"This pumpkin thing is just more stress than it's worth!"
-Rachel

Yes, Halloween is here- my favorite holiday of the year. So why haven't we gotten out the decorations yet? Why have we not carved pumpkins yet? Why have we not even looked at costumes for ourselves? The answer, of course, is that we have been having far too much fun to spend time on these trivial matters.

First of all, this week was Rachel's pre-school week. She loves planning out the day for these kids and does a fantastic job of balancing fun and education. And, of course, the crafts. This week our house smells like men's shaving cream due to one of her crafts. But all of the hard work always pays off because Rachel and the kids all had a good time- except for when a naked baby doll got thrown through our big front window- but even the macabre after-effects of that incident fit in with the Halloween theme. So all was well.

We also went to some parties. First off, Rachel took the kids to park day on Friday, like she does every week. This time, however, they did it at the institute building and they had rooms blocked off and they decorated cookies and everyone was wearing costumes and getting into the Halloween spirit and having fun. Evelyn tells me that I should have been there. It was fun. Also, the ward Halloween party was on Saturday, complete with a chili cook-off, pumpkin decorating, and a trunk-or-treat for the kids. Evelyn had a great time, and Jack and Addy were "mostly good."

And then we rounded off the week by going on not one, but two dates. That's right. Rachel and I got to leave our kids in the capable hands of babysitters twice this week. Yes, it has been a great Halloween season indeed. On our first date we went and saw Inception, which was actually a pretty good movie that I still don't feel like I have totally figured out. It's one of those shows you have to go back and watch a second time- or maybe a third- to really understand. I love that!

On our second date we went out to the Melting Pot. If you are not familiar with it, this is a fondue restaurant and it is amazing. Rachel had been here before on one of her girls-nights-out and has ever since wanted to take me. The cheese fondue alone leaves you wanting to come back again, and that was only our appetizer. After the entree and dessert I am convinced that we have found a little piece of heaven on earth. The only thing that could make it better would be a dramatic decrease in the price, because I don't know that we'll be going back very often. But one can still dream, right?

So anyway, here we are, on the afternoon of Halloween, and we still have not carved our pumpkins. If you have been following this blog for any number of years, then you realize what a dent this has put in our Halloween traditions. See, we have normally spent a great deal of time on our pumpkins. Well, now we have somewhere between one and two hours until the kids wake up from their naps to get them done- so don't expect much.

Here are some pictures. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Rachel may have been stressed, but her pumpkins turned out super nice. The Whinnie the Pooh pumpkin got more comments than any other

And my theme was The Nightmare Before Christmas. Simple, but I like how they turned out.

And Evelyn did a Princess, of course.

Carving pumpkins is fun- but "very, very dirty," according to Evelyn

Update: Whew! We got the house all decorated and the music playing and everything. I am convinced it was the best house on the block. Evelyn had a blast running from house to house trick-or-treating and we are now trying to tear her away from her candy bucket to put her to bed. Yea right.

In my cubicle that I work in at the dental school, I have a family picture in the corner. It is the same picture that is by the title of this blog. I like having the picture there for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that patients can see it, and anyone who has had kids immediately knows that I can identify with them. I can then talk with them about their kids, and they can talk to me about mine, and we suddenly have a relationship that is far more than just a normal doctor-patient interaction. That, in turn makes it so that when I tell them they need seven fillings and three crowns, they trust that I am acting in their best interest. This is good. But having the picture there has also led to some interesting comments from people.

Take last week for instance. A person who wasn't even a patient of mine saw it and asked me if those were my kids. After considering all of the sarcastic responses I could have given to explain the picture, I decided to just answer the question and say yes. Then they asked if Rachel was my wife. This time it was harder to restrain my sarcasm, but again I simply answered the question. And then this person remarked how surprised I must have been to have three kids, since I was probably never planning on having that many. Here's a quote: "If it weren't for the older one it would be perfect- one boy and one girl. Too bad they didn't come first- then you wouldn't need any more."

Excuse me. Did you really just say that? What kind of social imbecile are you? "Yea- and maybe your parents should have quit before you came along." No, I didn't say that, but I did take joy in explaining to this person that, not only did we love our Evelyn very much, but that we were planning on having even more further on down the road. They were incredulous.

I also get a lot of remarks about how difficult it must be to have a wife and three kids along with all of the responsibilities of dental school. I usually agree with these people that it definitely gets hectic at times, but that there is no better feeling than to come in and have three kids giggling with joy just because you walked in the door. There is no better support than a wife who is willing to listen to all of your conquests or failures. And there is no better way to spend a Saturday than by going on a bike ride and having a picnic lunch with your family.

