Happy Birthday Noah! You're 3!

We had such a fun celebration for Noah's 3rd Birthday today! Noah started out the day with a phone call from his friend Evan from church singing him Happy Birthday. Noah really enjoyed that! Then we spent the day making Noah's Sponge Bob Square Pants cake. Noah has only seen that show twice or so, but that's the cake he wanted. How hard can it be to make a "square" cake?We had a Halloween themed dinner. We had brain sandwiches (bologna sliced real thin on buns), noses dipped in blood (tater tots in ketchup), and dead man's punch (orange Kool-Aid, ginger ale, and green sherbet). It was all very tasty...so much so that Noah almost refused to eat any! Here's Noah's "Onge Bob" cake, like he asked for. Everyone thought he had "angry eyes." We'll pretend that was what I was going for!
Grandma Carrot and Grandpa Dana spoiled Noah to death! This was probably his favorite gift. He "water colored" a good portion of the night.
And he of course loved his gum ball machine. The kids are not excited about having to earn money for gum everyday though! Grandma and Grandpa also sent light sabers and cool capes. (They also sent a Star Wars movie that the kids are very excited to watch as soon as the weekend gets here!) Here's Arwen being a Jedi!Joshua LOVED the light sabers. While Noah painted, Josh and Arwen had battles in the living room. He carried it around with him everywhere all night. Now, both Arwen and Noah are in bed with their sabers! Noah also scored a couple of Buzz Lightyear figures and lots of art supplies. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for making "shopping" easy on me!!! :) What a fun day we got to spend with Noah!

We had so much fun last night for FHE! Usually I really don't like to carve pumpkins...too messy, you know! But we had tons of fun! I love how they make those little carving knives that are so dull that Noah is still running around with his today and I know he can't hurt anyone with it. The kids really like being able to carve (mangle!!) their own pumpkins. They feel so big!

Joshua was HYSTERICAL last night! He had so much fun taking the guts out of the pumpkin and then putting them back in. At one point, I felt something land and my shoulder and I looked down and saw that I was covered in guts that Josh had thrown at me. I looked up at him and his eyes said, "What are you gonna do about it?" I picked them off and threw them right back. He was SOOO mad at me. It was so funny. Then a few minutes later Arwen got hit in the face with a bunch of guts. What a naughty!
Then after we took all the guts away, he had fun putting the lids on and off the pumpkins. That is until he discovered how delicious raw pumpkin is...go figure! I can't get him to eat cooked food half the time!
Here is Arwen's finished project. Aaron only helped her a tiny bit to make the eyes a little bigger.
This is N0ah's. He's been perfecting it all day with the little carver he has been carrying around. What a super night!

We have had some dry sunny weather for the last few days. All the leaves were dry enough to play in. The kids had a blast getting lost in the huge pile!
Joshua had so much fun! He loved to go down the slide, right into the leaves.

Arwen thought the leaves were great until....she realized there were slugs in them. She got one stuck to her hand. She told me that that was the grossest day of her life!
Good old Noah always trying to beat things with sticks!

This is what we found when we got out of bed on Sunday. Who needs just one sucker, when you can have three!

We had our trunk or treat last night...so Aaron and I had to hurry and finish up the costumes we were making on Friday night. Actually Aaron had to finish up...he did the hard work! The kids were "Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3." Aaron spent forever building these amazing blue yarn wigs for the kids. They were so heavy when they were done...Joshua could not even walk in his. His head would fall and carry him straight to the ground! It was so funny! I think they turned out pretty cute! Trunk or Treat was really fun this year. The ward did a great job! They had a decorated part of the sidewalk and had hot chocolate and drinks ready for all the trick or treaters. We had a really good turn out...lots of non members and less actives, so that was great! The kids of course had a blast! CANDY is the greatest thing ever!

Watch out...all three of them together sure can cause lots of mischief!

Here's our little girl "Thing 1."

"Thing 3 was so mad at us! He didn't like being in the leaves. He wouldn't even stand up on them cause they felt strange on his feet! "Thing 2." Hmmmm...so this morning, he got up way before the sun did and snuck downstairs and munched candy. Arwen came in to tell us...and telling them to go ahead was the greatest idea ever! We got to sleep in until 8:30...We have not done that since before kids! AND I didn't have to make breakfast this morning! How great is that! (I know, I feel like a horrible mom, but it won't happen again...at least until next year!)

