Halloween 2010!

The boys and I went to the student center for the Spooktacular on Thur evening while Ryan was in class. I was lucky to get out the door at all so the boys were some of the only kids there without costumes. Alexander ate more tootsie rolls than I could count and Benjamin really enjoyed the bounce house.
Alexander wasn't too excited about getting his face painted, but he endured it.
The boys sharing candy.
James was along for the ride.
I didn't get a picture of Benjamin at his preschool party, but he didn't have his costume on while I was there. Apparently, he was really excited about the cupcakes all morning, but then didn't even eat his during the party?! Sometimes I don't understand that kid at all.

I carved pumpkins with the boys on Friday evening while Ryan was at work. I've never used a pumpkin saw before and it was great. Benjamin wanted the Jack-o-Lanterns to look like one on the knife package and on a Halloween frosting tub. They lost interest before the second one was carved, so I finished it on Sat morning. I've never left so many guts in a pumpkin before, but it still worked out fine. I'm glad I brought the electric tea light candles with us when we moved.
So, on Friday night, I was cleaning out the diaper bag and removed the harness because there's no way Alexander would willingly wear it. Benjamin saw it and wanted to know if it still fit him and if he could wear it. It did fit and so instead of being a Knight for Halloween, he wanted to be a dog (probably in part because we wouldn't let him take the sword out of our apartment). I cut out felt ears, spots, and a tail and thought it would be cute if Benjamin wore a sweater... so we were already to go with the costume, except Benjamin misplaced the harness... so 5 minutes before heading out the door to go trick-or-treating he wanted to go back to the knight costume.
I wasn't sure if Alexander would be able to go with because he was napping. He woke up about the time of the costume change and ended up being the dog, which was a bit fortuitous because I'm sure he wouldn't have kept any part of the knight costume on.
The nice thing about being in Utah is that there isn't a question about Trick-or-Treating on Sunday... it's just expected to happen on Saturday. They had trick-or-treating on campus from 4-6 so it was an early evening, but it was also raining so it wasn't the most pleasant evening to be out. I ended up staying home with the baby because of the drizzle.
Ryan and the boys didn't make it out the door until after 4:30 and were home before 6. There was a ward Halloween party that evening, but the boys were tired and we normally start their bedtime routine at 7, so we all opted to stay home and have a little family party by drinking apple cider and reading spooky bedtime books. The boys also reenacted trick-or-treating by knocking on the bedroom doors and having Ryan and I "reuse" their candy.These are cupcakes I made for the ward party. I'm still figuring out our gas oven because they we slightly over-baked. (I've never had the cupcake papers separate from the cake before.)This was Benjamin's favorite piece of candy... a lollipop with a bony arm for a stick.
Alexander was eating a full sized tootsie pop and drooling/dripping it all over the apartment.

James is 1 Month Old!

It's hard to believe it's been a month since James was born. In some ways baby #3 has been the easiest for me to care for because I'm now comfortable in my role as mother (e.g. I finally know how to get a baby to sleep without nursing him). Other than trying to balance the needs of 3... especially when they're all crying at once, and Alexander is not sleeping through the night and wanting to "nap" (i.e. nurse) ALL the time, the adjustment to 3 hasn't been too bad.


I'm trying to revel in James' babyhood because I'm not sure if there will be a #4. At the moment, the plan is yes, but not for another 3 years or so. I want to know what James will look and be like as a little boy, but I'm not willing him to grow up any faster than he already is.

James' Blessing Day

I forgot to take pictures until after I had already changed the boys out of their church clothes. We got them redressed, but didn't get a group photo.
I couldn't have staged this one better myself!
At some point we gave James a binky (He won't take one very often) so of course Benjamin and Alexander needed one too.
My silly babies. Gramp has a Benjamin growing out of the back of his head!
Gram thinks James looks like Benjamin did as a newborn. There are similarities... more so than between James and Alexander, but also a lot of differences.
Here's a photo from Benjamin's blessing day:

If Benjamin were a girl...

Hopefully the title of this blog post won't embarrass Benjamin when he's a teenager.

I didn't realize how dark my hair already was by the time I was in preschool.

I was torn about getting copies of Benjamin's preschool pictures because I wasn't expecting them to take pictures and he had pictures taken when he turned 4 in June, but I'm glad we got a copy.

Wow, Benjamin's photogenic! (and not just because he's my mini-me :) He looks like an angel.

I'm feeling old... I showed Benjamin the preview of this post and he asked me if the pictures of me were taken before there were cars and trucks!