Halloween

For Halloween Parker dressed up as Barcelona's star soccer player, Lionel Messi, who happens to be David's favorite soccer player.

Although trick-or-treating with his friends was fun, Parker's favorite thing about Halloween was the plastic jack-o-lantern he used to collect candy. He wasn't too interested in the candy, but he does love using it to transport his cars around the house.

 

 
 

Pumpkin Patch

 

 

 

 

Sun, Sand, and Surf

 

To celebrate Sarah's early 30th birthday we took a much anticipated Johnson-Totten family trip to the beach. We were a little nervous about what the weather would be like on the Washington coast in October, but we really lucked out. While it wasn't necessarily warm (see Parker in his stocking cap) it was sunny and dry for most of the trip.

 

 

For some reason, Matt is obsessed with digging holes and putting the kids in them. I predict that we'll have many more pictures with kids in holes throughout the years to come. Oddly enough, Parker thought it was great fun to be in the hole. He did not enjoy the water, though. He really wanted to walk down to it, but as soon as it would come near his feet he totally freaked out. Just another way he takes after Olive.

 

 

That's right Parker, Matt is hilarious! You laugh now, but you're going to be in that hole you're helping him with in a minute.

 

We took a little drive to Cape Disappointment and its lighthouse - a bit windy, but beautiful! 

 

  

Yep, that's my kid putting his cars in a perfect line. David is worried about OCD, but I keep telling him there's nothing wrong with being organized.

Parker the Baker

 

One of Parker's favorite and most frequent breakfasts includes a muffin. Up until now, I've made the muffins on my own while Parker naps, but today Parker helped me. He thought it was very fun to dump the different ingredients into the bowl and stir them up. He actually probably stirred them for a good 15 minutes. Every time I asked him if he was done stirring he pushed my hand away. It's a good thing these muffins are more appropriately called pumpkin cups and they use oatmeal instead of flour because otherwise I'm pretty sure this batch of muffins would be fairly tough after all that stirring.

Cuddles

 

One of Parker's new favorite things to do is to play and cuddle with his assortment of stuffed animals. Sometimes he pulls out a blanket and sets them all up on it like they're having a little circle time together. Sometimes he piles them all up and rolls around in them, which he refers to as "cuddles". Sometimes he insists that each family member has his or her own dog to "cuddles". In this case, Parker is in charge of handing the dogs out to each person. It has soon become clear that when we are each cuddling with a dog, we get the same one every time. Parker always gets the dog he sleeps with at night, which he calls Brown Dog. Treva always gets the biggest dog, which Parker calls Black Dog. And David is always handed the tiny little dog, which at this point doesn't have a name. Parker then proceeds to use his dog to act out all the different things he knows dogs do. He makes his dog pant, he makes it lick his face and he licks it back, and he makes it bark. Apparently that is where his knowledge of dogs ends. Olive is pretty lazy so I'd be amazed if he has actually witnessed her doing more than one of these. In fact, if his knowledge of dogs in based on Olive, the only actions he should know are sleep, eat, and bark. Either way, it's pretty cute.

Hi guys! This is my new bike!