October

Peter is 17 months old. He copies us on everything and has been talking nonstop. He jabbers and jabbers in a conversational tone. Everyone who hears him comments on it. Just today the new words he learned are: choo-choo, Papa and Ok. He can mimic so many things we say and do and understands us well. I was changing his diaper the other day and told him that after we move to our new house we will take out a special red toilet for him and he can sit on it like a big boy. He listened to everything I said and nodded understandingly. As I went to put his diaper on he fought it, which was unusual. I put it on him anyway, because I was in a hurry. After I put him down he ran to the toilet and pointed to it! I stuck him on it with his clothes on and he was satisfied enough.
Peter had his first dentist appointment. Luckily he loves brushing his teeth so he was fine with the hygienist looking in his mouth (mostly he just sucked the toothpaste off the tool). However, when the dentist came he didn't have the bribe of brushing his teeth so Peter just hid his head. During my exam he nursed and then got down, emptied out my diaper bag and crushed gold fish over the entire office floor. 

Between Halloween, Benjamin's birthday, and a road trip, there are quite a few pictures from October!

Totally fearless on the tramp at Charity's house. He will jump on it with older kids and squeals with delight when he gets bounced too high that he falls down. Sometimes I wish he had a little more fear to help keep him safe.

These pictures sum up Benjamin and Peter. Peter wants to be down and moving all the time. Benjamin thinks he will die if he has to walk into a store without a stroller or being carried. He goes to any extent possible to not have to walk and Peter will do anything he can *to* walk.

After voting. None of our candidates won. Haha.

Talking to the animals at Petsmart.

Benjamin used to not be a climber but he has been making up for lost time.

Benjamin turned 4 and we threw him a big party at A Park Above. By big party I mean big. I don't know what I was thinking. There were 80 people there (including kids and siblings)!! Wow. You think I would have learned my lesson, but I guarantee you I will make the same mistake again. 

It was a superhero party and we invited the kids to come in costumes.

Opening presents. Bampa happened to be in town and Mariah and Dentin won the award for driving the furthest.

Peter loves Joy. And Bubbles.

 
 
Watch the progression of these pictures...

This is what you do when your parents still won't buy a TV. 

The weekend of Benjamin's actual birthday we made the trek to Michigan for our early Free Enterprise Celebration. We debated taking or leaving the boys and are glad we took them. They both do so incredibly well in the car. It was 24 hours both ways!

On a bus to tour Amway headquarters.

Wrestling pictures:

Loving pictures:

Halloween! 

Charity and Jarrett had a bunch of people over for a chili dinner and trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. Their new house is in a perfect area for it.

Benjamin was beyond excited for trick-or-treating. When we were actually going door to door, he said, "When are we going to go trick-or-treating?" I told him we were and he replied "No we're not! We're just going door-to-door getting candy."

Look at this cute little monkey! He picked out his own costume. I was at the store and picked this up to see what size it was. He grabbed it from me and hugged it like a stuffed animal (it is very soft). He didn't want to let go, so I figured he might as well be a monkey. When I got home and unpacked our Halloween box, I saw that the only costume that we own is a monkey costume in the same size that someone gave us last year! What a coincidence. I still kept the one Peter chose because it had a hood and was so soft.

Grace tagged along with a bucket to see if she could get away with getting candy. She did. 

The spoils. They had a bunch of candy the night of and the few days following, but I keep the candy buckets up in the pantry where they don't see them and they are still there with candy in them! I was hoping they would forget  about them and they did.

The boys played nicely in the nursery all alone while I did setup for the Fall Festival dinner that the primary was in charge of. I don't have many pictures of the dinner and carnival because I was running around the whole time, but here's one of Benjamin's face painting by Bampa. Mel and Melinda showed up at the end of it to come visit. 

Peter is always so reverent for prayer.

 

Flash - Lamoni is quite the artist.