Happy Halloween!

So this post doesn't have Halloween pictures as it should. We are out of memory again for our blog. We have to go remove some old pictures from posts to get more space. Anyway, I started this post the other day so I thought I should finish and post it. Here are some random things/thoughts going on right now:

*Chandler is totally free of his pacifier. He's a big boy now. Though I think he is acting more like a baby because he isn't sleeping as well so he is extra tired. He has been crying a lot lately.

*He didn't take a nap last Sunday, or Wednesday, OR Thursday. Torture for me. Seriously it puts me in the worst mood ever!

*One of my biggest pet peeves is when guys say something along the lines of, "we're expecting", or "we're due", or "we're pregnant". UGH.....it drives me nuts. YOU ARE NOT PREGNANT! Your wife is. Men can't have babies. I hate it and you can't even imagine how many people do this.

*I am in love with Edward. Yes, you heard right...........me-the one who doesn't read- is reading Twilight. In fact I've had it less than a week and I think I will finish it today (I finished it on Thursday). I can't stop turning the pages. I can't wait to start the second book now.

*Chandler copies everything I do in the bathroom. If he sees me going pee (which happens a lot these days), he immediately follows me in and sits on his little potty and pretends to pee and when I stand up, he stands up and then has to flush for me and then wash his hands. Maybe it's a sign I should potty train?? or not.....I'm not feeling up to the stress of it:)

*Chandler wore his skunk costume to our ward trunk-or-treat on Tuesday. Everyone loved it as always. I'm glad he wore that one because it was freezing outside. Plus we are around all new people so no one knows he wore it last year.

*Tonight Chandler was a golfer. Again, (and I am not bragging) but I have never heard so many people make comments about a costume. EVERY SINGLE person we passed made some sort of comment about loving his costume. I didn't think it was that great. He looked normal to me but then I was thinking most people don't go to church or dress up for church so they aren't used to seeing the sweater vest and everything. To me he basically looked like he was going to church....so of course he was cute!

*I hate heartburn!

I can't think what else I was going to write. I will hopefully get up some Halloween posts in the next few days. And I did promise a prego post last time, so that will come once we have space on our blog.

Chandler Overload

I realized that I have all these pictures I have been meaning to post but I just haven't done it because they are random. So it is your treat tonight to view lots of recent pictures of Chandler. Aren't you lucky??!
Chandler playing some ball with Dad in the backyard. (Note that this picture is dated Oct. 2 and Chandler has on pants and a long sleeve.)
We had the cooler out for our trip we took a few weekends ago and Chandler thought it was super fun to climb in and hide. He waits for you to say, "where did Chandler go?" and then he pops up and laughs. Cute but the game gets old after a while:) He does the same thing in closets and cupboards.
This was a lovely cake that Steve and Chandler made for me (a week after my birthday). Chandler decorated the top and then proceeded to pick everything off and eat it.
One day during Chandler's nap I walked by the back door and there was a little tiny turtle crawling towards the door. I wanted Chandler to see it so I got a bucket and scooped it up to keep it for Chandler to see after his nap. It was so cute and small. Steve let it go down by the woods. We aren't sure where it came from but hopefully it found it's home. (Note this picture was taken Oct. 9 and Chandler is wearing nothing but rain boots outside........hmmmm. Guess the weather here can't make up it's mind.)
Chandler loves talking on the phone. Now if there is someone on the other end......not so much. But pretend talking he is a pro.
This was so cute but I didn't get it on camera. Chandler was holding the phone with his shoulder and had his arm up in the air to keep the phone in place. It was so funny because you know he was totally copying what we do but in an exaggerated way.
"Say Cheese"
We asked Chandler to sign us up for our insurance for next year. HA....j/k he actually isn't allowed to touch the computer because he does bad things to it. Somehow he got a hold of the computer here.
Chandler loves wearing our shoes. He actually usually wears my heels. They are his favorite but I haven't gotten a picture yet because he always does it upstairs and the camera is never up there.
Chandler playing with play dough today. He was so funny because he had his foot on the table and then was trying to make his footprint in the play dough.

