October 25- November 8 Catching Up

Today is a perfect day for catching up on my blog... since Mo helped me to get all of my Monday chores done yesterday because someone was coming to see our house. Which,we have had no luck in selling- and having a house for sale that lots of people want to look at but no one wants to buy is really frustrating! Hopefully this will be the last house that we will be selling for awhile :). So, October was so crazy busy and so much fun! Jackson and Benton absolutely love Halloween. Starting with October 25... we went to a really fun Halloween party at my aunt Kristies where everyone(except Mo who hates dressing up)went in costume. My favorite was Brads costume(as Jackson said,"I think he is a muffin maker or something). We ate dinner and played games...my aunt Kristie since as long as I can remember has always been the one to plan and get everyone involved in games. For this party she had a donut eating contest, sucking m&m's with a straw, and a game where you had to pick up a bag with your teeth. It was all so much fun. October 26 was my dads birthday- because it was on a Monday we didn't do any special activity like we normally do (although my dad did go on a hike by himself) we just went to eat and had cake and ice cream after. I can't believe my dad is only 1 year away from 60. Time passes too quickly- It would be nice if it could just pause every once in awhile to give us a chance to enjoy the moment a little longer. I am happy to see my dad so concerned about being healthy at this stage in his life because I need him to be around for me and my boys for many more birthdays. He does so much for us and I am so thankful for the father and grandfather that he is. October 27th-Jackson had his first friend birthday party at Chuck e cheese pizza. He had it with one of his very best little buddies Cade whose birthday is exactly one week before his and they had a great time. Jackson loved everything...the games, the presents, and his Indiana Jones cake. October 29th Jackson had his first school Halloween party and a costume parade. Jackson was a cute little batman. On October 30th we had our ward trunk or treat. It was Bentons first trick or treating experience and he had so much fun carrying around his bucket to get candy. He still always wants to carry his bucket around the house and to have me put things in it for him. Jackson alreay knew that he really liked trunk or treating- in fact last halloween he didn't want to go to houses anymore he wanted to go back to the church parking lot with all the cars. October 31- Halloween- we got the boys all dressed up and headed to Peterson to visit Grandma and Grandpa Palmer and to Mountain Green to visit Grandma and Grandpa Vogt. My boys are lucky to have grandparents that love them so much. We were going to take Jackson trick or treating around Trappers Point but all he wanted to do was to pass out candy. He loved passing out candy and Benton loved helping. Everytime they heard the door they would both go running. Jackson was so funny... he took his job very seriously and he made really good conversation with the kids. I was happy about the homeade donuts from one of my parents neighbors...they were fabulous. November 1st- we had Jacksons family birthday party at our house. Gary, Kathy, and Steffan came... and all of my family. It was the first time that I made a homeade cake and it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself (thanks to Nikki for the recipe). Jackson got a lot of really fun presents and he loved to have everyone sing to him. November 2nd- Jacksons official birthday. He was actually confused a little bit about his birthday since he had already had had 2 parties but he definitely didn't complain about more celebrating and more presents. We took him out to eat breakfast- which he loves- and then we took him to Toys R Us to shop around and pick out some more birthday stuff. We need to remember that choosing is hard when you are only 4. We also went to the park for a picnic lunch and out to eat at Red Lobster for dinner. You wouldn't think that a 4 year old little boys favorite food would be seafood but ours is- he loves shrimp and crab and lobster. It was a totally packed totally fun day. I am still a little shocked that Jackson is already 4- it seems like just yesterday that he was my little baby and now he is my little boy(big boy if you ask him). At 4 he is such a good little kid- he is so funny and makes us laugh everyday with the things that he says- he also is really thoughtful and he takes such good care of his mommy and his little brother. His favorite things right now are transformers and lego's. He loves going to school and he loves drawing and making crafts. He also likes Indiana Jones (which he has never seen :)). He is also starting to be pretty responsible. He is able to shower and get dressed himself (including socks, shoes, and buttons) and he also does a really good job at brushing his teeth. He does a really good job of picking up after himself and he is a really good little helper- especially with dinner, he loves to help me cook. He still loves his blanky and he still loves stories. He is a really happy confident little boy and I am so thankful everyday that I get to be his mommy. I hope he had a happy birthday! Benton doesn't have his binky anymore- we couldn't find it one night and we just put him to bed without it and he went right to sleep. So, we figured it was a good time to get rid of it. Since not having his binky he actually has a lot to say. We are not sure what he is saying but it seems pretty interesting :). He is saying more and more words that we do understand though. Ball, bowl (as in the halloween candy bowl), up, dadda, and he said pumpkin the other night.