Halloween fun...a week early

I'll start earlier in the week with some of the silly things Donovan has been doing and saying. He has this habit of taking off his pajamas by himself, and one morning when I told him to put his pants back on he did.
Whenever Donovan sees a tool, he says, "fix it" (it sounds like "fik it"). His car was broken so he had to find Daddy's screwdriver to fix it.
The drummers from the marching band were nice enough to show up at the guys game against Marshalltown (HUGE rivalry for those who don't know). At halftime Donovan had to go down there and check it out. One of them let him borrow some drumsticks and he was in heaven! He was so excited to play on the big drums.
Being the horribly mean mother I am, I made him stop and go home because it was freezing and we weren't dressed warmly enough. He was extremely upset to leave those drums!On Friday, we had our ward trunk or treat. It was a lot of fun, Donovan had a blast running around and getting candy.




We had Hannah take some family pictures for us yesterday and they turned out pretty cute. I won't post all of them until later.After pictures we headed over to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. We came away with a greater knowledge of bees, honey, and different types of squash/pumpkins. We really like the owner of the pumpkin patch, he's a nice guy. They sell all kinds of produce and honey all throughout the year. Now that we have a place to buy peaches and apples for $.75/lb and raw honey, I think we will be spending more time there.



Donovan with his cute little pumpkin
We ate some pizza and started carving.

Getting tired watching Daddy.

He wasn't great at scooping out the pulp, but I think he had fun.
Mine is the face, his and Brad's is the ghost. I'm glad we were able to do some fun stuff with Bradley before he gets really busy and is gone every weekend. It was nice to spend some time together, just the three of us!
Donovan is getting much better at saying names. We have been looking at pictures a lot lately and he consistently remembers Rachel, Granny, Grandma, and both Papa's, but sometimes he gets Papa Silvey and Granny mixed up...he sometimes calls Papa, Granny. He usually remembers Colin, always Mason and Addi and we are working on the rest!

I am the Walrus

Does anyone else think it's hilarious that Donovan won't let us play "I am the Walrus" on Rockband because he is scared of the masks they wear on the video? Maybe Brad and I are just mean parents, but we think it's funny to torture our child by asking him if we should play it.

I am starting to get a little worried about Halloween, he has been a little timid around masks and scary Halloween decorations. I guess we will see how it goes. I used to love Halloween as a child, but I do scare pretty easily. I remember almost crying after going through a haunted house and running into a tall man in a black cloak with a freaky mask...and I was in 5th grade. I guess if he turns out to be a wimp it will be my fault.

We have one more weekend of fun with Bradley before he gets into his tournaments, so I am filling all of Saturday with Halloween activities and family pictures! Hopefully I remember to get some fun pictures to share.

Donovan is getting better, and so am I! I started getting sick on Sunday and I'm getting over it a lot faster than Donovan did. He still has a runny, gross nose and I didn't even get one. I've mostly been stuffed up at night and headachy and tired during the day. I took some medicine on Sunday night and was still up all night and took Donovan's medicine last night and slept like a log and didn't snore (according to Brad). How does that work? I am just going to take children's cold medicine from now on!

Hilarious video, and other tidbits

I hope Lenna doesn't get mad at me for posting this video, but I couldn't resist. Mason rode with us to Quaker Steak on Saturday night and wanted to listen to the "Face" song. We were laughing pretty hard. Donovan had to copy everything Mason did too, of course. They always copy each other. We also listened to the "oh oh oh" song, but I didn't get it on video, I was too busy laughing.


Poor Donovan has been sick the past couple of days. It started Wednesday in the middle of the night and I think he's getting better. It didn't really keep him down until he wore himself out. He really can't sit still for more than a few minutes at a time. He actually got sick at the perfect time though! Addi is in Utah with Lenna and Mason so she won't be at our house to catch anything! I think Donovan caught it when we went to Story Time at the library. Why don't people keep their sick kids home? Especially with all the crap going around. They should at least limit their contact with people to necessary trips to the store (we made one of those today and I made sure to sanitize the cart and our hands before and after). I'm just glad none of us have ever had the flu. Anyway, I will probably skip the last 2 hours of church on Sunday, I don't want Donovan to spread or catch anything else!My mom would be really proud of me this week. I bought Oreo's the other day and Donovan really wanted one so I told him he could have one after he ate his lunch. When we got home he refused to eat, all he wanted was his cookie, so I left it alone and whenever he asked for a cookie I told him what he had to do to get one and he would walk away crying. One episode lasted about 5 minutes with him face down on the ground crying. I finally told him if he took 3 bites of his sandwich he could have his cookie. He took 1 bite and refused to look at it anymore, so he took his nap and didn't get any cookies. It took him an hour to take one bite! He is so stubborn! Thankfully, I am pretty stubborn too and I always win. Let the battles begin.

