Halloween and things...

The pictures in this post are not in order at all! I tried but oh well! We had a fantastic month of October and Halloween! Although Josh has been extremely busy with school, we were still able to go to Santa Rosa for a quick weekend to celebrate Paula's birthday and see our cousins that we hadn't seen for awhile. Jackson of course loved it and I wish we lived closer to his cousins. He is still talking about playing with them. We also went to the pumpkin patch, the ward Halloween party and then trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. It was so fun to watch Jackson this year get so excited about the candy! He is growing so fast, such the little boy! Now for the pictures!!

 Jackson of course wanted to be a dinosaur (he's obsessed with them). In this picture he is trying to catch crickets! Always on the hunt for a bug!

 Katelynn was our little butterfly...she celebrated zonked out on the floor! I did wake her up since she had to come around the neighborhood with me to take Jackson trick-or-treating.

 Although Jackson doesn't look thrilled (he hardly ever will smile for me in a picture), he was so excited!

 In front of the "Halloween" house a couple houses down from us. We tried to take him by it daily to prepare him. He did just fine!

This picture is far away, but it's an action shot and if you look closely you can see the excitement on his face! Love it!

The gang at the pumpkin patch

Josh and his sister Arianne

All the cousins (and Jackson being a dinosaur)

Josh had to go to a thing in San Diego for his school. He got to work with athletes with prosthetics. It was actually a really cool experience and we will be going again next year!

Katelynn  tried to eat the grass

The same weekend we went to Newport to attend the blessing of our good friends, the Recalde's baby boy

We took Jackson to the pumpkin patch that is close to our home

Always loves the petting zoo

 On our way up north we stopped in to say hello to my grandparents and also my aunt and uncle

 Although Katelynn is crying in this picture, I think it is sweet of her and her aunt Arianne

 Didn't realize these were rotated until now, oh well! :)

 More pics from the pumpkin patch with cousins

 Our ward Halloween party

 We carved our pumpkin on the back porch. Jackson was so proud of the finished product!

He wouldn't help me clean out the pumpkin. I made him touch the gooey insides and he gagged to the point I thought he would seriously throw up!!

5 months

My baby girl is getting big fast. I am writing a note on 5 months but soon she will be 6 months! I will post her stats at that point, but she is growing so fast, faster than I remember Jackson growing. It has been pure joy to be able to spend my days with her. She truly is a delight to be around and her happiness is contagious! She smiles at almost everyone everywhere we go although I've noticed I haven't done a good job capturing that infectious smile on camera. She babbles all day (very loud), has cute chunky legs (way more chunky than Jackson ever was!), laughs and squeals with delight while playing along side Jackson. Her eyes are always on her brother and she usually has a big smile to greet him whenever they are together. She puts up with his teasing and tormenting for the most part. He finds it very funny to put a toy just out of her reach, watch her crawl to the toy, then move the toy just out of her reach again. Yes, I said crawl! This girl is on the move. She hasn't mastered sitting up yet but she inches her way around the room and is definitely crawling! She prefers to sleep on her belly and continues to wake mom up about every 2 hours at night to eat (she let me sleep far more when she was a newborn). I love this little ladybug and can't imagine our family without her!

Changes

Our family has been through a lot of changes the past month or so. We are excited about all of these changes, and are adjusting well I think. The first big change is that we have relocated our family to California, home of sunshine and high cost of living! The 2nd big change is that Josh is attending Loma Linda University as a graduate student in orthodics and prosthetics! And the 3rd big change is that I have a new job in an emergency department at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center which I will start in December. In the meantime I am enjoying the opportunity that I have to stay at home with the kids. I LOVE it! I am getting a taste of what it means to be a "stay at home" mom and I look forward to the day I get to do it permanently! This is the 4th state we have lived in a little over 5 years. It doesn't feel like we've moved that much....oh wait, I guess it does! I do not like moving! It is a pain and although we moved at the end of September, we still have a lot to unpack! We plan to be here at least 2.5 years (Josh's program length) and maybe even 5 years depending on where we do residency. We are enjoying our time here so far, getting to know the neighborhood, school and ward.