Shelves!!!

While Martin was here for a few days, he and Neil had a whole list of projects to work on together. Neil really misses having Martin around, and we're excited that he and Cami get to come back to Utah next fall!! One of the projects they did was to put up some shelves in our storage room. This is something that I've wanted ever since we moved in, and they turned out awesome! Here's some pictures of the process:

We had to move all our stuff out of the storage room and put it in the playroom for a while

Pulling down the old shelves was probably the hardest part!!

Looking good....

There was so much sawdust in the air that it looks like it's snowing....I'll just not think about what our lungs probably looked like....

All finished!! Don't they look awesome?

And here's how they look with all our stuff on them. We pretty much have double the space, everything is nicely organized, and I don't feel like my food storage is going to fall off the shelves!!! Thanks again Neil and Martin, you're the best!!

November Overview

Um, so I can now officially be called a slacker. I have now gone over a month without posting with no explanation. Oh, well, I'm over it! So here is a review of our November, which went by way too fast!

Eating one bite from every apple, just to make sure they're all good!

A 5 generation picture

Zachary fell asleep like this while I was in the shower--at least this time I was able to open the door enough to squeeze in!

Raking up more leaves (and more, and more)

Uncle Martin came for a visit before he went to Basic Training, and it sure was fun to have him around for a few days!!

Dipping chocolates with Grandma--what could be more fun? We always spend 4 or 5 days dipping chocolates, and this year was made especially interesting by having an almost 2-year-old help. :)

Jennifer, Matthew, and Micah came for a visit too. Zachary and Micah did fairly well playing together, considering the fact that toddlers don't play together...

Oh yeah, there was Thanksgiving in there too, but I didn't seem to get any pictures that day. It was a great day filled with family and lots of great food, so what more could you want? We were truly blessed to be able to see so much of our family this month (Shally visited at the beginning of the month but we didn't get any pictures of that either), and we're excited to see the rest of the fam at Christmas!!!

It's a GIRL!!!!

Neil and I went in for an ultrasound last Thursday, and found out we're having a baby Girl!! We both really wanted a girl, so we're super excited. I was positive that it was a boy, or at least I think that's what I was telling myself so I wouldn't get too disappointed. Don't get me wrong, we love our little boy, but it will be fun to have a girl too! Her name will be Daphne (middle name) Johnson, and she's due on March 22, just a week after Zachary's birthday. I still think I'm crazy for having kids two years apart, but it will be a fun adventure! Here are some scans from the ultrasound:

Here's a little foot (yes, just 5 toes)

She had her legs crossed most of the ultrasound, so it wasn't until the very end that we found out we're having a girl

Here's her face. The top of her head is to the left.

And it's a girl! It's really hard to tell from this still picture, but when she was moving around it was pretty obvious. :)

Happy Halloween!!!

I can't believe how fast October flew by!!! I love fall and Halloween, and we did lots of fun things this month, but it's hard to believe that it's over. Halloween was really laid back this year, which was actually kind of nice, especially since Neil and I have been so tired lately on account of Zachary never sleeping past 5:30 in the morning! I did plan a fun party on Friday night with some friends and family. I've been wanting to have a Halloween party for years, so finally this year I made it happen. I created a mixed-up dinner where I came up with Halloween names for every menu item, and then the guests had to choose which item they wanted for which course. I included silverware, napkin, and drink in with it too, so some people ended up eating their spaghetti with a knife! It was lots of fun, in fact so much fun that I almost forgot to take any pictures. Thanks to everyone who came, it was a great night!!

Oh, and here's the menu that I used:

Devil's Pitchfork - Fork
Eyeballs - Meatballs
Fingers - Carrot Sticks
Goblin Guts - Salad
Muddy Graveyard - Caramel Brownies
Mummy's Wrap - Napkin
Pirate Dagger - Knife
Skeleton Shovel - Spoon
Small Intestines - Spaghetti (with sauce)
Spider Slime - Ranch Dressing
Vampire Venom - Garlic Bread
Witch's Brew - Rootbeer



On Halloween night, we took Zachary to our ward trunk-or-treat. This is where I was going to announce the gender of our baby (a girl if you haven't heard), but a lot of people already knew beforehand. My costume was an oven, which I got to re-use two years after using it with Zachary! Neil was the bun-maker again, and Zachary was a gingerbread man. We weren't necessarily going to coordinate outfits, but it all worked out that way. Zachary loved going from trunk to trunk and having people give him candy--all he wants these days are "num-un-ums." Later that evening, Neil and I just relaxed and watched a scary movie together. Happy Halloween everyone!!

The color of the bun's frosting was supposed to indicate that we were having a girl, but apparently that wasn't as easy to figure out as I thought...oh, well!

This is a video of Zachary dancing to some Halloween music. It's pretty funny!

The first of the fall leaves

Every year, I have to take pictures of somebody jumping in the fall leaves. Now that I have a child, I think it's become even more fun. Last year, Zachary didn't understand what I was doing, but this year he jumped right in on his own! He thought raking the leaves was great fun, even though he thought it was even more fun to take leaves from the pile and spread them all over the sidewalk. :) Hopefully I'll be able to take more pictures later, but here's these for now!

Carving Pumpkins!

As most of you know, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I especially enjoy carving pumpkins. :) This year we got a little pumpkin out of our garden, which was just Zachary's size! It was fun to involve him in the carving process, even though he didn't really understand what we were doing. Unfortunately, one of our pumpkins was moldy, so we only did two, but it was lots of fun!!

Zachary was interested in what we were doing

You want me to stick my hand in WHAT?!?

Daddy carving his masterpiece

Here's Zachary's pumpkin

And here's Neil's, which I helped to carve!

Pretty impressive!!!

Cornbelly's

A few weeks ago, we decided to take part in the festivities at Thanksgiving Point. We went with my Mom and Chaselyn and Travis, and it was lots of fun! There were a lot of things to do, and most of them Zachary could even do, which was nice. It was a beautiful day and reminded me how much I love Fall and Halloween. First we stopped off at the big bouncing pillows:

And then we the slides for a while, but they were all wet because of the morning dew.

Then we went for a ride on the cow train!

And of course we had to make a stop at the cars, Zachary's favorite....

Later we discovered the corn house, which was an interesting concept.

And we finished off with the tire swings!

Zachary was getting really tired by this point so Neil and I headed home. My mom and kids stayed and did the corn maze, but I didn't figure that would be something that would really interest Zachary so we skipped it this year. We had a great day, though, and we'll definitely have to do it another year!!