Sorry Amber, I meant to do this yesterday but I wanted to ask Doug to answer some of your questions.

I love this picture. I am the clown and my brother is the Dinosaur. I love his face, it is perfect. I think I was a clown most of the time.

1. What is your all time best Halloween costume? Doug also remembers the Dinosaurs. One year my Mom spent a long time making me an Angel costume, then of course on Halloween it snowed and I had to wear my snow pants and coat. I was so disappointed.
2. What is your favorite Halloween tradition? We didn't really have many traditions, but I loved carving pumpkins and then baking the seeds after.
3. What is your favorite Fall tradition? We don't really have any fall traditions yet, but this year I picked apples and made applesauce. Don't really know if this will become a tradition, but I would love to do it every year. Also we are going to go to a pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins.
4. What is your favorite book? I love so many books that this one is hard. Doug of course loves Ender's Game, which I really like too. I also love Jane Eyre. Doug wonders how I can read the same book so many times.
5. Name 3 great things that happened to you today. (this is going to be yesterday since it is too early in the morning) 1. James asked to go potty at nap time. Although he didn't really go in the the toilet at least he asked right? 2. We had Brinner (Breakfast for Dinner) which is James' favorite so he ate really well. 3. I finally got all the laundry put away.
6. What is your all time favorite dessert? I don't really know what my favorite dessert is, I know Doug's is Cheesecake. We had this really yummy fried Cheesecake for our anniversary. I love Apple Crisp, and I really love how it makes my house smell (like fall, which is my favorite season).
7. Tell me something you look forward to doing in the next month. Going to the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, and baking the seeds. Also trick or treating with James for the first time. Also shopping for Doug's birthday. I have a lot of great ideas this year.
8. Tell me something you are going to give someone else for Christmas (I need ideas!) We signed James up for the Disney Movie Club (if anyone wants to do this let me know, I have a coupon for 4 movies for $1 and the next 2 movies for $20) also Doug is getting Lasik next year. He says that is his Christmas present, but he will also get some other things. I can't think of anything for Michael, but I thought of making them a beanbag, or getting an art easel, or a play workbench. Also James needs new books (Doug is getting tired of the books he has) and I am working on a list of books that I want to get for them.

Applesauce

Fall is probably my favorite season of the year. I love summer because we get to play outside, but when the fall weather hits I just feel different. I really love how clean and fresh the air feels during the fall. This year fall brought apples from my apple tree. I was so excited about these apples all summer then when it came time to pick them I had no idea what I was going to do with this many apples. I am the only one who eats them in my family, Doug doesn't even like apple desserts. So I came up with this brilliant plan to make applesauce. The only problem was I had all the apples, but none of the equipment to make applesauce. Then in church two weeks ago they announced they were going to have an applesauce making class, and they also needed apples. So I volunteered my apples and Tuesday I went over to my neighbours to make applesauce. I was the only one to show up so I learned to make applesauce. We only did about half of my apples and got 30 pints! Next year I think I will borrow the equipment and do all of my apples. James likes eating "pink" as he calls it because it turned out pink.

Fall also brings stray cats to our door, wanting to get in from the cold. James was really excited about this cat because it looks just like Mittens from Bolt, and the first thing he said when he saw it was, "You kidding me!".

Two Cute Boys!

First of all I always wanted to say this, "I just saved $534 on car insurance." That said, on to the cuteness that are James and Michael.
We have always been very happy that James has decided to suck on his fingers instead of his thumb, 1. it is cute 2. it doesn't seem to be so bad for his teeth. So I have to admit I was a little disappointed yesterday when I got out of the shower to find this:
However I can't be too sad because it has always been difficult to get Michael to take a pacifier so at least now he can sooth himself.
As I have said before Michael loves, loves, LOVES his dad. I honestly think he would prefer if Dad could feed him instead of Mom. So it doesn't surprise me that Dad is the only one to get him to laugh like this. Did I mention that he LOVES his Dad.

James is also very cute and fun. And he prefers his Mom, so I guess that evens things out. I was thinking the other day that we could make a collage of James playing every sport known to man. This makes up for the fact that he has named his blankets pink and purple. Here is the one he decided to play last week. He decided to put the skates on himself. He even put them on himself. I was very impressed.

Potty training. James is definitely not ready for this big step, but I bought him some Pixar underwear anyway hoping to spark some sort of interest. I was actually hoping that by wearing underwear occasionally he would start to notice when he peed or pooped. It seems to work with the pee, as he starts crying as it is running down his legs! But he has yet to make any acknowledgement of when he poops. But he does love putting it in the toilet and saying "Bye, bye potty." as we flush it. Despite all this he still loves wearing his Buz Lightyear/Dash/Nemo underwear.

Finally, James it the only one in this family that is ready/excited for winter. I tried on his coat and boot the other day to see if he would need new ones. He would not let me take them off and was so excited to go outside. He even wore his boots (with shorts) to the park.

Also he found the sled the other day and insisted on bringing it inside. He is very excited for when he can actually use it in the snow.

