Papa, Momma and Baby Bear

So tonight was Anders' first Halloween party, and our first party with a baby. We purchased Anders' costume about two months ago when we were browsing the baby Gap. He was three months at the time. We figured we should probably go with the 6-12 month costume size if we wanted Anders to fit into it by Halloween. We tried it on him two weeks ago and were worried it might not fit him on Halloween. Luckily, it fit him just right. Our 20 pound five month old...

Our ward was throwing a Halloween party with a costume contest. We kind of wanted to compete, and not be completely lame showing up dressed normally while Anders looked so dang cute. So we decided to copy him and only look a little lame. We were the three bears! Maybe we can be this again next year. David was saying that if Anders keeps his blond hair, he could be "Golden Locks" and if we had another baby (a big "if") he/she could wear Anders costume from this year.

So here we are as the Three Bears from behind. We got little decoration pillows from the craft store for stubby tails.


Happy Papa and Momma Bear, Baby Bear feeling a little too warm.


Momma Bear decided to compete against the other momma's in the ward in the donut eating contest. I would have won, but a piece of my donut fell on the floor. I was debating eating it off the floor and by the time I looked at David and got his stamp of approval for doing it, I was a little too late.


Anders has started hibernating early with the help of Bishop Williams.


He was very stubborn about staying in hibernation mode all the way home. I tried to wake him and he knew I was trying, so he stubbornly squeezed his eyelids closed tighter and refused. He is seriously the funniest little person.


David caught me on video during the donut eating contest. Momma bear has an appetite...haha. Don't judge me!



David also competed in the pie eating contest. He won! It was a close call though. The guy in the lead was quite a bit ahead of David, and then he turned green and had to run to the hall and "spit-up?" all of his pie. No one else was even close to David by the time they were done. So we won a gift card for ice-cream. Or HE won a gift card for ice-cream that will help HIM dote on ME. I didn't realize I had the camera while he was doing the contest or I would have gotten it on camera too.

Fire in the hole!

This is David writing today: So Anders was sitting in the bumbo on the kitchen table while Momma and I were eating lunch today. He learned that he could knock things over... and his favorite was Momma's 1 liter water bottle. He knocked it over the first time and I caught it on the way down and set it back up. I then went back to my sandwich and he knocked it over again...

This time, no catching by me but instead it hit my mini can of Pringles I was eating with my sandwich and catapulted them across the kitchen. Boom! Pringles were flying through the air and Momma and I both couldn't register what had happened. There ended up being Pringles all over the floor with little tiny pieces everywhere from the impact of the water bottle. I looked up at his face... and he had this expression like: Why didn't you pick the bottle back up again for me? What are you doing down on the floor picking up those orange things when you could be setting this back up?

Cute boy! And smart... too smart.

Belly Laughing

The other day when I was in the kitchen doing dishes, I had to resort to all sorts of silly games to keep Anders patiently in his bumbo. I started to bob my head really fast from side to side, which he thought was hilarious because he was too slow to follow me back and forth. So he would stop trying and wait for me to stop and suddenly appear in front of his face. When David got home from work I wanted to show him how funny the game was. David caught the video after Anders had been laughing that hard at me for almost five minutes. It was so funny I could barely breathe. I haven't had such a good laugh in a while. It was definitely a full belly laugh for both of us.

FUGITIVE

We planned a HUGE game of Fugitive for all our married friends. And boy did it take a lot of planning. The first step was the invitations. Most people had never played Fugitive (a type of cops and robbers but for grown-ups) so the invitations had to be amazing or people wouldn't show up. They were custom made by yours truly. Here's one we made for a friend:




The next step was creating an awesome directive for the fugitives and the cops. We had our friends with babies be the cops so that they would be able to play too. The fugitives had five destination points where they were required to take a picture for proof that they went to all 5. The cops knew of the destinations and boundaries but were not allowed to cherry-pick. Couples had to stay together (we didn't want any of the wives to be left alone in the dark because their husbands were too competitive).




Then the day before preparations commenced. I was an over-achiever in my dessert choices. It took us Friday night and almost all day Saturday to make all the desserts so they would look just right.








AND THE WINNER OF ALL THE DESSERTS? STRAWBERRY CAKE BITES


We also put together the photo directory for the cops on Saturday with all the people that RSVPed. Due to rainy weather and BYU, a few people had to drop out of the game just before it started. Three couples came down with something the day of, and two had to cancel because of school projects. We still had 15 couples show for the game, and everyone had a blast!!! David and I were only able to go out and be cops for 20 minutes, but we were able to catch four couples and spot one more before it was time for us to go back home to wait for the first fugitives to start trickling in. Anders was a great cop with us. He fell asleep two minutes after getting into the car. I don't know how he did either because I was the driver and a little bit crazy! I peeled the tires twice because the road was wet, and I would slam on the brakes to let David jump out and chase people down. I even followed a couple around a bank twice because I couldn't figure out who they were. We were very lucky that nobody got hurt!

We had 3 gift card prizes when everyone finally got back to our house. The couple who got back in the fastest amount of time without being caught won the biggest prize (a $25 gift card to Olive Garden). The second prize went to the runner-up couple (a $10 gift card to Coldstone). And there was also a prize that went to the cop with the most points (Two movie tickets).

There is no way Fugitive game night could have happened without the teamwork of David and myself. He was so great to help me make it happen. It is totally do-able for anybody and people just love playing even if there are not desserts and prizes afterward.

Pause Please

Anders is growing up too fast. He is now pushing his elbows into things behind him so that he can sit up. Hasn't quite figured it out so he continually gets into some really interesting positions that get him worked up. I am trying to give him his space though so that he can learn how to do things on his own. It is so hard not to be there to fix everything right away for him, but I have got to learn how to do it now.

Anders loves playing with Daddy! This picture captures it perfectly!!!



The following pictures are of his new hats for the cold weather.





This is the sound that he makes when he is trying to put himself to sleep. He does it the most often while I am getting ready after we shower and he is ready for his first nap of the day. It cracks me up!!! I thought I would get it on camera...so I did catch some of it, but the minute this kid sees the camera (like most babies) he stops everything to stare at the pretty shiny thing.

Instructions to Make a Baby Gym

This project is so easy we were able to assemble it in Home Depot. When you buy the pieces, the PVC piping comes in two-foot lengths. So be sure to have an employee cut them for you in the store. You can even choose other pieces to create your own unique baby gym.

These are all the parts needed to assemble the homemade play gym. Total: $12.91.


This is a corner piece. 3/4 inch PVC, 90 degree corner pieces. Need 4.


This is the cross piece. Need one.


This is one of the leg caps. Need 4.


This is the top of the play gym. It uses the one cross piece, and 4 - one foot pieces of 3/4 PVC pipe.


This is a leg. It is made up of a cap, one 18 inch piece of 3/4 PVC pipe.


This is the final product of the play gym. We are going to buy fabric to make sleeves for the pipes. We will post picture once we have time to finish that little project. Maybe for our next FHE.

Following the Prophet

So tonight for our family home evening we decided to follow the counsel of the general authorities from the latest conference and read the talk by President Ezra Taft Benson entitled, "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet". We had a great discussion about the fourteen points and then sang primary songs with Anders about the prophet. It was a lot of fun. As part of our activity we followed the counsel given during the priesthood session to set up profiles on mormon.org. It was actually a great experience and was great at getting us thinking about basic aspects of our testimonies. Then we decided to make a homemade play gym for Anders. We are so proud of it that we have an instruction guide for anyone else that would like to make one. It is significantly cheaper than any play gyms we have found and we think it is better than the store bought one because it is customizable.