three halloweens

ohioans (is that what they're called?) don't go trick-or-treating on halloween. no one has been able to tell me why, but out here, all the towns decide the day and times for trick-or-treating. so, we did that on thursday, a ward trunk-or-treat on friday, and then a little party at our place on halloween. at least we got some good use out of the costumes. we had a great time making some fun treats too. here's the pics from our spooky week:

on monday, the boys and i made a jack-o-lantern cake and took it to share w/ russell and his fellow students and professors...

yes, it took a long time to make and no, i probably won't ever make one again, but it was yummy. (recipe was in family circle, but we used reese's pieces instead of m&m's and just did chocolate cake)

our cowboy and his horse rusty (named after aunt kim and uncle mike's huge dog) before trick-or-treating:

little monkey mason:

posing w/ sarah the bumblebee:

my friend sharon and her daughters trick-or-treated w/ us in our neighborhood

we made witch's hat cookies for our trunk-or-treat:

russell and mason (dressed as manu ginobili) at the trunk-or-treat

calvin and i made a spooky graveyard dessert for our party. he was such a good helper so i took a picture of every layer. here he is crushing the oreos for the dirt:

spreading the "dirt":

putting the worms, snails, and slugs in the dirt:

spreading the muddy mud:

dyeing the grass:

spreading the grass:

showing off the gravestones:

the graveyard:

more dirt to cover the graves

more creepy crawlies on top:

and, right before we ate it, we added some whipped cream ghosts:

BOO!

happy halloween!

fall's my favorite

this time of year has been my favorite ever since i can remember. growing up, it was because i enjoyed new school clothes and supplies and because my birthday is in september. in college, i loved walking on campus and seeing the changing leaves in the mountains - fall still makes me miss school. i love the bright colors, the cooler weather, football season and the excitement for the holidays. last fall, i was busy with morning sickness and missed out. and, we didn't see much color or cooler weather in arizona, so i'm loving four seasons again (i'm sure i will retract this statement when winter comes!).

this is the view from our back deck:


this year was our first time visiting a pumpkin patch together. we went to a local family-run farm and had a great time despite the mud and colder temperatures.

there was a little petting zoo - here's the boys by the donkeys:

calvin tried out a mini straw maze

we took the tractor-pulled hay ride to the corn maze and pumpkin patch

calvin was preoccupied with the tractor (of course), so we didn't get many pictures of him actually looking at the camera. he always had to know where the tractor and the driver were and probably would've jumped on and tried to drive if we had let him.

jumping into the corn box - like a sand box, but with corn...=)

and, since we missed the county fair this year, we had to indulge ourselves and get a funnel cake (okay, AND some chili cheese fries - they're big on chili out here and we had to try it...). i think calvin just took a bite of the fries and he clearly liked the funnel cake better:

here's the boys with our beauties from the pumpkin patch, which, by the way, were a great deal: 7 bucks for three pumpkins and they threw in 2 free gourds

calvin picked his own - the biggest one he could find

mason ate rice cereal in the festive halloween bib while we carved our jack-0-lanterns

this man takes his pumpkin carving pretty seriously.

i think it's because he has ocd, but his attention-to-detail always helps the jack-o-lantern turn out nicely. (no, he's not gonna be a surgeon...)

i love how they're looking at eachother - like pumpkin friends

happy fall everyone!

recent adventures

since moving here a couple months ago, we've done some exploring...

enterTRAINment junction in west chester, oh:

a HUGE model train exhibit and museum

fun kids area w/ playground, rides, and little theater area w/ non-stop thomas episodes

a hand-crank powered train ride that calvin loved!

they were doing "everything thomas" when we went, so calvin got to ride thomas (his favorite) as well.

shoveling coal w/ dad

we also took a trip to kirtland for a couple days before russell started school:

we had a nice tour of historic kirtland from some delightful sister missionaries

it was cool to see the temple too

we drove up to see lake erie before we left the area - it was huge!

mason did some snoozing,

while russell and calvin skipped rocks on the beach

we house-sat for our bishop and got to take advantage of their beach access to lake waynoka:

a couple weeks ago, we took a temple trip w/ some friends. the louisville, kentucky temple is a mini-temple, but still gorgeous. calvin cried when we left because he wanted to go in...

after the temple, we took the tour at the louisville slugger factory and museum w/ our friends, the schenks...

our little baseball fanatic and his daddy hugged the big bat when we got there

calvin got in lots of practice in the batting cage before our tour started

we saw how they make the bats and then checked out some cool artifacts in the museum. here's mason (my babe) next to THE babe's bat - you can't see it in the picture, but the bat is cracked...

calvin and russell holding a mickey mantle bat. this was probably russell's favorite - he saved his gloves! (sorry for the bad lighting)

calvin and his friend sarah (and russell in the rear) crawling in the big baseball mitt

we got souvenir mini bats

he couldn't bear to put it down!

we're in!

