It is, of course, tradition that we carve pumpkins for Halloween. I would probably feel like I missed out on the Halloween spirit if I didn't. However, I realized that I made a mistake by getting three pumpkins. I thought that it would be fun to let Luci have her own pumpkin. I guess I didn't take into consideration that I would be gutting and carving both hers and mine. I also made the mistake of using one of those paper stencils of a witch on Luci's pumpkin. It took me a half hour just to punch out the stencil and another ten minutes to trace it onto the pumpkin. Then, as I began to carve it, the marker started smearing everywhere. Apparently it was a washable marker . . . why would they include a washable marker in the kit if they knew that pumpkins are wet and gooey? (not to mention your hand rubs all over the pumpkin while you are carving) So, needless to say, I was free handing after the first minute. By the time I finished Luci's I did not feel like carving mine at all. But, since I had already spent five dollars on it, I figured I better not waste it. Hopefully I created a nice childhood memory for Luci, otherwise I am not sure it was worth it. Next year, I am not getting a pumpkin for me :)

So this picture might have just made it all worth it. I told Luci to make a witch face and this is what she did.



These are our finished pumpkins. It's not the greatest picture, so it's hard to see all the fine lines and details I carved in Luci's. Leave it to Kirk to have the most perfect looking pumpkin.

Kirk's Haunted House



My Haunted House


Luci's Haunted House




For a festive family activity we made edible haunted houses. I decided that this is a lot less stressful than making gingerbread houses . . . . they can be jagged and ugly and still look like haunted houses. Plus, we used good frosting and yummy candy, making them truly edible. When we finished we took a picture then ate them all up.

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It snowed last week and Luci got so excited she put on her new hat and gloves right away. I guess all of the excitement wore her out because she fell asleep before we could make it outside. The next day we made it outside and she had a blast playing in the snow and helping me make a snowman. She was insistent that the snowman have a scarf, and I have to admit it was the finishing touch. After we came back inside I was opening up the blinds and looked out just in time to see a little boy still our stick arms and replacing them with twigs. I was frustrated at first, then realized it was kind of funny. At least he replaced the arms. Later that day I saw the snowman he had made around the corner and realized it was a good thing he stole our arms. If it's not too mean to say, it needed all of the help it could get.

Some of my family has been asking me to post pictures of what it looks like out here, and I am finally doing it! These pictures were taken at the park behind our house about two weeks ago. In the background you can some of the mountains (which seem more like hills to me after living in Utah). The trees here are so tall that most of the time you can't see the mountains. It's beautiful and green and mostly cloudy! I have found that you have to give up the constant blue skies in order to have the green grass and trees. It's a toss up, but I do have to say that I get a little gloomy when its cloudy and rainy for a whole week.

We found out last week that we are most likely having a girl (75% chance that it is). I was kind of disappointed that they couldn't tell me in 100% terminology. The technician did say that she has only been wrong once in ten years though. So I am going with it and saying that it is a girl.

She was in a really weird position during the ultrasound with her body completely folded in half and her feet above her head. In the bottom picture you can see that better.

Saturday during the Priesthood session of conference me and Luci had a party. She informed me that she wanted to make cookies for our party, so that's what we did. What a mess, but we had fun!

So I was eating animal crackers with Luci the other day when I pulled out this cracker! I never knew that animal crackers could be R-rated. In the future I will have to 'edit' her crackers before I give them to her :) .

Last week we went on a tour of an apple farm with other kids Luci's age. We rode on a wagon pulled by a tractor to see the apple trees. Then we came back to the factory and went inside the giant frigde where they store apples. It smelled so good, like a bath and body works scent. We then got to see how they wash and sort apples. At the end of the tour Luci filled a bag up with apples to keep and got her own little bottle of cider. It was a lot of fun!