Happy Halloween

It turns out, making kids pose for pictures while they are anxious to head out trick-or-treating does not make for the best pictures. Despite that, we had a great time, especially Ben. He kept a couple treats clutched in his little hands and had the hardest time choosing a treat at every house. He loved it and caught right on. Halloween even inspired his first two-word sentence ("No. Mine") when mommy tried to take away one of his goodies.

Monkey

Princess (of course)

Grim Reaper (Cole always leans towards the scary side of Halloween)

The Whole Gang

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

Learning New Words

I betcha thought this post would be about Ben, but no. He's still not talking much unless something happens to be "hot." Then he'll talk your ear off telling you about how "hot" it is. It's his favorite word by a landslide. This post is actually about little Annie Rose, bless her heart. The other day, I was gone and Floyd had some serious butchering to get done (gotta love hunting season...I guess), so the kidlets were babysat for a bit by the TV. When the show was over, Annie came and found Floyd and said, "Dad, that boy never did get diarrhea." Floyd was awfully confused, so Annie just repeated, "He never did get diarrhea," at which point Cole called from the other room, "Annie, it's 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid,' not 'Diarrhea of a Wimpy Kid.'"

Although I bet you'd all like to see the latter, right?

Tool Time

Our little Benaboo loves tools. For months, he has been doing a Tim Taylor-like growl whenever he sees or hears them. His favorites:

the lawnmower,
the vacuum,

the leaf blower,
and also the weed eater, but I don't have a picture of him with that one.

He is a bit obsessed. Sometimes we just open up the door to the garage and let him go admire them. He makes me vacuum every day - not the whole house, but still...it's not my favorite job so I don't love it. Floyd was mowing the lawn on Saturday and the rest of us were gone. He texted me to tell me he felt a little guilty mowing without Ben. He's usually right there "helping."

But don't worry, Floyd. Ben found his own fun. We were at a Halloween party at my aunt's house and Ben happened to wander into her garage about halfway through. He found a lawnmower, a shop vac, a leaf blower, and a weed eater. His own little heaven. Needless to say, I spent the last half of the party chasing him out of the garage.

We just hope this stage lasts at least until Christmas so we'll know just what to get him - anything that makes a loud engine noise.

Park City

We spent a few days in Park City with some of my family last weekend. I didn't get the camera out much and just spent time relaxing, but here are a couple shots of the leaves. So pretty. I love all the aspen trees around Park City. These pictures are from the top of Guardsman's Pass and the last time I was there (also the only other time I was there), I was running up the road in 90 degree weather with no water. Definitely more enjoyable relaxing in the car and looking at the pretty leaves. Although the road seemed even steeper driving up it than it did running, which I find strange.

We live in a beautiful state, especially when Autumn rolls around.

PS - The little kidlets couldn't quite keep their eyes open after a late night swimming in the pool and were napping in the car. I don't think they'll feel bad about missing the photo shoot. You can tell in the last picture how thrilled Cole was to be a participant.