8 Months Old!

Daphne is 8 months old, and growing up so fast!! She has hit a lot of milestones this month: She got her first two teeth (thank goodness they're in, because she was Grumpy!!!), she perfected sitting, and on her 8 month birthday she figured out how to crawl!! She crawls kind of funny because she mostly drags one leg behind her, but it gets her where she wants to be and she loves it!!! She is now trying to pull herself up on everything of course, and is super proud of herself when she accomplishes something. We love her to death, and we're having so much fun watching her grow.

Playing in the Leaves

I was beginning to wonder if I was going to get any pictures of the kids playing in the leaves this year because they fell really late. I didn't end up with much of a window, but I managed to get some cute ones :)

These first few were taken when it was still quite warm out, even though it was the first week of November :)

I don't get a lot of camera smiles out of him anymore, so this made me happy

By the time there were actually a good amount of leaves on the ground it was cold outside!

Daphne wasn't sure what to think....

but she still liked eating them :)

Deep breath, and Blog!!

I think it's been about a month since I've done any blogging, so I spent one long night of catch-up. I think there are about 7 new posts, so hang in there and happy reading!!!

Halloween

Halloween was fairly low-key this year, although the kids did get to dress up in their costumes 3 days in a row. I didn't want to spend a lot of time and effort on costumes, so Zachary got to be Batman because I had a cape and my mom had a mask, and Daphne got to be a dragon because she's the same size that Zachary was when he wore it! Neil was a 7o's dude, and I was a cowgirl on an ostrich. That costume is actually really elaborate, but we already had it so it was easy!! I only got one picture of it, however, and that is on Neil's phone, so I'll have to post it when I get it....

We went to my grandma's for a birthday party, and the kids got to wear their costumes

Sophie the duck (she's just learning to walk, so she really waddled!)

Ammon the tired monkey

Hugs

Trying to get a group shot....

but not really succeeding!!

Half Marathon

About 6 months or so ago, Neil told me that he wanted to go skydiving for his birthday. Since that frightens me, I made him a bargain that I didn't think he would follow through with. I told him that he could go skydiving if he ran a half marathon (because he had also been jokingly talking about that as well). Well, he told me that was a deal and then proceeded to train for the Provo Canyon Halloween Half Marathon. He actually ended up postponing the skydiving, but he ran the half marathon in just under two hours! He said it was the hardest thing he's ever done, but I'm so proud of him for following through with it!!!

Almost there, you can do it!!!

Even though he was about dead, doesn't he look groovy in his 70's costume I made? (well, I bought the shirt, but I sewed the bellbottoms into the pants!)

I DID IT!!!!

Excuse me while I collapse for a brief moment....

Daphne was very proud of her daddy

and Zachary, of course, just wanted to run around as far away from me as possible

Maybe next year I'll do one too....or maybe not....

Building a "Smowman"

When I saw in the weather forecast that it was going to snow the last week of October, I was bummed. I told Zachary, however, and he was super excited. Every day he asked me when it was going to snow so he could build a "smowman". A few days before Halloween we got about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground, which was good enough for him. We went out and played for a while, and he thought it was great!

First you build the snowman....

And then you smash him!!

Carving Pumpkins

It's punkin carving time!!!

First, you cut open the top

Then you scoop out the goop

After that it's time to carve!

And best of all, display your creations!! (I apparently failed to get a picture of Neil's pumpkin, but he did an awesome Charlie Brown one)

Last campfire of the season

Since the weather was so beautiful when we were 4-wheeling, I decided it would be fun to have one last fire up the canyon. The next day we invited some friends to come with us, and off we went! It got dark fairly early, but we had a great time.

Daphne was content to sit and play for a while

Zachary immediately felt the need to explore

Neil trying to get the fire started. It took a long time and we had to hunt pretty far to find some decent twigs, but we finally got it

After dinner, Daphne and Spaz had some fun playing together

What a great night!