Halloween

We had almost a whole week of Halloween fun, starting with our ward Chili Cook-off and Trunk or Treat on October 25. One of my former sunbeams was so excited when I walked in dressed as the same thing she was: Little Bo Peep. We had to get a picture. 

 On October 26, we hosted our first Halloween party for our friends in the neighborhood. We invited TONS of people, but thankfully, only about five couples made it--not too big and not too small. We had a ton of fun. We played Halloween Pictionary, wrapped Mummies:

And played Time's Up with Halloween Titles. 

We love our awesome friends, and I'm already thinking of ideas for next year. 

On October 30, we finally carved our pumpkins--just in time. 

Michael wasn't afraid of the guts this year. 

Michael drew the faces for his two pumpkins. I love his little drawings! 

Ethan didn't want to carve a pumpkin, but he did dress up for the occasion. 

It was cold and dark by the time we finished, but we HAD to light them. 

And we got a visit from a ghost. 

On October 31, we had quite the busy day. We hosted the preschool Halloween party at our house. Then, we had trick-or-treating and a chili cook off at Brian's work. We won runner-up for best family themed costume. Go us!

After the party, we came home, took some pictures, and took the kiddos out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. 

Little Bo Peep and my little sheep--I made these two costumes. 

Best Friends: Buzz and Woody--I did not make these two, and that was pretty awesome. 

Our Toy Story Family. Don't you think we should have won best family costume?

A few notes on trick-or-treating. 

1. Michael decided he wanted to ride his bike to go trick-or-treating. That meant we had to beg him to get off and go to the door. That also meant, we didn't make it to very many houses, which was good in that he didn't get much candy, but sad in that we didn't get to see many of our neighbors. 

2. We decided to do fruit snacks this year. Last year, we got awesome candy, and we left it on a bowl on the porch. I'm sure that it was all gone when the first group of unaccompanied teens/kids hit our porch. Because of that and because we are trying to cut back on sugar, we opted for the fruit snacks. While we were out taking pictures, a group with a teenage boy arrived. Upon seeing that we had fruit snacks, he said something like, "What?! How lame!" I couldn't help saying, "Hey, I'm standing right here!" He laughed and said, "Uh, I'm sure they're really good." And in my head, I laughed because even though he complained at the lame "candy", he still took it. After making our rounds, there were still some left in the cauldron. That's either thanks to the fact that fruit snacks are lame or because we actually posted a "please only take one" sign. Not sure.  We still ended up giving away every single fruit snack in the house, and we even had to turn some people away with nothing. Not too many people though. 

And for the record, Ethan thought we were lame for only getting fruit snacks also, but the 1-5 year-olds thought we were awesome! 

The Stats

 For the first time, the stars aligned, and Michael and Rachel had their well child check-ups on the same day (Oct. 25). It will probably never happen again.

 Here are their stats:

Michael, 4 years

Height: 39.5 inches--32.66%

Weight--33.29 pounds--26.62%

BMI: 15--27.31%

 Rachel, 9 months

Height: 26.75 inches--17.08%

Weight: 14.86--4.72%

Head Circumference: 17.5 inches--67.5% (She has to have room for her amazing brain!)

 See her two teeth? Yup, she's already been to the dentist. Go me. (And the fact that it was easy to tack her onto Michael's appointment). 

I love how much these two love each other. If we ever go somewhere without Michael, she is so sad in the back seat. Mostly, she's happy because she likes to go, but if she's tired, she definitely cries more if Michael isn't there. She's happier when he takes a bath with her, plays with her, or is even just in the same room. I'm so glad that they are such good friends and that they are both happy, healthy, and thriving!

Harvest Fun

On October 14, we headed to Cornbelly's for our traditional fall adventure. This year, we started with the maze. We had Michael lead the way again. We actually hit all checkpoints this year, which is a first. 

 Halfway through, Michael was getting tired of the maze, so we took over. 

 And then Brian took the kids on the cow train. 

Cornbelly's 2013

Cornbelly's 2011

 And we got this picture again. 

 We also got a picture of him by the wheel of this same tractor last year. 

2012

2013

 We went earlier in the day this year (Brian took the day off work since he had a business trip later that week). It was awesome to have all the time we wanted since we didn't have to worry about bedtime cutting in on the fun. 

 Then, on Thursday the 17th, Michael's preschool went to Evan's Family Farm. 

