10 months and Walking!!!!!

Mason is 10 months old today! He took his first steps about 3 weeks ago and for the first 2 weeks he would take 1-2 steps here and there. Last Thursday he started walking about 5-6 steps then he gets so excited he tries to start running and falls forward. It's soooo cute!!! We've been trying to get a picture or video, but every time we pull out the camera he suddenly reverts to crawling. . .funny kid! But, I did finally get a couple really cute pictures today!

He's also a climber - last week he also started climbing all the up onto various pieces of furniture. We have a chair up against a wall with a light switch right above it. . .he climbed up on the chair and started climbing up the arm and back of the chair and started turning the light off and on - so funny!
He's got a 5 word vocabulary too! He's said "Mommm", "DDDD" (Daddy), "Hi", "Buh Buh" (bye bye) and on Sunday he added his latest word. He was in the den with Delvin and I. He crawled to the door and yelled out "A Duh"! He was looking for Aidan - it was one of those parental moments that is so sweet you can't put words to! He loves his brother! I can't believe that in 2 months he will be a whole year old!

First Day of 2nd Grade!

Ok, Ok - I'm slow at getting this one up. Doesn't he look so grown up?? I was watching him play with Mason the other day and it just hit me that he's not a "little kid" anymore. . .he's a "kid". I can't believe how quickly time passes!

Delvin's Pig!!!

I have to add a correction. . .This was NOT Delvins First Pig. . .It was the first one he cooked where he was the main person in charge and the only one who knew how to do it. . .he's done many others, but he was assisting his dad or uncle. So, with that correction, read on. . .

Delvin has always talked about cooking a pig, well today he finally did!!! Our ward at church was having a camp out and he decided this would be the perfect opportunity. He made all the arrangements and did so much work! Last night he and a few other men from church went and dug the pit at the church camp ground. He woke up at 4:30 AM and went back out there to get the fire started. Then while one of the men tended the fire he and his friend, Scott, went out to get the pig. The pig was still alive when they got there, so they did the works of the preparation! Once the pig had died they shaved it, cut it and gutted it. Once they got it back to the camp ground they washed it again and wrapped it in chicken wire. They do this to keep it intact after it's cooked.
I couldn't believe that the three of them got it in the pit - the pig was over 200 pounds! I was so concerned that one of them was going to nose dive into the hot rocks! They did an amazing job!
Once the pig was in they covered the pig with lily pads (normally you'd use banana leaves, but this is Washington, not Samoa). Then rocks where put on top of and surrounding the pig.
Next it was covered up with burlap sacks. The sacks had to be drenched with water first. So the wet sacks on the piping hot rocks created a spectacular steam!!!
He had the pig in by 11:00 AM and at 6:30 PM he checked it and it looked good, so out it came!!!
After removing the sacks, they had to move the rocks and burnt lily pads and cut the wire. As he was doing this everyone huddled around and just hovered watching so intently. It was very intense. . .there were over 100 people just watching. I was so nervous for him, that's a lot of pressure!
We were so grateful that our friends, the Fifitas, showed up!!! Latu is Tongan, so he knew just how to help! He jumped right into the pit with Delvin and they started cutting away!
We have to admit we were a bit worried that it wouldn't be fully cooked, but it was definately ready! It was soooooo good! I was so relieved and so proud of him!
After the meat was all cut and served, Delvin even gave a little speech explaining one of the traditions of cooking a pig is to present the head of the pig to the leader of the village or group that you're with. Supposedly the head of the pig has more nutrients and is a very honorable part. . .so he presented the head of the pig to the Bishop. I was curious to see how he would respond. . .the Bishop and his wife were so funny! They thought this was so great!

Delvin did such an excellent job with the whole thing! I can't believe he did it start to finish like this. It was quite an accomplishment!!!!!!! Huge thanks and kudos to Scott for helping him every step of the way!

We have many more pictures of the event (I spared you all the ones of the pig being gutted). Let me know if you want to see any of them and I'll send you a link to the full package of pics!!!

Day at the Fair

Thursday we went to the Evergreen State Fair. . .well, Aidan, Mason, my nephew Orion, and Aidan's friend Evan and I went to the fair. Was I crazy to take a baby, and 6, 7 & 8 year old boys to the fair by myself?? Yea - probably, good thing an hour into it Evan's mom decided to join us. She was a great help! She played with Mason while I went on a couple rides that Orion had to have an adult to go on and kept me company in general. When we got home at 10:30 PM Aidan said "That was fun! Can we go again tomorrow?" HA, nice try Aidan!

The boys enjoyed all the animals and the lumberjack show was fun, but of course they loved the rides the best. The Rambler was a big hit - Aidan got so smashed and was laughing the whole time. I think it was just as fun for me to watch them as it was for them to ride!

Another good weekend

Well, we had another good weekend! It started on Friday. Aidan had his birthday party with friends. He invited Taylor, Ma'ake and Orion to go to the movies to see Star Wars: the Clone Wars. Then came back to the house and had Ice Cream and Cake!Later, we went to a class social for Aidan's 2nd grade class where we got to meet his teacher and classmates. There's not many of the same kids in his class this year. . .lots more friends to make! School starts September 2nd - WOW only 1 more week of summer break!

On Saturday we spent the day at the temple. It was great! There was a Primary activity for the kids with the youth helping so the parents could do a session together. After all of that Delvin got to help the youth in the temple too and the boys and I went to the church bookstore and hung around the temple grounds and waiting room. It was a good day. We really enjoyed being together as a family at the temple!!

GREAT Weekend!!!!!!!

What a wonderful weekend we had!!!!! It started on Thursday when I went to pick up my brother Steve, who flew in from Texas. I hadn't seen him in 7 years!

