MVP's First Trophy

Our church Elder's Quorum held a Pinewood Derby activity last week. There where two categories. One was by the rules, the other was anything goes. We made a regulation car for MVP to race. There was one guy who brought in about 8 different cars he has made (and perfected) as he has been over the cub scout program for MANY MANY years. Various other kids "sponsored" one of his cars. So while MVP's car didn't make it past the first bracket, he did get an award for being the only entrant not made by a "professional". We'll take it!

Water Heater

Last week we started having problems with our water heater. Andy looked up on YouTube how to fix a water heater by changing out the heating elements. Had it not been for another little bracket that holds the thermostat in place, it would have been a pretty straight-forward fix. However, we ultimately needed an entirely new water heater. Of course MVP was quite fascinated by his daddy's skills and wanted to help fix the heater as well. He got his Handy Manny tool box and was more than helpful, if you know what I mean.

Sunday Best

I wanted to share a couple cute pictures of MVP all dressed up for church.

 Here he is folding his arms like I asked him to. Don't be fooled by this reverent pose, as soon as I tried to fix his collar, he took off running and our photo shoot was over. As we've been praying with him, he has started "saying" the prayers with us. We have no idea what he is saying, but he sure has a lot to say. He can fill in the blanks when prompted so he can bless "mommy" and "daddy" etc.

He is certainly an active little guy. Today is Thanksgiving and we had a couple friends over for a Thanksgiving lunch. As one of our friends was relaxing on the couch letting the tryptophan do what it does best, MVP decided that it would be a good idea to pile all of his toys on top of him. He proceeded to give our friend all of his toys, then he moved each one to a basket or to a different location on the couch, then back on our friend, then back in the basket. This went on for at least 45 minutes. He is the embodiment of constant movement and I marvel at his energy levels.

Pumpkin Patch

I wanted to share a few pictures from an impromptu visit to a pumpkin patch. This year, MVP has decided that he likes the little pumpkins the most because those are a lot easier to throw. Needless to say, we didn't stay too long.

Happy Halloween!!

We went to a Trunk-or-Treat activity last night and  MVP experienced his first taste of mooching candy off of kind people. It was a lot of fun. We all dressed up as golfers and, of course, MVP stole the show. For the first part of the activity, we ate hot dogs and played games at various booths indoors. MVP had his first bobbing-for-donuts experience and thought it was hilarious! He also liked popping balloons to find candy hidden inside. Once he figured out there was candy inside, he wanted to pop more and more! He wouldn't stand still long enough to get wrapped up like a TP mummy. It seems like he rarely stands still long enough to get a good picture--let alone with him both smiling AND looking at the camera. I know, I'm asking for waaaay too much.

 When we finished all the indoor games, we headed outside to do some trunk or treating. MVP caught on pretty quickly and really enjoyed walking up to people and helping himself to a handful (or two) to candy. There was one car that was quite elaborately decorated and the owners had dressed up their little dog too. MVP went up to the dog and started "sharing" his candy with the dog. He placed five or six pieces of his candy on the bumper of the car to give to the dog. What a nice kid!

 

We carved a pumpkin and MVP thought that was pretty weird. He liked reaching his hand in and pulling out the pumpkin's guts. Of course he would have been much happier if we had let him carve the pumpkin as well because he obviously thought he should be allowed to use the tools.

It's a lot of fun to participate in Halloween activities now that MVP is starting to understand them. We hope you have a wonderful Halloween too!!

Photos

We went to JC Penny yesterday to have photos taken. (Click Here to view them for the next 90 days.) I needed to get some photos taken for work (we are updating our website), and I had a Groupon that enabled us to get several prints too. I was very proud of MVP. The photographer said that he was by far the easiest toddler she has photographed in a long time. In fact, people at church have made comments to me that they think MVP is always soooo happy!! He has done very well in Nursery. He loves playing with the toys and has no qualms about mom and dad not being there with him. I'm told that he will sometimes get sad or cry a little when they transition from play time to singing time (he gets that from his dad), but he is the only one out of the younger kids who will help put toys away when the time comes. Looking at these pictures has shocked me into the realization that MVP is growing up so fast!! He looks like a little boy and certainly not an infant.

Here's the URL if the link doesn't work for you.
https://viewimages.jcpportraits.com/sharealbum/sharealbumlist?rndId=BQkHCQVC&uId=AwIHCQJAXg==

Fire!!

Yesterday, we went downtown to go to the Children's Museum and we stopped off at the fire station so MVP could check out the fire trucks. The fireman was very nice and even pulled the truck out and let MVP "drive" a little bit. He thought it was pretty cool.

Uncle Stephen (AKA Uncle Buckethead) would be so proud!

