Every year I look forward to October with such anticipation, it is such a beautiful month! And every year I vow that we will thoroughly enjoy it and not take it for granted. It's been a great month for our family, full of lots of fun activities and the beauties of fall. We started it off with Creekside Elementary's Fall Festival, which was so fun! It is their big fundraiser for the year and it was huge and so well planned and attended. The kids looked forward to it all week, and the night of the festival I showed up at 5:00 when it started imagining we would be there for an hour or so. Three hours later we were still going strong! They had so many fun activities to do and Chase loved running into all his friends from school and our ward. This fell on the day after we'd told the boys about the baby, so Chase was quickly spreading the word and telling EVERYONE we saw about his new baby brother.
Over Conference weekend Papa Ray came to visit! It's been so nice this year to have him visit us twice just about six weeks apart! He had to take an OSHA class and since one was offered in Utah he took it here so he could visit with us! He treated us to a Mexican Restaurant one night, got in some good quality time with the boys, and was able to walk Chase to school his last morning here before he flew out. It was a short, but great visit!
Soccer! Chase started soccer this fall and it's been a blast to watch! He loves it. He runs around like a little puppy the whole time, just so excited to be part of things. He even high-fives his own teammates when the other team scores (he has such a good attitude!). And when he gets to kick-off he starts clear back at the goal and runs the whole half-field in winding up for his big kick! At this age they only play three kids on the field at a time, but his little team frequently only has three players there and he does great running around and playing the whole game. His coach has been darling with them and it's been a great experience for him- and us too. We love watching his games!
Since we discovered the beauty of fernwood, just 10 minutes from home, we've been back for another night of picnicking and hiking. The beauty of the leaves right now is just the best. I love my enthusiastic little hikers!
Chase had a field trip! I got to go with him to chaperone and it was great. They went to Black Island Farms- a super fun pumpkin patch we've been to before. It has lots of fun activities, and then they took the kids on a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch and let them each choose a pumpkin. The real highlight for Chase was riding the school bus- a first for him!
Since I wanted to go on the field trip, I asked my dad if Hudson could go to work with him for the morning. My sweet dad willingly agreed, but said he'd need to pick Hudson up at 7:00 am. Well I had Hudson up early and he was thrilled to be going to work with Papa! When the field trip was over I called my dad to coordinate getting Hudson back, but he asked to keep him longer since they were having so much fun together. He didn't end up bringing him home until 6:30 that evening- and they were both so happy! I think it's so great that they could spend a whole day together- working- and both be so happy with it. These two have a pretty strong bond- they just get each other. Hudson's favorite parts of the day were the 2 bottles of chocolate milk Papa bought him, the donut he got, and riding on the tractor with Papa. He also told me, "I gave all the farmer's high-fives, and Papa knows all their names." Apparently he didn't stop talking all day long (which wasn't surprising to me at all), but on the way home he got really quiet. My dad asked him why he was quiet and Hudson replied, "I'm just thinking about my day."
Ben and I had a fabulous date night to the temple and Zucca- one of our favorite restaurants. It had been a busy week and we needed some time to reconnect and just be adults for a night! Since I actually did my hair (which has been a rare occurrence lately) I had him take a picture of my growing baby bump. Here are baby boy and I at 17 weeks.
And then Hudson wanted to be in a picture. He hugged me so tight, I love the joy this little one brings to our lives!
This was huge. We did something we said we'd never do. We bought a van. We have been talking and saving and discussing, researching and weighing our options for months. It was finally time (because our lease on our CR-V was about to expire). We sold the CR-V and the next night went to Salt Lake and bought the Odyssey. Really, I think with adding another baby it's the right car for our family and it already feels so comfortable and convenient with the kids. So Ben and I are swallowing our pride and owning that we are now officially a mini-van family! The boys, however, are super ecstatic about the purchase!
This sweet kid- we checked a book out of the library illustrated completely with stamps made from potatoes. He obviously wanted to try it out. One Saturday night (before a delicious dinner and camp fire at my parents house) Ben and I cut up some potatoes and made stamps for him- a ghost, a pumpkin, and two different shaped leaves. Nana supplied us with some paint and Chase went to town stamping masterpieces! It held Hudson's interest for a few minutes, and then Chase went on to make about 4 more pieces of art! I love these little things that make life so fun and full with little ones.
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