Honestly, I don't quite understand how people go through life without having a wife and kids. It just seems like it would be really, really boring and sad if your biggest passion in life was for a job. Or a hobby. Or even a good group of friends. There is nothing-not one single thing- that compares to a good family. And I guess that is something that just can't be explained to someone who has never lived it.

Anyway- we went to a Halloween party this week where the kids got to debut their costumes. Here are some cute pictures.

Jackson played his part well as Winnie the Pooh and repeatedly attacked the honey pot (AKA: Addy). He just wanted to take the lid off!

This week I was Prince Eric.

I can see the connection- I am, after all, very charming. At least, that is what Ariel will tell you. Ariel has also bestowed titles on the rest of the family: Jackson is Whinnie the Pooh, and Rachel and Addie are, respectively, an unspecified Queen and Princess.

And the highlight of my week, was of course when I, Prince Eric, took Ariel out on a date. I told her about our date the night before and she was very excited. She woke up talking about it in the morning, and when I walked in the door after coming home from school she ran into my arms and announced to the world in a very excited 2-year-old voice "I'm going on a date with my daddy."

She dressed up in her "gown" and we got in the car. The first destination was the supermarket where we each picked out a bag of candy. She got "pink" and I got chocolate. Then we went to the theatre and purchased tickets for Toy Story 3. It was her first time to a theatre and she did great! We watched the whole movie and ate almost all of the candy. After it was over she danced to the music of the closing credits and drew quite the audience at the theatre. I was told by several strangers that she was the cutest little girl they had met. She informed them that she was not a little girl, but a princess. And I agreed with her.

Next, we went to McDonalds and ate hot fudge sundaes and talked about the movie and the parts that were silly or scary or happy. It really was a pretty good movie, and I recomend it regardless of whether or not you have an Ariel to take with you.

When we got home she told "The Queen" all about our date. But before that, on the doorstep, I asked her for a hug and a kiss. She gave me a big hug, but then stated very clearly "No kiss. Just hug." I'm proud of my daughter. And I hope she comes back to read this one day and knows that I had a wonderful date with her. And that I love her.

We also had a great Saturday. We finally renewed our Boonshoft pass and decided to use it to visit the zoo. Although a trip to the zoo used to be a near weekly occurance it has actually been a while, and it was fun for everyone to walk around in the beautiful Fall air and look at the animals and enjoy the afternoon together. It is autumn time in Cleveland and we love it!

I'm just going to come right out and say it how it is. Evelyn is a little flirt. I thought I had at least another ten years before I had to worry about this. Well, here's the story:

Last night we were babysitting a little boy named Josh. Also, Evelyn has a crush on Josh. We decided we would put a movie on for them so we could get some work done around the house. The work, however, didn't get done because we were too busy spying on our little girl, who I'm sure viewed the entire evening as a full-fledged date.

First, she thoughtfully got a blanket for them both to sit under on the couch. As the movie progressed, her eyes were on her date more than they were on the movie (I've got to say, Josh is a little better looking than Whinnie the Pooh- even for a two-year-old). She kept giving him these sly glances, and then scooting a little closer until she was actually laying on his shoulder. Josh didn't seem to mind either, as he very smoothly put his arm around Eva. And then we see this:

For those of you who missed it, that was a kiss. This repeated itself four or five times throughout the movie. She is two! It looks like she has been watching Rachel and me a little closer than I thought, and taking notes besides! Oh yes, I'm sure all of you readers think this little display of affection is cute (and it is), but as her dad I can't help but wonder if this is a foreshadowing of things to come in the not-so-distant future.

As for the rest of us, Rachel and I had a great date-night on Friday where I dominated her on the tennis court. And then on Saturday we went on a fantastic ten mile bike ride through Cuyahoga Valley where she put me to shame with her grueling pace despite the fact that she was pulling a bike trailer with two kids and all of our lunches. Yeah- I'm still feeling it today.

Well, I think that's all the writing I've got in me today. Enjoy the pictures of our week!

Evelyn and Josh- Best of friends (or is it more than that?)

Playing at Cuyahoga Valley

I love this picture of Evelyn. She is so stinkin' cute!

One of the many boxes that Addy likes to hang out in.

Being the father of a two-year-old can be a very frustrating and very rewarding experience at the same time. It's amazing how, in the short course of a single day, Evelyn will make me want to smile, laugh, scream, and cry both tears of joy and of exasperation. It is plain that her mind is starting to make connections and that she is learning about the world rather quickly, but that sometimes these connections are not quite what we expected.

