Happy Halloween!

The Pumpkin Dik family - Dad, Mom, Eli, & Silas.

When we were carving the pumpkins, Eli was watching Bryan carve the big daddy pumpkin and said, "Dad, God is sad because you made your pumpkin have a mean face!" And then Eli wanted his pumpkin to have a sad face.

Eli the firefighter and Silas the doggie

Here is the group of neighbor kids that went trick-or-treating together: Eli, Will the power ranger, Silas, Savannah the turtle, and Tristan the construction worker.

Eli really had fun this year and enjoyed yelling, "trick-or-treat!"

Silas had a blast, too. He kept touching his head and saying, "I'm a doggie!" He carried his little pumpkin full of candy the whole time and was the kid to go up and knock on the door. Most of the time he said, "welcome" instead of "thank you" after he was given candy. Close enough!

Here is the pumpkin Eli picked from the pumpkin patch when he went on his school fieldtrip. He wrote his name on the pumpkin, and then Mom carved it out. Eli also wanted me to carve the planet Saturn next to his name--I did my best (it wasn't easy)!

Firefighter Eli with his "Eli pumpkin" after trick-or-treating-- already sucking on a lollipop!

Silas and Mommy

Silas and his "baby pumpkin"

Eli and Daddy

Having fun with art & music

Lately the boys have been spending a lot of time drawing on their doodles and coloring pictures with their markers. It's fun to see what they come up with!

Here is Silas drawing "numbers" on his doodle. Notice he is using his right hand in this photo. We haven't been able to determine which hand is his dominant one yet. And yes, he is coloring on the toilet. I was getting ready for the day, and he wanted to be in the same room with me!

Here is one of Silas's masterpieces using the medium of color wonder markers and paper. He has entitled this, "Turtles in Outer Space." He used his left hand to draw this picture.

The boys are really into music and instruments lately. They checked out a video from the library that introduces all different musical instruments. They love to gather all of their toy instruments - drum set, xylophone, tamborine, maracas, harmonica, and lots of other toys they pretend are instruments - and have a jam session. When we watch the video together, I will say things like, "Did you know that Mommy used to play the french horn?" Or, "Daddy used to play the trumpet." Now Eli likes to tell me things like, "Mom, I used to play the timpani." Or, "I used to the play the recorder." We had the fun opportunity to go to a high school football game on Friday night--mostly to watch 2 high school friends of ours (Rachel and Ana) playing in the marching band. The boys enjoyed dancing to the music and pointing out the various instruments they recognized. Rachel even let Eli beat on her drums!

Here is Eli being a goof-ball. He was cracking himself up by trying on Bryan's hat sideways and putting on my glasses.

In this photo Eli said to me, "I'm Daddy. And I'm cool."

Here is Silas asking me to look at photos of himself on the camera. (Yes, I know, he REALLY needs a haircut! If I don't constantly brush his bangs out of his face, the poor kid has trouble seeing!)

Update on the past two weeks (finally!)

So, it's been a while since I last posted. Part of the delay was due to some frustrating computer problems and the inability to upload photos. Technology has not been my friend lately. Hopefully this new software will work properly now! We've been spending the past couple of weeks enjoying the fall weather, having a good visit with my mom (Dianne) visiting from Michigan, and getting into the Colorado Rockies baseball team playing in the World Series.

Here are some photos and news of what we've been up to!

Eli had his "All About Me" week at preschool last week. We made a big poster that showed photos of his family and friends and told all about him and his favorite things. He was so excited to take it to school and talk about it. The teacher also tailored the week to Eli's interests. She brought out lots of toys and puzzles and games that had to do with outer space and even had "astronaut day." Eli really loved it! He brought the inflatable toy dwarf-planet Pluto to "show-and-tell" and wore his planet shirt. It was out of this world! Another story about Eli to tell involves a cute little thing I saw him do the other night. He was by himself in the bathroom looking at his reflection, and he said, "Silly kid, I love you. Bye!" And then gave himself a kiss. I burst out laughing.

