You've Got a Friend in Me

I came into the living room one day to find Craig having a slumber party with Woody. I asked him to lay back down so I could take a picture and got this very natural pose--he looks just as if he was laid out for a wake. For the life of me I couldn't get him to lay on his side, under the blankets, and without smiling...like he were actually asleep. I think he was trying to lay just like Woody. At the time I thought how cute it was that, just like Andy, he and Woody are best friends. But then this happened, and not by accident as it did in the movie:

I just hope Craig realizes that all of his friend's arms don't detach so easily (or sew back on, for that matter). I'm a little worried since now Buzz has suffered the same fate and has been "shelved" for the time being.

Pre-Halloween

I still have a lot I need to post and pictures I need to sort through. I have downloaded them all, though, which is a major accomplishment. Before I can even begin posting about our California trip, I need to post about our pre-Halloween activities. First, a little sampling of the costumes adorned by Craig and Ethan:


Ethan's my little poser, so I had to get this really cute picture of him. As I go through pictures, I notice that I usually take more of Ethan. I think it's because Craig is either bouncing off the walls and many picture of him he's either a blur or not looking at the camera. When I can get him to look at the camera he gives me a really fake smile, sometimes. That top picture is actually pretty good, except for Craig's Michael Jackson move. Boys. But Ethan loves the camera. Craig tolerates it.

We went back to the same pumpkin patch we went to last year: McDonald's Ranch. We love it. For one flat, reasonable fee you get everything...a horse back ride, petting zoo, hay ride, maze, and there's a cool little miniature western town with games and wagons to play in. Again, this year, Ethan had to be the adventurous one and ride the horse first before Craig would try it. All the way there we talked about riding a horse and they were both so excited. But once we got there, Craig got scared. Ethan marched right on up to the table, grabbed a helmet, and headed for the gate before I had a chance to sign the paperwork. Once he was done, though, Craig was all for it. They've been "riding" everything ever since: firetruck toys, pillows, the dog, the cat (she LOVES being sat on, just like any cat would), me, and each other. Grant was his usual sleepy, accommodating self. He's such a sweet, pleasant little baby.


This was on the hay ride. I thought Ethan was so funny...he was just sitting there, pondering the landscape with his hands clasped, deep in thought.

Peaches!

We just got back from a week and a half with my family in California...that's why I haven't been good about updating the blog lately. I still have to go through all of my pictures from our trip, so until then I have this that's been sitting in my computer for a while.

About two weeks before our trip, I found a great deal on peaches at a discount grocery store in the area. After all was said and done, I got these three flats (45 lbs) (pictured above) for $5! That's TOTAL, not each. They were good, firm, pretty peaches, too. So, I got to canning for my very first time all by myself. It was quite a chore. It was a learning experience, though, and I am looking forward to my next opportunity to "lay up in store." I ended up with the equivalent of 25 quarts, I think. I had a mixture of pint and quart jars, so that's an estimate. They aren't perfect, but at least it worked for my first time and only two jars didn't seal. All the rest are beautiful!

Lake Havasu and the London Bridge

(Yes, I took this picture, thank you very much)

In case you didn't know, the world famous London Bridge is in Arizona. Of course, there is a bridge in London where this one used to be, but this one was originally built in the 1830s and was THE bridge that Queen Victoria rode over for her coronation, as well as her successors, including the reigning Queen Elizabeth. In the late 1960s, British officials realized that the bridge, which had been built for carriage and foot traffic was sinking several inches each year on one side. They decided to rebuild and put the bridge up to the highest bidder. An American man (oil tycoon, I think) with interest in Lake Havasu bought it for something like $2 million dollars and moved it out here. This year was actually it's 40th anniversary, having been dedicated in 1971 after being shipped over, brick by brick and taking about 10 years to rebuild. The day we arrived in Lake Havasu, coincidentally, was the anniversary of it's dedication, October 10th. They even numbered the bricks, pillars, and posts so that every piece went back into its original position.

That's your history lesson for the day. We've been here in Arizona for 2 1/2 years and we'll be leaving in February and I just HAD to see Lake Havasu with its bridge before we leave. So, we packed up and went for two days. The weather was great, the kids had fun, and so did we. Here's a little of what we did while we were there.


