Halloween Fun

This is a little late, but we had a wonderful Halloween!

Austin made Luke an exact replica of a 1909 Boston Red Sox uniform. Jensen was a skunk, another costume Austin made. He's pretty talented.

Luke with his loot!

Why does this picture make me think of Pepe Le Pew in tap dance shoes? Jensen is really cute anyway, but skunk is just a great look for him!

This picture took some coaxing, but we couldn't find any red baseball socks Luke's size and we thought tights would be warmer - makes for a great picture!

The boys wore their costumes for three days in a row. The first day we went to Austin's school Halloween party (yes, he is in medical school and not elementary school). I guess they put on a little Halloween party for the students' kids every year.

We never got a good shot of Jensen's costume.

At DMU, painting pumpkins. I think Austin got into it more than Luke.

Halloween isn't complete without decorating Halloween sugar cookies. Can you guess which ones Austin made? I think he was trying to make up for not carving an awesome pumpkin this year. (Austin did the ghostbuster, the cheat (from homestarrunner.com) and an eagle.)

The artist at work.

This was the first time Luke actually frosted the cookies himself. He LOVED it and got really into it...literally! Just kidding...sort of.

Pumpkin Patch Time!

We had so much fun on Monday! We left right after Austin took his final for his Biochemistry class (he's done with his first class in podiatry school!). We headed about 30 minutes north to a place called Cambridge, Iowa. We had heard from many people that this was the best pumpkin patch to visit, and it did not disappoint! They had so much to do there and it was so reasonably priced.
First we visited the petting zoo complete with incredibly stinky pigs, goats of all shapes and sizes, Clydesdale, chickens, roosters, turkeys, ducks, rams, etc. It was fun and the boys loved it! They had exact replicas of the houses of all 3 little pigs - one of Luke's favorite stories lately as he loves to say "Aaaaaachooooo." Kids.
Then we all learned how to milk a cow (there was no real cow involved so I'm not sure how different the real thing is.) Next we let Luke lead us through the kid's corn/hay maze; he loved it! Then there was this awesome slide (very reminiscent of the Alpine Slide in Utah, except not on a mountain) down a hill. We had races and the boys had a blast.
Then we took the "10 minute walk" over to the pumpkin patch. On the way we passed an old "Herbie Car" which was so exciting for Luke. He didn't want to leave it. When we got to the pumpkin patch, it left quite a bit to be desired but it was fine I guess.
Lastly, we went and played in their huge barn of corn kernels. It was so fun!
After 3 fun-filled hours, we bought one of their home grown, homemade caramel apples and we were ready to go. We were all famished on the way home so we stopped at a place in Ankeny that we had a coupon for from the Entertainment book. It was a buy one get one free thing and we got meals for all of us at some delicious BBQ place for less than we would have paid stopping at fast food. A perfect ending to a perfect day.


I suppose we could have paid the 25 cents to buy some food to feed the animals. But why do that when Luke loved finding corn on the ground and letting the baby goats eat out of his hand.

Luke and his new baby goat friend.

Luke (and Austin) found the perfect pumpkin in the not-so-perfect pumpkin patch. I say that because I have such vivid memories of the awesome pumpkin patches I went to as a kid in West Virginia. This one was really barren and picked over. It wasn't too fun because it was pretty gross. The pumpkin patch was probably the least fun part about the place.

Austin put his fingers through the fence to feed these turkeys - not the smartest thing he's ever done. They almost snapped his fingers off! This was the face he made as it happened.

We all had a fun time swimming in the corn! Luke let us cover him up like burying him at the beach. They had slides going into the corn. The "rules" for playing in the corn were to make sure you took out any loose items in your pants, etc. because if you lost it in there, it was gone for good.

Jensen couldn't decided between the many pumpkins they had to offer.

He put a lot of time and effort into pondering which one to pick.

Finally found a winner! "I'll take this one!"

Although the corn bath was probably Luke's favorite part of the pumpkin patch, Jensen was not quite as entertained by it. I think he got too much corn in his diaper to be happy about it.

Luke was ecstatic when he saw his beloved "Herbie Car" in the distance. He went running for it. He was a little disappointed that it was almost completely hollow inside, but as you can see, it didn't phase him for too long.

This was probably my favorite part about the place. They set up this awesome slide down this big hill. You take a sled to the top of this baby and hold on for dear life sliding down this thing. It was so fun! (click on the pic to see how excited Luke really is)

All Goats Go to Heaven

Austin and Luke learned to milk a cow on this specimen. Dad, you would have been so proud...you too Ben!

First Snow!

(Jensen giving the snowman a "high five." He was napping when we were building it.)

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland! The boys were so excited, including Austin! But Austin had to study, so I pulled out the snow pants, boots, gloves, hats, coats, etc. for the little boys and me. After half an hour of pulling gloves on as tight as possible and fighting Jensen to get the rest of the clothes on, the boys and I were ready to go! Luke was determined to build a snowman, Jensen was content making "baby snow angels" in the snow. Then we pulled out the sled and I pulled the boys around. Jensen loved it! Then we hooked the sled up to Luke's little 4 wheeler, though it didn't work all that well, it was still fun.

