Halloween!

We have had a lot of Halloween fun the last 2 weeks. We experimented with popping pumpkins and bubbling ghosts, made pumpkin spice silly putty, decorated a graham cracker haunted house, made fun art projects and carved pumpkins. Not to mention trick or treating and dressing up. It's been a lot of fun. I am looking forward to November where we can focus on being grateful for all that we have.

Here are our Halloween activities in pictures:

Baking soda and vinegar with a Halloween twist. 

Our haunted house didn't turn out too spooky. 

I love holiday projects! Lydia's are on top and Jared's are on bottom. 

I loved the mummy and candy corn:

2013 Pumpkins

I cleaned and carved my pumpkin in like 35 minutes. I was thrilled. I used to pick such elaborate designs it took me hours to finish it. They are fun to do but way too time consuming with little kids around. I have decided that candy corn is one of my favorite things to decorate with. I don't like how it tastes at all but it is really fun for decorating and learning activities.  Both Jared and Lydia were surprisingly okay with the pumpkin goop. Lydia just jumped right in and tried to get the stuff out. It was her first time touching it.

Trick-or-Treat!

We went to our wards Trunk or treat. I took all the candy Jared and Lydia got at the zoo last weekend and handed it out there. I was so happy to hand out our first batch of trick or treating candy. I love Halloween activities and dressing up but all the candy drives me crazy not only because Jared and Lydia, like most kids want to eat it all the time but I do too! We got home in time for Jared and Lydia to hand out some candy to trick or treaters at our house which they really liked. Jared also helped me hand out some at the trunk or treat. It was a fun night.

Jared at 4 years old

We took Jared to his well check up last week. Our pediatrician is so nice. Jared was a little nervous about going but not really. He kept asking if he was going to get a "stick". It was pretty much the highlight of the appointment. (The "sticks" are the flavored Popsicle sticks they give to distract kids or make it so they can look in their mouth.) Jared bravely got weighed and measured and is 42 inches tall and 38 pounds and doing well. We were headed to Boo at the Zoo after the appointment so Lydia was already in her costume and Jared was in his sweats and sweatshirt that his costume pulls over.  We told his doctor was going to be a spider so Dr. Lorezell made the appointment more fun for Jared by calling every body part he checked  "The spider ears, or the spider tummy, the spider legs. Jared loved it. We love him!
At 4 years old Jared asks "Why" at least 25 times a day. It is exhausting. I try to answer well but most of my answers just lead to another why. Eventually I get tired of all these why questions and ask him why HE thinks such and such is that way. Sometimes he answers other times he says he doesn't know and sometimes it makes him stop asking me why.
He LOVES garbage trucks and wants to be a garbage man when he grows up. He also still loves "workers." Lately he has been into making up songs.  Often when we are singing in Sacrament meeting he will sing his own songs which are pretty much "garbage trucks, construction workers, trash cans" on repeat while we are singing the hymns.
He really loves his preschool class. He gets super excited to go. I think his teacher is great and the other kids seem nice. In the last 3 months he has become so much more social. I can see how the other kids have influenced him as well in thankfully, mostly good ways.  I always dreaded this because I feared that he would pick up the less then desirable habits of kids which I know sounds really rude but its true. Most of the "habits" are not so much habits but games or ideas which is fun. He often tries to get Lydia to play with him but sadly she has no idea what he is talking about. I am glad he is going but at times think I should have waited another year. Not because he is behind academically but because he does have another year before he can go to kindergarten.  I feel like he keeps up and does well but he is just younger than the other kids. They are all going to kindergarten next year.  I do wish I could have sent him to the first preschool I picked which was just 2 days a week and had a bigger focus on social interaction which is what he really needed, what I could not do at home but oh well.  He is happy to be there. I started doing reading lessons with him but he was not that interested so I decided I wouldn't force it. We will try again in January.
He is very confident in the following:
Letters: all the upper and lower case letters and their sounds. He can write most of them, S 's are pretty tricky still.
Numbers: counting and recognizing them. He can count 1-30 easy but then gets pretty lost. He can count by 10's to 100 and can write out 1- 20 recognizably. 2 's are pretty tricky.
Patterns: He is getting really good at them. He can do most of the ones I start. I don't typically do more then 3 items. Lately we have been doing them with the fall mix of candy (the pumpkins and two types of candy corn) and he loves it.
Geography: over the summer I bought him a magnetic map of the United States.  Each states is a magnet and he knows 31 out of 50 states plus Canada and Mexico. It is his favorite learning time activity.
He has long mastered shapes, colors and matching. He enjoys our art projects especially painting and still loves our bean sensory boxes. It makes the perfect construction site for his workers. Sometimes he loves the kinesthetic or tactile activities like our swamp, or shaving cream play or goop, but other times he is sort of freaked out by it (I thought he would love it all.) He is willing to try almost anything which I appreciate and think is more important. If he tries it and doesn't like it fine but I do want him to try. If only he did as well with vegetables.
I love seeing him learn. I feel like he has grown so much in the last 4 months, not just emotionally but physically. I look over at him and he looks like such a little boy. He is really using his imagination more and is doing really well with imaginative play. He is gaining more confidence in his skills and is a sweet boy. Although he does have a hard time sharing his favorite toys with Lydia and sometimes needs some alone time. He will often say "I need some deep breaths" (that is what we say to him when he is overreacting.) He is still incredibly attached to his blanket and as much as Lydia is a "daddy's girl"he is a "mommy's boy." We do love this little boy!