There's an "English Village" down by the bridge and the entrance to it has this big fountain and big iron gates. There's supposed to be a double-decker bus, too, but we didn't see it.

The best thing we did while we were there (and the best way to see Lake Havasu) was rent a boat for a couple of hours. I was a little nervous to do it, but when we found this one with everything totally enclosed and all gates locked tight, I relaxed and agreed to it. It was honestly the most fun thing we've done on any little family vacation. Boats are so soothing and therapeutic. It was awesome. Robert really wants a boat someday and is always talking about it. He got to live his dream for a couple short hours.

Everyone under 13 had to wear a life jacket, of course. Including Grant. :) He loved the ride, actually. Once I got him swaddled and cozy, I slipped the life jacket back on him and he was very calm and comfortable the whole way almost. I did have to take it off him for a few minutes to nurse him towards the end, but otherwise he hung out in his life jacket and didn't seem to mind it at all.

You're looking at the happiest man in the world at this moment. :)

I must admit, I could get used to this. (Notice we all had on matching Lake Havasu London Bridge shirts--I was surprised Robert went for it since he normally hates to stand out and look like a tourist. :))

We saw these coyotes running along the ridge above the lake. Not something you'd see from the London Bridge in its original location.

People in Lake Havasu drive these really huge trucks! Just kidding. All around the lake they have these 1/3 scale replicas of some lighthouses from around the country. They don't have the BEST one, of course, but they did have Hatteras, which at least is in North Carolina.

Ethan didn't last the whole time. It was hard for him to get comfortable to sleep since that head piece on the life jacket stuck out so far in the back, but he was so tired that he managed to get comfortable enough to sleep. That little bundle of blankets on my lap is Grant, by the way. He fell asleep, too.

I finally had to move to put Grant back in his life jacket so I had to lay Ethan down. We tried to lay him on his side, but he ended up face down. He laid just like this for a good twenty minutes. :) By the time he got up, he had practically drowned himself in drool. Silly boy. It makes me laugh now just thinking about it. Of course, it wasn't so funny later when we got back to the hotel and he wouldn't take a nap and kept waking Craig up. And then when he feel asleep in the car on the way to dinner at 5:30 and was cranky the rest of the night. The things we do for memories.

One of the other benefits of renting a boat is being able to go under the bridge. I couldn't help but imagine the different 19th century fishermen and water-goers who had passed under there and looked at those same stones. I bet Charles Dickens had walked across, passed under, and stood to think on this very bridge many times in his life. In its day, it was the busiest point in London.

Later that night we went back to walk the bridge at sunset. It was beautiful and, once again, nostalgic for me. This might be the closest I get to England in my life and I wanted to really remember it well.

This was an awesome trip and I am so glad we were able to make it work. I would have really regretted not getting to see this place and walk this bridge before we moved another 900 miles away again. One of the upsides to moving so much is that we get to see so much of the country and its amazing sites. Now we just need to be sure and get to the Tetons while in Rexburg. And General Conference. I haven't done that one yet, either.

New bed!

About six months ago, I was all gungho about building Craig a new bed. He's been in a toddler bed for about a year and Grant will be needing Ethan's crib soon and with Craig constantly growing, we had to get a twin bed for Craig, move Ethan into the toddler bed, and then have the crib available for Grant. I had come across a website by this stay-at-home mom who began building her own furniture and now makes very simple, basic patterns for people like me to follow. I've used power tools before, so I felt like I could tackle this. Well, time flew by and before I knew it I was too far along in my pregnancy to do much of anything after getting dressed in the mornings and even that was a challenge. Robert decided he would be okay with doing it...actually he was ecstatic that I was giving the green light for him to buy power tools and wood and letting him jump into this project with both feet. He LOVES this kind of stuff. He's a very creative, detail-oriented, artistic person.

The simple bed I was planning on making wasn't enough for him, naturally. He sat down one day and drew out a plan from off the top of his head. It was for a bed with drawers underneath, a bookshelf headboard, and a toy box on the end. Then he was off to Home Depot. I admit, I was amazed at how this thing started coming together. It only took him about a week to get the main part of it done, too.


Part one done and stained. He has this great idea to build two rectangles rather than one big base. That way it's lighter and easier to move. The two pieces just slide together. The headboard sits at the top and the toy box will fit across the end. Four easy to manage pieces.