To elaborate, I'll share a series of short interactions that took place this week:

The Number Four
Evelyn has known how to count to ten for several months now. A while back, however, she decided to skip over the number 4. It was a sudden development and we thought it would pass quickly. It hasn't. Months later, number 4 is still missing in action. This week in pre-school the number-of-the-week was 4 and we thought that might help, but it didn't. She still skips right over it. Finally, Rachel explained to Evelyn that the number 4 was sad and lonely because it was always skipped. Evelyn agreed, saying "number 4 very sad." Then Rachel asked why Evelyn skipped it all the time. Her response: "I don't like 4."

And there you have it. In Evelyn's world, the number 4 is an outcast.

Getting Married
Earlier this week, Evelyn suddenly announced that she was getting married. What?! Where did this come from? Further probing into our sweet girl's mind (an interesting place, for sure)revealed that not only was she getting married, but she was getting married in a temple in Utah. Ok- I have to say that I am proud of her for setting her standards so high at such an early age, but I have no idea where the whole Utah thing came from. How does she even know what/where Utah is?

Princess
She has decided to be a princess. Her heroes have become Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Ariel, and Snow White. You'll notice that Jasmine wasn't mentioned. She doesn't like Jasmine. But the bigger question is how these Disney princesses have worked their way into her mind. I assure you that Rachel and I have not encouraged these thoughts. I think Disney princesses are silly. I don't think Evelyn has ever even seen any of these movies (she lacks the attention span). So where did she suddenly come up with the idea that she was a Disney princess? And why? And how does she know to equate the idea of wearing of a dress with that of being a princess? The answers elude me, but I assume that it somehow relates to her loathing of the number 4. That just seems to be the way her thoughts work.

Halloween
Evelyn is very excited for Halloween. Periodically, throughout the day, she will spontaneously get very excited and announce "Halloween is coming! Halloween is coming!" And then jump around squealing with glee. The triggers for this are unknown, but she sure is cute.

Prayers
I get so happy when I see Evelyn learning about the gospel. Last week, I was carrying her through church when suddenly she started squirming and asking to be put down. When I did, she ran over to a picture of the savior that we had just walked by, and then in a very reverent voice she said "That's Jesus. Jesus loves me. I love Jesus." I had to hug her as I realized how simply profound her statement was. Is there really anything else that needs to be added to her declaration of love for the savior? I think not.

She has also started saying very good prayers. At first we would help, but she will now say them totally unassisted. I want to record the prayer she said last night for it's simple elegance:

Heavenly Father
Thank you Day
Thank you Mommy
Thank you Daddy
Thank you AddyJack. I love AddyJack
Thank you Jesus. I love Jesus.
Thank you Juicy (Juice). I want Juicy. I love Juicy.
Thank you all my friends.
Thank you Food.
Bless Food.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love that girl. I also wonder how Mommy and Daddy somehow weren't quite as loved as her cup of juice. I'll assume it was just an oversight on her part.

Addy and Jack are a little bit sick this week, but they still play happily with one another. It is funny to watch them when they have distinctly different goals to their play. For instance, Jack loves putting things into our little crates. He is very content to just sit and fill up the bins with toys. Adalie, on the other hand, loves being in the crates, so she is usually on the other side, happily taking things out so that she can climb inside. It is best when things work out so that Jack thinks that he put Addy into the crate. This creates a win-win situation for both.

Besides watching the constant stream of entertainment that comes from our children, we have had a pretty good week. We have begun having the missionaries come to our home to meet with some friends and it really is neat to hear them teach the gospel as it is distilled down to the essential concepts. Like Evelyn's statement about loving Jesus, it has helped me to realize once again that a deep understanding of the gospel is not necessarily the same thing as a deep faith in it's precepts, and that both are important traits to develop.

This is what I have been thinking about going into the weekend, which just happens to be General Conference weekend. It has been interesting listening to the talks and realizing how the spirit of the messages can be so strong even though the fundamental principals being taught are things I have heard basically for my entire life.

Between conference talks we also took a field trip to Lake Erie. The wind was blowing, making some good waves for us to watch. For the big ones, Evelyn would loudly exclaim "Whoa," and Addy and Jack would smile. It actually was pretty cool.

Here's Rachel and Jackson about to get very wet. The things we do for a good picture!

Evelyn and I stood a little farther off

OK- Rach wanted me to post this because I guess it's pretty good. Evelyn did this all by herself, including the pink D which is in the middle. She even knows how to color in the lines, although nobody ever taught her that this was the right way to do things. I guess she is just an intuitive artist...or something.