Ride the Train, See the Lights

We took one little boy who is crazy about lights, trains, and lights on and around trains on a train trip downtown to see the Christmas lights.

Waiting at the station means seeing trains come and go, which was lots of fun.

It was cold and misty, but the lights were beautiful even in the fog.

We tried our best to keep Draper warm as he was missing Carrie.

And took lots of pictures of Dynna and Ryan keeping each other warm that are destined for their wedding video.

At the end of our tour of lights poor Zeke was frozen and ready to go home. He was generally disagreeable until we told him we were going to ride the train again, which made him very happy as he shivered. It was a memorable night he's been talking about ever since.

Have a Nifty Thrifty Christmas

Before Thanksgiving we decided to put our spending plan on a budget. With debts we want to pay off and things we want to save for, it was time to really control more regular expenses like grocery shopping and hobby spending. It's been one of those 'growth experiences', the kind that are difficult but beneficial. There have been some growing pains, but I have learned a lot.

I've discovered that I have more food storage than I thought. It's not much, but there were a few things in my pantry that I had been avoiding, mostly because I wasn't sure what to do with them and didn't want to take the time to find out. It really didn't take long to figure it out and now I wonder why I didn't do it sooner! I have also been reading my friend Heather's parsimonious blog, which has me thinking about new and creative ways to save money.

We did most of our Christmas shopping with cash back from the credit card we want to pay off. I think our Christmas gifts get fewer every year, and our Christmas joy and peace and love get larger every year. To me this is a direct correlation. Giving gifts to the people we love is important to us, and keeping it simple means we feel love and not stress.

Aaron got a gift card for an office supply store; a 'thank you for spending a lot of money in printer toner at our store this year' sort of thing. So we went shopping for office supplies and Aaron had his spreadsheet out to record all of our potential purchases and calculate the tax, wanting to use the whole gift card without spending anything extra. When he paid for his order, the cashier was stunned that the total was exactly the amount of the gift card. I'm still impressed, and we were both exhilarated. It was fun to accomplish something like that.

I guess we're taking 'cheap thrills' to a new level.

Tis The Season

There's something wonderful about Thanksgiving weekend. The chance to be with family, the good festive food, and gratitude and reminders of how blessed we are - which is a great way to begin the transition into the Christmas season.

For the first time this year, we had Thanksgiving at our house, just the 3 of us. We cooked a turkey and potatoes and pies and had a great time together. (And that turkey will continue to feed us through next week!) Thanksgiving Day was a beautiful day for a walk and to just be together.

Friday we put up and decorated our Christmas tree.

And we did all of our Christmas shopping, plus grocery shopping for the next couple of weeks. All on a very tight budget (thanks to those turkey leftovers, plus Grandpa A's potatoes and carrots).

The rest of the weekend allowed for plenty of time at home, for finishing our decorating, and for wrapping our presents.

And we continue to enjoy every magical moment.

Notable November Happenings

About a week ago I looked at the calendar and realized that the first half of November had disappeared somehow without me realizing it. Maybe it's because we've kept busy with yard projects and fall fun.


We went flying between storms,

Zeke enjoyed our 'I voted' stickers,

we raked lots of leaves (this big bag is just half of our small back yard),

and played in the leaves,

watched snow come (and then go away, and then come back again),

enjoyed mini marshmallows,

and re-laid the path between our back door and parking area (more to come on that big project).

Pink Train

I love this picture Aaron took in Japan.

One day I'll see something like this in person.

The Taste of Fresh Laundry

Aaron has apologized profusely for passing the clothes-chewing gene to Zeke. He says it just might be payback for how much he irritated his own mother.

Zeke has chewed on his crib blankets for a while now; it was soothing to a kid who wouldn't take a binky and preferred to go to sleep in Mom or Dad's arms with his bottle in his mouth. This summer he took up chewing on his collars, both of jackets and 'church shirts' (polos). And what do you do - it's not like we can take his shirt away from him ... although he has worn fewer polos in attempt to corral the clothes chewing to a Sunday-only activity. He has since extended eligibility for chewing to long sleeves and pants (usually when they are not on his body, but sometimes when they are). In the past couple of days he unfortunately has also taken to chewing tshirt collars - he really is his father's son.

And, as we're finding out, it's not just what he happens to be wearing at the time. He has tried to chew on my shirts and tried once or twice to get my jacket collar into my mouth for me. Also recently, Zeke was helping load wet clothes into the dryer and I saw him take a quick nibble at his denim shorts before he threw them in. Later, while folding the laundry, he was trying to make a full meal of them. Mmmm, tasty.

