picking pumkins

We went back to Corn Belly's to pick our pumpkins the next week because we ran out of time the week before. This was so much fun. While Dev and I wandered around looking for the perfect pumpkins, we would look for mathias and he was sneaking little (white and green ) pumpkins into the wagon. When he was not doing that he was picking up every rock that he saw or was just running around. Once we got the wagon loaded he decided he wanted to pull it. When he realized it was to heavy for him, he just figured he would help daddy. He tried holding onto the handle with him and when that did not work he simply got behind the wagon and pushed it. Man I love this kid!

Hee Haw's

Dev is the secretary for the young men in our ward, and for their activity this week they went to Hee Haws. The family that own Hee Haws is in our ward. So one week the young men handed out fliers for them in exchange to go to Hee Haws for free. Mathias and I decided to tag along. We walked over there and meet up with the group.

The first thing Mathias noticed was the little bunny village. He loved seeing all the rabbits run around and eat.

We then went over to the goats. We told him to hold his hand out and they would lick it. He was kinda skeptical at first but then tried it.

They had little quarter machines to buy feed so that you could feed them but I forgot my money so I just lifted all the flaps to see if anything was left in them and sure enough there was some so Mathias was able to feed the goats after all. He thought that was kinda funny.

This is Leroy the 1200 pound pig.

I am guessing all these little guys are freezing and decided that laying on each other was the best way to keep warm

This is a 30' haystack slide. It is pretty darn big and as soon as Mathias saw it he ran to climb up not waiting for anyone to go with him. So I sent Dev to catch up to him and down they went.

Look at the smile on Dev's face. He said it went a lot faster than he thought it would and that Mathias absolutely loved it. This seriously gets me because I can not even get Mathias to go down the big slides at a playground, he just wants to go down the baby ones but when he sees huge slides like these he absolutely loves them.

Of course we had to go on the animal train. We only went on this once because it was getting late and very cold.

Before we left Mathias wanted to go down the slide again and Dev thought he could go down it by himself. He seemed to love it and all the people at the bottom could not believe that he did it all by himself. That is my brave little guy! It was a pretty fun night even though it was cold. I still think Cornbelly's has my vote though, it is way bigger and seriously half the price. However, they are both a blast and let Mathias burn of a lot of energy.

Dev's note: I'm all for encouraging Mathias to go on bigger things and letting/making him do things he normally wouldn't (riding in a Tonka dump truck down a plastic slide ring a bell, anyone? Jeri?). So when we got to the top of the big slide, I just shoved him on down, hoping for the best. I think it kinda freaked him out (on the way down he turned a little sideways) but when he was done he said he had fun! I gotta toughen him up, hockey season is closing in on us!

New Decorations

I love getting new holiday decorations, and the best part is that they were free! My mom is downsizing and cleaning out a lot of stuff to get ready to sell her place. She decided that she doesn't really decorate her house anymore since she is the only one living there and gave us most of her Halloween decorations. Thanks so much mom, we didn't have very many and I just love decorating for the holidays!

Cornbelly's

Alright, I am a little behind in posts again so bare with me. Also, this post contains a lot of pictures because I just can't help myself.

We went to Cornbelly's on Saturday the 18th. It was such a perfect day, even a bit too warm (did not think I would be saying that in the middle of October). We went last year and Mathias had a ton of fun so we decided to do it again. It was very fun for me because I got to see what he would and would not do compared to last year. I know I say it all the time, but my baby is growing up way too fast.

When you first walk in they have a bunch of things you can take pictures with. We first got in the huge rocking chair (which was new this year) ...

then moved to these wood cutout type things.

After that Mathias ran straight for the little kid area as if he remembered all about it. We played in here for a while. In here we spent the most time in the corn and at the water pump things.

Daddy and Mathias jumping on the big blow up pillow type things. This was kind of interesting because he was too big for the little kid pillow but still a bit too small for the bigger one. He was getting bounced around by everyone else so Dev helped him out a bit. I love watching them spend one on one time.

Of course Mathias loved the trains. We went on both of these a couple of times.

This is one thing that Mathias was too little to do last year but was brave enough to climb in there and do the little maze all by himself.

Mathias loved all the big slides here. We spent a lot of time on this slide and the big plastic black tube type slide. This kills me because Mathias refuses to go on the bigger slides at any normal play ground but he loves these. Silly boy!

