Pumpkin carving and making boots

Last week we went to get our pumpkins for Halloween.  I know, I know!  We're early this year!  (The last three years we got pumpkins like the day or two before Halloween.)  Collin was so much more fun this year.  He even colored his own pumpkin!  Here's the pictures:

Riding in the wheelbarrow through the patch.

Helping Mama pick out the best pumpkin!

One down, two to go!

We found his pumpkin!  (This boy can't keep his eyes open in pictures!)

Starting the carving, gutting, and coloring!

Really getting into it!

I asked him to smile.  This is what I got.  Also, he loves those candy corn pumpkins!

Focusing.

Collin's pumpkin all colored.  He wanted a face, so Mama drew one. 

All three pumpkins. (Collin, Greg, Becca)

 Collin is going to be Iron Man for Halloween.  He's super excited.  I found this tutorial through Pinterest about making duct tape boots.  I thought it would be the perfect thing to complete the cheap Iron Man costume we found at Target.  Collin was so excited to have Iron Man boots, he sat through the whole process!  The boots in the tutorial (for those who didn't check it out) are lace-up "musketeer" boots.  I didn't want the Iron Man ones to lace-up, nor did I have a spare pair of socks to use to make the boots. (She tapes right to a pair of socks in the tutorial.) So I had him put his shoes on, and then put my socks over the top of the shoes.  Then I made my first layer sticky side up.  The second layer was sticky side down.  Then I cut down the back of the boot.  That way I can slip them over his shoes, kinda like shoe covers.  Finally I will just put a piece of tape up the cut in the back on Halloween to hold them on.

Collin LOVES them.  He was an enthusiastic model.

Close up.

His Iron Man pose.

Action shot!  (Please ignore the cluttered room...)

Silly things Collin says

Last night one of the silliest, and funniest things happened. And that got me thinking about how I am recording those funny things that happen every once in awhile. I'd been posting some of them to Facebook, but that makes it hard to have a record of them. So I'm going to try to post every now and then some of those funny things so we can remember them.

Here's the ones I found on Facebook:
This first one happened just after Collin turned 1. I was watching Wipeout with Greg and COllin, and after a contestant jumps to a new obstacle and face plants into a beam Collin raises his hands and says "touchdown" (which is actually more a "ta").

When Collin was about a year and a half I was snacking on carrot sticks and celery bits with Collin, and he devoured the celery. I went to cut more; this time into sticks. When I handed him one, his eyes lit up and he said "Ooooooo!"

This last one just happened in August. I had just finished reading Collin a story about the Avengers. We were looking at the cover of the book, naming each Avenger when Collin added, "And Daddy. Cause he goes 'Yah! Hy-yah!"

Now for what happened last night. Collin has been stubborn with bedtime lately. He really doesn't want to go to bed. One of his avoid-bedtime tactics is telling me that he has to poop on the potty. He's only used it three or four times and actually went a couple of times, so I give in. I bring books in and we read his bedtime story while he sits. So last night we hadn't said prayer yet and Greg was waiting around for that. Collin was sitting on his potty and I was sitting on the bathroom floor while Greg laid in the hallway. Midway through the second book Collin says with surprise "I toot!" Greg and I giggled at him, and then I asked if he pooped. He says, "No, Dad pooped!" And then does a silly fake laugh. Well that got Greg and me. We were laughing out loud. And we couldn't stop because Collin kept fake laughing. He got louder, and copied our facial expressions. We all laughed for a good five minutes. Then I said to Greg, "He's gonna remember this and say 'Dad pooped!' in nursery tomorrow!" Before finally going to bed Collin repeated his joke "Dad pooped! hahahahaha!" a few times.

Then we were a little late for church today, so we were waiting in the foyer until after the sacrament was passed. There were about 10 other people waiting as well, and it was pretty quiet except for a couple of kids talking. That's when Collin says (quite loudly), "Dad pooped! A-hahahaha!" Both Greg and I stifled our laughter, and Greg hauled Collin down the hall away from the other people. Three or four of them also chuckled.