Halloween Festivities

Zeke's costume was simple and unique this year:

And we have loved decorating our new place.

We had a lot of fun at a ward party and trunk-or-treat last night. Zeke and I made one trip around the parking lot collecting various candies, one otter pop, and one bag of microwave popcorn (which I think is an awesome treat). Zeke really got in to the trick or treat spirit this year and learned to hold up his treat bucket and say something resembling 'trick or treat!' and we are still working on the 'thank you' afterwards. Then we returned to our car and Zeke was happy to sit and help Aaron distribute Smarties while munching his own. And we made some amazingly beautiful and delicious cupcakes to share.

Mommy, Take My Picture!

2 1/2 going on 16

Today in church the sacrament prayer had just been said and Zeke says "Zeke bless it". Explained that he had to wait until he was 12 to recieve the Aaronic preisthood and then 16 to be set apart as a priest before he could bless it.

Looked over at Manndi and said who knows what his attitude towards the whole thing will be like then. Blink and we'll probably be there. :D

It's Autumn Time

Love the leaves, all season long.

Sign Post

A couple of weeks ago while Zeke and I were outside I wandered out to the sidewalk to look down the street, and Zeke came with me. When he saw the street sign just up the block, he insisted we walk to it. So we did.

And he played in the rocks...

Then we walked to the next street sign and Zeke insisted that I take a picture there too.

And then we found a stop sign, and Zeke stopped to visit.

We turned the corner, saw some more street signs, and turned around to come home. I tried to point out the speed limit sign but I think the big rock was more interesting.

I never thought of going on a sign walk, but apparently Zeke did - and I'm glad he shared it with me.

Here a Book, There a Book

One night not too long after we moved, I offered to read Zeke some bedtime stories. We both enjoyed reading books and did it again a few nights later. That was all it took, and now we officially have a bedtime story routine. Zeke won't let me put him to bed without reading at least a couple of books. (Really he deserves most of the credit for keeping the routine going.)
I've found that I really enjoy our reading time and I should have made this happen about 2.5 years ago. We usually read about 10 or 15 minutes, longer on the few nights that we are actually on time with the bedtime routine.

Zeke's favorite books (this week anyway):
- Are You My Mother?
- I Love Trains
- B is for Bear
- Fish Eyes
- 123 Peep

Our favorite books to read to him (not appearing above):
- Hand Hand Fingers Thumb
- But Not the Hippopotamus
- I Like It When

Planes on the Lake

About a month ago we went to a fantastic float fly. The weather was perfect and Utah Lake was actually pretty in spots.
Now if only we had a float plane ...

Shopping Shopping

We went grocery shopping last night and Zeke found a shopping cart just his size.

He pushed it along proudly, gathering goldfish crackers, pancake mix, bread, paper towels, bandaids, sausage, raisins, and a few other things. He also tried to gather a few random loose eggs we found in the refrigerator section, but we made him put them back. We quickly found out he only had two speeds, running and stopped. To his credit, he was very good about stopping when we told him to, but we still had several run-ins with the store displays. He insisted on pushing the cart all by himself, and any attempts to help steer the small cart were met by shrieks of protest and immediate prying off of the adult guiding hand. Probably the funniest moment was in the produce section, where thee store had anti-fatigue mats down to help mitigate slippery floors and Zeke had to drive on the 'road'.

Our last stop was the pharmacy, and while I was at the counter Zeke was driving crazy and Aaron told him that he would be in the big cart if he crashed one more time. As I finished up, Zeke crashed into a sign and almost knocked over a display. He promptly received the promised consequence, and we had a complete breakdown between the joint supports and the travel-size toiletries. Zeke was so upset at being taken away from his shopping cart that he didn't hear Aaron telling him he needed Zeke to walk his cart to the checkout. Finally Zeke got returned to his cart and after some convincing walked down to check out.

It was the most exhausing shopping trip we've ever been on. Several of the other shoppers commented on how cute Zeke was with his little cart. I have to wonder if the other parents were thinking to themselves, 'Sure glad it's them and not us'.

Where the Water Flows

End of last month we had a say-farewell-to-Carrie-temporarily party, consisting of picnic dinner and nature walk. The scenery was beautiful and we all had a great time.

We were outside, there were trees, there was water, we went walking, and Grandma and Grandpa brought root beer, so Zeke was a happy camper!

I'll have you know I coordinated this family picture (love the self-timer setting on our camera!). It was high time we had one too - the last one we had was well before Zeke and Carrie.

What a lovely way to spend an end-of-summer Saturday.