12 in 2015

I had fun pulling together my favorite 12 pictures in 2014 last year that I decided to do it again this year. Although, I will admit that this year was a bit harder than last as we had a year filled with a bit more news. :-) As always, these are some of my favorite pictures throughout the year (I tended to skip past ones that I've shown lots on this blog or Facebook) and not necessarily one picture per each calendar month. Without further adieu...

February - Nate and I celebrated our fifth anniversary with a weekend of just the two of us in Portland, OR. Nate was adamant we start the weekend with a hike of Angel's Peak, but I was pretty hesitant about starting our anniversary with a multi-hour hike as it seemed a little odd. I am SO glad we started the weekend this way, though. It was the perfect "out of the norm" experience I needed to transition from a stay at home Mom who runs on a child-oriented schedule to a wife that focused on experiencing the weekend with her husband with no timelines, deadlines, or goals. About halfway up the hike it started to pour down rain and I kept questioning if we should finish or not, but finally went all in and was so excited when we made it to the top. A double rainbow and a wonderful view awaited us. I'm the luckiest gal to have been able to spend the last five years with this guy and am looking forward to many, many more years with him to come. 

May - Looking back at this picture I still giggle about what ended up happening. Abby and Andie (a neighborhood friend) were playing on the board swing in the garage. (The blue rope you see is the rope of the swing and the plastic PVC pipe is a handle Nate added.) Suddenly I heard Abby start to get upset and Andie loudly exclaiming that she'd come and get me (I was in the kitchen with the garage door open so I could hear them play). When I went into the garage to see what was going on I found that Abby had somehow wrapped her hair around the rope of the swing and was completely stuck. After a few minutes of trying to hold the swing and unwrap her hair I realized I needed a second pair of hands. So I calmly asked Andie to go home and get her Mom, my friend Alisha, and let her know that Abby was stuck and I needed to her. Apparently, Andie decided that this was a tragedy of utmost importance and upon running into her house loudly yelled to her Mom that Abby was hanging from a rope and I needed help getting her down. Because that's not a sentence to strike fear into a Mom's heart. LOL. So I'm in the garage still trying to unwrap Abby's hair when I hear this thunderous running, my front door slamming open, and Alisha yelling that she's here. Without knowing at the time what was said, I totally knew that somehow Andie had misconstrued my request to her Mom and I needed to let Alisha know that Abby wasn't in danger of hanging herself and all was okay. :-) With Alisha's help it still took almost ten minutes to completely untangle Abby and all of us decided we should probably be done with the swing for the day. :-)

May - I love the relationship these two have. We were out to dinner one night and Abby asked Nate to read to her (the kids' menu was pasted to the back of the book). The entire time before dinner was served Nate read Abby books and it was just the two of them in their own Father/Daughter world. (It quickly became apparent I wasn't needed and was requested to just play on my phone until they were done.)

May - For a period of time Nate and I would wake up in the morning to this sight. Abby would have woken up at some point in time in the night and relocate to the couch where she'd fall back asleep. Sometimes there'd be a full line-up of stuffed animals to keep her company as well. Whatever she felt she needed to make the couch a place to fall back asleep.

June - Nate had a week long business trip in Portland and so we decided to make a family trip out of it. Abby and I would entertain ourselves with various Portland attractions (and Grandparents!) during the day then we'd be with Nate at night. As this was Nate's third business trip in two months we realized that we needed to spend some time together as a family even if it was a little bit of a logistical issue. I say logistical issue because we had found out we were pregnant only nine days prior and I was already feeling some pregnancy issues of nausea and exhaustion. I thought it was pretty early to feel this way, but little did I know that in just a few weeks we'd get another surprise which would explain everything. But this picture was taken after Abby and I had spent the day at the Oregon Zoo where Abby would literally run from exhibit to exhibit as well as back to me as I took longer to get to each exhibit. Since I knew I was pregnant I was being a bit more cautious than normal and wouldn't carry her as much as I normally would have either. She fell asleep on the way back to our hotel, stayed asleep on the transfer from valet parking to our hotel room, and remained in dreamland for almost two hours when Nate got home from work. I simply love these unexpected cuddles!

