Halloween 2011

I tried to simplify Halloween a little bit this year. Connor went to his Halloween preschool party and a Halloween birthday party. I didn't take the kids to pick out pumpkins and we didn't paint or carve any. And they didn't even notice or ever say anything about it. I also forgot my camera at every place we went to. Luckily I have friends who took some pictures for me.

We went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat on Friday night. The kids had a blast running all around with their friends, playing games, and getting candy (of course).Savannah was a cowgirl this year.Zach was a clone trooper and never wanted to wear the mask. He hates masks.

Connor was the cutest Buzz Light Year you ever saw. I wanted to call him Professor Light Year.

Jacob was a skeleton warrior. Dallin painted his face, but right after this picture we cleaned it off because he was complaining how much it hurt when it dried. I didn't want him whining about it all night.

Zach at the trunk-or-treat.

Connor doing the "cupcake walk."

Classic family picture...this was the best one.
On Halloween night we went to our friends' house for dinner and trick-or-treating. Jacob went trick-or-treating with another friend, so he's not in these pictures. Savannah and her best friend, Countess Dracula.

They literally ran from house to house and were worn out after going around the block once.

Our little peach...I mean, bumblebee.

When we got back home Zach and Savannah didn't even want to trick-or-treat to our neighbors. They stayed back to pass out candy while I took Connor around to a few close houses. When we got back this is what I saw in the window. Poor kid.

Flight of the Bumblebee

I took about 50 pictures of Landon in his Halloween costume, trying to get one that wasn't blurry.I finally got two pictures, out of 50, that were not a big blur. That is Landon these days...running everywhere and no stopping whatsoever.

15 months old

Landon was 15 months old on Friday. I took him to the doctor this morning and he got 4 shots. It took 3 people to hold him down because he's so strong. He was not happy.
28 lbs. 8 oz. (98th percentile)
34 1/2 inches (99.95 percentile)

Loves to read book with his brothers and sisters
Puts anything and everything on his head, including his food
Likes cars, blocks, and balls...but especially those that taste good
LOVES ducks and will say "qak qak qak"
Doesn't really say any other words, but talks non-stop all day long in his own language
Teases Connor whenever possible because he gets such a good reaction out of him
Takes 2 naps a day and sleeps well all night long
Loves to go outside and will knock on the front door when he wants to go out
"Reads" books to himself in his own language
Getting better about eating more foods...his favorites are yogurt, ritz crackers, string cheese, grapes, and anything that Daddy is eating
Will absolutely NOT sleep at church, which means only one nap on Sundays
Gets comments on his cute, fluffy, orange hair every time we go anywhere
Sits really well in the stroller, but if you get him out there is absolutely NO getting back in
Can now reach the kitchen counter tops and pull things out of the kitchen drawers
Loves to climb on anything and everything
Can find any open door in the house and make as much trouble as possible, very quietly
Gets really mad if anybody leaves the house without him...he'll yell "go go go go!!!"
Loves Baby Einstein movies
Hates to be restricted in any way
Favorite thing in the world is to go "boom" with Daddy and throws a huge fit when it's time to be done - here's a video as an example

Crazy Hair Day

Savannah and I tried rag curlers in her hair a few weeks ago and she was NOT happy with how puffy and big it was. She made me wash her hair and slick it down within 2 minutes of taking the rags our. So I was very surprised when she asked me yesterday to do the rags for crazy hair day at school. She assured me that was what she wanted and it would be great. But halfway through she was crying about how much it hurt and basically just being whiny.This morning I took it out and of course, her hair was a total puffball. She took one look at it, started crying, and begged me to wash her hair. But we had to leave for school. We compromised by putting it in pigtails, which I think looks totally cute. She eventually stopped crying and her teacher told me how many compliments she got on it.

Quack quacks

Landon loves looking at ducks in books. He doesn't say hardly anything, but I can usually get a "qack qack" out of him. We had some leftover rolls that weren't getting eaten, so we walked down to the lake by the kids' school. The ducks saw us coming from far off and literally came running in one giant pack right up to us. They were hungry and had no fear. I'm sure they would have eaten it right out of my hand if I had tried. Landon was so amazed to see real, live "quack quacks." We'll definitely be making more trips to the lake this fall.There were also a couple of cranes, but the darker one flew off just before I took this picture.

EQ Triathlon

Dallin participated in an Elder's Quorum Triathlon on Saturday. That is basically just a bunch of guys from church, but they made it pretty official. There was even a ladies' heat, but I am not in any kind of shape to participate in something like that right now. The neighborhood pools are all closed for the season, even though it's still hot enough to go swimming. But they got this one opened up especially for the triathlon. Dallin's group had 5 guys in it I think. Dallin is in the far right lane.

Soon after he started swimming Dallin had his own personal cheering section along that side of the pool.

...and at each end of the pool

Connor ran back and forth shouting "Go Daddy! Swim faster Daddy!"

Next was biking, which is a little more difficult here than in AZ because of the hills.

Last was running. He did a great job and it was fun for our family to come and cheer him on!

On a side note, it would have been miserable for me if Landon had insisted on being out of his stroller. But he sat pretty nicely for the entire 2 1/2 hours we were there, just eating snacks, chewing on a water bottle, and watching all the people. There was a playground next to the pool so the other kids had lots of fun. It was a fun time!

Pack Meeting

Last night was cub scout pack meeting. Both of the boys have been working hard the last few months. Zach earned his Wolf Badge, a gold arrow point, and 2 silver arrow points. He got to put a wolf pin on Mom.Jacob earned 5 Webelo activity badges!

Two of the webelos received their Arrow of Light, so the scouts all lined up to shake their hands before they crossed over to boy scouts.

We have great scout leaders!

Chalk Walk

On Friday and Saturday Round Rock had its 2nd Annual Chalk Walk downtown. Our bishop was in charge of it this year. I had seen pictures from last year and wanted to take the kids, so we went on Saturday afternoon. Most of the chalk artists were almost done, so we got to see mostly finished products. Savannah's favorites were both done by 12-year-old girls.There were lots of booths and vendors also. It was the kick-off to a new plaza they just finished downtown too. We stopped to pet a donkey.

This one was done by a girl named Savannah (who was also 12).

After seeing all of the drawings we watched the donkey try to paint a picture. But he wasn't really in the mood.

As we were about to leave we found our friends and watched a few minutes of The Biscuit Brothers. They have a PBS show here in Austin about a musical farm.

Zach hates live music. Loud stuff really bothers him.

So my friend told me where her husband (the bishop) had done his drawing and we went to find it. It was awesome! Too bad he couldn't finish it. He had to leave and go coach his daughter's soccer game. What a nice dad.

It started to rain not too long after we left. We were very happy for the rain, but I felt bad for the chalk artists! The city is on an outdoor watering ban for a couple of weeks. A pump broke and we are not allowed to water anything outside...at all. So the pouring rain on Saturday night cleaned up the drawings for the city. Otherwise we would have been driving over them!