Cute little Stinker

Today after church, Andrew was ready to change Robert's cl0thes so he wouldn't get his Christmas outfit dirty, "Wait, we need a picture!" I say from the other room. This was the best one of a long line of photo shots with our timer. Today in Relief Society, Robert was drawing on some paper sitting on the floor. There was about 10 minutes left and he decided it was time to go. He started putting his cars, books, paper, etc. into his diaper bag. When it was all packed he handed me the strap and whined a little for me to put it on. There was only a few minutes left, we can wait another 5 minutes, right? I put the strap on my shoulder to appease him, but that wasn't enough. He took my hand and headed for the door. I'd love to hear his thoughts sometimes. I can just imagine him saying, "Mom, I'm tired, ready for lunch, Church is over, let's go." We went to the lobby and waited for Andy's primary class to get out. It was so cute.

We had spaghetti the other night for dinner. He loves feeding himself. He tries to use a fork or spoon, and is successful for the first few bites and then just can't get the rest in fast enough. Then comes the handfuls of food aimed at the general area of the mouth. Mmmm Mmmm Good!

I just love this because they're both bundled and ready to go. Robert usually needs a few minutes to warmup to his hat and coat, but eventurally he does smile while wearing them. The pouty picutres are just so stinking cute.

It's Almost Christmas!

This year I feel is complete BEFORE Christmas instead of right up to the deadline. WE've made our Gingerbread House, although the roof is a little funky. I forgot to cut out the front and back with an "eve." But nonetheless, we have a gingerbread house.

We drove to Knox Canyon and cut down our Christmas tree.

Well, actually Andy cut down the tree, I was getting the video camera out but was not fast enough to get the cutting so we got the pics!

It's almost here!!!!

Thanksgiving

November got cold just before we left for Thanksgiving. We drove to Colorado to see my sisters Jill and Anna. Anyway, it was way too cold to not give Robert his new coat we were saving for Christmas. I'm glad we gave it to him early, I didn't want him to be cold, but more importantly he didn't really like it. As you can tell from the face of protest. It's better to save the gifts he'll really like for Christmas and give all the crappy gifts for at other times of the year. See? We're learning.

Third times the charm! Following true Van Orden tradition (that is my sister Jill's family) we all went for a hike Thanksgiving morning to work up our appetite. We took a beautiful hike to Horsetooth Falls, unfortunately it was more of a drip, but still very enjoyable as it was at least 65 degrees. We wanted a family portrait at the base of the Falls and had ask Jill to take the photo with our camera. After the first few shots she put the camera down and said, "Well so far Andy is the only one cooperating!" Oops...aka "Hold still Lacey!" The final product was well worth it.

Yeah, those sunglasses were broken shortly after this photo was taken. The Boy got a little too carried away. They were only $1.

Amanda, myself, Andrew, Joe, and John hiked to the top of the Falls. There was actually a trail that goes to the top, I didn't know that, maybe the others did. We scaled the rocks to the top. It was fun as you can tell by our smiling faces and waving hands.

This is where the Falls should be falling.

Squirrel

First; the story. Friday night as Lacey and I were finishing up dinner Lacey looked over at one of our end tables next to the couch to notice some tiny brown "pebbles" on top of it, and she wondered aloud if it could be poo. "Naw" I said, "It's probably just some of the mess that we missed from that party you hosted the other day." After all there were a lot of small kids that are very proficient mess makers that were in our house during that party. So we cleaned it up without much thought.

Then, later on that evening we found a couple of more "pebbles" on top of the recliner, and wondered again if it could be poo. Again we decided to chalk it up to some messy kids, rationalizing that it was way too big to be mouse poo, and that a mouse would stay on the floor anyway.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. The boy is down for a nap, and Lacey is out doing some errands, so I take the opportunity to sit down and watch some football. After a bit I heard the laundry buzz and decided that I ought to get that changed over. So I hit pause on the game and got up to go into the laundry room.

However, a low rustling noise stopped me from getting too far. I thought that it was probably just some leaves blowing around outside, but in the back of my mind I thought it was probably the source of all that brown stuff we'd found the night before. As I continued to listen, I heard the noise again and was convinced that it was coming from behind our hide-a-bed. Wanting to investigate some more I peered over the back and saw a brown blur jump out of view.

This startled me, and after a second or two I looked back and saw that a squirrel was behind our couch. Not wanting to have the thing go postal on me I grabbed my monopod to poke at it and it ran to the other end of the house.

So I got the video camera out to help me chase it, and this is what happened.

