Our Happy Halloween

Although I have really been missing the beautiful crisp Fall weather I'm accustomed to, we've had a wonderful fall here in Texas.
We've enjoyed some BYU football...maybe "enjoyed" is too strong a word here for what a crummy season they've had.

Carrie is already a Cougar fan, watching a football game with Dad.
Mike competed in a local kolache eating contest in Caldwell. (For those of you who don't know what a kolache is, don't feel bad. It is a Czechoslovakian food. It can be sweet with fruit filling or savory with a sausage filling) Just before the competition started we ran into some friends of mine, Monica and Jason. Mike invited Jason to join him in the competition. The winner of the Kolache competition would be the contestant who ate all 8 of their Kolaches in the shortest amount of time.

Mike getting ready.

Mike shoving Kolaches down his throat as fast as he possibly could.
Sadly, this tale does not have a happy ending for dear Michael. He ended up just barely losing to Jason. Jason won $50, a baseball hat enscribed with "Kolache Eating Champion 2010" and a picture with the Kolache Queen. Needless to say, Mike was a little upset he lost. They both ended up making it onto the front page of the local newspaper.
Jonah has been playing soccer one evening a week for the past 6 weeks. For the three year old age group, they had the parents very involved in the weekly practices. So, I essentially also went to soccer practice. I thought Jonah would enjoy it more than he did, but I think it was a good experience for him, and Mike and me.

For the last two weeks of soccer, they had the kids play in a game-like setting (emphasis on like). We've all seen the kid who does cartwheels in the outfield right? I know this is soccer, not baseball, but Jonah was totally that kid. Instead of cartwheels, Jonah did a few somersaults for us in the middle of the field, in the middle of the game. He cried several times and played in the net after every goal his team scored. Maybe we should have waited a year...
Jonah has preschool once a week with some kids (all girls) his age from church. The moms take turns teaching and it has really been a lot of fun for him. In early October we went on a fieldtrip to Dewberry Farm down near Houston.


He got to go on a hayride to a pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin, ride on big wheelers around a race track, jump on giant pillow bouncers, and more. It was a fun day and an eye opener for me on how much work an outing with two kids can be without dad around. Thank goodness for friends who helped me out.

We celebrated Mike's 30th birthday with cake and presents. At random, Mike decided to go on a 10 mile run the night of his birthday. He hasn't been running longer than 3 mile distances, and these runs only happen twice a week. Mike set out to prove that at 30 years, he's still got it. At 11:30 p.m. he arrived back home having run the entire 10 miles and feeling pretty good almost the whole way. He said it was a great chance for him to think about the thirty years he's lived and the thirty years to come. (Does anybody else hear Tim McGraw singing "My Next Thirty Years" in their heads at this point?)
We went to a local open air grocery mart called the Farm Patch to pick out our pumpkins this year. They had a pumpkin patch set up where Jonah enjoyed tripping over the pumpkins and scoping out which ones we would be taking home with us to paint and carve.


Carrie snuggling me while we search for the perfect pumpkin.


Mike tried to hide Carrie amidst all the pumpkins.
We had a whole week of Halloween Fun:


Jonah was Peter Pan this year, and Carrie was...

...a monkey. It was hard to get a good picture of her in her costume. It's so hot here that the monkey costume only stayed on her little body a total of 5 minutes.


But she's a cute monkey, right?

Here are some random pictures of my kids for the grandparents, aunties, and unclies.

Carrie with her game face on. She gets so serious trying to pull those toys off her little baby gym. Her arms are moving so fast, they're a blur!

Jonah next to some of his chalk drawings. When I took him to his 3 year old check-up the doctor asked me if he was drawing primitive people. "Well, no," I replied. Without prompting, Jonah has been drawing these "primitive people" all over our driveway, setting my mind at ease that my child is on track developmentally :) My favorite primitive being is the donut man right next to Jonah's right elbow in this picture. That is hardly primitive in my opinion.

Carrie's sweet smiles.


Jonah checking himself out in our bathroom mirror on his first-ever-tie-wearing Sunday. Is this a bad thing that he's three and has never worn a tie to church until now? I think that's the first and last time he's worn that tie. I don't blame him; from what I hear, they're not as cool as they look.
In summary, we are happy and busy.
Well, this post oughta hold down my metaphorical blogging fort 'til Spring :) Until next time!