Carving our pumpkin

Porter had fun helping out with carving our pumpkin tonight. Actually, he had fun eating candy and watching us do it! He did let us know that he wanted a scary jack-o-lantern face. He was surprised with what came out of the pumpkin. He kept on saying "Ewww!" and he wouldn't touch the inside! Porter approved of the finished product, though!

How cute!

Brandon decided to take some pictures of how Porter treats my belly. He loves his baby brother! As active as Porter is, he does have a soft, loving side. I love seeing this side of him. He is going to be a good big brother. I am 38 1/2 weeks, so hopefully any day we will have this baby! We are ready and waiting and we love our family!

Spooky Fantasy Trail

Porter has been loving Halloween. He loves to look at Halloween decorations. We will drive around looking for houses that are decorated and Porter will always say "more". We heard about a fantasy trail that we can walk through that is decorated for Halloween (they also decorate for Christmas). Porter loved it! There was even a Haunted Castle that we walked through and he didn't get scared. He just wanted to go through again! Porter loved the little houses he could walk through and the slides. It was a lot of fun and very family friendly!

Baby Oh Baby!

I've been meaning to post this, but haven't gotten around to it until now. I don't want to forget it, though! Throughout this pregnancy, Brandon and I have tried to involve Porter as much as possible and help him understand what is going on, even though he will only be 21 months when his baby brother is born. As my tummy has gotten bigger, Porter has started to understand that there is a baby in there. When we ask where baby Hudson is, he usually points to my belly, and occasionally he will lift up his own shirt and point to his belly. He loves to kiss my belly, (actually he gives zerbits that are really slimy, but I can't get mad). He notices other babies now and even if he hears one cry, but doesn't see it, he will say "baby!". It is so cute to see him gain an interest in babies. Brandon and I haven't known what to expect, since Porter is so young. The cutest thing happened the other day, though. Porter has a stuffed monkey that is wearing a shirt. He was playing with it, and all of the sudden he runs to me really excited yelling "baby! baby!" I looked to see what he was talking about. He had his monkey and under the monkey's shirt, he had put a small ball! I couldn't believe that he had done that! I think he knows a lot more than we sometimes give him credit for! We love you, Porter! And we can't wait to meet your baby brother!

Belly Picture

One month to go- maybe less!

Decorating/Eating Cookies

Porter decided that he wanted to eat his cookie while he was decorating it! By the time he finished decorating the cookie, it was gone! He sure thought it was fun, though.

Makin' Cookies

We made Halloween cookies at playgroup last week, and it was so much fun that I decided to do it again, with Porter's help. He helped dump the ingredients into the bowl, but he was best at licking the beater! He licked it nearly clean!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

Porter had a hard job picking out the perfect pumpkin. There were so many different pumpkins at this farm!

I told Porter this pumpkin was probably a little too big to take home!

At last, Porter found his perfect pumpkin. Little just like him!

I feel like I have a LARGE pumpkin in my belly!

The whole Hoopes clan.

The Pumpkin Farm

We went with some of our friends to a different place to pick pumpkins this year. It was a fun farm with lots of different things to do. We saw the goats first and Porter wanted to feed them. We didn't have any quarters to pay for the food, so Porter used his puppy-dog eyes and would point to his hand so we would put food in his hand! I wish I would have had a darn quarter, becuase it's not fun to say no to a toddler, especially when they are being so cute!
We found lots of big pumpkins that Porter liked to climb on.
Porter with his buddies Blake and Garrett. Of course I couldn't take the picture fast enough before Porter decided he had had enough of the picture taking!

Enjoying the last days of Summer

Okay, first of all, I need to apologize for not keeping my blog updated. We've just had a lot going on lately, but I know there are really no excuses. Well, here's our update. This fall has been beautiful so far. The end of September felt more like August. We went swimming and then the next day, we went to the zoo. I know too soon that the "blessed" Oregon rain is going to come and then it will never end!

The zoo had several baby animals we wanted to see. The baby pigs were so cute, but what Porter really wanted to see was the baby elephant. We have been talking about the baby elephant for a long time. Porter calls elephants Achoooos! because in a book we read, the elephant sneezes! So when we got to the elephant area, he got really excited and starts saying Achooo! Achooo! It was the cutest thing!