Working on the drawers and box number two. I was so amazed how everything fit together so well without a pattern to go by. He really did a stellar job on this bed. It's beautiful, sturdy, and great at what it's meant for.


Here's the main part. He worked on this thing everyday for a week, almost, and sort of neglected his homework, so now he's playing catch up. The headboard is done and just needs to be stained. The toy box is still needing to be done, but that will be a one day project. In the meantime, we moved the bed into Craig's room, put his mattress on top, and Craig just LOVES it. The first night he was in it we couldn't get him to settle and go to sleep until after 10:00pm. He normally goes to bed at 8:30.

We even bought him new Cars bedding for his "big, big boy bed," as he calls it. Now we just need to convince Ethan to move into Craig's room. We tried it one night but by 3:00am and four times of me being woken up by Craig bringing an unsettled Ethan into our room, I put Ethan back in his crib. We have about another month or so before I will really be needing Grant to have his own room. Craig keeps asking Ethan to sleep in his room with him. He is REALLY excited about sharing a room with Ethan, but Ethan is less enthusiastic. We'll keep working on him.

Brown-eyed girl

Craig figured out how to get Robert's music downloads to play on his Xoom tablet and decided that his favorite is "Brown-eyed Girl." Robert told him once that it was a song about me so now whenever Craig starts to play it he comes and tells me excitedly, "Mommy, it's a song about you!" He loves to dance to it and will dance and sing with it over and over again. He's learned most of the words, too. I finally had to take a video of him doing it since it's just so funny.

Weirdo

The other night we were sitting on the couch watching T.V. and I looked over at Ethan. He was just sucking on his toes. Robert took a picture and when Ethan realized we were laughing at him, he got kind of embarrassed and stopped. He's such a cute little weirdo.

Brothers

We've been trying to go for walks every morning. It's been hard getting all five of us dressed and out the door before it gets too hot, but we've managed it two out of four days so far. Craig and Ethan are so cute. They love to hold hands. If one of them is sitting in the front of the stroller, the other one will sometimes hold his hand and walk along the side of the stroller. I wanted to capture this to use as ammo in about ten years. Maybe I should take a picture of them hugging and kissing good night, too.... :)

Come one, Come all!

We had a Shriner's circus come to town last weekend, so on a whim Robert and I decided to take the boys. I know they've never been and I really can't remember going before in my life. (My mom would probably tell me that yes, they took me and my siblings to the circus as a child, but I have no memory of it and she doesn't read the blog anyway.) Craig paid attention, for the most part, Ethan watched a little, but we mostly had fun eating cotton candy and watching the animals. They also blew up some bounce houses during intermission so the had fun jumping in one of them. It was a little chaotic and crazy with them and the baby, but we had a friend come and bring his two daughters (ages 7 and 8) who helped occupy Craig and Ethan. Plus, I just love doing stuff like this, despite the crowds and craziness of it. There's just something about building memories. Anyway, here are some highlights.


A guy sitting on a chair on a high wire. I've seen this stuff on T.V., but it's truly amazing to see it in person. The circus was held inside an outdoor horse arena, so it was kind of hard to see somethings and take pictures with the sun shining in all around. They didn't use nets at all, except of the trapeze people. These people were all so talented. It makes me wonder what a Ringling Bros. circus would be like. At one point they were jumping rope on the high wire and one guy fell off! He caught himself at the last minute on the wire, but it was close.

They had about five trained tigers doing some pretty neat tricks. There were two white tigers, too. I thought the jumping through a flaming hoop thing was awesome.

These people amaze me. These girls were probably thirty feet in the air. It's crazy how they are just holding onto and wrapping themselves up in a long scarf, basically. It must take incredible strength. Just watching them climb up by wrapping the fabric around their feet and inching their way up to the top was pretty cool. I didn't get pictures of everything. There was a contortionist (I'll never understand that one) and a quick-change couple. I think they were my favorite since I cannot figure that out for the life of me. There was lots more, but I was a little distracted sometimes and missed some parts. Here are my distractions:

Craig was playing with the camera. Silly boy. :)

Ethan was actually watching the circus in this rare moment.