I should have probably taken this picture before we went in because he was terrified of it. I love that this thing has exits all through out it because we ended up getting out in about the middle of it. Same as last year.

Mathias loved running through the corn maze, sometimes a little too fast. He was also amazed that there was actually corn in there under the husks.

The last thing we did was the hay ride. It is a fun little trip if you are not allergic to hay. By the time the short 5- 10 minute ride was over my allergies were going crazy. It did not help that Mathias was rolling around in it. We had a blast and like I said it was fun to compare it to last year to see his reactions and what he would and would not do this year. If anyone wants and/or is bored enough you can pull up last years trip in our archives on the side.

Halloween Funny

I saw this on a friends blog and thought it was sad but true and pretty funny so I had to share it.

A New Trick for Treaters

A friend of mine just posted this on her blog and I thought it was a brilliant idea and thought that every parent should hear it. Don't get me wrong though, I think that every kid should be able to go door to door and show off their costumes and enjoy the tradition that is trick or treating.
It refers to the horrible loot left to parents when their little darlings come home from Trick-or-Treating with huge bags of candy. What do you do with a child that has eaten 13 pounds of chocolate, tootsie rolls, suckers, and gummy candies? The sugar high, the stomach aches, and the tooth decay are things most moms & dads could live without. I could also do with out the temptation to eat all of the candy myself so out it will go.


In answer to this, a new heroine is introduced. She rates higher in my book than any Tooth Fairy or Easter Bunny. She is the Switch Witch! The Switch Witch allows little kiddies to eat some candy when they get home from Trick-or-Treating, but then they have to leave the bags at the foot of their beds when they go to sleep. The next morning, the kids awake to find the candy replaced with a toy that the child has wanted.

I think it's a brilliant idea! I think Mathias is a bit young yet to really understand this. However I am going to start this I think so that he will expect this every year. I am sure he would be inclined to choose the toy.

So what do you moms think of this? Would it work with your kids?


P.S. If you are interested in reading the original blog post:
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/putting-the-trick-288600/

Haunted train ride

Last night we went on the Haunted Canyon Train ride. I was a little nervous about this because I was not sure how Mathias would react. They tell you a scary story while on the train ride then you look out the windows to see scenes from the story. Also every once in a while they would have people in costumes walk up and down the train and hand out candy. It was pretty cute. They had red and yellow and green lights on the train instead of the regular ones and they had spider webs through out. Mathias did alright until close to the end when more and more scary guys walked up and down the isles. We asked him when we got back in the car if it was fun or scary and he said fun. He keeps saying "mom I ride in the train". He was seriously so excited we had to hold him back so A) he would not go right up to the train and B) so he would not cut to the front of the line. Mathias loves trains and has been asking to go on one since we went and saw Thomas earlier this year. Tickets are kinda spendy but if you went last night and told them that you heard about it on Good Things Utah you got $5 off each adult ticket and a few dollars off of kid tickets. Mathias was free (2 and under). So since this was such a good deal I begged Dev to let us do it. I will say this, it is a pretty short ride, 35 minutes. The weather was perfect and the trains are heated (a little too well heated since we sat right next to the heater). I think it was an all around fun family outing that Mathias will remember for a while.

our many attempts

I absolutely love fall. I love the cool crisp air. I love the comfy clothes. I love the new snugly kid clothes. I love the colors. I love the mountains. I love the fall leaves. I love getting to drink hot chocolate. I love taking Mathias up in the mountains and attempting to get some fall pictures of him. We have tried this every year since he was born and every year poses new challenges. This year all he wanted to do was run and check out the leaves and pick up every rock that he saw. Also, apparently 2 1/2 is a very defiant age, not 2 but 2 1/2. Trust me it is so much fun (can you sense my sarcasm?). Every time I would try to get him to look at the camera he would deliberately look some where else and if he did look at the camera he would do it with his head tilted down but his eyes looking up. Yeah, that made for some interesting pictures. We tried to get good pictures like 3 or 4 different times and finally just gave up. I still think we got some good ones even if he is not looking at the camera most of the time. Candid ones are the best anyways, right? There are like 80 pictures in this slide show and I have it on the fastest setting so if you get bored or are not sure if you have seen all of them you can click on view all images and look through them that way. I will also understand if you really don't want to look at them because they are all just of Mathias but hey I am a very proud first time mommy and right now he is my only child so he gets to be photographed a million times.

oh my

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

did you know....

