November 2005 Archives

11-13-05

It's November already?!!? Thanksgiving is just a week and a half away and Christmas is coming fast on it's heels. I feel like I just got used to the nice Fall weather and now Winter is starting. Time is definitely flying!

For one of our pre-Halloween FHE's we went and picked out our pumpkins for Jack-o-lanterns at a pumpkin patch in Farmington. They had pony rides, but the horses were being put away right as we got there. (Seth was highly disappointed) We'll have to plan better next year. Seth helped me pick out a nice pumpkin for us to carve together and James picked one that was nearly all green for his. The pumpkin patch also had a mini maze made out of hay bales and a "haunted house" that was very kid friendly. The kids had a blast telling us how spooky it was and daring everyone to go in and see it. I think we may have started a tradition to do this every year.

My sister Amy is home early from her mission. She was released for medical reasons and the mission president felt like she had completed all the things that she needed to on her mission so she is officially done now. I think she is quite disappointed that she won't be going back, but I know the Lord has great things in store for her here. She has been busy getting her life back in some semblance of order, applying for jobs and working getting her schooling started up again. I am selfishly glad that she is home. I really missed her!

The Saturday before Halloween we went to my Aunt Johanna's annual pumpkin carving party. We had a nice lasagna dinner and then the pumpkin carving mayhem began. Seth "helped" Jenni carve her pumpkin by hitting it with a mallet over and over again. I found a cute pattern for a lion face pumpkin so I carved that on our pumpkin. James did his in the shape of the Linux penguin. I think that my cousin Kenny and his wife Angie took the top honors with their intricately carved patterns. Sophie and Maggie has beautiful princess pumpkins and my brother Chris carved the scariest and most creative one by carving the words "BIRD FLU" into his. Ha! Ha! He's so funny!

Seth enjoyed his first real Halloween experience this year. I was able to force-convince Seth to wear the ultra cute Darth Vader costume I bought for him, he was very reluctant to let me put it on him. He looked so great and the fact that he got to carry around his light saber toy was a big selling point for the costume. I sort of wish that I had waited a little while before I bought this costume for him, because the week after I bought it he started going around the house pretending to be Buzz Lightyear and saying "To infinity and beyond." It made me want to go out and get him a Buzz Lightyear costume instead. Anyway, James' office held a desk-to-desk trick-or-treating party and we went to that. It was so great. Lots of candy, not a lot of walking and no weather to deal with. I think it was the ideal trick-or-treating! Seth was a little unsure about what to do at first, but caught on pretty quickly when he realized that people would just hand him candy if he said trick-or-treat. He got quite a haul! There were a few kids there who must have gone around the office 2 or 3 times, because their candy buckets were overflowing. I was very proud of Seth because he was one of the only kids there who was saying thank you after getting candy, we didn't even have to coach him to say it most of the time. I'm glad he is so polite. After the office party we headed over to my parents house for dinner and more Halloween fun. We made caramel apples, listened to spooky music, had a nice dinner and then went out for more trick-or-treating. Seth had almost two buckets full of candy by the end of the day. I think he liked the outdoor trick-or-treating too, it was fun for him to be with his cousins and knock on doors. It was a fun, full day and we arrived home tired, but hyper from all the candy and sweets.

James has been busy with work and commuting. He is really bummed out since the time change because he leaves when it's dark and comes home when it's dark. He has also been working hard at winterizing our yard. It's been even harder lately since every Saturday has been rainy and he can't do much yard work when he gets home from work because it's too dark. Most of our flowers are just barely showing signs of distress from the cold so we have had great color in our beds for several months now. I think this week will be the last though. We need to get out there and cut everything down before it starts snowing. James also went to a huge paintball scenario game this last month. There were over 100 people there and they had a loose re-enactment of a D-Day battle. He had a great time and came home with multiple welts and bruises to show off.

I have been busy keeping the house in as much order as I can. I get pretty tired and not everything I want to get done gets done. I have 9 weeks left for this pregnancy and I already feel huge and ready to pop. The baby loves to have kicking sprees whenever I feel like resting. I think he is going to be more active than Seth was. We still haven't thought of a name yet, but it's always at the back of my mind. We have decided to keep Seth in the same bedroom and move the baby stuff into the guest room. I have most everything ready for the move, I just need to get my act together and make all the changes that need to be made. James' company decided to change their medical insurance plan this month and they don't cover the doctor and hospital that I was going to. I called a new doctor and have and appointment with her this week. I hope she's good because I really don't want to change doctors again this late in the game. Oh well, it's better than paying full price for health care.

Seth has been working hard at being a two year old. He definitely wants to be independent and I usually have to let him try everything on his own before he'll let me help him. His speech is getting much clearer and other people are starting to understand him without me there as a translator. He decided that he was going to go up and down our stairs one day and does it all the time by himself now. Luckily he only wants to go down there if Mom or Dad is going down so I don't have to worry too much about him playing on the stairs alone. We tired to take away his pacifier a few weeks ago. He did okay without it, but decided that he wasn't going to take naps if he didn't have it. After four days of no naps and super crankiness in the evenings, I decided that it was worth it to give the binky back to him. He only has it at night and during his naps anyway so I don't see much harm in him having it. Today Amy gave her homecoming talk and my parents sacrament meeting time is right during Seth's nap time. We went to my parents house for dinner afterward and he threw a huge temper tantrum because he was soooo tired and he didn't want Daddy to help him eat. I have never heard him scream like that before, you would have thought someone had broken his arm or something. It was truly bloodcurdling. We went home soon after it happened and he was asleep in the car before we even got on the freeway. He loves to sing and makes up little songs, the current favorite is "Amy's Song" which is just the words Amy's Song repeated over and over in different pitches and volumes. He also has one about the seats in our car. It's really cute. We love taking care of him and watching him learn new things.

That's it for this installment. We are thinking of all of you as the holidays approach and hope you have a happy Thanksgiving. We love you all!

Love James, Miekka and Seth