 I love their mini straw bale maze. It's perfect for these little guys. 

 And they got to ride a little train and a hayride

 And pick a pumpkin to take home. 

We are loving this little group of cuties. And, we've been enjoying fall. 

Cougar Run

Sometime this summer, Brian and I got this crazy idea that we wanted to start running. Even though we heartily agree with the following quote from Parks and Recreation:

Ann: I was jogging, I hate jogging.
Chris: Jogging is amazing!
Ann: Jogging is the WORST, Chris, I mean, I know it keeps you healthy but...at what cost?

Maybe it's living in this neighborhood where it seems like half of the people were running RAGNARs, triathlons, and marathons. Maybe there's something in the water. Whatever it was, we decided to start running. Brian had always been a sprinter--until he hurt his knee in high school, and I hadn't run long distance since cross-country my senior year of high school. But, we decided to do it, so I signed us up for the Cougar Run during BYU's homecoming.

Brian actually did pretty good with his training. And I started to, but in between two kids waking up all night for several months, trying to finish the basement, and other logistics issues, my training didn't go as well as I would have liked. But whatever. On October 12, we showed up at BYU's track, got our shirts, our numbers, and my mind raced back to track meets and cross-country meets from high school, and I was so happy to be back, getting ready for a race. Pinning the bibs on my boys' shirts, and mine as well. Feeling the nerves and postponing the restroom stop to the last possible moment (girls on my team in high school often wet their pants during a race. It never happened to me, and I wasn't about to break that streak). And I was secretly hoping that my dad would find a way to be on the sidelines, cheering me on like he did at my track meets.

Michael's race was first--a 200 meter run. He was so proud of his running shirt.

 Flexing his muscles

 So this race was for ages 1-4. Michael had just turned four, and I must say, I was expecting him to be closer to the front. He was just enjoying the experience. That's all.

 I think he beat that kid in the end.

 And with a time of 1:41.2, Michael crossed the finish line in 18th place. Not too shabby, right? He ended up joining in for a lot of the other races, becoming a bandit, as one of BYU's track members called him.

 After all the kids races, it was time for our 5K. Our friends Christian and Natalie were kind enough to come down and watch our kids for us during the race since Ethan had to work last minute.

 Michael was sad that he couldn't run with us. Another year, perhaps, son.

The race started across the street from the Stadium on University Parkway. We ran up the hill to 900 east, made our way to 800 north, and then headed back towards the track right just below where the Maeser Building and the Brick Oven are (for those familiar with BYU.) This was also the route for the parade, so we had lots of people cheering us on. Lots of kids held out their hands to give me high fives as I ran by. It was almost as motivational as that time during a race in high school when a guy shouted out, "Hey, girl in the yellow shorts, you're hot" and I realized I was the only girl in the pack wearing yellow shorts. Almost. Seriously though, it was pretty awesome.

There were so many people at the start line that I didn't even see the guy up there with the gun to start us out. All of a sudden, we heard the shot and Brian said, "Hey, I think we're starting." And just like that, we were off!

 Brian and I started the race together, but like I said, he trained better and left me before we even made it to 900 East. I was fine with that.

 He finished 11th in his division with a time of 36:28.8. 

Throughout the race, I had a few constant companions, and one was this girl who was always just ahead of me. She seemed to be really losing her momentum as we were passing the RB and the Tanner Building, and I thought, "I'm going to catch that girl and beat her to the finish!" I knew I could do it; we were almost done. I caught up to her in the tunnel that goes from the Tanner Building parking lot into Helaman Halls. She had taken off her bib, and she told me that she was giving up. I was astonished. "No, you're not!" I said. "We're almost there! The finish is just past these buildings. You can't quit now. Put your bib back on. We're finishing this together!" We walked/ran through Helaman, and I found out that we had both been up practically all night with out kids, and neither one of us had trained very well for this. The last part of the race was 300 meters around the track. I told her that once we got to the track, we were going to run all the way to the end. And at the last 100 meters, we were going to kick it to the end. 

 Well, as you can see, she had a little bit more to kick it with in the end, and she ended up beating me. Oh well, I still felt good that I helped her finish the race.

 I finished 22nd in my division with a time of 45:47.1, my worst time EVER, but a lot has happened since then, specifically two children. I just tried to give myself credit for just getting out there and running, even if I did walk for the first time ever in a race. It can only go up from here, right?

We had a blast. We are definitely doing it again next year.