Chandler is starting to say a lot more words. He is sort of trying to copy things we say if we ask him to but it usually isn't very close. He is really good at saying please and thank you now.

This week I've been slowly taking away his pacifier. He was waking up at night because it would fall out of his crib so I decided I just needed to bite the bullet and do it. It might be harder for me than Chandler. So far he has only had it during nap and night. Tonight I actually just put him to bed without it and he didn't cry or anything. So hopefully he doesn't wake up in the night for it. I'm hoping by the end of the week we will be pacifier free. He still asks for it during the day if he gets tired or hurt but I just distract him and he gets over it. I also cut the tip but Chandler doesn't seem to really care..........and Chandler has chewed a hole in it.........and it is the only one we have left. So eventually it will be totally destroyed and we just won't have any pacifier.

I can't think of what else I wanted to blog about Chandler. He is just so cute these days and Steve and I are always asking each other how we got so lucky. Our little girl is going to have to be awfully cute to compete with Chandler's cuteness:) I was going to do a pregnancy post but I don't have a picture so hopefully I can get one tomorrow (if I look good enough) and I can do an update. I'm gettin' big..........

TRA-CHTAR!!

Saturday was kind of a busy day. Saturday morning I had a Super Saturday to go to at church. I was in charge of teaching people how to make hair bows. Thankfully not many people were signed up so it wasn't too crazy. It is kind of something you have to do one on one for each person to get it. It was fun but took my whole morning.

When I got home Chandler was in the driveway swinging a field hockey stick. It was super cute. Steve said they had been playing outside for 2 hours. What a good dad.....I never have the patience to stay out with him that long. Plus I always feel like I should be getting things done. I was kind of hoping that Steve would have him fed and down for his nap by the time I got home but oh well, Chandler was happy. He was tired enough that he didn't fight his nap so it was okay.
After Chandler's nap (and mine) we went to a little farm close by. I think Chandler has given up his love for trains and now he loves tractors more. He seriously is always asking for them and pointing them out. There are some new stores going in near us so every time we drive by he gets all excited about the construction vehicles.
We took a hay ride around the farm. Chandler loved the cows and all the old tractors on the farm.
We got to get off at the little animal barn to pet some animals. Chandler liked all of them....the ducks, pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep. He gets so excited by animals. Especially if they start running around or making noise. Nothing beats the petting zoo we went to in Lafayette though. I haven't found one that actually lets you be with the animals. There are always fences and Chandler hates it because he can't get close.
This shows the full out sprint that Chandler took towards the tractor. As soon as he saw it, he seriously just took off from me so fast.
Another picture of Chandler zeroed in on a tractor. (We don't make him wear his hat in his eyes like that. He likes to pull it down himself. Funny kid.)
This is the tractor he was staring at. He stood on that step and was just staring inside the tractor.
This was my attempt at trying to get a cute/artsy picture of Chandler. Of course it didn't work out because he wouldn't cooperate. I wanted him to sit in the middle of the pumpkins and look up at me. It would have been so cute with his face all surrounded by pumpkins. Why can't he just be 6 months old again and stay where I sit him?!? I can't wait to have a baby to take pictures of.

Lazy 5 Ranch

I've been absent from the blog for a while because my sister was in town visiting. She left today and I was sad because I always love having my family visit. On Monday we decided to go to this place called Lazy 5 Ranch. It is kind of like a drive through zoo. You stay in your car the whole time and animals come up to you and you get to see them really close. It turned out to be a TON of fun!! Chandler LOVED LOVED LOVED it.....and so did the rest of us. The above picture is just some of the animals we saw. You can see how close they come. A lot of them just would come stick their head right into your car. There was gross animal slobber all over our car and some on us.

The speed limit is 5 mph so we didn't feel the least guilty taking Chandler out of his car seat. He loved just leaning out the window watching all the animals. We got a lot of wows and whoas out of him.

