Halloween

I am still flabbergasted that yesterday was October 30th, but the festivities are over. Idaho is strange like that... But either way, we did all the same stuff, so the day on the calendar doesn't really matter, right? Here's what we did:

Thursday: Boo at the zoo! Weston wore two costumes this year. One for inside activities, one for outside. Naturally, Boo at the Zoo was outside, so he wore his warm costume. My aunt Lisa sent this adorable skunk costume. We were at the zoo for an hour and a half, and yes, Weston wore the ears the entire time!

I told Wes to smile, and this is what he did:

Looking at the animals:

Friday: Carving the pumpkin!

I thought Wes would love helping me with the pumpking, but he took one look at the guts and wanted to do nothing but put the lid back on. (as seen above)

Saturday: we were invited to our old ward's Halloween carnival. Weston didn't want to play any of the games, but it was fun to see some of our friends again.

Weston's other costume was Steve, from Blue's Clues! You would not belive how hard it was to find a long sleeved green-striped shirt. We let his hair grow for a couple months so he could have the awesome combover. I think he looks quite handsome. :)

Here's how the pumkin turned out!

I took Weston to our ward's trunk-or-treat. He loved it so much, so I also took him trick-or-treating, just on our block.

A note for those confused: in Idaho Falls, it is accepted that if Halloween is on Sunday, trick-or-treating is done Saturday. I still think it's weird, but whatever. Either way the kids get candy, right?

Weston quickly figured out that going to a door meant getting candy. What a great rule! When we got home from trick-or-treating, Weston grabbed my hand and tried to get me to keep walking. He had so much fun, and people loved him. One older couple on our block loved him so much, they gave him a whole handful of candy! (I mean a REALLY big handful!)

Wes didn't want to go in the house, so we sat on the step for a while, handing out candy. Since I figured we would be there a while, I took Weston's skunk ears off and relaced them with his hat. (He was wearing gloves, but they got all sticky.) While I handed out candy, Wes went to work eating his own. In the picture below, he literally has almost an entire fun size snickers in his mouth. Somehow he managed to get that down without choking.

Halloween was so much fun this year! I can't wait for next year when Wes can actually say "trick-or-treat" instead of signing "please". Either way, he was the cutest trick-or-treater I've ever seen! :)

Remember when?

Remember when Bryan won the Idaho Falls cook-off in the burger division? Their site finally got around to posting his recipe. I miss those delicious burgers! If you want to give them a try, here's the link:

Wagyu Steak Burger

Update - list style

I haven't had a lot of time for blogging lately, so I've decided to adopt Alicia's blogging technique of "lists."

But before the listing can begin, I have to brag about my husband, the amazing cook! Last year Bryan was a judge in the Idaho Falls cook-off. He's been waiting ever since to enter this year's contest. He entered in the burger category. $80 worth of wagyu meat, plus ciabatta buns, several avocados, homemade cilantro mayo, and an amazing original sauce, Bryan took first place! (And there was even enough meat left for us to have some burgers ourselves!) I am so proud of Bryan for winning, and for working so hard to get what he wants. This is how he goes after everything in life, working hard to excel in school and his job. Thank you for being such an amazing husband and father Bryan!

And now for the list:

• 
  
  We are still waiting for summer to come to Idaho.  We've had a few glimpses with one warm day here and there, but then the rain and/or snow comes back. There is a possibility of snow in Sunday's forecast. Seriously?! It's the end of May.
• 
  
  Aunt Vivi got Weston a rocking horse, which he was terrified of.
• 
  
  Weston does NOT like animals. Dogs, cats, birds, you name it. He does NOT like animals.
• 
  
  But then Weston saw Hannah riding the rocking horse, and got curious. He inched closer and closer while he watched her riding and giggling.
• 
  
  Now the rocking horse is his third favorite-toy.
• 
  
  Nothing can beat the broom for the favorite-toy. But the horse beat everything else, except Bob. Bob the duck goes everywhere.
• 
  
  The only place Bob the duck doesn't go is Grandma Visser's house, because Bentley the dog will eat Bob the duck.
• 
  
  Weston doesn't like Bentley the dog. Weston does NOT like animals. We're working on that, so  Bentley won't have to sit outside whenever we come over.
• Weston still gets sick a lot. If it's not teething, it's an ear infection, or today's case, in which we didn't know what was wrong. Weston had a high fever for 24 hours, which tylenol and motrin combined couldn't kill.
• The thing that finally did kill Weston's fever was a priesthood blessing. It's amazing how the best thing we could do for him was the last thing we thought of. Within 15 minutes of getting a blessing, the fever finally broke, and Weston was our happy, playful boy again.
• My mom is coming to play in 24 days. I am so excited I can barely stand it.
• I'm going to take my mom to Artco, the wonderful land of cheap paper. And we will play cricut. Oh, the joy.
• My mom is coming again in July. Excited much? Yes, I am.
• My dad, Joe, and Danny are also coming in July. I can't wait to have them all here. Joe and Danny haven't been to our house yet.
• I don't work at Ole Toro anymore. I worked hard to do a good job, but there just wasn't enough business. Grand opening day, I had 2 tables in 4 hours. I was planning on turning in my 2 weeks notice, but when I got to work one night, the owner told me I wasn't needed anymore, and that I could go home. Was I sad? Not one bit.
• I thought that going to work would get easier. It didn't. While I did enjoy the work itself, I hated leaving my baby. I hated leaving him more every time I left for work. I hated not being there to put him to bed.
• I will not be looking for another job. I took the job because I thought it would be fun to work with my friend Kristen (which it was). I also thought it would be nice to make some extra money, but really I didn't make much at all. So it wasn't worth it.
• Luckily, I have gotten more hours babysitting during the week, so I still get to make a little extra money, but I don't have to leave my son. I am truly blessed.
• I am currently working on decorating the living room.
• Not RE-decorating, mind you. We have lived in the house for almost a year, and still haven't decorated. This is soon to change.
• Depending on how the decorating turns out, HGTV might want to give me a show. Their budget show, "Design on a Dime", decorates a room for $1000. I am decorating the living room, dining room, and the main hallway for under $300 COMBINED. Yep, I'm a genius. (That includes painting)
• I didn't go out and spend $300 at once. That's not how I roll. I have been planning, sketching, and deal-searching for months.
• I finally took one of the gates down.
• We still have the gate to the kitchen and the beast-of-a-gate in the living room.
• I think the gate in the living room might bring all my design work down a notch. But I know eventually it will go away. Eventually.
• I don't think eventually will be very soon. Weston gets into EVERYTHING.
• Bryan had to put huge bolts in the wall and attach the gate to the bolts with zip ties.
• Weston was REALLY mad when he discovered that he couldn't pull the gate out anymore.
• Apparently 14 months is not too young to start having tantrums. Weston is the mayor of tantrum city when he doesn't get his way.
• Unfortunately, 14 months is too young for time-outs to do any good.
• In addition to getting into everything, Weston also climbs. He climbed up onto the piano. I came out of the kitchen and he was standing ON TOP of the piano. Not on the keys, on the VERY TOP.
• Weston was quite pleased with himself for this stunt. I was quite terrified.
• We are parents of a toddler. Even without Weston around, we say "should we go night night?", "I'm going to get into my jam jams", and "I'm going bye-bye." Hopefully, on the rare occasion that we spend time with other adults, we will be able to remember the correct English words.
• This blog is getting too long.
• You probably stopped reading a long time ago.
• If you didn't, congratulations - you just wasted a lot of time reading about our life.