This year Josh was really excited about Halloween. He asked me just about every day for a month when it was going to be time for Halloween. He was excited to carve pumpkins and even helped a little more than he has before.
Josh changed his mind about his costume several times before he saw a triceratops costume that he just had to have. He said that Connor was a stegosaurus, so I had two cute little dinosaurs. Josh named both the pumpkins we carved Charlie Brown and the smallest one Logan after his friend. I'm not sure if that's an honor or an insult to his friend!
Connor seemed to enjoy carving pumpkins too, except when his dad covered him in pumpkin guts. He didn't appreciate that too much, but insisted on sitting on my lap while I carved a pumpkin.
I really don't know what happened to the summer. It went by so fast and I can't believe the weather is cooling down already. I realized there are a lot of pictures from the summer I haven't posted so here they are. Some of this is kind of random!
For this being our first year doing a garden, I think we did pretty good. I learned not to ignore the squash or zucchini for very long, or this is what happens. I think I picked about 6 zucchini, 7 or 8 yellow squash, and all those green beans in one day. I was able to can the green beans, but some of the rest of that had to be given to neighbors or fed to the neighbors pigs! Next year I will only do one plant each of squash and zucchini instead of 2!
I am not sure how this zucchini managed to grow unnoticed for so long, but this one was huge. It weighed pretty close to what Connor weighs. Something of this size I thought should go to Manookin's newest pig, who I call Big Daddy (don't know what they call him) and is in the picture below. The pig is huge so we went out to the farm and Josh got to give him the huge zucchini and we helped feed the pigs.
He seemed to enjoy being in the pig pen with the little pigs.
I was outside one day doing some yard work or something when Gary came home from somewhere. I thought it was pretty funny that Sydney and Josh seemed equally happy to see him since they both ran up to the door of the car to greet him.
Sydney jumped right through the window, so Josh had to get in the car too. Sydney loves going places in the car.
One nice thing about summer is being able to give the dog a bath outside! I end up almost as wet as her.
This is Josh and his friend Logan. I think they must be getting excited for Halloween or something. Logan lives a couple houses down and they have been pals all summer long. It has been wonderful for Josh to have someone to play with that lives so close. They get along great. Logan's parents just put their house up for sale though, and I'm not sure if I was more disappointed or if Josh was. Josh wants to sale our house now so we can move with them and still be neighbors.
Josh recently acquired a pillow pet (thanks Grammy!!) that he's become attached to. He and Connor each have one that they trade around. It has begun to accompany him where ever he goes and he even buckles it up in the car.
Over the past couple months, Connor has acquired some new hobbies. One of them is spending time with the dog. He seems to like to sit next to the dog whether we've got the door open to the screen or whether it is closed. Connor seems to like to visit Sydney and sometimes chat with her.
Josh figured out how to hang on to Connor's fingers and help him walk around the house. They both think it is great fun. Connor loves to walk around with help. He took his first steps a few days after his birthday and is getting better and better at taking steps. He'll let go of furniture and take a few steps to me without hanging on to anything and will giggle as he does it. He thinks walking is great fun.
Connor loves to get in my Tupperware cupboard. He's so small that he fits a little too perfectly inside. At night when I go to bed sometimes I think about what a great job he does setting booby traps around my house. There seems to always be a pile of Tupperware on the kitchen floor, and all sorts of goo accumulated on the floor around his high chair. Then there are various piles of toys strewn about the front room and other areas of the house. I can't seem to keep up with him and at the end of the day when I'm too tired to clean it all up, I think to myself that if anyone ever tries breaking into this house I feel sorry for them. Between Connor's booby traps and the Marine I sleep next to, a robber just would not stand a chance.
Connor thinks it is quite amusing to pull the wipes out one by one. He knows how to open the container, and did it several times before I finally started to remember to put the wipes away after diaper changes. I have to be equally careful with boxes of tissue because he does the same thing with that too.
Josh started preschool a little over a month ago at the elementary school. It's twice a week for 2 1/2 hours and since we live in a title 1 area, it is free! Josh never lets Connor near the whiteboard (which is good because of the markers) but one morning while Josh was gone, Connor had this grin on his face that just told me he thought it was great that he was finally finding opportunities to get into his brother's stuff while Josh is at school.
Friday was Connor's first birthday. I can't believe he's already one year old. It went by so fast for me!
Waiting for his cake.
Josh was able to light the cake all by himself (I keep the lighter hidden for good reason).
Connor got his own personal cake to destroy but this was his other cake. It's supposed to be fish in the ocean. Josh had fun helping decorate the cake.
Josh was more than happy to help Connor out.
Connor was a little hesitant to put his hand in the cake to begin with, which surprised me. Whenever I feed him he's always trying to put his hand in the cereal or baby food and then he smears it everywhere. He complains every time I get out the wash cloth to wipe him down and doesn't mind being messy a bit. Once he got into the cake he really seemed to enjoy it!
Even Sydney got a taste of the cake. She normally doesn't get to come in and clean up after Connor, but since I was going to have to mop the floor anyway I figured she could join the celebration.