KateLyn and Chandler watching out of the sun roof. Chandler thought that was pretty cool too.
Our curious little boy. All we had to do was say, "look Chandler" and he was trying to see whatever animal he could.
I'm pretty sure we were telling Chandler to say "cheese". He's a funny and very cute kid.
You can see Chandler's excitement here. I would have let him feed the animals but they are super forceful and the bucket would have gotten knocked right out of Chandler's hands. I almost dropped it more than once!
They also have a little area that you can walk around and see some birds in cages and pet some cows and a fish pond and Chandler's favorite....turtles. He is really good at saying turtle now. I bet if he was allowed he would have climbed right in and tried to ride the turtle.


I almost forgot to post this.......Chandler had his first time driving. He pretends all the time and is ALWAYS playing in the car. But this was for real. He was actually steering the car (while Steve pushed the gas of course). He was in little boy heaven.

It was a really fun day. Chandler fell asleep on the way home and then that evening we got some North Carolina barbecue for KateLyn to try. It was yummy. Then we played Ticket to Ride after Chandler went to bed. I won:) I also won Phase 10 last night:) Anyone want to play a game with me? Just kidding. I almost never win games so this was very lucky of me!

Thanks for coming for a visit KateLyn. She was our very first visitor since we moved here.......so we took good care of her. Now we have bets on who will be our next visitor........any takers??

Halloween Costume Crisis

I have a problem............I can't decide what Chandler should be for Halloween. I know........it's a BIG problem! I just haven't seen any super cute costumes and I can't think of any good ideas. I don't know if he should be something cute or something that he would know what he is. Like a train or something. I also don't think anything can compete with his skunk from last year. He was seriously the cutest thing ever in his costume! So here are some ideas I've sort of tossed around:

• GOLFER- we have most of the pieces to make it work. He would just need some argyle socks. He would love having a golf club to carry- though it is potentially very dangerous:)
• SNAKE- he LOVES snakes and would totally know what he was. The problem is I would have to make it. Feeling too lazy for that.
• PUMPKIN- I was thinking of making my stomach into a pumpkin so Chandler and I could match. I could easily buy one or maybe make one if I felt up to it.
  
• TRAIN- Chandler LOVES trains but it kind of out of the question because the only train costume is Thomas and we try not to encourage just Thomas and plus the costume is kind of ugly.

I can't think of any other ideas right now. I wish we had two kids because then you can do a theme and that seems easier to me. So my question is what are all your kids being for Halloween? I need some more ideas. Please share............

Our overnighter- waterfalls and apple picking

I guess I can say it was for my birthday that we went on a little trip. We drove west to the mountains. The place I wanted to go apple picking is just over 2 hours from us so we figured instead of driving that far for just apples we would make a little trip out of it. We left Friday after Steve got done with his work. We stayed in a hotel and Chandler was surprisingly really good. He went to bed later than normal and I ended up having to hold him and sing to him to get him to sleep but I'll take that over screaming in an hotel room.
On Saturday morning we got up and ready and drove 15 minutes to DuPont State Forest to hike and see some of the many water falls. Steve informed me that some of the scenes from Last of the Mohicans were filmed at all these water falls. He even made me watch the last scene on YouTube Friday night. This is the first time we got to try out our new backpack carrier for Chandler. He was pretty good in it. I think he just has to get used to being confined and not being able to walk and explore.
Poor Chandler started getting a runny nose on Friday so the whole trip he had snot coming down his face. He didn't act too sick and was happy the whole time so I don't think he feels too sick......just a runny nose. I think he got it from our neighbor...
This was the first waterfall we got to. Can I just say that I am really out of shape!! It is amazing what just 13 extra pounds can do to you. I guess Steve was carrying more weight than that because Chandler is almost 30 pounds I think. I shouldn't complain I guess.
This waterfall was from the same place we parked but a different direction and only a 1/4 mile walk. So we let Chandler walk to this one. The middle picture is him being crazy and doing his old man walk that we haven't seen in a long time. I had forgotten that he even used to walk like that. He had a blast walking and exploring and throwing rocks into the water.
Too bad Chandler wouldn't look at the camera.
After we were done hiking. I fed Chandler a little lunch and then we drove 25 minutes to the apple orchard. Chandler fell asleep so we let him sleep in the car for a while. By this time it had gotten hot outside so apple picking was a little less fun. Also the fact that there was only two kinds of apples you could pick. I have been so disappointed by apple picking every year. If you remember, we haven't had much luck. Steve even admits that the best apple picking was when we did it in Maine. I guess no place can compete with my childhood memories of picking apples in Maine (plus Maine has my two favorite varieties- Cortland and Macintosh). Chandler called the apples "balls" and kept picking them and throwing them. The picture of him with the apple in his mouth is the closet we've been able to get him to eating an apple. He didn't even take a bite.
This is our favorite picture from the trip. Chandler tried so hard to get apples off and he made grunting noises and strained and pulled. It was pretty funny to watch.
The good thing about the orchard was they had some goats and a llama that Chandler couldn't get enough of. We really need to find a good farm around here to bring Chandler to.