We had a busy Saturday...nothing too exciting. We just ran errands and tried to get the kids' Halloween costumes finished. Both of the boys took marathon naps because we let the kids stay up late watching a movie the night before. Arwen skipped a napped, but by 5 pm was exhausted. I told her she could go upstairs and rest until we had to go to a fun Intel function at Costco in an hour. The boys followed her and kept pestering her. She must have sneaked away, because I heard Noah and Joshua jabbering about how they couldn't find Arwen. Noah was convinced that the mama beastie had come and taken her away. The searched for half an hour to no avail! At 6, I ran up to find her so we could go to Costco and checked her bed, and my bed and couldn't find her. I went into Joshua's room and this is what I found:
She had dragged out the baby bouncer chair, grabbed the quilt that I have on the rocking chair and fell asleep. What a silly little girl...she had to sneak away and hide from her brothers to get some rest! I love it!

Good news! Joshua is officially a walker! He is a crazy, drunk, little walker, but a walker nonetheless! We are so proud of him! On Monday, he and I go to the Orthotic Doctor and get him fitted for his little ankle braces. Here's what they look like: (Yeah, I'm hoping just plain white is an option!)
The braces are going to ensure that his little feet don't roll in and put his ankles into proper positioning so that he doesn't damage them, his knees, and his hips. They are pretty cool...when they first mentioned braces I pictured Forrest Gump. Joshua can wear these braces inside normal shoes and no one will even be able to tell he has them on unless he's missing his pants or wearing shorts, or something! The good news is, physical therapy now ends as soon as they make sure his braces fit properly! That is great...I feel like I live at the hospital between my routine appointments and physical therapy. We are so proud of little Josh! He has been working so hard...in fact, he takes a 4 hour nap every day and goes to bed at 6:30 pm every night. I think because it's so much extra effort for him to be walking. Anyways, happy day!!

I've been meaning to post this for days! On Monday, we were driving to ballet class and we drove by Harvey...most of you know Harvey, the hugest rabbit in the universe there on TV highway. Anyways, the kids LOVE Harvey because on a couple of the holidays he holds a big decoration in his hand. He holds a big heart on Valentines, a Christmas Tree for Christmas, and 2 jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. Anyways, I told the kids to look at Harvey because he was finally holding the jack-o-lanterns. Arwen and Noah were excited and started jabbering about it. Then Arwen said, "I can't wait for Easter...then Harvey can hold a big Easter Egg." Great, I thought. She associates Easter with candy and eggs. Then she said, "Mom, did you know Easter is Jesus' birthday?" WOW, Arwen! That's neat you know that! Then Noah piped in with, "And Jesus died then came back again." Yea! The kids are listening...I have no idea when, I swear they never listen to me and Aaron during FHE, but it's sinking in somehow!

Aaron's parents and their youngest came up to visit us from California this weekend. (Yup...from beautiful 79 degree weather, to the cold and rainy weather!) We had fun hanging out and enjoyed a wet, rainy day at the beach hunting agates. Arwen found the coolest one again this year!! Here's a picture of Uncle Joshua and little Joshua.
Sweet little Joshua has been so sick. (He sounds like your kids do when they are having asthma problems, Jen.) Anyways, he keeps doing funny things with his nose because it is always runny or stuffed up. Aaron loves it when he does this and calls Josh a little turtle. Now Joshua will be a "turtle" on demand. It's the grossest picture ever, I know, but he sure is a silly, sick, cute boy!
Grandpa, Uncle Joshua, Aaron and the kids went for a walk Sunday in between conference sessions. They found a fuzzy orange and black caterpillar. Noah named him "Lenny." It will turn into a woolly bear moth (if the kids haven't already killed him!). Anyways, the kids love to stand on chairs at the counter and play with him.

Some friends of ours invited me and the kids to go blackberry picking the other day. We had tons of fun! Arwen was "Sal" and just munched on all the berries the moms were picking the whole time. Noah was a big help and at least half of the berries he picked weren't green! Joshua sat in the stroller and let us feed him like a little bird! Arwen insisted that we make a pie, so here it is. It turned out pretty yummy. We have enough blackberries to make two more pies.The Relief Society is making quilts for our humanitarian project this year. The family and I went to the craft store and picked out wild colors to make a rag quilt to donate. It was fun to make and we had enough material left over to make a quilt for little Larkin. Arwen loves it and wants me to make her one too! It was a lot of fun to make. I remember once we had a lesson or something at church that said after we do all the things we need to be doing to be happy...praying, scriptures, service...that we need to do things that are permanent. It's so true. It feels really good to make something that can last "forever" and have it turn out nice. It gives a great sense of accomplishment. Anyways, do something permanent today!!