Austin was able to take a little break from studying to come help with the snowman! There wasn't a lot of snow, but it was perfect snowman snow. (Luke and I even had a snow ball fight!) Austin made the base of the snowman, I made his middle, and Luke made the head - that's why it's a little small. We didn't have the normal stuff for eyes and nose, etc. so we used dum-dum suckers for eyes and a nose (worked great!) and then a twizzler for a mouth. A real Flake Family snowman (made of candy!). Then we put on a cap and gloves that dad gave us last Christmas (it's for a girl so we never used it). Anyways, it worked great and Luke was so happy to have a snowman in his front yard! After we were done, we went in for some hot cocoa! What a fun morning!

In other news, Austin tore down the nasty old shed in our yard. It was such a beautiful day yesterday that Austin decided to take a break from studying for a little bit and rip down the shed. It only took him a couple of hours - he's a real man! He found a lot of weird stuff within the walls of the shed. Man was that place disgusting.

These guys were pretty proud of their work and understandably so

Luke gained a love for eating snow today.

Snow Struck Lovers

These mask/hats are so handy when it's so cold!


Look at the snow packed on those tires! We need to get this bad boy some snow tires!

Luke starting the snowball fight. And yes, I did "accidentally" hit him in the face with a snowball.

Luke tried his hand at pulling Jensen in the sled, but Jensen only weighs a few pounds less than Luke so he was struggling.

I love the little snowflake on his long eyelashes.

This swing was broken when we moved in, but Austin fixed it right up.

BFFs

First sled ride ever!

Wow, what a gross place.

My old roommate from college, Crystal, stopped by our house tonight with her three little kids on their way home from Denver to Champaign, Illinois. She is a trooper, she drove 15 hours all by herself (in one day) with her 3 little kids. Her husband was doing rotations at the hospital and couldn't go.
It was SO FUN to see her. We only lived together for a year or two but she was such a wonderful friend. I learned a lot from her and grew a lot from my friendship with her. She is one of those people that will tell you what she thinks. She's not afraid to give you a compliment because she is confident in herself. She represents some of my favorite memories from college. She's so fun and funny and such a good friend. So many great memories! PLEASE come by again Crystal!

What is it about boys that, no matter the age or that they just met minutes ago, they love to wrestle.

Cute Jensen! He looks just like Austin and is just as fun!

Video: Luke helping prepare for Crystal's visit. Now that he is a "big boy" he likes to take on more duties. He started vacuuming today and vacuumed the whole first floor! He would have done the whole house if I wasn't in a hurry. He is such a good boy. He cleans up the toy room every night, though sometimes it takes him an hour. He cleaned it up tonight after Crystal and her kids left and let's just say it wasn't an easy task. What a trooper!

Wicked!

So I pretty much have the best husband ever! He's so nice and bought us some tickets to the Broadway musical "Wicked." We had heard from everyone how wonderful it is and it didn't disappoint. We had SO much fun! First we went out to eat at this fancy Italian Restaurant (Centro) - it was so good! Then we headed over to the musical. We had a wonderful babysitter who we kept until after 11pm watching our boys. She's their favorite and Luke kept asking when she was coming all day long and then even before 7am this morning. Needless to say, we knew we left our kids in good hands. Anyway, it was so fun and I'm so glad we got to go! We both loved it and the whole night was "magical" (as Joel says). Thank you Austin!

In other "wicked" news, here are some pictures of our kids when they are being "wicked" (Jensen loves to throw his food on the floor) and Luke loves to provoke him. Not to mention Luke's new booty dance which he only started doing during general conference when they sing the hymns! He won't do it any other time! What a weird kid!

Keeping it real

One of Luke's favorite activities: boxing with dad. Luke's got a mean right hook.

Austin's mug shot with his diploma - evidence that he did indeed finally graduate

Austin's dad and Luke spent about an hour figuring out which of the 200 hot wheels we have, is the fastest. Dad was so disappointed that it wasn't the Ferrari, but was some unmarked "brown car."

Austin's dad gave Jensen some tips on basketball. Now he's "ready to go pro."

Austin's been wanting a gun and trying to convince me that it was a good idea for about 2 years now. I finally gave in and let him get a gun just like his dad had in Vietnam, except Austin's is a plastic bee-bee gun.

This is a picture of Jensen's favorite part of his first birthday.

Austin's dad hit 3 homeruns from Luke's pitches - I don't know if that's good or bad.

This shot is for his all-star baseball card

He's so cute!

With the recent start of a new football season, Luke has loved watching football with Austin. On Saturday, he watched a lot of the BYU game. During the game, he ran into the toy room, found these livestrong and breast cancer support bracelets that Jensen plays with, and he put them above his calves as the football players wear. Seriously, this kid is for real about sports. He turns 3 soon and in many sports, 3 is the age you can start playing. We are excited for him. He will be in heaven. I’m interested to see if other kids are as good as he is in any sport. Seriously, he seems to be above average athletically.

We literally have a baseball game every night of the week and sometimes during the day. Luke is very observant of the games. He and Austin went to another baseball game a week ago and sat around the scoreboard and stuff, pretty fun. Anyway, Luke watched very closely how the pitcher winds up to throw the ball and how the batter holds the bat. Now, when we are playing baseball, he winds up for real just like a real pitcher. And he gives me advice on how to hold the bat! What a fanatic! He does his own drills for baseball (which he made up) including him rolling the ball away from himself and then running and sliding to grab the ball with his glove. He loves to race you for it. His other drills including sliding and saying “Safe.” Luke's been practicing sliding into home plate, in the living room. He's gotten quite a few rug burns - which he doctors with a sticker!