October Fun

There is an older couple in our ward that has an incredible, landscaped beautiful backyard and they grow a pumpkin patch every year. They have all the kids in the ward come and pick a pumpkin and have baggies of popcorn and candy too. It is so cute and sweet. So we went with the Marres, a family in our Ward.

I put Scarlet in this spot and she never left it. I was sort of glad. The patch was very prickly.

The Marre twins. Laura, their mother was telling them how to say "garlic" in the grocery store and when they were talking about how it sounds they said, "You mean like Scarlic?" And from there on out they always call her Scarlic and it's so funny.

Laura, Jojo (Joveley), Eva, Ada, Me and Scarlet

The Marres are the best friends we have here. We LOVE them. Their whole family. The kids LOOOOOOOVE Scarlet. Especially Ada. It's hard to keep Scarlet safe sometimes because they all want to pick her up and help her walk and they all tumble to the ground. The live really close and I'm always at their house. Laura's always feeding me and inviting me over. They really feel like family. The picture is missing their son Max and Adam, Laura's husband.

Greg's cousin, Ben, got married!!! He found a great girl, Tori. We got to go to Portland to see them get sealed in the temple. It was really nice. Greg and I were thinking this might be the last sealing for awhile, all our friends are married now! Since Portland is so far, we never make it up anymore so it was a great reason to see my brother and his family. We got to see their new house. It had been over a year since we'd all been together, way too long. It was fun to see their new house. I always like their decorating/vibe. They're a very artistic family. It was such a short trip though! We weren't even their 24 hours. So that stunk, but I was glad we got to see them. It was nice to see all the Rollins and Shirley at the temple. And they all got to see Scarlet! With dinner and picture taking, everyone got to see her quite a bit. I was really glad. Things were so busy at Umpqua, people didn't get to see SO much of her.

Getting changed on the car trunk in the parking lot. I wanted to take her inside, but the men in the group didn't have the patience.
I'm starting to realize from pictures that I make this face a lot. I wish it was more pleasant.

On our way home from Ben and Tori's wedding in Portland, we stopped in Creswell to see Grandma and Grandpa! We only got to see Grandpa for a little while, he had to go help the missionaries. Grandma was awesome and whipped up a meal on the spot for us. We were tired from the drive. Driving with babies is always a wearing experience.

Grandma always sings Scarlet song and she loves it.

One of our friends, Cindy Helmick, randomly sent us this dress for Scarlet! It was so sweet. She said she just saw it and thought of her so she got it for us. Very appropriate now, with the doggies on it.

Trunk or Treat!!! We borrowed this costume from a friend and it turned out pretty cute. She's a monkey.

Halloween seemed like a crazy night. It was one of those REALLY LONG DAYS. Scarlet had been sick for a few days, Greg was working a lot and I was beat. I originally went to a friend's party, not realizing Molly (Greg's cousin) was throwing one, and then they all went trick or treating. Well, I wasn't in the mood and didn't dress Scarlet for the cold, so I left for Molly's part. I didn't really know anyone there anyway. So I drive to Molly's and no one's there because THEY'RE trick or treating! You just don't think of these things! Well, I didn't. I haven't been trick or treating in 15 years! I just didn't think about it.

Well, John, Molly's husband, rushed back to get me. I changed Scarlet into something warmer and off we went. Everyone made such a big deal about Scarlet trick or treating. First it was Greg who told me to (he was working). And all I could think was, "What?!" She's not going to get it. She probably won't even grab any candy. She's just going to stand there. The whole thing is for the parents and I don't even want to do it. (Man, I sound like such a pooper). Anyway, multiple people, as the holiday approached, kept telling me I had to do it. So we did it. And it was so fun!!! She didn't really get it, but it was really cute and she had a really good time being out and seeing all the kids. There were some really cool neighborhoods with incredible decorations! It was really fun to be on the parent side. It was my first time doing it. I was so sad, I knew Greg would have loved it. One of the stinkers about his job.

On the way back home she rode in a wagon with Dominic (Molly and John's son) and she had soooo much fun. She was literally smiling the ENTIRE way home. Everyone kept commenting on it. It was so cute.

The last week we've been sick. And our house got INSANELY dirty. It looked worse in real life. We were messy enough as it is, but then we let Scarlet go through every drawer and drag everything everywhere and we were to tired to clean ANYTHING, so things go a little crazy. Yesterday I was feeling a little better and slowly, but surely cleaned the house through out the day, thanks to Pat who came to play with Scarlet for a couple hours.

Scarlet has been saying so many new words lately! It's been so exciting! This is her current vocabulary:

"ca ca" cracker

"ba pa" backpack

"ee" eat

"sheeshus" Jesus

"ing" drink

"dah-ee" doggy

"boo" book

"dada"

"ki-ee" kitty

"duh" duck

"guh-pa" grandpa

"I luh luh" I love you

"ba" bath

She says hi, baby, bye bye and Coco (Pat and Randy's dog) pretty perfectly. She is OBSESSED with Coco and dogs in general. It's pretty cute. She FINALLY SAID MAMA!!!!!! Once. She's said "ba ba" plenty, but I SERIOUSLY emphasized the MMMMMMM sound and started saying right in her face, "mmmmmmmmmmmaaaammmmmmmmmmaaaaaaammmmmmmmmaama" and then out it came, "mama" perfectly! It made me tear up! But she only did it once. Progress. I'm thinking that's why she only says grandpa and not grandma. The M sound. I can't believe how quickly she's saying words. She won't say anything new or even much of the ones she knows for atleast a week and then bust out 3 in a day and I'm just like, "What???? How are you speaking so many so fast?!" It's so fun! I love it.

Everytime I'm about to give up on signing, she'll do one and I get the motivation to keep on going. A month ago I realized even though she doesn't do them back, she understands them. But she's finally signing back sleep, eat, more and bottle. She only does it SO much, but she's finally starting to do it. So I'm thrilled. For a second we thought, "Why bother teaching her. She can say cracker, what's the point in the sign?" But we're gonna keep going. I figure I'll get better as time passes and with the next kid I'll already be that much farther along. Greg's cousins know all the signs and their kids totally do them back. It is so cool. I'm jealous. I was so determined to do this before I even got pregnant, and it's been so much more difficult than I expected.

I think I may FINALLY be on the med. It's been a slow process. I always think I'm getting better and have an appetite, then after a few bites feel nauseous and have to stop. Or I stand up and have to sit down again. Today, I'm managing to eat (so far) and I haven't been pushing it at all, but I haven't felt like I was doing to much while making breakfast and putting Scarlet to bed. But I'm going to take it easy, because I want to get better!

It was so nice. So yesterday I was feeling hopeless about dinner and really wanted to call my visiting teachers and ask them to bring dinner, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. And one of them even CALLED me! But later in the day one of them called saying she was going to make soup and thought she'd double it and bring me some. What an answer to a prayer. I immediately said yes. It was such a relief to have that done for me. I was so grateful.

I just reread this and I feel like this is the most scattered blog I've ever written- along with an incredible amount of typos. I'm not going to bother correcting it. I'm sorry.