I was looking forward to Halloween this year. It was fun to watch Karter. He would knock on peoples doors and say "knock knock...tricker treating" and then he would get his candy and as he was walking away he would say "thank you...tricker treating". We had to tell him more than a few times that he was only allowed to take one piece of candy per house. Once he figured that out he would ask the people for more instead of just taking it. When he knew the people at the door he would invite himself in and play with their toys or ask for a drink. He is quite a kid. We let him pick out his own costume and he changed his mind quite a few times before he finally decided on Spiderman. I was hoping for something a little less generic but he loved it.
Hudson was a GROUCH when we started out the evening. We attempted pictures but he was not having it. Contrary to what it looks like he LoVeD wearing the clown nose. He would get mad if you took it off. He made a cute little clown...tears or not. Once we got out and started trick or treating he did good. He held a big ole taffy in one hand and a sucker in the other and enjoyed the walk.

Ahhhh.....finally. No smiles but no open mouth screams.

After trick or treating Karl took Hudson home and I went with my mom and some friends to the pumpkin walk. It was stinking cute this year. They did a fabulous job. There was a lot cutouts to take your pic in. Karter loves Dora and lucky us he got to be her...and I had the pleasure of being Boots.

We carved pumpkins last night for FHE. It was fun and not nearly as messy as I was anticipating. It helped that Karter was not interested in pulling the insides out. He thought it was gross. This coming from a boy who has smashed worms in his bare hands. Go figure...

I thought this picture was funny of Hudson. I was trying to get a picture of him looking at the insides and this is what I got. Dang those are some cheeks!

Karter waited patiently while Karl cleaned and carved his pumpkin and then he decorated it with stickers and colored/stabbed it with his crayons. My camera died (like usual) so I'll have to post a pic of his finished product later.

The night I was supposed to go the hospital to be induced with Karter Karl had a lot of anxiety. Rightfully so...and a little more because the hospital called and said they didn't have any room for us. So we had waited all day to go have a baby just to find out we had to wait another. For some reason we had a pumpkin at our house so Karl went and bought a pumpkin carving kit and made an elaborate carving. It was really cool. If I remember right it was a witch riding a broom flying through the sky. I recorded him while he was doing it and he was in such a bad mood. It was funny. He wanted to go have a baby!

Any-who...since that year Karl has carved a fancy pumpkin every Halloween. He always keeps it a suprise and we aren't allowed to look. This is what he did last night....

Lovely! A barfing pumpkin. Who wouldn't want one of these.

This is the latest flower Karter "picked" for me. I thought it was so darn cute. It's nice to know you are loved enough to get a flower like that. Karter is always picking me flowers or giving me rocks. It's so funny how little kids do that. I remember picking out rocks for my mom all the time. She had a wooden bowl full of them that she kept on the fridge. A few days ago Karter was playing trucks in the dirt and I saw him start stuffing his coat pockets with dirt. I asked him what he was doing and he said that he was going to bring it inside. One pocket full was for his buddy Logan though. I told him I thought Logan probably had enough dirt at his house but Karter was sure he needed some more. I am scared for the days that it's bug and reptiles that will be finding their way into his pocket.

It was Karter's 3rd birthday on the 15th. :( It makes me sad how fast my kiddos are growing up. We didn't have his party until the day after but we tried to make his birthday fun. Karl and I got him a "skooger" aka a skooter. If we are ever at someone's house and he spots one he always "calls" it. He was so excited he had to go outside and ride it at 7am and was begging me to call Logan to come and play for an hour before I finally gave in and called Jenny at eight.
We ordered him a "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" cake from Walmart. When Karl went to pick it up they didn't have it. Uhhh....luckily we had scheduled to pick it up the day before his birthday party so we weren't up a creek. They told us it would be free because of the mixup AwEsOmE!! Karl brought Karter home a little cake for him to have that night.

It was Spongebob and Karter had a complete meltdown when we sang Happy Birthday to him because he didn't want to share his cake with us. He wouldn't even blow out his candles.

