Busy 2 Weeks

The last two weeks have been busy for us. We had Grandpa, Grandma and Aunt Stacey come stay with us for an entire week!!! (They were here for our cousin, Dane & Katherines wedding.) Caiden LOVED having them here. In fact, he and Grandpa (Ba-pa) are bust buddies. Whenever we were going somewhere, he just had to be in the same car as his Ba-Pa! We ended up doing some fun things! We went to Phoenix Zoo for his Aunt Staceys birthday and they both got to ride the carosel! What fun.

We had a yummy birthday cake for Stacey
And Stacey got to have her picture taken with the beautiful blushing bride, Katherine.
Grandma, Grandpa & Stacey left to go home to Utah just 2 days before Christmas. We have missed having their company this last week! But we got ready for Christmas and had a nice low key, quiet Christmas morning, which was nice because I had worked Christmas Eve & was exhausted when I got home @ 8:00 in the am. We opened presents & then I went to bed. Here is a picture of my two boys! One of Caidens most favorite things right now is the movie "The Polar Express." So I just HAD to get him the book for Christmas. He was excited when he saw the front cover, but didn't really care much more about it after he saw there were more presents to open.
One of his favorite presents, and the one we got the best reaction from him, was his new guitar. He has been walking around for the last two months acting like anything is either a guitar or a gun. I kid you not, this kid can imagine a stick or even a straw is a guitar. Now he has a real one to play, and he LOVES it!

Today was His SECOND Birthday!!!! I can hardly believe it has already been 2 years! He hasn't been feeling well so we just had a small little party with just the three of us. (seriously, this kid has been crying over ANYTHING and EVERYTHING all day long! He has a bad double ear infection, so I really can't blame him for not feeling well.)

His Birthday cake Before....

His birthday cake after...

All he wanted to do with the cake was to blow out the "fire" and to eat a few finger fulls of frosting. When we asked if he wanted to eat some cake, there was a resounding "NOOO!" So we didn't even bother cutting into today... Maybe tomorrow.

LET IT SNOW!!!!

On Saturday we decided to head up North to experience the fabulous snow that dropped over the week. My cousin Becky & I were going to go during the week, but we decided to make it a family affair. We started by visiting the cabin they are building with their family. There was a little sledding right next to the cabin & the boys got out to sled.

I was happily surprised to see that my son LOVED the snow!!! It was all we could do to convince him that he needed to share the sled (which wasn't even ours by the way) with his cousins.
He discovered pretty quickly how a snow ball fight works simply by watching his Dad bean his Mom with several snow balls! :)

He even tried to start a snow ball fight with his cousin Gage. Gage was not too fond of that idea.
We finally got him to share the sled! Though Jack wasn't very excited about being in the freezing cold snow. It was, afterall, about 25 degrees outside... BRRRRR!
Caiden was even adventerous enough to try the steep hill on his own! This is just the start of the hill before Dad got him lined up & let go. He was yelling "WOO-HOO!!!" the whole way down. Caiden even made a snow angel after watching me! (I did have to help him move his arms up & down however!) And of course, he just HAD to eat some of that delicious cold stuff!

We tried to get a family picture, but Caiden would have nothing to do with it. He just wanted to keep playing. This was the best shot we could get.My Husband REALLY wanted to load the bed of the truck to take snow home...So we surprised the neighborhood with a small sledding slop (seen in the very back) and introduced them all to snow ball fights. None of the kids had ever seen, let alone played, in snow before. We rang their door bells & left a big block of snow on their porch while we quietly waited & surprise attacked them when they came to the door. It was great!!!

This video is my first attempt, I really wanted to post it because I found it so halarious. Caiden layed in this pile of snow for at least 5 minutes, just swimming & digging! He was LOVING it. Hopefully it loads OK.

The last few weeks have been very busy for our family as we have been "spring cleaning" the entire house. Why? you ask. Because we have put our house on the market and will be moving (hopefully sooner than later). It is AMAZING how much clutter/junk you can collect over the years! We have filled the garbage can, gone to Goodwill & DI and taken loads to our storage unit multiple times. And I am certain that after the move, when we are unpacking things, we will ask ourselves "Why did we save this & bother packing it all the way to Utah?" Such is life I guess.