July - We went in for our first ultrasound and discovered the most fantastic news. It's twins!!! Through the various blood tests I'd had we knew twins were a possibility as my HCG levels were so high, but twins just seemed to good to be true so I didn't really believe it would actually happen. As soon as the ultrasound picture appeared, even before the doctor said anything, I knew we had two. There were two very distinct circles shown and, having been through ultrasounds with Abby, I knew what one baby looked like in womb and this was not the same. Nate, not having the same experience, was a second behind me but as soon as our Doctor said "yep, there's two" (and it was literally seconds after beginning the ultrasound - he didn't believe in holding back any news) I could totally tell he was just thrilled. Then we switched personalities momentarily as I became as silent as could be as I was speechless as I just basked in what I was seeing onscreen and Nate became Chatty Cathy as he asked the doctor a bunch of questions. This was our first official picture of the wonderful, wild ride we have had with this pregnancy.

July - Nate and I were stunned when this happened. Morning *ahem - all day, multiple times a day* sickness had settled in and I just wanted french fries to help settle my stomach. So we took off to Cousin's one day for lunch. Abby had been acting a little cranky on our way to lunch but we figured it was because she was hungry and soon would be back to her normal self. Instead, pretty much right when we sat down in our booth, Abby snuggled in to her Dad then started doing the long blink. A few minutes later she was out like a light and stayed asleep for the entire lunch. Even when Nate shifted her position to have her lay down so he could use both hands to eat, she stayed asleep. Only upon us packing up to leave did she wake up and ask for her macaroni and cheese (which we were smart and had ordered to take home with us). 

August - Abby decided that she could touch the babies by poking in my belly button. It was a hoot watching her poke around and then exclaim that she could feel the babies. :-)

August - Guess who started shoving babies under her shirt and letting me know that she had babies in her tummy, too? :-)

August - This picture just makes me grin. It's blurry, you can't really see faces, but it's a perfect view of my life. I'm sitting in bed trying not to throw up while Abby and Nate are playing together and having so much fun that Abby is laughing so hard she's snorting. These two are just so wonderful and they're mine, all mine.

October - We bought a minivan! With finding out we were expecting twins we realized that our car wouldn't hold three car seats all in a row. So we needed a new to us car. The "plan" was that we would test drive a few vans to see if we'd like them (vs the Yukon/Suburban that we were also interested in) and then start shopping for the vehicle of choice. After driving this Honda Odyssey, where both Nate and I agreed that we really, really liked it, Nate turned to the sales rep and asked if we could put a sold sign on it to hold it over night as the car lot was closing. WHAT?! We were just supposed to test drive and THEN start shopping. The next day we came back, test drove another van, decided we didn't like it, re-drove the Odyssey and decided we really liked it, and began financing paperwork to buy it. I felt for the sales rep because here I was visibly, heavily pregnant and just shy of hyperventilating at the thought of buying a car that was more money than we'd originally decided to spend on what felt like a whim (Nate, as you can tell, works a bit different than I, and after deciding that this was a good car (true), a good car for us (true), well worth its value (true), and something that would not remain on the lot for long (true) there was no reason not to buy it). So I was sitting next to Nate just being silent and wringing my hands and the sales rep would come over to the financing area to bring me more water, tell me a joke, etc. Anything to keep the pregnant lady happy! But when all was said and done I was really happy with what we chose. 

October - I'm not counting this as a picture towards the 12 as it's a drawing. Totally different, right. :-) Abby drew me this picture and I love it. As she stated upon giving it to me "Mom, it's you with your big belly." Hee! How right you are girlfriend. How right you are.

