Pumpkin Carving!

On Monday we carved pumpkins. Sheldon and Tucker are dressing up as matching pirates, and we are decorating our car for the ward trunk or treat pirate-like, so the pumpkins kept up the pirate theme.

Sheldon's pumpkin:

My pumpkin: (I accidentally knocked his mouth out while I was carving so we had to perform oral surgery to reattach it.)

Tucker's pumpkin: (For some reason he only wanted to put stickers around the stem of the pumpkin.)

We had Avery and Tucker decorate pumpkins together, Sheldon is sewing Tucker's costume in the background. I have such a crafty husband :) he has done everything for his and Tucker's costumes. The costumes are going to be awesome, I can't wait to get some pictures. Tucker can even say "Arrr, Matey"

26 Months

One morning Tucker was working so hard on lining all his cars up. It was the cutest thing so of course I took a picture. As soon as I take pictures he always wants to look at the picture on the camera, this time he actually went back and posed for me and smiled! That never happens, Tucker never poses and smiles for pictures. It was a momentous occasion.

Yesterday Tucker went to the Doctor for his 2 year appointment, yes I'm a little behind on scheduling it. Here are his stats at about 26 months:

Head: 19.5 in 67%

Weight: 26.08 lb 20%

Height: 34.5 in 36.8%

I was so surprised when they told me this kid only weighs 26 lbs. He totally feels like 35 lbs, I guess that means it's time to lift some more weights.

Fightin' Dirty

On September 24, Sheldon and I had the chance to go to a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight. Don't judge, I already know you're thinking what kind of person pays to see a fight? But in our defence, we were supporting a girl in our ward who was one of the main fighters that night. You can read about Tandi here http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/pleasant-grove/article_68f2a6cc-06fa-588a-968c-446256cc0306.html. We think she would make a great Mormon.org video, "I'm a mom, I'm a wife, I'm a fighter, and I'm a Mormon." Anyway, she was great during her fight and easily won even though the other girl was very much over the weight limits. Sheldon and I both had fun since we went with a bunch of people from our ward and the fights were pretty cool even though I wanted to close my eyes half of the time. I made sure to go talk to Tandi the following Sunday just to make sure with my own eyes that she was ok, but I don't think she even got any injuries.

The following day, September 25, Sheldon participated in the 10k Dirty Dash Mud Run/Obstacle Course. Since the theme of the run was pigs because of the Mud, Sheldon and his team (he ran with a group and they had to stay together during the race) decided to dress up as the 5 little piggies. With Pink shirts and pink hair they were looking pretty hot.

They made sure to say "Weeeee, wee wee, Weeee," from that funny geico commercial. If you haven't seen it, it is pretty funny, watch it here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F_G2zp-opg

Tucker played in the dirt while we waited for Sheldon to get to the finish line.

These kid were almost as dirty as the runners after playing in the dirt for a while.

Here is Sheldon and his group getting close to the finish line and you can see how muddy they are. Right after this they got to slide down a huge water slide.

I really liked this pig that could do tricks. He could sit down, walk in a circle, and shake hands with you. Who knew you could train a pig?

Right before the finish line there was this huge mud pit the runners had to go through. Of course, the boys jumped right in.

Oh so dirty and gross. I didn't love Sheldon enough to let him kiss me ;)

Tucker isn't a big fan of messes, so he wasn't too excited to see Sheldon covered in mud.

Of course the line for the showers was huge! Next year they are definitely going to have to get some more showers.

It was a really fun race and I think Sheldon plans on running it again next year. I don't know if he will be able to talk me into getting that muddy.

california cousins

Sheldon's brother and his family came up for a visit this month. Kalon had some work he needed to do up here in Orem, so luckily the whole fam decided to come along. We had tons of fun hanging out with the kids, Tucker always loves having other kids to play with. We went to the park, the aquarium, McDonald's :), and even swimming. It was a very fun-filled week, except for the part where Andrew got the flu and had to be quarantined for a few days.

Andrew showed Tucker how to climb in the Sandbox, or the 'beach' as Andrew liked to call it.

Soon everyone was climbing in the Sandbox.

