm so glad it's done, but it was so much work! Now we're officially done with everything on my list of things to get done before #2 joins us.

Sunday we had a casual day, which was nice. After lunch we laid down for a little while during Logan's nap. I read and Dave decided to take a nap. After 30 minutes of hearing Logan playing with his stuffed animals, we heard his door open. 

He stopped in front of our bedroom door (Dave whispered "pretend you're asleep", so we did). We then heard Logan sneak off to the kitchen. One of the chairs was pulled out from the table, we heard the crinkle of plastic for a few minutes, then he headed back to his room and shut the door. Followed by his going to sleep. He's been skipping nap time a lot lately, and I can't say I'm happy about that! I would prefer if he kept napping at least until the baby is sleeping through then night.

We made brownie sundaes after dinner, and Logan was just in heaven! Dave wants to start doing a special dessert on Sundays, and Logan is in full support. He finished off his bowl and said "Mommy I love ice cream! More please?" How can I say no to that?

A Fun Week!

It's been a fun week! Monday we did Joseph in Egypt for FHE and Logan had so much fun playing with the felt board people after the story was over. Sometimes I wonder if he's getting the point behind our FHE lessons, but we keep doing them.

Wednesday we took the car into the shop to have the rear struts and tires replaced. I'm glad we could get that taken care of before the baby is born. The mechanic told us last time we took them in to get it done soon, so better now than have it break down later.

Thursday Dave texted in the afternoon inviting Logan and I to meet him after work. So we made a picnic dinner and jumped on the train heading down town. Logan just loved the train ride, that in itself might have made it worth the trip. Since we drop Dave off on the train about once a week, Logan was so excited to be on the train "like daddy". He loved watching everything zoom by.

We ate our picnic dinner then headed to the Gateway (mall). Logan's favorite part of our roaming was visiting Barnes & Noble. He loves books, and they have a Thomas the Train set. Logan played for at least 45 minutes until we had to drag him away. We also really enjoyed the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Logan chose a green rock candy stick which made a huge mess, but was fun.

Friday we were supposed to start sanding down the front door, but kinda got distracted with relaxing and didn't get around to it. I did get the house cleaned up and everything prepped for Saturday dinner, but that's about it. Boy we regretted that on Saturday!

We woke up early Saturday to start sanding the front door around 9 am. Dave used his electric sander first to get the polyurethane and old stain off while Logan and I mowed the lawn and picked raspberries. Then I started sanding down the trim by hand while Logan played with his cars on the gazebo. We hand sanded until about 3 when we encountered the really intricate trim.

We had to use a chemical stripper for that area. We finally got everything off (and the stripper dried) around 5, put the first coat of stain and ate dinner with the "girl missionaries". We didn't get the stain completely done until 8 pm! We had to let that coat set up for an hour before putting the door back on and called it a night. What a nightmare!

We decided to wait on the polyurethane coating until next weekend. It will take 3 coats since this is an exterior door, and you need to let it set up for 4 hours between coats. So we plan to start that first thing next Saturday and hopefully be able to at least hang the door by the time we go to sleep. Hopefully the door isn't tacky still, but we'll see; it's supposed to take 24 hours to fully cure. I told Dave I can sleep in the hallway and guard the glass door over night if we have to. This was my crazy idea after all!

It's been insane the work we've had to put into this, but it ended up costing us about $50 to do (compared to the $1,000 it would cost to replace with a similar wood door). It looks fabulous and it isn't even done, so I'm glad we did it. Dave decided on a dark brown color this time (the old stain was honey looking) and I love the new look. I just hope it will last for a LONG time. I so don't want to do this again any time soon!

Pumpkin Picking!

Saturday we went Pumpkin Picking! We told Logan we would go after his nap, and all day long he talked about what kind of pumpkin he was going to pick. "I get a small pumpkin, Mommy get a middle pumpkin, Daddy get a BIG one."

But when we got there, he was singing a different tune! He wanted every pumpkin he could pick up, big or small! Finally he decided on a pumpkin with bumps for me and a medium pumpkin for him (it was the biggest he could pick up). Dave picked a pretty big one, and we called it good. Logan thinks both my and his pumpkin are his, and he was appalled when I told him in a few weeks we would carve them. "No cut MY PUMPKIN!". So we might not end up with jack-o-lanterns this year. We'll see.

