they're here!

chet cut the last loop off of his paper chain countdown, first thing saturday morning.

and that meant no more sleeps until grandma and grandpa arrived!

unfortunately, grandma and grandpa didn't arrive until dinner time.

so it was a looong day of waiting for little mr. chet.

and being patient is so hard. especially when you are 3.

but grandma and grandpa are just as fantastic as chet remembered, so they were well worth the wait.

that night, we introduced the leavitt's to chick-fil-a... which may have been a bad idea!

we found ourselves back there on monday, indulging in more cookie's & cream shakes.

on sunday, we played hookie from church.

it was stake conference for us so we felt justified in skipping out.

[as justified as one can feel, skipping out on church, i suppose.]

we headed to the temple instead.

we walked around the grounds and explored the visitors center.

you could spend all day at that visitors center. it has so many things to do.

after the temple, we moseyed on over to matt's work site at UCLA.

the leavitt's were excited to see where matt spends his days. and matt was excited to show them.

what matt does seems so overwhelmingly complicated to me.

i'm always fascinated when i get a glimpse of it.

turns out matt isn't just nice to look at it.. he is a smarty pants too!

we have already done a ton of fun things with maralyn and larry.

and we leave for san diego in the morning to do even more!

woohoo!

chet and holden are absolutely in love with their grandparents.

it is so fun to see.

matt and i were dying as we watched holden laughing hysterically at larry after dinner tonight.

and my heart melts when i listen to maralyn singing and reading to chet.

i swear, chet would sing and read all day, if he could.

maralyn knows all the best songs and stories. and she never turns down chet's requests to hear one.

matt and i agree that both our parents make super grandparents.

pre-halloween

i spent an embarrassing amount of time standing in the halloween treat aisles at target last week.

my plan to quickly run in and grab treats for our ward's trunk-or-treat were sabotaged by the unbelievable amount of treat options.

i literally laughed to myself as i watched about 10 other people painlessly pick their treats, and move on to more important shopping items, while i stood there stressing over all my options.
and i honestly found myself asking my 3-year-old, 'why is this so hard?!'

typical pam.

sugary treats.

chocolatey treats.

the "cheapest treats" [as per my husbands suggestion].

healthy 'treats'.

toys?

lots of little bags.

or 1 enormous bag.

something i like, incase we have left overs.

something i don't like.. incase we have left overs.

i finally decided on our treats. 30 minutes later.

and i handed them out in the pitch dark, to kids who didn't even care what i was giving them.

ugh.

i really need to work on my decisiveness

chet was my helper in the treat choosing process.

so, in the end, he had a sense of attachment to our 1 large bag of decently priced, not healthy, chocolatey and sugary assorted treats.

[that we did not have any leftovers of].

so it was confusing for him when i was pouring the treats into a bowl for the trunk-or-treat.

he thought that giving away our candy was a terrible idea.

me: we buy treats to give to kids. and those kids buy treats to give to us.

chet: [staring blankly]

me: ya... i know... it's a weird holiday...

it really is a weird holiday!

we will be in san diego on halloween this year.

we plan on finding some where to trick or treat. briefly.

but, in case we don't find any where great to go, we at least got to have fun celebrating halloween at our ward's trunk-or-treat this weekend.

well, some of us had fun..

holden thought it was all a little overwhelming.

lots of kids. lots of noise. lots of creepy masks.

chet actually wasn't super fond of the masked children either.

totally understandable.

but, we still had fun visiting with friends, playing games, and collecting candy.

our ward had all the kids parade around the gym in their costumes that night.

i think that was my favorite part of the night.

chet took the parade very seriously!

our boys were wreck-it ralph and fix-it felix this year.

we had most of the supplies we needed for the costumes already. so they were easy and cheap.
[the hardest part was finding overalls for holden we ended up squeezing him into a pair that is size '6 month']

in the end, they turned out better then i had ever hoped they'd be.

chet got lots of compliments on his costume. you could tell he was proud of it.

i loved their costumes this year. i think we rocked it.

go team matt & pam!

if you haven't seen the movie wreck-it ralph, this is what the characters look like:

and this is what our boys looked like:

the costumes actually fit chet's and holden's personalities so well.

holden is always [unintentionally] wrecking things.

and chet is always there to worry about them.

it was a perfect match!

happy halloween!

killer whales.

5 sleeps until matt's parents come to visit!

and 11 sleeps until we get to meet shamu!

we are all very excited for both of those things.

we have a paper chain countdown so chet knows how many more times he has to go to bed before grandma and grandpa get here.

we cut off a loop every morning, when chet wakes up.

and every morning he asks if he can cut all of the loops off, instead of just one.

