Twutterflies

The girls wanted to be twin butterflies ("twutterflies") for Halloween and I loved it so much I wouldn't let them change their minds after that! They were beautiful butterflies! We had a great time at the ward trunk or treat last weekend and they are beyond excited that tomorrow is Halloween.

Carver is afraid of stuffed dogs

Grandma Howell sent the neatest stuffed dog puppet for Carver's birthday. When he opened the box, though, he nearly jumped out of his skin. I wish so much that we'd been filming because he literally jumped back 2 feet! Then we'd bark at him with it and he'd run and hide. HILARIOUS! He loves it, though - in that love/hate way. He's sleeping with it right now.

Cold, cold girls

Sorry there's no picture but I've just got to post this story. Derek took the girls on a walk this afternoon before Carver's birthday party. He drove them to Rock Creek, not far from our home, and walked around a bit to see the fish. They came back to the truck to find broken glass and the inside a mess. The ipod car adapter was still there, so was the 20 bucks in the console. Only when they got home did they realize that the girls' coats were the only things stolen. Too bad it was Lydia's only one and Ellie had just gotten hers out of the hand-me-down box from my aunt and was in love with it. It was big, purple, puffy and even a bit shiny in the right light. What's not to love about that? They were both absolutely heartbroken. It's mostly a huge disappointment to us that we have another expense at a time we need it the least, but I sure felt for the girls, too. If only their mother had been there to MAKE them wear their coats, whether they were cold or not! I'm so good at that sort of thing.

Happy Birthday Carver!

We celebrated a day early with Grandma and Grandpa Eucker and Auntie Lyssa in town. It was so much fun! Carver loved to look at his dinosaur cake and kept growling at it. But would he eat it? Not a bit. We gave him a piece with a spoon and he just smashed it between his fingers. The rest of us thought it was pretty tasty for a funfetti cake with bright green frosting (it was cream cheese frosting, though, and that makes all the difference if you ask me!)

Fall Fun

This is the kids at the salmon hatchery in Issaquah. Hailey and Jack came for a couple days and aside from our lives and home falling apart before their very eyes, it was a great trip. The girls loved playing with Jack and we all wished many times after they left that they lived next door!

Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch in Fall City, about 30 minutes from here. Unfortunately, we ran out of batteries in our camera so Derek ran to a gas station to find some. All he could find were flashlights packaged with batteries. Two flashlights later, those batteries died almost immediately and we only got one chance at a family picture! Not bad, all things considered. We ran into our friends, the Garvins, there and has so much fun with them. We love our pumpkin patch tradition and have a great big one on our porch next to three little ones we grew in our own garden.

Grace's blessing day

Finally, I dressed her in her blessing dress and got a couple good pictures of her! (Good thing it still fits, eh?) It was such a hectic day the first time around that I only got one not-so-great shot of the occasion. It was on September 30th. Derek did a beautiful job on the blessing and we had Grandpa Eucker, Grandpa Howell, Uncle Tyson, our friends Kimball Garvin and Cody Hill stand in the circle with him.

Stitches for the Bruiser

Derek took Lydia to her 9 am soccer game today and I was running behind so I hadn't showered before they left. I told Ellie to play with Carver in his room and I'd get him after I was dressed. But before I even made it in the shower, I heard Carver crying and ran in to find the dresser on top of him from about chest down. He loves to pull his clothes out of it, so who knows how it happened. His head was bleeding by his eye and I can't tell you how scary that was! I pulled the dresser off of him and he was fine everywhere else. I'm sure we'll see bruises, but he got up like nothing had happened. I wiped his eye and knew we'd need stitches. It was 8:45, I was supposed to take Ellie to team pics and her game by 10. I called my friend and dropped her off to go with them and took Grace and Carver to urgent care. I was still wearing my PJ T-shirt but did pull jeans on instead of my PJ pants, but I was embarrassed to blend in so well with everyone else at urgent care! It took FOREVER (nothing urgent about urgent care) but we got to the doctor about 11, I think. That's a longer story, but she thought she could do it without sending us to Children's in Seattle for conscious sedation. So they wrapped him up in a sheet to hold his arms down, I held his body, a nurse held his head and the doctor got 3 stitches in, but the middle one didn't turn out as well. He screamed through it all and it was super sad to feel party to it all, but I didn't want to leave him. Grace slept through all of it and that was a HUGE blessing since I didn't know what I'd do if both my children were screaming in urgent care. We got home about 12:40, in time for me to finally shower and listen to afternoon conference. I missed both soccer games and it was Ellie's turn to be goalie!! I was so looking forward to that. We moved Carver's dresser to his closet and I hope his room is safer now. Oh - and they weighed him at urgent care. 38 1/2 pounds!

Lydia, the Poet

Lydia composed this poem while I was doing her hair this morning. I thought it was super cool that it SOUNDS so much like poetry and worth documenting with her own inflections. The words are simple, but well thought out. I'm so glad that she let me tape her saying it. I love her creativity!

Grace "Burrito" Howell

Here's Grace all swaddled up. Sometimes it just looks so funny to have the bundle of blankets and then a little head peeking out the top! Today was her 2 month well check and she weighed in at a whopping 7 pounds, 12 1/2 ounces and measured 21 inches (and a bit). She's almost exactly the birth size of which of our children? Stay tuned for the answer.... I was pretty proud that she'd gained nearly 2 pounds in 2 months, but she's still less than 5th percentile! I guess we don't have to worry until her growth curve drops off, so he'll be watching her 4 month weight closely. Also, she's going to follow in her Daddy's footsteps and have her tongue clipped underneath - probably Monday when Carver sees the ENT for another ear tube follow-up. If only we could arrange a 2 for 1 deal in the billing department, as well....