I wore Grant inside my sling most of the time. Towards to end he got really cranky because he HATES being covered up to eat when we're outside and not sitting in front of an air conditioner. He's spoiled. We had to head back to car about 10 minutes early so I could feed him. But we wanted to beat the crowds anyway. Otherwise, he did really well.

And here's Craig again--with cotton candy on his face and the funny little hat on that he insisted on wearing until he took it off and asked me to hold it. I remember doing that with coats. We'd wear them somewhere and then ask my mom to hold them when we got too hot. I remember her telling me no, she wasn't going to hold it, and I should tie it around my waist. I also remember thinking how unfair that was. She WAS the mom after all. What else was she there for?

Anyway, it was fun, a little warm, but worth it--especially since the kids were "free". They made up that cost when they charged us for the bounce house. But, hey, who's counting?

(Almost) all-girls camp out

Our ward does a father-son camp out every year, a ward camp out, and an all-girls camp out. Robert took Craig and Ethan to the father-son camp out but the ward camp out was the Friday after Grant was born so we didn't get to go, naturally. The girls' camp out was Sept. 16-17 and since Grant has been such a great sleeper, I decided to take him and go. I feel that nowadays there are so few get-togethers outside of church that I need to do everything I can to support them. I call it an "almost" all-girls camp out because the bishopric was there, of course, with their families, including the boys. And then there was Grant. :)

It was held at a ranch about an hour and a half from Mesa. It was a really pretty drive. I tried to take some pictures of the views but only got one or two good ones.

The road/driveway out to the ranch off the highway was washed out, treacherous, and scary but we made it--mostly due to my awesome driving skills. There was a grassy area where most people set up their tents but since it was just Grant and myself, I decided to just set up the air mattress in the big building where we held the activities and breakfast the next morning. Here's a picture of people inside the building.


There were a few of us staying inside the building. I began regretting this decision, though, when by 9pm people had seen or caught two lizards, one mouse, two scorpions, and about fifteen spiders inside this building. A tent would have been much more critter-free. But it was too late at that point. We had some fun activities and then went to bed around 11:00. Grant slept great, even with all the people running around that big, echoy building. Here he is all snug on the air mattress.


He slept until his usual feeding time (about half-way through the night) and when I brought him over to nurse him, I realized I had no idea how loud a little snorter like him can be in a silent, cavernous building like that. I really thought he was going to wake everyone up with his heavy breathing, snorting, and slurping. After I got him back to sleep, I began to feel really cold. About twenty minutes later, I took him, my blankets, and my pillow and went out to the van just outside the door. He slept in his carseat the rest of the night and I bundled myself up in the back seat. I didn't realize how cold it was going to be at night since we still have over 100 degree weather down here in Mesa. We survived the night, though. I left by about 10:00 the next morning, after breakfast, because they were starting the service project of cleaning up some of the weeds and overgrown brush around the ranch and I didn't want to get my hands dirty.

Just kidding. I actually felt bad skipping out but I couldn't do much with Grant and I had to get home early enough to take a nap before we all went to the circus that afternoon. But that's another post.

Great book sale!

We were at Deseret Book yesterday and I came across the best book deal I have ever seen. It was so good, I wanted to put it on here in case anyone reading this has a Deseret Book anywhere near by and would want to take this opportunity. They have a box set of all hard-covered, high quality classic books on sale for an awesome price. The books in the set are Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, The Scarlett Pimpernel, Emma, Jane Eyre, The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, and Little Women. I thought this was a beautiful set and full of so many books I have always wanted to read but have never gotten around to. The only ones I ever read of these are Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. It just warms my heart think I have this collection of romantic, beautiful stories that I know will be entertaining when I'm looking for a satisfying book to read. I NEVER would have bought this set in a million years, normally, but looks at this picture.

See how pretty they are? And they're great quality, too. The most attractive part, though, is that price tag on the front. $24.99! Can you believe it?! That's $3.13 per book! I thought it was a misprint, but nope. Here's the original price tag on the bottom:

Even though I would never buy this set for that price, $79.99 comes out to $10 per book, which in and of itself is a great price for hard-covered books of this quality. No, I am not getting commission from Deseret Book :) ...I just thought this was such an awesome thing that I wanted to share it just in case anyone else could take advantage of it. Christmas is coming and I know I would be overjoyed to get something like this. So if you know anyone like me, jump on it!