cold weather fun

Moab weather has been quite different from normal this year. Normally, it gets cold, yes, but not that cold. It snows sometimes, rarely, but melts the same day or the next day when it inevitably gets warmer. Not this year. It's cold in Moab. Really cold. And it's snowed multiple times already. And the snow hasn't melted yet. Very weird.

However, since we were in Moab freezing to death anyway, we decided to take advantage of the frozen tundra, and went sledding down the big hill by my parents house.

Aiden had so much fun pretending he was on a roller coaster. That's what he does on hills, he pretends it's the drop ride. In the car, on sleds, on foot, any incline or decline that we go up or down, is the drop ride and it's practically as exciting. We raise our arms up above our heads, and even yell wa-hoo. It's very fun.

We had quite a lot of fun. It didn't even matter at the time that my hair was done yet, and I had no make-up on. Now, however, looking at the pictures, I sure wish I had taken a few more minutes to prepare myself for sledding.

Christmas Happenings

The Christmas festivities, sadly, are done. We had a great time in Moab, even though the weeks leading up to Christmas Day were crazy. I spent every day before Christmas working, baking, sewing or crafting something. Luckily some of the things I made worked out, and the people that got the things that didn't work out, got something else too. (You know who you are).
First, was the ward Christmas party that Kenny took Aiden to. I didn't get to go, because I had to work. But this is where Santa was at, so I sent Kenny with the camera, and he got the pictures on Santa's lap.
This is Aiden's "Very Special Merry Christmas Santa Hat" and he wore it all the time this year.

This is where he told Santa that he wanted a "cool Thomas toy". And ALL he wanted was a cool Thomas toy.

So when he woke up Christmas morning, we made sure there was the coolest "cool Thomas toy" we could find. It's a gigantic (4 feet by 4 feet didn't sound so big tiill we saw it) table top with train track pieces, and buildings, and train stations, and bridges and tunnels complete with little wooden engines to drive around on the tracks. He loves it. We wondered for a second if we went a little overboard, and maybe we did, but this year we hit the jackpot with something that is going to keep him entertained, and keep his attention. Last year, we got him a cool tool bench and he barely looked at it after Christmas day. So it was worth it to me to get him something a little bigger that he will actually play with.

Maybe this year I will get something done, because Aiden, hopefully, will be playing with his cool Thomas toy.

My favorite part is that it is made of wood. I love wooden toys that are cute and fun.

See my happy boy? I told him to show me with his face how happy he was. A couple of his other favorite gifts, were the wooden pizza and birthday cake set that Gramma got him, the Thomas blanket Rina made for him, and the Thomas movies that his other Gramma got him. He definitely was spoiled again this year, we came home with NO spare room in our car, and had to get rid of some of his old toys to make room for the new ones.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

ky-wotie hunting

We had a great Christmas, and I'll post about it soon. Maybe. But I wanted to get caught up first!

So, I've posted before about Kenny's love of coyote hunting, even though he rarely sees them when he goes, and he's never killed one. (Though he swears he's shot at one and hit it, but it ran away and they never found it, which I take to mean he didn't even injure it enough to slow it down.) So he talks to Aiden constantly about hunting, and has a coyote hunting video which Aiden loves to watch. Last weekend I was working all weekend, so Kenny took Aiden hunting coyotes for the day on Saturday. Aiden loved it. He even took him to Sportsman's and got him his very own camo shirt. They didn't see one coyote, but he was "vewy vewy excited!!" He always takes any opportunity to pee outside.

And eating monster sandwiches, what could make the day better??

the tree

The day after Thanksgiving we all headed out for the day to find that perfect, magical Christmas tree. Because of last years fiasco, we own a fake tree, but it just isn't as magical as the real trees we've had in the past, so we were off to capture the magic again.

I'm not a real genious mom, and I forgot to bring Aiden a jacket of any kind, but luckily Kyle and Michelle were there with their child's extra jacket, which just happened to fit on the small side on Aiden, just enough to keep him pretty cozy warm.

Well, mostly cozy warm. Right after this picture, I took off my jacket and wrapped him up in it. That's right, I remember to bring my own jacket, but didn't remember to bring one for my son. I blame the fact that I worked all night the night before, and hadn't slept at all yet.

Here's my man, posing. No, this isn't the tree we cut down, not even close. Think this tree, times eight.
And here's Aiden all bundled up in whatever jackets we could find, aka Porter's jacket, which was on the small side, and my mom's sweater, which was just on the large side. It made for a pretty cute ensemble.

We found our perfect, albeit gigantic, tree at the very last second, and cut it down as it was getting dark. I didn't quite realize how big this tree was, till we got it home and tried to set it up. Luckily for all of us, my dad was there to help, or I'm afraid we never would have gotten it up. It was an adventure, to say the least.

Then, last night, we decorated the heck out of it.It almost fell over twice more, but after we filled the bottom of the tree stand with gravel (thanks Kyle, for the suggestion, and thanks HOA for the rocks) that tree isn't going anywhere. I'm fairly certain of it.

This is barely half the tree. In my tiny house, I could not get a good angle where I could get the entire tree in my lens. Just imagine it continuing and getting bigger and more full toward the bottom!

Aiden had such a good time decorating, he loved it. I love that he's old enough to enjoy this stuff now. Last year we gave him an ornament to put on the tree and he couldn't have cared less. This year he was all over it, asking me constantly "where should I put this one momma?" and "pick me up there so I can put it high high HIGH!".

a day out of the house

We spent some good time at the park the other day, and had SO much fun.


on the playground,

running...again. This is Aiden's favorite thing to do at the park. Running. We do it a lot, thus all of the running pictures.

