10 Years

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to my now
Ten Year Old son.


My how you have grown.



Here are TEN things
from then to now.

1 - You were so chunky as a baby that
I was afraid you wouldn't be able to move to crawl,
then as a child you were still stocky,
but this last year you have grown
to a tall young man
that no longer reminds me of that round baby.

2- You have an AWESOME imagination.
This was your creation 5 years ago
and you are still just as creative today.

3- You are who you are and
you don't care what anyone thinks about you.

4 - Right now, you are "all things" POKEMON
and so no matter what you are doing
your pokemon drawings are a part of it
(see first photo).

5 - From about the age of TWO
you started carrying around "guys" with you.
I thought it was cute.
It started out with your WOODY doll
but then moved on to little LEGO men.
It became not so cute when you had to take them
with you every where and you would set them down
then throw a fit because you couldn't
remember where you put them.

6 - You had the nickname BJ
for for the first five years of your life,
but when we moved back to Utah
you decided that wasn't your name anymore
and you corrected everyone by telling them your real name.


7 - This is YOU.
You were a climber.
You would scale anything and everything
to get what you wanted and usually you were pretty sneaky about it.
In fact, you still are a climber and you are still sneaky about it
getting into my stashed goodies,
or finding the toys or legos I confiscated.
Somethings don't change.

8 - You have a GREAT love for your grandparents and Ms Cindy.
When you are around them you want to be right by them,
sometimes right on top of their laps.
It is neat to see you love them in your own unique way.


9 - You ADORE your baby sister
and always mention her in your prayers.

10 - You are fascinating to me,
you started drawing at eighteen months,
you play really well on your own,
you have great drawing skills and
you can be so LOVABLE and yet so explosive.

But most of all YOU are mine,
and I LOVE YOU
just the way you are.

Gardens, Cornfields and Mazes, OH MY

We have been out and about
enjoying all the ACTIVITIES
that only happen this time of year.

Like this FUN gardening center,
that is nearby and always decorates for Halloween.


The boys favorite part...
this scary pirate ship you can climb on.


And Miss M couldn't resist picking out a pumpkin.



The other fun spot we found this year
was this CORN MAZE in Bluebell.
It had lots of activities for the kiddies to try

like this MINI MAZE,

a slide made out of PVC pipe,

a CORN shed,

a CORN cannon

a PUMPKIN launcher

and of course the main event the CORN MAZE.
We let the boys navigate us through
and they did a pretty good job.

We made it out before dark.

Harvest

I LOVE this time of year!

FALL is probably my favorite season
(with SPRING as a close second),
the sights,
the sounds,
the smells,
takes me back to good childhood memories.

For the past few years we have been sharing
a garden with the in-laws.
Because they just have a great spot for a garden
and well we don't.

It is a good idea,
many hands make less work.
And each year we are learning how
to improve our gardening skills.

Here is some of the loot.

Okay, so it is mostly pumpkins.
Pumpkins are my favorite thing to grow.
And we got such an interesting variety this year.

Plus, they were delivered by my
FAVORITE almost 12 year old.

Who, with the patience and help of his Grandfather,
fixed up the old riding mower just so that he could drive it.

He is now constantly reminding me
that in 4 years he will be driving a real car.
WHY do they want to grown up so fast?

I also tried something new this year,
CANNING.

My first experience in canning
was with PEACHES.

I can't say that I was all that helpful,
(I had a 14 month old wanting my constant attention)
but at least now I know
canning isn't as hard as I thought it was.
And it is definitely something I will try again.

Now I am looking forward
to what the rest of October has to bring.

My Super HERO

I am soooo lucky.


I get to hang out with this little man everyday
and he is
fun,
imaginative,
friendly,
TOO CUTE,
and my three year old super HERO.

Everyday he seems to come up with a new identity.

I LOVE this pretend stage,
and so it seems do a lot of other people we run into
when we are out and about.

It is fun to see strangers interactions
with my little super Hero,
and his reaction.
And YES, he wears the mask everywhere.

The little girls at the playground
adore this spiderman.
And I do too.