Hannah was crawling all around downstairs while I was folding clothes and Joey was still napping. When I glanced over to see what Hannah was doing, this is what I found. She pulled that whole bucket off the shelf herself. Don't tell her big brother.

Joey, Hannah and I went to Bates Nut Farm for our annual pumpkin trip. This time we went with some friends.

While looking at all the animals, Joey and Mollie started growling loudly at this turkey. Every time they growled, the turkey would gobble back. It was really funny.

And by "Joey," of course I mean, "Peter Pan." Thankfully, he was satisfied with only bringing the hat, belt, and dagger.

We kept trying to get Lizzie, Joey, and Mollie to look up so we could take a picture, but apparently they thought there was a race going on to see who could get across the pumpkins the fastest. They were all very focused on winning that imaginary race.

Hannah woke up from her little nap in the Bjorn just in time for a picture with the pumpkins.

Joey was so tired after our busy birthday weekend and pumpkin outing that when we came home he slept from 2:00 until 6:00! I didn't have the heart to wake him up.

Although he doesn't turn 3 until Tuesday, we had Joey's 3rd birthday party on Saturday. Joey picked the theme this year: blue! We had blue decorations, punch, cake, and everyone wore blue.

When Joey woke up in the morning he was super pumped because the house was decorated and his presents were out. His party wasn't going to start until 11:00, so I said to Andy, "How about we let him watch P-e-t-e-r-P-a-n or C-i-n-d-e-r-e-l-l-a," spelling out his two favorite movies. Joey was right there and he said, "How about o-p-t-r-s-l?" I asked him what that spelled and he said, "Open presents right now!"

Somehow we did make it to the party. We had lunch and then he opened presents. He really loved all his gifts, and at first kept wanting to play with each one he opened. One of his favorite gifts was a full Peter Pan costume. He wore it for the rest of the day and slept with the dagger last night.

When we went outside to take a family picture, my dad and uncle kept calling Joey's name, but he wouldn't look.
Finally he said, "My name is not Joey; it's Peter Pan." Once they started calling him Peter Pan, he looked up immediately with a big smile.
I don't have many great pictures from the party, but my uncle is an amazing photographer. I'm hoping he'll send me better ones soon. I'll share them when I get them.

Why did I ever buy applesauce before? The homemade kind is so cheap, easy, and delicious!
And Joey is a great helper. Look at that focus!

The other day, Andy and I were reminiscing about one of our favorite childhood lunches: mini English muffin pizzas. We remember loving making these with our moms and putting on our favorite toppings. Right after we talked about it, I found whole wheat English muffins in the clearance section at our grocery store. I picked up a couple of packages, and Joey and I had a great time making our special lunch. Yum!

While we were eating our pizzas, Joey proudly showed me his big teeth and then said, "If you be mean to me, I'll bite off your head. Better be careful, Mom."

Precious.

Hannah's been neglected lately. Not in real life, just on this blog.

I can't believe she's seven months old today!

Her favorite thing to do right now is to pull herself up so that she's standing on her knees. She is also army crawling all over the place. That would be fine, but she gets so frustrated because she can't figure out how to crawl on her hands and knees. She gets up to that position, rocks back and forth, she even tries to put her leg out to see if that will help. Then she just starts crying. It's quite pitiful.

Another recent development...this girl is a major eater. Since Joey is so picky, I decided to try giving Hannah a lot more finger foods (as opposed to just pureed fruits and vegetables) early on. That's when I found out that Hannah pretty much eats anything. As soon as she even sees food, she gets all excited. So far, in addition to the regular baby food like rice cereal, oatmeal, fruits, and vegetables, Hannah loves cheerios, cheese, kidney beans, black beans, quesadillas, refried beans, green bell peppers, homemade vegetable soup, chile, homemade pizza, whole wheat bread, oh...and ice cream (she only had a few tiny bites!).

Maybe she's not going to lose that baby fat as soon as I thought she would.

Our good friend, Brent, died 2 years ago today. As usual with the passage of time, it seems like just yesterday and so long ago at the same time.

Hands down Brent was one of the funniest, sweetest guys I've ever met. To me, however, his best attributes had to be what a great husband and father he was. Now it's easy to say these things after someone has passed away, but Kelly can vouch for the fact that we had quite a few conversations about this. At the time we didn't have any kids, and we talked about how we hoped our husbands would be dads like Brent. A few years and almost 4 kids later (Kelly is due this month with their second daughter!), I know Brent would be proud of Grant and Andy.

In honor of Brent, I'll share one of my favorite stories of him. Brent and Andy really bonded over their love of watching sports. One time Brent came over to our little apartment to watch some of the NCAA college basketball tournament. It was a cold evening and I had to leave to run some errands. When I came back, the two of them were huddled on the couch with all the windows wide open. Even more strange, was that every candle in our apartment was lit. It made for a very romantic, albeit chilly atmosphere. I walked in unsure of what I was interrupting when Andy explained that our cat, Chewbacca, had dropped a major...ahem...bomb on our bathroom carpet. I guess the stench quickly overtook the whole apartment. I will never forget them shivering on the couch with candles lit all around them.

We miss Brent so much and we grieve for his precious family that he left behind, but we are so thankful that we know exactly where he is: rejoicing in the presence of his Savior. This verse from "In Christ Alone" always makes me think of Brent.

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

One of the best parts of Joey getting older, is his growing independence. He now picks out his clothes and completely dresses himself every morning. He can even put on his socks and velcro shoes. This is what he came out wearing the other day. He looks a little more put together than he did when he used to pick out his clothes a year ago.

At the end of September there was another free museum day. Andy took Joey to the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. I stayed home with Hannah because she was a little sick, and I wanted her to get a good nap.

Joey loves zoos, but he had never been to an aquarium before. We had the following conversation before they left.

Me: You are going to an aquarium today with Daddy. You are going to love it. There are lots of fish there.
Joey: Like mackerels?
Me: Yeah...there might be some mackerels there...where did you learn about mackerels?
Joey: In high school.

Well, okay then.

Joey and Andy had a very nice time despite the fact that there were no mackerels.