Another Year, Another Marathon

Nick had his 24 hour video game marathon for charity and I must say, this was my favorite year to date. Two of his good friends from Salt Lake came up and spent the day with him. They ended up staying for 15 hours which was really surprising, but good all the same. Because they were here the whole day I didn't get stuck playing a single video game! Ha! When they left they thanked me for letting them intrude and I said really I should be the one thanking them for saving me from having to play!

It's funny to see their set up. Three of them means three televisions and three Playstations. To say it got hot upstairs is an understatement. Luckily the weather outside was nice enough to crack open some windows.

From left to right: Marshall, Christian, and Nick

I didn't get a picture of their faces because I didn't want to interrupt their game.

I also found it funny to overhear some of their conversations. They sat in silence most of the time and literally only talked about video games. I couldn't help but think how different it would have been if it were three girls sitting in their place. Especially if it were two friends that I hadn't spent much time with over the last few years. I can guarantee silence would have been hard to come by!

Nick and I both have our charities that we support each year, but it's no surprise that Nick has picked this one because it means he can play video games for 24 hours without me complaining! And really, I'm okay with it because it means for the next 364 days I can use it as leverage that for 24 hours he did nothing, but play video games so he has some making up to do! Ha! Not really, but it's not a bad idea!

Shelby's 7 Months

There's not another appointment until Shelby's 9 months so I don't know her stats, but she's started doing some new things this month.

By the time she turned 7 months:

Car seat comparison

And one with the lion

• Rolled from back to tummy...once
• Started making pterodactyl noises
• Hates being left alone in a room. If the family is all in the same room and she's kicking on the floor and we each trickle out, as soon as she's the last one left she starts crying.
• Started eating baby foods and she LOVES them! I debated on whether or not I wanted to skip baby foods altogether and go straight to table foods, but when I discovered I could fortify baby food in place of breast milk I jumped on it! NO MORE PUMPING!!! She's only had carrots, squash, green beans, and sweet potatoes so far and she hasn't pulled a single face with any of them. I've decided either my babies are so desperate for food when they're born because I puke so much while I'm pregnant OR they don't have taste buds because I swear they're natural born eaters.

• She is SO smiley and has the sweetest laugh!
• Cries as soon as she hears my voice when I get home from school
• Makes fake coughing sounds when she wants to nurse and I'm not getting ready fast enough
• Thinks that anything in front of her needs to be in her hands
• Watches every bite I take and desperately wants me to share. It makes me feel bad when it's stuff she can't have yet
• Puts everything in her mouth, including her feet!
• She's still wearing 0-3 month clothes
• Wears size 1 diapers
• Officially weaned off of her pacifier. It took about three nights, but now she self soothes and I don't have to get out of bed every few hours to shove a pacifier back in her mouth. Best. Decision. Ever.
•  Was Dopey for Halloween

Pumpkins and Halloween

I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but I think Halloween is so fun! I love the decorations, carving pumpkins, seeing all the cute kids in their costumes, but mostly I love making a festive dinner!

Nick's, Sara's, Nick's & Shasta's (in order from the lit up pumpkins)

Shasta showing off her pumpkin!

Halloween day was super busy. We took the girls trick-or-treating on Main Street first thing in the morning because I had school at 11:30. At first Shasta wasn't sure how she felt about it, but once she realized she would get candy each time she decided it was pretty fun! She refused to say trick-or-treat and every time I asked her to say thank you she would say no, but for the most part she willingly approached people hand held out her bag for candy. It was also fun to see people's reaction to Shelby's costume although most people called her a boy. I guess that's what I get for dressing her up like one!

Shasta went as Snow White and Shelby went as Dopey

After class I slaved away in the kitchen the rest of the day. Everything we ate was homemade and it was a lot of work. I also signed up to take a meal to a family in the ward that just had a baby and you can bet I took them the same festive meal I prepared for my family! I was so excited about it! One thing I love about doing a festive dinner is it's okay if it doesn't turn out. It just adds to the festivity. There's no pressure in everything turning out perfectly.

On the Menu:

I bought a "blood orange" and then forgot to serve it with dinner so we had it the next day. If you've never seen these before they're pretty fun. They're literally a deep red when you cut them open.

Shrunken Heads and Brains (my Uncle Gregory's Pasta served in carved bell peppers)
Bones (Garlic Bread Sticks)
Witches Fingers (Green Beans)
Blood (Fruit Punch)
And for dessert, Dirt and Worms (Crushed cookies and pudding with a gummy worm)

The Spread. After all that cooking we ate on paper plates to save on dirty dishes!

Shasta was so fun with the trick-or-treaters. I didn't take her out trick-or-treating because we did a trunk-or-treat the night before and Main Street earlier in the day so I didn't think she needed to go out again. Plus Nick was at work until 7:30pm so it would have meant nobody was home to give out candy. At first she was a little skeptical of people knocking on our door so often, but then she started getting excited about it. She would run over to the door and open it before I was over there with the candy so I'm sure the kids were wondering what was up. Then eventually she got brave enough to put candy into the buckets. Her first time though she didn't want to get too close so she ended up dropping the candy on the ground instead of in the bag. Silly girl! We also had the baby gate up across the door so Wedge couldn't run out so maybe that had something to do with it.

Dopey

Snow White

Dragon

After Nick got home and we ate dinner, we put the candy on the doorstep and went upstairs to watch Monsters University. We figured it tied in with the festivities since it's about monsters and all! It was the perfect day and I enjoyed every minute that I got to spend with my family. I love Halloween because it's stress free, festive, and easy to get excited about because nobody has any expectations for it other than little kids dressing up and getting candy.