A Halloween Treat

A couple months ago, my sister in law told me about GIANT marshmallows. She told me that you can take the giant marshmallows, stick a popscicle stick in them, dip them in chocolate and then roll them in nuts or crushed graham crackers. YUM!

This last week as I was trying to come up with a spooky treat to bring to a Halloween party, I conjured up a variation on the jumbo Smores idea. I decided to cover the marshmallows in Vanilla Flavored Coating (it's a lot cheaper than white chocolate) dyed with green or orange food coloring.







Then I decorated them--not without a lot of "help" from this guy. -->











Yesterday, I was pretty busy, so I only had a couple hours to complete them. So this is what I ended up with. Little Frankensteins and pumpkins. The pumpkins could be a lot cuter, I know, but I ran out of time. It was a mad dash to get out the door.

Oral Hygiene

We have been trying to teach MVP the virtues of oral hygiene. This is turning out to be a little more challenging than I had anticipated. At first, he was really good about allowing us to brush his teeth--mostly because he was baffled by why we were inserting a little brush into his mouth. However, he quickly discovered that the toothpaste (fruit flavored) is quite delicious and now all he wants to do is suck the toothpaste off the brush. To see the video, click here.

The Punkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch yesterday with Emma. We had a lot of fun. She was in charge of taking pictures and she did an absolutely fabulous job!! I was very impressed. She set up several different vignettes and had MVP sit there while she arranged the pumpkins and hay. These are two of my favorite pictures that she took. MVP was a little tired because it was time for him to take a nap, but he was a real trooper.

We then decorated some Halloween cookies so we are officially ready for Halloween.

9 Months Old!

Our little MVP turned 9 months old this week. He is really starting to take interest in everything around him. He scoots around on his belly like a pro now. Every now and then, he will get up on his knees and look like he is going to take off crawling, but as soon as he decides which direction he wants to go in, he drops to his belly and scoots.

He started pulling himself up to a standing position this week too. He can now stand in his crib and will pull himself up on chairs or the couch. He seems to think that this is pretty awesome because he can now reach

for objects at a higher level.

MVP spent most of this week a little sick. He's been congested and it mostly affects him at night. He snores (which is pretty funny) and whenever he can't breathe through his nose, he cries and doesn't like it at all. There was one night where he woke up at least once an hour! I didn't get much sleep that night. The funny thing is that he has been pretty happy during the day. He still is not good at taking naps, but I'll take what I can get.

Aunt Phyllis made MVP the most adorable blanket. It's a "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" blanket. Love it!!

A New Trick

MVP's babysitter brought over some small bath toys for him. They're little whales and he just loves them. They're the perfect size for him to carry around everywhere. He was a little distraught because there are three whales and he only has two hands and can't hold them all at the same time. Well, boy wonder has figured out how to hold all three at the same time. Behold....

This is the House that Grandma Built

A couple days after we returned from Florida, Grandma Pearson came out for a visit. It was so wonderful to have her here. She was more than willing to watch MVP while I worked from home during the day. I was able to get a lot done and get all caught up on work that had piled up while I was on vacation. Lately, MVP has not been very good at taking naps. He seems to think that two, 20- to 40-minute naps per day are all that he needs. On the one hand, as long as he continues sleeping through the night, I don't care what he does during the day. But on the other hand, it makes it really hard for me to get work done while having to keep an eye on him at the same time. This is especially hard now that he is getting mobile. He's been scooting around like a little combat soldier since we returned from Florida.

Several months ago, I came across an adorable felt playhouse designed to slip on over a kitchen table. I showed some pictures to Carol and she got excited about it too. So while she was here, we started working on a playhouse but decided to make it out of fabric since it will last a lot longer. There are still a few things we're working on, but this is what we have so far...

We will be attaching a huge button to the door as a doorknob. The flower stems have pipe cleaners in them and are detachable (thanks to Velcro). The mail box can also be opened and you can insert mail too. Now we know where to send all our bills.

The swing is certainly not able to support a kid, but hopefully stuffed animals will be the only ones to try it out--wishful thinking, I know. I might add a bird and nest to the tree as well.

The garden will soon have some carrots and a watermelon. There will also be more leaves with a second set of autumn-colored leaves. The lettuce and tree leaves are detachable.

This last side has a fire pit, but I'm thinking about changing it to a Weber grill. That way, he can grill up some of his veggies when the weather is nice.

One of the best features of this house is that it is expandable. There's a seam hidden by the roof shingles that is concealing another 5 inches of fabric so that if we ever get rid of this table, we can build a frame out of PVC pipe or something.

Maybe some day I will work on the inside of the house and make picture frames or have a deer's head mounted above a fireplace. I can't wait for MVP to get big enough to really play with it and let his imagination run wild.

Where Did September Go???

Maybe it's lost in the couch cushions....that seems to be where most things get lost. I can't believe we're already gearing up for Halloween. The last few weeks have absolutely FLOWN by! We were able to go to Florida to hang out with some of my siblings and their families. It was a lot of fun. When we first moved to North Carolina in 2008, Andy looked at the BYU Football schedule and determined that the next closest football game would be in Florida (vs. FSU) in September 2010, so this trip was in the works for a little more than two years. I love having a husband who has his priorities straight!

We rented a beach house in Siesta Key which has an excellent beach. The sand is very white and fine and the the waves were flat enough that we could walk out to a sand bar with MVP. He loved it! The only drawback was that it smelled a little funky--more like a stagnant lake than a beach. We did, however, see dolphins off the coast a couple of times and we found lots of interesting shells and sand dollars. We had a wonderful time hanging out with family, playing bocce ball (the beach was PERFECT for bocce ball) and relaxing. I think it was the most relaxing vacation we have been on since our honeymoon. Here are a few shots of us hanging out in the pool at the beach house and at the beach. Some day MVP might have to go through therapy to overcome all the nakey baby shots (especially those with his cousin), but you have to admit, he's pretty cute no matter what he's wearing!

This is MVP with his cousin Grace who is about 6 weeks older. They had so much fun!!

Aside for a couple days where MVP got sick and had to go see a doctor (he was running a fever and was pretty miserable) he had a wonderful time soaking up all the attention from adoring Aunties, Uncles and cousins.

The only thing that could have made the vacation better would have been a better result from the football game...oh and better weather during the football game! The game was AWFUL and it was soooo hot!!! I think it was 93 degrees, humid and there was NO wind or shade!! I was soooo grateful that Auntie M was there to watch the babies at the air conditioned hotel room because it was way too hot for them at the game.