Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year with plenty of family. Janelle and Garth came up and Ashley's parents were in town for Spencer's blessing, so Jason reserved the church building for us to gather all together. It makes it so roomy and gives the kids plenty of space to play. Ashley gave out food assignments and it all turned out wonderfully. We were so grateful to have family close and also have family come in to town to help us celebrate this special holiday.

The food. It was all delicious!This was the munchkin table. Only Ryden was interested in actually eating his food that day. I made the pumpkin pie and I always do one with a Jack-O-Lantern face, but this one was my pride and joy. I had to cut each of those leaves out by hand because I didn't have a leaf cookie cutter.

Making the Climb

One morning we were in bed and we hear Weston start to whine, which means he is up and ready to get out of bed. It was kind of early, so we waited to see if he would fall back asleep. Instead, we hear a slight thud and then we are both surprised to hear the door click and feet pattering down the hallway. Weston shows up at our door carrying wipes and says, "stinky" (which he was). That was around the middle of October, but it was very infrequent and he still stayed in his crib most of the time. Come the middle of Novemeber was a different story. He became a pro at climbing out and thought it was quite funny. We usually put him down for bed no problem at 8, but one night he just kept climbing out every 15 min. Finally around 10:30, I had decided that we were going to convert his crib to a daybed the next day, but Casey said we might as well do it right then since he was already wide awake, so we did. We had to lock his door at first and he would fall asleep at the door sometimes, but I think he realized that it was pointless to try and get out and goes right down now. We figure this is good practice for when the new baby kicks him out of the crib and he gets moved to a twin bed. I have to admit, it was a fun little milestone since he didn't make it too hard on us :)

Halloween Fun!

We had a lot of fun this Halloween with all the different activities we did. Weston of course was more into the holiday so that helped a lot, and he was an elephant because that was one of the first animal noises that he made. He really liked his costume, which was nice too. Our Halloween festivities started off with our ward halloween party, then we carved pumpkins, made some Halloween treats, then taking Weston out trick-or-treating with Paisley for the first time on Halloween. The funny part about trick-or-treating was that whenever someone would open their door when we knocked, Weston would always try and walk in.

Weston getting his face painted at the ward party

Helping himself. He's not shy :)
Family Picture. Weston loves suckers!

Opening his halloween package from Mama and Papa

He loves to put things on his head. This was one of his favorites.

Carving a pumpkin for the first time. He thought the bowl was the place to be.

Getting into it

Helping Dad empty it out

The finished product. We decided to go classic for his first one. I also made roasted pumpkin seeds for the first time, which turned out good.

Our Halloween breakfast. Pumpkin pancakes with chocoloate chips.

The treat I made for a some family and friends

What I put the treat in. I got the idea from Martha Stewart and it was super easy.

Weston knocking on his first door at Jason and Ashley's complex. Doesn't he make the cutest elephant? We think so :)

Random Weston

A few more pics of Weston that I thought were cute.

Jason and Ashley had a Windows 7 party so that they could get a free copy of the operating system. Windows sent out bags, small gifts, and streamers. After the streamers were taken down, Weston had some fun with them.

While Jason and Ashley were in the hospital after having their new little boy, Paisley got to have her first slumber party at our house. This is Weston and Paisley having a picnic on our living room floor.
It starts young. We got the Toys 'R Us ad in the mail and I gave it to Weston to look at. He just plopped down on his belly and looked at the ad for like 15 min.

Playing in the rain. Weston liked to collect the leaves as they floated by.

Getting into it

Taking a nap with Dad on a Sunday afternoon.

More Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails for us!

The fact that I'm 5 weeks late posting this doesn't make it any less exciting that we are having another BOY! We are super excited! Weston definately needs a little brother to keep himself occupied and to get into trouble with. The best part is that we are already prepared. The baby was really active and moving a ton during the sonogram and he is healthy on all accounts. I'm still feeling good too and just started getting a more noticeable bump. Only 15 weeks left!

18 months!

Weston turned 18 months at the end of September and I am just amazed at all the changes kids go through between 12 months and 18 months. He grew up so much and learned so many new things.

-His first word other than Mama and Dada was "Ball." He now says quite a few words and is always suprising us with new phrases and words.
-He still has an amazing appetite most of the time (he can eat a whole PB&J sandwich), but he also likes to exercise his independence and refuse more food than he used to.
-Runs really fast and is starting to get off the ground when he hops.
-Has a really good arm and will imitate Casey winding up for a pitch and swinging a bat.
-Went into nursery and hasn't turned back once. He loves it.
-Loves dogs and bugs. If he sees a bug, he will pick it up.
-Likes to give hugs and kisses and is still cuddly. In the morning after he wakes up, he will come and cuddle with us for 30 min or so.
-LOVES to read. We often find him in his room surrounded by his books and flipping through the pages.
-Knows how to say football, basketball, and baseball and knows the difference between the three when he sees them on TV.
-Loves to hop and jump, especially from one thing to another or off things.

