October

It was another action-packed month for us.  We attended the annual Conference Camp and visited more attractions on our Salt Lake City Connect pass.  

Lucy continues to love puppies.  She plays puppies and several other animals (cheetahs, leopards, lions and kitties) at every opportunity.  She turned 5 this month!  After months of anticipation, she can hardly believe she finally is 5 years old. 

Sam is obsessed with drawing.  He pays attention to detail and is great at coloring.  He draws undecipherable pictures and tells me what each thing is.  His favorite thing is for me to draw pictures (usually the fierce T-Rex on his favorite shirt) and then he will color them in.  He recently drew all over two couches and is currently banned from coloring anywhere but the kitchen table.

Wade started the month out enjoying the jumper and ended by sitting up all by himself.  His sleeping pattern has been disrupted apparently.  He has been waking us up 3-5 times per night lately.  Unfortunate.

Conference Camp was great.  Hannah and Kate had a good time passing Wade back and forth between themselves.  I enjoyed the annual M&M marshmallow popcorn treat my Mom brought and the kids loved the fort.  It was so fun to see everyone again.  I love Conference Camp.

We went to This Is The Place Park on our pass.  Lucy really liked the pony rides and Sam was a bit uncomfortable, but I made him get on and held him fast.  

Dad, Lucy and Sam did some panning for gold while I fed Wade.  

Lucy wanted to go to the zoo for her birthday.  It worked out nicely that the dinosaurs were on exhibit.  Sam was in dinosaur heaven.

Monte and Tessa joined us as well as Grandma Cropper.  We love our family!  It always makes days more exciting to have our loved ones along.

Lucy requested an orange cat with chocolate stripes for her cake.  It ended up looking a bit like Daniel Tiger.  Grandma gave her some clothes and a book of 6 Disney stories for her to read.   Wes and Debbie gave her Kristoff and Anna dolls.  And she got a leopard and puppy vet set from us.  She had a very happy unwrapping. :)

My beauty.

We went to the pumpkin walk at the Grist Mill.  We decorated cookies, did a craft and played bingo.  The kids loved the hay bale maze and the playground especially.  

Sam was too short for the scarecrow photo op, so he asked for a picture in front of it. :)

Wade's 6 month shoot.  He is a big little kiddo. 

Our Halloween festivities the week before Halloween.   We skipped the trunk-or-treat and stayed home for a quiet family time.  We had dinner and then treats with some pumpkin and ghostie coloring.

We went to Gardner Village to look for witches with Emmy, Otto and Poppy.  It was jacket weather.  I LOVE jacket weather.  The kids liked the snoring witch.  Lucy loved the alpaca.  Seriously soft stuff.

The kids came to school as "My Little Ponies."  Lucy was Rarity and even asked me to curl her hair to look the part.  That NEVER happens.  Sam came as Rainbow Dash and since we had just read a book about the ponies' pets, they each brought one along.  I was Twilight Sparkle and Wade was my pet Owlowicious.

This year Wade was a hungry little caterpillar and Lucy was grapes and Sam was a pumpkin.  At the end of the night, Lucy said, "I wish I wasn't grapes."  We tried to console her by reminding her of all the compliments she got.  She said, "I'm glad I'm cute!  I'm just not glad I'm grapes."  She was tired of not being able to put her own treats in her bag.  I wish I had realized it earlier and we could have tried to adjust the balloons.  Next year we will go for a more flexible costume!

Quotes:

Lucy:  "Did the pioneers live before us?"
Mom:  "Uh-huh."
Lucy:  "You know how we humans have cribs?  The pioneers had babies.  I bet it would be SO HARD without cribs.  I wonder what they would do!"

We were playing a game where Lucy was a cat.  I made her change her pants because she was wearing the only pair she owned (that she got for her birthday) that didn't have holes in the knees.  As she ran up the stairs to her room, she yelled,  "Pause the game!  Actually don't!  Just pretend like I got new skin.  Actually just pretend like it was a different gray!"

Sam:  "Wade's eating the phone!  But...it's okay.  We always make mistakes!"