The squirrel finally crawled under the Boy's bedroom door and lodged itself behind his bookcase. About the time I had discovered it in there Lacey had arrived home and was good enough to play goalie and herd it back outside.

We figure that it was probably living with for a day or two before we noticed the droppings, and the only way we can figure that it got in was by falling down the chimney. Either that or it was just real quick running through the front door when we were coming or going.

Andrew's Costume

Andrew doesn't need a costume, he's scary enough without one! No, no, Andrew doesn't like costumes but he goes along with me in mine. That's love xoxoxoxoxo

Yes a little fuzzy, but oh well.

Our Little Stinker

I've been working on Robert's costume since the first of the month. As you can see from his grinning smile he loves being a skunk, as least at the moment.


The cute nose, the whiskers, the stripe down the middle of his hood. I'm so pleased with how it turned out, if I say so myself. Thanks for all those sewing lessons Mom!


The tail really completes it, I think.


And of course I dressed up also. I was hoping to put curlers in my hair the night before, taking them out sometime Halloween so I'd have a fro, and spraying it with colored hairspray, BUT as you can see I'm wearing a wig. No time, no time.

Robert's First Haircut

It all started very innocently. Andrew has been pushing the "haircut" issue for the last few months and I've been putting it off. Well, last Wednesday (the Wednesday before Halloween) we were making Spooky Pops at my Mom's. My niece Maya had given herself a haircut, she's 4 years old. My niece Becky brought her clippers along to fix Maya's hair. Then Jesse had a haircut--Maya's older brother. I decided what the heck! Let's have the "1st haircut" behind us. So here's the before picture to show how long his hair was.

I asked Becky to clip off the curls so we could keep them in a little baggy in his baby book. You can see the look in Robert's eyes saying, "Wait a second. Wait just a second. I'm playing with cars here and someone is doing something behind my back and I don't like it one bit. I did not sign up for this!"

He really let us know how he felt about the situation too. A little boy and his cars (distractions from the reality of the situation) are not to be triffled with.

This is the new distraction, cars didn't last very long. I ended up holding him playing "Ahhhhhh BOO" while Becky did the finishing touches. He looks like such a big Wee Man now.

Carving our Pumpkin

I wanted to have a giant pumpkin this year so I could put Robert inside it and take a picture. So cute right? Well, it was a little chilly Sunday October 25th, but time was pressing on. We needed to carve our pumpkin. and take the picture. and bake the seeds.

Robert wasn't diggin' the whole "carving pumpkins is fun" idea. He did enjoy taking handfuls of seeds and sprinkling them around the yard though. I was really surprised of the size of the seeds inside this pumpkin. Like the pumpkin, the seeds were huge.

At last time to get that picture. And he hated it, of course. Who would enjoy being stuck inside a pumpkin? I still had a glimmer of hope tugging at my heart strings.

Sometimes the things we hope turn out cute as bug, turn out cute as a bug in a different way.

Something's Up

So I thought I'd blog a little while Robert is sleeping. For some reason I can't upload any pics. What's up with that? So here's my dialog anyway....

Poor little "wee man" is a sicky. Throw up and all! I feel sorry and greatful for Liz (our babysitter) all at the same time. She called me at work today, "Robert is throwing up and has a fever." I'll be right there," I told her. Sure enough, when I got to her house he had thrown up all over his clothes, blanket, and her living room. She already put his things in a plastic bag and had him stripped to his diaper. I loaded him up and drove him home. Just as we turned the last corner (Liz only lives 5 blocks away), here comes round 2! The car seat can wait, I told myself while rolling the windows down hoping I wouldn't come back to an icky smelling car.

I got him in the house and cleaned up, gave him a bottle of water (must stay hydrated!) and a new blanket, and went to the car to get the stinky car seat out of the car. He's got tylenol in him and he's down for the count---just taking a little snoozeroo. I'm sure when he wakes up, he'll feel much better.

Deer Hunting

October 10th is the opening day of deer season, and no matter what is going on we try and make it out every year, and this year was no exception. What was a little different this year though was a change in the regulations that govern the unit. This year it was a draw hunt only (with unlimited tags) where any antlered deer was legal.

Shortly after dawn we started seeing all sorts of deer crossing the fence where we wait every year, and after we saw a dozen or so does and fawns cross over, we moved on. As we were doing so another group of five jumped the fence right where we were standing and nearly ran us over. In the group there were two tiny bucks whose ears were larger than their horns. Lacey was pushing hard for me to shoot one of them, but I told her they needed to do some growing first.

