Two Little Pumpkins in a Patch...

Last weekend we took the kids to the pumpkin patch. It's funny how here it's October, but it was seriously in the 90's. It was so hot. It was cool when we left and by the time we got there, it was so warm. I was going to bring some shorts for Alex, because I was afraid he would get hot, but Dan convinced me not to, so I didn't. I should have though!

We took a lot of pictures, but there weren't a lot of food ones. Anna would not look at the camera. She just wanted to look at the pumpkins and anything but the camera. Alex, well he's 11 months, so you can't really expect much there. Lol.

Me and my little pumpkins.

Sweet little Alex.

He didn't really want to be here.

My other pumpkin, Anna.

When we got the the pumpkin patch, Dan pointed out the deformed pumpkins and gourds and called them crazy pumpkins. She LOVED them and wanted to keep finding them and looking at them.

This is Alex's first time wearing shoes outside. They were given to me, so they don't quite fit the best. It was so hot, so I rolled up his pants. He looks extremely dorky, but I wanted him to be comfortable.

We all took a train ride together, for $12. Completely overpriced, but Anna loves trains, so we did it.

Not my best angle. My arms look huge. Gotta work on my triceps. :)

They had this haystack pyramid and Anna loved climbing up it. She then spied some "crazy" pumpkins a ways away and wanted to go see them.

Lots of pumpkins.

Anna in the little hay maze.

They had this kind of trail through a ton of sunflowers with different scenarios and Halloween stuff. Here is a Cat in the Hat one. Anna loves Cat in the Hat, so we took a picture.

We tried to get a cute one of them together, but this is the best we got.

Anna with the baby pumpkins.

Alex had fun holding this pumpkin.

She didn't really want to look through this, but I made her.

A cute little baby!

Once again, refusing to look at the camera, but she still looks cute.

Me and my precious little Anna.

A budding artist?

Last summer, when I was in Utah, I got Anna a drawing toy from DI. I think I paid $1 for it. Well, she loved it. She would draw on it all the time. Since it was used, the piece that slides across and erases the board broke a few times. Dan was able to glue it back together, but eventually he couldn't fix it anymore. I broke down and bought her a new one. Probably one of the few times I've actually bought her something new. But it was worth it to me because she seriously uses it all the time and really loves it.

Last week she wrote her name. The missionaries came over for dinner and while we were waiting for dinner to cook, Dan asked Anna to write her name and she did. It was the first time and she did it!

Pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

This one is a mountain.

A person

This one has a hat.

I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure this is a picture of Logan, and his mom and dad.

This one is a picture of an alien spaceship! There's a show she was watching, called Kipper. It's about a dog and his adventures. In one of them, some aliens come and this is what the spaceship looks like. A circle with three legs coming out from it.

Here's another shot. I had to add this one because I was able to capture a facial expression that she does a lot, that is so very Anna. :)

Then, later she drew the aliens. In the show they look like pigs with long snout like noses.

It's pretty good. She's so smart to be able to take something that she sees and then draw it.

This was a year ago. It's some flowers.

Not quite sure what this is supposed to be, but it looks cool!

I'm pretty sure this is her.

It will be interesting to see how her drawing develops as she gets older and if it will be a real talent.

Bathroom Redo Part 1

Well, our bathroom redoing has begun. We got our counters redone, new light fixture, new faucet and new knobs for the vanity, as well a paint job for the vanity. It would be nice if we were all done, but we're just beginning!

Here is the bathroom when we first moved in, 3 years ago.

(please excuse the post baby body. Haha)

We have a really old, ugly light fixture, old faucet with the plastic handles, oak cabinets, and the hardware is brass with plastic beige in the middle (classy!).

Here, you can see the counter a little better. It's a faux marble kind of thing going on. It had a crack on the side of the sink basin and is kind of a cream color.

After!

Muuuuuuch better!

Here is the painted vanity.

I'm not going to lie, this isn't the best paint job. I normally just do one coat of paint, but decided to do two. I must have used too much paint the second time round, because it just didn't look as good afterwards. It's not horrible, but it could have been better.

But the important thing is that it still looks nice and is better than the oak cabinets.

I decided to go with brushed nickel for the hardware. I got these knobs for 74 cents each at Lowes!

The handles were a little more. I think they were $2.38 or something like that for each one.

These hinges, I ended up buying some brushed nickel spray paint and just sprayed them. I didn't feel like taking them off and putting new ones on and the door not being able to hang right. It probably wouldn't have been a big deal, but I didn't feel like chancing it.

Another view of the hardware.

Here you can see the new light fixture a little better.