We went to dinner the other night & bought my son this cute ginger bread cookie, the only problem was that the bakery had used so much food coloring on the frosting. His lips, teeth and tongue were black for about an hour after eating it! It was hilarious. My husband even took a bite and gave our son a kiss on the forehead.

We also had the scouts over the other night helping wrap boxes for donations for charity that our ward collected at our ward Christmas party. He loves it when the cub scouts come over. He thinks he is one of the boys. He had a great time getting in the boxes & jumping up yelling "BOO!!!"

Thanksgiving

I know it has been a long time since my last blog entry, sorry about that. Life has gotten crazy.

This last weekend we (my husband & I) decided to head home to Utah for a surprise visit. We decided this on Wednesday afternoon at about 4:00 and were packed and on the road by 7:00 pm. We prefer doing the drive at night because traffic is lighter and our son sleeps most of the way there. Anyway, the drive was uneventful and we made in 11 hours, faster than we expected. The kicker of the visit was that we didn't tell our families we were coming.

My husband called his parents house while we were in the driveway at 6am. My father-in-law & sister-in-law were so kind and even talked to my son on the phone before we finally told them we weren't just calling to say hello & happy Thanksgiving. My sister-in-law did not believe that we were in the driveway, so my husband honked the horn to proove that we were in deed in Utah and parked in her driveway! They were so surprised!

Next surprise visit was to my Sisters house for Thanksgiving dinner. I had to call my Mom and ask what time everyone was meeting so we could show up after everyone was already there. We drove up and my husband ALMOST ruined the surprise by parking right in front of their house!!! I told him to move, but it was too late. My nephew had already spotted us! DARN! I stopped him from running in and telling everyone he was right, he had seen our car. As we entered the house, my Dad was sitting on the front room couch reading Time magazine, he didn't even look up when I stood at his feet for a good 20 seconds. So what did I do? I placed my 2 year old son on his lap! He looked at my son, then up at me, then back at my son and said "how did you get here?! When did you get here?!" My Mom was standing in the kitchen and still had not looked up, so I simply said "Hi Mom!" She looked at me and was speachless for I kid you not, about 5 minutes!!! It was the BEST surprise EVER! Of course my Mom tried to pin the surprise on my Dad and my brothers and refused to believe that nobody knew we were coming, heck, we didnt' even know we were coming until 15 hours prior to that time!!!! I was gonna get video of the surprise, but forgot my camera back at my in-laws house (oops).

That was our Thanksgiving weekend. My Dad & I also said up his really cool train, that my son LOVED! I did happen to capture of few photos of him with the Choo-choo.

Mother Natures Farm

Saturday afternoon we realized how fast approaching Halloween is & that we had not been to a pumpkin patch yet this year! (Sinners, I know). It turns out that just about 2 1/2 miles from our house is this cute little farm in the middle of Mesa/Gilbert. We have been there before, & decided that this would be the perfect solution to our problem, getting to a pumpkin patch without having to drive far. So we hopped in the car & drove on over. It was nothing really fancy, but we had a great time.

I think my sons favorite part was the bouncy castle. He couldn't have cared less when he was getting plowed over by the older kids! He would just pop right back up & keep bouncing & laughing.

He also learned how to say "bumpt-keen" (pumpkin) today. He LOVED the pumpkin patch. I tried MULTIPLE times to get a posed picture with the pumpkins, but believe it or not, he was actually more interested in the pumpkins than the camera!!! (He usually drops whatever he is doing to come get the camera or "cheese" as he calls it).

We had a family photo taken with a cute old tractor as well. My son also thought this was pretty cool & kept saying "vroom" & "go fassst" while sitting on it. I hope you enjoy the photos.

