Christmas Tree Hunting

We can barely recover from Thanksgiving before it's time to dive into Christmas. After sad good-byes to Grandma and Grandpa we headed home. The next day we went to a tree farm with some friends in the ward to chop our own tree down. It was lot harder than we thought and we were very indecisive, but we finally picked a beauty. Its far from perfect but I love it.

Lucy was very helpful in the cutting process.

Watching our tree get wrapped to transport home. 

We have these wonderful high vaulted ceilings in our apartment so we wanted to take advantage and get a really tall tree. We succeeded. We came home with a 10ft tree.

Look who came for a visit....

 Grandma and Grandpa Salmon!! My cousin Dahl got married in the DC Temple before Thanksgiving so we convinced Grandma and Grandpa Salmon that it would be a good time to come and visit the grandkids. Lucy has been talking about Grandpa since he helped us on our trip home from Canada in July. She was so excited to hear that they were coming on an airplane to see her. We all got to go to the wedding and then we headed down to the Baltimore Inner Harbor for a little sightseeing before the reception.

Aunt Janelle joined in the fun as well. We explored the USS Constellation that sits in the harbor, ate food and enjoyed the gorgeous fall day. After it was back to the reception to give our congrats and then we headed down to Harrisonburg to a resort condo for the week.

There was lots to do. Grandpa fit in lots of golf games, there was a huge waterpark, go-karts, mini-golf, parks and of course we ate A LOT.

Lucy also managed to make some new friends. Here she is talking to the chickens at the petting zoo. Grandpa wanted to take her on a pony ride, but after we saw that she would barely go near the animals at the zoo, we figured that there wasn't much chance she would ride a pony.

She loved these people at the park. There were statues of kids all over doing different things. She loved to hold their hands or imitate what they were doing.

Our condo also had a fireplace so we got to roast marshmallows...Lucy preferred her's raw. 

Lucy loved mini-golf. I had doubts that this would be an enjoyable experience as Lucy is a runner and has no desire to stay put very long. However she very much impressed me. She stayed close until about the 16th hole when she began to get bored. She loved helping everybody pick up their balls before they got a chance to putt and taking her own turn. Which meant placing her ball very close to the hole and putting it in.

It was a wonderful, blissful week and we are all sad it is over. Lucy is going through grandparent withdrawals and we hope some more grandparents will come to visit us soon.

Happy Halloween

Halloween comes early here in PA. Trick-or-Treat night is always the Thursday before Halloween. It was lots of chaos last night so we just barely got some pictures in.

This is our little Boo and Mike Wazowski. I don't think that most people got it, but we thought it was a fun idea.

Lucy showing her love for Maxwell. She even stopped in the middle of gathering all her loot to give Maxwell some kisses.

Maxwell deserves the best trooper award. This is at about 8:30 at night, he had been up since 1:30 in the afternoon. But he continued to be happy.He even managed to master a new skill through all his tiredness. He learned how to stand up in his crib.

Pumpkin Carving

Lucy is not afraid to get in there and get her hands dirty. She wasn't exactly sure what to think of the whole thing. You can see her thinking the whole thing out.

What is daddy doing?

I would like to try....

Eww...This is slimy and I love it!

Sneaking a taste of a pumpkin seed. She wasn't a fan.

We also put up some decorations that Grandma Rumsey sent.

They stayed on the door about as long as it took to snap a picture and then they became toys.

The Happy Pumpkin Carvers

The finished project.

Ashcombe Farm

For playgroup last week we went to explore Ashcombe Farm. They had all sorts of fun things to play. We went on a hayride, played in corn, rode a tire horse and went on the hay slide. It was so fun. It was also a perfect fall morning.

Yee-haw!!

Lucy and the boys. 

Pure glee.

Even Maxwell got to join the fun.

A little update

 Since I have been most neglectful of my blog here are a few pics to update you all.

Max and Lucy sharing a snack. Notice Maxwell intently staring at her snack. He is putting everything in his mouth. The other day I found him trying to shove a stink bug in his mouth. Yuck!

Check out this get-up. We bought Lucy these pajamas and she is obsessed. I have to be careful folding laundry so that she doesn't see them. She also loves her back-pack and putting on a dress to reinact Mary Poppins her new favorite movie.

What does Maxwell love these days? His bath. When he hears me pull that curtain back and start the water he is so giddy. He will giggle and kick his legs with excitement. Can you say water baby?

In other news, I am getting my wisdome teeth out tomorrow and I am not excited. Somehow I am more nervous for this than I was to go into labor. Thankfully it is not a busy weekend and Chad will be home to help out with the kids.

This is Lucy's favorite play spot. Maxwell's crib. She is constantly begging to be put in here. Thankfully she hasn't figured out how to get in there herself, as the kids are now sleeping in the same room. She loves to jump up and down, he thinks its a great game as well.

I'm a Big Kid now!!

This little jingle from the diaper commercials has been running through my head a lot lately. The kids are growing up so quickly.

Maxwell is officially a sitter. He sits so well and for long periods of time. Which means he gets to join his sister in play. A fact she is not always thrilled about.

Maxwell has also taken to popping up on his knees and rocking back and forth. This is a very scary thought for me. He is a little wiggle worm in his bed as well. He is still sleeping in his pack-n-play as I have many fears of putting them to sleep in the same room. But he isn't going to last much longer, the other day he had reached up the side of the pack-n-play and was peeking over the edge.

Maxwell is also eating solids now and so has moved into his high chair. He is already very comfortable there, obviously.

No day would be complete without some Lucy antics. We went garage saling the other day, and got this tool set for $1. One stop we made was facing a very busy road and selling a potty seat. We were checking things out when Chad turns around to see Lucy with her pants and pull-up down just about to take the potty seat for a little test run. Thankfully Chad caught her, however she managed to give a few cars a little show. Too bad she isn't that anxious to go potty at home.

Labor Day Weekend

So we had great ambitious plans for Labor Day Weekend to go on a camping trip, however as the weekend got closer we decided to stay home and take in the activities here.

Along the Susquehanna River they hold a big music festival, so we headed down to see what was happening. Here is what we found.

Some big blow-up bouncy things. Lucy loved these and wanted to go again and again.

Some messes to make. Lucy got to paint a small pumpkin. When she was done it was a very colorful pumpkin. We also found some delicous food to eat.

After the festival we headed to a park where the local fire station was holding some fireworks. They were very close and very loud.

It was a very long show and by the end Lucy was losing interest. But it was the perfect end to the day.

Take Two

After our adventures at Hersheypark we came to the conclusion that Lucy's favorite rides had been when she could ride along with other kids. So I arranged a Hersheypark playdate with our good friend Marla and her two grandkids, Emi and Matthew. They had a blast together. I also couldn't have survived the day alone as Marla put all 3 of the kids on and off every single ride they wanted to go on. Everything is better when you have a friend to go along with you. Lucy had been having a rough 2 year-old morning and I debated whether we should go at all but in the end I am sure glad we did.

This is the mini log ride they went on.

 The after effects.

And here is our happy tag-along. Maxwell is so good natured, he is happy to go along with whatever adventure we decide to drag him along to.

We have also been trying to introduce cereal to Max. The first attempt he just gagged and spit it out. After a few attempts, I knew we needed to try something different. So I added some formula to his cereal and now he looks more like this when its time to eat....

Today I couldn't get it in fast enough. I just love that smile!!

(Also, to get a good idea of how chubby this adorable guy is take a look and how tight his chair is around his legs. It takes two hands to get him out, one to hold him and the other to keep the chair still. But those legs are sure fun to squeeze.)