Boo at the Zoo

Yesterday it was 66 degrees! We already knew we were going to the Zoo to go trick or treating but when we saw that weather forecast we knew it was the day to go. Costumes without coats over them? Awesome.  Jared asked to be a spider this year which is one of the warmest costumes I can think of but it was a lot harder coming up with a warm costume for Lydia. I think its super frustrating to have to wear a coat over your costume. It probably doesn't help that I did not have to wear one growing up because trick or treating in California is pretty great.  Once Jared was fully committed I started thinking what Lydia could be that related to a spider and she became an adorable bumble bee.

Jared and Lydia loved trick or treating.  They both got lots of compliments which made me happy, they are super cute. Sadly, Jared was pretty much exhausted by the time we finished. We had planned to go out to eat after we finished but he was so tired we didn't think he would make it. As we were driving home he kept saying: "Thank you for taking me home." It was cute and funny. Normally he loves to go out to eat because we so rarely do but he could not handle it last night.  It doesn't help that he has decided he is not tired during the day and doesn't need a nap. I think its pretty great that he lasted till he was 4 years old but think we are coming to the last of his naps. I am guessing he will sleep two or three days a week. I did point out to him yesterday that if he had taken a nap instead of just laying in bed he would not be as tired so maybe tomorrow he should take a nap and he is sleeping as I type this up.

Funny Story: We stopped to visit the giraffes and this giraffe was determined to eat Lydia's headband.  You can see by my face that I am not okay with this. He came so close to us with his long tongue reaching out for it. It freaked me out!  Lydia didn't seem too fazed but I was ready to leave right away. 

  Jared was tired so we took a little rest and had some candy. 

After that one rest he decided he needed one like every 2 minutes. Or he just thought he would get more candy if we took more "rests."

 Pretty trees everywhere!

We really do love going to the zoo. It is such a pretty zoo right there in the mountains.  As we drove to the zoo we passed by the prettiest trees and they made me so happy. One day I WILL have trees like this in my yard! I love the leaves on the green grass below.  Perfection.

THE incline

In most cities people live in there are certain things you want to do that are particular to that city.  Here in Colorado Springs one of those things is the Manitou Incline.

In the first picture you can just see the moon at the top of the trail. That is where you end up. Straight up! You hike up these crazy uneven stairs and they just keep going and going. You gain 2000 feet in 3/4 of a mile. The average grade is 41% and 68% at the steepest point.  Its pretty intense. The incline used to be a tram railway for tourists.  It eventually got washed out from rock slides and what not and is now this extreme hike.  It also just became legal to hike this year! People have been hiking it forever (a minimum estimate of 350,000 users a year!) but this spring it finally became official.  My good friend Crystal had hiked it twice this summer and said she would be wiling to go with me so I took advantage of Mark being home for fall break and headed up.  

This is almost to "False Summit." See how crazy those steps are! I was so glad Crystal told me that this was not the top when we started.  It would have been awful to think you were done, get to that pretty tree and then see more of these steps. A lot of people (including the various armed forces here) use this trail as their workout. We saw Joe, this one guy who runs up and down the incline twice every day! Other people (the "regulars" who told us about Joe) would stop and talk to us and casually reply to our question of "how often they hike it?"  "about 4 times a week." I am happy I did it and would do it again but never 4 times in a week. 

The view at the top was amazing and it was a gorgeous day and now I can check it off my list! 

Fall Fun in Old Colorado CIty

The other day I was looking for some fun fall activities to do (again) and read about the Giant Pumpkin event in Old Colorado City. Growers all around Colorado compete to see who can grow the biggest pumpkin and gourds. There were some massive pumpkins!
We left home early so we could stop by the church and help with building clean up. Last week our Bishop's family was there cleaning the whole church themselves which was not cool. I was there for Super Saturday and felt awful! So we spent an hour cleaning the church where Jared was in heaven as we rolled around a big trash can and emptied all the garbage cans then headed over to check out the giant pumpkins.
We got to Old Colorado City and headed over to the pumpkins. Old Colorado City has a cute downtown area with lots of small local shops. It was fun to walk down the tree lined streets while leaves drifted down on us, Oh Fall how I adore you! They also hold Scarecrow Days there each October so as we walked around I had Jared look for scarecrows and point them out to me.  We went to Scarecrow days about three years ago and it was nice to walk around and do it again. It was a beautiful morning.

