Mischief Maker

Last week I thought I was just incredibly lucky that my kid was taking a 3 hour nap.

Turns out he just found a way to entertain himself quietly for a substantial period of time.

What is the shiny goop on his head you ask?  That WAS a nearly full tub of Aquaphor. 

He looks like he just burst out of his alien pod.  

I walked in and stopped dead in my tracks.  I could see white gloppy stuff over the edge of the crib closest to the door that is connected to the changing table.  And then one hand popped up and grabbed hold of the railing, followed by the other.  And this shiny little head with big glops of glop over it peered over the edge and smiled nice and big.  

My first response:  "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"  screamed silently in my head.

My second response:  Laughter.  It really was very comical.

My third response:  Cleaning this up is going to SUCK big time.

I took a wonderful little video of it all but it won't post since it's probably too long.  But just know that it was EVERYWHERE.  His sleeves plastered so much that they were transparent, his cute gray pants that I love soaked through, the railings were covered, his sheet and blankets smeared.  Glops on the floor, glops on the wall, glops galore.  

I am usually very aware of what is on the changing table and put it out of reach whenever he goes down to sleep.  I didn't even notice it when I left his room.  Points for me.

Aiden's Baptism!

My amazingly fun little nephew was baptized this November.  He actually turned 8 in August, however, he wasn't baptized until a few weeks ago because he was working on finishing the Book of Mormon.  He and his dad had been reading for quite some time and Aiden made the decision (according to his dad) to finish it first!

He is such a handsome little man!  I can still remember holding him the moment I got back from a Bear Lake trip with my then boyfriend (the hubs!) He was born while I was away and I was so mad that I went when I should have known better.  He has grown into a kid who has a wild imagination, has so much energy it's exhausting, and he loves his baby cousin Asher so much.  He dotes on him when ever they are together.  

Aiden with his mom:

Aiden with his dad: 

I wish circumstances in our family would have been better, but as it was, we were able to go and my dad was a witness and he and Paul stood in the circle to confirm him afterwards.  

I was so excited to give him my gift afterward!!  I looked and looked for ideas that would be unique but special.  I didn't know his ring size and I figured he'd probably get a CTR ring from someone, I didn't want to do those subway art picture frames I see everywhere now because I know he wouldn't have cared about that at all.  I searched for a few things and started coming across a few necklaces but they were too girly for me and too impersonal.  But then I remembered that I have a friend who has a hand-stamped jewelry business and I got on her facebook to look at some of the pictures.   I came across her hand-stamped dog tag and then {angel choir} it hit me!!!  BAM!!! Right across the face - almost.

I wanted to do a dog tag for him and engrave something meaningful about his baptism.  I looked up real Army tags to see what kind of information they put on those.  I did it as close as possible, omitting his social and blood type and instead putting in his birth date and baptism date.  

I wanted some sort of saying to tie in with the dog tags and I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head, I went to the Children's Songbook online and browsed through the topics and then suddenly...it hit me again!!! KAPOW!!   The Army of Helaman song!!!! Duh - it should have been obvious from the start.

So I had "I am a stripling warrior" engraved on the second tag.  (it was actually super cool that I was able to have the two dog tags engraved separately instead of both having to be the same - oh and I ordered it here for a stellar price from Dog Tags Online - the silencers even come free and you get to pick the color!).  See how awesome they turned out???  

I wrote him a card explaining the song and the story in the BOM of the stripling warriors and told him that he is now a warrior who will help bring the world His truth.

I was super duper pleased with my brain for putting this all together and having it be my original idea (so far as I know ha ha).  I am now going to make this a tradition for all my nephews who get baptized.   And guess what??? Aiden LOVED it!!  He was wearing it even as I saw him walk out the doors to go home :)  And now Dallin can't wait to get his.  

I'm the coolest aunt.  EVER.

All Hallows Eve 2012

This was my best year so far!  With a new {fantastic} addition on the roof, a better graveyard, and more props...my Haunted House is turning out better and better every year!  Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha.  

It's a lot of work to put up (and even worse to take down) but the middle part is sooooo worth it :)

A few pics of our home before the trick or treaters started arriving:

Isn't she a beaut????  Paul took detailed pictures of her construction process so I may do a post if I remember.  We changed the legs a bit but for the most part we did it exactly how it is found here. 

