a {not-so-fun} Halloween

The Halloween night we {planned} consisted of:
an evening with my parent's and Sam. homemade potato soup in bread bowls. melissa's salad. nate as an elephant trick-or-treating in my parent's neighborhood. lots of candy.

The Halloween night we {got} consisted of:
one very sick little boy puking.


Nate and I managed to catch colds earlier this week so we're both a little under the weather but since he was acting normal today we thought he'd be up for a little trick-or-treating. We got to my parent's house and while I ran to the store to get a few items for the soup, Nate threw up twice. After the third throw-up that filled a bowl, Wes took Nate home while I finished making the soup and ate with my family.

Talk about a crappy Halloween. I wish I could take over all of the sickness for Nate. Watching a 1 year old puke that much is terrible. Poor little guy. I really hope that he starts to feel better soon.

After seeing how much fun he had at the trunk-or-treat, I really wish we could have dressed him up and taken him trick-or-treating. But it helps that he's young enough to not be disappointed since he doesn't know what he missed out on.

Happy Halloween. Hopefully next year we'll have a healthy one!

an elephant at the "trunk or treat"

Nate is an elephant this year for Halloween. I'm a sucker for little kids in animal costumes. Nate was my little monkey last year.



Last night we had our ward trunk-or-treat. We always have a great turnout which makes it fun! The night consists of chili and cornbread, games for the kiddos, a train ride & lots of trunk or treating.

Lets just say Nate had a G R E A T time. His fun started with a "train ride" of sorts. The dad of one of the girls in our ward brings this train that he made every year to our trunk-or-treat. He pulls it with a 4-wheeler and the kids L O V E it. I found a big kid, Jadyn Rich, to ride it with Nate in case he tried to climb out mid-ride. He's a climber these days. Jadyn rode it with him a few times ~ how nice of her!



He loved the train ride. This was his face when he realized he had to wait in line to ride it again.



Not only did he love the train but he loved trick-or-treating, too. He had a death grip on his pumpkin that was holding all of his candy. Regardless of how heavy it got, he wouldn't let me hold it for him! Even though we were there way past his bedtime he was a happy kid ~ he always is when there's that much fun going on.




More elephant pictures to come after tomorrow night!

a little Halloween in our house

Every year, I get a little more in to Halloween. Maybe it's because I have a kiddo now and holidays are more fun with Nate. Tonight will be his first night in costume.

Here's a glimpse in to our house as far as Halloween decor is concerned . . .




And here's our blue accent wall we painted a few weeks ago. It's very blue. Much bluer than what this picture is portraying. But, I like it. It gives the downstairs a little pop of color.



I attempted a massive spider web with our big fake spiders outside our door but it wasn't turning out how I envisioned so that will be my Halloween 2009 project.

Happy Halloween!

First Annual Weekend with the Andrus'

Our good friends Ryan & Leslie moved back to Utah earlier this year. We haven't had a weekend with all of us since they moved so for Wes' birthday we went to Utah to spend a weekend with them. It will definitely be an annual October tradition!



We flew up Friday morning. Leslie and I made a quick trip to Gardner Village. Please tell me how I lived in Utah for 6 years and I never went there? I LOVED it. It's a village of cute little shops and they have it all decorated for Halloween. And, all of their Halloween decorations were 50% off! We found a few great things.



We made it back in enough time for the boys to golf 9 holes. Ryan & Wes both L O V E to golf so it was nice for them to get out and play. That night we went to Famous Daves for a yummy BBQ dinner. Prior to kids entering our lives, we used to play endless hours of Hearts. It was nice to put the kids down and be able to play again! Unfortunately, the Andrus' are the hearts champions this time.

On Saturday morning we took the kiddos trick-or-treating at Hogle Zoo. Leslie made sure we got all of the candy without waiting in line. I wish we had a decent zoo in Vegas because Nate had a great time! I forgot his costume but luckily he didn't notice the difference.



He loved people watching and all of the animals. When we walked up to the bears, Wes took him up as close as he could go and Nate started growling like a bear. He did that the entire time they watched the bears! As we walked over to the zebras, a kid was dressed up like Elmo and Nate was very excited that Elmo was at the zoo, too. :)




Since Saturday was Wes' birthday, Leslie and I volunteered to stay home with the kids that afternoon while Wes and Ryan played another 9 holes of golf. That's a perfect bday present for Wes!

