New Office

Last week I moved into a new office. It is a bigger office, still has a window, but I am still sharing. But, I don't mind sharing, I have a good office-mate right now. My new office comes complete with two full walls of white board. So, in the spirit of Halloween, I decided to do a little decorating on the white boards. Here are my results.

Also, if you don't watch Phineas and Ferb, this won't make a lot of sense to you.

There is an office decorating contest going on and I hope to win. I've never won before even though I often went to elaborate measures when I was working at Dentrix.

Also, I'm a Ute fan for Halloween.

Halloween Costumes!

We went to our ward Halloween party on Tuesday, so I got the kids all dressed up in their Halloween costumes and took pictures of them. The party was a lot of fun! Every year they do a soup potluck (yum!) and this year they had the young men and young women set up games for the kids.

There was fishing, bowling, duck toss, golf, web maze, and balloon room maddness. Nicole had a LOT of fun! I like the ward Halloween parties alot more since my kid is finally old enough to enjoy it for herself. Here are pics of the kids in their costumes.

Daniel as a pumpkin at 6.5 months

Nicole as the same pumkin at 7 months

Nicole now with her goofy smile.

Missing Sarah

Sarah moved to the far off land of Albuquerque, NM. I miss her already. Why!?! Curse you New Mexico!
We had a goodbye dinner for her on Sunday. These are our farewell pics.

I am missing her already.

Wordy Wednesday

Nicole is an excellent little helper. She loves to help me load the dishwasher, cook, throw things away, and do laundry.

She has actually gotten really good at folding laundry. I let her fold the burp cloths and kitchen towels all by herself because she is so good at it. If I am slow at folding the laundry, I will find piles like this next to the basket of laundry.

She digs through the basket, finds the things she wants to fold and then folds them. It is times like that that I know she is my child.

Many Owls!

I made owl hats for my nephews. We tried to get some photos of all the boy cousins together... but I didn't get one where they all looked good. So do a mental cut and paste and pretend they are all looking at the camera at one time or another.

Pumpkinland!

Last week I took a long lunch and met Matt and the kids at Pumpkinland. Vineyard Gardens on Geneva Road does this feature every year for Halloween and it is so much fun. There is a corn maze, a bunch of animals, fun Halloween themed structures like a castle and a hay house and a giant pumpkin. And, they have bounce houses, a playground, a pumpkin pyramid, and a Halloween house of lights. We went last year and it was a lot of fun, so we decided to go again this year.

Anthon and Marie came with their kids, but we didn't really get to spend time together. They went into the corn maze and we went around the corn maze and we never saw them again. They probably made it out of the corn maze, but not before we had already moved on. When Nicole is a little older, we will try the corn maze, but it is just a little too much for her right now.

I had Matt put the kids in their costumes because it makes pumpkinland a lot more fun. Dan came as a pumpkin and Nicole as a fairy/butterfly. Really she is a fairy, but she thinks she is a butterfly. I let her go on thinking that. I also let her think that a giraffe says "Moo" last year. Whatchaya gonna do?!?

Nicole was feeling a little off this day. She was lethargic and grumpy. Really, she was just really tired. We ended up leaving before we got to see everything because she just couldn't handle it. We got all the way to the bounce houses, she took one look at them, probably had nightmarish flashbacks from my company party when she got trampled and cried until we left.

But, at first she did okay even though she was tired. We walked around the corn maze.

This year

Last year (look how much she has grown!)

And stuck our heads in funny things. (or tried to at least)

Then we looked at the animals. Nicole still talks about the chickens eating pumpkins. She thought it was so funny.

You can tell from the pics that she was not her happy self. She was just kinda going through the motions. We checked out the giant pumpkin.

And then she had a meltdown, so we walked out through the house of lights, picked a pumpkin and went home. Well, the kids went home for a nap and I went back to work. I wish she would have been feeling better that day so that she could have enjoyed it more, but kids are very unpredictable. I never know if it is going to be a good day or a bad one.

Dan slept through most of it in the stroller, so he missed it too. We will try again next year when Dan is hopefully walking and both kids can enjoy it.

6 Months!

Dan is now 6 months old! He is half a year. It does not feel like it has been that long. It is bitter sweet. He is getting older, which is great, but at the same time, everytime he gets one month older, he is one month farther away from being my little baby boy. I like babies.

I took Dan for his check up and I only remember his weight, which is 18 pounds! Yay Fatty lumpkins!

Dan's favorite things include:

• Peek-a-boo
• Solid foods (apples are his favorite). He likes solid foods better than bottles. He yells at us between each bite because we can't get the food into his mouth quick enough.
  He also likes to eat his little gerber snack puffs. Unfortunately, Nicoley likes them too. Everytime I give Dan a bunch on his tray, Nicoley says, "We are going to eat them together." Then she feed him one and then herself one. I let her do it because then I don't have to constantly be putting snacks in his mouth, she does it for me.
• Sitting up on his very own. He's a pretty good sitter. He loves to sit and play with his toys. Nicoley loves to push him over when he is sitting and playing with his toys. I tell her not to and she tells me that he wants to lay down.

Tummy time is NOT Dan's favorite, but we force him to do it every day. He still won't roll over, but I'm thinking it is possibly by choice. He does not wish to roll over. He has rolled over before, but he just doesn't do it any more. Maybe he has forgotten how. I figure he will catch on eventually when he is ready to start getting places.

Dan loves playing with toys. He can grab them and get them too his mouth. Which is funny because he still won't hold his own bottle to his mouth. Nicoley loves to steal whatever toy that Dan has. As soon as it is in Dan's hand, she says she needs it. Technically, all the toys used to be hers, so she still thinks they are. Luckily, she will get Dan a new toy before stealing the toy he is holding.

Spitting. He loves to spit and blow spit bubbles. This is funny, but loud and a little gross.

Dan got his shots on Tuesday and my poor little man has had a fever and has been grumpy since he got his shots. I know that immunizations are important, but I always feel so bad after they get their shots. I love my little Dan the man. He is so funny and happy. I want to squish his cheeks nine times a day.