He is such a cute little comedian. Goodness we love him!

Ducks, 5 years, and Witches

A street over and behind the park there is a small river with a large group of ducks.  We've fed the ducks once before and Collin LOVED it.  This time was the same.  He giggled as he threw the chunks of hamburger bun to the ducks.  It was so fun!

 Last Friday was our five year anniversary.  I can't believe it's been five years!  At times it seems like we've been together for ever (in a good way).  Greg worked a half day Friday.  I took Collin to my mom's in the morning.  Then Greg and I went to the Jordan River Temple.  It was wonderful!  Next we went to the movies.  We saw Trouble with the Curve, which we both liked.  Finally we went to the Armstrong Mansion. We stayed in the August room.  The room was rather small, but it had a secret passage to a large tub in the attic which was wonderful!
The next morning we slept in and then met Greg's brother Dave and his family at the BYU game.  The game was great until the last 6 minutes...and then, well, let's not talk about it.  But BYU lost.  After sitting in traffic for quite a while, we picked up Collin and headed home.  On the way we wanted ice cream, so we stopped at Cold Stone.  Yum!
It was a great celebration for our anniversary!

Every time I tried to take a picture, BYU blew the play so I put the camera away.

Sad faces for the loss...

A very cute B-Y-U!

Today I was dying to get out of the house after being sick for the past few days.  I decided to go check out the WitchFest at Gardner Village.  Collin was pretty excited to see the witches.  As we wandered around the Village he would point and call out "Witch! Witch!"  He even pointed out some girls dressed up as witches.  I think he had fun.  I had fun.  On our way out we got some cookies.  Collin loved his!  It was a fun adventure!

At first he was nervous, but then got into it.  I asked for a smile, and I gotta say this is the best smile I've gotten out him!

He was posing for this one.  Silly boy!

Munching on his cookie!

Trip to Provo

Saturday September 29th neither the Cougars or the Wolverines were playing.  (For those of you who don't know, those are college football teams.)  So I decided it would be fun to do something!  My grandpa had been in the hospital for a week or so, and recovery was going ok, but we weren't sure if he'd make it.  I wanted to see him as many times as I could, so I chose to hike the trail to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. We headed down just after 10am and stopped to visit with my grandpa for a bit.  When Collin couldn't be contained in the tiny hospital room any longer, we left and headed up the canyon.  Collin was loving it!  The walking path to the falls isn't very long or steep.  We stopped by a bridge, because Collin wanted to.

After we noticed a boy throwing rocks in the river, that's all Collin wanted to do.  Greg was doing all he could to keep Collin walking up the trail, rather than running to the river's edge.  Collin is a daredevil, and we weren't sure if he would jump in for a swim or not.

We then noticed a smaller stream on the other side of the trail for Collin to throw rocks into.  Much safer!

Greg was jogging in a serpentine pattern and Collin, giggling all the way, followed.

Until he noticed the clearing that lead to the river.  Check out Greg's quick reflexes!

Such pretty scenery!

On the way back down we stopped by the stream again.  Collin probably threw 30+ rocks into that stream! He loved it!  Then we headed to lunch at Magleby's Fresh.  We met my mom there.  Soon Collin was ready for a nap, so we headed back home!  It was a pretty fun Saturday!

Tin Foil Dinners

Goodness I love Tin Foil Dinners!  So easy; so fun; no clean up.  They are marvelous!  Then combine eating them and hanging out with friends and you've got an wonderfully, perfect evening!

We met some friends up Big Cottonwood Canyon a few Friday's ago to do some tin foil dinners, s'mores and just hang out.  We all had a blast!  Here's the pictures:

The boys were loving the open spaces.  They're full on screaming in this picture, just because they can!

The boys...I mean men working on the fire.

My friend Katrina and her brother workin' on their dinners.

I asked for smiles, which I got, but my boy cannot keep his eyes open in pictures!!

Roasting the m'allows!

These little guys had so much fun exploring, collecting rocks and sticks, and running around!