i'm happy to report that we're no longer mooching off of good friends and living out of suitcases! now we're living out of boxes, but at least we have all our stuff in our own place. we love the house and are getting settled slowly but surely. mason sleeps like a champ in his crib in his own room and calvin loves his new big-boy bed. now on to potty training...ugh! russell passed his first finals of this year and we're all finally starting to feel better after a month of being sick. it's already getting chilly here, but the changing leaves are gorgeous (pics to come). a couple snap-shots for now:

i love dressing them alike! i'll try to get over it before they get old enough for it to be embarrassing, but for now i think it's pretty cute. calvin likes being "twins with baby mason," too.

this boy is getting so big - almost 4 1/2 months! he tried out his new highchair today (w/o the food, but we'll try that soon).

calvin eating his "i pooped in the potty so we made a chocolatey-brownie ice cream treat" treat. he scarfed it. what do i do next time? i'm running out of ideas...
at least he knows it not scary now!

progress on the house!

yay! the house should be done within the next week. i'm amazed that it's gone up so quickly. these shots are from a couple weeks ago:

in the great room in front of the fireplace

calvin posing by his new garage

mason in his new room

calvin's new room

here's one from last week - don't be confused by the fact that russell's wearing the same shirt in all the pics. (we only packed for a few weeks, okay?)

some new neighbors walked over with us, hence the extra children in the shot.

we are grateful to good friends who have opened their homes to us as we've waited for the 45 day project!

still in school

sorry! many of you are confused about what's going on with us. russell is still in medical school. his first year was in mesa, az. his program is set up so that for the last three years, all of the students are sent to community health center locations throughout the u.s. so, we're in southwestern ohio, just outside cincinatti. russell will get more clinical experience this year by working with a doctor at 11 different clinics in the area and then he'll do rotations out here for his last 2 years. hope that clears things up... we'd love to have visitors if you're out this way or would like to be!

summer?

i'm not sure where summer went. i guess time flies when you have a baby and move across the country. here's a recap of our adventures...

we loved having my mom visit after mason was born.

she was such a big help and stayed until russell was finished with his last finals. grandma was a great buddy for calvin as we adjusted to life with a new baby.

mason's first walk:

calvin requested that we take his picture every time we took one of mason. here he is being a good eater...

three boys on father's day

calvin and i made daddy a baseball cake for father's day:

fourth of july family shot

we had lots of family in town on the weekend of the fourth for mason's blessing. here's heather and ezra being patriotic:

hannah and jacob with our flag cake

grandpa perkins snuggling with mason

max and ezra enjoying ice cream in the hot (and melting) arizona sun

grandma roberts with mason on his big day

grandma and grandpa roberts with the boys

family shot on blessing day

here's the handsome boy

a couple shots of mason, one month old

moving day - calvin posing with our truck
we'll miss our home, our friends, and our ward, among other things. we will not miss the high heat advisory temperatures that made loading the truck miserable!

the boys were packed like sardines in the back of the good old corolla for a cross-country trip. calvin and his moving buddy, iguana, are ready for one of many showings of "the happiest millionaire," his new favorite show (which luckily is 3 hours long!)...

we stopped in el paso overnight and then stayed in san antonio for a week. we got to see family, eat good food, and meet kelly and john's new baby marin, who is just 5 days younger than mason. it was great to be there for her blessing and for calvin to get to know cousins.
we went to the zoo:

reese, savannah, westin, calvin, mackenzie and hal

loved the hippos - i couldn't get calvin to turn around and pose!

crocodiles (another favorite) and fishing

can't go to the zoo without brushing a goat!

great-grandma roberts treated us to rudy's bbq, one of our favorite spots to eat.
here she is with the boys:

waiting for the grub...

kelly and baby marin - so cute!

grandma roberts took us on a train ride at brackenridge park. one of calvin's new obsessions is trains, so he was thrilled.

we did lots of swimming at grandma and grandpa roberts' house. here's mason lounging by the pool:

we went to the witte children's museum and calvin and russell had great fun exploring the exhibits

mackenzie, westin, savannah, hal and calvin building an ancient egyptian pyramid

we spent a day at sea world with kelly, kim, savannah, mackenzie, marin, hal and reese

feeding the dolphins

shamu show

calvin could have stayed at the water park ALL day

he also got another moving buddy, shamu, for the rest of the trip. can you tell that he LOVES it?

calvin, kelly, and westin at grandma's house

aunt kyle moved back to san antonio just in time to spend a couple days with us!

we celebrated rod's birthday before we left... here he is enjoying birthday breakfast at taco cabana:

on the road again...

we stopped in wichita, kansas to visit katy and dan's family. we got the grand one day tour of wichita, including an awesome ymca, delicious steak burgers and shakes, and the keeper of the plains monument (below)(not sure what milo's doing in this picture!) =)

delaney, magavin, and koby by the flaming torches:

our last overnight stop was in st. louis

we had a brief interlude in kentucky where we got stuck in the mc donald's parking lot during a monsoon...

12 days and 2441 miles later...OHIO

we've already had some adventures here as well - a visit to ride thomas the tank engine and a quick trip to kirtland, among others. we have good friends here who have generously made the wait for our home much more comfortable. it should be ready by the end of the month. stay tuned for more updates (sooner, i promise) and pics of the progress on the house...