October - Abby sitting with me feeling brother move around. Yes, we decided to find out what we were having this pregnancy and hit the jackpot with our first desire of a boy and a girl. :-) (Of course we would have been happy with whatever sex the babies would have been but one of each is pretty cool.) Every time she tries to feel the babies she also tells me not to breathe which has gotten more difficult as time has gone by. :-)

And that's our year in 12-ish pictures. I can't wait to share next year's pictures with you!!!

An Unexpected Christmas

Christmas this year was very, very,....very different from any Christmas I'd imagined. My idea of what Christmas would be like was Nate's parents arriving Christmas Eve, putting Abby to bed knowing the excitement she'd have the next morning, watching her wake up to a pile of presents under the Christmas tree, and having a wonderful and relaxing morning being around family.

Instead, I spent Christmas on the Labor and Delivery ward of our hospital trying to stop preterm labor issues.

Here's a rare picture of me out of bed. I was given permission to shower each morning and decided to wear my "festive" pajamas instead of the hospital gowns to try and make the morning feel more normal.

To back up a bit, I'd like to use this opportunity to tell the entire story (so far) so that I remember these moments years down the road so I can be thankful for the celebration of Christmas no matter how it comes. Very early in December I went to a routine OB appointment where I got to experience my first Non-Stress Test (NST). During that exam it was discovered that I was having mild, but consistent contractions occurring roughly every five minutes. Similar to Abby's pregnancy I felt nothing. But after a dilation check showed I was 1cm dilated, my doctor decided I needed to go to the hospital to be monitored as I was only 29 weeks at the time. After roughly six hours of monitoring I received a shot of terbutaline to slow/stop the contractions and was eventually sent home to take it easy.

Weeks went by and all was going well. Small changes indicating labor on the far horizon was happening, but nothing too big or scary. Then, the Friday before Christmas I started feeling some pains in the early evening. I followed directions and laid down on my side and started chugging water. After 45 minutes of consistent pains every 8 or so minutes I felt a combination pain in my front and my back. I immediately thought of all the back labor I'd had with Abby and jumped from "let's see what's going on here" mode to "this is labor get to hospital" mode. After calling Nate, the after hours doctor line, and Katie to take Abby, I was off to labor and delivery to see what was up. A long night of monitoring and two shots of terbutaline and contractions finally subsided and I was sent home with instructions to follow up with my doctor on Monday.

Monday's appointment had me back for an NST where I once again showed consistent contractions, so back to L&D I went. However, this time a cervical check showed I was dilated to roughly 3cm. Not good. However, over the course of the hours I was there contractions slowed significantly. So I was sent home with orders to come back to L&D the next day for my second fetal fibronectin (fFN) test, which basically tests for an enzyme that can indicate if labor is soon. Although, truly, a negative test result means more than a positive as a negative means no labor in the coming hours/weeks whereas a positive result means there's a 17% chance of labor in the coming hours/weeks. Negative is conclusive. Positive is inconclusive. Guess what I tested? Yep, positive.

With that positive result I was officially admitted to the hospital with preterm labor at 32 weeks 1 day gestation.

That same night (Tuesday) I received my first of two steroid shots to help develop the babies' lungs (side note: painful but not as painful as progesterone in oil shots) and was also given a different medicine to stop contractions called procardia. After a long night of pretty much no sleep (procardia at 10pm gave me the jitters so bad that my heart didn't calm down until after midnight and since it was also given at 6am (plus 2pm) I was up super early) I tried to focus on the positives of HGTV and on demand assistance and food.

Wednesday night the doctor came back and, after after another check showed I'd dilated slightly more to 3.25 cm, gave me the bad news of a hospital Christmas.

I'm not sure that I can adequately explain how devastated I was by this answer. On the one hand I knew I needed to be where the babies' would get the best care possible that would keep them gestating as long as possible. But on the other hand, the thought of missing out on all the excitement of Abby experiencing Christmas....let's just say that Nurse Hillary was beyond awesome in giving me time to come to grips with what was happening before coming back into my room and giving me the second shot of steroids and my last procardia pill. (I was only on the procardia pills for 48 hours (3x per day)). I was having enough trouble that Nate actually grabbed Abby and visited me in the hospital at 9:30pm (well past Abby's bed time) to cheer me up, which did help.

