HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It has been a Halloween Frenzy these past few days. On Thursday we had Arden's preschool Halloween parade, and that night we had the annual Zaugg Family Halloween party at our house. Each year we have a Halloween pinata. This year we made it ourselves:

Then on Friday, we spent a good part of the day carving pumpkins. Carving pumpkins has always been a big part of Halloween for me. Even though it is messy, Halloween just wouldn't be Halloween if we didn't have a few jack 0'lanterns on the porch:

Then on Friday night we had the neighborhood trunk-or-treat. It was great fun, and it is nice to be able to see everyone's costumes since we don't get many trick or treaters. Then today was the actual Halloween Day!!!!

This year, Arden was Tinkerbell. Her wings even had lights in them!

Daxton was a lion. RAWR!

And Corbie was a dalmatian puppy. She was NOT in a very photogenic mood today. Oh well.

I decided to join in the fun again and this year I was Cruella DeVille since Corbie was a puppy.

Preston took the kids trick-or-treating tonight, and they had a great time. Dax was pretty ornery and worn out by the time they got home, but there is enough candy around here to last us for a loooong time (or at least a week). Happy Halloween everyone!!

Our Day In Court

It has been a busy few days for us! October 22 is a day that I have been looking forward to for a long time....Corbie's adoption finalization court date! We have been through two of these already, so you would think that I would not stress about it anymore, but I still do. A LOT.

We got ourselves to the court house on time (yay!) and got all settled in and waited for the judge to come in. And waited. And waited some more. Luckily my parents took some time off work to come and watch (and help with the kids), because the judge was over half an hour late. My kids have very limited periods of time in which they can be quiet, and Corbie used up ALL of hers up on the period of time when nothing was happening. As soon as the judge came in, Corbie decided that it was nap time and started fussing.

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We had another adoption case before ours, so I took her outside of the courtroom and tried to get her to fall asleep. There were glass doors, so I could still see inside. I couldn't hear what was going on, but it didn't look good. The adoptive couple and their lawyer all had very serious faces and there was a lot of gesturing and paper waving. Turns out they were missing some paperwork that they needed, and so their adoption did not go through. AAAHHH!! (They still have custody of the baby, but the judge told them they needed to have that paperwork before the adoption could be finalized.) Yikes. Doesn't exactly calm my nerves.

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Cora had fallen fast asleep during that drama and stayed asleep all during our hearing, which was great. However, Daxton had used up his supply of quiet by now, especially since by then it was past his nap time too. So Grandpa took him to the adjoining sound-proof conference room, where they could still see and hear what was happening, but thankfully we couldn't hear Dax. The hearing went fine, but our judge was pretty talkative and so it lasted quite a while. Then after it was clear we had everything we needed (THANKS PAUL AND LDSFS!!), the judge talked to us for a while and gave us some parenting advice. It was all kind of blurry since I was worrying about trying to keep Corbie asleep and wondering how much longer Arden's supply of quiet would last, but I do remember one thing he said: "Don't prepare the road for your children, prepare your children for the road." Good advice.

Anyway, about an hour and a half after we got there, we were FINALLY done and Corbie was officially legally stuck with us! YAAAY! Here are some pictures of us outside the courthouse after we were set free (Corbie woke up as we left). It was by far the longest hearing we have had, but all's well that ends well!

Later that night we celebrated by going to the Pumpkin Walk in Syracuse with some cousins. So fun! Here are some of our favorites:

Preston always likes the "Pumpkin Pi" (get it?)

You can't really tell from the picture below, but someone carved up a bunch of pumpkins with scenes from "The Neverending Story!" When I was little we used to torture my mom by making her rent that video each and every time we went to the video store. She watched it so many times I think she actually started to like it on some level. So I had to get my picture taken in front of those (they were really good, but the picture looks like The Nothing got to them. Does anyone else remember that show?)

Even Corbie liked to watch the glowy pumpkins, but she kicked her blanket off about 74 times.

Stay tuned for our next adventure: The Temple sealing!!!!

