Halloween 2011

It was time again for Amanda & Brannon's annual Halloween Bash! I decided to head down a few days early to help Amanda with prep and I ended up carpooling with an old friend who has recently moved into our ward. So we packed up the highlander on Wednesday, had 3 car seats in the back, and experienced snow, hail and excessive rain on our trip down, but it actually went well. I dropped Britney and her girls off at her parents' and then headed to the Halloween house. 

Most of Amanda's decorations were already up, so I just helped with a little bit of the cooking. Here is the treat line-up Amanda had all planned out for the party: chocolate covered Oreos, red velvet cupcakes, cake pops, rice crispy treats, worms and dirt, chocolate covered strawberries, macaroons (the only item purchased), punch, and a candy bar (all sorts of candies in glass containers for people to make their own little trick-or-treat take home box). Mind you all of these treats were Halloween themed, for example the strawberries were white and had faces that looked like ghosts and the rice crispy treats were orange, shaped like pumpkins and had a tootsie roll for a stem. And of course Brannon had the cotton candy machine going outside. We also ended up making some stew in a pumpkin for dinner that night. I think that stew saved me from a complete sugar overload.

Our family ended up being some of the characters from the Curious George cartoon on PBS. Truman was George, Rick, The Man in the Yellow Hat, and I was Dr. Wiseman (their lady professor friend). The costumes were easy and turned out pretty well. Truman didn't really keep his mask on, but that was expected.  

Here are some more costumes:

Mary Poppins and Burt, the chimney sweep

I think Max won the award for cutest costume of the night as Flynn Rider from Tangled. He looks like such a little man!

We took Truman trick-or-treating and he did surprisingly well. He would walk up with his bag and say, "tee teet", then he would get his candy and try to go into their house. We would then discourage him from going into strangers' homes (after encouraging him to ask for and then take candy from them...hmmm). Then, he would sign thank you and say, "bye-bye". He wasn't super into it though, so we only went to about 5 houses and then headed back to the party.

It was a really fun weekend and a big thanks to Amanda and Brando for letting us stay with them/hosting a fantastic party. Truman had so much fun at "Manna's" house! He would look for Uncle Brando, aka "Mano" every morning and he loved running around their house, playing at their near by park and of course getting every one to play ring-around-the-rosie. Now to start thinking of costumes for next year...

Tricks

Here are some of T's latest tricks....I forgot to ask him to do his elephant noise, but these are pretty good.

Lloyd Christmas

So we decided to trim Truman's bangs because they were getting down into his eyes....needless to say they are a little short. Our bad, sorry for making you look like a Lloyd Christmas/Audrey Hepburn wannabe.

Give 'em a couple weeks and you'll be good. I'm sure this is just bad hair cut #1 of many more to come.

Family Home Evening

Our family home evenings are pretty laid back. Our activity turned out to be making footprints in the snow. We were all wearing our Vans so we couldn't resist taking a "Daddy", "Mamma" and "Baby" footprint picture.

 Truman had lots of fun stomping in what was left of the snow on our deck.

 Daddy showed him how to make footprints and he thought that was quite entertaining.

Rick and I also had some fun playing in the snow too. What we have been doing lately for our family home evening lessons is using a picture from the Gospel Picture Library and just reading the summary off of the back and pointing out things in the picture to Truman. It's not much, but we are trying to do something and I feel good about that because I feel that the Lord will never ask us to do something that is useless or unnecessary.

Springtime???

I think being stuck inside helps to encourage creativity. Here is a fun new ride Rick and Truman came up with.

 Truman thought it was so fun and so Rick and I took turns dragging him around in the upside down bar stool. This reminded me of what it was like being a kid and coming up with your own games and things to do. I can't wait until Truman and his future siblings are old enough to come up with their own creative things and I will get to watch and hear about them.

 We were stuck inside because it had been snowing ALL day! I think that we got at least a foot of snow. Really, it's mid-April in Arizona?

 We did take advantage of the last snow of the season (fingers crossed) and went out and did a little sledding behind our house.

Better gloves and snow boots are a must for Truman next year!

Conference Weekend

My parents came up to visit for conference weekend and my birthday. It was really nice to have them here and I am grateful to have family that is close enough that they can visit. Truman had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa and I loved having adults to talk with, especially since Rick had 2 tests the following week, so he spent a lot of the weekend studying.

During the break on Saturday between the afternoon session and Priesthood we headed down to the park.

 Who doesn't want to ride a frog?

 Truman's first slide experience.

 The most popular baby at the park.

 Truman and I went to the park earlier this week and he stayed on the swing until his little hands and face were freezing. When I took him out he started crying...what a rough life.

Truman and Grandpa were watching some kids play basketball and he actually clapped when some one made a shot! Such a smart boy! (He did watch tons on basketball this last month...both men's and women's March Madness.)

I love General Conference. I love the process of preparing to hear the messages and I always feel uplifted and renewed spiritually after hearing from the Prophet and Apostles. Not to mention, getting to hang out in comfy clothes and make waffles. And to top off a fantastic weekend, my parents and grandparents went in together and got me a sewing machine for my birthday!! I am so excited to learn how to sew and make unique things! WooHoo!