Thursday morning my Mom showed up bright and early with some Christmas cheer. (I was already up so no worries that she showed up and I didn't appreciate it.) Two fake poinsettias that looked so real that, literally, every nurse that came in commented on their beauty and then asked if/when they needed watering. As well as the.best.Christmas.tree.ever! Dad went out to try and find me a small Christmas tree for my hospital room. However, the only thing he could find the day before Christmas was a small tree made out of glitter sprayed pine-cones. The thing was so tacky and gaudy that it was the most awesomest tree ever!!! What made it even more special was the 25% discount my Dad asked for as some of the pine-cones were missing. :-) I'm keeping that sucker for years to come and will proudly display it in our home and tell its story as that's how much I love it! The nurses also helped make Christmas as comfortable as possible by moving me out of Inpatient room 222 and into Birthing Suite 18 which was a much larger room to accommodate lots of people.

Finally, Friday..Christmas morning...arrived. I decided that I was NOT going to have a sad face for my Abby and would make the absolute best of the situation. Nate arrived a little before the rest of the crew and helped set out the presents under the "tree".

A view of our presents with the "tree" pretty much hidden under the loot.

When Abby arrived her joyous smile and "I don't care where I open presents and celebrate" attitude was exactly what I needed to make the morning okay. We opened presents (and I totally rocked on the gifts I gave her, or recommended others to give her, this year!), hung out for a bit, then it was decided to have everyone else go home where Abby could run and play without worrying about being in a hospital room.

Abby arriving to celebrate Christmas in all her glory. She decided what to wear and I think she looks fantastically festive! You can also see the pine-cone Christmas tree among the gifts. 

Abby opening the watch we got her. That was one of the very few requests she made without being prompted by a magazine or seeing something down a toy aisle. So we had to get it. :-)

Abby reading one of the books gifted to the babies to me. 

Nate liked the growler I got him. :-) Or, well, that I directed my parents to go buy for him and then wrap as the week in and out of the hospital prior to Christmas really threw a wrench in doing the last minute Christmas wrap-up.

These dolls were also a HUGE hit! As soon as I saw them at Costco I knew they would be something she'd love (but I let Grandma and Grandpa get them for her cause I'm awesome like that. :-))

It was a little sad seeing everyone go, but by this fourth day on full bed-rest it was also nice having some quiet before everyone came back with prime rib dinner later that evening. Due to some potential extended family illness, eventually it was just Nate that came back later with dinner. I missed Abby but it was nice to just focus on Nate as it hadn't been just the two of us in almost a week. Comically, two bites in to dinner and transport arrived to take me downstairs for an ultrasound. :-) But after dinner was finished my doctor came back, checked me again for dilation, and determined that I'd stabilized enough to go home. HOME!!! I was told I was on modified bed-rest (I can get up to go to the bathroom and make myself food but otherwise need to be sitting or laying down) until basically I delivered these babies with the far reaching goal being 34 weeks (Monday, January 4th).

Being home after so long at the hospital was weird. There was so much noise and activity that it was a little off-putting (we did end up going to Mom and Dad's on Saturday for an Akers' family Christmas celebration and Grandma and I were the two curmudgeons in the corner talking about how loud and noisy everything was) but really, really nice to be able to see Nate and Abby whenever I wanted.

So here I sit (Wednesday, December 30th) on modified bed-rest at 33 weeks 2 days trying to do as little as possible and praying that I make it until at least Monday (34 weeks). And this is the full story of how I spent Christmas 2015 in the Labor and Delivery ward of the hospital.

Halloween - Holiday of Rain!