Porta-potties, Cornboxes and Pig Races

Last weekend we took the kids to Black Island Farms out in Syracuse. They have a corn maze and a bunch of other little activities for the kids. It is kind of like Cornbellies at Thanksgiving Point, but smaller and a lot less crowded. It was a beautiful evening and we had a good time.

The first thing we saw when we got through the entrance was: a line of porta-potties! Arden loves porta-potties. Ever since we went up to Bear Lake around Labor Day and she had to use a porta-potty on the beach (about 4 or 5 times), she thinks they are great fun. Every time we drive by a construction site and she sees a porta-potty, she excitedly points it out. And so she HAD to use the porta-potty before we did anything else. Sometimes I just don't understand how her mind works. I would (almost) rather die than use a porta-potty.

Next we looked at the farm animals. They had cows, chickens, pigs, goats, and even some llamas. Dax LOVES animals, he could have stayed by their pens making animal noises for the rest of the night. But we finally tore him away and went over to a big slide. Arden went down first:

Then Preston took Daxton down...Dax wasn't too excited about it (as you can kind of see...his little baby arms are open wide and he had a very worried look on his face). So of course, the boys followed Arden to go around again and this time Preston just sends poor Daxton down the slide alone! (Dads...sometimes you got to wonder what they are THINKING!) After we picked up Dax and calmed him down and Arden went down the slide one more time, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, talked Arden out of another porta-potty visit, and headed over to the ever-popular cow train! Arden rode in her own cow car and somehow I squeezed Daxton and myself into another one. Fortunately, Preston was taking Corbie out to the car to get her blanket since it was getting cold and there are no pictures of me crammed into the cow train, but I did get one of Arden:It was a bumpy ride, and the seats aren't very soft to say the least...but Arden and Dax thought it was great fun. After I gracefully exited the train, we headed over to something I had never seen before: A cornbox. It is just like a great big sandbox, but instead of sand it is full of dried corn kernels. Dax and Arden probably spent more time in this thing than doing anything else. After we watched for a while, Preston and I joined in and had some fun in the corn box too. Here is our handiwork:

Then we headed over to the pumpkin bouncy-house. It wasn't very big, that was okay because Arden and Dax had the whole thing to themselves most of the time. Arden had a great time jumping, and Daxton spent the whole time trying to stand up, and failing. When it was time to get out, Dax turned himself around and crawled backwards across the whole thing like he was going down stairs. It took for-ev-er. It was hilarious!

By this time, it was starting to get dark, so we decided to hurry and go through the "kiddie corn maze." Daxton loved it! He led us all through the maze at full speed. He is so little that it was hard for him to tell when it was a dead end since he could fit between the regular corn rows. It only took us about 5 or 10 minutes to find our way out. I would have liked to try the big maze out, but unfortunately it had turned into a "haunted" maze at dusk. We didn't feel like causing any permanent damage to any of our kids, so we skipped it. Instead, Arden and I went down the BIG "silo" slide (even bumpier than the cow train!), and then we played on a few more of the kid-toys. Corbie was a really good sport and had a great time looking around. She did really well nearly all of the time, but she was finally starting to get a little tired.

We were just about ready to call it a night, when we heard someone yell "TWO MINUTES UNTIL THE PIG RACES!" Hooray! There is always time for pig races! They was actually pretty fun to watch...they would line up four little piggies and even had a piggy-size starting gate. We all had to yell "3-2-1-Soooo-EEEE!" and then the little guys would race around a little circle, oinking and squealing, with Daxton yelling "PIH-DEE!!! PIH-DEE!!!" at the top of his lungs. The perfect end to the evening.

On the way out, we stopped for some pictures next to the pumpkins. Looking back, we should have done this earlier, and here is why: Exhibit A: Daxton is just too tired to smile:

Exhibit B: Arden isn't tired, but her hair sure is messy from all of the sliding/running/bouncing/whatever:Exhibit C: Even I must be so tired that I can't keep my eyes open:

But by this time, Corbie had entered the "silly-tired" phase of the night, so she was actually pretty smiley:

Soooo cute!

