Crashing Hallowen Parties...and Winning

So here in Forest Grove in our ward we are the thorn among roses or the rose among thorns - however you'd like to see it.  Our ward is half native Forest Groveians and half optometry students.  I'm not sure what the trend is with LDS people doing optometry school here but it hasn't been broken yet.  We, however, are the only physical therapy students in the entire ward...probably even the stake.  We usually get shuffled into the optometry student category by all the natives - which is fine.  It's true - we are in the "student" department so it's no big deal.  Anyway - seeing how we're not official optometry students - there are a lot of events and activities that they have in their program/department which we obviously don't attend.  Also fine - because we're Physical Therapy students.  We do get invited to some of these events anyway seeing how we're the lone PT students and having one more isn't really a big deal.  They have a fun Halloween party every year where it's mostly just the LDS optometry students who go - most who are all our friends.  We decided to crash it so we could utilize our Halloween costumes for more than just one night.  So we were half invited really. Super fun.
Steve came up with the idea of doing the Super Mario Brothers theme - brilliant.  I could just picture Ross in his ADORABLE overalls, sweet green hat, and a little mustache to boot.  I was totally sold on the idea.  Plus it sounded pretty easy to put together - especially since I knew I was going to be the one in charge of getting the costumes sorted.  Steve is not accountable for having to do or remember things that are beyond absolutely necessary with how his school load is - understandable - but he can't complain about what I come up with.  Ross was pretty much taken care of since we already had a green shirt and overalls for him.  I went thrifting regularly looking for some white gloves and overalls for Steve.  When I searched online for them to buy - the cheapest pair were $30...not something I was willing to do for a Halloween costume at this point in our poor lives.  Unfortunately we don't live in the 80's or even 90's anymore when overalls were totally in a cool...I had a pair at least until I was 20 - yes I did admit that.  I finally found a pair that were just a tad off Steve's size, but figured he could deal with it or I could fix it if we needed to.  $4 total...have I mentioned I love a good thrift?  I found Steve his red shirt for $2 and then bought some fleece material for his and Ross's hats.  They were ridiculously easy to make - which helps with my lazy sewing tendencies.  They also turned out amazing - which also helps in my confidence with sewing. :)  We found some gloves and Steve and Ross were sorted.  Now I just had to sort out my being Princess Peach.  I got a few "jewels" from the craft store, wore a pink dress I had, stuffed my shoulders with socks to "princess it up" and crafted the crown myself.  I was quite proud! 

Some pre-party modeling.

Tough Mario Brothers

Ross kept trying to rub off Steve's mustache.

Luigi after having defeated Bowser and saving Princess Peach!  She's so happy!  It's just all in a day's work for Luigi. ;)

The clan.

Back to the story.
We go to the party which was totally fun.  I love it because everyone gets clever with dressing up and doing themes.  We had some dinner, chatted, and the kids got to play games.  I couldn't resist taking pictures of everyone's costumes - they were too great. 

Mandy and Jenn - our Smee and Captain Hook!  Our couple winners.

Cameron, Kim, and Wes - our building, fire, and trusty fireman on his ride. :)

We needed a little color from Bethany and Sean. :)

Baby Peach didn't want to make an appearance yet so we just stuck with the three of us. :)

Luigi is so over the pictures.  Mario is just his wing man.

Kendra, Karl, and Paige - Ursula, Prince Eric, and Ariel - the Little Mermaid.  Kendra crocheted the fin and starfish bra herself - AMAZING!  Paige won for best little girl's costume.

Hayley, Jason, and Brooklyn - our Bee, Spider, and cute Ladybug!

Steve, Rebecca, and Jack - a baker, his assistant, and an oven cookin' a bun. ;)

Jared, Claire, and Carter - Cat in the Hat with Thing 1 and 2 - brilliant!

Some adventure seeking super heroes!  Scott, Kristen, Skylar, and Parker - Superman, the Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Batman.  We were well taken care of that night in the safety department.

Jett  - our old man and his walker from "Up"

We tied for first with the Mullins' Peter Pan theme.  Oliver - who was an elder in my mission actually! - Maimee, Belle, Cache, and Piage - a pirate, Princess Tigerlily, Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, and a mermaid - we had to have the picture with Smee and Captain Hook though! :)

There was a voting station for best costumes, and to our surprise we tied for the best costume!...a little awkward since we technically weren't "invited" to the party...but winning a Halloween movie - Hocus Pocus - and a bunch of good candy felt too good to pass up.  PLUS - Ross just looked so stinkin' adorable in his costume.  Getting him to wear the hat was a bit tricky seeing how he'd rip it off the second we'd put it on him.  We tried modeling it for him, having his daddy show how fun it was to wear it...everything.  The only thing that worked was distracting him with the bribe of going outside.  After that - he kept it on pretty much the whole night!  The mustache took a bit of restraining actually...but once I started drawing it, it tickled so he didn't care.  We just forgot about the gloves because we felt we were winners already.  :)  

Family Pic!