This year's Halloween was presented by the weather of rain. Lots and lots of rain. So much rain! LOL. I'm very happy Abby's costume fit underneath her rain jacket (just barely, though!) as she would have gotten water logged without it. Note to self for next year: get a costume a size up from what she is - rookie Mom mistake. We actually were able to sit down and have a spaghetti dinner before Bo, Katie, Haylee, and Chase (our Halloween partners in crime) joined us which was very different from my expectation of throwing chicken nuggets at her as she was SO excited to go trick-or-treating this year. But in the rush to get out of the door I didn't get many pictures. In fact, I totally forgot to get a picture of all three kids together! Ugh! Bad scrapbooker, bad. Haylee was a zombie-princess-ghost (I think), Chase went as Chuckie (and he was the most adorable Chuckie you'd ever seen), and Abby was Rainbow Dash.

Okay, I actually found a picture of all three kids. Granted, it's their backs. But you get the idea!

We started out with just a little trickle of rain so I was wondering if I was totally overprotective Mom with making Abby wear her coat, while Chase was just in his thick sweater. But by the fourth house the rain was coming down so hard that Katie ran back for the stroller which had a cover for Chase, Nate ran back for an umbrella and to trade his leather jacket for a rain coat, and I realized I needed to keep my phone under cover if I wanted it to last through the night.

After trick-or-treating about four blocks of our neighborhood Kate, Chase, and I called it quits (we'd been out for about an hour). I was exhausted from walking so much and Katie was worried that Chase was getting too wet and cold as the little stinker refused to stay in his covered stroller and instead wanted to walk with the big girls.

Then roughly 30 minutes later the rest of the crew showed up at the house as Abby had requested to be carried (which Nate decided was the "I'm done" code word) and even Haylee was starting to mention hurting feet. Once home the girls had great fun passing out candy to trick-or-treaters and starting the candy eating process. Even Chase got in on the sugar rush as he grabbed a handful of rolos and stuffed them in his mouth, wrapper and all. :-) It was declared to be a successful night of candy fun by all!

Abby with her candy/toy goodies from the night.

Preschool Halloween Party

This year I did NOT volunteer at Abby's preschool for the Halloween party and I'm really glad I didn't. :-) Kind of a weird thing to say, but it was really fun walking around watching her participate in all the games and then coloring with her when she got bored of getting candy (this child is so Nate's daughter). 

Abby, her classmates, and teacher dressed up for the party.

A little bit of Rainbow Dash attitude. 

And a lot of Rainbow Dash attitude.

Fishing at the Fish Pond - we did this first and it ended up being a good thing because shortly thereafter the fishing pole broke. :-(

Lollipop Tree - at the end of the event no one was interested in playing this game so Abby just stood there and kept taking lollipops out of the hay bale until she got a black tipped one (then she got two lollipops!). 

Sweeping the pumpkin into the crate. She didn't do too bad on this game.

But I was amazed at her accuracy on the throwing games. Not perfect every time, but darn close. Here she makes the pumpkin into the wash bucket. 

Bobbing for pumpkins (the number on the bottom of the pumpkin tells her how many piece of candy she gets to pick).

Getting the chicken in the pail.

And making the bean bag into the M&M box (she threw so fast I couldn't actually catch the bean bag going in).

Jumping to the next number for the cake (or pumpkin decorated mandarin orange cups) walk.

And here's where getting candy got boring and playing games became more fun. We did a couple rounds of Connect 4, matching colors, and making patterns...

...before moving on to the coloring station where we spent the majority of the second half of the hour. Abby has discovered a love of coloring lately and was very happy just sitting and creating her artwork.

It was pretty funny how at the end of the party Ms. Jolene (the school's principal) was walking around with a huge bucket full of candy and non-candy treats just dumping then in various kid's buckets as she tried to get rid of as much of candy/toys as possible. Abby happened to be at the right place at the right time and got four or five handfuls of extras. I think the "thank you!" she gave every time helped her get additional goodies, too.

