The Pollard Place: October: Pumpkin Patches, Scarecrows, Tricks and Treats

This year I have come to a new conclusion: I LOVE HALLOWEEN. It used to be that Christmas was my favorite by a landslide, and it still is, but the gap is closing. Halloween is a contender! It was absolutely a blast to have Henry at his age for this holiday. It made everything so exciting and fun. We managed to cram a whole ton of stuff into this one month, and Rusty and I are exhausted. But man, what a great month!

The weather was so nice this month! We were seriously so excited about it after moving from Seattle. Sometimes I would look up the weather in Lake Stevens just to see all of the days of rain and then feel really happy that I was in the sun. :) One of the first things we did was make a trip up to hike by Big Springs- my favorite place up Provo Canyon. Turns out, we forgot the Tula so I just had to carry Adeline. But she really loved the colors! And Henry just kept saying "I want to go to the mountains!!"

Next was Apple Cider Day, which of course is awesome. We had fun at the cabin even though this year I didn't get any apple cider (I know.). There was a ton of good food and it was our first family event since moving back, so it was just exciting to be able to go to those now. I just love going out to the farm; it is so nice to be away from the city.

We got to do some other fun things like drive the tractor and take the 4-wheeler up the mountains! I went up first with Henry and my dad to scout out where I would take Rusty, and then the kids stayed at the cabin with Mom while I took Rusty up for a ride just us. That was our first time doing anything just us since our trip to Hawaii, and it was truly wonderful.

To end the night, we got to go for a little horse ride! I am slightly nervous (ok, terrified) of horses, so it was a good experience to get used to. Dad has been riding like crazy since they moved and Rusty grew up riding. So I took Henry around with me for a little bit and we had a great time! Henry just kept saying, "I'm a cowboy!" He, on the other hand, is not scared at all. Not one bit. He was born to ride these horses.

Look at that handsome cowboy!

October would not be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch!! This year Rusty's new work did a big event where you got to go to the pumpkin patch for free. You even got donuts, cider, and to take a pumpkin home! Henry liked the hay ride, and really loved the corn maze, but his favorite part was pushing the little wheelbarrow around. He thought that was the best thing ever! It was really fun, and we even got to invite people. My parents, Jessica, Caitlin and Brandon, and the Bartons all came. Afterwards we went to Costa Vida for dinner!

Henry pulled this off of the corn maze and started eating it haha

Gathering every pumpkin he can find!

Rusty and I had a tradition while we lived here of doing Alpine Loop every fall, usually around conference weekend. This year my parents wanted to go so we went after Rusty's work one night. It was getting dark and it was hard to see, but it was still pretty. Then I went back another day with just the kids and got to drive it and see everything. It was so beautiful!

After doing Alpine Loop the second time, I met Bryndee at Bridal Veil Falls to walk along the trail with the boys for a little bit. I just love fall here so much. It's still warm but the leaves are beautiful. We didn't get very far, but the boys sure loved throwing rocks in the water and finding bugs. Later Bryndee and I just got to talk while the boys played in the trees. After that we went to this new place and got some ice cream, and I got the yummiest banana nutella milkshake ever!

Lagoon was open through the end of October for Frightmares. I had never gone during that time, and Rusty had never gone at all! We went one Saturday to meet my parents there and had the best time! Henry loved it even more than I thought he would, and Rusty and I got to escape for a little bit and ride some rides! It was so much fun; we haven't done roller coasters since Six Flags in St. Louis. I loved watching Henry ride the rides and get excited, but the other best part was the new ride: Cannibal. Oh. My. Gosh. It is terrifying, but SO FREAKING AWESOME! I loved it (after I got off).

This car one was Henry's favorite ride

One weekend Phyllis, Desi and Kandi came out to visit. We didn't have a countertop down here and there were still boxes everywhere, but we got to see them for a little bit. Saturday night they came and we went out to dinner and then got some ice cream from the Creamery. It was my first time since we came back to eat GRAHAM CANYON!! Woo hoo! Sunday Henry had a runny nose so we didn't want to take him to church, so we all went and drove Nebo Loop. I had never done that before but it was surprisingly beautiful. It's quite a drive, so I don't know that we will do it every year, but both Rusty and I talked about it becoming a tradition so we will see. Then we went back to their hotel and went swimming and then got Olive Garden and ate it at our place.

