Halloween!

This year we had an awesome Halloween!  Halloween fell on a Saturday and there was no school on Friday (due to end of term) so James and I were able to spend Halloween Eve at my parent's house carving pumpkins and prepping my dad's graveyard with my little sister Laura and my two cousins Alexis and Samuel (who live in the top half of the house I'm currently living in).  Although pumpkin carving is a standard tradition for many families during the Halloween season my family takes it to a whole new level.  We carved over 25 pumpkins this year!  My mom keeps a folder full of cutout patterns of the best pumpkins from past years.  My dad takes halloween very seriously so the pumpkins have to be carved at a higher level of quality than many carved pumpkins.  We were carving from about 11 am until 8 pm!  (We didn't carve straight through the entire time but when all was said and done there was pumpkin goo all over my moms kitchen for most of the day).  James insisted on carving his own pumpkin (since everyone was carving their own).  My family uses official pumpkin carvers rather than knives so there was no threat of him damaging himself with a knife.  As you can see from the pictures he took it very seriously and tried his hardest to do it unaided.

When James and I had finished with our part of the pumpkin carving we went outside to take some daytime pictures of my dad's graveyard.  He has been doing his graveyard since I was tiny and every year he works to make it better than the past year.  He spends hundreds on new dead dummies, candles, fog machines, glow sticks, scarecrows, and about any other thing he can find that works in an outdoor graveyard.  For what it's worth his house is the busiest on the street and we often get people who drive to our house specifically.  James loved taking pictures in the graveyard.  All month he's been seeing the graveyard slowly be put up and come to be and he is obsessed with "wow-ween" as he calls it.

On Halloween Andrew worked at the Rio Tinto stadium from 12pm until 4pm so and I spent the day (again) at my parents.  We were actually able to finish the Sleepy Hollow scarecrow (from Tim Burton's movie) that my dad has been wanting since he first saw the movie.  It was quite a pain and we came pretty close to zero hour but I think it turned out great.  At the very least my dad was happy with it.  At about 5pm we took pictures with our trick-or-treating group (consisting of a few of my cousins, some neighbors, and the "help" for around my dad's graveyard).  James was Batman this year (I figured he would love having a cape... which he did... and does...)  I sewed the costume myself but I think it turned out pretty good.  The fact that he is an adorable 2 year old helped. 

James really got into this trick-or-treating ritual.  He refused to let me push him in the stroller for the first couple hours and insisted on running from doorstep to doorstep.  He'd run up totally excited and yell "treat-treat" and knock on the door.  He also very faithfully said "Dank-do" after each candy "gift".  He got twice as much as everyone else more than once since he was so stinking cute!  Eventually he wore out enough he'd allow me to push him but it took awhile for the energetic, over-excited 2 year old to get tired enough to need a ride.

All said and done he got over two and a half pounds of candy.  Mom was happy! (as was daddy).  More candy for us!  I also stole candy for the prize calendar countdown to Christmas my family does (once the house is cleaned you get to open a small present that hangs on a countdown calendar).   He still has a bunch to eat now though.  We went home late and James went to bed.  Andrew and I were able to unwind to the thrilling Halloween classic "Ghostbusters".  All and all a good night.

Hope you enjoy the pics!

Catching Up...

It has been way too long since I updated this blog! I will try to do a Reader's Digest condensed update for all of you.

February 12-16 we went to Phoenix to attend a surprise birthday party for Andrew's Aunt Kathy. I was really excited to get a break from Salt Lake (especially since it was February) and get some sun and warmth. I was a little worried about spending so much time with Andrew's family in Phoenix since I'd barely met any of them but it ended up being great! Will and Kathy and their kids are awesome! They helped us feel more than at home in their fabulous home in Scottsdale.

Andrew got to work at the American Express campus on Friday and had a great time visiting with his co-worker Deb. James and I had fun shopping that morning and met up with Andrew and Deb for lunch. That night was Kathy's party and we spent the afternoon helping with clean-up, set-up, and decorating for the party. When the party finally arrived we enjoyed food, music, dancing, great company, and a very excited and happy Aunt Kathy. Needless to say we all were very excited to get to bed after such a fun-packed day!

The rest of the weekend was equally enjoyable. We spent a bunch of time just talking and watching movies, I got in some knitting, we went on walks, we found an awesome park for James to play at, Will and Kathy took us to lunch one day, and Andrew was even able to help ordain his cousin Taylor to be an Elder that Sunday in church (the rest of the church block we spent in nursery helping Will and Kathy with their amazingly well behaved class). It was a lovely weekend and we were all sad for it to end and for us to have to return home.

March 25-30 we went on a vacation with my family (meaning my Mom and Dad, sisters Melissa and Laura, and my brother Robbie) to sunny California and Disneyland! Since my brother is leaving on a mission on June 2nd we decided we wanted to go on a big vacation somewhere exciting (preferably with water). California it was! We spent the majority of our time in Disneyland and we all had a blast. James' first ride in the park was Pirates of the Caribbean followed by Haunted Mansion (a good start if you ask me). He loved the Bugs Life area in California Adventure (especially the water section in the heat of the day) and any ride with a steering wheel and he was completely awestruck on It's a Small World. He didn't quite understand the concept of waiting in line but somehow always figured out a way to entertain himself (either by hanging on someone, climbing on the railings, being cute to attract the attention of other line waiting people, etc.) We decided to pick a hotel that was close to the park so we could walk in and not have to worry about paying for parking. Our hotel was right across the street from the park... and it took us almost a half hour every day to hike in. I guess that's the joy of a big amusement park. Across the street doesn't mean its close.

