arrrrrrt

When you ask Aiden what a pirate says, he crinkles his little eyes into a sinister sneer and growls, "ARRRRRRT" .  Close enough.  Mister is a pirate this year for Halloween and last year, when he was Curious George, we went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden for a Halloween trick-or-treat amongst the dinosaurs.  So, this year, we packed up some of his favorite people, donned his best pirate outfit, and headed out.  Check it out...

Breanna was a trooper and dressed up

Ghost Pirate? You decide

The whole gang... Shiree, Breanna, Aiden, Kelle, Jessica and Taylor

Waiting to get in.  Whoa Breanna... Crusty face...

Doin' the sexy pose

Beautiful and Funny

My beautiful mother's birthday was Monday.  The hillside above her grave was beautiful.  Very, very beautiful. I understand why my mother loved having a birthday in October.  Her birthday is always in the most beautiful week of the entire year.  The hillside is always ablaze and the air is finally starting to cooperate with my sweater collection.

Monday night, my nephew and his wife welcomed a beautiful baby girl to the world.  Emma is beautiful, just beautiful.  I think that Grandma B had something to do with the 11pm delivery on her birthday.

And now... on to the funny.

Mister is hilarious.  There are so many things that he says or does that I forget to write down.  So, here is my list to myself:

• Saying:  "I believe this is the man you are looking for.... YOU BOUGHT ME!" from Tangled.  the quote is really off and it is hilarious.
• When he falls, someone else falls, or he watches some kind of accident "Oh, biff."
• When he needs help and grabs for you hand to get your attention, he always get the ring finger.  Never any other finger.  Always the ring finger.

Funny, funny kid.  I love him so so much.

Quarantine

So... Mister has Chicken Pox.  Yes, he had the vaccine.  But... okay, his case is super mild, but we are in self-imposed quarantine.  What to do? What to do?

Well, have fall fun, of course!!!  First, Mister painted his own pox spots (thanks, Aunt Jodi for the idea).  We got Calamine lotion and a paintbrush, got the boy nekkid, and he painted the spots he could reach.  Then, we made some sicky boy breakfast:  Purple waffles with caramel sauce and bananas.  He loves them.

Yummo

Then, the last couple days, we have just relaxes, watched a lot of Thomas, and had fall fun with pumpkins and $.79 pumpkin kits from Michael's Crafts.  

Now, I can't for the life of me figure why these pics will not turn as I have instructed them many times to do. So... just turn your head.  

Because Aiden is in quarantine, he can not go to the normal sitters where there are many other little bitty children, so his two cousins came down to watch him and spend the night.  It is awesome.  Check out the wonderful, slightly creepy monkey hat he got last year for Christmas.  

Awesome.  

Conference and Fall

Has it really been 2 weeks since I have blogged?  Usually I can't seem to keep my big yap shut about little man, but there you go!

We had General Conference last week and it was AWESOME!  Why did I ever think that Conference was boring as a kid?  Well, Aiden thought it was all sorts of boring, so we did a few Conference things:

We made witches hats.  SO fun.  I think Aiden ended up eating more than we made, but that is the point, right?  

We also made this fun little fall thing.... his handprints as the trees.  He had so much fun ripping paper on purpose!  He kept looking at me like, "This is okay?!"

And we made a super swell fort for Sunday sessions.  He loved it.  We both had lunch in there and he really loved the idea of having his own little place.

Friday, we went to watch Kelle compete in a karate tournament.  She did so great.  She is amazing.  Aiden loves it and since it was close this year, we were able to go and have fun.

Anyhoo... we have our days planned and packed tight.  So, we try to do as much on the weekends as possible.  This weekend was the first weekend for the Halloween fun at Thanksgiving Point and HOLY COW it was cold.  So, we went to the dinosaur museum first.  They had some really fun things, but Aiden is really not into face painting or scary haunted rooms.  

Loved the sand and erosion table.  Didn't love that Mom wouldn't let him throw the sand.

Our obligatory picture at the huge shark.  Notice he is waving hi.  

And... the obligatory "sand in the eyes" at the digging part.  

Aiden got to color a wizard hat.

Oh, man he was so proud of it.  He wore it home.  And to bed.  It was awesome.

After the dinosaurs, we hot-footed it over the farm.  Not a whole lot of people due to the frigid wind, but Aiden didn't seem to mind.  He got to pet the ponies.

He kept telling me that the horse was eating his breakfast.   He would say, "Not eating yogurt.  Not eating cereal.  Not eating waffles.  Eating grass.  Yuck."  Can you tell what he loves for breakfast?

We did end up riding these ponies, but no pics.  I was too busy holding Mister!!

He had so much fun playing in this children's jail.  Hope he doesn't get too comfy in there...

"Met Me ouutt, Mom!"  Then he would SQUEAL!!

Harvest Time

Fall is here!  Jiggity Jig!!  I LOVE the fall.  It is without a doubt the most beautiful time of the year.  Yesterday I took Little Man and we went to a farm.  Black Island Farms is right by our house, so we took off and spent the most beautiful evening playing Farmer Joe.  The evening was lazy, the shadows were long and Mister enjoyed all of it.  So you can enjoy the pictures unhindered, let me explain that Aiden is no longer looking at the camera to say Cheese.  He refuses.  So the few shots of his face are pure luck.  Way to go, Mom.

My new plan of attack is to take Aiden to fun places and let him explore on his own time frame.  If he wasn't interested in the animals and didn't want to stay there, fine.  We did whatever.  I want him to learn however he wants to learn.  If he wanted to ride that barrel train 50 times, then okay.  I am along for the ride.  He is the driver.  It is his childhood.

And, yes, the farm is as beautiful as it looks.  I didn't get pictures of the huge hay slides, the tons of tractors, the llamas, the pigs, and the pygmy goats.  All super fun.  And when they say "hay ride" there is no hay involved.  It is a ride in a huge wagon looking at all the farm (it is a working farm, so people are out there plowing away...), trudging through the dirt and picking your own pumpkins.  All those suckers picked huge pumpkins that they had to haul all the way to their cars.  We picked a small one, just the right size for Aiden.  

My....Endless Love

I love being a Mom more than anything I have ever done or will ever do.  I love it, I love it, I love it!  I love the laughing, the tantrums, the "hold me's" and the overwhelming love I get back from Little Man.  I love that he is such a loud, messy, can't-stay-out-of-the-dirt boy.  I love that he pats the couch and says "hop up, Mom."  and that he really means it.

I love doing things for my boy that show him how much I love him.  He is not a good eater, but loves breakfast food.  I found a cute idea and thought "Hmmm.... Aiden would eat this!" so we made Rainbow Waffles.

And, boy, he ate.  2 whole great big large waffles with extra syrup and rainbow colored sprinkles.

That was on Saturday.  Since then, I took Mister to the train yard in Ogden and let him wander around, climb, and be a boy for about 2 hours.  It was delightful.  We watched ESPN together (I kinda phased out during this part, but Mister loved watching soccer) and played with his train set.

Today, Aiden was able to spend time with his cousin (who leaves on her mission soon... SQUEAL! To Rome - double SQUEAL!)  who gave him... well... this:

And this is what life is all about.  Eating an ice cream cone.  By yourself.  No questions asked.

Tonight, we had a Family Home Evening about nature.  It was a nursery lesson that we adapted with a fun game and a fun walk on the nature trail by our house.  We found:

• A rock.  Black and shiny.
• A sunflower
• A pretty maple leaf.
• Dog poo
• A flat bike tire
• A grouchy old man who didn't realize that we can stroll and look at stuff rather than walk at a brisk pace.  It is legal, pal!