Halloween 2011

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Our Halloween activities lasted most of October this month. With our busy schedules there weren't many but what we were able to accomplish was a lot of fun. Luckily Braxton hasn't figured out the "traditions" of Halloween yet, so we weren't in too much trouble

First, we were able to continue our own tradition at Gardner Village

(unfortunately Braxton's helmet for his costume wasn't done yet so we didn't get any in his costume this year)

Braxton wasn't a fan of the witches

Anytime I set him down to take a picture and he could see one of the witches he would let me know what he thought about it!

As long as I was holding him or his hand though he was okay

Getting pictures this year was a little harder than last year. He was much more distracted with what was going on around him. We were still able to get a couple good ones though

He wasn't a fan of the hay, but he loved the pumpkins














By the end we had to bust out the crackers and try to take pictures in between the chewing - didn't do such a good job with this one!

By the end he was on pretty good terms with the witches, as long as they were doing something silly or something he really likes himself!

He even tired to throw a ball to the witch with the bat

He LOVED the hula hoop Witch - we walked by her a couple of times and he got just as excited the third and forth time as he did the first



Braxton didn't last long in his stroller so we ended up taking it back to the car half way through. After torturing him with pictures I decided to just walk around with him and let him point the way. He loved looking around at all the fun things - we even found a couple of ducks in the pond!
On our way out we stopped by the candy shop and got a little sucker to eat on our way back to the car.

Because Braxton and I were both tired and starving we decided to get some lunch on the way home so that he could go down for a nap as soon as we got home! He didn't even make it to Village Baker!

Thanks for a fun Mommy and son morning, for being such a good boy and being so patient with mom and her CRAZY ideas!

The closest we got to carving pumpkins as making these cute Disney character stick ins. We made them at Grandma Hollies after Sunday dinner one night. Grandma Hollie was so smart when she bought them and she got fake pumpkins so we can get it out every year! After we got Braxton's finished he decided he wanted to comb Buzz's hair with the pumpkin scooper!

Grandma Hollie also got Braxton some Halloween window stickers. Braxton had so much fun putting them up and we spent a little while afterword looking at them. Every morning for about a week after when we got Brax out of bed we would pull open the blinds and point to all the characters and then at night when it was time for bed we would say good night to them and pull the blinds down. On the days we didn't get the blinds open, when we would change his diaper on his changing pad he would pull the blinds out to look up at them! What a cute, fun idea! Braxton has loved it.

The weened before Halloween was full of parties and fun. Friday night (10/28) we went to Grandma Hollies ward Chili Cook-off and Trunk-or-Treat. I haven't ever been to a Trunk-or-Treat before and it was so much fun to see all the creatively decorated trunks! Braxton caught on pretty quick to the idea of sticking your bucket out to get candy. We had a very proud moment as a mom and dad that night as well - Braxton FINALLY said 'Thank you" for the first time!!! After he got his candy from each trunk we would tell him to say thank you and then both Nate and I would thank them. About half way through Braxton decided to say it with us! We were SO excited!!

Saturday night (10/29) Nate and I were supposed to go to a Halloween party with some friends but they all decided to bail so we went to Grandma Donna's ward Halloween Carnival instead for more chili and corn bread! Braxton was able to wear his costume to both parties. It was nice get some use out of it!

Sunday (10/30) was Grandma Donna's Birthday so we had my family over for her Birthday dinner, presents and dessert. We are so lucky to have been blessed with such a wonderful mother and grandma. She does so much for our little family and is such a good example to all of us. She is so good to Braxton and does so much for him. Happy Birthday mom - Thanks for everything! I don't know what we would do without you!

On Halloween, (Monday 10/31) I had some lab pass off for school so Braxton went to Grandma Hollie's for the day. She took him and Brynnlee to Grandpa Jeff's, Aunt Sami's, Aunt, Natasha's, and Aunt Trista's work for their annual Trick-or-Treating around the building. Families of the employees are invited to bring their kids dressed up and go around the cubicles to get candy. Braxton had a blast and got more candy than we know what to do with. From what I heard he used his charm to his advantage. When he would get to a pod he would warm everyone up with a couple of cute "hi's" then then point to their candy bowls and say "want some." After he got his piece he would point at their bowl again and say "some more." With the people who would hold the bowl out for him to pick one he would grab one piece and say "one" then put it in his basket, grab another one and say "two" then put it in his basket, then grab a third and say "three" and put it in his basket. (all of his numbers sound like he's saying three!) He is too smart for his own good and where in the world did he learn how to turn on the charm?!?!

Monday evening after we all got home we got together with the Gelters, Fesslers, Youngs and the Crooks. We took our little ones around our street for some Trick-or-Treating and headed back to the Gelters for some pizza and play as well as some ice cream cake and spider cupcakes! The kids had so much fun together and it was nice to have some adult time as well. Thanks for a fun Halloween evening

Our Football Player

Brax and Jackson playing football





Our Trick-or-Treating group

My handsome boys

-This year marked the 8th anniversary for our first date! I can't believe it's been 8 years. My, how time flies! Love you babe!-

- Happy Halloween -

My Resignation.......

I know it sounds weird but I have been craving blogging. I have so many more important things to blog about but they will all take a little bit of time. Time of which I don't have at the moment to be spending it on here! I have SOOO many things I need to get done today. I'm just trying to decide where to start.

I'm sitting here thinking about my ginormous list of "things to do" and all that I have coming up the next couple of weeks and starting to feel pretty overwhelmed and wondering if I can come up with a way to give us more hours in the day! Because right now, that is the only solution I can come up with! As I'm sitting here, a little upset with myself for wasting precious time on the computer I'm reminded of an e-mail I got a couple of months ago from Sami and after reading it again somehow everything is okay. So....... here's my resignation!!!

