Family Pictures!!

Our neighbor Luke took our family pictures a week ago. Trent helped them install an irrigation system so he took our pictures. They turned out amazing. Here are some of my favorites.

 I love this smile. This is his face most of the time. True joy.

 I love Trent's face when he is laughing hard!

My favorite of our family

This week...

Every Friday Ethan and Calvin have a play date and we switch which house they go to so Jen and I can get some things done. After about an hour and a half we then go over and have an adult play date too. Why should the kids have all the fun? This week the boys played with Jeffer and Cal's Halloween costumes. I can't believe Ninja Turtles are back!

Ethan and Logan love to look at and play in this big mirror that was propped up against my bedroom wall. This week Logan got up on his knees and was pounding it with his hands. I heard a crash and turned to see Logan laying on this:

Literally laying on top of it. I didn't see it fall but I am positive Logan was in front of the mirror. Yet he didn't get hurt at all and ended up on top of it. I was so, so grateful he was okay. I really believe he was protected. It was a big miracle to me.

Halloween

We had a ward Halloween party on Wednesday and trick or treating on Thursday. Our primary presidency was in charge of the Halloween party so I got to help make the prizes (gold, silver and bronze pumpkins!) and help set up. We made it really simple and I think it was a success. We had a family theme of "roads". Can you guess what we are?

I am a road runner, Trent is a Rhodes scholar, Logan had the picture of Rocky Balboa taped to his back and was Rocky Road, and Ethan has a fork on his shirt, so a fork in the road. It was kind of fun to have people guessing what we were all night!

My boys

Logan is developing quite a little personality! He loves to crawl away from us as we chase him but he turns around every three steps or so to check on us while he giggles like crazy. He "escapes" after I change his diaper and crawls behind the glider chair and won't come out until I look in another direction when he then will come charging out and try to get out the door before I can grab him. His laugh is hilarious, the main characteristic being the gasping/laughing sound he makes as he draws air in. He eats like crazy. He still won't eat fruit but he loves just about everything else, especially yogurt. The other day he drank (guzzled) half of my green smoothie and then cried at me until I gave him the rest from the blender cup. I then had to convince Ethan to share some of his because Logan still wasn't satisfied! He used to cry whenever I left the room but now he is getting more independent. He sometimes even leaves the room I am in and I have to go after him to see what he is up to. On Monday of this week Ethan woke up early and came into my bed to snuggle. Ethan and I fell back asleep but after about 15 minutes Logan woke up. After nursing and playing some with Logan we went back to my room where we crawled into bed with Ethan. Logan insisted on getting down. 30 minutes later I woke up again to Logan talking! He had just crawled around and played while Ethan and I had slept for another half an hour! It was awesome. And much needed.

Ethan is getting to be such a big kid. He is three and a half years old today. He is talking so well and can tell me about what he did at preschool and nursery. He is very clever and can remember everything, from what I have said to where I have put something. He also remembers everybody's name. From his friends, to their moms, to our neighbors, he always remembers and calls people by their names. It is pretty impressive. He is so excited to have grass to the point of being protective of it. He tells everyone that comes over that we can't walk on the grass. He checks on the grass every day and shoos away the birds that come to eat the seed. He LOVES to take care of Logan and even helped feed him this week while I made Ethan's lunch. He is SO FULL OF ENERGY. People comment on it all the time. But he is also super sweet and thoughtful. At the pumpkin patch while Jen and I were getting things out of the car Ethan grabbed Charlotte and put his arms protectively around her so that she wouldn't run out in front of the cars driving by. He randomly tells me he loves me almost every day. He also has been completely potty trained for over a month now. Whew.

This week I have thought a lot about how my boys will be grown before I know it. I have really tried hard to imprint in my memory what it feels like to have Logan hold my finger while he nurses or how Ethan's three year old body fits perfectly in mine when I lay next to him, my face against his head and his back and legs against my stomach and upper legs. I know I will look back someday and wish I could be back here to experience this all again. Some days I am exhausted. Some days I don't know what I will do with the remaining fifteen minutes before nap time. Or like today, sitting alone in sacrament because Trent is up on the stand, I am drained by one kid that is climbing in and under pews and another one that refuses to nap even though he is exhausted. But overall I am happy. These two boys are everything to me. They make my life worth living. I cry when I think of all the things that could happen to them. But I am hopeful and grateful that I can trust Heavenly Father's plan for them.

Gravel = Gone

We got rid of our gravel! A few weeks ago I overheard a friend mention how she needed some gravel. I told her she could have what was left of our gravel after we had finished putting some back into our yard. They have some gravel in their yard already which conveniently matches the gravel we gave them! They are also a little stressed financially so this was a win-win for all of us: free gravel for them and more space for us!

 The gravel used to be on the concrete in front of those french doors.

Our grass is coming in! I cannot wait until we can play on it!

With such a small backyard having the gravel gone makes such a big difference!

Will the Spratlings ever finish their backyard?

We can't wait to be done with this yard. Literally CANNOT. We finally got some motivation to get going again after Trent seeded the weekend I was in Denver. Yesterday we *finally* finished moving the rock back into the perimeter of the yard and this next weekend we are giving away the remaining gravel. Since we have had a gravel mountain for the last nine months we are excited to have some extra space for Ethan to play in before we can start walking on the grass. Here are some pics of it coming in!

 This is about how much Ethan helped me. Just kidding. He probably helped for 5 more minutes than this ;).

 I spent HOURS picking up rocks and trying clean out all the dirt and debris that was in it. 

 The amount of time it took to take this picture is about how much Ethan helped me. Just kidding. He probably helped for 5 more minutes than that ;).

The grass is coming in!

And this pic is just for fun. 'Cause he is SO cute.

Pumpkin Patchin'

We went to the pumpkin patch on Tuesday. It was more fun in some ways this year because Ethan really understood what was going on. I love how he can have real conversations now. It melts my heart, every day.

On the hay ride out to the fields! Logan's napping under that gray carrier. We are with my friend Jen and her two kids. 

Picking out pumpkins.

 Can you tell how much he loves getting his picture taken? ;)