That night we had a favorite . . . Cafe Rio for dinner and then let the kids play at a pumpkin patch.






Leslie and I made a pit stop on the way home for these:



YUM.

We had a great weekend with friends we miss, lots of yummy food & fabulous weather.

Dear Mother Nature,

I'm ready for jeans. a sweatshirt. my Uggs. Perhaps even a scarf. Soup in a bread bowl. Hot chocolate. My Gap warm slippers. Nate all bundled up.

But instead, it's October 23rd and I'm still: wearing shorts/Tshirt/flip flops. Sweaty and hot when I load Nate in to the car. Hot when we're at the park. And I'm still running my air conditioning.

Can we please leave the 80's and take a nose dive right in to the 60's?

Thanks,
Lindsay

P.S. I don't want to sound too ungrateful. I am thouroughly enjoying the bright blue skies and no wind. That part about Vegas weather is perfect. And yes, I'll be thanking you for the 50 degree weather in December and January!

30 happy years

My parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary yesterday. They've been such a good example to me as to how wonderful marriage can be. Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

A Date Night

Wes and I went on a date on Saturday night. While we've managed to go on two vacations by ourselves without Nate, this was our first date night out with just the two of us since he was born. Pathetic, I know. But for a long time he was great at restaurants so it was easy to take him out and he goes to bed at 6:30pm every night so we have every evening to ourselves. But after experiencing dinner without a highchair and a calm evening out . . . we will definitely do that more often!

Since Wes' birthday is this week I wanted to take him to his favorite restaurant, The Pasta Shop. It's a tiny little restaurant that my family has been going to for years. A few years ago, David (one of the chefs and owners) came out and was chatting with us and somehow he and Wes came up with a delicious dish and it's been Wes' favorite ever since. It's large rigatoni noodles (homemade at the restaurant), thinly sliced red potatoes, mediterranean sausage & some vegetables all sauteed in fresh garlic, olive oil & butter. It's fabulous. It's now my favorite dish there, too.

After a great dinner out we were going to catch a movie but we had to wait until 9:25 to see any of the movies we wanted to see. I didn't want to push it with my first evening out . . . I'm not sure I can stay up that late! :)

The rest of the weekend was spent with Nate either cleaning the house or at the park. On Sunday Nate was really funny. He was cracking us up. On Sunday morning . . .

Nate enjoyed playing under the blanket with dad




He loved his apple. He got it out of the fridge as Wes and I were cleaning up dinner and took small bites out of it as he walked around the kitchen. He even thought it was really fun to share it with Wes and I as he allowed us to take bites, too.



Right before bathtime, he hung out with me for a bit. He laid on my legs and either just relaxed due to exhaustion or he laughed and laughed while I tickled him.

"i want some milk"

Every time Nate wakes up . . . he likes me to sit in the chair in his room and he sits on my lap as he looks at books. After a minute or two, he almost always looks up at me and squeezes his hand over and over signing to me that he wants milk. I ask him, "do you want some milk?" And he nods yes and gets a huge grin. He loves that he can communicate with me and I love it, too.

Don't think this happens with everything but it's nice that he can tell me a few things that he wants. And I love his pure excitement when I can get it for him.

Hooray for sign language.

Gator Volleyball

I went back to good ol' GVHS tonight to watch a volleyball game. My high school volleyball coach, Erin Hill, is still coaching there so I figured that was the easiest place to say hello. Plus, I love a good volleyball game.

When Nate & I first got there, we sat with a family friend who was there watching their daughter play. The entire guys soccer team was right next to us so it was quite loud. Nate didn't know what to think so for the first game, he sat quietly on my lap looking around. By the second game he figured it was a fun atmosphere and wanted to play, too so he was all over.

Being there brought back lots of volleyball memories. Coach Hill runs her high school team like a Division 1 college volleyball team. Which I loved. It meant if you weren't totally dedicated . . . you didn't make the team. Which is why I played volleyball for 10 months out of the year. You had to to be able to play at Green Valley. I loved my time on the court. It will always be one of my favorite memories. It was great to see Coach Hill ~ while I talk to her relatively often, I don't see her much so it was fun to chat and for her to meet Nate.


State Championships - Senior Year


I saw a number of people from my highschool days. Since Wes is out of town . . . Nate and I had a fun night out together! He definitely kept everyone around us entertained.

All three of us at home. 2 weekends in a row. It's a record.