About a month ago I made a huge list of everything I wanted to get done before baby #2 is born and we've been slowly chipping away at that list. So these little cleaning/organizing projects are consuming most of Logan and my free time. He's enjoying the crazy things I decide we have to do (his fave was washing the doors and walls). Since I'm due in 5 weeks, I'm starting to feel a little bit of a rush to get it all done. This weekend we did one of the "family projects": going through the shed and got rid of some stuff and re-organized it.

Next weekend we're hoping to sand down the front door and re-stain it. The front door gets a ton of sun, so it really takes a beating. If anyone has recommendations on the best way to sand it down and longest lasting products for re-staining/sealing we would love to hear them. We don't want to have to do this often!

Sunday I subbed in primary for the 4 year olds, and I was reminded how much I don't love teaching in Primary (I've actually only taught nursery...)! The girls were fine, but had zero attention span. We spend the second half of class coloring flowers to give to Bishop because I couldn't keep them focused on the lesson any more. I'm just glad to go back to teaching RS in a few weeks!

Logan also decided yesterday to have a Halloween fashon show for us. We have two costumes he's supposed to be picking between (a tiger and a fire man), so he crawled around growling as a tiger for about 45 minutes before switching to his fireman costume (which he wore for the rest of the night). I don't know how he's going to pick on Halloween between just one!

That afternoon it rained the whole day, so we spent a relaxing day enjoying each other. We watched Toy Story (Logan's first time for that one), and Logan insisted we pop some corn to eat with it. We tried to teach Logan UNO. He didn't get the matching colors or numbers, so we ended making 4 piles (one for each color), and he would organize the whole deck by color. We read a million books, made a batch of Muddy Buddies and just had fun.  I could use a few more Sundays like that!

Conference Weekend

We've had a fun week! Friday night was a rough one for Logan (I think he's teething again). He woke up screaming bloody murder around 4 and refused to go back to bed for a while. So Logan ended up in bed with Dave and I ended up sleeping on the bed in the basement.

I was woken up at 9 to a little voice beside me saying "Mom, can I snuggle with you?" We snuggled for a while and Dave came down to tell me breakfast was ready! What a nice surprise. We had eggs, hash browns, and sausage. We spent the rest of the day watching Conference.

That night we headed down to my parent's house to enjoy Priesthood Session and girls night! The ladies headed out to DI followed by pizza. The guys went to the Stake Center followed by Panda Express. When we all got back together, we put the kids to sleep and played games. It was a fun night.

Sunday was full of great food and more Conference! We headed home after the second session and went on a walk and played at the playground across the street. When we got back, Dave's parents stopped by and we had some lemon cake with them before putting Logan to sleep.

Monday we did Daniel & the Lion's Den for FHE. Logan was quite impressed that the hungry lions didn't eat Daniel. Kinda a rough story to explain to a little guy, but he didn't seem to be upset over it.

This morning Logan and I installed a new towel bar in the bathroom. Dave and I wanted to get a second on for the bathroom for when we have two little guys running around. Even though we have a second bathroom/bath, we generally use one bathroom for all bath time. When we went to the hardware store, we discovered they sell double towel bars. Someone wanted to be in the picture so bad... I couldn't help adding one with him posing.

The one we got only sticks out 2 inches more than our last one, and it looks better than having two hanging on the wall! I feel silly for being so excited about a towel bar, but I hung up our towels and am so excited to get to use it. Logan had so much fun helping me put it in too.

I've also been working on a stocking for boy #2. I realized I probably won't want to work on this right after he's born, so I'm trying to finish it before he's born. I have the gingerbread man appliqued onto the fake leather, now I just need to cut out the remaining pieces and sew them all together. Probably will only take an afternoon, if Logan's good for his nap!

I'm excited to have a fire place this year and I'm hoping to convince Dave to make a mantle to go above it so we have somewhere to hang them. If not, I'm sure I'll make something else work!