Pumpkin Carving

Milo picked out a pumpkin at the grocery store quite awhile ago, he also got a mini pumpkin from Grandma Debbie.... He has been pretty excited about his pumpkins this year, so we thought that carving his big pumpkin in to a Jack-o-lantern would be a big hit. We decided it would be the perfect Family Night activity last night, we were wrong! Jordan cut off the top, then we took Milo's shirt off of him and told him to go dig the guts out. As soon as he walked over to the pumpkin he said, "It's a little bit stinky" and began to gag! ... anytime Milo would get too close to the pumpkin he would start gagging. I guess he has an extra sensitive nose. So, Jordan did all the work ... but now that it's all done Milo loves his Jack-o-lantern.

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween!

Milo isn't big on dressing up, even his regular clothes are sometimes a battle to get him into. So, Halloween's past haven't always gone super smoothly, which makes it hard to want to spend a lot of time figuring out a costume for him. But this year my mom sent Milo a giraffe costume in the mail and Milo seemed to be excited about wearing it. He would tell everyone that he was going to be a giraffe for Halloween, and seemed pretty set on it. I had to modify the costume for him because he kept complaining about having a wedgie, so I cut the legs off and just made it a Giraffe top and then he was able to wear regular pants. We had the most action packed weekend celebrating Halloween. We usually don't have a whole lot going on during the weekends, but this weekend was go...go...go! Friday night,  we were invited to a Halloween Party. Some friends of ours, who have some older boys, throw a Halloween Party for their kids & their friends every year. We had fun eating, visiting, and playing at the park. When they started the Halloween games we left and headed to the next party. We went to a BSU vs. BYU football party with some people from our ward. Milo and I were the only ones wearing any BSU gear (Jordan would've he still needs a BSU shirt), it definitely a BYU crowd,  but unfortunately for us BSU lost!  In the morning we took Milo to Boo at the Zoo. They had Trick or Treat stations, "Stomp and Chomp" where they gave some animals pumpkins to break open & eat, and some other Halloween activities. It was pretty fun, we invited our friends the Satko's to join us. Milo refused to wear his costume until we got to the Giraffe's and Jordan asked him if he wanted to go inside the cage. He got really excited about it, so Jordan told him that he had to wear his costume otherwise they would know he was a boy. It worked ... for about 5 minutes. Then we took it back off and Milo's friend Evelyn wore it around the zoo, and she looked darling. Directly after leaving the zoo we went to a Halloween themed birthday party for two little boys in our ward. Then we headed home tried to rest for a few minutes and began getting ready for Trunk or Treat. Milo loved Trick or Treating and actually wore his costume (with the hood off) to walk around and Trick or Treat and Jordan dressed up like a Safari Guide.

A little trip to Arizona

Last weekend (10/13) Larry and Debbie came over to LA and hung out. They spent Saturday night in Palm Springs and then continued over to LA Sunday morning and made it to our house in time for church. After church, we made some dinner, went to the LA Temple Visitor Center, and then hit up Sprinkles Cupcakes Ice Cream Shop. Delicious! Monday morning, we took Milo to Griffith Park to play at the playground and ride the train. After playing at the park for a little while we met Jordan for some lunch. And then Larry, Debbie, and Milo headed back to Arizona. ... We sent Milo to Grandma and Grandpas alone for the first time! I was a little nervous about how he would do, he's been in kind of a clingy stage and I have been trying to keep his schedule pretty strict so that we can hopefully have at least one good sleeper when the new baby arrives ... but He did great, he had a blast! and it was so nice for Jordan and I to have some time alone and get some things ready for the new baby. On Thursday after work Jordan and I headed to Arizona. We were so excited to get Milo and his reaction to us coming home was so sweet. He was in bed, but he got out of bed with the biggest perma-smile on his face and gave huge hugs to both Jordan and I. I laid down in bed with him and he stuck his little arm around me and started jabbering about all the things that he had done at Grandma and Grandpas house. We are lucky that Milo has two awesome sets of Grandparents that are willing to do anything for us! We spent the weekend in Arizona, it was nice to be back in Gilbert. Friday night we went to Isla's 1st Birthday Party. Saturday we went to Street of Dreams, a model home tour, and then on Saturday night was Jordan's 10 Year High School Reunion. Sunday we had a delicious breakfast and started our way out of town, we stopped by a few friends homes to say a quick hello on the way out of town. It was a great way to spend the week/weekend!