'well, it just doesn't work that way..'

we have also been watching some movies about killer whales to get ready for shamu.

net flix has 2 documentaries on killer whales right now.

one of the shows portrays them as very intelligent, personable creatures.

the other portrays them as... well.. killers.

we watched the 'personalable' one.

it was super boring. and the whale dies in the end.

or, should i say, the dolphin dies in the end.

because, according to that documentary, killer whales are actually dolphins.

very confusing.

despite the lack of excitement, chet watched every minute of that show.

he thinks he loves shamu now.

but we're pretty sure chet will be terrified of shamu when we actually get to see him!

holden definitely will be!

either way, matt and i are still excited.

i've never been to sea world before.

i've never been to san diego, actually.

i hope to get to see the san diego temple while we are there.

as if that isn't everyones favorite temple. it's so pretty.

i was supposed to get married there. according to my childhood dreams.

oh well. cardston worked out pretty well for me.

it's hard to go wrong, when you are marrying such a stud.

[feel free to send me any other ideas of things to to in san diego.]

holden grew up this past week. again.

he got 2 new teeth.

now he has a total of 6.

he also started calling a banana a 'nana'.

he roars when i ask him what a lion says.
and he also likes to cuckoo every hour with our cuckoo clock.

but he never does it when i try to get him to show matt.

stinker.

healthy.

we are generally quite a healthy family, in terms of sicknesses.

we hardly ever get sick.

and i am really grateful for that.

i don't beleive that it is just by chance that we are healthy, though.

chet insists on saying every prayer in our home. every. one.

and, in every one of those prayers, chet asks for us to be healthy.

it is always his first order of business when praying.

if matt or i get the opportunity to pray, chet insists we start our prayers the same way.

'dear heavenly father. please help us to be healthy...'

if we don't, we get in trouble. and we start over.

[chet has issues!]

i'm not sure where he got the fascination with being healthy, but i will never turn down a prayer that asks for our good health.

...especially after dealing with 2 not-healthy kids these past 2 days.

ugh.

there was so much whining. and amounts of snot that were nothing short of a miracle.

i definitely prefer not-sick kids.

so in honor of canadian thanksgiving, this past monday, i will say that i am very thankful for my happy, healthy family.

i love 'em.

i am emptying some left over pictures from my phone on here now.

these were taken sometime within the past month.

this was chet's hair pre-haircut. it was wild, but i really liked it!

true love is... when your husband carves your initials in a watermelon?

holden is - hands down - the worst human being to share a milkshake with.

sometimes we grab a family shake to share in the car, and holden gets like 90% of it.

simply because he screams like a demon child the entire time anyone else takes a turn.

well played, holden.

of all the names to write on socks..

holden's first popcorn party.

picking raspberries.

the boys and i hitched a ride out to underwood family farm yesterday.

we spent the morning out there with 4 other moms and their kids.

it was fun.

the farm is open all year round, but at halloween they have a big pumpkin festival.

and that is why we went.

the farm has a billion things to do.

i feel like we only got to see a fraction of it, so i think we need to go back again, one day.

you could feed animals, get pulled behind a tractor, ride ponies, make scarecrows, paint pumpkins, pick fruits/veggies, go on rides, do the corn maze, and so on.

it was basically all things fall & halloween.

chet's and my favorite part was picking raspberries.

and i'm assuming, if holden could talk, he would say it was his favorite part too.

holden ate a lot of raspberries while we were there!

he preferred to eat any raspberries he found, rather then collect them in our bucket!

little piggy.

it reminded me of when we lived at matt's parent's house 2 summers ago, and chet loved devouring the raspberries in larry's garden.

the only bad part about the raspberry patch was the spider webs.

because where there are spider webs, you know there are spiders.

and i don't like spiders. not one bit.

i have had spiders on the brain lately, thanks to my in-laws.

apparently, some of them heard on the news that it is tarantula mating season here in LA.

WHAT?!

that is just about the most horrifying thing i have ever heard.

i instantly wanted to do a google about 'tarantulas in LA'.

but then i remembered that, as soon as i typed the word 'tarantula' into the search bar, a giant, nasty picture of a tarantula would pop up on my screen.

and that would give my brain all sorts of ideas for nightmares.

so i just couldn't do a google.

instead, i asked all the girls that i met up with at the farm if they had ever seen a tarantula.

and they all said NEVER.

phew!

let's hope i have the same luck as them!

camberlangos.

my lovely friend, cortney, and her family were in california for a disney trip a couple weeks ago.

and, even though anaheim is on the way other side of LA from me, that sweet girl took a hotel over on our side so that we [and our kiddos] could play for a couple days!

how nice is that!?

and she even rented a car big enough to fit my boys and i in.

so we got to enjoy LA traffic together :)

what a gem!

our families are a perfect match, i swear.

cortney and i are buddies, our husbands are buddies, and our kids love each other.

