The Month in Pictures

October just seems to be chock full of birthdays, Halloween celebrations and pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins! So here's a look at our October...now that it's gone...

Lily's second birthday party at our house. Those of you who know me know that I am a selfish mother whose children's birthday cakes don't bear the likeness of cartoon characters, superheroes or anything besides a rather traditional-looking dessert. There are two reasons for this: 1) a fair amount of time goes into making a cake, and 2) I have to eat the cake. These factors alone mean that the cake dang well better taste good. I like ice cream cake best, so Lily's cake this year was a three-tier vanilla and chocolate ice cream cake frosted with chocolate ganache.

Ah, the joys of having a two-year-old again. To be fair, Amanda really didn't do this sort of stuff. Lily was born to this earth with some sort of homing device for ink-filled writing utensils (pens, markers -- pretty much anything that will ruin my furniture and tatoo her skin). Anyway, I just thought everyone should get a glimpse of Lily in her most orphan-like state.

We finally took the kids on the FrontRunner train, which we had promised them we would do ages ago. They thought it was great! With the exception of Amanda nearly falling into the crack between the train and the platform, and the fact that she nearly boarded the train headed for Roy without us, things went pretty smoothly.

The kids were mesmerized by the scenery flying by outside the windows.

Amanda's pre-school field trip to a local pumpkin patch. The other three kids in her class had already gone home at this point, so you'll just have to be satisfied with what you see here.

The see-saw was a big hit with the girls. You can't really tell this from the picture, but Amanda and Lily must be almost exactly the same weight. They were not in motion when this photo was taken; they were both hovering mid-air because they were perfectly balanced!

I took the kids down to Memory Grove to take some pictures of them. A bunch of cuties!

We went up to Logan to celebrate our family's October birthdays -- mine, my sister Lisa's, my nephew Sawyer's and Lily's. My parents treated us to breakfast and then bought pumpkins for us to carve at my sister Krista's place. Papa helped Amanda and Lily carve this scary Jack-o-Lantern!

Benson got to choose a pumpkin, too.

Carving pumpkins was fun, but what was REALLY entertaining was the interaction between Benson and Sawyer. These little cousins are four months apart, and it's so fun to see them together! In these pictures, Sawyer is attacking Benson because my sister and her husband were paying attention to Benson. Sawyer immediately targeted him as the "enemy" and was out to destroy him! Though Sawyer is older than Benson, I think Benson outweighs Sawyer by a fair amount. It's a good thing Benson's a lover, not a fighter... :)

"Hey! If you don't get away from my mom RIGHT NOW, I'm gonna beat you up!"




Next up was the annual trip to the pumpkin patch with Logan's family. What a gorgeous day it was!


Our baby with his baby-sized pumpkin.

Lily and her dad found just the right one...

Amanda stakes her claim!

The whole family -- even baby Rachel, who was born just five days before! Let's all give a hand to Rachel's mom Brenda, the real unsung hero...

After we made our selections at the pumpkin patch, it was back to Regular Grandma and Grandpa's for the October birthdays celebration. (These may seem like strange titles for grandparents. Amanda came up with these names when she was just one year old. You see, Amanda has A LOT of grandparents -- she has my parents, Logan's parents, one set of great-grandparents on my side and two sets of great-grandparents on Logan's side. My parents are Grammy and Papa. My grandparents are Grandmom and Granddad. Logan's grandparents are Grandma & Grandpa Toone and Grandma & Grandpa Neilson. That left Logan's parents without any sort of title that would differentiate them from all the other grandparetns, so Amanda christened them Regular Grandma and Grandpa, and that is how we always refer to them now. Wow, that was a really long sidenote.) Lily received this doll, Beepy Cootie (Sleeping Beauty), which she loves.

Lily also received this little apron equipped with cooking tools (a little set of kitchen pots and pans completed the gift -- so cute!). She has already broken in the rolling pin "helping" me prepare some pastry dough for baking.

This brings us to our next adventure: Amanda's pre-school Halloween party! Siblings were invited to come along, so Lily got to join in the fun. Have you ever seen a cat and mouse with such a good relationship?

They got to play fun games, like pumpkin bowling.

Next up was Amanda's friend Brooklyn's birthday party, where each attendee was instructed to come dressed in full princess regalia. Just a note about this dress. Amanda received this darling dress-up from Grammy for her third birthday. Though that was nearly a year ago, this was the first time she had ever worn it. For some reason, she has a real aversion to wearing any material that isn't made of natural fibers. Seriously. I had to do some major pleading/bargaining to get her to put this on. However, by the time all was said and done, she was ready to forget being a kitty for Halloween and go as a princess instead (I said no).

All the pretty princesses. What fun!

And last but not least, Halloween. Here is our little menagerie...

Our homeowner's association hosts a little Trick-or-Treat walk for anyone who wants to come (as long as they bring treats for the kids!). It was so fun to see all the kids dressed up!

Amanda and Lily carefully make their selections. Not that it did them much good. I made sure to raid their buckets for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups before they even knew what hit them. This is the parental Halloween candy tax -- i.e., my payment for putting together their costumes, getting them all dressed and ready to go, taking fliers to every house in our neighborhood to advertise the trick-or-treat walk so that somebody would be there to give them some candy, etc.

Though unable to eat most of the Halloween spoils, Benson still made a mighty cute (and roly-poly) puppy!

So that gets us through the end of the month. Now for a few "-isms":

-- Lily, after seeing Amanda sit on Regular Grandma's lap: "No, Amanda! That's MY Grandma!"

-- Amanda, after seeing her dad wear my blinged-out sunglasses while driving to stake conference because he forgot to bring his: "Daddy, you look FABULOUS!"

-- Lily, who, after singing "I Am Like a Star Shining Brightly," was asked if she knew Heavenly Father loved her: (exasperated tone) "I know that!"

-- Amanda, after repeatedly being told she could not ride in the double stroller at Ross Dress for Less because it was already occupied by Lily and Benson: "Mom, if you don't let me, I'm just going to...(pause)...pass away." Uh huh.

And, just because we don't want to leave Benson out, I'll report that he's crawling like a madman and is pulling himself up to a standing position with the assistance of any obliging furniture. He is also making mad dashes up the stairs whenever I have my back turned for one minute, which has resulted in more than one little tumble for him. Amanda and Lily didn't walk until they were well past one year old, but I will be very surprised if Benson can make it to his first birthday without tearing around the house on two feet!