Birthweek

Yep, that's right, I've gotten Rick into celebrating a birthweek instead of just a birthday for me. I didn't come up with this myself...I'm not that self-absorbed. It was actually an old coach in high school who introduced me to the birthweek idea. His rules were simple, you get both weekends, the one previous and the one following your actual birthday, and you have to do something nice for yourself each one of those days. It doesn't have to be extravagant, just be good to yourself. I had usually done this for myself and then my mom would do little things sometimes as well, and now Rick has jumped on the bandwagon. He starts exactly one week before my birthday and gives me a little something everyday. This year I was spoiled with Diet Dr. Pepper, a new bath puff, some new socks, a massage from a super hot male model, a toilet lock (amazing! considering our bathroom doors don't close), new floor mats for my car and a photo book. See, nothing too outrageous (besides the male model), but nice and thoughtful. I have pretty much the best husband ever!

On my actual birthday Truman and I did our usual thing and he took a really long nap. I consider that his gift to me and I thought it was fantastic. Then, we got some Jack in the box for dinner, Rick made me a jell-o no-bake cheesecake and we watched some women's games. All in all a pretty great day to turn 27.

 My sweet little boy. Thank you for the nap Truman.

 This is the photo book Rick made me. It is titled, "Julie's Best, According to Rick"...he made a book of his favorite photos that I have taken. Very thoughtful and it includes a sweet birthday message inside. I love it.

At the end of the day...me and the male model, looking a little wasted, must be the cheesecake, or having a "very active" 13 month old. Not sure which.

My day was also filled with phone calls from friends and family, texts and facebook messages from lots of old friends. I think I have come to appreciate birthdays a little more this year. Not living in the same city as any family or friends made all of the facebook messages, texts and calls just a little more special. I felt very loved and blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. Cheers! And here is to another fun filled year!

Super Truman

Truman's favorite blankie turned into a magical, super cape this week and here are some of the feats it helped him to accomplish....

 He figured out how to open the impossible, super secured bedside drawers in order to add to his weaponry the magic markers.

 Da da da DA! Super Tru!

 He became super strong! Look at those massive abs!

And he was able to scale the entire couch in order to look out over the city and keep watch for any evil disturbances.

Spring Break

Rick had spring break this week, so we headed down to Scottsdale for most of the week to warm up. Rick and I got to go on a date on Saturday night and then had a nice family dinner with all of the siblings on Sunday. And Monday the fun began...we went to the Phoenix Zoo with my Aunt Lynne and Maya.

We took the train almost all the way around the Zoo, so we got a glimpse of just about everything. Then we went and did the Arizona trail and the kids sections of the zoo by foot. We saw lots of great animals and had a really good time. Truman liked riding on the train and when we let him push his own stroller a bit.

He got an up close view of the Prairie Dogs and also some domestic animals in the kids section, like goats, sheep, horses and cows. He even got to pet a goat in the petting zoo.

The CSI Golden Eagle!

The boys checking out the elephants. It was so fun to watch Truman point at all of the animals, at least the ones that were obvious...some of those creatures are HARD to find in their little habitats!

A BIG thanks to Aunt Lynne for inviting us out to the zoo! I hadn't been in years and now I'm pumped to go back. We all had a great time and great memories from Truman's first zoo trip.

Rick and Truman got to hang out a lot more than usual this week. Truman liked to have his Daddy give him rides in the office chairs.

Truman LOVES my parents' dogs! Coco is a little afraid of him, but she is actually really good about playing with him if she is in the mood. Truman always sticks his finger out like this so that she'll lick it. He also loves to throw things too them from his high chair and just chase them around.

How appropriate that Truman's first official word is "dog". He loves them so much that he will even kiss them....gross.

Here we are back in Flag. We had a great week and it made me even more excited for the summer when we may get some more "Rick time", Truman wanted to try out a head band (ok, maybe I just put it on him because he was intrigued by mine), I think he looks like a very young John McEnroe. Anyway, a great week spent relaxing and spending time with family and friends in the warm sunshine, life doesn't get much better.

Dancing

Truman is a dancing fool!! This is a really mellow and super short dance session for him. This kid is constantly rocking out and it is so fun to watch. He got rhythm, yo!

Sucker

Laughing

I love it!! I love making this kid laugh and try to do it everyday; it is so fun and funny!!

New Glasses

I decided it was time to get my eyes checked since I couldn't remember the last time I had done so. I've never had glasses or contacts, so I guess this means I am officially getting old! The Dr. said that my prescription is very minimal and that I probably wouldn't be able to notice any improvement by wearing glasses except for maybe driving at night. So far, I don't think they really help, but they are fun to wear sometimes.

 They make me look like I would be able to help you find a book at the library or something and that's pretty cool. I have to put a plug in for www.zennioptical.com These sweet mamma's only cost me about $15 including shipping. It's the only place we buy glasses and we try to tell everyone about it.

It's like I am a new person when I put them on. Amazing.