[i love when that happens!]

heck, our husbands even got the same degree, from the same school!

if only we didn't live 800+ miles apart...

considering we didn't have a lot of time together, we sure had some fun.

we went to the LA zoo, we checked out the trains at travel town, and we met up at huntington beach for a beach day.

this was holden's face as he watched the giraffes.

i'm bummed cortney and i didn't get a picture together.

i guess that means she will just need to come back so we can get one!

rain.

this coming monday will mark our 6 month anniversary of living in california.

and today was the first time we have had any type of precipitation.
at all.

1 hour of rain in 6 months.
what a strange place!

a walker.

holden is officially a walker.

i have been wanting to announce this for months.

but i wanted to wait until he was reeeally walking, not just capable of walking. you know?
but i may have waited a bit too long..
because now he is so capable that he can walk around our home while kicking a soccer ball.
we may very well have a future professional soccer player in our midst.
or not.
either way, we definitely have a walker.

i would say that for the past 2 months holden has been a partial walker.

he was capable of walking, but preferred to crawl.

and with good reason. he is a wicked fast crawler.

he would surprise us with little spurts of walking 25% of the time.

then it was 50%. 75%.

and now he is at like 98%, and i am thrilled to make the official announcement:

HOLDEN IS WALKING!

it's so cute.

especially because you know he is proud of himself.

and it really is quite an accomplishment, if you think about it.

so congrats holden. we are proud of you too:)

other facts about holden:
he still only has 4 teeth.
other then the typical 'mama' and 'dada' sounds, holden's first word was..
drumroll, please.
...
whazat?
[aka: what's that?]
weird, right?
but it is clearly what he is saying.
he points to things and says 'whazat?', and then looks at you for an answer.
he does lots of baby chatting.
holden loves smoothies and milkshakes.
he loves fruit. especially watermelon and bananas.
we just cut him off from his bottle.
mostly because i'm sick of washing bottles.
and a little bit because i googled when to ditch the bottle, and we are way behind!
he throws food on the floor with the sole purpose of tank getting it.
he is really great at eating with a fork.
he makes messes. CONSTANTLY.
he spends most of church in the hall. ugh.
he will be going to nursery the very last week of the year.
it is exciting, of course. but i also find it super stressful. he's still a BABY.
he is smiley.
he thinks chet is hilarious. still. hopefully always!
he copies chet.
he couldn't care less about TV.
he likes to hit tank. repeatedly. on the head.
he likes back and head scratches.
his hair is ridiculously blonde.
if he didn't look so much like chet, i would question if he is our child.
but it would be pretty crazy that we accidentally switched TWO kids with the SAME mom.
especially when they were born in different countries.
i think he is incredibly attractive.
i think he is left handed. not sure yet.
he screams when he gets excited.
and when he is angry. but a less desirable scream.
he is a lunatic in the bathtub.
i'm shocked he hasn't had a major injury from one of the gazillion times he's ate it.
[knock on wood].
he thinks playing in the fridge is fun.
he is a sucker for a soft blanket.
he sleeps and eats like a champ.
he is a great snuggler. but only when he is in the mood.
he has turned into a perfect beach baby.
he is past the stage of eating sand, but he likes to play and get dirty.
he is a climber.
when we go to the park, the first thing he does is climb as high as he can.
he loves swings.
he likes to wrestle with matt
he likes to play with electronics. but only when they are on.
he gets angry if i hand him my phone in locked mode.
he gets so excited when matt comes home from work. it is precious.
he is busy, and silly, and handsome, and tender, and very lovable.

we love holden emmett.

soccer.

chet's soccer team is cute.

it is just a bunch of 3-year-olds who have not a clue what they are doing.

chet is pretty nervous about the whole thing.

he doesn't want us to go too far.

it's kind of frustrating because i really want him to get out there, and play, and go wild.

but then i remember that i was exactly the same way.. until i was like 20.

no, wait. i think i might still be that way.

and matt says he was the same way too.

so we were destined to have little chicken children.

but the most important thing is that he likes the idea of the team. and is excited to go.

even if his favorite part is the drink break!

because drinking out of little dixie cups is so cool.

his coach is wonderful.

coach adam.

super weird! but wonderful.

he could easily be the star of a children's TV show.

i guess that is the difference between a volunteer coach and someone whose job is coaching soccer.

they play games, and sing songs, and make believe.

and, in the end, it all teaches them soccer skills and how to be on a team.

it's neat.

2 weeks down. 8 to go.

pictures at the beach.

matt snuck away to vegas last weekend with his brother.

i don't know all the details perfectly, but matt's brother, mitch, meets up with a few friends every year for a guys reunion weekend.
this year it was in vegas.
one of mitch's friends now lives there and has ways to get lots of free stuff.
[hotels, shows, etc.]

this year matt was invited to tag along. 

and he was spoiled.
between the friend with the hookups and mitch, matt was treated to pretty much everything.
so kind.

the boys spent 1 night on the strip [at the trump].
and they spent 2 nights off the strip [at the red rock resort].

some of their activities included driving out to zions national park for an all day hike, seeing the criss angel show [matt said it was brutal], eating out, playing at the pool, and movies.

matt said he enjoyed getting away.

duh.
unfortunately, he did not take pictures while he was there.
so i can't post any.
and we will never really know what went down!

while he was away, my mom came to keep me company.

i was happy that she could come to help me.

all weekend holden was having major teething troubles, chet was being a stubborn 3-year-old, and i felt like all the patience in the world wouldn't have been enough for me to handle those 2.

she saved me!

while my mom was here she helped me get lots done.
she is mrs. productive.
she never stops. ever.
i feel like i used to be a productive person..
but lately, my life is pretty low key.
i play with my boys. lots.
and that is so great.

but it was nice to be a productive person again. even if just for a weekend!

i seem to have a hard time getting much done during the week.

matt is gone at work from 5:30am - 7:00pm. every day.
and that means our car is gone then, too.
i try to run my errands via stroller.

but i can only shove so many groceries into a stroller that already has 2 kids.
and i have a limit of how far i am willing to walk!
call me lazy if you want, but i hate getting myself stuck several miles away from home with 2 grouchy children.
that's the worst. 

so sometimes my 'weekend' errands really stack up.
especially when we choose to play all saturday, rather then be productive.
and then those errands carry on to the next weekend. and the next.
sometimes it gets ugly!
you'd think we would learn..

my mom helped me get on top of my to-do list.
i got stocked up on groceries.
we she filled my freezer with tasty meals.
i got some supplies that i have been wanting for young womens.

she helped me find a new kitchen table, bring it home, and re-paint our old chairs to match.

she cut all my boys' crazy long hair, and she fixed my nasty roots.

she helped me get chet to his first soccer game. on time. no tears.

when matt came home, she took some family pictures of us at the beach.

she even let me get out of the house without kids a couple times!

and the list goes on. and on.

we also found time to play.

we went to the pool, the park, and the beach.

we had fun. my mom is super.

the worst part of her visit was when she left.
i was sad to see her go, of course.
but chet was absolutely heartbroken as he watched his grandma walk away from our front door.
and it killed me. 
i held him as he sobbed and begged my mom, 'don't go! don't go!'.
it was a long, sad day after that. lots of tears and cuddles.
he is old enough now to get that his oh-so-special grandparents and cousins are far away.
and that when they leave him, they aren't coming back any time soon.
it makes matt and i really sad.
and a little bit worried about how he will handle our trip up to calgary at christmas.
i'm assuming the goodbyes at the end of that trip will be just as heart-wrenching.
:(

we haven't been back to calgary since last christmas. it's wild.
a whole year away? wow.
but our flights are officially booked, and the countdown in on.
78 sleeps until we head up north!

some pictures we took before church:

and after church we went to the beach for family pictures.
we have a ridiculous amount of pictures from that outing! it's insane.
i would say the main reason for all the pictures is because my dear mother was the one behind the camera!
but, on top of that, we also had 2 kids who wanted to play at the beach.. not take pictures there.
and it was super sunny for the first bit, so everything was all shadowy.
i'm sure someone who knows how to edit pictures could fix it,
but we just kept trying until the sun wasn't so deadly.
so ya, it was definitely a process. but it was a fun one.
the beach is always fun.

i tried to just pick a few pictures from the night, but this is still a disgusting amount:

matt and i may have had really bad attitudes about taking pose-y pictures..

i like these pictures of holden too much to pick just one!

so angry!

matt pretended to eat the seaweed, and chet thought it was hilarious.

angry... again.

this is one of my favorites.. even though it's not perfect.

at least everyone is kind of cooperating!

because we have a lot of pictures like this:

and this:

silly faces..

hauling everything back to the car.

chet's post-beach strip down in the parking lot.

happens almost every time!

sand gets ev-ry-where.

and yes, i still have lots more catching up to do. i'm working on it!