Pumpkin Patches

What is October without pumpkin patches?  We sure hit a lot of them.  First we went to Black Island Farms in Syracuse - twice!  The first time we had a ball doing all the activities, the slides and most especially, the bounce house.  We didn't get to the pumpkin patch and hay ride that night so we went back a few weeks later and did that.

Zoey's favorite color is green so she insisted on a green pumpkin.  She loved it so much.  It was so cute that that was all she wanted, a pumpkin in her favorite color.  That wouldn't be the last green pumpkin she picked either!

We also went to Pack's Pumpkin Patch in Farmington for a family birthday party.  It was such a cute way to celebrate.  The only downfall was the MOSQUITOES!  We got eaten alive.  Thank heavens for bug spray.  Zoey had a great time on the tractor and the little hay maze.  She could have ran for hours.  We rushed her through and rushed her picking a pumpkin too because the wall of mosquitoes was almost visible.  We kept Connor covered up all night.  And he slept - the.whole.time.  Again.  Awesome.

We also went to Cross E Ranch with my mom, Suzanne and Phin.  The kid who owns it is an old family friend and they totally hooked us up.  Phin and Zo had so much fun playing in the corn pit.  I found corn kernels in her diaper hours later.  They also loved running through the kids' hay maze, climbing the hay tower, we took a tractor hayride through their property, the kids got to feed some goats and then pick pumpkins (again green AND a white one).  It was a ton of fun.  They also gave us a 10 lb. bag of potatoes and fingerling potatoes.  We'll definitely go back next year!

The Crazy Night

We had a weird night.  We had taken Connor's blessing photos and hurried and snapped a few family photos in the process.  It was stressful and crazy and Connor got overstimulated so that night he was super fussy (really unusual for him) and everything just went whacko.  Dallin was trying to pull up Zoey's pants (they were low-riding) and she jumped and landed right on her face.  No breaking her fall at all.  Her nose started bleeding slightly and it looked like a rug burn on her nose.  No, it was actually a bruise.  And her nose got all swollen.  I panicked that she had broken her nose because that's what it kind of looked like and sent pictures to Nurse Mom.  Since the bleeding was minimal she didn't suspect it.

Well, Zoey got hungry right before bed (or was stalling) and I felt so bad for her I made her Easy Mac like she asked.  Except, I forgot to put the water in the thing!  I didn't realize it until smoke was pouring out of my microwave and it had pretty much lit on fire.  Dallin was at the neighbors and came home to every window in our house open (freezing us out) and the most horrific smell you can imagine - like burned plastic.  That lingered for days!  I thought I had a faulty Easy Mac until I googled problems with Easy Mac and realized what a dummy I had been.  It was quite the eventful night.  Don't ever forget the water for Easy Mac - you've been warned.

Frightmares

We were generously invited to Frightmares with Suzanne and her family.  I was proud of myself for braving the crowds with two children by myself.  It was so hot that day and SO busy.  We went the Thursday of UEA with the rest of Utah.  We got there shortly after opening and Zoey had been so excited, until it came time to ride the rides.  She absolutely refused the first one.  I had Suzanne physically put her on the next one (the cars) with Phin and she came around the corner steering like a madwoman and she was hooked after that!  Her favorite rides were the cars, the boats and Bulgy the Whale.  I rode the Jeeps with her too and she thought that was pretty cool.  What was ironic was the orange boat she chose was nicknamed the "Guppy" which is her nickname for her Uncle Jeff.  He sure got a kick out of that!

Can we have a moment of silence for how awesome Connor was?  There is no way I would have survived if he was less than stellar.  He slept THE. WHOLE. TIME.  I woke him up to feed him around 12:30 (60 minutes past his feeding time) while we all sat down for lunch.  And he did ride the train with us and I held him through the two trick-or-treating areas.  Other than that he stayed in his car seat in the stroller completely knocked out.  That kid will sleep for HOURS in his car seat if I let him; he'll even miss meals, and this kid does not miss a meal.  He was amazing.

We skipped naptime and stayed from 11-4.  Around 4 everyone started to head home but I promised Zoey one more ride.  She chose the cars.  I didn't think it through very well because how was I supposed to push a huge stroller through the line and stay with Zoey?  Wasn't going to happen.  So I put Zoey in line and followed her from outside the line.  A cute, kind, little girl, around 8, offered to help Zoey and kept ushering her through and talking to her.  What a saint!  I was so appreciative.  She had her last ride and was zonked out in the car before we even hit Centerville.