The Brothers sharing some "flower power"

Maybe it's a mushroom that will make him bigger?

Got to love the "stache" and hat - my dreams came true with how adorable he looked!

The happy winners who had crashed the party!

Ross thoroughly enjoyed the party - seeing some of his friends, eating candy and cupcakes, and even riding his friend, Wes's fire truck.  Not bad. :)  Bring on Halloween!
     

Some Fall Weather and Puddle Hunting

With the weather turning colder and wetter, we've been staying inside a little bit more thanks to a fair weather mom who doesn't like her temperatures messed with.  However, on my hunt for rain boots (which toddler rain boots apparently are quite rare...yes I know - you're thinking, "Are you kidding me?  You live in Oregon - the stores should be raining with rain boots!"  And I would agree with you...but apparently chain stores don't really take into account the graphics of where you live.  Target for instance carries winter snow coats - but ZERO rain coats.  Wal-mart had a total of two cheapy looking rain "coats" - more like plastic made out of ziploc bags - all in the ginormous size for Ross.  Also - I guess girls like to puddle jump more than boys, because they had a variety of girlie rain boots at Target and zero boy ones...and Wal-mart just didn't have any.  Thrift stores have left my efforts fruitless as well.  I had a dream last night that a HUGE shipment of rain boots arrived at Wal-mart and I was finally going to get Ross a decent pair.  THAT'S how much I've been thinking about rain boots.) 
Back to the story.
I DID find Ross a pair of snow boots at Goodwill for $4 AND a raincoat at our beloved Thrift City for $3.  Rain boots are still at large.  
SO - we used snow boots while we went outside today since the sun peeked out for a little while even though it was still pretty cold.  Yesterday there were a good bunch of puddles, but while we were out exploring with Ross, our hunt for puddles was almost in vain.  We did find a couple though that made him happy.  Good enough right?  We had a nice walk, played on the playground with our good friend, Wes, and trekked back home afterwards.  Hooray for fall!

Mom is catching up on the walk - what are they looking at?

Of course it would be some sort of tractor!

Completely captivated.  If anyone is wondering what he is wishing for at Christmas it would be a real tractor of his very own...or at least to be able to watch a live one anytime he wants!

Looking for some puddles - think we found one!

And he thought it was totally lame!

Taking a break from the puddle hunt for a swing.

I took a ton of pictures last year of Ross in this swing...since he was an adorable little blob then that could ONLY do the swings at the playground.  This was the best I could get out of him in the swing this time.  I think he was just disappointed still in our puddle find.

Crunching some leaves

We may have found a puddle!

Brilliant - it even has the reflection factor.

Nothing like a good puddle.

Is it nap time?  What do you think?  I was trying to get a picture of his cute Halloween shirt...this is all he would give me.

And this...good thing he's still adorable though - especially after a good nap. :)

Pumpkin Carving...the Susan Boyle Effect

Last night we carved pumpkins with some of our friends for a pumpkin contest...well Steve and I carved our pumpkins.  Ross was a little too into eating the cookies, and it got too late.  He'll get to have his own carving session.  That kid has had late nights the last two nights!  I let him sleep in...and now as I write - he's STILL awake even after I put him down for his nap an hour later than normal.  
Soo...I had gotten a warty pumpkin - the proper name being a "knuckle head" pumpkin, and I was at a complete loss as to what to do with it.  Witch of course was the first thing to pop into the head, but I couldn't visualize what I should really do with it. I think I sat there just visiting and avoiding any carving for about 45 minutes due to my lack of creative thinking.  Steve was even nice enough to cut the top out and scoop out all the guts while I was in my stupor.  (Again - Steve the master pumpkin farmer is also a master pumpkin carver.)
I decided to take pictures of people carving their pumpkins to delay my own...

Love the Steve face. :)  Our friend Nate and Amy carving too.  Notice how my warty one is still barren.

Shawn and Bethany mapping out their plan.

Ross wanting more cookies - yes that fuzzy thing is my prego belly in the way.

Anyway - I finally decided to just go with the witch profile.  I tried to utilize the "warts" all around.  When I was done and showed it to Steve.  He just asked me what it was supposed to be - real encouraging right?  Like when you were a kid and showed your teacher your drawing and she would just ask "And what is it?"  I figured I was out of the championship of carving and settled back playing with Ross and waiting for everyone to finish.  

Ross trying to help fix my warty witch.

Can you guess who this is?  Right!!  Harry Pumpkin!  Scar, glasses and all!  Steve did an awesome job...I really love the glasses and scar. :)

A very artistic cat in the moon.