We had a lot of fun! We drove over to my mom's house in Oak Harbor and stopped at Deception Pass on the way. I was shocked by the brother I knew growing up who had no fear, is now scared of heights and kept saying "Just don't look down, don't look down". He said he doesn't like roller coasters anymore either - what???? Who is this guy?

While my brother visited with my mom at her house, we went camping at Deception Pass. We got to break in our new tent (which I forgot to get a picture of). We took our little dingy out with the trolling motor and set the crab pot. After we got our rope stolen and our crab poached we reset and caught 3 crab and ate them for dinner on Friday night. We set it out again over night and picked up 5 crab Saturday morning to take home! YUM YUM YUM!!!! I LOVE CRAB!!!
At the boat launch there were two Pirate Ships there, Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftan. It was so awesome to check them out!!!
Delvin and Aidan did some more fishing. . .they didn't catch any fish, but they did get a good catch! HA HA

Mason is really close to walking now. . .he stands himself up in the middle of anywhere and will squat down to pick up toys and then just stand up a play with them. He's attempted to take a step, but hasn't quite done that yet. Here he had picked up Uncle Steve's shoe to play with. We knew it was going to be a good weekend, but it got even better when we got a surprise visit from Delvin's Dad! His brother-in-law passed away and he flew into Oregon for the funeral, so Delvin and Aidan drove down to pick him up so he could be with us for Aidan's Special Day!!!!

Aidan turned 8 years old and chose to be baptized!!!! It was a BIG day! We had a big family dinner and then headed out to the church. The baptism was wonderful. Grandma played her violin and the piano and gave a talk about baptism. Uncle Steve gave the opening prayer, Delvin performed the baptism (Uncles Steve and David were the witnesses), I gave a talk about the Holy Ghost, Grandpa gave the blessing to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and Uncle David gave the closing prayer. There were lots of friends and family there and the Spirit was so strong. It was a beautiful experience and I'm so grateful that Aidan made the choice to follow the Lords example and participate in these sacred ordinances!
Here's the family after the baptism.


After the baptism we went back to the house for a birthday celebration. I made Aidan's favorite "Perfectly Chocolate, Chocolate Cake". He opened presents and played with his cousins and had a great time.
It was a wonderful weekend and I'm very tired today and trying to recover, but feel such peace about everything that happened. It was by far the best weekend of the summer and the best weekend I can remember in many years!

I'll try to figure out how to add links to more pics soon - stay tuned!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars!!!!

Aidan is so excited for this movie to come out, in fact we're for his birthday party he's chosen 4 friends to go see it with him on opening day. He wanted me to put this video on our blog, so here it is!!

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO! I Love Harry Potter!!!!!!!

I am a huge Harry Potter fanatic!!! The books are the best, but I do love the movies too!!! The Half-Blood Prince comes out on November 21st and they just released the movie trailer two hours ago!!!! So exciting!!!!!!!!! Here's the link to the trailer if you haven't seen it yet - Wooooooo Hoooooo!
http://www.moviefone.com/movie/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince/27063/trailer?trailerId=2181231

Here's a link to pictures from the movie!!!!!
http://www.moviefone.com/movie/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince/27063/photos/6?sortType=&timePeriod=

Sweetly Sleeping

Mason was a bit restless in his sleep today and this is how he ended up. It was sooooo cute I just had to share it! (Yes, that is a giant fish pillow!)

Last of the Dirt!

For the last year and a half we've been trying to back fill the drop off in our back yard. It's finally done!!!! Here's the boys hard at work finishing the job. Now comes the landscaping projects!!!

Mason enjoying his food!

YUM!

Cub Scout Day Camp - Camp McKinley

I remember when my nephew, Jeff, was in Cub Scouts. . .my sister told me scouting was such a blessing in their families lives. I didn't understand - it's just activities for the boys - gives them something to do. Now that we've been in it for a few months I finally get it!!!!! Scouting is a huge blessing in our lives - it has been such a wonderful experience for our whole family and I can't wait to see the blessing that pour into our family over the next several years.

Cub Scout Day Camp ended today - it was sooooo much fun! I volunteered on Monday and Thursday. Monday I ran the Detective Training which consisted of two separate activities - creating obstacle courses and the other used mirrors to get a laser light from one point to another. It was fun, but hectic trying to lead the two groups simultaneously and taking care of Mason (who was sick) all at the same time. I barely got his diaper changed once and luckily he finally took a nap during the last group of the day. Today was much better - I got to go around to each station with Aidan's Den and had the flexibility to take Mason back to the car for nap time. Overall it was such a great experience for me and I hope it was wonderful for Aidan! Check out some of the fun stuff that happened!

The Dark Blue Den
From the East to the West
Blue Wolves are the Best
WOOOOOOO

Jadon, Alec, ______, Taylor, Matt, Alden, Jayden, Talmage & Aidan

The Spider Web!

Aidan loved BB guns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ultimate Frisbee

Skits - Aidan was "Sneezy Scout"

The theme for camp was "CSI - Cub Scout Investigators" They developed the theme so well -
so many great activities - science, safety, wood projects, clues to solve mysteries -
It was so much fun!!!!

Strange Sleeping Styles

One restless night, Mason ended up sleeping this way. . .sooooo cute!!!!

Becoming a Wolf Cub

On June 30th Aidan earned his Tiger Cub patch and crossed over into Wolf Cubs!!! Here he is with his Den mates Caden and Alden.

After earning his patch he got the yellow Wolf handkerchief and was sent to cross over the bridge to the Wolf den.

After crossover they had a Rain Gutter Regatta. Blow, Aidan, Blow!!!!!