It was so fun to go and start our Halloween festivities.  It was nice to get some sun too!  I'm loving this Indian Summer in October!

Connor - 2 Months

Our little Connor is not so little anymore!  He is growing, growing, growing and no one can believe how big he's getting!  At 2 months, Connor:

- Weighs xx lb. xx oz. and is xx in. long

- Drinks 4-6 oz. regularly and cries when he has to stop to burp

- Wears size 2 diapers

- Is doing better at holding his head up

- Smiles and giggles but is kind of stingy with them

- Is stingy with burps too

- Is pretty much grown out of his 0-3 month clothes and is almost out of 3 month clothes.  I've put him in some 6 month jammies and they fit quite well except in the arms

- His hair is even longer.  The highlights are harder to see because it's fine and gets greasy easily

- Has slept through the night twice already

- Has the most kissable cheeks and lips

- LOVES and adores his sister.  She gets the biggest and best smiles

 - Talks to his "people" in the light fixtures and ceiling fan.  It can be kind of freaky but is also cool to know the veil is still so thin for him.  You can watch his eyes follow them and he is consistent at their placement.  I KNOW there are people there close to him.

- Is starting to coo a lot more

- Sometimes cries just to be held or if he is worried we forgot about him because he's been alone too long.

- Will go to sleep on his own (hooray!)

- Is on Enfamil Newborn with some breastmilk still.  He gets some nasty toots though.  The majority of crying is due to gas.

- Poops about every other day.  And it's a blowout.

- Likes to take baths with mom but is almost too big to fit comfortably anymore.

- Still doesn't like his binkie too much but will tolerate it sometimes.

- Is soooo chill and mellow and content with just about anything.

- The car puts him to sleep.  And he sleeps really well (for hours) in his carseat after a ride.

- Does not like to be hot or cold.

- Does not like wet or messy diapers.

- Eyes are looking really blue

By-You Game

Zoey went to her first BYU game.  She kept calling it the By-you (Bayou) game.  She'd been asking to watch a football game outside with tickets for a while.  Saturday was a convenient game because it was after naptime and the weather was warm.  It was just a fun day all-around.

We started the day with a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Allie.  Zoey's little 2nd cousin came over and played at the shower with her then we hit the road to Provo so she could meet her cousin, Holden for the first time.  The size difference between Holden and Connor was significant and amazing!  Zoey loved her cousin and was so cute and motherly to him.

After hanging out for a while, I went and dropped Zoey, Dallin and Thomas off at the football game.  While I was gone, Connor had a blowout on Angela.  Nice.  Glad I bought a spare set of clothes.  Dallin said Zoey was so funny at the game.  She first commented on how many people there were there.  I don't think she's ever seen so many people in one area.  Dallin told her at the game she could yell as loud as she wanted as much as she wanted and she took that to heart yelling, "Go Cougars!" much to my chagrin.  Dallin and Thomas would tell her to yell, "Tackle him!" or "Make that block!" and she willingly obliged each time.  They said she was by far the most vocal and loudest kid there.  I bet it was quite entertaining.

Her papa was excited to take her to the team store and let her pick out whatever she wanted.  He wanted to get her an authentic cheerleader outfit, a foam finger, and a bunch of other things but all she wanted was a small stuffed giraffe wearing a BYU shirt.  He tried to convince her otherwise but she insisted that was all she wanted.  I'm glad we didn't end up with a truckload of BYU stuff, haha.  She also wanted popcorn.  That girl will do anything for popcorn.  So she was given a small bag as it doesn't always sit great with her.

She made it into the third quarter when she started to get bored and tired.  I went and picked Zoey and Dallin up and we headed for home.  She was so excited to tell me all about it and I think Dallin had a great time starting memories with her as he has such fond memories of going to games with his dad during his childhood.  I had to make sure she yelled, "Go Utes!" a few times for good measure to make sure she didn't go completely to the dark side but was just so thrilled she had such a fun time.

 On the way home, Thanksgiving Point was doing fireworks so we got treated to quite the show on the freeway.  (Super distracting!)  What more could a little girl ask for?  (GO UTES!)