Here are links to our past apple picking adventures: 2005, 2006, 2007.

After we were done at the orchard we drove home. Chandler didn't sleep but was very good and happy. When we got home we actually caught the last hour of conference and then Steve mowed the lawn (first time in 3 weeks!). It didn't look that bad though, the grass has stopped growing as much. Then it was an early bed time for Chandler and Steve got ready to go to Priesthood session. I sat at home and actually picked up cleaned a little and then watched Mr.&Mrs. Smith on TV. Kind of a weird movie but not bad. Glad I didn't pay for it though.

Happy Birthday To Me........2 days ago!

First I have to say Happy Birthday to my Dad today! I always liked having a birthday close to his. Mine was on Tuesday.....I turned the big 2-5. That means I am half the age as my mom. That is kind of weird. I'm half way to 50!
We started off the day with sleeping in until 7. Good ole' Chandler is an early riser. At least Steve took him downstairs and I stayed in bed until 7:20. Then I wanted crepes for breakfast but they take so long because you can only cook one at a time and I would end up making them.........so I told Steve I wanted donuts. He was really nice and went to the store and got some. They were so yummy!
Chandler thought they were really yummy too. What a great way to start your day.....lots of donuts and chocolate milk! It amazes me how children are drawn to sprinkles. I personally think they are gross but Chandler saw the donut with sprinkles and that was the one he had to have. Of course he ate the chocolate and sprinkles off the top.

Then we went about our normal day to day activities. Story time at the library, playing outside, lunch, nap, more playing outside. Then when Steve was done with work (he's working from home this week), we got ready and went to eat at Chili's. It was very disappointing. We had a gift card so at least we didn't spend any real money or I would have been mad. I'm just not impressed with restaurants these days. Too expensive and not very quality food. I do love Chili's chips and salsa though. Chandler also doesn't make eating out very fun. He doesn't eat in the first place and all he wants to do is run around and look at people. Oh, and Steve saw a mouse trap in the restaurant. That's always a good sign!.....haha, yuck!

After eating I had to go deliver some goodies to the people I visit teach. I know, very last day of the month and I didn't even visit them. This is the first month we've missed since I've been assigned to visit teach though. Oh, the treat I made is on my other blog. Go check it out....they were really good!

When we got home from that, Chandler wanted some ice cream before bed so of course I gave him some:) Since I didn't get a cake or candles or anything I decided I would make the box of ice cream into my cake. How ghetto is that?!
Chandler wanted a turn with blowing out the candle too. He actually blew it out himself and was so excited.
Then he got tired of trying to scoop ice cream with his spoon so he solved that problem. Don't worry, we won't give this ice cream to any guests!

Thanks to everyone for the phone calls and cards. I loved them all!