The Actual Halloween

Well we did actually carve Ross's pumpkin.  Steve did the dangerous work.  Ross tried to put the pumpkin guts back inside the pumpkin...it reminded me of that part on It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown where Lucy rolls a ginormous pumpkin into their house and starts to carve it - pulling out the pumpkin guts, and her brother, Linus, yells out that he didn't know she was going to kill it and starts crying.  Haha...but Ross didn't cry - he just wanted to put everything back where it goes. :)  

Ross was way more interested this year in what Steve was doing.

Helping to scoop out some guts.

Ewwww!

The pumpkin all finished.  Note - Ross's tractor in the background.  Those things are ALWAYS close by wherever he goes.

The finished works!

Mine and Steve's pumpkins were a bit squishy, moldy, and soggy by the time Halloween came around since they were out in the rain for about a week. :) Ross's was nice and fresh though.

We got to the trunk-or-treat late - I had stocked up this time on the candy, but since we were late - we were left with quite a bit left over unfortunately.  The weather held up for us at least which was nice.  Reminiscing from last year - my cute little rolley polley pumpkin is such a little boy now!  Oh my heart - why is he growing up so fast?  

I would love to know what Ross was looking at. :)

Sadly, last night was the mother of all tantrums from this little boy during dinner.  I had made ravioli - which he actually likes when he takes a moment to try it - but he had his heart set on goldfish...which wasn't an option.  The tantrum that followed wasn't pretty peeps - it wasn't pretty at all.  Why are we already in this phase?  I will say - tantrums haven't been a regular thing yet - but getting sneak peeks aren't something I'm into either.  I will give Ross credit though - tonight we had broccoli potato soup for dinner and he went to town on it.  He is quite the soup eater...he may be an old man at heart.  He also loved repeating the word "broccoli" every time he took a bite.  Needless to say it was much more pleasant dinner conversation this time around.

So a bi or tri-weekly routine we have in the mornings is making green smoothies.  Ross has to help...most of the time he just demands the banana that is supposed to go in the smoothie.

Starting on the spinach while mom's not looking.  At least he's putting it in the blender and not trying to trash it. :)

Ross explaining to me how blenders and smoothies work.

Also note - this is right when we wake up - Ross is WAY cuter than mommy in the morning. :)

We also survived Stake Conference.  Ross lasted about an hour and forty five minutes.  Not bad - I will definitely take that.  AND, I also got to catch some of the talks.  Win-Win I think.  Hooray for happy Sundays that way. :) 

Baby Parties

I'm sure I've talked about how our ward is one of those with half consisting of  the actual native Oregonians, and then the other half are all young students...with young families.  Meaning - BABIES BABIES BABIES.  Our Sacrament meetings are always "full of life" however you would like to take that. ;)  Ross is a great contributor to that by the way...today is Stake Conference - every parent's dream for their active toddlers who can barely make it through one hour of Sacrament meeting - let's double it!  I do love the talks at Stake Conference though so hopefully I'll get to catch some of it. :)

Anyway - we have lots of people who move in and out - and recently a family moved in who are also from our beloved hometown of Mapleton.  Well - they've been living in Oregon for a while, but just moved to our neck of the woods.  I went to high school with Nick - seminary to be precise, and his wife, Kristin is having twins!!  Can you imagine moving and being due for twins within a couple months of that.  I decided to throw her a little baby shower so she could get to know some more people and we could all get excited about babies and their adorable little clothes and accessories.  I think it turned out well for the most part.  I was running around a little bit and, also being pregnant, spaced taking pictures.  I only got a few - so don't judge the quality. :)

So made Kristin's little theme for the shower "Two Peas in a Pod" so I got the idea to do cake balls and pair them up.  I was really proud seeing how this is the third time I've made cake balls, and it was probably the most successful I've been.  Also - I am not an artist - so this is a big deal for me!. ;)

The spread. :)

So I told everyone to get their plates of food and THEN decided to try to take some pictures of the decorations...smart me.  I should have taken better pictures of this cute sign my friend Kim made that said "Two Peas in a Pod".

We played a nursery rhyme game, name as many pairs as you can think of, guess the mommy's belly size, and pregnancy concentration (which is up on the wall). :)

A couple of pea pods. :)

Some delicious homemade oreo cookies made by my friend Kendra.  Kristin's having a boy and a girl!

 

Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday!

So Steve was very determined to reorganize all our stuff in preparation for family visits coming up...as well as a new family member making her appearance.  I decided I would support him.  Steve is the king when it comes to being motivated to organize.  He's much more OCD about it than I am...whereas I'm more into making sure things are actually clean for the most part.  To Steve, cleaning means organizing...and to me, cleaning means cleaning - organizing means organizing.  We figure out how to communicate somehow though. :)  
We went through all our under-the-stairs stuff as well as the "spare oom" - which is our current extra bedroom (title affectionately taken from Narnia).  We did some actual cleaning (with some persuading from me) as well.  Ross gets really enthusiastic about helping - which I absolutely love.  He helped with a lot of the chores...and helped us go back over some of them after he had tried his hand at them too. :)

Ross loves using the broom...especially to sweep the carpet - which is obviously is exactly what we use the broom for!

Maybe I should have vacuumed AFTER he swept the carpet?  Ross sure has some muscle power going on in his arms.

He is a serious carpet sweeper...with killer legs - just look at them!

Can't forget to sweep the upstairs carpet - very important.

He's very dedicated.

Helping dad "reorganize" some movies.  We had to get him dressed - we don't want all the ladies swooning over his muscular arms and killer legs all the time!

I LOVE this face!

Deciding where to put the movie...hmmmm.

  Ross now loves to try any and every word we give him...it may come out as a bunch of slobber and mumbles at times, but it's VERY entertaining and totally adorable.  He has definitely mastered the word "muscles" with a cute little lisp on the s's.   Steve has taught him to flex when he says it too...such boys.  "Bulldozer" is also a fun one to say - more like "bullbossa". Ross prefers to walk everywhere possible and insist on helping with everything we're doing - especially if we're not paying attention to him right that minute - even though he was quite content playing with his toys a second ago without any of your help.  He's learning all of his aunts and uncles names as well.  He's SUCH a little boy - and too much fun!

And P.S.  Thanks to my friend Kristin, I finally found some rainboots for Ross - and not for an arm and a leg either!  Just an arm because they were 50% off. ;)  Fred Meyer was definitely my friend yesterday! :)

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!