Belated Birthday Post for Marcus

Its amazing how something as relatively easy as making a post on a blog can get so hard to do as life spirals out of control with busy-ness. I feel bad because I have a lot of good material to post from the last month. I will try to get to some of it over the next few weeks. Who knows, it may take until the Christmas break for me to really get caught up.

So a few weeks back on Marcus' birthday, the 11th of November, we had a little birthday bash for our one-year-old. Marcus enjoyed his first birthday cake much more than Tyler had enjoyed his (no tears for Marcus). His cake was a cool football that Jamie made. She does a great job of coming up with really cool cakes for our boys. They might still be a little young to really appreciate them, but they don't go unnoticed by the rest of us.

Marcus scored some great gifts. He got a couple of cute pairs of clothes (he is a boy therefore I refuse to call them "outfits"), a play cell phone, his first See and Say, a cool drum set, a tool box, some books, and I am sure I am forgetting something....sorry to those whose gift I didn't mention.

He is definately a cute and fun little boy. I just can't believe he is already one!

A Few Fall Moments

I've always loved fall. The cooler temperatures allow for a lot of fun outdoor activities, the start of football season is exciting to me, and the color changes everywhere (especially up in the mountains) is breathtakingly beautiful. This year Tyler got a taste of fall fun when Jamie let him play in a big pile of leaves that she raked up in our backyard. He definately is a fun loving boy!




The other, probably more exciting, piece of fall news is that Marcus is finally crawling! We were worried about him there for a while. Rest assured; however, he is into everything and anything. He is such a little cutie!

Carving up Pumpkins

The Monday night before Halloween Tyler invited his grandma and grandpa over to help us carve our pumpkins for family night. Tyler still isn't a huge fan of the gooey insides of the pumpkin, but he did help get the slime out. Mostly we let Jamie do the carving while we provided moral support.

Tyler did get pretty involved in painting a few smaller pumpkins using mom's craft paints. Grandpa Rod painted one mini-pumpkin with a smiley face on one side and a frowny face on the other. Perfect for the singing of the primary song about turning a frown upside down.

Marcus went to bed early, but we also carved up a nice pumpkin for him. Most of the night was spent with Tyler just enjoying time with his grandparents while Jamie carved away.

Tyler did have fun pretending to be "Mr. Pumpkinhead." Grandma and Grandpa helped him hold the pumpkin where his head would go and he thought that was pretty great. He also got a good laugh out of grandpa being a pumpkinhead.

I think Tyler was also impressed with how neat the jack o'lantern's looked when we put them on the tile with candles inside. The reflection off the dark tile is pretty eerie.

Halloween 2007

As is becoming tradition I wanted to get a few pictures of my boys in their costumes out for all to see. This year Tyler was a Pirate and little Marcus a cute monkey. Jamie dressed up as well using the same pirate costume she wore two (or three) Halloweens ago.

Tyler was very polite at each door and never missed saying "thank you." Also, whenever he felt comfortable he did shout out a pirate line of "Arr..I'll make you walk the plank I will." The video at the end of the blog is a clip of Tyler getting ready and practicing his "walk the plank" line.

All in all it was a fun night. Tyler did most of his trick or treating with the Laurence cousins. They were all characters from Narnia. Clayton was a sharp Peter, the twins were Susan and Lucy (I've forgotten which twin was which...sorry you two) and Morgan was the evil Snow Queen. Although given how cute she looked it is hard to think she was evil. I kept meaning to get some pictures of the cousins but in the end I never did. Once again, sorry. We need to convince them to start their own blog so that we can see all the cute things they do.

I think Tyler actually ended up preferring answering the door with me over trick or treating. He got nervous at a few doors when people had costumes on or had dogs barking in the background. I also think he has yet to fully understand the concept that the more doors he visited the more candy he scored. However, he sure got extra excited every time the doorbell rang or someone knocked at our house. He thought he was something special getting to hand out the candy.

Marcus also enjoyed getting to answer the door, but he went down pretty early. Its a shame we didn't have more for him to do because he was the cutest monkey. He knocked a few doors and took a ride in the wagon. But he only wore his costume for a couple of hours before it was time for him to hit the hay.

I'm not really a big Halloween kind of guy...but overall this was a fun one.