Baaaaaaaaa! Baaaaaaaa!

Daxton has a new favorite thing. This time, it is a TV show called "Shaun the Sheep." This is the first time Dax has really watched TV and actually paid attention. I think Arden was about this same age when she started paying attention to TV, so it was bound to happen sooner or later.

I must admit, Shaun the Sheep is a pretty good show. One of my favorite things is that he episodes only last 5 minutes! (Arden's first favorite show was Toy Story. A LOT bigger time commitment there). Episodes of Shaun the Sheep sometimes come on in between other shows on the Disney Channel, so that is where I first saw them. They are made by the same company who makes "Wallace and Grommit," which Preston loves. I was at Costco and saw a DVD that had a few episodes of Shaun the Sheep together on one disc called "Little Sheep of Horrors." It has the "scary" episodes, and I thought it would be fun to bring it home to Preston for Halloween.

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When we put it in the DVD player, as soon as Daxton saw the sheep he pointed to the TV and yelled "BAAAA!" He actually watched the TV for a few minutes, which was pretty unusual for him, so I could tell he liked it.

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Over the last couple of weeks every time he would see the cover for the DVD, he would bring it to me and say "BAAA!" Then, over the last couple of days, he has started saying "BAAA!" every time I turn the TV on. Preston and I went to the temple last weekend, and Daxton convinced my parents keep Shaun the Sheep on in the background (the DVD starts over again if you don't turn it off) pretty much the whole time we were gone.

Today, Daxton's love for Shaun the Sheep caused me some trouble. Corbie is 6 months old today (Happy Birthday Corbie!!) and she had her well-baby checkup this morning. I brought Dax with me. There is a TV in the waiting room at the doctor's office, and during the ONE MINUTE we were waiting for our turn, guess what came on TV. Shaun the Sheep, of course. Dax was ecstatic. I was laughing so hard when I saw how excited he was. He was yelling "BAAABAAABAAA!" and doing a little excited feet-stomping dance. Of course, right in the middle of his happy dance, the nurse called us to come back to the exam rooms. Dax was NOT a happy camper as I picked him up and carried him away. He wailed "BaaAAAaaa! BaaAAAaaa!" as I carried him down the long, long hall away from the TV and his beloved sheep.

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As soon as we got to the exam room room and I put Dax down, he got a little smile on his face, said a quiet little "Baaa" and bolted for the door. I quickly shut the door so he couldn't escape. I got Corbie all undressed and ready to be weighed and measured, and we headed for the scale right outside the room. Dax hadn't said anything for a minute or two, so I was hoping he was over it. I was wrong. As soon as I was busy laying Corbie down on the scale, Daxton took off running as fast as he could down the hall, happily yelling "BaaaAAAH! BaaaAAAAH!" I called for him to come back, but he completely ignored me. I even tried the middle name trick "DAXTON JOSHUA, COME BACK HERE NOW!" but he was only speeding up. When properly motivated, that kid can move. I finally had to run after him (embarrassing!) and haul him back down the hall. Cora wasn't too thrilled that I had left her all alone with the nurse while I chased Dax down, so both of the kids were screaming by now. So fun.

The rest of the appointment went ok, but at least every minute or two, Dax would look at me with his puppy dog eyes and let out a sad little "baaaaaa." Then when we leaving, he got happy again as we headed for the waiting room, but of course Shaun the Sheep was long over. All the way home in the car, Dax was still making his heartbreaking little "baaaaas." So once we got home and I got Cora down for her nap, I gave Dax his wish. Here is my excited little guy:

You can't tell, but there are some happy little "Baa! Baa!"'s coming from my boy as I took this picture!

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And here are Cora's latest lamb pictures. She is almost 15 pounds now!

K, that is one cute little baby, if I do say so myself. We have our court appointment next week! Everyone keep your fingers crossed for us!!

Pumpkin Pickin' at Pack's Pumpkin Patch

Tonight we took our Second Annual Pumpkin Pickin' Trip out to Pack's Farm. This year's trip made me think back to last year's trip, and how much our family has changed. Last year Daxton was just a little non-walking, non-talking baby. And now look at him!

