Finn turns Two

We had Finn's 2nd Birthday party this morning. We had a party with just family this year, which made it pretty relaxing. I made another pumpkin cake this year. This time out of cupcakes. I can't believe he is already 2!

Fall Events

We took the boys tonight to a trick or treating event with game booths and candy booths for the community. It was the first time Finn wore his lion costume:)




Ethan had his Halloween preschool party this morning. He has talked about being a pumpkin for about a month. All he wanted to be was a "real pumpkin" he would say. As of yesterday I still hadn't found a pumpkin costume! It took me 1 1/2 hours, but I finally found one last night at Pamida (a store in town that I haven't been to in about 2 years!). The things we do for our children:) It comes with a hat that he wore to the party. The preschool had rented a party room and had snacks and games. He loved it!

Iron Chef & Poetry Night

Last night my family competed in a "Iron Chef" competition held on campus. It was my mom, my dad, and me. There were 6 teams picked out of the people that applied to compete. If you don't watch the show, basically we were given a cooking station and allowed to take any ingredients off the large "ingredient table". Then the secret ingredient (shrimp) was brought out at 5:00 p.m. and we had 35 minutes to cook a dish with the shrimp for a panel of 3 judges. We cooked spicy gumbo shrimp with citrus.

It was really fun and exciting while we were cooking. We didn't win, but we got to keep the chef jackets (which I kinda think are cool:) The winning team received $150 to split, free pizzas, and some other stuff. Below are some pictures of the night.

Mark took these. We are talking behind the other girl in front of us. My dad is on the left.

Me, really hot and sweaty from cooking! Messy makeup and gross sweaty hair, but it was so fun!!

These are all pictures of the final dishes from some of the teams.

After the Iron Chef competition, we ate a late dinner and I took Ethan to a Poetry event that my department hosted. It was called Poe-try night, since it was Halloween inspired and Poe (the author) writes a lot of spooky stories.

They had a free coffee bar and snacks. Ethan was a good sport and sat through most of it until it was our turn to read. A lot of people read their poems or spooky stories they had written. Ethan and I read his favorite Halloween book "The Runaway Pumpkin". It has a chorus part that repeats itself 3-4 times throughout the children's book. He has it memorized, so I read the story and he said the chorus part and everytime there was the word pumpkin he would say it really loud and cute. People laughed and kept saying how cute he was. He did a really good job, especially in front of 30-40 people. Below are a couple pictures of the event.

Boo on the Farm

Yesterday afternoon we took the boys to "Boo on the Farm". A trick or treating/game booth event held at a nearby farm.

Walking through the different areas of the barn.

They had about 12-15 areas set up where kids could play a quick game to earn candy. Of course they gave candy to every kid no matter if they won the game or not:)

Here is Finn checking out the biggest dog we've ever seen.

One of the booths was looking through corn to find candy. Ethan really liked this one.

The "haunted" area of the barn...Ethan really liked it even though his face says different...

Running around the farm afterward.

They also gave cookies and juice, a balloon for each kid, and a pumpkin for each kid. It was the first on many Halloween events planned for the week. After we got home, Mark went and played a football game with some friends. Hope you had a good weekend!

That time of Year

Jewelry Party

My mom put on a jewelry party this morning featuring my sister-in-law's jewelry she makes and sells. Several people came and bought for themselves and for gifts. My mom made parfaits and coffee. I am blessed with a sweet, creative, loving sister-in-law, it was a wonderful morning!

(My sister-in-law is the one in the purple)

Day in the Leaves

My oldest throwing leaves at daddy

He is so beautiful!
Throwing leaves at himself...

Rolling around

Finn's turning 2!

Even though we're doing a just family birthday party this year for Finn, I still created a couple fun online cards to send by e-mail. Here is one I sent out today. Last year we had a bigger party since it was his 1st birthday with about 18-20 people. Either way we do it, it is always exciting when your baby gets older and has a birthday!

31 Weeks

Late yesterday afternoon I had my 30-31 week appt. Here are the highlights:

Heartbeat: good and healthy
Measurement: I measured 32 weeks
Weight: 17 pounds
Blood pressure: normal

Concerns: Was given more heartburn medicine, discussed birth plan, talked about some other stuff, nothing too exciting at this appt.

I have a little over 9 weeks to go and I can't believe how quickly everything is going. I can't wait to meet this little guy! We also have picked a name! We won't be announcing it until the birth date, we've learned that trying to announce things sooner creates too much drama:) After going back and forth, deciding, then changing our mind, we both fell in love with a name we thought of several weeks ago. It makes it so much more real after you pick a name.

We pray the next 9 weeks go smoothly!

A weekend away (more pics)

I posted my favorite pics already (see Saturday night's post), but here are some more.

The boys loved the bridges!

Me at about 31 weeks pregnant

Inside of our cabin, it was a 2-bedroom with a 1/2 kitchen.

My dad cooked the meat for us.

I love Finn's face in this one!

At the lake

Hiking around

We originally had plans to go back to the Lied Lodge, but we talked to my parents a couple weeks ago and we all decided to rent a cabin at Mahoney State park instead. It was a beautiful weekend and perfect cabin weather. The boys enjoyed being outside for most the time and the fireplace was cozy and warm at night!