It's the Little Things

I was looking at the number of posts that I've done in the past few months and it's not much!  I think that particularly happens when life gets into a routine and I feel like there's nothing extraordinary to blog about.  Plus, I'm doing more pen-and-paper journaling for my more personal things so there's still plenty of THAT.

But Halloween is about 2 weeks away and I feel like it kind've marks the beginning of the holiday season so things will definitely pick up.  October has already gotten busy for us but we managed to squeeze in a very fun visit to the Arboretum!!  And you thought I could get through October without the requisite pictures of kids and pumpkins?  Ha!!

All through the year as we visit the Arboretum, Abby asks if the pumpkins will be there.  It's so nice to finally be able to say yes!  We had very uncharacteristically cool weather on the weekend that we went and so I had to dig out jackets and pants -- and discovered the girls have no pants!  So Abby wore her cheetah costume and her sparkly boots (that will never die) and Megan wore her tiger costume which is way too short.  I see families there all the time where the kids are all coordinating and the girls especially are in adorable boutique outfits.  I'm sure that their pictures are beautiful and I have to admit I'm a little bit jealous but our pictures are REAL!  

The requisite everyone-take-turns-sitting-on-the-giant-pumpkin pictures.

The pumpkin village was awesome as usual and William just goes and goes.  His favorite part was the bridge and chasing the birds.  He loves birds.  I bought 2 at the dollar store for Halloween decoration and he brings the one that he can reach to me nearly every day and yells.  Yeah, still yelling instead of talking for the most part.  Or yelling the words that he does say! 

Always love the pumpkin carriage of course!

While we're trying to corral William and get Abby out of the carriage, Megan is making faces on the pumpkins with bits of leaves and nature "debris".  

Wandering around the rest of the gardens we found a butterfly in a fountain and it was still alive so Megan grabbed a branch and we lifted it out onto a bush.  The girls were very excited about our butterfly rescue and ate their lunch watching it dry it's wings.

This is Abby asking me if she can pet the butterfly on the head.  The answer is no.

I really wanted to get a family picture so we found a place where we could set the camera up on a timer and took just these too.  I cannot get over the fact that everyone looks happy.  That's pretty much a miracle.  Chopper says he particularly likes this picture because he imagines Aaron sitting right there in between us where we've left a space.  I know he's happy where he's at but I always feel like he's missing out on so much not being here so I hope that he really is taking a few minutes out of his day to get in a picture with us!

I think Abby's showing me something about how cheetahs look and I have no idea who the guy in the background is.

All the kids costumes are DONE which is fabulous because our ward party is in a week.  Chopper and I are still working on ours.  We wanted to go as Lord and Lady Grantham from Downton Abbey but it's proving more difficult than what we have time for.  So now we're stuck.  Chopper will only dress up when he really likes the idea so we're searching for something fun and not embarressing.  He's refusing to go as Mr. Darcy even though I already have an Elizabeth Bennett dress!!  Oh well.

Funny thing -- William's talking IS progressing and he's learned to nod "yes" which is very helpful but I do think it's funny that he's not silent -- he "talks" all the time.  When we go to pick up Abby from preschool he yells her name until she gets in the car.  She climbs in the back and he sits in the middle.  The other day she gets in and we start home and she says, "so William, what did you do today?"  And he responds with some babble and then gets quiet.  She asks him "what else did you do?" and he doesn't say anything so I say, "William, tell Abby about how we watched the garbage truck today."  He starts babbling again and in my mirror I can see him making hand gestures and his intonation sounds like he's actually telling her all about the garbage truck!  I love it!  I wish I had been able to get it on video because it was great.