It was nice to be at home with Wes and Nate again this weekend. Being home is especially nice after all of our September traveling.



We had a good mix of fun & being productive this weekend. For some reason, our master bedroom is always the last bedroom to get decorated in our house so we finally painted the master bed and bath on Friday and Saturday night after we put Nate to bed. Wes and I don't want to see a paint brush again for a long time but I'm glad it's done. We ended up copying Sam and painting our master bedroom the same color as hers . . . it's a brownish grey. On top of the painting, I went through our entire bathroom and cleaned out cupboards and drawers and got rid of a lot of stuff. It feels like a whole new room!

I got to spend Saturday afternoon at Anya's baby shower. She is a dear friend I've known since Kindergarten and after having two boys . . . she is going to have a little girl any day now! It was fun to see her get lots of PINK. Lately my obsession has been chocolate covered strawberries, grapes & peanut butter pretzels so that was my food contribution to the shower.



On Sunday afternoon we went to my parent's house to have Wes' birthday dinner two weeks early. It's the only weekend in October when we were all in town. My mom made him one of his favs . . . ribs! Before everyone got there, we spent some time outside with Nate. Notice the pants and the zip-up hoodie. That means it's NOT HOT here anymore. I love my parent's neighborhood. It's a one-of-a-kind in Las Vegas with grown trees and grass everywhere. Nate loves to walk down the street and play with everyone's grass and rocks!






Abbie was really cute tonight. She kept saying to Wes . . ."Happy Birthday, Wes. My birthday is next & then we can sing to me."



Happy early Birthday, babe!

22 facts

Here are a few random facts about Nate at 14 months:

1). When he has a poopy diaper, we ask him, "who is P.U."? And he either plugs his nose or sticks a finger up his nose.
2). Current favorite foods: guacamole, frozen gogurts & fresh squeezed orange juice. Not normal OJ. Only fresh squeezed. I have my mom to thank for that one!
3). He wants to throw his own dirty diapers away. He holds it & walks it over to the diaper genie and puts it in himself.
4). Loves animals. Especially doggies.
5). He's Sesame Street's #1 fan.
6). Walking like a champ. Still a tad bit wobbly at times but walking everywhere.
7). Loves other little kids.
8). We play peek-a-boo all day long.
9). He can tell you these sounds: a dog says woof, a cow says moo, a bear growls, a lion roars, an owl says "whoo whoo".
10). When you ask what a bunny does he tries to twitch his nose. And if you ask what an iguana does, he sticks his tongue in and out.
11). He knows where his: eyes, nose, ears, hair, fingers, "beep-beep", toes & mouth are.
12). He's got manners - signing please and thank you all the time.
13). He loves it when we're "gonna get him". Wes and I always chase him around and he runs or crawls really fast to get away from us as he's screaming. He LOVES it.
14). Obsessed with drinking. He always wants other people's drinks . . . especially if a straw is involved.
15). He notices when things are new right away. If I re-decorate something, he knows. If we paint a wall, he knows. It cracks me up at how observant they are.
16). He loves music. Loves it. Loves it. Will clap and dance or just sit mesmerized as he listens. He even did a little break dancing at Aunt Sam's last week.
17). His teeth are mighty clean because he loves to brush them.
18). He's had a bath every day of his life. He loves it and I love the smell of a clean baby.
19). He's in bed for the night at 6:30pm.

20). He inherited the Marz "I love my blanky" gene.

21). He loves to be pushed around in his dump truck. Sometimes he even insists on sitting in it while he watches Elmo. The only problem with a dump truck is as soon as he moves one way, it dumps him out!

22). He's brave. He loves to fly high & go fast!

Escape, by Carolyn Jessop

I just finished reading this fabulous book about an amazing woman, Carolyn Jessop, and her escape from the FLDS church & her abusive life. I thought I knew a little bit about this religion but I didn't at all. I understood the polygamy portion of it, but the rest was pretty much all new to me. And to think that the actual act of having multiple wives is probably the least of your concerns when you find out what else goes on. I think this review says it all:

"Escape provides an astonishing look behind the tightly drawn curtains of the FLDS Church, one of the most secretive religious groups in the United States. The story Carolyn Jessop tells is so weird and shocking that one hesitates to believe a sect like this, with 10,000 polygamous followers, could really exist in 21st-century America. But Jessop’s courageous, heart-wrenching account is absolutely factual. This riveting book reminds us that truth can indeed be much, much stranger than fiction."