Trip to Florida

We went to Florida last week, and I am so far behind on the blog that it is hard for me to even try to get caught up, so I am going to post about Florida then we will see after that. Also I don't have all the pictures because I forgot to get them from my Mom's camera, so maybe I will have to put more picture on later.
On Saturday we went to the beach when we got there. James hated the waves, but Doug loved them. James was pretty funny about getting too close and when we finally got him distracted from the waves he had fun playing in the sand, but once he remembered the waves he was gone! Monday morning, very early, Doug and I left the kids and drove to Tampa to go to Busch Gardens for two days. The park was a lot cheaper then Disney World, but we wish we would have just spent the money and gone to Disney. It wasn't crowded at all so we got to go on as many rides as we wanted as much as we wanted. Before we left on Tuesday Doug rode his favorite roller coaster 7 times without even getting off.
Wednesday we went to the turtle place so James could see some "Nemos and Doris" there were having story time and James enjoyed that. Then we went and got a picnic and took it to the park where we could feed the birds, ducks and turtles.

James liked throwing the bread in the water, but I don't really know if he understood that he was feeding the ducks and turtles.

Thursday we spent the morning at the beach. James was brave and got in the water in a little boat that my parents had. He was starting to really enjoy the waves and liked "riding" them back and fourth between Dad and Grandad when a big one came and Dad missed catching him and he rode the wave all the way into the beach. We were really glad he didn't tip over, but he was done with the boat after that. He did go back into the water but wanted Mom to hold him, not understanding that it was safer with Dad because Mom couldn't touch the ground when the waves came.

That night we went to a really fun restaurant on the beach. This is the best I think James has ever been eating out. He didn't eat but just sat in his chair looking at the water.

We had a lot of fun, it was a really cool place.

After we walked along the dock, you can drive your boat right up to the restaurant.

On Friday we went to the Everglades which is really cool and really pretty. We went on an air boat ride, Doug really liked it when we went two years ago, but it wasn't as cool this year. There weren't any alligators out because the water was so high they could go wherever they wanted.

James loved the boat, until it turned on, then he was content to snuggle with Grammy. Michael didn't like it at all, and finally fell asleep.

Doug got to go golfing twice, which he loved. James and me loved swimming in the pool. And James especially loved "surfs up" that is basically anything to do with something that looks like a surf board.

4 Months Old

Michael had is 4 month check-up on Monday. I can't believe he is already 4 months old. He is such a good baby, we have really enjoyed having him in our family. Here are his stats:

Weight: 14 lbs 7 oz (38th percentile)

Height: 24 inches (16th percentile)

Head: 16 inches

This month Michael had learned to laugh, talk a lot, play in the jumper, go on bike rides with Dad and James, play with his feet and roll over from his tummy from his back for the first and only time.

Surfs Up

We have been in sunny Florida this week and are having a blast. I will post all about it when we get home. For now one cute story and one cute video.
On the way to Salt Lake on Friday morning we stopped at Sonic for breakfast. James was excited for "chicken nuggets".
Doug: "Wow, that's a lot."
James: "Why?"
Doug: "Because $10 for breakfast is a lot of money."
James: "That's right!"

This video is from the second day we went to the beach. James didn't want to play in the water so he played on the beach far away from the waves. At one point he went over to the family sitting next to us. He stood and looked at the lady for a while then grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her chair. Then he sat down in her chair. This kid is not shy at all! So the next time he went over there I wanted to get a picture of him sitting in her chair, but this is what happened instead.

Soon he started paddling and standing up on the board.

Golfing and More Bed Time Problems

*note about the finger paint: once it cooled it was way to thick, so I added some water and it was a little lumpy. I put it in the blender for a little bit and now it is perfect.*

James's new favorite thing to do outside is Golf. He always gets Dad's "sticks" (clubs) out of his bag to practice, and of course he has to do what Dad is doing. So first we practiced driving. I don't know why but he always hits left handed, even with his right handed clubs.

Dad's clubs were a little too big, so Doug made James his own set. Right now he only has a 4 iron and a 9 iron. Next we had to practice his approach. It still needs a lot of work and I'm not quite sure if he even knows where the hole is. Next we will try putting!

Now for more bed time problems...

James had never been afraid of the dark, one night we forgot to turn his light off and went in to find him asleep with his blanket over his head. One night this week I woke up to hear James crying in the middle of the night. So I went in and laid down with him for a while. Every time I moved my hand, even just to scratch my face or something he grabbed it and put it back around him. I had to lay in his bed for 45 minutes. The next night Doug was putting him to bed and he ran down the hall and when he got to his room he stopped, clearly afraid to go into the dark room alone. As soon as we shut the door he started crying, so we left his closet light on, and have had to do that every night since. So yesterday I bought him a night light. He was so excited about it he didn't even cry for another story. So I shut the door and about a minute later I hear him crying. So I go back in his room and he is sitting on the floor holding the night light in his hand, crying because it is completely dark. I think I have had enough sleeping problems with James that the rest of my kids should be easy!

Michael is growing and playing more all the time. He is so happy and he loves his Dad the best! A lot of the time I can't even get him to eat because he is too busy looking at his Dad.