Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. John got to be St. Michael and Peter was St. Anthony (one of John's old costumes). We trick-or-treated to one of our neighbors houses but then went to the party at our church and "trunk-or-treating". Andrew won a huge jar of M&Ms for guessing the closest amount. Woohoo!

St. Michael and St. Anthony

All the loot!

So excited about the lollipop!

So big!

Peter at 1 year old

It was so hard to keep him still for this picture. He is a man on the move!!

Peter's Birthday Party!

Hard to believe Peter is already a year old!! The year went by so fast! I still think of him as my little baby, although he is pretty good at walking now so that makes him seem older. 

We waited a week to celebrate his birthday, so my parents would be back from their trip to Italy. It was a great party! I chose the theme "Very Hungry Caterpillar" because this little boy loves to eat! He is always asking for food and grazing for crumbs that drop on the floor. This is a change for me because John always has to be torn away from is toys to eat a meal.

Thanks to everyone who came to the celebration!

Haha, John looks funny here :)

The spread

Banana chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting.
Legs and antennas are pretzel bits.

With Great-Grandpa

Sugar coma 

Thanks everyone!!

Bellingham in October

In mid-October we took a trip up to Bellingham to see Andrew's folks and go to a Brian Regan comedy show. Andrew surprised me with tickets to the show on our anniversary in August. It worked out well since we had some grandparents to babysit!

We always have a great time on our visits to Bellingham. Can't wait to go back for Thanksgiving in a couple weeks!!

We also had fun at the neighborhood park. Although, John did get a bloody nose, as you'll see below...

BONK!

 John is such a good kid! I instructed him to hold on to Peter on the slide. He sure did, even when they spun around backward. He took one for the team!!

Apparently Peter has a hard head!

At the show with my handsome date!

On Heaven... with a 3 year-old

This is a conversation that took place a couple weeks ago:

We were just about to sit down to breakfast when John got a really sad look on his face and, out of no where, managed to mumble, "I don't want to die!" We didn't quite hear him right: "You don't want to what??"

"I don't want to die!" He repeated. He had a look of sadness and terror in his eyes.

My heart went out to him! We sat at the table and started to eat while Andrew and I talked it over with him. We told him that everyone dies at sometime but if he is a really good person and loves Jesus, then he will go to heaven when he dies.

He told us he didn't want to be a good person - I think he was thinking that if he was a bad person then he wouldn't have to die. We explained that even bad people die, but if he is a good person then he will have eternal happiness with Jesus.

I could tell this gave him some consolation, but he was still concerned. "You need to have another boy, Mama," he told me.

"What, why?" I was confused.

"And name him John, OK?"

*Melting heart* I ran to him and sat him on my lap. "Awe honey! When you go to heaven, we will all be there together! We won't need another John because YOU are our John and we will be together with Jesus! And heaven is going to be such a happy place!"

I was surprised how long the conversation went on. We talked about a lot of different aspects of death and I don't remember all the details. But I do remember that we were talking about being buried when we die and that Jesus will raise us up. John told us that he wanted to put a door on his grave so that Jesus could open it. =)

I'm continually amazed that John already seems to understand that this life is not our destination...

Camping at Lake Easton

This is my last summer-catch-up-post, I promise!  So the end of August was packed with a camp-out, huckleberry picking, the fair... and then we signed some official documents for closing on the house the same day we left for yet another camping trip! We spent the weekend camping with some dear friends at Lake Easton. The nights were slightly cold and there was a burn ban, which didn't help. On the camp website, they called it a "bun ban" which we thought was pretty funny. Aside from the cold, we had so much fun! We even got to take a dip in Lake Easton!  On Sunday we left early and went to my cousins wedding. The next day we closed on our house and began our three-weeks of packing and fixing up the house.

Here are some highlights from the trip:

Breakfast of campions (haha, I'm so bad!)

Throwing rocks =)

Babies!

He went out pretty deep!

It was COLD - The daddys were brave and took a swim!

Kitsap Fair

After we went huckleberry picking, we came home for two days before going out camping again. Did I mention it was a crazy week??

On one of our days home, we went to the Kitsap fair. We got there kind of late, so we mainly just went on rides. I think next year, I will go in the morning with the kids to look at animals and then come back in the evening for rides with Daddy. There is just so much to do!!

Saved money by packing our own foil burritos!