Here is my new favorite video of our happy Hyrum-enjoy!

Happy Halloween!!!
We've had a great time this Halloween. Our ward had a party last night complete with a carnival and trick or treating at all the class room doors. They had a cake walk, ghost bowling, fishing, donut eating contests, and our friend twisted Hyrum a monkey balloon. It was a blast. Today there was a parade at the library and then a lot of stores downtown had trick or treating around lunch time so we met up with the play group in our ward and scored lots of candy! Hyrum has really been loving the fact that people are giving him candy all over and that he is actually able to eat it. Tonight our friends the Skousens threw an awesome party for all the kids. As you can see Hyrum found other monkeys at both parties. We were going to go trick or treating in the neighborhood tonight but just got back too late.

Oh and sorry for the gross pumpkin picture but you can see we carved our pumpkins WAY too early this year and they didn't quite make it to Halloween....we'll remember next year :)

But the best part of this Halloween were my boys costumes. Hyrum went as Curious George of course since he is a favorite and Jeremy went as the man in the yellow hat, wearing a complete yellow outfit-what a guy!!!! I must say he is the coolest for dressing up like that. A lot of people got a kick out of the outfit. So thanks to Natalie for letting us borrow Brayden's monkey suit and thanks to Laura for the great idea for Jeremy to be the man with the yellow hat!

What...football??














I know that anyone who knows me well, especially my family, would be shocked to know that I went to a football game and willingly too! And even more surprising, it was a lot of fun :) Our friends the Costley family generously gave us tickets and offered to watch Hyrum for us. It was fun being on a date with Jeremy and fun being with our friends the Halls. Michigan won which made it even nicer and even though it was chilly it didn't rain and it was awesome to finally see the stadium from the inside. So, if we ever get offered free tickets again I think we would go!

One side note about Hyrum I have to mention, he has been saying prayers a lot, which means he will repeat the last word or two of every sentence Jeremy and I say for the prayers. The other night Jeremy said "please watch over us" and Hyrum enthusiastically repeated what HE heard "watching pooh!!!" I was crying I was laughing so hard. Hyrum does like to watch movies and the word watch, no matter the context, he hears it in reference to movies. Obviously one of his top choices is "Winnie the Pooh" :)

Our little piano player

Punkin Head
Last week on a cold, drizzly Saturday we braved the weather to go to a pumpkin farm with our good friends the Halls and we picked a couple of the biggest pumpkins we could find! Last night we carved them and they are now sitting on our porch. I definitely feel more fall-ish now. Hyrum really likes them a lot and is fascinated with the top he can pull off and put back on. Now all we have left to accomplish is to go on a hayride and drink some special Ann Arbor apple cider we always hear about so I hope there's at least one more nice day this fall!!!

New Camera!
So sad, our camera has officially been declared dead. I think it would have lasted longer but Hyrum has gotten a hold of it one too many times and I am not always quick enough to snatch it back! So, once you go digital camera it somehow becomes a necessity instead of a luxury to have so we lasted about 4 or 5 days before rushing off to Best Buy after some thoughtful research. We came home proud owners of a nice little Cannon that we have vowed will never fall into Hyrum's hands! We keep it locked up in it's case whenever not in use so hopefully that will prolong this one's life :)
Here are some pictures we have taken with it this week. Hyrum enjoying some pudding and having fun playing in an old diaper box with Daddy. Hyrum also went to his first birthday party this week and you can see from the picture what he thought of the party hats. Besides the hats though he had a grand old time.

Fall Fun
Fall is here in Ann Arbor!!! It's been really warm up until a couple of days ago so the leaves haven't been changing as drastically yet. But we did find a huge pile of leaves to play in earlier this week-Hyrum had a blast! The last picture is of Hyrum discovering that he fits perfectly into a cupboard in our dresser :)

"Amals"
Hyrum loves his "amals" or animals as most of us call them. He didn't used to care much for them but the last few months he has taken a great liking. He seems to have a different favorite depending on the week. He enjoys reading them books, taking naps together and having them come to dinner or lunch with him. He has even tried to change their diapers :)

Too much of a good thing?

I was just wondering if calling my son Hyrum "Harry" today meant that maybe I was reading too much Harry Potter....nah! Afterall, they both start with the letter "H", right?
Jeremy and I finally finished book VII on Sunday-excellent! So then I decided to start the series over on Monday and I read the first book and half of the second book that day, finished the second book and read part of the third book yesterday. My goal is to finish the series within a couple of weeks, even though her books get extremely longer and longer, so thank goodness for naps and early bedtimes!!!

Happy Belated Labor Day
For the second year in a row we've had my parents visit us for a long Labor Day weekend. It was so much fun to have them here!!! We celebrated my Mom's birthday and had about a day to play around the house before we left for Niagara Falls and Palmyra. The next two posts show more of our trip. Thanks Pa and Darlin' for such a wonderful time :)

Niagara Falls
The first stop on our trip was to Niagara Falls and it was breathtaking! There really aren't words to describe it; I have never seen anything like it before. The Canadian side is definitely the side worth being on-thanks to those who informed us-and we got some great pictures. We rode the Maid of the Mist and got a little TOO close to all that water :) It was quite the adventure!

Palmyra & Kirtland
After the Falls we were able to go to Palmyra, New York. I have always wanted to go there and never thought I would! We saw the printing shop where the Book of Mormon was first printed, we toured a couple of the homes that the Smith family lived in and we were able to walk through part of the Sacred Grove. That was the best part for me.
We decided to go back home through Ohio instead of Canada and were able to go through Kirtland too. We took a tour of the temple there and walked through the Kirtland village. Hyrum did pretty well considering so much driving and lack of sleep :) Thank goodness for a portable DVD player, the Curious George movie, lots of books, and of course Pa and Darlin'!!!!