Middleton Farms Field Trip

Abby's preschool took a field trip to Middleton Farms this year. Having never been to this location I was curious to see how it lived up to the awesomeness of the Country Mercantile. I'm happy to report that this location was almost as awesome as a pumpkin patch location to visit at any time, but better than the Country Mercantile for a field trip. Mostly because there weren't carnival rides sitting quietly in the distance just begging to be ridden on but no children actually being allowed on. So I was very, very happy with Middleton Farms as a location for a field trip!

Our first adventure was the children's corn maze. Here, Abby is running through the maze trying to be the first to find her way out. As I have a very bad sense of direction I was worried about losing sight of her and then getting lost in the maze and not being able to find her and help her out. So I found myself doing some jogging at times to keep up. Not the easiest thing to do right now!

Thankfully there were enough dead ends that sent her back to my location that I didn't have to run the entire maze.

Beware children of the corn! :-) I was honestly surprised when we rounded a corner and found ourselves at the exit of the maze. I would have sworn we were back-tracking and heading back towards the entrance. Again, no sense of direction! But the kids did great!! And it was pretty smart having this group run around as their first activity. :-)

Then we headed to the corn pit. Whoever thought of this was brilliant! Same idea as a sand pit but with dried corn kernels instead. Same great fun, much less of a mess.

I wish I would have taken a picture of what came out of her shoes at the end of the field trip. As we were getting ready to get back in the car she said her feet hurt and could we dump her shoes. I figured she probably had a few kernels in there but I did NOT expect the HANDFULS of kernels that fell out of her shoes. I do not exaggerate when I say that my hand was filled with kernels each time I emptied a shoe. How she ran around on corn kernels almost the entire field trip I don't know. Girl has some crazy tough feet.

Me and my girl on the hay ride. Oh how I love my honey bunny! 

When we moved onto the petting zoo Abby was all about petting as many of the animals as would allow for it.

Until she met the pig. They stared at each other then, at almost the same moment, both turned away from each other. I think it was a mutual decision that no petting would take place. :-)

Getting out more energy as Abby ran through the hay bale maze.

Climbing the hay tower.

But most of the giggles occurred when Abby and some of her classmates decided that the walkway between the hay bales was lava and they'd burn up if they fell into it. So they began running and jumping along the top of the hay bales. They were very good to watch out for the younger kids, and since no teachers were telling them to stop I figured I wouldn't halt the fun.They got some pretty good jumps in there!

Finally, after much, much walking the perfect pumpkin was selected. It's interesting watching Abby's mind work. She knew exactly what type of pumpkin she was looking for (small, round, orange, with a big stem) and persevered until she found one that met her criteria.

I add this picture of Abby on the school's field trip bus because Abby is SO excited to ride on it. I was actually told to not come on the pumpkin field trip because she wanted to ride the bus. :-) Her disappointment was great when I informed her I would be coming on the pumpkin field trip, but she was made happy again when I mentioned that the next field trip she'd most likely be on the bus. Her shouts of "Yay" and "Woo hoo" almost made me feel bad that she doesn't want to hang out with me, but then again, who can compete with the awesomeness that is the school field trip bus. :-)

Neighborhood Pumpkin Carving Party - AKA The Pumpkin that Just Kept Growing

Let me start on a tangent before I dive into the awesome fun that our neighborhood pumpkin carving party (year 2) was. Around the month of March, Nate got a wild hair (or really cemented that wild hair) that he wanted a garden. He'd been talking about it since probably summer of last year, but really got interested after seeing our neighbor's (the Lawrence's) garden and all the wonderful produce it...produces. (Hee - couldn't pass that pun up.) Once I realized that Nate was seriously considering this endeavor I made it abundantly clear I wanted nothing to do with it. This was to be his project from start to finish. I didn't want him to start it, then get super busy with work, business trips, PE committee work, papers, etc and start to rely on me to make the garden happen. I think I became a little, um, enthusiastic in my "not gonna do it" speech as eventually Nate had to take me by the shoulders and inform me that he got it. :-) And so the garden began. After picking an unobtrusive spot in our backyard (along the back fence between two rock beds) Nate built a frame and then got to work on filling it with dirt.