Did you know that when Noah was done building the ark he drove off in the Jeep Hurricane Concept?

finally...

I finally got Mathias' room painted. What a project! You will have to see it in person to truly see the colors. The top color is a really light blue. The strips are kind of a bright orange and the bottom looks pretty good in these pic, a brighter blue. I will have to put up pictures later of it all completed once I find things to put on his walls.

Nighttime routine

OK so this blog is mostly for me. I will use it as a scrapbook and our journal/continuation of Mathias' baby book. So you will have to bear with me for posts like these. I just want to document it so that I will always be able to remember it. This is and has been Mathias' nighttime routine for as long as I can remember. We start this at about 7:45 because bedtime is at 8:00.

(this picture is from last year, I forgot to take one when I took the rest of these)

First we read 2 books. Lately they have been Curious George ABC's and Curious George and the Bunny. We read these books so much that Mathias can quote them word for word. (video to come)

Then we say our family prayers. Mom and dad take turns every other day and when we say them Mathias just repeats everything we say. Sometimes he even tries to get the kitty to fold her arms.

Then we go into his room sit on the floor and sing two songs. We let him pick out what songs we sing and for months, without fail, we sing "family's forever" which is Family's Can Be Together Forever.


We then sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider while doing the motions. We always have to sing them in that order for some reason.

Then it is time for loves. He gives each of us a hug and a kiss and then he has to climb into bed all by himself. If you put him in bed he will climb down just so that he can climb in.

Oh, he also has to have his frog family (dad, mom, and baby stuffed animal frogs) in bed with him and they also have to be covered up. Lately he will not let me put his quilt on him just his sheets. I wonder if this is because in his toddler bed he only had a quilt and no sheets so he is used to only having one thing on him.

play date at the park

Mathias and I met my friend Betsy at a park today in Orem for a little play date. Mathias was so excited to play with her son "quiet" (Wyatt). For some reason he can not say his name right. Betsy is also tending her niece. I love having playdates with Bets because our kids play so well together and we get to catch up.

Speaking of catching up while Bets and I were chatting at the picnic tables we suddenly hear Mathias start busting up with his great big deep laugh. So we look over and Mathias is giving the dog the water bottle and then the dog will hold it in his mouth for a minute and then spit it out. He just thought this was the funniest thing ever and would do it over and over again.

Mathias thought it was pretty funny to play hide and seek in this tunnel. I love that you can tell he is smiling in this picture just by looking at his eyes.

Mathias going down the baby slide. For some reason he refuses to go down the big slides anymore, he used to love them.

Sleepy Boy

So the other day I was up pretty late. I was not able to sleep so I got online for a little bit. When I left the office to go to bed, I went to shut the door which squeaks kinda loud and woke Mathias up. He said in a very cute, tired voice, "Mom, mom!" so I opened the door and went into his room and as soon as I opened the door he said in the same cute, tired voice "sing songs" so I started "itsy bitsy spider" because it is a pretty short song and he said "no mom, family's forever" which means "Families Can Be Together Forever," which is his favorite song right now. So I started to sing that one and with his eyes closed, laying in bed half asleep, he would chime in a couple words here and there throughout the entire song. He is such a sweet heart and just completely melted my heart that night. So I just had to share.

Mr. Fix It

(sorry, my photoshop skills are not the best, but I decided I should probably take out my license plate)

I feel so lucky to have a husband that knows a lot about cars and is willing to learn more and fix my car. Last fall, my car died on us one day on our way home. We replaced the battery and it happened again so he got a rebuilt alternator at Auto Zone. It worked fine for a few months, but lately, about once a month, the car would either die on us or give us signs that is was about to. For example, the radio would turn itself off or the lights would gradually get more dim (dimmer?). Well, this month it happened more than once so we got it checked out and it looks like the alternator would sporadically stop working. Since it was under warranty (good thing!) he got a new one and switched them out for me this Saturday while Mathias and I played in the rain.

Dev' note: why do women insist on taking pictures of people who obviously don't want to be photographed?!

Rain, Rain, Rain

This Saturday it rained almost the entire day. Mathias was going stir crazy just sitting inside, if you can imagine, so we decided to go out and play in the puddles. It started sprinkling a bit more so we just got the rain coat out. This little guy loves to be outside no matter what the weather is like. Oh, to be a kid again.