Sugar Cookies

We have a really fun Halloween tradition with my family. We get together the week before Halloween & frost sugar cookies! It is so fun - and everybody is always so creative! Derek really had a lot of fun with the cookies. I frosted a few for him & let him decorate them! As you can see- he also decorated his head with frosting! Who needs gel, huh? I can't remember why he was pulling this face, but I thought it was cute! He really had a lot of fun with the cookies, frosting & candy!

Decorating a cookie!

It was fun because the whole gang was there! (Grandpa isn't in the picture, but he was there too!)

My mom always gets so many goodies to decorate the cookies with! And of course we eat a bunch of the treats before they ever make it onto a cookie! Thanks again Nanny, we all had a lot of fun!

What a fun little boy!

We just have so much fun with Derek! He's SO sweet! These are just some fun pictures that we've taken recently.

We tried his Halloween costume on the other night - just to make sure it fit. Isn't he a cute baby batman? Also, we bought these little pumpkins for him & he has had so much fun carrying them around! More pumpkins.

He lined all the pumpkins ("pumpies" as he calls them) up on the couch & then climbed up there and pointed to the tv and said "Football!" So, he & the pumpkins are ready for the game!

Derek got my Nintendo DS out of the case and turned it on and got the stylus out by himself! I didn't know kids this young could play video games, ha ha!

Scooter's feet were cold and so Ryan slipped some of his socks on Derek's feet - and he loved it! He wore Ryan's socks until the next morning when I got him dressed!!

Cousins

I took this picture a few weekends ago when we were all at my moms house! I love it when Mauri & Scooter play & have fun together! I have fun memories with my cousins and I'm so glad that Mar and Derek are friends! Derek loves to see Mauri! He finds pictures of her at our house and he will carry them around and say "Mar Mar!" And he is always super excited when we go to Nanas and Mar Mar is there too!!

A Sweet Surprise

Yesterday morning I stepped on the scale in our bathroom, and lo and behold, my weight was half of what it usually is! Yay hooray! Scooter had pushed something that changed the weight from pounds to kilograms. I am really half tempted to leave it like that. I know that nothing is really different, but I sure liked seeing the kg number rather than the pounds! Tee hee!

Got Milk?

Sometimes after the milk carton is empty, Derek likes to play with it! I thought this was so funny! I wonder where he learned to do that.... tee hee!

It is just SCARY...

...that I have lived in this town for most of my life and I never knew that it was a celebrity hang out spot! Seriously! Several weeks ago we were driving somewhere & I saw Jack Nicholson driving a dump truck! How incognito is that? Then, the very next day Scooter & I were driving home, and we saw Hurley from "Lost" - riding a bike! Wow.... Okay, when we got closer I realized that not only was it not Hurley, but it was a girl! I sent out my silent apologies as quickly as possible!! After seeing those two, okay, that one celebrity, I have been keeping my eyes peeled when we are out & about, and we have spotted: ZZ Top driving by Walmart, Zac from the show "Bones" - we also saw Cory Snyder the baseball player (I'm totally serious about that one!!), Dwight from "The Office", Duff from "Ace of Cakes", Dennis Quaid (both of those celebs were seen by Aubs at work!), and Ryan and Aubs have seen Sayed (Sayeed?!?) also from "Lost" at the gym they go to! How amazing?! So, if you live in our town - keep your eyes open and you might just be surprised who you see! Hollywood can't keep their secret hideout a secret very much longer! Tee hee!

The Aquarium

This past weekend we went up to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We have been wanting to go check it out for a while, so it was really fun to be able to go! Scooter was really excited to see the fish!

They had this fun play area - and this nice lady offered to take a picture of all 3 of us!
They had these little benches that kids could stand on so they could see the fish! It was really cool, and Derek loved being able to stand there & watch the fish! I just thought this picture was too cute not to post! They had this "Utah Water" area - and Scooter had fun leaning through the fence!
I love the bright colors of these fish!
Scooter & Daddy checking out a big fish!

Catching Some Zzzzzz's...

So, Ryan fell asleep in what I thought was one of the most unusual places Ever! He had a dentist appointment last week - and he totally fell asleep while he was there! And, he was having a cavity filled - not just his teeth cleaned. He told me he was just listening to his MP3 player - and going to the dentist doesn't really make him nervous (apparently!!) - and the next thing he knew he kind of twitched and he was waking up! I really could not believe it when he told me that! I asked what the dentist did, because honestly I'm sure they don't see that everyday, and Ryan said he was kind of chuckling. How Funny!

"Come What May, & Love It!"

Don't you love General Conference weekend? I love how uplifting the whole weekend is! One of my favorite talks was Elder Wirthlin's. He really inspired me to try harder to just laugh about things rather than getting upset about them! I loved the quote from his mom: "Come what may, and love it." :) Isn't that great? When he told the story about driving to Cedar City, and not realizing they took a wrong turn until 2 hours later when they saw a "Welcome to Nevada" sign, I thought: Oh, I can definitely laugh about spills and poopy (poopie?!) diapers that end up getting all over! I thought his talk was such a good reminder that it really is better to laugh if we can! So many times I think: I'll laugh about this later. But I'm going to try harder to just laugh about it now!!

Another Great Book Club!

We had book club last Thursday and, as always, it was a lot of fun! This month we read "A Thousand Splendid Suns," by Khaled Hosseini. It is a really good book - but it's really sad too. It really makes me appreciate living in America - especially being a woman & living here! I told my mom & sisters that after they read this they would understand my fear of being stuck in Afganistan. It is really interesting to learn about their history, though. This is a list of rules that the Taliban enforced after they took over: (this is just part of the list) "All citizens must pray five times a day. If it is prayer time & you are caught doing something other, you will be beaten. Singing is forbidden. Dancing is forbidden. Playing cards, playing chess, gambling, & kite flying are forbidden. Writing books, watching films & painting pictures are forbidden. If you steal, your hand will be cut off at the wrist. If you steal again, your foot will be cut off. Attention women: comsetics are forbidden, jewelry is forbidden. You will not wear charming clothes. You will not make eye contact with men. You will not laugh in public. If you do, you will be beaten. You will not paint your nails. If you do, you will lose a finger." etc. etc.
Lins had what I thought was a really beautiful point about the story. She said that even though it is sad - it is really a love story. Not necessarily a "romantic" love story, but a story about all different kinds of love. I wish I could remember exactly how she said it, because it is definitely true! Reading this book helped me appreciate the countless blessings & freedoms I have! And it really is about love. I don't know how anyone could live under those circumstances without having love.