Silas is talking more and more and seems to learn a new word every day. Lately he's been saying to me, "I a big boy, mommy." He is starting to use the word "big" to describe other things, too--big monkey, big apple, big chair, etc. Another funny story about Silas happened the other day when he was playing with a toy cell phone. He was walking around the house pushing a button on the phone. A recorded voice would say, "Hi there, wanna go out to play?" And Silas would say, "Yeah." And then he would push the button again, listen to the voice ask him, and say, "Yeah." And again, and again, and again. He loves repetition at this age--and I finally decided that maybe we should just go outside and play.

Here is Silas, Grandma Dianne (or Bucka, as Silas calls her), and Eli. They loved having her here and really miss her!

We went to a park to play one day while my mom was here. The boys and Grandma climbed up this hill and then rolled down it together!

We went to the Harvest Farm here in Wellington, and the boys had a ton of fun! We went through part of a huge corn maze; here is Silas going through the maze for little kids. He would have stayed there forever if we had let him!

We also went on a hayride around the farm and learned about the program the Denver Rescue Mission runs there.

The giant corn maze

Playing with kernels of corn--Eli had fun dumping a bucket-full on his head!

The boys loved the petting zoo--Eli is feeding corn to a goat. They got to get really close to some other animals too--pigs, cows, chickens, and sheep.

Daddy and Eli

Silas kept trying to pick up a pumpkin, but all the ones he tried to pick up were too heavy for him.

He finally found one just the right size!


Harvest Farm sky

The boys have been pointing out the moon in the sky and saying the phase (quarter moon, full moon, etc.) that it's in. When they saw this moon, they said, "Half moon!"

Eli's preschool class on Colorado Rockies Day! Eli is on the far right in the bottom row. Go Rockies!

"Let the little children come unto Me..."

My baby boy is growing up! This past week Silas has decided he doesn't want to sit in his high chair anymore--he wants to sit in a normal chair like the rest of the family, but his little head barely rises above the table! He also gave up his pacifier that he was extremely attached to since birth (actually we lost it, and he was forced to, but he handled it so well we were shocked!). And the other night at dinner table, he said his first Bible verse. Bryan was quizzing Eli to see if he could remember his verse he said at Awana Club the week before. This is how it went:

Bryan: "Eli, can you remember your verse? Romans 3:23?"

Eli: (silence)

Bryan: (prompting) "All..."

Eli: (silence)

Silas: "...sinned!"

Bryan and Amy: "WHAT?? Did he just say--"

Silas: "All...sinned!"

The verse is "All have sinned..."-- but I guess he's taking things in when we don't even know he's paying attention. Eli's next verse for this week was "God is love." And so both of them were saying it together. It was pretty cute. And along those lines, Eli asked Jesus into his heart this week when he and Bryan were praying together before bed. He kept saying he loved Jesus and God. It is so thrilling to see my kids learn more about God!

Some of Eli's drawings on his Doodle-Pro (which he is constantly doodling on all day long!) The first one is a clown from a Baby Einstein video they like to watch about shapes. The picture below is a house with clouds and the solar system.

Another field trip!

It was a beautiful autumn day, a perfect day for Eli and his preschool class to go on a field trip to a place called, "Something from the Farm." He and Mommy had a fabulous time--we got to go into the chicken coop and see the hens laying their eggs. Eli kept crowing like a rooster! We also went for a hayride, got lost in the corn maze, walked through a pumpkin patch, and picked flowers.

Here is Eli with the apple he got from the farm!

Some of the chickens - Eli kept calling the black one, "Eli-chicken."

The tractor that took us on our hayride. Eli was impressed by the huge wheels!

Going through the corn maze!

Eli got to pick his own pumpkin from the patch. He can't wait to carve his name into it and a jack-o-lantern face!

Silas wasn't allowed to go with us, so he had fun at home playing with a neighbor friend and her son.