I love this dude.  Most of the time I get a kick out of the many shrieks I hear when one of the kids to get close to him.  This year however, poor cute lil' Chase set him off and was so scared he couldn't get to his mom fast enough!  I was talking to his mom, my good friend, when I saw his face turn to sheer horror and I tried to get him to his mom before he started crying too bad but...what can I say?  My house is haunted. 

I'm not gonna post pictures of the inside but it looked a lot like this - EVERYWHERE.  Lots of giant spiders, web hanging everywhere and bones gallore.

I got to tend Truman in the afternoon while Becky Lou went to work  Ash is not used to having another little person around cuz he basically just wanted to whale on poor Truman.  He got the hang of it though.  While I napped I finished most of my preps for the night.

We rung in this Halloween with Becky, Judd, Debbie and DJ and some visitors here and there throughout the night.  

We served up heart:

Injected brain: 

Witches brew: 

along with pizza, cheese bread and pumpkin hummus with pita and veggies :)  Super delish!

Truman loves lions and he has a lion thing going just like Asher has a dragon thing going so this cute little guy was a cute, I mean scarrrry, Lion and his mom and dad were Dorothy and the Scarecrow.

Asher and Truman....I love their expressions: 

HA HA!!!!   'Im gonna eat you!' says the drunk dragon.  'Nooooooooooo - I won't let you' says the courageous lion!

Our little family of medieval times. I loved this year's costumes!!  We participated in a trunk or treat earlier in the month and our costumes hadn't arrived yet (except for Asher's) so I was sad we only got to wear them once.  

I love this picture! 

Paul makes a super sexy knight, if I do say so myself!! 

Asher thought he got away with raiding the stash...not under this Mama's house! 

Men in tights...and tennis skirts: 

Me and my fire-breathing three-headed dragon:

And knight come to slay the dragon!!!  or the dragon to eat the knight... 

Me and Deb (I mean Black Widow!).  

Playing games later that night...Asher crawled up into Judd's lap - I thought it was so cute. 

It also occurred to me that since my costume was officially Ravenna off Snow White and the Huntsman, wasn't she supposed to eat Snow White's heart?? Why yes she was and I just happened to have one handy: 

I didn't really eat it though. It basically fell apart in my hands and looked disgusting.  

It was a great night - I was SO happy about the weather!!!!  It needs to be like that every year! - and my friends it made it so much fun.  I love having a reason to have a party!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!!

I told Paul last night I'm actually lying.  The most wonderful time of the year, for me, is not really Halloween.  Not Christmas, either.  It's the summer.  It's as soon as we get the last snow shower and the cold winds are gone and it's time to plant, cultivate and grow!  But alas...that time has grown to a close once again so it's now the SECOND most wonderful time of the year!!!  

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!!

Part 1 of Halloween was taking Ash to the pumpkin patch for his second pumpkin picking with Grandma and Dad got to come along this time, too!  It was nice and sunny until we got there and then the snow started falling and the cold came.  So that sucked a lot.  Oh and then fifteen minutes after we left, it stopped snowing and the sun came back out.  How's that for bad timing?

We picked Ash out this cute lil' warty pumpkin!  

And he basically thought it was a ball and wanted to keep throwing it :)

We all came together to carve our pumpkins and enjoy my mom's amazing stew in bread bowls.

This is Gaven.  You think it would be hard to tell behind all that hair but, alas, tis the hair that gives him away:

Paul is the pumpkin gutter and I am the pumpkin carver - here is our awesome design pre-carved.

Bronsynn's using some back muscle on that thing and Sam is trying to get out of the picture...she did not succeed.

Paul also took on the task of separating out the pumpkin seeds.  It is a daunting task that I never take part of.

At some point, of course when we all had our hands full of gross stuff, Asher found the remote and started flipping channels.  Apparently he's a fan of Family Guy.

This is how Gaven responds to my mom when she says 'Put your heads together - I want a picture!"

My lil' baby helping me out with the art.

Annnnnnnnnd also helping us out to a view of his cute crack!

So was not in the mood to carve anymore.  Besides I needed a pumpkin to stick turkey feathers in later that's not full of holes.

And the end process!!!  Considerably less pumpkins than most years but that's okay - one day things will get back to normal :)  Until then....check out that sickness!!

Gav and my mom made Apple Pie Apples much like Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  They were delicious and addicting and I may have had too much.