We met Gary at his work for dinner and to feed the ducks and open presents. I wasn't really sure what else to do for the birthday boy since he's not old enough to really care.
We seriously made it about two steps away from the parking lot before the ducks approached us for food. We didn't even go to the edge of the pond, which I guess is a good thing considering Josh nearly fell in last time. There were a few ducks that were not at all scared of us and were eating out of Josh's hand, nibbling on his fingers and of course he didn't even care. One duck kept grabbing full pieces of bread out of his hand and then would run off with it so the other ducks wouldn't get it. They were just like puppies and would jump up trying to get the bread from Josh. It was so funny to watch.
Connor had to be put out of the reach of the ducks. Gary was holding him and one duck jumped up and nibbled on Connor's toe. It didn't seem to bother him, but we didn't want to traumatize him on his birthday.
We had our family pictures done over since I didn't really like the other one that was taken. Connor was cranky the first time and they turned out much better the second time around!
We managed to sneak in a road trip while Gary was between semesters at school. It was really nice to get away and we had a lot of fun. We drove to Page, AZ and stayed the night with Jordan and Andrea, then got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Phoenix. We stayed with Aunt Kimi for a couple days and then drove to Southern California. We spent a couple days there and then drove to St. George and spent the night before driving the rest of the way home. It was a lot of driving, but well worth it!
I don't think we could have survived the drive without the DVD player and head phones made it nice. The leap frog toy Aunt Kimi gave Josh also really helped entertain him for long periods of time too!
As soon as we got to Aunt Kimi's we jumped in the pool. Josh would be content to stay in the pool all day. Connor didn't last as long since he was pretty tired. Just before we left he got over an ear infection and had finished his antibiotic. I was packing up getting ready to go when I picked him up and found that he was burning with fever. We took him back to the doctor before we left and found that he had a sore throat, so for part of the trip he was pretty miserable. He screamed for about 45 min. of the drive to Andrea and Jordan's but after that he did really well in the car.
We got to see Grandma and Grandpa Harkins. Last time we saw them, Josh was a baby. It was really good to see them again.
Everyone at Grandma and Grandpa Harkins house. We got to see Uncle Larry too. I don't have a picture of it yet but we also got to go to dinner with all Mark's kids. The last time everyone was together was before Gary and I were married so that was a lot of fun.
Four generations.
The kids and I got to meet Brad and Vicki for the first time. Gary hadn't seen them since just before his mission so it was good to see them too.
We went to the discovery center and Gary got to lay on a bed of nails.
Grammy had a really hard time convincing Josh to put his hands in the sand and get them dirty.
Poor Connor was so worn out but is such a little trooper. Despite being sick and not getting his regular naps, he was such a good baby. It was so nice to go on a little vacation and see everyone again. I wish we could do it more often!
As usual, I'm really behind on posting pictures. I'm a month late posting pictures from all the fun we had when Jared and Carrie came to visit, but thought I'd post the pictures anyway!
This is Connor meeting his cousin Audrey for the first time. She's a few months older than he is and had an endless supply of kisses for him. It was fun to watch them together. Audrey is going to love being a big sister!
We spent a few days in Richfield at Mom and Dad's. The neighbor remembered that everyone was going to be in Richfield when she heard the four wheeler going. She decided we needed to play with her Rhino too, so she brought it over. It was really nice of her!
After a couple days in Richfield we headed to Fish Lake to stay in a cabin one night. Gary missed out since he had work and school.
Fishing off the shore of the lake.
Fish Lake is so pretty. Josh seems to love the mountains as much as I do!
Connor and Grandma
We took Josh and his cousin Caleb out in the boat fishing. About two minutes after we put their lines in the water, Josh discovered the worms and that was much more fun than waiting to catch a fish. Caleb wanted the boat to go faster, so we reeled in their lines and took them for a boat ride. That was the extent of their fishing trip!
After Fish Lake, Jared's family stayed at our house for a couple days. Josh and Caleb had fun cruising around in his truck.
We all went to the zoo and this was the train ride at the zoo. It was super hot and very exhausting.
The kids had a pool party on our deck and we had a BBQ with the entire family.
Then we went to Zermatt Resort up in Midway for a night. Connor got to go swimming for the first time. His swimming suit went down to his ankles, but he didn't seem to mind. He liked the water even if it was a bit cold.
The resort had a little petting zoo set up. The goats were adorable and Josh really liked it.
Playing miniature golf.
Playing with the giant checkers.
To top everything off we did fireworks outside the resort. We had a lot of fun having Jared and Carrie come visit. It was a little vacation without having to go too far!
Josh changed his mind about his costume several times before he saw a triceratops costume that he just had to have. He said that Connor was a stegosaurus, so I had two cute little dinosaurs. Josh named both the pumpkins we carved Charlie Brown and the smallest one Logan after his friend. I'm not sure if that's an honor or an insult to his friend!
Connor seemed to enjoy carving pumpkins too, except when his dad covered him in pumpkin guts. He didn't appreciate that too much, but insisted on sitting on my lap while I carved a pumpkin.
