Octoberesk

I love this time of year so much!  It seems like this whole past year we have been so focused and working so hard on trying to get our house together. And then being pregnant too makes me think so much of the work I enjoy is a chore but this time of year is so much fun!  I love Halloween so much and all the holidays and Julian's birthday is in exactly one month and a day.  It is so nice to focus on those things instead of work work work:)  If you know what I mean.  The other wonderful part about this season is that the weather has been so beautiful and not too chilly at all.  Just enough to remind me that it is fall but not enough that we have to stay inside to stay warm.  We have been getting ready for Halloween by decorating and coming up with easy costumes...  I can't believe how much fun it is to decorate.  I absolutely love putting stuff on the mantel and also now that the front door is white I love putting stuff on the front porch.  Also some very exciting things have happened namely Aaron's little brother Matt came home from his mission in Missouri!  I can't believe that it has been two whole years since he left for his mission.  Needless to say it has been so fun to see him and hear his wonderful stories about his mission and see what a change it has made in his life:)  I think missions are the most incredible experiences ever.  We also got to spend sometime with the family since everyone got together to welcome him home! Here we are at the airport to greet him:

  

And here are a couple of cute pics of Julian with his cousins.
Hovering over Cannon to get as close as possible to the iphone and a quiet moment of reflection... with Talia. You don't see that very often:

 

Oh, they are so cute and we are so excited that Matt is home!

A week or so later we went to the pumpkin patch to start our pumpkin collection:)  Julian got to ride around in the wheel barrow and loved playing with the pumpkins as we picked them out.  So cute!!

Besides that we have had a lot of projects going at home but Julian has also been doing a lot of fun things! He has been mister line things up for a little while now and takes great pleasure in lining things up all around the house and then trying to push them in their little line.  He is getting better at playing with his train set and loves when we help him put it together so he can line everything up on it:)  He is also finally getting into the stacking blocks thing and likes to stack blocks of various sizes on top of each other which he impressively manages from time to time.  Also, I almost forgot but Aaron taught Julian how to hit off a bat!  He is better at just pitching to himself and hitting it but if you can imagine it is not the sort of thing that I am encouraging... He has also been pretty good a being a good little helper around the house.  His little job is to hold the dust pan while I sweep and then he does his careful walk to the garbage can to throw it away.  He also helps me pick up leaves by putting them in the trash bag and also holding the bag for me.  It is pretty cute to watch.  He still loves to dance any moment he can get and his vocabulary is very slowly expanding to include "no no" and "apple" and I think he tried to say "hi" the other day when I told him to. He also likes to say "wow." Anyway this little guy is getting so big so fast, I can't believe he's almost two! 

A sad bit of news is that I had to cut his hair.  I was determined to not touch it till he was like three or four but he kept rubbing it out of his ears and eyes like all the time so I didn't want it to bug him either.  Now he looks so grown up! Here are the before:

And the after: