It's "Poonkin" Time

We're so excited it's fall! We've been having lots of fun watching the leaves change, breaking out our sweaters and boots, and getting ready for Halloween. Rachel loves pumpkins, and I love the way she says "pumpkin", it kind of sounds like "poonkin". Mike and I giggle every time we hear her say it and refuse to correct her. She also loves anything pumpkin flavored (as evidenced by her choosing pumpkin soft-serve last time we went to an ice cream shop). I'm not a fan of pumpkin flavored anything, but we made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies a couple days ago and Rachel was over the moon about them.We're also into full swing with school now. Rachel is in first grade and Reed's in preschool and they're both loving it.

I pulled some pictures off of Mike's phone, so a couple of these are from earlier in the summer. These first couple are from when we went to a Real Salt Lake (soccer) game in August. It was HOT, but fun!

Rachel was pretending to be a ninja turtle. She made her own staff. 

Reed on the monkey bars. 

A trip to Wheeler Farm to see all the animals. I think this was just me and Reed because Rachel was in school. 

We have to go to Cornbelly's every fall - we love it! The "corn pit" is a Rachel and Reed favorite. 

Holding hands on the cow train. They did this all on their own. So cute. 

We visited Mike's grandparents a couple of Sundays ago, so here's Reed showing a toy to his great grandpa. 

Mike's work did a raffle, and the prize was getting to throw pies, water balloon, and silly string at the managers. The kids and I came to watch and they let Reed and Rachel have a go too. When I first asked Reed "Do you want to throw a pie at Daddy?", he said, "Why?" with a worried look on his face. But he soon got into the spirit. 

 This was on Reed's first day of preschool back in September. He's growing so fast!

This is Reed's "Lord Business" (from The Lego Movie). He had these legos set up like this for months and would get SO upset when they fell over. We rebuilt Lord Business soooo many times...

Finger painting. I really should have a picture of Reed doing this, because he is so into "crafts" right now. Every day he asks to do a craft, which usually includes finger painting and cutting little bits of paper and gluing them onto other pieces of paper. 

We got a bunk bed for the kids' room, and they love it!

I'm going to brag on Rachel for a minute. This girl loves reading and is doing so well with it. She's already reading at a second grade level, and reads all the time. I'm amazed at how good of a reader she is.

She also recently asked me to teach her how to type, which I wasn't sure was age-appropriate for a six year old, but her fingers are super long and can reach the keys almost as good as an adult, so we went for it. She plays typing games on the computer, and whenever she enters in a book on her school reading tracker website, she always (of her own accord) puts her fingers in the correct position to type in the book title. Love this smart girl of mine. :)

I also want to give a quick shout-out to Lynne. Hi! Just want to let you know that I read all of your comments and love the updates. I'm glad you get to see pictures and news of Reed and we're so thankful for you and your family!