Weston with his bean plant after his first day in nursery

Spaghetti is one of his favorite foods Watching sports with Dad and getting a bite of Spaghetti when he can

Eating his very own In-N-Out burger for the first time. He finished about half of it.

My little sous chef

Reading his little heart out

Playing in some water fountains.

Giving hugs to cousin Paisley

Mr. Destructo. He knocked down this light at Casey's work and Casey was more focused on documenting the moment than fixing the light, which just sat right back up.

He's our little daredevil and doesn't scare easily. He will do things like this all on his own without any coaching.

Recovery.gov

Check out this link,

http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency/Pages/home.aspx

This is the government reporting where all the bail out money went, and how productive it was. In our district, the federal govt gave us $163,877,376, and it created 112.09 jobs.

Just to spell it out for you, that's $1,462,016 PER JOB!!!!

Can't wait till health care reform goes through ; )

-Casey

The Killers!

We got tickets through Casey's work to see The Killers at Arco Arena. Casey and I both love this band, so we had a great time. We got to hang out with friends and family too, so that made it that much better. They also sounded really good live, which is always a plus.

Before the show started

The confetti-filled finale

BYU v. FSU

While Casey and I were at BYU, we decided that we would go to Provo for one home game a year. So far we are 2 for 2, but I wish we had chosen a better game to go to this year. We traveled to Utah for the BYU v. FSU game, which was a huge diappointment to say the least :( It didn't help that it was super hot either. I was so sure we were going to win, especially since it was a home game, but they stomped on us and we lost our coveted #7 spot in the rankings. It was a sad day, but we got to see our friends the Kings, spend the night/hang out with my sister and her family (Joanna also offered to give me a haircut, which I immediately took her up on because she always does a great job!), my brother, and then have a delicious dinner with my parents and Casey's aunt and uncle. Plus, Casey got to turn Weston into our little BYU fan and he couldn't have been more proud. Everybody thought he looked so cute! Hopefully we pick a better game to attend next year though.

Weston showing us how it's done

The morning of the game Casey begged me to give Weston a mohawk and I consented. I wasn't so sure about it at first, but he did look cute. It was fate, when we got to the game and there was a dad spraying blue on his two sons hair. He was done and asked Casey if he wanted to use some (as Casey was staring at him wishing we had blue paint for Weston). Here he is in all his glory cheering for our Cougars!
Family picture

Labor Day Weekend

For Labor Day we drove down to Southern California to visit some people we hadn't seen in a long time. We didn't get to spend very long with any of them, but it was a fun-filled weekend. First we stopped by Chris Weston's to say hello, spent the day with him, and then we watched the BYU v Oklahoma game with him and our friends Ryan, Kerstin, and Jackson. Casey was bummed I didn't get any pictures to record the momentous win over Oklahoma, but it was a great game anyways. After visiting with the Millers for a day, we headed down to visit my sister and her family for a little bit. I didn't get as many pictures of the people we visited, but here are some to document our trip.

Weston's first time on a trampoline. He LOVED it! His favorite things to do were run around it and just lay/sit on it while everyone else bounced. Ryan and Kerstin made us a delicious dinner

Weston had some of Casey's fudgsicle, so we turned on the sprinklers to wash him off. Ryden was so nice to give the rest of his popsicle to Weston

Weston climbed this ladder all by himself. He's our little monkey!

Weston's first official trip to the beach.

Giving me kisses while I was buried in the sand

Weston being buried for the first time. He had a lot of firsts this trip :)

CA State Fair

At the end of August we went to the California State Fair. I have always loved going to the San Diego County Fair, so when Casey told me about this one, I of course wanted to go. It was a little disappointing to say the least and a little overpriced. I might be a little biased, but the San Diego County Fair was WAY better. It probably didn't help that it was super hot, but even Casey remembered it being different and was a little disappointed with the animal selection (his favorite part). I'm glad we went and it was fun showing Weston the animals, but I don''t think we'll venture back again.

Weston petting the chinchilla with "only two fingers"

This was made entirely out of toothpicks and was a tribute to the San Francisco sights.
Posing with the bear statue. Always a must with Casey.

Weston cooling off with Dad.

Yet another bear statue.