October 2012

      October began with J and I leaving the kids at his parents house and going to Moab, just the two of us!  J is a member of a jeep four wheeling group call NAXJA (North American XJ Association). Throughout the year they plan get togethers and find fun trails to run together. Every October they all go to Moab for their Fall Fling. J wasn't able to make it the last two years because I had just had a baby both years. So this year we made sure we went.
     This year J was a trail leader for two trails: Golden Spike and Moab Rim.

How many men does it take to fix a u-joint? 3!

Rock face

After picking up the kids.

       Baby Z has always been such a good eater. There is nothing she won't eat and she seems to eat non-stop. Lately, she eats herself to sleep.

      We got the kids some shoes for winter. Baby Z absolutely LOVES her new boots.

      I could tell she felt beautiful walking around in them.

      Baby J likes to drag us to the guitars, pick one out and have us play. Sometimes, J has Baby J play.

      My parents invited us to their ward Halloween party. They had a costume contest and each age group go on stage to be judged. Baby J saw all the little kids on stage and dragged my dad up. Baby Z, seeing this, had Aunt A take her too. Once up there, Baby J did not like it.


It's hard to tell but Baby J is supposed to be Steve, from Blue's Clues.

 The weekend before Halloween we took the kids to our local pumpkin patch. We didn't realize our camera battery was dead, so this was the only picture we got. The kids did enjoy walking around and being allowed touch everything.

Here are our finished jack-o-lanterns.

From left to right: J, Baby Jason, Baby Z, Me.

     We went to my sister's house again to trick-or-treat. I decided to bring some food with me this year to help out.

Mini pumpkin pies, Roll bones, and string cheese broom sticks.

 
 
 
 

Baby Z in her bee costume.

     Baby J liked going trick-or-treating as long as his cousin P or Aunt H was holding his hand. Baby Z just like sitting in the stroller, holding her bucket and playing with glow sticks.

     Here you can see my costume, although my head is chopped off in this picture. I was a super hero. Baby J ended up being a fire man.

TWO!!

  Since Baby J loves to go fast we decided to take him to Jungle Jim's for his birthday. Turns out it is reasonable. It was $15 for both our kids to have all day soft play and rides. Adults are free with kids!
Baby J immediately wanted to go on the jeeps.

      Then, he saw the bumper cars. He barely met the height requirement so I rode with him.

 He LOVED it! We rode them 3 times!

  He also loved the soft play. My little sister came with us and climbed into the pit with the kids. She showed Baby J where to go to slide down the slide and he had a blast.
     A boy gets pretty thirsty after all that play. It's a good thing Daddy got a Pepsi, it's Baby J 's Favorite!

 I thought Baby J would enjoy making the plane fly up and down. Boy was I wrong. Poor Aunt H  felt like a monster.

 After a nice family nap at home Grandmas and Grandpas came over and gave him some presents. The unwrapping was acceptable.

BabyJ loves peanut butter cups but they make him gag, so I made him a peanut butter cup-cake. We're not sure how he felt about it because he liked off some frosting then took Granma D upsatairs and fell asleep on her lap for a bit.

After everyone left we got his bubble machine working. I am such a genius. It was a huge hit!

Happy Birthday Baby Z!

 Baby Z turned one!

Her "Bee" day cake.

 J wanted Baby Z to have a bee cake for her birthday. I was able to figure out how to make this cute one.

 Baby Z had a late start to her day. But I figured, it's her birthday, she can sleep in. I slowly got her dressed while she watched Blue's Clues.

We met up with the cousins at the park to play for a little while.

She sure loves to swing!

After we got back we had some lunch and the kids lounged about watching... Blue's Clues (it's Baby Z's favorite).

Then grandmas and grandpas came over, we unwrapped some presents and had cake and ice cream.

She ate lots of cake and ice cream!
I think all in all, she had a pretty good first birthday.

Tuesdays with the Cousins

  At the start of the summer my sister and I decided to have a play date once a week. This is pretty much how it goes every week:
     The kids and I arrive at Aunt Steen (as we call her)'s house around noon, usually with some food.
We set up the umbrellas and spread out blankets. Then we picnic. Baby J insists on playing in the water. He'll join us on the blankets now and again, but just for chips and a quick drink, then it's off to dip his sandals in the pool and drink.

Baby Z decided to brave the sprinkler for the first time.

This must have been comfortable.

Best Cousins Forever!

Mad libs

      We do this until my kids get too tired to keep happy.Baby J will usually let me know he's ready to go home, by opening the door to the car.
     We all love it! My kids get to play with their cousins and I get to hang out with my sister! I'm so glad we decided to do this.

Independence Day

 The fourth of July we spent with J's parents. We had yummy homemade hamburgers and fries followed by fireworks. Baby J LOVED the fireworks. Baby Z, on the other hand, was very scared of most of them. Especially the great, big, loud illegal ones the neighbor was setting off.
We did have one small mishap. A small aerial tipped over and shot into the back yard. My father-in-law went to check the damage and calmly says "Oh, there's a fire." Luckily a neighbor was already on the scene, with a hose.

Miss Z

Mr. J

A piano duet.

J and Baby J playing on the trailer, waiting for it to get dark.

Vernal

 The last few months J's band has played several shows in Vernal. Since Vernal is home to many dinosaur museums we decided to take the kids this past weekend.

The kids on the way there.

  We got there about 2:30pm and had some lunch before going to one of the museums.
As it turns out Baby Z is a VERY bad traveler. When she got out of her car seat she would only have mommy hold her, and she would have nothing to do with the stroller.

Baby J in the cave.

 This was the kids' favorite area. It had a little tunnel they could walk through, and an area to dig for fossils.

Baby Z in the cave.

J and Baby J digging for fossils.

 Out side the museum were lots of dinos. Some even looked in the windows so you could see them while inside.

Woolly Mammoth.

The boys with the mammoth.

 Once outside, Baby J took off. J managed to hold onto him long enough for me to get the above picture. But once he was put down he ran. I chased after him and he stopped here at the triceratops.

 But he broke the rules and went behind the rope.
Once our party caught up with us, Baby J was off again. I chased him to the gold fish pond. I had to grab him a few times to keep him from jumping in.

 After we left the museum we were all ready for big nap. We were able to get a free room because J's band was playing that night and were compted rooms. After a short nap, we ordered a pizza and found out that the show was going to be earlier than expected and was all ages. We certainly picked a good day to take the family.

Baby J getting antsy next to a sleeping Baby Z.

My in-laws had gone with us so J and his dad headed to the show at 8:00 and half an hour later his mom and I gathered up the kids and headed over.
Baby Z was very cranky and fell asleep after a short walk in the stroller. Baby J likes to always be on the move, so when we stopped moving so we could watch the show, he insisted Grandma follow him around.

J play'n

Baby J and Grandma

 After the show we packed up and left. We figured since the show was earlier than expected, we could arrive home at 1am and sleep in our own beds rather the original plan: J return to the hotel at 1am, we sleep there and return home in the morning.
The only set back was our bad traveler. Baby Z screamed for 50 minutes straight. Nothing calmed her. Luckily after she finally fell asleep, she remained asleep the remaining 2-1/2 hours of the trip.