October in Review

October was a very busy month for our little family-lots of family, BYU, and Halloween Fun.  Here is a brief recap....

We did a little Trick or Treating.  The weather was perfect and Olivia really got into it this year.   After the third house she had it figured out and kept telling me "Let's get more candy".  She made it about four blocks and then told me she was tired and wanted to go home.   Little Nate was a trooper and let us drag him around the neighborhood.  Poor daddy had a bout of the stomach flu and missed out on all of the fun.

We spent a sunny afternoon at the park (probably our last one of this season). 

We carved a pumpkin. 

BYU basketball season started on the 29th.  The first of many games for the kiddos.  Olivia has gone to the basketball games since she was seven months old and she is a pro.  It has been almost six months since we have been, but she remembered the Creamery blimp and the fight song.

One morning as we were leaving for work work Liv says to me take a picture of me and Nater... I have some cute babies.

We went to Grandpa and Grandma M's for dinner and to carve pumpkins.  

We went to the BYU-ISU football game. Although I am an ISU alum we all cheered the Cougs to victory.

We went to Idaho for Grandma H's birthday and had a little Halloween Party.



Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our little spooks...

9 months and the Witches

Where is the time going?  This little man was nine months old on Sunday- didn't we just bring him home?  Here are some things about Nate at 9 months:

• He is 110% boy- he likes balls and trucks and making noise and torments his sister relentlessly.
• He has four teeth- two on the top and two on the bottom.
• At his 9 month checkup today he weighed 20 pounds 11 ounces (53%), was 28.5 inches long (59%) and his head was 18.5 inches (90%). 
• He climbs the stairs (and anything that he can for that matter-I found him on top of Olivia's picnic table the other day).
• He is a crawling machine and he is quick. 
• He is walking along the couch and the railings, but has not attempted to walk by himself yet.  
• He is a momma boy- I love getting him in the morning when he wakes up because he is always so happy and excited to see me. 
• His smile is contagious.   
• Everything he can get his hands on goes in his mouth- I have to keep the floor extra clean because he finds the smallest pieces of lint or dirt and they are immediately put in his mouth.
• He is busy busy busy- he doesn't want to be held unless he is tired.
• He already loves Elmo- as soon as he hears the theme music he has got the biggest smile on his face. 
• He likes music and I swear he dances to it sometimes.
• He is very determined and if he wants something (a toy on the floor for example) he will do whatever he can to get to it even if that mean crawling over daddy.
• He loves his big sister and wants to be doing whatever she is.   
• Olivia calls him Nater or Nater-Tater. 

On Monday, we met Brittany and Girls at Garnder Village to check out the Witches. 

This is Olivia's new picture poise- she does it all the time when I try to take her picture.

Olivia trying to be like this witch....

Nate and Gracie.

Potato Pancakes and Pumpkins

I grew up in Idaho where we grow a lot of potatoes.  In fact we would have two weeks off during the school year for potato harvest each year- it was awesome.  My Uncle Blaine raised potatoes and he would let us come and glean the potatoes from the field that the crossover  missed. I remember driving our brown station wagon into the field and filling as many potato sacks as we could fit into the back.- Needless to say we ate a lot of potatoes and in lots of different ways- mashed, baked, fried, in  potato salad, french fries... and every once in a while mom would make potato pancakes.  She didn't make them very often as they are a little labor intensive when you are trying to make them for a family of 9, but we loved it when she did

Mom came for a visit this weekend and as we were going through recipes for a family cookbook I am working on we came across the potato pancake recipe.  It has been a really long time since I have had them so I asked mom to make them for us. (I know she comes to my house to visit and I make her cook- what a rotten daughter I am).  They were as good as I remember.

 Olivia thought it was so much fun to help because you get to stir the batter with your hands... grandma's little sous chef.

On Saturday we went to the Red Barn in Santiquin for a hayride, to pick pumpkins and for pumpkin ice cream (Liv's choice).   Liv liked the hayride and driving the old tractor, but was indifferent about picking a pumpkin. Little Nate wasn't sure to think, but was a good sport about the whole adventure. 

Nothing Exciting...

It has been a typical busy week at our house... nothing too exciting, but  here are the highlights.

On Tuesday night I hosted my monthly card making night-it is so much fun.  I spend my work week crunching numbers and  dealing with problem loans so it is really good for me to use the creative side of my brain every once in a while.  It has been so long I have had to shake of the cobwebs so I am  glad for an excuse to be crafty.

Wednesday nights are always crazy for us since Daddy is taking a night class at UVU and Olivia has gymnastics.

Friday night we had some of our neighbors over for dinner and to watch the BYU game.  Thank Heavens the outcome was a much better than last week.

Okay a little excitement... Saturday afternoon Scott and I went and saw Mary Poppins at the Capital in Salt Lake City.  It was so good. I kept thinking how much Liv would have loved the music and the dancing- maybe when she is a little bit older we will have to have a girls night at the theater. 

Since I realized I didn't photographically document any of these events here are some cute pictures of my kiddos.  We took these in August when we had all of the Hillman grand kids together.   These are some of my favorites:

State Fair and Daddy's Birthday

On Friday was Scott's Birthday.  To celebrate we went out for pizza and then came home and had cake and ice cream.  There were lots of candles on that cake... We love you Daddy!

 

On Saturday we met Brittany's family at the Utah State Fair.  I think Olivia had a great time- she got to pet the rabbits, cows, sheep, and pigs.  

Nate was just happy to be there...

Then she got to go on the merry go round with Emma and Daddy. She surprised me and said she wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel with Mommy. I figured we would get to the top and she would be crying to get off, but she loved it.

You can't go to the fair without eating... we ate way to much and then had to grab some cotton candy on the way out....



Its here...

...Football Season. Each year we try to hit an away game for BYU and this year we decided to go to Austin Texas and let the Legacy Club take care of all the details.  As always the trip was fantastic.  We flew out of the Provo airport Thursday morning (my favorite part of the whole trip) and spent the last three days melting and playing in the Texas heat.  We heard we were lucky that it was only 96 degrees as it had been 110 a couple of weeks before.  We left Olivia with Aunt Chelsey and took #2 with us- he was the most popular guy on the trip.  Thursday and Friday we lounged by the pool, did some shopping, found some local eating places (my favorites were Amy's Ice Cream and Thundercloud-a yummy sandwich place).  Saturday morning we  had chalk talk with some of the coaches and then headed to the game that night.  It was a sea of burnt orange, but surprisingly there were about 10,000 Cougar Fans there (out of 100,000).  Despite the noise and the heat little Nate took a nap and was an angel the entire game (and the entire trip for that matter).  Here are some of the highlights from the trip....

Here is Miss Olivia in her new BYU dress striking a pose at the park last week.

And little Nate on the swings... he hasn't decided he likes these yet.   Notice how puffy his hair is in this pictures.... I finally decided he had to get a haircut.  There is an old wife's tale that you are supposed to wait until they are a year old, but decided it couldn't wait another four months.  The poor kid sweats and sweats and I couldn't do anything with it so on Wednesday before we left for Texas he got a haircut.

Before:

After:

What we took off: