October!

October was a busy month out here. I was involved in making two dresses (kind of pioneer style) for a neighbor and her friend who are both in a clogging group. They were scheduled to perform at the annual Folk Life Festival. So the week before the show, I started. I sewed every spare minute from then until the next Friday when I handed over the second completed dress. Lots of gathering. Lots of lace. Lots of fabric. It was a nice refresher that I do know how to sew. Thank you to my parents for sending me for lessons, grandma for all her lessons and making sure I took pride in things like clipping strings and matching points, and the many many classes I was required to take for my degree. Somewhere, years later, I can still read a pattern and adjust it as needed. I can make darts and alter things as desired by people. I didn't get to see them on them--the dance was right during Savanna's nap and Keith was gone that day participating in an Eagle Scout project the next town over. :( But it also reminded me why I don't sew for myself or my children and these projects are few and far between.

The kids and I did make it to the festival (most of it was local vendors and churches selling food and homemade items). It was fun until the kids decided they were done with the whole way back to go and no stroller. :)

This horse outside a regular store might have been Alex's favorite part. Savanna liked the samples of popcorn and freshly roasted peanuts.

Gluttons for punishment, as soon as Keith was home and Savanna was awake, we headed up to a pumpkin patch in Quincy. The kids LOVED pulling the wagon through the field and picking their pumpkins.

 A friend of ours lent us their daughters costume from last year for Savanna to wear. As soon as we turned our back though, Alex had it on. He thought it was so funny and kept asking to put it on again and bee so funny again!

 Keith and I, during this time also worked on a 3D puzzle of a castle in Germany-Neuschwanstein  the one that Cinderella's castle is based off of. It was complex, complete with lit inner rooms.

The plant hosted a BYU family who had an offer from General Mills to start at this plant next Spring when the husband graduated. So we had them over for dinner. That weekend was also one of Keith's co-workers' annual "Soup's On" party so we got to chat with them there too. Sadly they decided to accept the offer they had with Kelloggs--he had interned with them this past summer and they told him his starting location two days before he had to give his decision to General Mills. It is to be up at Corporate doing the BYU OB/HR grad's ideal job--working in organizational effectiveness/leadership training area. It would've been so awesome to have another BYU family move here. Oh well!

The other big project that kept us busy in October was a holiday Keith could actually put his creativity to work for--Halloween! He was so excited to have a yard to decorate. He made his own decorations (some things he bought--like a skeleton and some bones). I was pretty impressed by it all. I did have to rein him in on some of his ideas--they were a little outrageous for the first year and the amount of time he actually had to devote to it all, and the fact that we live in a really nice neighborhood and didn't want to scare the poor kids next door!

 Alex was Daddy's little helper as much as possible. He was so proud to be out there making holes and doing the hard work!

This month was also the primary sacrament meeting presentation, the night after the trunk-or-treat all of which the primary (me) was in charge of. I do have awesome counselors who did a ton too!

Last, but certainly not least (especially to our little three year old) was HALLOWEEN NIGHT!! Alex could hardly wait for the trick-or-treating to begin. The day before he kept asking me what time it was, was it time for us to get up again? Was it time to go trick-or-treating? He got himself and Savanna in their costumes and ran around for awhile. The actual day he kept telling me it was dark and time to go. No, my sweet son--it is only 10am--there is still lots of sunlight left in our day!! We had some friends over for dinner and then headed out to make the rounds in our neighborhood with them and our neighbors.

 Those girls were quite the troopers--they carried kids and swung Alex between them, and trudged along at a three and under pace the whole way!

 Though the three year old pace was quite the one to keep up with it turned out. Can you spot our little Spiderman? Yeah, he was off and RUNNING and whooping and hollering the whole way!! The end he was slowing down a bit, but when he got down he was screaming with delight still!

 Our cute little bumble bee--she can say Trick-or-Treat pretty clearly, as well as thank you, and of course, BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

 Spiderman with his bucket getting fuller by the house!

 Cashing in!

 Loving the sugar!

This is one of Savanna's favorite things right now--she loves to color "kuh-kuh" or something like that. She does love to draw on everything and anything is better than the boring paper mom keeps pushing at her!! No huge disasters yet, but it's coming--I can feel it!

Savanna is also into a kissing phase. She will give us lots and lots of kisses, especially if something hurts. She is very compassionate and will sometimes cry if Alex is crying-just to join in. She will come and pat his head or back and give him a hug (not usually very appreciated by him though). Her vocabulary is growing every day. There is always some new word or combination of words that I'm marveling that she says. The funniest to me is that she often refers to Keith as Kee. "I love you Kee" "Bye, bye Kee". I don't know why I find that so amusing, but I do.

Alex's imagination is still just bursting. He has new things going on in his head and with his toys all the time. Sometimes even a part of himself is a different character--like when I ask him to do something and after a few times of re-asking, he makes his left hand force his right hand into doing the task. He has a variety of voices that he uses too--some are high, some are low. He still has a few mice running around occasionally too. He gives emotions and fears to his characters, they are usually very stubborn and obstinate, or very 'nice' (like the lion that I shouldn't fear).

Add to that plenty of meetings and extra things coming up at work for Keith and a continuing pregnancy for me, and we're quite the group these days. I'm sure I'm missing plenty of other things that went on this month, but such it is!

On to November!!