There was one Saturday when they were working on the kitchen downstairs (tearing out cabinets), and I had to keep the kids out of the way. So we went out for a day and went to the Riverwoods to do some shopping and get Henry some lunch. He loved the cars in the table, and his little lunch came in a box shaped like a truck. Definitely a win. Then we went to a bounce house place to kill some more time.

Della pooped. I told you she was a pooper.

Something new that we did this month was get a membership somewhere! I've never had a membership anywhere except for the gym and a rock climbing place once, but we decided to get a membership to Thanksgiving Point. It has four really cool places: Ashton Gardens, Museum of Natural History (dinosaurs), Museum of Curiosity (children's museum), and Farm Country. The first place we went was to the Dinosaur Museum and we met Bryndee and Brayden there. We walked around, had a picnic outside, and then the boys dug around in the sand looking for dinosaur bones.

This was Henry's favorite part!

In Heber there is a train that is called the Pumpkin Train! You can dress up, ride the train, and then take a pumpkin home and eat a pumpkin cookie. Henry wasn't sure that he wanted to dress up, so we all dressed up and it was a lot of fun! We were late so we got there just in time to board (ahhhh) but it was fun once we got on.

For pumpkin carving, the Bartons came over. We had hot apple cider and pumpkin pie. Henry and Brayden painted their's, but Henry didn't want to put his pumpkin outside because it would "be freezin". So we had to wrap a blanket around it. Haha I love this boy.

The ward here doesn't do a trunk or treat, but they did a fun carnival and a chili cook off! We went and tried to make friends haha. Henry had a great time and we did too! Everyone loved our costumes, and it was fun to actually get to have Adeline out.

The night before Halloween we did a trunk or treat that the Orem Police Department puts on. It was at a high school, and I just thought it would be a quick thing. But the line was HUGE! But it was pretty cool because they had all of their police cars parked around the football field and you got to walk around and see them all. Bryndee came and we went to The Chocolate afterward and had delicious sugar cookies and the yummiest hot chocolate ever!

I tried to be brave and go to my first Hike it Baby hike, and I picked a good one! It was the pumpkin hunt, where they hide little pumpkins for the kids to look for and find while we walk. It was so fun, and Henry loved dressing up like a dog (he's scared of a wolf) and loved finding pumpkins everywhere.

I wanted to get some fun pictures of my two adorable kids who I love more than anything, and I had this great idea to go to Ashton Gardens and take some of them in the leaves. Turns out: the lighting was bad, Henry did not want to hold Adeline, and I wasn't even sure if I was allowed to take pictures of them in there off of the path. And is it a rule that if one kid is smiling, the other one isn't? Cuz I think that's true. So, it was kind of a mess haha. But some of them turned out ok. Better luck next year, eh?

We also went to the Petting Zoo, trying to fit it in before the weather got bad. It was a lot of fun! They do a fun little wagon ride, which H loved, and then you can buy food to feed the animals. Oh, and they have free pony rides which was a big hit! Oh, and the popcorn. The popcorn was also a big hit.

Ashton Gardens did a fun thing called the Scarecrow Festival, where you got to walk through the gardens and see all of the different scarecrows that people had submitted for a contest. They had some really cool ones! Henry and I had just been talking about scarecrows because of reading The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, so he really liked seeing them. There were two that he just walked right out and stood next to and asked me to take his pictures (the one with the cow, and the shopping one). They also had some really fun leaf piles that the kids could play in! Henry's favorite part was the waterfall by the pond.

Work on the house is coming along! We finally got the new kitchen countertop (it looks AWESOME!!), and they are doing a ton of work upstairs! Hopefully things keep moving along!

