Two-Year-Old in the House

Stand back! We have another 2-year-old! Erik has grown so much and is definitely a full-blown toddler now, except for the fact that he prefers not to eat too much. He was doing pretty good eating noodles for most of his meals, but I knew he would get tired of them. So, he's taking a break from them now. He does still like the slushies at some point during the day. He will usually eat popcorn too. We're working on the eating, again.

He has been talking more and it's so cute to hear him repeat everything everybody says. Whenever we're out and about, he calls any man (or teenager) "Dada" and any woman (or teenager) "Mama". He also likes to growl at people, especially little kids. Sometimes they think it's funny, sometimes they are scared. When he gets in their face to growl, they're usually more scared. When he was in his noodle-eating phase, he called them "Nu-nus" with his nose wrinkled up, very nasal-like. In fact, if a word can be nasal-like, he will make it that way. He calls Karissa "Sa", Victoria and Yoda "Ya-ya", Austin "Au-tin", himself "Wher-wik" and Thomas the train "Momis". He loves to make very big messes and very loud noises by throwing down big metal lids, the stool, and anything else that could make the most possible noise.

He enjoys "reading" and will do that after he crawls out of his crib during nap time. He likes anything with wheels, Lego's, and is getting into little character toys. Thomas books are his favorite and every character in the books is "Momis".

He likes to dance, especially to Gangnum style.

Lately he likes to help more by putting things away when I ask him, especially trash, so maybe there is hope!

We celebrated a week before his birthday by going to the IMAX and watching the "Rocky Mountain Express". Instead of enjoying the huge trains, he was scared and closed his eyes the whole time. The rest of us liked it though.

At the museum after the IMAX show

The airplane exibit

The cider mill after the museum

On his birthday, Grandma Pat was here to play with all day, since Jason and I were at the BYU/Notre Dame game (more on that later). So we had cake and ice cream on Sunday for the final celebration. Since he has no preference for food, I just made what I felt like, though I did make him french fries, which he usually eats, but not that day. He didn't eat any of his cake, but went hog wild over the licorice on it. He liked the vanilla ice cream too, which I thought he would.

His present from Grandma

Enjoying the licorice before I put it on the cake

He liked looking at his cake, but not eating it

Loves his presents

His "growly" face

He's coming into his own character and I love him so much! Happy Birthday Erik!!

Windy Night

We had quite the windy rain storm on Sunday night while we were doing Family Home Evening. It was raining pretty good, which is not too unusual around here. Suddenly the wind picked up like crazy and we all ran to the window to watch. I have to say that at one point I thought our window might break, it was rippling so much, and it was set back under the porch! The really high winds (about 70 miles/hr I think?) didn't last more than 20 minutes I would say, but this is what they did.

Our trampoline was blown over and is now lopsided.

Our neighbor's tree is gone.

Down the street

Fences everywhere blew over

Around the corner (a favorite tree of ours)

More blown-down fences...

The Game

We have been enjoying a nice visit with Abuelo, except for the fact that Jason came down with a nasty cold, keeping him up all night coughing and not much better in the day. It didn't thwart the plans to go to the Nebraska/Michigan game, though, the main reason for our visit with Abuelo. He is a Huskers fan and raised Jason to cheer for them as well. Even though we are Michigan fans now, we were on the side of the Huskers this game (at least they were, I don't get involved). Victoria went to the game with them. When we first bought the tickets, she was going for Blue, but decided she didn't want to be opposite Daddy and Abuelo. Since they won, I think she's glad she decided to go for Nebraska. She also became closer friends with two boys in her class who said they were Huskers fans too (though I think they were mostly just against Michigan since they are hard-core Michigan State fans).

Right before leaving for the game

Playing with Abuelo

Karissa lost one of her front teeth during the visit

Go Big Red!

The Best Halloween

I love holidays. I get super excited to do the holiday-type activities that go with each one. I've learned, though, that kids get really excited for holidays, but the actual day is never as great as you expect or even hope for, at least at our house. This Halloween, however, was different. Maybe I was busier than normal (tending to an extra kid), or maybe my expectations were not as high, but when the day ended I realized that there were no big meltdowns, I didn't feel overly stressed, and we got to do everything we wanted to do.

- I got see the girls in their parade at school and still pick up Austin on time from preschool

 - Austin had a great time at his preschool trick-or-treat around the high school

Logan and Erik walking to pick up Austin

 - We started our trick-or-treat earlier than normal because it was cloudy and raining. One would think this would put a hamper on the activity, but it actually made it better. We got to got out earlier, people wanted to give us more candy for lack of other trick-or-treaters, we got back earlier and had time to bathe the kids before they ate some candy, and they still got to bed on time!

- The other good things about the day were that I got to introduce the game Clue to Victoria, which she loved, and we played 4 times (it's always been a favorite of mine). Logan was picked up earlier than normal to trick-or-treat with his brother at another friend's house, so I got to make pizza with just Karissa and Austin and not my extra 3-year-old helper. The kids and I read some Halloween books together and enjoyed some quiet time before getting our costumes on.

Here's my cuties in a leaf pile- 3/4 are looking at me with a smile!!

Before the church Halloween party the week before

Erik eating Cheetos from the party, something he discovered at a bar-b-que over the summer.

He also likes suckers...

A mummy, zombie, vampire, and leopard.

 One side note about costumes this year: Austin was going to be a scary cat, then changed to a skyscraper (something he wanted to be when he grew up too), then decided on a mummy. Obviously, he was not a mummy on Halloween. The mummy costume was hard to keep wrapped properly, so he decided to be rock-star instead. Victoria stuck with zombie for months. Karissa started with wanting to be Hello Kitty, then a fairy, and finally a vampire. She wore the vampire costume to school, then changed to the cat to trick-or-treat. Erik got to wear whatever we had for him, but was not fond with the hood on his head. He ate any fruity candy he got at the party, but does not like chocolate. Any chocolate flavor in the candy and he spits it out!

Had to pull this old costume out of the closet...

It was a great Halloween!!!