We had our counters glazed over, a nice white color. It was kind of a little ordeal. We got both bathroom counters done. They were a few spots that needed to be redone. The guy came and fixed them and ended up messing up our master bathroom counter even more. So another guy came and fixed it, but there were still a few mistakes. At that point, I was tired of them not being able to do it right the first time. So I told them not to come and fix it, but if we could get a discount. They gave us 25% off! Which saved us about $50. That was nice.

We decided to have them glazed over, rather than replacing them. We figured that would be the cheaper option. In the end, we paid about $70 per counter. Not too shabby.

The best part of all this is we didn't have to spend that much money. What I mean by this, is we had $100 in Lowes gift cards that we earned via MyPoints (LOVE MyPoints! Let me know if you want an invite!). Then, I had been saving money that I got from babysitting, as well as selling a few things on Craigslist. I think we paid about $15-20 for all this, out of our normal money. I got that soap dispenser at Goodwill for $2 or $3. I don't remember exactly.

I got big plans for our bathroom and it's going to look AWESOME when we're all done. If we ever finish it, that is. Haha. It's just been slooooow going over here. The main thing holding us up now is the walls. They need to be retextured and we don't really want to pay someone to do it, but we don't really know how to do it. We want to try, it's just a matter of figuring it all out. So once that is done, I'm going to paint the top half a really light blue, the bottom half white and add board and batten. I already made the shower curtain and bought a bathmat and hand towels. I have some wall decor all ready. We are also going to frame the mirror. That will make it look so much better. We have the trim for that already from a previous project.

Anyway, I'm really excited to beautify our bathrooms and make them look nice!

Double A update!

Well, it's that time again for a little Anna and Alex update!

Alex first.

He's now 11 months!

He's full out walking now and has been for a few weeks. He's been taking steps since he was 9 months old, but just finally ditched the crawling to devote himself to full time walker status.

He LOVES our garbage and recycling containers and is constantly pulling things out of them, though usually just the recycling.

He likes to pull Anna's hair and bite our toes.

He likes to growl-at church, the grocery store, etc.

He loves to see Anna in the morning and always smiles and is happy to see her.

He likes to wave and it's so cute!

He loves the aquaphor container and is constantly trying to get his little hands in it.

He likes music and almost instantly starts bouncing his little legs when he hears music.

He is REALLY good at imitating us. We'll move our arms a certain way or make a certain sound and he'll do the same.

He is a wiggle worm and it is always a struggle to change his diaper, lotion him after a bath, put his clothes on, etc.

He loves Anna's room and if we don't close the door, will go in and play with her toys.

He likes to strum his lips and then will try and strum our lips with his little fingers.

He has discovered kitchen cabinets and drawers and loves getting into them.

He nurses 4 times a day and loves finger foods! (I'll be weaning him in the next few weeks).

Here are some random pictures.

Dan thought it would be funny to fit him in his backpack. Who needs a baby carrier? :)

Alex loves to play with daddy and I think daddy likes to play with him too!

He has the sweetest little smile.

I can't believe he's getting so big!

We normally bathe him in the bathtub, but when we had our counters redone, we couldn't go in the bathroom, so he got a bath in the sink! He loves baths and would seriously crawl/fall in the bathtub if we didn't stop him.

This lamp is just a big hit with the kids. Anna would always grab it too when she was little.

Here is Anna, when she was maybe 9 months old. She just got done grabbing the lamp.

Anna is just her cute little self. Her conversational skills are getting better and better. One cute thing she says is laster time and yester time. Instead of last time or yesterday. It's really cute. She still has her little peculiarities. Like she HAS to open our security and front door. She gets REALLY mad if we do it. She has to touch the van door first, before I can open it. She has to put the waffle or bread in the microwave and will get mad if I do it.

She can be nice to Alex, but honestly she basically takes his toys, pushes him down and puts her blanket over his head-a lot-like, all day long. It can get really annoying. I try and be patient about it, but since it's a nonstop thing, I'm not always the most patient about it.

I let her watch a TV show when Alex naps and she knows it and is always very excited to do so.

She says All day a lot. For example, Alex will be eating pasta and she'll say, Alex likes to eat pasta...all day!

Here is a little craft project we did. We made her a hat. I know it's ugly, but she liked it!

She takes her blocks and makes a camera out of it and then takes our picture.

Dan made one too!

Here is an outfit I got at the thrift store for $1.60 !

Old Navy jeans and a Disney Pooh shirt. Score!

I'm so blessed to have such sweet little babies. And to have a wonderful husband and father who loves his little babies too!

He even shares his breakfast with them!

Oatmeal for everyone. :)