Can't forget dancing! This kid can get down!



Here, he's worn out from the running, and is regathering his energy to do some more...running.


Yeah, this was an accident, but I thought it looked kind of cool.

I LOVE the way this kid runs. He gets so into it!



Aaaaah!

I just love this smile! It's almost too big for his little face!

We probably couldn't have had more fun. And to think, I brought a book with me, so I could read while Aiden played. Turns out, I'm still not too old to play!

I wish I had a better tan!

nap time

Lately I've been wondering if Aiden needs to be growing out of his nap-time. Mostly because people look at me and are all "He still naps? How old is he?" And I'm like "Noooo! I'm not ready for him to stop napping!" So I've been panicking a little bit, and wondering if it's totally unhealthy if I force him to continue napping (so far I haven't had to force him at all, it's more just a part of our daily routine than anything else, and he accepts it). I'm so nervous about him quitting his nap time, because I desperately need that 3-4 hour period during the day when I know Aiden is safe and can't get in trouble. That's the only time I can get any sleep on my working days.

So the other night, Aiden had peed in the bed (I'll bet he appreciates this later in his life!) which actually never happens. So, first thing in the morning I stripped his bed and put it all in the washer, then took a shower, and while I was drying my hair, Aiden was playing in his room. His latest thing is hiding. He likes to hide, and he really likes to hide from Daddy. Never mind that daddy is at work, and won't be home to look for him for six more hours. So, he was in his room, hiding from Daddy in his quilt, then suddenly, I realized that it was pretty quiet in his room, so I went to check it out.

His mattress (don't make fun of our ghetto mattress) was displaced, because I had to wrestle the waterproof pad off of it and it fell off the bed in the process. So Aiden was using it as a hiding place. I guessed right away that Aiden was under the quilt, but when I went in his room and said "Aiden, where are you?" he didn't make a sound which is unusual because when he's hiding and he hears us come near he gets all giggly and can't hold still.

I pulled back the quilt, and he was sound asleep. With Minnie by his side. The funny thing was, he wasn't even on the mattress, he was on the wooden bed that goes under the mattress.

See?

I couldn't just leave him like that, so I picked him up and held him while a wrestled the mattress back onto the bed (then I counted that as my physical exercise for the day), laid him on the bare mattress, tucked the quilt around him, put Minnie under his arm, and as I was tip-toeing out the door, he woke up, looked at me, and said "Momma, what are you doing?" I told him to go back to sleep, and he did. I think he still needs his nap. Almost as much as I need his nap!

is it Christmas time yet?

About three or four weeks ago, we were wandering around Target, and Aiden spotted a Thomas train toy that he just HAD TO HAVE. He asked if he could please have that "cool Thomas toy", and we told him no, he would just have to ask Santa Clause if he would please bring him one for Christmas.

So then he started asking several times a day if it was Christmas yet. When do we get to see Santa? We told him first we had to have Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then after that, it would be Christmas time and we could see Santa and ask for the cool Thomas toy.

After Halloween was over with, he started going through all of his stuff, asking me "who gave me this book?" "Who gave me this toy" "Who gave me this shirt?" And I'd tell him who gave that particular thing to him, then he's reply "I want to tell _____ thanks for the book, toy, shirt, etc!" And I thought that was great, so we gave him all the opportunities we could to let him say thanks. One of the things was the tool bench Santa got for him last yeasr, and he wanted to tell Santa thanks for the tool bench. I thought it was a great idea for him to tell Santa that he was thankful for the things he had gotten him, so I told him that when he sits on Santa's lap this year, he can tell him thanks for the tool bench, then ask him for the cool Thomas toy.

After he had gone through most of his things and said thanks to most of the people for what they had given him, he came to me and said "Momma, is it Christmas time yet?" It had been a while since he had last asked me that, so I said "no, remember I told you we had to have Halloween, which we did, and then we have to have Thanksgiving before we have Christmas."
And he looked at me and said "but it IS Christmas time, because I had Halloween and then I had Thanks-for-giving!"

I laughed and laughed.

running

we went to the park today...

we didn't even touch the playground, but we did something else we enjoy a lot, running!!

(Oh how I wish these last two hadn't turned out so blurry!)

peter pan and captain hook

This Halloween was a success.


It was all about Peter Pan this year. At first Aiden wanted to be the crocodile on Peter Pan (the one that SNAPS Captain Hook), but try as I might I couldn't find a cheap costume, so I ws thrilled when he changed his mind to Peter Pan. And he wanted daddy to be Captain Hook, and he wanted ME to be the crocodile. I actually had him convinced that it would be okay of I was Wendy or Tinker Bell, but I spent too much time getting two other costumes together and ready, I didn't have time to find my own. So, I was Tinker Bell with jeans and a green sweat-shirt. It turned out to be quite easy to put together! Ha ha! No pictures of me though, sorry! You'll have to use your imagination!!

There's the two foes now, dueling to the death!

On guard!

Aren't they cute? My little Peter Pan and Captain Hook.

Aiden was the cutest Peter Pan I ever saw!

He even learned to fly!




This is after he won his third cake in the cake walk. We took home three cakes.

Aiden got tons of candy, and won't eat most of it. He just doesn't care for candy much, so we will probably have a little pumpkin bucket full of candy until next Halloween. (Except for the candy I will eat of course!)