Train Park 2011

Scottsdale has a park where there is a little train that is capable of giving rides to kids and their families. Every year around Christmas they deck the park out with Christmas decorations and invite Disney characters and other kid favorites such as Tigger, Elmo, Cookie Monster and some Polar Bear to help entertain the kiddos. There is a carousel, a playground, a couple of train cars that are open to the public to walk through and a large open space in a building for model trains to run around in. Although we didn't get to ride on the train that night (the line went out the park), we had a great time with the family (Cross' and Gunnell's).

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!