Halloween

Halloween has come and gone. It was Weston's first real Halloween where he likes candy and wore a costume and could walk. We went to our ward's trunk or treat. Weston was very in awe of it all. He stared at all the other kids dressed up and loved to just giggle and trot around the parking lot. I dont think he understood trick or treating but got the idea that he could get candy, so he made the rounds. Anyway, it was very cute. I had bought that long wig for super cheap and just put it with all black and went for the goth/elvira look. It was a big hit at work where I was the only one dressed up. I am sitting here completely exhausted after running 3 Halloween parties today, but they were all overall successes. I am glad its over. Hope everyone had a fun Halloween. Holidays: so fun, but so tiring. I guess we do it for the memories (see below).

My little lone ranger.
What a handsome cowboy.
We got stuck for a few minutes while Weston pointed out that we were walking by cars.
Ian and Weston at the little carnival inside. Weston really likes his new pumpkin straw.
Posing with his tuff face (aka aunt juju face) when we asked him to smile.
Weston and me. Happy Halloween!

The Cat

Today I set up the cat Halloween decoration/tradition. I had almost forgotten about it since I didn't really decorate for Halloween, but then my helpful husband reminded me. So I set it up during Weston's nap and he noticed it immediately. cat, black, meow. That was his commentary on it. When he discovered that you could eat the treats (donuts) on the tail, then he was really excited. Anyway, we had fun carrying on the cat tradition.

Weston and the cat.
He was pointing out the eyes and feet but I caught him halfway through.
Eating his donut half. Yummy.

Pumpkin Carving

Last night we got together with our friends, Becca and Alann, and carved pumpkins! This was Weston's first experience with pumpkin carving and not very surprisingly he was not a fan of cutting it open and touching the goop. He just watched mostly and seemed a little confused about why we were mutilating perfectly good "pun-kins". I think he also liked that he got to color on the table since it was covered with newspaper. Well, the rest of us had a pretty good time with the holiday tradition and I'm glad Weston didnt miss out on it.

I did the initial scooping out of seed and guck.
Ian took over for the more intense scraping and the actual face carving.
I just had to have a picture of Weston's face every time he was offered some pumpkin innards. He was so grossed out it was funny.
The finished product. Pirate Pumpkin . . . Aaarrrr
Weston like the finished product and showed us the eyes, nose and mouth.

California Part 2

Ok, I finally managed to upload all the pics. Enjoy! We had so much fun visiting and already cant wait until we will all be together again for Christmas.

We thought it would be fun to dress up the kids in their Halloween costumes, but the little ones were not big fans as you can see.
The day after we got home, Grandma Bowles sent weston another costume which he seemed to tolerate better than the doggy one, so it will probably win for the actual holiday.
The cousins playing peek a boo all at the same time.
Grandma B making friends by doling out candy.
Playing at GG Snowball's house.
Great Grandpa with the kids. Doesnt he have an amazing backyard?
Weston and Mimi: partners in crime.
We went out to breakfast one morning and had a great time. I have no idea what made weston do this face.
Playing in the playhouse out back at Grandma and Grandpa's.
This is what Joy, Jules and I did most of the time. What a family of readers.
Me and my bf Sarah who drove from AZ to meet up with us in CA and even brought Weston an adorable truck. yay for boy toys! :)
Weston learned this face somehow from his Aunt Juju while she was trying to get him to wink at her. It was hilarious and now he does it all the time to make me laugh. what a nut!

California Part 1

Ok, so it seems like every once in awhile I drop off the face of the planet, but that was simply because Weston and I were out of town in California visiting my parents and sisters. We had a total blast. We spent the first half of our visit hanging with the grandparents and playing at the park and even Weston's first trip to Chuck E. Cheese. He rode the same ride almost the whole time. We also hit In-N-Out and played in the "pool" (aka the spa turned down to bathwater temps). On Sunday we had a family dinner and Joy and her girls joined us for the rest of the trip. Blogger is having issues and i havent been able to upload all the pics but its getting late and I need some sleep, so here are the pics from before joy and the girls joined us. More coming tomorrow. Needless to say, we had a great time and thanks to Grandma B and Grandpa Bob for showing us a good time! :)

giving his new elmo buddy a kiss (PS-we DO NOT want any talking or laughing elmos in our house)

hanging out at the park and more specifically on this horse for about half an hour.

Grandpa and Mom with weston on the horse.

Napping with Grandpa . . . so cute.

Gardening with Grandma out back.

weston rode this bob the builder ride about 25 times at chuck e. cheese. he loved it!

Thwarted!

Our weekend plans were officially thwarted! (isnt that the best word?) Anyway, I was all excited because Ian and I were going to go on a date on Friday night and bowl! However, Ian came down with all kinds of yucky sore throat blah sickness earlier in the week, so by Wednesday I assumed he wouldnt want to go out, so I didnt find a babysitter. Then, he's like well we can go out, but I dont want to go out to eat, but I wanted to go out to eat. Anyway, this is irrelevant since I hadnt gotten a babysitter. So, Friday rolls around and we decide to take Weston and still try to go bowling, so we go to check out the bowling alley right by our house, which we suspect will be extremely ghetto, but which turns out to be pretty decent, BUT it was all league games until 9pm, so we continue to another bowing alley 10 minutes away which is huge and nice, BUT the wait is an hour and a half to bowl 2 games. Unbelievable. At this point we are running low on time before Weston needed to be in bed and ideas of where to go. We ended up going to Sears randomly and getting some PJs for Weston and then hitting the Baskin Robbins. The evening was not a complete bust, but certainly not what I had planned or expected. The rest of the weekend just kind of floated by. I worked on Saturday and we had a chill Sunday and had dinner at our friends' house and played a little Scattegories. I unfortunately didnt remember to take any actual pictures of our little Friday night adventure, but here are a couple from Saturday when Weston finally put Ian's sunglasses on the right way!!! He's such a little genius. :)

Conference Weekend

This last weekend was a fun one filled with lots of pajamas, friends, family and church. Wait, pajamas and church? Yup, General Conference! On Friday night Ian's sister, Aly, came to stay with us for the weekend. She had caught a ride with roommates from BYU-I. It was great to see her. Saturday morning we had our friends, Becca and Alann, over for the morning session. We made a fun breakfast and enjoyed listening to the talks. That afternoon was a little more low key and I missed a lot of the session since Weston had woken up from his nap fussy and whining. I spent most of the afternoon session rocking and feeding and in general dealing with the whininess. :) Right after the afternoon session Aly and I went shopping while the boys stayed home. It was fun. Ian went to the Priesthood session and we watched a movie and put weston to bed. It was a very nice Saturday.
Sunday morning we headed to Jared and Natalie's house for the morning session. It was a little chaotic with 4 little boys running around, but we had fun. In between sessions we drove aly to where her roommates were staying in Alpine and then made it home just in time for the afternoon session, which i thoroughly enjoyed curled up on the couch. So, it was a very relaxed weekend and weston had fun spending time with Aunt Aly.
Today we had a surprise visit from Aunt Mel and Brad who were passing through on their trek back to BYU-I from CA where they spent conference weekend with the Olson's. They had a few hours between their flight into SLC and their shuttle back to school, so they came by with a couple friends of Brad's. It was great to get a little face time with them again too. Woo hoo for family and friends and Conference!