Happy Halloween

Trying to get Bridget to decide on a Halloween costume this year was much more difficult than last year. Since there were so many things she wanted to dress up as and changed her mind nearly every day for weeks, I finally just picked one of her options and made this super cute pirate costume for her. She's been into pirates lately thanks to a show on the Disney Channel called Jake and the Neverland Pirates that she watches quite frequently.

I'd planned to make a matching pirate costume for Felicity with the leftover fabric I had from Bridget's costume, but in the end I didn't have the time and lost motivation. I also decided that there was no way she would hold still for me to ever get a head scarf on her, and it was a critical component of the costume. As a quick last minute costume, I purchased this cute toddler-sized jack-o-lantern shirt and modified it slightly (cut off and hemmed the sleeves to the correct length, took the shoulders up a little, and added some elastic to the bottom so I could stuff her shirt with batting). Then I made her headband with some orange ribbon and a green headband I already had. I think she turned out to be the cutest pumpkin, if I say so myself.

Happy Halloween!

Side Note: It was during the photo shoot on our lawn that I discovered Felicity had her first tooth. She kept trying to eat the leaves, and I felt it while fishing a leaf out of her mouth. It looked like it had been there for a few days too. I hope the rest of her teething goes this smoothly.

Felicity Learns to Crawl

This girl has been wanting to crawl for at least a month now, and today it finally happened.

Another Sitting Milestone for Felicity

Learning to get to a sitting position without assistance is a big deal. Now when she falls over or is rolling around, she can help herself rather than fussing to get help from someone else. As luck would have it, she figured it out in the 10 minutes I was gone running Bridget to preschool, but at least Nate got it on video for me.

Fall Trip to West Yellowstone

I love West Yellowstone in the fall. Town and the lake are much quieter, and the colors are gorgeous.
This is the second year in a row we've gone to visit Nate's parents in October, and I'm pretty sure it will have to be an annual tradition to go this time of year.

My sister, Megan, joined us on our trip this time which was also fun. The weather was a little chilly, but at least there wasn't any snow - just some rain on Sunday. We didn't get there until around 7pm Friday night. Saturday we just hung out around the house while Nate and his dad worked on a home improvement project. Then Saturday night we headed into town for dinner at a restaurant called Bullwinkle's. For various reasons we didn't make it there during our June and July trips, so I'd been waiting to go back to this restaurant for a year. When we went last October, I ordered their buffalo burger and had been dreaming about it ever since. I can easily say it was the best burger I've EVER had. And I really mean that. And I was not disappointed the second time around either.

Another great thing about West Yellowstone in October is that if you want to buy any souvenir type stuff, several of the shops have good deals going on to try to get rid of merchandise before winter. Megan and I both bought some nice hoodies for about $12, and Bridget and Megan got matching moose t-shirts for about $5.

Sunday we went to church and then hoped the rain would stop long enough for us to be able to do a campfire and make s'mores. And we got lucky! Here's we are enjoying the fire waiting for the perfect coals for s'more making.
It was a nice, relaxing trip and probably our last one until the long West Yellowstone winter ends some time in late spring. Thanks, Scott & Alice, for letting us come visit again.

Nate's 1st Full Marathon

It's only been 1.5 years since Nate started running regularly and training for races, and he's now accomplished a full marathon! I must admit I was a little worried about how he would do because he didn't stick to his training plan as religiously as I think he should have and didn't do much cross-training. His goal was just to finish, and he did it in 5:31:47.

This is only the 2nd year of the Layton Marathon, so there were only about 300 runners and not great support from volunteers and aid stations compared to other marathons. By the time Nate got to the finish line all they had was water. Lame!

I had some obligations that morning, so he was a lot farther into the race than I would have liked before we were able to find him and cheer him on along the way. My sister Megan came to cheer him on along with me, Bridget, and Felicity (okay, Felicity didn't do much cheering but I'm sure she would have if she could).

The picture on the top left is where we first saw him around mile 23. He was in great need of encouragement at that point, so I'm glad we were able to be there with our signs to cheer him on. The picture on the bottom left is Bridget joining him the last little bit before the finish line. She's been begging to run a "Kids K" for months now, so we hoped this would make her happy until we can get her signed up for one at some point in the future. And the large picture is, of course, after it was finally over.
He said his biggest issue during the race was that the arches in his feet cramped up - something he'd never experienced before and didn't know what to do about it.

I'm proud of him for finishing, although I wish he'd keep his promise that it was his first and last. Oddly enough, he started talking about doing another one in the future less than 24 hours after finishing this one. So much for that promise! Then he changed his promise to not doing another one while we have little kids.

Way to go Nate!

6 Months

Happy half-birthday to Felicity!

For the past couple of weeks she's been enjoying eating rice cereal and oatmeal at dinnertime and getting better at it all the time. The first few times she felt the need to help hold the spoon with each bite which made for big messes, but now she's learned to let Mom or Dad do it.

Sadly my favorite stage of infant life is almost over - her sitting up by herself and not being able to go anywhere. She's been sitting alone for almost a month now, and for the past week or so she's decided to get up on her hands and knees and reach for those toys that are just out of reach (resulting in her flopping on her belly and then rolling all over the place). I love this picture because it looks like she's about to lunge for the camera and get me.

Bridget and Felicity are still best friends and enjoy playing together more and more. The interactions between the two of them are so sweet to see.

We celebrated her half-birthday with a trip to the pediatrician for a check-up. She didn't like it at all this time (I've made a mental note not to schedule appointments anywhere close to nap time after this visit). It's amazing how close she is in size to Bridget's size at this age (she's only 1/4" taller and weighs 1 oz. less).

Height: 27.25 inches (94th percentile)
Weight: 19 lbs. 7 oz. (96th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17 inches (72nd percentile)