Friday (Robbie's 19th Birthday) after most of a full day at the park, we met up with my dad's cousin Debbie, her boyfriend Steve, and her daughter Lisa for dinner. We LOVE seeing Debbie and Lisa and were really excited to meet Steve who we'd heard so much about. They took us to Buca di Beppo (AMAZING!) and afterward we went to their apartment to play with Steve's telescope and talk some more. We met their adorable dogs Smooch and Baby. Smooch (a russell terrier) was adorable and James got to play fetch with him all night. Baby (a pit bull mix) was sweet and nice too.

Saturday we went to the beach! James played in the ocean until he was blue (and even then didn't want to stop). After he had dried off, James played with Andrew and Robbie in the sand (I was busy playing like a giddy ten year old in the ocean still). I found a bunch of sea shells (even a whole sand dollar), we all got some sun, and we ate amazing ice cream sandwiches. It was awesome! That evening, after we had cleaned up at the hotel, we went back to Disneyland and bought some souveniers and watched the firework show. (This was my mom's turn to be as excited as a ten year old!)

Sunday we headed home and sadly watched the temperature drop 40 degrees within a period of one hour! We spent sunday night in Cedar City at my Grandparent's and got home monday!

Easter was a fun ordeal for us this year too! We got a wonderful Easter basket for James from Dave and Angela full of trucks, trains, and a puppy! I gave Andrew Yes Man and he got me a fun new Easter shirt! We had a great time at Dave and Ang's for their annual Easter pot luck and egg hunt. We ate so much food we nearly burst and James loved finding the Easter eggs. His favorite eggs were the huge decorative ones they had out for decorations! I knit James a sweater vest for his Easter outfit (to go with a shirt he had from the Children's Place.) He looked AWESOME and I had the satisfaction of knowing I made it!

Well, this is only a very VERY brief depiction of the past few months. I chose to spotlight the big events but we did more than travel. All in all, life is great! We are happy! Sorry it took so long to post!

Random Family Pics

Everyone be very amazed. Getting a picture of Andrew is about as hard as photographing wild zebras in Utah and getting one with him facing the camera is even harder but I did it! This is my darling hubby with his hippy hair. Isn't he cute?

These next few pictures are of my biggest helper. James has decided he loves to clean with mommy (which means he steals all of my brooms, dusters, and mops and sits or stands directly in front of me so I can not get any cleaning done). We've found that the swiffer works best for him since it's small enough he can actually handle it. The mop and broom and still a bit to big. I'm sure that about the time he is actually able to really help cleaning he will have decided cleaning is no longer fun so I guess I should enjoy this while it lasts!

James is sure my buddy. I'm lucky to be able to be home with such a happy 1 year old every day. The conversations are usually one-sided (meaning either I am talking to James and he ignores me and keeps playing or he jabbers to me in some baby dialect I cannot understand). Luckily James is learning new words all the time. His current vocab list is: puppy (his favorite word), hi, mama, dada, baby, wawa (Aunt Laura), obbie (Uncle Robbie), Gama (Grandma), Gama (Grandpa- he hasn't quite figured out how to work in the p), mo (more- which is always doubled with a pointing finger and applies to anything he sees or wants), dit-do (thank you- he is very good at being grateful), bah (bonk- he says this anytime he falls or hits his head), no, and his latest word is bye which he loudly proclaims to anyone who puts on a jacket or coat or heads toward a door. My poor sister Melissa doesn't have a name easy enough for James to say so for the present she is nameless to James (Andrew is trying to convince James to call her Auntie Poop-poop... Melissa doesn't approve).

Christmas!

Christmas was awesome this year. Andrew and I were very grateful to have our own place to celebrate Christmas in this year (unlike last year when we were homeless). We spent Christmas Eve very busy (as usual). We started Christmas Eve off with going to my Damewood grandparent's house in Layton. Since Andrew had to work Christmas Eve we arrived in Layton around 3:00. We had a lovely time visiting my Dad's side of the family and we all got some fun presents. We then hurried to Andrew's parent's church where the Hillers werer meeting for their Christmas Eve get together. There we had still some more food and even more presents. James loved being able to run around the gym and play with his cousins! I was excited because I got to choose some pottery items that Andrew's mom had made that are now being proudly displayed in our home (and at Andrew's

desk at work). Thank you Holly! After the Hiller's party we went home and all had a lovely night's rest.

Christmas morning we wound up waking James up so we could do our own personal Christmas morning before we headed off to my parents to join in theirs. James was a little disgruntled at first but when he discovered he could touch the Christmas presents under the tree I had been telling him all season he couldn't he was pretty happy. He really liked the remote control truck he got and his new Little People toys. Andrew was excited with his gun safe and tools (sounds like the lamest Christmas imaginable to me though) and I was so happy to finally have some new and cute clothes and shoes!

Christmas at my parents was fun too. Still more presents, tons of great food, and more people to help me watch James. Although we usually go to Andrew's Hiller grandparent's house Christmas afternoon, Grandma Bonnie decided to cancel due to "bad" weather. When the weather wound up being far worse the day after Christmas when she had her get together she felt really bad. Andrew and I discovered first-hand just how bad the roads were the night of the 26th when we spun out of control on the freeway on our way home from Grandma Bonnie's. We covered all four lanes of traffic and spun around at least 4 or 5 times. Miraculously we didn't hit anything or anyone and were able to drive home moments after our "incident". Boy did it give us a scare though.