The Zoo

Yesterday, we took MVP to the local Zoo. I honestly didn't have very high expectations because I know it's a pretty small zoo and I assumed that the selection wouldn't be all that impressive. Boy was I wrong! Because it is such a small zoo, the cages were small (don't tell PETA) and you could walk around most of the cages so that if a lion, for example, was off sleeping in one corner, you could simply walk around to get a better glimpse of it. There were also a few peacocks walking around, so MVP was able to get within a few feet of them. We saw lots of monkeys, bears, a giraffe, panthers, lions, alligators, goats, birds, reptiles etc. The best part about the visit was that you could purchase bags of peanuts and corn to feed some of the animals. We fed peanuts to the bears and monkeys and we fed corn to the goats, mini horses and sheep. The best part was that MVP got to feed the goats, mini horses and sheep right out of his hand through the fence!

MVP was able to identify several animals--many of which he has only seen in books. Aside from it being really hot and humid, we had a wonderful time!!

The Best Month Ever

July 2011 was the best month ever!! My friend, Anne, came to visit the last part of June and stayed for a few days. We had a lot of fun hanging out together, playing tennis, going to the beach, etc. It was soooo nice to have her here.

We did one thing that I had wanted to do for a long time here in Wilmington. We went to a concert at Airlie Gardens. We brought a picnic dinner and just relaxed as we listened to the music. It was a lot of fun, the park was beautiful and MVP found lots of new friends. There was a family playing with a beach ball and he just jumped right in and took over. Fortunately, they all thought he was cute and they let him play.

MVP loved playing with Anne too. He has learned how to rough house and she was a good sport and let him tackle her and crawl all over her--much to his delight.

Anne left on July 3rd, so she missed out on our 4th of July celebrations. We were thinking about going down to the Battleship in downtown Wilmington where they have an elaborate fireworks show, but we knew that it would be close to 11pm before we could extract ourselves from the traffic and get MVP to bed. So we decided to stay home and we're glad we did. One of our neighbors put on a fabulous fireworks show with aerial fireworks and all kinds of stuff!! They must have spent about $1,000 because it went on for quite a while. I was so glad we stayed home!! MVP has also discovered Pop Its (or Snappers). Here's some video of him celebrating the 4th of July.

About a week later, we went on vacation to Utah and Idaho for some family reunions. We went to Brian Head, Utah for a Pearson family reunion. Andy organized the reunion and it was a lot of fun.

We all stayed in a large "cabin" (it was HUGE) complete with video games, air hockey, a fire pit and board games. Each family did a "spotlight" so we could get to know everyone better and we also had lots of activities including Pac-Man and four wheeling. MVP thought the ATVs were pretty cool, but when he was actually riding on them, he would get really quiet and serious.

We also had a family reunion for my immediate family, which is no small feat these days. I have five siblings from Washington to Tennessee, so when we are all able to get together at the same place at the same time, it's a miracle. We spent the better part of a week at Yellowstone. We camped out and ate wonderful food (thanks to Stephen) and had fun hanging out together. MVP thought it was pretty exciting to try and chop wood for the fire just like his uncles. There were lots of bison, but I was a little disappointed that we didn't see more bears, eagles and moosen.

MVP had lots of fun with his cousins. He is very much a people person and couldn't get enough attention. He has one cousin who is about 6 weeks older than he is and they had a lot of fun together hugging and getting tossed into the air. We stopped by the Tetons (my dad's favorite destination) on the way to Pocatello to see more relatives before going to Utah for a reunion on my mom's side of the family.

From there, Andy went down to Mesquite to play golf with his cousins and a friend in the Deserted Souls Classic. They try to get together once a year to play as much golf as possible in two days in the hottest place possible. This ensures that they are all sufficiently loopy and can have as much fun as possible talking smack. I stayed a few extra days in Utah to help my parents prepare to move. They will be moving from the home they owned when I was born and into a nice, new home in Lehi, Utah in August. One of the things I helped with was installing wood floors in the new home with my brother Stephen and sister Paula. Here are some before and after shots of the Kitchen and living room area. I was a bit surprised that it took the better part of three days to install the floors because, frankly, I watch way too much HGTV where flooring takes about five minutes to install.

By the time I returned home to Wilmington, Andy had already been there for a few days and his mom had arrived the day before for a visit. We have a brother in law who works for an airline and has been very generous in sharing his buddy passes so Grandma can come visit MVP. Andy's sister, Melanie, joined us a couple days later and we had a lot of fun together. Her daughter is sooo mellow and easy going and MVP is just the opposite. It's hard to imagine having such a placid child!! It was pretty hot, so one of the things we did was play in MVP's little pool in the backyard. MVP splashed a lot while his cousin got very wet.

 So aside from the reprieve I got from working during most of the month, being able to spend so much time around family and friends made July the best month EVER!!!