Who would have thought Pac Man and an Owl? LOVE it.

When they got their masterpieces done - they put candles in each of the pumpkins and turned out the lights.  I looked at my pumpkin and viola!!!  It had transformed into a pretty awesome witch silhouette!  The green warty parts even contributed in the dark.  I won't lie - we were all a bit wowed.  I felt like I hadn't failed my pumpkin this Halloween anymore.  

We awaited the judges decision.  It took quite a while.  I think he even had to take a cookie break to decide...that and we were all friends with high hopes who all vowed we would break the friendship if he didn't choose ours.  Just kidding. 

Tell me this witch doesn't look a million times better in the dark!  That's how witches are anyway - right?  Totally did that on purpose. ;) Still loving the lightning scar on Harry Pumpkin.

A close up of the cat in the moon - and a star!

Pac Man is going to eat that owl I think.

Finally the decision was made...I won!!  I was amazed!!  He told me it was the complete "Susan Boyle" effect.  In the light the pumpkin just looked drabby and sort of an okay witch profile...but put it in the spotlight...or put a candle in it - and it was a pretty amazing job!  I would like to attribute it all to dumb luck...I would love to say I was strategic in my carving...but that wouldn't be true.  I guess that pumpkin was just meant for stardom regardless of who was carving it. :)  

I would like to thank Baby Boo #2 for the inspiration for "Susan Boyle".  We're 28 weeks along here by the way. :)  Wahoo for the third trimester!

I won a pound of See's Candies - lets add some more to that baby bump!  And yes - Ross is EXTREMELY exhausted.  This was moments before he stuck his hand in my pumpkin and burned his finger...hopefully he won't have to learn that lesson again.

We of course finished the night off with Ross reaching in and burning his finger on the candle in the pumpkin of course.  You can't leave a party without a crying kid right?  He was fine - no real burns - and we really did have a great time.  Happy Halloween! 

A Maze in Grace Pumpkin Patch

So Friday after Steve got home to detox from his stressful test, I saw that it was not raining and thought we might capitalize on it since Saturday was supposed to have scattered showers all day.  
My friend Kim had told me about this pumpkin patch that sounded pretty cute so we ventured.  She was right.  They had little playhouses for the kiddies, a bunch of pumpkins to pick from and cut yourself, and the best part - a pirate ship ride!  We took a little while picking our pumpkins - Ross picked his own out even though Steve first questioned his judgement seeing how the stem didn't look so healthy.  (Side note: Steve is an expert pumpkin farmer.  He grew up growing and selling pumpkins from their garden - he was one wealthy little kid...I wonder what happened to all that money. ;) )  We all ended up happy with our choices however.  

Somehow Dora the Explorer was hanging out at the Patch...Ross had no idea who she was.  He was quite fascinated but didn't want to be alone near her at all.

Here's our pirate.

Trekking out to pick some pumpkins.

On the search...or running away?  I'll let you decide.

It started to get cold so we made Ross put on this cute bear hat we bought at Saturday's Market in Portland...this is what he thinks of it.

Still not happy...and Steve not looking at us.

Ross making sure Dad didn't try and pick a different pumpkin for him.

Cute boys. :)

We got on the pirate ship for our ride, and our captain had some great cheesy pirate jokes for us, we sang the Pirate's Life song, braved the bumpy waves, and even shot a canon at an opposing ship!  Half way through the ride, the rain caught up with us - putting us in a full blown storm at the seas!  We got a bit wet, but survived in the end.  All in all - a great pumpkin excursion. :)

I didn't get a picture of the pirate ship - lame me - but we did get a family pic in the rain. :)

Pumpkins!

Scrapes, Sore Throats, and Some Other Stuff

I'm shocked that October is already on the down slope.  It feels like we just got into October and should not be anywhere near on the way out.  The weather definitely feels like fall now.  I will say - last year it seemed like pleasant fall weather stayed around a little more.  The leaves still look gorgeous here, but there have been spurts of rain and wind that have taken a bunch of them down already.  My beloved golden trees from our old Parkview apartment have mostly all fallen already.  Pity.  I'll try to enjoy the rest of the fall as much as I can.

Recently Ross has become our little parrot.  He likes to try lots of words and will give it a good honest go when we put one up to him.  Quesadilla is a new hilarious favorite of his - pronounced more like "ca-dia" for him, and "applesauce" - which is actually pretty on the mark.  His pig sound is one of my favorites - he says it more like "hnk" while blowing the air out of his mouth.  He now will say the word "tractor" with a very masculine raspy throaty voice - because any sort of truck or tractor is serious business when it comes to him.  