After we checked out the pumpkins we headed over to the local farmers market. It's in a little park that had a fair amount of leaves in the grass and Jared and Lydia had fun playing in them.  They didn't really know what to do at first because we don't have a yard with leaves and the trees in our neighborhood aren't that big. We quickly showed them how to make piles of leaves and jump in them and to just gather them up and throw them up in the air.  My parents have a large yard with huge trees. We used to spend whole Saturday's raking up all the leaves then jumping in the massive pile. It makes me sad that my kids haven't done that.  I do not love raking leaves but know that the years if experience I got growing up will make any leaves I do have to rake up one day seem like nothing!

As we walked back to the car we passed by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and decided to get some treats. We considered getting a candy apple because they are so Fall like but in all honesty neither Mark or I like them very much. So we got Jared a chocolate-caramel-dipped marshmallow instead. He was thrilled! I got a pretzel rod dipped in chocolate and Mark and Lydia shared a chocolate chip cookie dipped in chocolate. It was a wonderful morning. I love Fall fun and my cute little family.

A week with Grandma Sue

We had a fun week with Grandma Sue. We are so happy she came out to visit us. She read endless amounts of stories, made tents, washed so many dishes, took us out to eat, played at the park, made crafts and hung out with Jared and Lydia so Mark and I could go to the temple and out together a few times. I love seeing Jared and Lydia interact with her and get to know her. We weren't sure how Lydia would react when she got here on Friday but Lydia warmed up to her instantly. She hadn't seen her since July when we went out to Utah but it was like she just saw her yesterday. It was sweet. We can't wait to see her again and for my Mom to come out for Thanksgiving. We love it when our family comes to see us!

Lydia loved this little kitty Grandma Sue brought her! 

We also got our first official snow fall while Grandma Sue was here. Jared was so excited to go play in it!

Happy Birthday Jared!

I love celebrating my kids birthdays! I love making it a special day for them. We had a lot of fun. Jared woke up to his room being filled with balloons and then we made his requested breakfast of monkey bread.

After we got ready for the day Grandma Sue took Jared to the store to pick out his present.  He chose a  miniature garbage truck and got 3 "workers" (digger, excavator, bulldozer).  These items will be a recurring theme.
After he got his presents we headed out to Jared's surprise outing....A bounce house. He had so much fun Saturday at the library we decided it would be the perfect birthday outing. He loved it!  He quickly got over his apprehensions and loved climbing, sliding and bouncing. Lydia loved it too.  She had no fears whatsoever.  The taller the slide the better. They both had a blast.

 This slide was so fast and fun!

We brought our lunch to eat there, (I loved that you could bring your own food in) so we could play as long as possible. When we got home Jared told me he wasn't tired and didn't need a nap and then proceeded to sleep until I woke him up at 3:15. Lydia was wiped out too. Jared played with his new workers (and had a very difficult time sharing) while I worked on his cake which turned out perfect. I loved this cake! There was like no way I could mess it up.  Construction sites are pretty rough. It was delicious as well.

We conducted his birthday interview, a somewhat painful process but worth it. Here are his answers as a 4 year old:

1. What is your favorite color? Blue, yellow, orange and red.
2. What is your favorite toy? Garbage truck, Garbage cans, workers.
3. What is your favorite fruit? Apples
4. What is your favorite movie? Garbage truck and worker videos (YouTube)
5. What do you do well? Play with #4 balloons
6. What do you like to do with Daddy? Play soccer
7. What makes you happy? Playing with my garbage truck and workers
8. What is your favorite scripture story? Hurt Jesus (crucifixion)
9. What is your favorite song? Scripture Power
10. What is your favorite animal? Dogs and bunnies
11. What is your favorite book? Garbage truck and construction workers
12. Who is your best friend? Mommy
13. Where is your favorite place to go? Park and Bounce House
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my bike
15. What is your favorite drink? Milk
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas and Halloween
17. What do you like to do with Mommy? Cuddle
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pumpkin muffins
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Beef Stroganoff
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Garbage Man

I love doing this interview! This year we recorded it and plan to do so each year. As you can see garbage trucks and workers are a very important part of his life right now!

Then he opened presents and was thrilled with what he got.  We got him some garbage cans to go with the amazing Garbage truck my Mom got him. He loves it. He also got one of those huge metal dump trucks. Buying presents was pretty easy.  We ate dinner and enjoyed our cake and ice cream. When Jared got in the bath he said he wanted a short bath so he didn't "waste" any playing time.

We had so much fun celebrating Jared's special day! We are so happy he is ours and we could celebrate his special day.