ZOO

Yesterday my son & I went to the Phoenix Zoo. The morning started off cool enough, only 85 @ 9:00 with a nice light breeze. The Zoo was practically empty and we had a good time. My husband bought me a zoo pass for mothers day, which is great cuz I can go for an hour or two and not feel like I just waisted $14 on the entrance fee each time we go. As you can imagine, this zoo is limited to the types of animals that can tolerate the hot Arizona climate in the summer. Today we toured the west side of the zoo which has the elephants ("funts"), turtles ("lurles"), tortoises ("yucky"), several different species of birds, orangutan and other small monkeys.

We also went to the petting zoo where my son enjoyed hanging out with the goats ("doats"). He kept hugging one in particular, its name was Brownie. Another one (not sure of its name) kept chasing him around. It was rather funny because he kept telling it "back!!!" It was a great morning!

Today we played, and ate, at our neighbors house with their 5 year old daughter. He really enjoys playing with her, though I think it is hard for her to remember that he is still a baby and doesn't quite understand how to share things yet. She plays with him very well though, and he loves her! He even had to give her a hug before coming in for bath and bedtime.

Also, here is a picture of my husband cutting into a car at his Firefighter Academy. He is having a GREAT time, though some of the tasks and tests have been difficult.

Quiet Sunday

Today was a rather uneventful day at our house, but I wanted share some photos.

After we got home from church, my son went immediately to the pantry & asked for some bread. How could I resist such a cute face!

The only thing he was interested in eating was bread and "blip."

Now, "blip" is anything that he can dip his food, fork or fingers in to eat. So he ate bread, peanut butter "blip" and honey "blip" for lunch. He was so sticky that he had to have a bath right after he finished eating.

He REALLY loves bath time at this point in time (there have been times in the not so distant past that it was not his favorite thing.) He especially loves his fireman duck.

He can tell you that the duck has a "hose" an "ax" and a "hat." I think the ducks hat is his favorite thing about bath time. He will put & pour anything he can get his hands on into the ducks hat.

We also received an email with

pictures from my husband at

his Firefighter Academy.

Long Lost Love

Last night I rediscovered my love of sewing. Several months ago I attempted to make a shower gift, a personalized hooded towel. I tried to follow the pattern of the hooded towel my husbands aunt gave me when I had my son, but my sewing machine is not top notch quality & I was unable to sew through so many layers of thick terry-cloth. The first attempt at a hooded towel worked, but not fabulously.

So this weekend I have a baby shower for a coworker who is having twin girls and I decided that I would give the hooded towel(s) another attempt. I altered the pattern slightly, getting rid of the darts that I had failingly attempted the first time, and it was a success. At least I think so, see for yourselves.

I was up until 1 am finishing the final touches (the flowers & initials). I had such a good time, except for the few glitches the sewing machine had while sewing the hoods on. I had forgotten how much I love sewing and how fun it can be, especially once you have a finished project.

Yucky

This morning I was struck by how much kids absorb and learn, even when we don't think we are teaching them. This morning we had an experience that made me laugh, cringe and freak out all at the same time. My son wanted to help take the dogs (we have two very large dogs) out for breakfast and a potty break, so I helped him poor the food and we sat on our bench in the nice (90 degree) 7 am weather while the dogs ate and did their business. After they were finished eating we all came in and as I was getting my sons breakfast ready, he decided to share something he had learned this morning. Our female dog, Roxie, was standing by my side and my son walks up right behind her, points (& touches) right below her tail, makes a scrinched face and says "YUCKY!" Needless to say, I grabbed his hand, washed it with soap and water and hand sanitizer several times before allowing him to eat his breakfast! Oh, the innocense and ignorance of little ones!!! Disgusting!

Yes, I have finally decided to start up a blog. My family & several of my friends have been posting blogs for what seems like FOREVER, and I figured it was finally time for me to join in the fun. Though I am not nearly as creative as my other family members, I figured this would be a good way to keep friends and family updated with what is going on with myself, my husband and my son. Here is a picture of my 1 1/2 yr old & I at Zions National Park in Utah over Labor Day weekend. Enjoy.