I realize that it has been like six weeks since I have posted anything, and that is because I have been quite busy for the last month, and when I wasn't busy, I was forgetful. I did forgot the camera several times, but I did manage to get a few shots from this month.
Reed had his first grad school class in October, and many evenings were spent on papers and the like. That, in combination with the ward Halloween party, kept us very busy for the month of October. He did great in his class though, and got an A. The class was actually easier than we had anticipated, and I was trying to make his papers more academic than they needed to be, but we survived the first class, and his next one is in December.
The biggest change in our house is that the missionaries moved in to our basement in the beginning of October. That would be my fault. I was sitting in Ward Council, listening to the bishop stress how much they needed to find a new place for the elders, and all of sudden I was raising my hand and saying, "We have a basement?" Even though we have heard tons of horror stories, it has actually been fun to have them here. We immediately started seeing the blessings come in, and the hassles have been quite minimal. They come in the back door and go straight downstairs, so we don't really see them all that often. They will be here until the end of the year.
One of the blessings we have seen is that I have had a lot of inquires for tutoring. Many of them don't work out, but one man contacted me and wanted to sign up for five hours a week of tutoring. He is from Mexico, and he is staying with brother and trying to improve his English so he can pass a test and apply for teaching jobs. I am having a great time tutoring him, and this is providing us with the extra cash we needed for Christmas. The best part of all though, is that I have had the chance to share the gospel with him during our conversations. He was very curious about the church, and so after just our first week of tutoring, I gave him a copy of The Book of Mormon, and he has already finished 1 Nephi! We talk about the church almost every day, he came to our Halloween party and really enjoyed it, and I have asked him if he wants to speak with the missionaries, and he says he wants to read a little more first, and then he might. I have been able to bear my testimony several times, and I am finding great joy in sharing the gospel with him.
We managed to do a few fun things last month, like carving pumpkins.
Reed and I enjoyed it because we hadn't carved pumpkins in many years, but Patrick was not as interested as I thought he would be. He did like the end product, and the lights we put inside the pumpkins.
I was really excited to try roasting pumpkin seeds, and I found a recipe that sounded great, but I got busy getting Patrick ready for bed and I didn't keep a close enough eye on them, and the were a little too burnt to taste good. Oh well, there is always next year.
I mentioned our ward Halloween party. That was one thing I forgot my camera for. I am very happy with the way it turned out. We had even more people than I was expecting, but things still went fairly smoothly. We started with a chili cook-off, which was really popular since our ward hadn't had one in several years. We had 21 people bring chili! Which was overwhelming, but probably good since we had more people come than expected. Reed's chili was excellent, but he was disappointed that he didn't win. We had carnival-style games set up around the gym for the kids to play and win prizes. There was a cake walk, candy corn catch, eyeball bounce, pin-the-wart-on-the-witch, doughnut on a string, and pie-eating contests. After games we had our trunk-or-treat outside. I think everyone had a great time, and even though I was exhausted, I was happy to put on such a great party. My fabulous in-laws came and helped me set up and supervised Patrick during the party and even took him home with them to spend the night, which was the most helpful thing in the world. They are great!
I don't have any costume pictures, sorry, but maybe next year when I don't have a party to plan. We had originally planned on being a family of deadly ninjas, but the costumes were not working out for me, and so Patrick was Mickey Mouse, I ran out of time for a costume, and Reed came as the ward activity director's husband, which was actually really funny because he scribble marker all over himself and put band aids on and pinned a to-do list on his apron.
Patrick is great. He is pushing limits a little more now, but thankfully tantrums don't last very long. Of course, he still has lots of sweet and silly moments. He frequently requests toast for breakfast, and he likes to eat the jam by itself, and one morning he had some on his chin for like 10 minutes and I finally had Reed get the camera and take a picture of it.
Another morning we had pancakes with strawberry jam and whipped cream. Long ago, Grandma Haight taught Patrick how to eat whipped cream our of can, and now it is his absolute favorite. I couldn't quite capture the look he gets when he tries to open his mouth as wide as he can. Quite funny.
Patrick still loves books. If anybody is dying to get him a Christmas gift, books would be great. He is just starting to read the books out loud when he is by himself. This particular time he was looking at an animal book and telling me, "rhinos splash in the mud." I love that he loves books. His vocabulary has gotten quite large, it seems. He is in the phase now where he repeats everything that we say, which is still cute, for now. He is up to 3-4 word sentences, and most of the time we can understand what he wants. Unfortunately for him, just because we can understand him, doesn't mean his always gets what he wants.
One of the best parts of last month was our anniversary! We hit the big 5-year mark this year. How is it that that can seen really long and not long at all, all at the same time? The actual night of our anniversary we were busy with school, but we snuck our for a quick dinner and some free ice cream at Pinkberry, which is a very unique frozen yogurt place. They had free sample of their new flavor, pumpkin spice, just for our anniversary. How nice of them. The following weekend we were able to go our to a movie and lunch by ourselves. (Can I just say that I love the matinée, because we were able to get two tickets for $9, which is less than one regular ticket!) We have had a fabulous five years, and I know that the next five will be even better!
Sorry if you had to take a bathroom break in the middle of reading this post, but I think I have pretty much caught up. Here's to remembering my camera and trying to post more frequently during this busy holiday season!
He was excited to open this BIG box from Grandma and Grandpa Haight. 
Two big tractors! So much fun to push around!
Patrick got tired about half way through opening the presents!
Deodorant from Mom!
Patrick LOVED the $1 animals from Walmart. That's why all the pictures are blurry--he wouldn't stand still with them! He got an elephant, giraffe, zebra, lion and tiger.
Here Patrick was eating some beef jerky (from Mommy's stocking). He chewed a piece for a minute, spit it out on the table, decided to feed it to his lion, and then ate it out of the lion's mouth. We have a funny kid.
Daddy's favorite gift this year was the Star Wars Trilogy (Eps 4-6) and this was Patrick's first introduction to Star Wars. He was mesmerized.
We had a very nice Christmas, and we hope everyone else did too!