Finally it was Halloween!! We woke up and went to Jaker's pumpkin patch. It is only $2 to get in, and they have fun slides, a corn pit, a hay ride, straw maze, corn maze, and a haunted maze. Henry had a blast and I really loved it there! It was definitely worth it, and it was a really fun thing to do on Halloween. I think we might have a new tradition.

That night we went to Kyle's sister's house in Lehi and had dinner and then went trick or treating! Seriously my favorite part was hearing Henry say, "trick or treat!" at each house. His little voice is so cute! He got a lot of candy and was so excited! He would run from house to house and loved knocking on the door.

Henry's Highlights

He is talking SO MUCH. It is my favorite thing. And he is forming his own thoughts and ideas and sharing those instead of just repeating things he has heard us say. I love hearing things that he wants to tell me. Some fun things he is saying is he just says: "Anyway". Like, "No say no anyway!" He also says "RIGHT NOW!!"
He is getting really good at prolonging bedtime. He says: "No Mommy leave?" or "Mommy hold hands?" or "Mommy lay head on Hehy's tuty? (tummy)". I mean, seriously how can you leave?
He is unsure about nursery in our new ward, and is really shy. Actually he is just really shy in general. We were at the park and this little boy came up and wanted to play with Henry. He said hi, and Henry kept ignoring him so I told him to say hi. He made a weird, quiet sound instead haha. The little boy said, "I just say hi like this: hi." Haha.
I absolutely love that he will say "I love you" first now. Sometimes he just walks up and says it.
Henry plays by himself so well and has started to really do pretend play!
Henry isn't so sure about Adeline anymore. He is feeling a little bit jealous, but most of the time he is still really nice to her and gives her toys.

He went and got them books to look at while Della was doing tummy time

He doesn't do naps anymore (Noooooooooooo). He does quiet time in his room though, and he's pretty good about going. He doesn't like to stay in there and spends most of it talking to me but I can't close the door because for some reason it makes him so sad. If he goes to time out he says in the saddest little voice: "No close door??" It kills me and breaks my heart.
He asks to go see Daddy at work all of the time. We did get to go once and they had a big lunch that we went to. It was fun to show Henry where he works!
He carries Bailey's bone around and says, "I love Bailey's bone" and hugs it. I don't know why!?!

He can put his socks on all by himself! Mixed emotions of happiness and sadness here. He can do one more thing to help get himself ready, but my baby is growing up!!

Adeline's Adventures

She is three months old!! We love this little girl!

She is smiling all of the time! And we are so so close to getting a laugh out.
She has started to coo a lot and she talks all of the time! I think we will have another talker on our hands here. Her little voice is the absolute sweetest thing ever!
Adeline is seriously so strong. She loves to sit up (with help) and her favorite thing to do is to wrap her tiny fingers around our fingers and stand up. She is a champ at tummy time!
Adeline holds her tiny little hands together all of the time and it might be my favorite thing ever. It looks so sweet!! Sometimes she just links her two index fingers.

Della is rolling now! She did it a few times when she was brand new and I just kind of thought it was a fluke, but it has happened so many times now I don't keep track. It's not unusual for me to leave her on her tummy and then come back in the room and she is on her back! She's going to be a mover!
She really loves reading and singing. Her favorite part in our zoo book is the butterfly page, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a sure winner. I finished the book and she started whining until I started reading it again.
She is a pooper. Like really, a big pooper. She blows out of diapers all of the time! What is happening here?!?

Right when we were going to Jaker's on Halloween.

Right after I gave my talk on Sunday

She loves her mobile

Extra Pictures:

There was one day where Henry was just so busy and crazy! He took not one, but two suckers out of the diaper bag and was hiding behind the rocking chair eating them. Then later he had gotten into my pumping stuff and was "getting milk for Della Bella". Then he found Adeline's bow and put it on Bailey! This kid sure keeps me busy haha!

We did some fun crafting for Halloween! We made monsters, or basically a bunch of googly eyes, some ghosts, and pumpkins! He is starting to like crafting a lot more!