I guess we usually just let Tucker play in the shallow end of the pool where he can walk around, I was so surprised that he could hang on to a floaty and swim around by himself. It was the cutest thing and he was so good at kicking! Swimming lessons next summer! Growing up, I was in swimming lessons every summer since I was 4 all the way up until I was probably 12. I consider myself a pretty good swimmer, although I never did perfect those dolphin kicks. My kids are going to carry on the tradition of swimming lessons.

We're so glad the Shmills came to visit! We hope to see them again soon!

It's a. . .

I kept it a secret as long as I could, but most people probably know that Sheldon and I are expecting another baby! The baby is due on February 10th, so I am about 20 weeks along, which means that we got to find out the gender last week! It's definitely a girl! Luckily, even though she was flipping all over the place in the ultrasound, the nurse was able to get a very clear shot. The nurse doing the ultrasound was pretty funny, she said you can tell if babies are cute or not in the womb and ours was definitely cute. Score! We're excited for our next little baby. Oh, and definitely have no idea on names yet.

Her hand was always up by her face, so it's not a totally clear shot of her profile.

Sweet Friday

I found this recipe in the September issue of Martha Stewart Living. It looked so delicious and it was gluten free I had to try it. It is definitely a winner, everybody liked it, my mom loved it and some of the neighbors we shared it with came back for seconds. I highly encourage everyone to try it and it is actually not too difficult. There are a few steps, but none of them are very difficult.

Blackberry Cloud Cake with Pistachios

Makes one 10-inch cake; serves 8

Ingredients

3 containers (6 ounces each) blackberries (about 4 1/3 cups)

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Vegetable oil cooking spray, for parchment

8 large egg whites, room temperature

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups cold heavy cream

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for dusting

1/2 cup shelled salted pistachios, chopped*

Directions

1. Toss 2 containers blackberries (about 3 cups) with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar; let stand for at least 2 hours, tossing occasionally, until berries release juices. Refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 10-by-15-inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment; coat with cooking spray. Whisk egg whites with a mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar. Raise speed to high, and whisk until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes. Whisk in cornstarch, vinegar, and vanilla. Spread meringue evenly into sheet pan. Bake, rotating halfway through, until puffed and top is pale gold, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool in sheet pan on a wire rack.
3. Puree remaining container blackberries (about 1 1/3 cups) in a food processor, and strain through a fine sieve; discard solids. Whisk cream and confectioners' sugar until soft peaks form. Add 1/3 cup puree, and whisk until stiff peaks form.
4. Run a knife along edge of cake to release. Generously dust top with confectioners' sugar, and top with another piece of parchment. Flip cake, and peel off original parchment. Working with shorter end of cake facing you, spread cream on cake, leaving a 1-inch border at bottom and a 2-inch border at top. Tightly roll cake into a 10-inch log, starting with bottom edge and using parchment as a guide. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Trim edges of cake, and slice. Serve topped with reserved berries and sprinkled with pistachios.

*Pistachios are optional if you don't like nuts. I liked the salty crunch it added to the dish, but it's still good without the pistachios.

Sheldon's California Trip

The very last weekend in August Sheldon went down to surprise his brother on his 30Th birthday. All of us would have liked to have gone, but now that Tucker is 2 we have to buy him a plane ticket, which is a little too expensive and we just didn't have the time to drive. So just Sheldon got to go down, but luckily my Mom and my sister were in town visiting me so I wasn't alone and going crazy. I made Sheldon promise to take lots of pictures and he definitely came through on his promise. I think he took so many cute pictures. This is probably the most pictures I have ever posted that don't have Tucker in them, but they have Tucker's cousins Andrew and Sammy in them to make up for it. Luckily I didn't miss out on seeing everybody since they were able to come up to Utah last week.

I think this was the first night Sheldon when they surprised his brother. Sammy is definitely my favorite niece ( I can say that because she is my only niece) I love her quirky personality.

Andrew is turning 3 tomorrow! Happy Birthday Andrew!

They went to the beach one day, I can't give many details since I wasn't actually there. I think the water was too cold for them to go swimming in.

Sheldon told me this was an awesome park they went to and it looks pretty cool from the pictures.

The San Diego Zoo!

Brothers! Sheldon looks a lot taller than Kalon in this picture, but I think he must be wearing tall shoes or something. In real life I don't think he is that much taller than his brother.

Happy birthday Kalon! I wish Tucker and I could have celebrated with you!

He he, this is my favorite picture because of Andrew. It's not really that funny but it makes me laugh.