My Resignation.....

I am hereby officially tendering my

resignation as an adult. I have decided

I would like to accept the responsibilities

of an 8 year-old.

I want to go to McDonald's and

think that it's a four star restaurant.

I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud

puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.

I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them.

I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends

on a hot summer's day.

I want to return to a time when life was simple; When all you knew were colors,

multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care.

All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.

I want to think the world is fair. That everyone is honest and good.

I want to believe that anything is possible. I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.

I want to live simple. I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness and loss of loved ones.

I want want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind and making angels in the snow.

So...here's my checkbook and my car keys, my credit card bills and my 401K statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood.

And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first, cause....

"TAG! You're it."

-author unknown

How to eat an OREO

9/3/11

- Dunk it -

- Suck it -

- Bite and Repeat -

-Don't forget the occasional drink in between bites-

-I'm not sure what was on T.V. but it was obviously really interesting-

Braxton only had to watch Nate eat 1 before picking up on the proper technique!!

Bucket - O - Water

8/25/11

Nate was out BBQing some steaks one night and Braxton decided that he wanted to go out and play! I was in the kitchen getting the rest of dinner together when I looked out and saw this.......

Braxton came up with the idea all on his own! He went and found the bucket in the shed on his own and went over to the down spout on the shed to collect the water and dump it on himself - just like he does in the bathtub. He loves to use the rinse bucket when the faucet is running to catch the water and dump it on himself. I can't believe he was able to relate the dripping down spout with the running faucet and catch the water.

His face looks really red in some of the pictures. He had only been outside for about 10 minutes, it was just really hot out there. He was sunburn free though!

Fountain Fun

With summer quickly coming to an end I really wanted to do something fun with Brax. I had been feeling really guilty that we didn't get to do much with him this summer. There were many things I wanted to do but just didn't get around to it. To make myself feel better I would tell myself "He is still pretty young for most of those things and he wouldn't fully enjoy it or appreciate it. Next summer though, when he's 2 he'll be able to get around easier and probably enjoy it more." Hopefully next summer we can get around to more of my summer activities list when he is a little older and hopefully will enjoy it more.

I came up with what I thought would be a SUPER FUN afternoon activity - Running through the fountains at Gate Way! Nate was able to have his first "day off" (I say that because he never really gets a full day off without phone calls and problems) with the hiring of another estimator at M&M. Despite the phone calls it was so nice to have him home with us for 3 days!! What I thought would be so much fun was actually us persuading Braxton to let us hold him near the water. Every time we put him down he would freak out! As long as we were holding him he was okay, until the water came. Nate and I would both laugh crazy laughs and tell him how funny it was and joke about it getting us wet. The joking around warmed Brax up to the idea a little bit but not as much as I would have liked. There were lots of other kids running around and he was really interested in watching them to see what they were doing. We decided that next time we go we need to bring along some little friends for him to run around with - I think he would have enjoyed it a lot more if he had little friends who he is comfortable with to get wet with.

After our attempt at the fountain we stopped by the T-mobile store to get a Sim card for my phone..... STORY TIME ..... My previous phone was not working. The screen would freeze. My phone would randomly drop calls and shut off. I was getting really frustrated so we sent it in for a new one. Well, Nate usually sets up my new phones for me but he was really busy with stuff when I finally got it and 2 or 3 days later I decided to take it upon myself to switch out the phones and get my now old phone ready to send back. A couple of days later Nate took the box with my old phone to the UPS store and all was well - so I thought. I didn't know that when you get a new replacement phone it doesn't come with a Sim card. You have to take the card out of your old phone and actually place it in the new one. To be honest with you, I didn't even know my phone had a Sim card! Needless to say, I lost all my pictures and I wasn't able to take any new ones with my replacement phone until I got a card. I wasn't a huge deal. I don't use the camera on my phone all that often - except when I want to send a picture of Braxton to Grandma or Dad or when Nate is at the hardware store and needs to buy something identical to something we have at home and he wants me to sent a picture to him of what it looks like. I would get a little frustrated on the rare occasion that I did want to take a picture and the screen would say - please insert Sim card. I would be frustrated because I wasn't able to take a picture I wanted to and also because every time it reminded me of who silly I was to send my Sim card back with my old phone!!!! And that's why we got a Sim card for my phone ...... Okay, story time over!

We then hit up Leatherby's for lunch - mainly for the ice cream after our lunch of course! Nate learned on this day that Leatherby's got rid of their Banana Nut ice cream! He was devastated. Every time we have ever gone to Leatherby's for as long as I can remember (and we've know each other for almost 8 years) he would always get Mandy's Milkshake with Banana Nut ice cream. I think he ended up getting a small dish of something to drown his sorrows in. I can't remember which flavor he ended up going with though.

Needless to say our day didn't turn out quite like we had planned but despite all of our "disappointments" it turned out to be a really nice day being able to all be together!

Getting Ready to Go

Braxton's 1st experience with the fountain was the mister - probably a good thing

He spent a lot of his time looking in the holes, waiting for water to come out

Not quite sure what to think

Mom decided to give it a try

It didn't last long before he wanted "Dada" again

He got sprayed right in the face a couple of times - after he would say "eye, eye, eye" and rub his eyes!


Wait for it....

He especially didn't like being sprayed while he was all alone on the ground

My boy is such a people watcher - just like his mom

Considering how done and tired he was at the end he was still in really good spirits

~Thanks for humoring mom bud and at giving it a fare shot! I love you~