Pumpkin carving

Since we went to the pumpkin patch so early in October, turns out our pumpkin was a bit too soft to carve into a jack-o-lantern. A quick trip to the store solved this problem and pumpkin carving was back on.

Once Scott cut into the pumpkin, Karsten was surprised to see what was inside. I love the surprised look on his face here.


After Scott cleaned out most of the pumpkin guts, Karsten stuck his arm in to get out a few more pieces.


He was good about taking what he found in the pumpkin and putting it into the trash bowl; however, after a while he chose some of the bigger pieces and put them back into the pumpkin.




He thought the ooey-goey mess that is the inside of a pumpkin was pretty fun to play with.


The pumpkin 'lid' was like playing with a shape sorter because he kept having to turn it around and around to try to get it to fit.




He had fun playing with the eyes and nose that Scott cut out of the pumpkin. His favorite part was throwing it back into the pumpkin.




The finished product! Scott told me that pumpkins don't have round noses but he was nice and humored me and cut out a circle. I think it looks cute - don't you? I'd say carving a pumpkin was a hit! We decided to bake/toast the pumpkin seeds - if I've had that before, I don't remember it. Some olive oil and salt and they tasted pretty good!

Happy Halloween

Jen, David, Eden and Elam came over tonight to help us celebrate Halloween. Before dinner, Karsten was watching Jen change Elam - he didn't seem to know what to make of him.



After we ate dinner, we got the kids dressed up in their costumes and ready to go. Eden and Elam were happy campers and willingly got into their costumes. There were quite a few tears when we tried to put Karsten in his costume.

Eventually we got the costume on and he was a happy camputer. He even stopped and played for a few minutes.


Then it was time to go Trick or Treating!


We headed next door and they were excited to see Karsten in his costume. He really wasn't so sure about this trick or treating thing. He usually just stood there and watched what was going on. Check out the cool personalized "K" Halloween bag that grandma made for Karsten. I think it will hold lots of candy in the years to come.


Different house - same confused Karsten. What are we doing here again?


Eden was holding Karsten's hand so they could get to the next house!


What a precious little monkey!


We tried to do a picture of the kids - Eden was making funny monkey sounds and Karsten was laughing at her.




The whole gang - David was nominated to hold Elam. There was no chance that Eden or Karsten would have held onto him. It cracks me up to see how Karsten is looking at David - like "why are you sitting here?"


After we trick or treated and Jen's fam went home, we played outside for a bit while we waited for more trick or treators.

David and his little giraffe


Elam, the little giraffe, all bundled up and ready to head home.


Our little dragon (or dinosaur...it's debatable) playing in the driveway.


Waiting to hand out candy to more trick or treaters!


It was a fabulous Halloween!

Trick or Treat Village

On Thursday night, Karsten and I went up to Scott's school to trick or treat. Each club decorates part of the building with a theme and the group that Scott is a sponsor of organized the event. Karsten wasn't too happy to put his costume on, but once we were walking around I think he forgot he had it on.

This big inflatable decoration was really intriguing to Karsten. He was content with Scott getting close to it, then it 'came to life' and came toward him, and it startled him quite a bit!


This was the look on his face when it came to life and started to get closer to him. I think I caught the tail end of him being startled.


The kids performing in the musical Bye Bye Birdie seranaded us - they did a fantastic job and Karsten loved listening to them sing.


When any of the kids would try to get close to say Hi to Karsten, he would bury his head in Scott's sholder. I think a group of 8th graders is pretty intimidating, so I can imagine that a group of them was probably way overwhelming to Karsten.

After we had gone through all of the scenes, we took Karsten's hood off and thought he might like to get down and walk around. He was NOT a fan of that idea - he wanted Scott to hold him.


He enjoyed watching all of the kids running around.


Could have been a cute family pic - too bad he didn't wnat to look at the camera!


One of Scott's students stopped for a few minutes to play ball with Karsten.


More people-watching!


He was much more outgoing once he had a ball to play with!


He didn't run away, but he wasn't so sure what to do with Dorthy from Wizard of Oz (another one of Scott's students). He mostly just watched her as she talked, I don't think he got brave enough to take a piece of candy from her.


It was a fun night, I'm glad we went to school. I think it was good practice for Karsten to have his costume on for Halloween and it's always good to see Scott's coworkers!

Chasing Scott

One of Karsten's favorite games is chasing Scott around the house. Sometimes he has the lawnmower, sometimes he's just running and sometimes the popcorn popper. Scott runs in one direction, Karsten runs the other then when they meet in the middle they both start laughing hysterically. The laugh is contagious - I challenge you not to laugh when watching this.

Here, Karsten is looking around the corner for Scott to jump out at him again.


Run, run, run...


This looks like Karsten is saying something very important. Occasionally he will stop running and give us a piece of his mind - he says it so intently we really wish we could understand what he meant.


Playing chase is so much fun!

Dinnertime routine

Each night when we eat dinner, we say "Karsten, time to pray for it" and I would hold his hands together while we say grace. The other night at dinner, Scott said it was time to pray and Karsten leaned over to me and held his hands out so I could hold them together. ADORABLE! Now it's part of our dinnertime routine!

Big boy

Tonight Karsten used the stool grandpa made him to brush his teeth. He did a great job standing there and pseudo brushing his teeth - he always wants to do it himself but usually ends up letting us help a little. Look at how grown up he looks - how the heck did that happen?!

Planning for Halloween

I have a huge weakness for baby shirts for holidays. Check out Karsten's "Spook You Later" shirt - you'll likely see him sporting a few other Halloween shirts, they were too adorable to resist.



The first time we put Karsten in his dragon costume he was not a huge fan, so we've decided to try to get him used to it over the next two weeks. Here, Scott is showing Karsten how cute he will look once he has his costume on. LOL


He doesn't want to have anything to do with the costume - he's searching for a ball here.


Then Scott the dragon chased him around the house and Karsten laughed and laughed.


Then he finally put the dragon costume on - note the unhappy face.


But no worries - after a few minutes he had recovered and was a happy camper. Hopefully we'll see lots more smiles next time he has the costume on, and less of the previous look.


Then it was back to the stairwell - he is getting dangerously close to being able to open that door! Looks like we need to get out the childproof doornobs.


Telling us something very important.


Looks like I caught the end of a laugh here.

Simple Pleasures

We had a great Sunday afternoon just hanging around the house. Karsten discovered a new game - throwing the ball down a short flight of stairs, saying "UH oh" then going down (on his tummy of course) to get it. Now don't gasp in horror as you see him crawling down the stairs - there are only a couple of stairs, we are always watching and he is doing really well going down on his tummy.

Once he gets to the bottom of the stairs, sometimes he sits on the bottom step and throws the ball against the ball a bit.


We think he likes this little area because it's kind of like a fort.


Then he got tired of retrieving the ball and went to watch out the front door. Everytime he saw a car drove by, he said "RUC, RUC".


But that was short lived then he wanted to play ball again.


Apparently he thought his highchair was in the wrong spot and wanted to relocate it.


Scott was making limeade and Karsten had to help. He was laughing and having fun seconds before I got the camera out - as soon as he saw me taking a picture, he looked at me with this blank look.


I made pumpkin cupcakes and Karsten sat in his highchair and 'helped'. After the cupcakes were done baking, Karsten and I frosted them. He was a big help!