Pumpkin Walk, Part 1

Tuesday we went to a pumpkin walk in North Logan. It was so much fun! They had cardboard cutouts that we took pictures with and TONS of scenes made up of painted pumpkins. We were so impressed and had a blast, in spite of the cold afternoon. Here's some pictures of us with our cardboard cutouts and then below is another post with many of the scenes. There are a LOT of photos, so hope you enjoy!Julie as Ariel

Arek as Harry Potter

Me as Cinderella

Pumpkin Walk, Part 2

Here are some of our favorite of the scenes created with pumpkins. Yes, I know it's a ton of pictures. I couldn't narrow them down any further. There were just so many creative scenes

Rapunzel and Flynn Rider:Despicable Me:Angry Birds... Seeing this made us last so hard. They even had the catapultThe Sorcerer's ApprenticeA Christmas Story... "The soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window"They had a whole Candyland scene... with all the original-looking characters. I couldn't get a good view of the entire thing, thoughGilligan's Island:The hundred acres woods:And my personal favorite: The snowmen from Calvin and Hobbes

Leaves and Other Things

October is going by so quickly. I can't believe Halloween is in less than a week. We've been so busy lately that I don't quite know what to blog about. What's been keeping us busy? Well, for Arek it's definitely school. He takes his big 8-hour F.E. (Fundamentals of Engineering) test this Saturday. All of his normal school classes and work keep him busy enough but for the past month or so he's been going to extra study sessions for the f.e. so often times he will only see Julie for about 10-20 minutes total all day. I've been busy reading "The Woman in White" for book club. This month was my choice and I chose this one because it is the first real suspense novel and being October and Halloween... yep. However, it is a very long and wordy book (think Dickens, although it's written by Wilkie Collins, who actually was a friend of Dickens) so it took quite a while to get through. I did finally finish it last week. Verdict: Very interesting and elaborate story... it really keeps you wanting to know hat happens next, although I did think it got a little long at the end. Our meeting is this week, so hopefully some other women finished it and we can have some interesting discussion. Julie is as busy as ever. Last Friday we actually had a couple of hours just the 3 of us so we tried getting Julie to play in the crisp, fall leaves. She wasn't a huge fan. I know this next photo is a little blurry but I love it. It's a true depiction of Julie's personality We tried putting Julie INTO a pile of leaves to get her to play with them. Here are some photos of her reaction:

Fun at the Park

Here is one of Julie's and my favorite pastimes: playing at the park. It's only about 1/2 mile from our house, but on good days I will walk the long way there to get some exercise in for me, and then we play for about ten or fifteen minutes (that's about how long Julie stays interested) before walking home. It's lots of fun. And my favorite part: It actually has swings! Got to love a park that still has swings... they seem to be a rarity nowadays. Anyway, here's some of Julie's favorite things to do:

Loving the swingsHeading for the slide... I love her smile. She is always so pleased that she can get up to the slide by herself"I made it!" After sliding down she tries to go UP"Someday I'll figure out how this works"... It never fails that she walks up to the climbing wall and touches the hand grips. It makes me smile every time, too.This is how I know Julie is DONE and ready to go home... she starts pushing the stroller herself

Happy, Happy Birthday

Last Wednesday my little girl turned one year old. I am still reeling from the thought that I have a toddler now. It is hard to believe that in one year Julie went from this: to this: Julie is so big now and she never ceases to amaze me with what new things she has learned. She loves to walk everywhere, climb on everything, laugh, make other people laugh point, play chase, rock out to music, watch me cook, eat, and so much more. At the doctor's visit she now weighs 22 lbs 14 oz, and is 30.5 inches long, which means she has more than tripled her birth weight (7 lbs 1 oz) and has almost grown a foot (19.5 inches at birth). On Friday we had a little party for her. She was a professional present un-wrapper (I think we'll have to hide all the Christmas gifts from her) She got lots of fun new toys and books (her favorite was hands down the bouncy ball... she didn't want to let it go). And once she realized what the cake was, she loved that, too. Here's some photos of her at the partyWe love you, Julie! Happy Birthday!