The other day my friend Natalie was saying how adorable she thinks Donovan is and how he should be in magazines (I love when I'm justified in thinking my child is the cutest little boy ever), but then agreed that he is a little stinker and he's really good birth control for her. HA! I feel the same way! There's a reason we haven't given him any siblings yet, he's a handful! The good news is, we haven't had any timeouts in the last couple of days! Maybe it's because he is sick and I'm a softy when he doesn't feel well...

I do not heart snow

What the winter?! This is what we woke up to this morning. Thankfully it doesn't look like it is going to snow for a while after today, it's just a freak snowy fall day. It's supposed to get back into the 50's in the next few weeks. I can deal with cold, as long as there isn't snow. I guess I should probably get over that since we are living in the midwest and it's just a part of life.
This is one of Donovan's new favorite games. Locking mommy out of his room and making her feel bad is pretty hilarious apparently. I love his silly laugh.

And these are the pictures I took of him thinking he was funny...don't mind his messy room, we usually get it cleaned up at the end of the day!

Mid laugh.
Brad's team is the 1st seed in their region, but the region tournament is the weekend of the 31st and they only have one game between now and then. We will have a little down time to have Bradley around before he travels again. They played Dakota County on Wednesday and won 5-1 and beat Scott County 7-1 yesterday. We are going to miss going to all the games, but we will get our fill again next year...and for the rest of our lives.
My adorable little stinker.Donovan has been trying my patience with tantrums and defiance lately. I have become a lot more consistent with time-outs and I think it's helping, but it still gets frustrating sometimes. The other night, Brad didn't get home until late in the evening and Donovan and I had a little spat about cleaning up his toys and going to bed. When I told him it was time to clean up he started screaming at the top of his lungs so I told him to stop crying and do it or he would sit in his chair. Of course he screamed louder so straight to his chair he went. It took him about 2 minutes to calm down so I left him alone until he was quiet. When I went to talk to him he looked at me with sad eyes and said "hug". I could feel the tears rush to my eyes, it was so sweet. It took all I had in me to resist and make sure he knew why he was in trouble before I gave him his hug. After that he was very helpful and we got his toys all cleaned up. I think he is slowly catching on to our rules and finally wanting to please us, but it has been a process and has taken some patience. Maybe I should have been more consistent earlier on in his life instead of letting his cuteness sway me. It still gets to me, but I force myself to punish him when I have promised to do so. He still hasn't been spanked...maybe that's what he needs.

Anyway, Donovan is adorable, Brad's team is doing great, and I am trying to stay busy so I don't think about having more kids.

I heart Fall

I love Fall weather. I love the chill in the air (so I can wear my jackets and sweaters) and I love that I get to make a lot of soup and chili! I am waiting for Brad to have an away game so I can make some yummy clam chowder without him whining about it. If you didn't know, he has this rule that he won't kiss me for 24 hours after I've eaten any seafood. He is so silly. When he's gone, he doesn't know what I eat so I take advantage.

There was an exciting soccer game on Tuesday! Not for the girls, they won 5-0. It was nothing for them. The guys had lost to this team (Iowa Central) the first time they played them this season, but ended up winning 3-1! It was a really exciting game, I had a lot of fun watching it...when I wasn't chasing Donovan.Donovan is getting more imaginative and likes to play pretend by himself. His newest game is punching the air, it's awesome. If you listen carefully you can hear Joyce, Hannah, and Bradley laughing.

The other night, Brad and I were talking about him and how adorable he is (as we often do) and he was saying how he loves that Donovan punches everything. Here I am trying to make sure Donovan isn't mean to other people, and Brad is encouraging violence. Awesome. I guess it's a guy thing to want a tough boy. I want him to stand up for himself, but I don't want him to punch people!

Donovan and I had some fun in the leaves the other day. It's really fun when the wind blows and the leaves fly out of the trees. He thinks it's pretty awesome. I love that we have a little bit of a yard so he can play in the leaves and the snow...but hopefully we won't have snow to play in for a while! I think we will spend more time outside now that it's a little cooler, it gets so miserable when it's hot!

My cute boy is talking so much now. When we are alone, he repeats everything I say and I can always understand the last thing he says. It's going to be so fun when he talks like it's nothing. He has such a cute little voice. And yes, we are teaching him some phrases so he can compliment us...what's wrong with that?