I couldn't pass up the cute tushies! 

Abby LOVES working on projects with Nate. I'm so thankful Nate is the type of Dad that has the patience to request Abby's help when it's appropriate to do so. He's usually the one saying "Abby, want to help me with X" while I'm in the background wondering how he manages to keep his patience, get projects done, and still have her help all the while wondering if she's too little for what she's doing. Since she typically completes her tasks without issue I know it's MY issues that need work. :-)

Dumping dirt out of the truck and into the garden. (I'm also thankful that I'm the type of Mom that doesn't care how dirty she gets, knowing that a bath is always available. She had So. Much. Fun. digging through all the dirt.)

When we put in the new fence after the old wooden one blew down in a wind storm Nate made sure we could easily remove a panel section to allow for getting into the backyard through the side of the fence and not be limited by the width of the gate. It was really helpful to be able to drive the truck through the open section and right up to the garden, but it was a tight fit!

Even tighter on this side!

Not much room to spare, but he did it!

A peek into our yard with the panel removed.

Our garden. sniff. I'm so proud.

Abby getting a quick 30 second ride in the front seat as Nate drives out of the backyard and onto the street. She was a little put out when I made her get in the carseat in the back to drive the truck back to Bo's house (thanks again for letting us borrow the truck!) as she'd decided she was big enough to ride in the front now. 

A few months passed and suddenly it was May. Nate realized he was set to leave for Madrid, Spain for a roughly two week business trip and we still hadn't planted anything in our garden. Whoops! So on the night before he left, with the wind whipping at our hair, Nate and Abby went to the store to pick up some seeds then brought them home and planted them. Planting was kind of a hoot. We generally knew how far apart and how deep we needed to plan the various seeds (thanks Alisha!) but had no row dividers, identification signs, or anything that might help determine where things should go. So Nate would guesstimate on where something should be planted and start creating thumbprint holes. Abby would try to plant only one seed in each hole, but...well, sometimes seeds would scatter here or there, other times a whole bunch would get into the hole, you get the picture. It was controlled garden planting chaos. One of the things that got planted was two pumpkin seeds. Two itty, bitty pumpkin seeds. (We also planted tomatoes, beets, carrots, bib lettuce, watermelon, peppers, cucumbers, and petunias. The watermelon, lettuce and cucumbers never made it. The peppers started to grow fruit then died. The petunias were solely because of my suggestion and were a waste of space.)

As time passed and little sprouts appeared I found myself excitedly looking forward to what our garden was doing. I even found myself, gasp, watering the garden on the super hot days in May when it seemed like our sprinklers weren't enough. So much for my "not gonna do nothin'" stance. :-) As those tiny sprouts starting turning into actual plants it was even more exciting as we'd check out how many tomatoes were producing, contemplate if we went deep enough for the carrots to really grow, and laugh about how we had no idea what some of the plants were as we couldn't remember what was planted where. But one thing we were thankful for, was that our pumpkin seeds appeared to be actually producing vines and flowers. There wasn't much to them at this point in time, but there was enough to be hopeful that we'd get a pumpkin or two come Halloween time.

Here you can see the pumpkin leaves in the front-right corner of the garden. This picture was taken in August so there's been significant growth of the garden and actual vegetables have been produced and consumed! Nate started wrapping the pumpkin vines around and between the green and red bushes beside the garden to give the pumpkin vine room to grow that wasn't in the yard. I have to comment on Alex and Abby's dinner. We had friends over and were in the process of putting the two kids outside with the Dads (Moms and Alex's sister were planning on staying inside where it was cooler) when we looked out and saw that the kids had swiped the Cheetos bag, dumped the entire bag's contents out on the table, and were happily munching away. We all laughed and agreed that summer had special rules. :-) Very happy we're not uptight parents!!! 