Can you see the antlers on them?

She was kind of disappointed, but the feeling was short lived. About an hour later, when we were on top of the mountain, we waited on the north end of a saddle to wait and see if Dad would kick out anything as he circled around the south end of the saddle. Just as he was walking out of sight a group of three large bucks came into view almost as though they were watching Dad and waiting for him to get out of sight.

I didn't see them at first but Lacey was quick to point them out and remind me that I needed to shoot one of them. So, after sizing them all up I chose the third one in line because he looked like he was the biggest and he was presenting the best shot. After I squeezed off the first round nothing happened. I completely missed. But, the deer didn't move except to turn their heads to look in the direction the shot came from. I knew they wouldn't hang around for long, so I quickly chambered another round and shot again.

He dropped instantly and when we got to him 228 yards later this is what we found. He has five points on the right side and four on the left.

Things are about to get messy.

Once the gut pile came out we noticed that there wasn't a heart with it. The shock of the bullet must have obliterated it.

It's a long way back to the truck, but it's all down hill so it could have been a lot worse.

What is that on my belly?

Robert and I were playing in his room the other day. I had to go stir dinner and when I came back Robert was in the toy cupboard. Just chillin' with the toys.

Robert got this Pooh Bear the day he was born. It sat on the shelf with the other stuffed animals until about 3 months ago. I got him up from a nap and he was pointing to the stuffed animals. He went straight for the Pooh Bear and loves I mean LOVES snuggling up with it. As for the orange thing in his mouth. Well, we have a toy pegboard. The pegs have a hole all the way through. Robert likes to stick it in his mouth and then breathe really heavy---it whistles!

One day last week, I took Robert's tray down after dinner and he found the bellybutton. It's so interesting.

Yup, it's still there.

Our trip to Yellowstone

Last weekend (the last weekend of September) we went to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton Park. The autumn colors were beautiful. Old Faithful was still faithful. No bear sightings, but we saw plenty of elk and ofcourse buffalo. We stopped at the Grand Prismatic Pool and there was an osprey perched along the river. Not too often you see an osprey. We saw the fire between Jackson and Jenny Lakes. All in all it was a good time.

This is along the trail around Jenny Lake. Robert kept playing in all the leaves. It was so cute.

He was so tuckered out when we stopped at the Grand Prismatic Pool. He's still a thumb sucker when he sleeps.

The boardwalk around Old Faithful. The Lodge said it would go off at 10:10. We walked over about 9:50 and swoosh! It blew it's top! We watched it for a bit and as we were leaving bunches of people showed up for the 10:10 blast--too bad.....

Robert asks a question, "What's that?" sometimes it gets slurred together and comes out sounding like a swear word, "...'s h t?"

It's Morning Glory Pool! Pond whatever.....

Again, doesn't care that the water is freezing, just wants to play in it.

We were looking at some elk across the river and all of a sudden heard this one splashing just down a little ways from us.

Oh the shades. Andy in his Top Gun shades and Robert in the Mission Impossible shades.

September Flew By

I can't believe I didn't post anything for September! I've been adjusting to my new schedule at work, but I think October will be better. For the past couple years I've been working at the elementary level and this year I'm at middle school. School doesn't start until 8:50!! So we get out at 3:15--1 hour later than I'm used to, but it's getting better. We've had some good moments in Septemeber.

Andy went elk hunting--twice, but didn't get anything. The first time was too early and the second time was too hot. What's up with September being hot anyway? Robert and I went with him the second time. Even though he didn't get anything, it was still a great camping trip--Bob and Sheryl went too. Robert loved exploring the rocks and creeks.

The first night we were there his bottle got left out on the table disassembled--the nipple, cap, bottle, the bottom screw on thing, and the plastic ventilator thing that goes in the bottom. Anyway, in the morning I went to get him a bottle and couldn't find the nipple. The paper towel that all the bottle parts were sitting on was chewed at the edges and there were mouse droppings!! Somewhere there's a mouse with a bottle nipple that doesn't belong to him! We managed without it though.

Robert eating breakfast in his warm cookie monster suit. It was warm during the day, but the mornings and evenings were chilly.

Andy and Robert in their camo.

Robert loves hats. I thought this one with Andy's hat was precious.

Robert playing on the camping blanket with some toys.

This is the makeshift bottle I came up with after the blasted mouse ran off with the nipple.

We played BY the creek, but then Robert decided it would be much more fun to play IN the creek even though it was COLD! He didn't mind one bit.