Pumpkins

We only carved two pumpkins this year, since Adam and I were hardly home on the same night this week. I carved both of them- and it was kind of hard! The boys LOVED squeezing the gooey guts in their hands though. 

Love that girl...

My mom called and left a message on my phone the other day (since I never seem to have it by me when anyone calls...) and said something like, "Hi Sini, sorry I missed you. I hope you're at least doing something useful, like taking a nap. Call me back." 

I love that she thinks taking a nap is useful, because so do I! She is the one who always  told me to rest when I was younger. A friend once called me some mean names when I was just little, (I think to be exact it was "you're just a sleeping hog..." Did I mention I've always liked to eat too?? ;) ) because instead of playing, sometimes I just wanted a nap. And when I was in high school, I would wake up at 5:00 to run for the cross-country team before school, go to school, run after school and then work my job at Wal-Mart until late at night, just to start it all over again the next day. So many a Sunday, my Mom would tell me to go catch up on my sleep. Loved it. No wonder I feel sad for my boys when they go to bed too late or miss a nap. Oh how I love a nap still. I wonder if I'll ever grow out of it...

There's my cool Mom right in the middle. This is in the Spring with some 2nd cousins from Finland Maria and Jarmo Havuaho . 

8 Years...

A couple of weekends ago, Adam and I had our 8th wedding anniversary!! We dropped the boys at Adam's parents (thanks guys!) and headed to Vegas for the weekend. It was relaxing and we had a lot of fun... although I did have a rotten cold! I coughed non-stop- but that didn't stop us from our fun trip!

We stayed at the South Pointe Hotel, which is not on the strip, but it was so clean and nice and we LOVED it! It had the biggest, nicest room and had fun little restaurants and deli's. It even had a movie theater inside, but we didn't have time to watch anything.

We also got to go watch Mystere, by Cirque De Soleil (sp?) which was pretty amazing. And thanks to a tip from a cabbie, we ate at the best restaurant- The Grand Lux. It is owned by the same people who own Cheesecake Factory, although the food was completely different. It was so good!

This is the BIGGEST eclair I had ever seen! We saw it in the hotel deli and had to get it. We were worried it wouldn't be as good as it looked- but it was divine! We could only finish half and had to save the rest. Yum.
One of my favorite places in Vegas is the Bellagio. They always go all out with their decorations, and for fall it was great. This tree's eyes moved, so I took this pic for the boys.

More fall in the Bellagio.

The fountains at the Bellagio. (You would think we would just stay there since I love it so much, but it will never be in our price range!!!) I say I could never get sick of watching these shows, but once we walked by during a slow Celine Dion song, and I couldn't even stop to watch, it was so lame. I love that you can see Adam's glasses in this shot...
We also visited the Liberace Museum- which was the highlight for Adam. I never even knew who Liberace was before this visit!! He was an amazing pianist and quite the showman. Apparently, Elton John got a few of his ideas from him... not that they said anything about it there. If you are ever in Vegas (or live there...) it is quite the experience to go to the museum.

We thought this was pretty funny.

Liberace wore these crazy outfits with capes and jewels... They weighed hundreds of pounds. Too bad he isn't alive still- he seemed really nice.

That sums up our weekend. It was funny to just go when we wanted and not have to worry about naps, snacks, strollers and staying up late... we should do it more often!

Snow Soup

We had our first snow (that stuck to the  ground) on Sunday morning. The boys were SOO excited when they woke up. They wanted to go right out and play, so we put any snow gear we had over their jammies. They collected snow with their big spoons and came in and colored it with food coloring. This has been Elliott's favorite thing to do for a couple of years and now Ollie is in on the action. At the end they always like to pour warm water in the snow to melt it, which results in a big black soup. Nothing like snow soup on a Sunday morning!

Pumpkin Land

Elliott had his little preschool fieldtrip to Pumpkin Land. The weather was great and we had a lot of fun. My sis-in-law, Amy and her daughter, Kenzie were in town from Indiana, so they came with us too.

The whole class: Jake, Elliott, Logan, Noah, Madison, ?, ?, Ellie and Alli.