He is such a big little man! He is so smart and he is talking more and more every day. His new word for today was (of course) "Puh-kin."

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And the biggest change of all, we brought THREE kids to the pumpkin patch this year instead of two. I would NEVER have guessed that would happen! (And yes, this is the best picture we could get):

Arden has grown up a lot this year too. She surprises me all the time with what she knows. The other day I was amazed to overhear her telling one of her dolls the Pledge of Allegiance. The whole thing! Without any help! (Of course she didn't pronounce all of the words correctly, but that is probably true for 90% of us, right?). She learned it in preschool.

Corbie was a good sport through the whole thing. Here is our little punkin with her daddy:

We loaded up the kids in the wheelbarrow and set off to find the perfect pumpkins. We soon discovered that this year most of the pumpkins were still pretty green. We managed to find a couple of really good ones, but we may have to hit the grocery store to pick up a couple more nice orangey ones. We had fun wandering around the patch and taking pictures anyway.

After finding our pumpkins and getting our pictures, Arden and Dax took Preston through the corn bale maze. By then our camera's battery had died (oops). Arden and Dax had a great time running through the maze, and Preston had a hard time getting them out! Every time they came to the end, one or the other would run back inside and Preston would have to chase them down.

I wonder what next year's pictures will look like!

One less hoop...

It is really fall now. I have seen the leaves changing for a couple of weeks, but it was still so warm that I could still pretend it was late summer. But this week it has turned cold (it even snowed in the mountains, yuck) and now it really feels like fall. Even the angle of the sun today made everything look autumn like. I really do love fall, especially October. The leaves are still pretty, it isn't too cold yet and I have always LOVED Halloween. October makes me want to watch scary movies and eat caramel apples and go to pumpkin patches. But even though I do love autumn, I can feel the winter coming now and that makes me just a little sad too.

We put up our Halloween decorations today. We don't have very many so it didn't take long. Arden is really really excited for Halloween already. It is going to be a long wait for her. And Preston has already made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies TWICE.

This week we had our last supervisory visit with our adoption case worker. We had to meet her in her office, and we were supposed to bring the whole family. As you can probably guess, it was not the most calm and peaceful meeting ever (to put it mildly). It was getting close to bedtime and Dax was running all over the place, and it wasn't long before Arden joined in too. But Corbie was really good through the whole meeting, and it must not have been too bad because we passed. So that is one less hoop left to jump through. We only have about three more weeks left until Corbie's adoption will be finalized (assuming everything goes as planned). And only a million things left to do. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Corbie is doing really good. She loves to stand up now and likes to hang out in the jumperoo:


Daxton was helping her today by pushing the button the turns on the lights and music because she hasn't quite figured out how to do it. He is such a sweet big brother (most of the time) and has been very cuddly lately. He will yell out "HUG-A!" and then grab Arden and hold on for dear life. Arden will usually hug him back for a second of two, then she gets bored and tries to run away, usually with Dax still wrapped around her waist yelling "HUG-A! HUG-A!" Arden is his favorite hug target, but he likes to hug Corbie too. Luckily, he is really good at being a lot more gentle while hugging her. If I am lucky I get to steal a few hugs a day too. :)

Dax is so funny, he makes me laugh all day. His favorite song is "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys, because he can sing along: "Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba!" He sings it all day long. Last night after he had been in bed for an hour or two Dax had a bad dream. He was crying and crying. I had just come upstairs from running on the treadmill and Preston told me he was having a really hard time calming Dax down. I went in and picked him up and started to rock him. Dax was still crying a little, so I asked him what he wanted. He pulled out his binkie and wailed "BA! BA! BA!" So I sung a little Barbara Ann to him and he went right back to sleep. Silly boy.

By the way, I figured out what "MUN-IN" means (see previous post). It means button. I figured it out when Dax was showing me his belly button one day. I said "belly button!" and he smiled and said "MUN-IN!"