Then Logan came along and Karter was more than happy to share with him and Hudson.

We took Karter and Logan bowling for Karter's birthday "party". They had lots of fun and did pretty good paying attention and staying on task. I told them to smile for a pic and this is what I got.

Thank heavens for the ramp! It made things so easy.

After bowling we went to Artic Circle for some greasy lunch. Yum! Then we headed over to Walmart to pick up the cake. And guess what....they had it this time but had made it wrong. I had ordered 24 cupcakes and they had made me a cake. Yikes! The lady was so embarassed. She was the same one who had told Karl the day before that they didn't have the cake. So I got a free cake and they made me some cupcakes for free also.

We were going to take the boys to the movie but after waiting around for Walmart to get the cupcakes ready the boys were a little antsy. We decided to hit up a super fun park in town and call it good.

That night we did cake with all the family. It was fun. Lots of kids, cake and presents. I forgot batteries when we where dealing with the cake dilema so my camera was dead. So no pics of the party. Darn! Thanks for all the gifts!

Today while the kids and I were eating lunch Karter was counting the spaces on his lunch tray. He said "one, two, one" I said "what comes after two?" he said "October" I said "no your birthday is in October. How old are you going to be?" he said "Red." Yikes! I think we are a little confused.

We went to Las Vegas last week to see some friends and go to a wedding. It was loads of fun! We weren't able to see all the people we had wanted to and the burb had some oil issues but it was totally worth the hassle. It was the first time we had been back since we moved. I was amazed by how much new growth there is there. I guess I thought since the economy isn't so hot that things would have slowed down. I was wrong.

This is Karter on the first leg of the trip. We drove to Salt Lake and stayed the night with Karl's great aunt. Gotta love DVD players in the car. The kids did fabulous on the way there and on the way home. Not a single meltdown. Halleluja!

Sudsie slept a lot and had fun having screaming wars with Karl. I have no idea what Karl was thinking but it entertained the boys. Hudson got car sick in the middle of Utah but was thankfully out of the car when he threw up.

This was just outside of Pocatello on the day we left. It was cold and rainy...and snowing! We were glad to be heading to a few more days of warm weather.

We stopped at Cove Fort to take a break for lunch and let the kids run around a little. I have always wanted to stop there but Karl is the type that wants to get in the car and go. So it was nice to have the kids along so we HAD to stop.

It was pretty cool. They have the rooms all restored and have some neat history stuff. The little window above is where they would look to see who was at the gates and also to shoot their guns out of.

The fam at the Shark Reef. The boys loved it. Hudson kept saying WoW!!

This is where Ryan and Allison were married. It was so pretty. Fabulous!

So sweet.

Karl was able to catch up with some of his old work buddies from Countrywide at the wedding. He loved seeing them. I don't know how much work was accomplished when all these guys were together but I know there was lots of horseplay. This is Ceasar and his wife.

James and Ernie.

Karl and Santa Clause....I mean Nate

Karl and Ryan (the groom). Thanks for a fabulous evening Ryan and Allison!

This was an attempt to get a pic of our kids and Steve and Julie's together. Our kids had so much fun with Sammi and Tyler. They all got along fabulously. Karter has talked about going to our "friends" house everyday since we got home. He doesn't grasp why we can't just get in the car and go see them again.

Ahh....good ole Joles. I love this girl. She is so much fun! It was so nice to see each other, catch up and learn some good old dark secrets from our pasts. We tried to get a sitter every night we were there and finally had some luck the last night. We met up with the boys who were at Buffalo Wild Wings (yum!) wathching the Steelers game. We stuffed ourselves silly, went bowling and then rode the rollar coaster at New York New York (pictures to come). Good times!

This was the only group picture we took. So sorry....not so fab. Julie and Steve were great to go along with Karl and I eating out just about every meal so that we could hit all of our old time favorites. DeLiSh!!! Thanks so much Julie and Steve for a fabulous weekend! We have to do it again. This time lets not wait so long.