The months passed and we noticed that one pumpkin seemed to be surpassing all the others in size. So much so that at one point we had three pumpkins (which I thought was sweet for the three of us family members) and then one day there were two pumpkins and an odd looking shrunken one. A few days after that and only two pumpkins. The big pumpkin was sucking the nutrients from all other potential pumpkins! Then we went out one day and the second pumpkin had turned mushy and was no longer worth keeping on the vine. At this point Nate and I were both expressing hope that our large pumpkin would make it to Halloween as it would be a cool sight indeed.

Fast forward to a few weeks before Halloween and it was officially time to harvest the pumpkin for our Neighborhood Pumpkin Carving Party (you thought I'd never finish my tangent, didn't you?). Nate cut the pumpkin and then worked at getting it into the wheelbarrow as he wasn't able to carry the pumpkin on its own. How big was this pumpkin? You're probably thinking we're over estimating its greatness. Well, coming in at a wheel-barrow girth and a whopping 154 pounds here's our "from a tiny seed, watering from the sprinklers, fertilizer on the random times Nate was home and thought about it, please make it to Halloween pumpkin"!

I'm still amazed this actually grew in our garden. It lived between the green and red prickly bushes, required us to take out the bird feeding pole for fear the pole would split the stem and deprive the pumpkin of its nutrients. Our yard looks so much less overgrown now that a huge chunk of pumpkin vine is no longer growing over everything.

We also grabbed the pumpkin that we thought would have a sad death about a month prior (Nate, not noticing that a pumpkin was growing in the vines that had been inhabiting our grass space for too long, accidentally cut it off the vine. I'd put it on the patio with the intent of throwing it away (as there was a gash in the side of the pumpkin that I thought for sure would rot) and then promptly forgot about it. Amazingly enough it kept getting more orange in color and didn't rot, so that became a small pumpkin for Abby to carve.

Abby carving her "cut early from the vine and forgot to throw away" pumpkin with a vengeance! Nate was super helpful with being her guiding hands. I was chilling in a lawn chair scarfing down McDonald's oatmeal and pancakes (LOVE the breakfast all day option!) as Abby and I had come from a birthday party for one of her classmates but had had to leave right before they served dinner to make this neighborhood party. I was starving!

This year our party included roughly 15 adults and 10 kids. Music was playing, snacks were chilling, adults were chatting, and kids were carving pumpkins or running around playing. I love my neighborhood and my neighbors!

Beginning their masterpieces. 

Getting and giving input on the best designs to carve.

Getting to pumpkin perfection.

Introducing paint to the carving procedure. That's also our pumpkin in the background behind the stroller. 

Finally, the time came when all the kids' pumpkins were carved and the adults (Nate and Damien especially) could focus on Big Bertha. The first knife didn't make a dent in the skin and the second knife wasn't long enough to reach all the way through to the inside of the pumpkin. Knife number three did the trick - sharp and long enough.

Nate sticking his head in the top of the pumpkin just so see if he could fit. Yes, yes, he could.

Damien and Nate working on the pumpkin's face. We decided to do a traditional face and make as few as cuts possible as each cut was exceedingly difficult. 

Our finished result! Gigantic Jack o' Lantern!

We were all so proud of how big the pumpkin was and how nice the carving turned out. Then we got a little silly with it as someone wondered out loud if it was big enough to fit a small child. Well, let's find out!

Awesomely, Abby fit inside the pumpkin! All the neighborhood kids (even the older 11 year-olds!) took a turn either inside, heads upside down inside while remaining outside, or other various funny poses. 

We also got this sweet family photo, too. 

Our giant pumpkin on our porch next to two very normal sized pumpkins.

I know this post has been a lot about "The Pumpkin" but the pumpkin would not have been as much fun as it was without our neighbors celebrating its carving with us. We left a very fun birthday party early to attend this gathering and even more crazy....I gave up a much desired scrapbooking night to be here with friends and family. THAT'S how awesome this party was. Thanks again to my neighbors for a wonderful get-together! Already looking forward to next year's festivities. :-)