On the playground - Ross has gotten much more daring to his mother's dismay.  He likes to charge to the end of the bridge or walking area and stop only when he gets right to the edge - not funny.  Climbing up on anything is another adventure that never gets old - chairs are his favorite....especially the one to the computer where he can climb up and scroll the mouse like a big kid.  Whenever he achieves his mountaineering skills at the peak of his goal he likes to shout "Howareya?!" to any and everyone.  I've tried to get it on video, but the fascination with the camera distracts him too much to capture the essence of it all.  Recently he took a fall at the playground trying to master some of the steps and ended up with a mouthful of wood chips and some battle wounds to tell the story.  He was fine within a few minutes, but not too happy about the wood chip snack.  He also took a fall off a picnic bench which scared him more than anything...I have a feeling I'll be having about a million more heart attacks before...well...I'm dead - worrying about my children.

Best face ever! "How are ya?!"

Sporting the battle wounds

Poor face

Playing with blocks

He LOVES to walk everywhere - he'll keep chanting at me from the stroller "walk walk walk walk walk" all the time.  We have a vague understanding that he's allowed to walk if he stays by me...which lasts a little while.  He'll learn someday right?  I can't get over how he's started trotting/running and exaggerates his hip twisting while he does it - so proud of himself. :)  He has the cutest little body!  

His latest check up left us with his head still in the 90 percentile, weight of 27.3lbs in the 75 percentile, and his height around the 30 percentile...short and chubby. :)  Although I feel like he's barely gained anything in the last few months - especially with his picky eating habits, and I'm pretty sure the nurse measured his height wrong.  Just saying. :) 

He loves to point out the moon, birds, trucks or "cucks", and airplanes ALL the time.  His little friend Wes is just about his favorite person ever next to his Daddy.  Whenever he gets to play he chants his name "Wes Wes Wes" over and over.  When Steve gets home Ross always looks like he's about to have a heart attack of excitement as he scrambles up to run to see him.  He is seriously Steve's number one fan.  In the mornings when Ross wakes up grumpy - the only thing that semi appeases him is if Daddy is holding him the whole time.  They are definitely little buddies, him and his daddy.

Little buddies - Ross LOVES Wes' firetruck shirt

Steve has been slaving away at school daydreaming to me all the time that someday he'll be done with school and will be happy making some money.  He works so hard - we're super proud of him.  He's gotten VERY into the political debates - even coming home early to watch them instead of doing homework.  I find the debates almost embarrassing for the candidates - it seems to me they've forgotten how to have a grown up debate and keep to answering questions and not tattling on each other the entire time.  It will be interesting to see how the polls turn out.  

Two weeks ago it seemed like a plague hit everyone around here - a flu bug was going around, and Steve got this horrendous sore throat that lasted over  a week.  School and sickness do NOT got together.  And crazy weird Oregon is the only one of two states that requires a prescription for the behind the counter psuedophedrine decongestant.  We've stocked up from Utah, but Steve used up all our resources - he's FINALLY on the mend, but it wasn't fun while it lasted.  I wonder if how BYU football's been doing has had anything to do with it. :)  He always seems so devastated when we've lost.  I think Steve has had more drama with BYU football than he's EVER had with me. :)  How's that for a relationship!  Haha.

Steve trying not to spread the germs

Can you feel his pain?  Is it his throat or football?

Cheese!

I've been trying to keep up with our house...which works sometimes, and keep Ross entertained.  I've decided to try and make our little girl's baby blessing dress and have just started it...wish me luck.  I'm no expert sewer, so we'll see how this goes.  Although whenever I put Ross down for that wonderful nap, I seem to end up taking one too lately!  This pregnancy thing is starting to take its toll I think.  Last week we walked to the city center and back twice one day - a total of about 4 1/2 miles...and when I got home the second time I was so exhausted from everything we did that day, I just sat down and cried....just because I was tired.  So silly, but I suppose I need to watch it a little more.  

I'm heading into the third trimester - which is nuts - and our little baby boo #2 is a little rolley polley.  She's definitely filling in all my old stretch marks and spaces.  I had a random dream the other night that I had had the baby and they were sending me home, but I made them take my blood pressure which was 246/something else.  I started swelling up everywhere and was so sad I couldn't go home yet.  Ridiculous!  

And - yes - wasn't General Conference amazing?  It went by way too fast, but afterwards it was a testimony to me why we have modern day Prophets today.  It's so wonderful to be reminded what is truly important in life and how to better protect our families from the outside evils of the world.  It was wonderful. I hope you loved it too!

Ross couldn't wait for General Conference to start. :)  That or he was super excited I got the camera out.  He likes to look at the pictures after.

I think he was trying to open his mouth as big as he possibly could right here...

Okay - maybe a little bit wider. :)

Conference drink break

I had no idea this was being taken - there's a prego belly.  I was 26 weeks along here. :)

Ross really loves General Conference!

 
Anyway - there's another update on our fascinating lives!