Elliott, Kenzie and Ollie

These pumpkins were HUGE!!!

Pumpkin Family

 Grammy with all of her grandkids so far: Elliott (5), Kenzie (3) and Ollie (2).

And Ollie is done... The End.

The Harvest

We had quite the pumpkin harvest this year with about 15 pumpkins total. It was really fun for the boys (and me) to check on them every few days to see how much bigger they had gotten- they grow so fast! I planted two packets of seeds- jumbo and regular. We only got two big ones, but they are so cute! We gave a few of the others away and still have plenty on our porch. It was so worth the $4 I paid to buy the seeds. Next year I think we will add the little mini pumpkins into our mix. The plants did take over our flowerbed, but that's okay.

Elliott ready to pick the first pumpkin. We couldn't wait until the 1st of October, but were pretty close on September 26th. ;) I was proud of the boys for waiting and not picking them way before. They did ask every time if they were ready to be picked yet.

Noah, Elliott, Benny and Ollie

We also had plenty of tomatoes this year and TONS of yummy apples! I picked all of these right before our storm hit this weekend. It was fun having golden delicious (my fave) and red (not sure of which kind they are...) come from the same tree. There is nothing like homegrown apples- so good!

Cousin Kenzie

We had so much fun with cousin Kenzie here from Indiana. Her and Elliott get along so great, even though he is 5 and she is just 3. We got to do some fun things while they were here: we went to Pumpkin Land, went to lunch at Noodles & Co., visited the aquarium, painted pumpkin plates, decorated cookies and played all day Saturday with Amy at Grammy's and then dinner at Outback, and played on Sunday with dinner too. Adam's sister Amy was here visiting for the last time before her baby is due the end of December, so it was our last time hanging out for a while. So good to see you guys- even though we missed seeing Cody! 

I took like 5 pics right here while the kids were "riding" Grammy's cool chair that lifts you up and lowers you again, and every time Elliott would wink- I'm not sure why.

Crazy Cousins

The pumpkins Aunt Amy helped them create. They were so proud of them. Thanks Ames for all the fun! Oh- and Amy also made Kenzie's cute little dress- she's amazing!

Pajama Man

So Ollie has a little ritual every morning and night when I change him from his pajamas to clothes and vice versa. He tickles his belly ever so lightly and then ends on his (for the lack of a better word...) nipples. He just hangs out and rubs them for a while. And every time he asks, "Mommy, what are these?" I always reply that they are "part of your chest." (He's 2- so there is no way I'm telling him the real word for him to yell out at church or other fancy places...) Then he always says, "Oh... they're soft." 

So the other night we were in the same routine, but he changed it up a little bit. It went like this:

Ollie- "Mommy, what are these?"

Me- "They're part of your chest."

Ollie- "Oh (all the while gently rubbing)....they're soft...they're magic."

Fall and Finns

We wanted to take the Finns to see our gorgeous mountains on one of their last days here- the beautiful fall leaves were just icing on the cake. So we drove through American Fork Canyon last weekend and it was so beautiful! I took a few pictures, although they don't do it justice! Everyone needs to go in the next few days- it is breathtaking!

We stopped by the river for the kids to play and stretch their legs. We should have spent an entire day there- they had so much fun! (Elli and Ollie.)

Elli, Ollie, Elliott and Benny

Fall leaves in the water.

My cousin, Essi, Linds, Baby Addie and me.

Sisters- my Mom and Marketta.

Elliott the climber. He was climbing everything, as usual, but then he went out on this log and couldn't get back. My Mom saved the day.

Ollie by the waterfall.

Me and my boysies.

Elliott and Benny on a HUGE rock.

Sunday night we had a final dinner at my Mom's. Ollie continued his playful antics with my Aunt Ilmi- they got along so well.

Marketta and Baby Addie. It was so good to see my Mom's family. They were great and we all promised to see eachother soon!

Linds and her kiddies- Elli, Addie and Benny.

Me and my family and the kitties- Ollie's has two names, Baa Baa and Nemo. Elliott has finally settled on Lander- with no help from me Eric and Tagen!! (They used to have a cat named Lander too.)