The book made me so incredibly grateful for the life I was born in to. She has dealt with so much in her lifetime and is such a strong person to do what she has done for herself and her 8 children. It makes my little daily hardships seem like absolutely nothing.

I HIGHLY recommend this book. I can't believe that this cult has been able to exist in our country as they break law after law after law. If you read it, let me know what you think.

i love weekends like this

I had a pretty good weekend starting on Friday! As I headed out to run errands on Friday morning . . . I impulsively called my mom and my sisters to see if they wanted to meet me for lunch at The District and Sam and my mom were available so I got to have lunch with them. I was going to go down to The Gap to use my 30% off coupon and my mom said she was going to be home all afternoon so she offered to let Nate sleep at her house while I went shopping BY MYSELF! That never happens so I took her up on it. I got 2 hours out and I was able to not only go to The Gap . . . but run a few other errands, too! Thanks mom.

On Saturday, our "chore free summer" ended as we finished our backyard. We finally got the rock to fill in around our stamped concrete stepping stones. We have the best neighbors that live right next to us. Every time Wes has pulled up with a truck load of anything, our neighbors come out with their gloves on ready to help. We happened to have a lot of extra rock & our neighbors needed some in their backyard so that worked out perfect. Nate had a fabulous morning playing in the rocks and dirt! He really did love it. He even got to play with our neighbors dogs. He's definitely an animal lover so he loved that, too. He was so dirty so we let him play in the back of the truck with the hose after Wes cleaned out the truck.



We also bought the sand to fill up Nate's sandbox. Lets just say it's a hit. He LOVES it. We'll be spending lots of afternoons in this thing.



After a day in the dirt, rocks, water & sand . . . he took a bath or two (or three) that day.




Once I finish planting a few things I'll post pictures of the entire backyard.

All of that happened before noon on Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, I went to Art in the Park in Boulder City with my mom and Sam. It's an annual tradition that I look forward to! We made it home in enough time for Wes and my dad to go to the Priesthood Session of conference and then we went out to dinner while they were there. Another tradition!

The only bummer about Saturday was we missed conference. But that's the good thing about a DVR. We plan on watching Saturday's sessions this week!

Sunday was great, too. We met my entire family at my parents after the first session for a yummy brunch. My parent's recently got a little jungle gym slide thing for the kiddos so Abbie and Nate had a great time playing on that. It was fun being with everyone . . . we haven't all been together in a while! We ended up staying at my parent's house until about 5:00pm ~ just visiting and hanging out, enjoying the great weather! It's FINALLY started to cool off here! It's about time. The summer inferno was killing me!

Laurel's Day

My years at BYU will always remain one of the best four years of my life. Not only did I meet Wes while I was there but I was lucky enough to meet the best girl friends. They rock. And I got to spend a weekend with almost all of them for Laurel's wedding.

She's the last one of us to get hitched. We've been looking forward to this day for a long time. I love to see friends find their perfect match. Laurel definitely found that in Ryan.

Wes was nice enough to have a father-son weekend so I could go enjoy the weekend with the girls without worrying about Nate. I met Laurel Walker (not to be confused with the bride, Laurel Plewe) at the Oakland airport on Friday afternoon. It worked out great that she was coming alone, too so we could share a rental car and she found us a family friend to stay with since she grew up there. I got to go with Laurel W. to her favorite restaurants!

Laurel had a beautiful "night before her wedding" dinner in her good friend Sofia's backyard in Walnut Creek. It was beautiful.




Laurel P. couldn't have asked for a better day on her wedding. The weather was beautiful! Her sealing was great. I always love going to sealings in the temple. Here are some photos of us outside the temple.

The Oakland Temple grounds are gorgeous.




Waiting for the bride & groom



Laurel has LOTS of girlfriends. Since 12+ bridesmaids seemed like a little much, she had 2 friends as bridesmaids and asked the rest of us to wear black dresses. We quickly were called "Laurel's black dress girls". We took some really fun pictures! I loved her colors . . . plum and mango. The flowers were amazing!







The reception that night was quite a party. It was in her parent's beautiful backyard. We picked a table away from everyone and chatted the entire night. We managed to make our way to the dance floor when a song or two came on that reminded us of Miss Lo-rel.

It was fun to see you, girls! And it was great to be a part of Laurel's day. She definitely deserves this happiness in her life!