Carving the pumpkin

I would have put this on along with the pumpkin patch post but our internet works every so often. Anyway, Zoey had lots of fun carving the pumpkin. Bryce cut the lid for us and helped us get a lot of the seeds and gooey stuff out then he cooked dutch oven cherry cobbler. We have had the makings for a few days and thought it would be a perfect night to cook it.

I explained to Zoey that we were going to cook the seeds and eat them later. Well, she didn't get all of that so she ate a few of them straight from the pumpkin. Gross!!! She had fun stirring the seeds as mom and dad got all the stuff out.


Once we got the stuff out we picked out a stencil to use for the pumpkin. Zoey liked me putting them on the pumpkin while decided, that that was all she wanted to do until I finally picked one and started to poke out the lines. She loved this. She loved to help me poke holes in the pumpkin. She got mad at me a few times because she wanted to do it all by herself. She watched me as I cut out the eyes then once I got the first eye out, she thought it was time to eat it. I think she was getting a little hungry. She took a bite out of each eye, nose, and mouth piece I cut out. Gross!! She thought it was yummy. Here is 2 pictures of the nose piece I cut out that she took 2 bites out of.
After telling her lots of times to not eat the pumpkin anymore, we finished our 34 pound pumpkin and here is the final product. Zoey had lots of fun with the pumpkin. It was fun to see what she would do with all of it. The Cherry Cobbler turned out great. We had a very fun day.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch on Saturday and we had lots of fun. Zoey wasn't so sure about things at first, especially the big blown up witch. She was a little scared of it.

We invited Bryce's mom, Carolyn to come with, which she was planing on picking up some of their very delicious apple cider. It's like eating a apple. So good. Anyway, Zoey wasn't so sure on what to do there. Once we started to pick out a pumpkin, she kind of got the idea of picking the pumpkins up so she tried with a big one, which didn't work out so well. But we found some small ones that she started to pick them up and put them in the wagon we had.
They had a lot of other things there other than a pumpkin patch. They had a small place under a tent where there was a hay maze. Zoey was a little unsure at first but then had lots of fun going under and through the tunnel.

They also had a fun little fort maze as well. It was $1 for each person to go into the fort maze, but we all went in except for grandma. She had fun guiding the way around the maze. There was a little place the was like an actual fort. It has stairs to climb and a few spots to look out. Of course she loved just going up and down the steps.

There was also a big tepee that was made from corn stalks. Again, Zoey wasn't so sure until I went in with her. There was a family that came in and all she did was stare at them. Here is a picture of her in the big tepee before all the people came in. It was a huge tepee.

She had fun once she got use to what was going on. She saw a lot of people walking around eating apples so she was demanding one or saying that she "needs" an apple. Carolyn bought about 1 1/2 pounds of apples, which are so much better then ones you get from the store. Zoey got to hold the pumpkin carving kit, which she enjoyed. We came home with a 34 pound pumpkin and one small pumpkin for Zoey to paint, plus a gallon of the best apple cider, 1 1/2 pounds of fresh yummy apples.

An eventful but fun weekend to Utah

I was able to visit Starla and her family in Ogden this past weekend. It was a lot of fun. The 12-13 hour car ride to a fro were not so fun but the time spent was a blast. I was very excited I got to see Sofie before Christmas. She is so cute and so tiny. Zoey wasn't so happy that I held Sofie the first day we got there. She was very jealous. She kept wanting me to hold her and not Sofie. After the first day, she was use to Sofie and it didn't bother her anymore when I held Sofie It was pretty funny.

Emma and Zoey had lots of fun playing. They both learned new things from each other. Zoey loved to play with all of Emma's toys in her room. They also had lots of fun pretending to wake up Grandpa. Zoey likes to growl like a lion. Bryce has her do it all the time. So she did for Grandpa and then it turned into screaming and Emma and her were screaming to wake up Grandpa. My mom got a very funny video of the girls doing that. It was funny and super cute. Zoey was such a goof and wormed up the everyone pretty fast. I was very proud of her when we were there for going potty and having only one accident the whole time we were there. Very good girl.

We had such a fun time in Utah and thank Starla and her family for letting us stay at her house. We almost had to stay longer then intended due to weather. It snowed Saturday night and all day Sunday enough that I-84 was closed for a while. Starla had about 5-6 inches of snow at her house. At Church, we had to wait for Ryan to finish a meeting. Emma was playing with a friend and Zoey was staring outside at the snow. She was mezmerized by the snow. She kept calling it snowman. She even told me she wanted to touch the snowman. But when we were outsid ein it, she was "freezin". It was funny how was staring at the snow like she had never seen it in her life. She obviously doesn't remember snow and was confused. It was too cute. Emma was wondering why it was winter time and got upset that "we skipped Halloween". What a cutie.

Carolyn came to pick me up, trying to leave a little eariler to get ahead of the storm but just before she got to Starla's house, we found out the highway was closed. So we waited, had some lunch then checked it again and the highway was open. We left around 3:00 and were confused as to why they close the highway wehn we approached the section that was closed. There was snow on the ground but the roads were completely dry. There was only a small part that had snow close to the road but we hadno problem driving home. Even the pass through Oregon was clear with no snow. We got home at 2:00am and went straight to bed. I had training yesterday for my work that was boring but am glad I could make becasue we needed the extra money. A

Before we got down there. my brother told me he had some exciting news. Both Starla and I were not sure what the news was going to be. We both thought that he might have gotten engaged over Conference Weekend, but he surprised us all by telling us that he started his mission papers on tuesday last week!!! I am so excited for him and was very surprised that he is going, not that I didn't want him to, but am very glad that he chose to go. I am sure that he will find it to be a wonderful experience. Congradulations Luke and am excited to hear where you get to go. Looks like we wil have to make another trip to Idaho around March to see him off. Any guesses on where he will go? I have no idea.

Anyway, our trip was very fun and wish it could have been longer but can't wait till Christmas to see everyone again. We love you all!!! I wasn't able to get pictures because I had no batteries for my camera but my mom got a ton and Starla got some of Emma and Zoey giving hugs before we left. If I get some, I will definitely post them for all to see.

6am surprise

Yesterday at 6:00 am I woke up to a little hand on my face and foot pushing on side . Zoey was in bed with me. I thought that maybe she had a bad dream and Bryce brought her in with us but then it was at 6 in the morning and Bryce usually comes home at that time so I was a little confused on how she got in bed with me. I remember Bryce coming in around 6 and seeing her and I both taking up the bed so he went to the family room to sleep. When I got home yesterday from work, I asked Bryce if he had brought Zoey in our room and he said no. So, somehow, during the night, Zoey came in our room and fell asleep on the bed with me and I didn't even know it. What a surprise!