CicLAvia: Downtown LA

On General Conference Sunday we took a break between sessions for some wholesome family recreation and ventured into  Downtown LA and met up with one of Jordan's friends from Thunderbird, Anna. She was also an intern in Peru while Jordan was so we all know her a little bit and enjoyed meeting up with her again. LA has a rotating event called CicLAvia, where they block of streets to cars and only allow pedestrians (mainly bikers) to use the roads. This time the event was being held in Downtown. Since we live so close to Downtown but still haven't explored too much and we love to bike we figured it was a win-win for us. Milo loved riding in his trailer, he has finally outgrown his i-bert (sad day) and it was fun to check out some of the streets that are usually jammed with cars.

From the Mouths of Babes

For Family Home Evening we try and have a short lesson for Milo from the Nursery manual. We were teaching him about Baptism because we had just been to a converts baptism the day before. After the lesson, Milo was flipping through the manual, looking at all the pictures, and explaining to us what was going on in them. when he got to this picture of John the Baptist and Jesus he explained to us that when he is 8 years old he will get to give Jesus a high five! ... Oh the mouths of babes. 

In all seriousness though, it has been so much fun to teach Milo about the church and scripture stories. He can sing the words quite a few primary songs, say his own prayers, he will re tell us scripture stories from his picture Book of Mormon. His favorite story is King Noah & Abinadi and Alma at the Waters of Mormon. He almost always prefers to read scripture stories than his other books when we are getting him ready for bed. Sometimes when we tell Milo to kneel down for prayers he'll say, "Like Enos does"... its amazing to see his little mind working and putting things together. I hope that he will always have this love for the gospel. 

** And my blog is caught up, Hooray! **

Milo's Prayers

A couple weeks ago we were at the playground and there was a pretend table and chairs. Milo was sitting down at the table and pretending to make himself lunch, then he sat down and said a little prayer all on his own. We had been practicing having him pray by following along with whatever I would say, but this was the first time that he did it all on his own. When we got home from the park and I made his real lunch I asked him to say the prayer and I snuck a video. It's the sweetest thing, we've loved having Milo say his own simple prayers the past few weeks, its the cutest thing ever.

**turn your volume all the way up**

Camberlango's at Disneyland

My friends from high school, the Camberlango's and their three cute kids came to California last week on family vacation. We were able to go to the LA Zoo and Disneyland with them on two different days. Jordan was able to come with us on Saturday and then Milo and I went back on Tuesday for some more fun. It took Milo awhile to warm up to all the kids, but he definitely had so much fun having other kids to play with at Disneyland and he keeps asking if to play with them. Hopefully one day we will live closer to this cute family!

More Pony Riding

For days Milo was begging to go for a ride on the ponies, so when I finally told him that we were headed to the ponies ... he was so excited, ran into his room and put on his "cowboy hat." I love how smart he is, this age is so fun ... Unfortunately, they wouldn't let Milo wear his hat because it didn't have a strap ... but he had a ball as usual and looked darling. 

Milo's 2nd Hair Cut

 ^^ Before 

^^ After 

Milo's hair was getting a little wild, so as much as I loved the long hair-do it was time to get it trimmed. The haircut went surprisingly well as long as we kept the suckers coming. He looks darling and so much older.

Tori & Isla's Visit

Tori's Disneyland pass from their trip in May still had one day left to use up before the summer was over and we wanted to see her of course, too! So, Tori and Isla drove over to visit for a few days while James had to stay behind and start his semester of school. We were able to go to the LA Zoo, go to the fabric district for leather (Tori makes awesome leather moccasins and sells them on instagram @isla_and_i), and of course go to Disneyland. This visit was so fun because Milo and Isla were able to interact a little bit better and sweet little Isla had just started walking. We love these cute friends of ours!

Potty Training

Once our visitors & traveling finally slowed down I figured it would be a perfect time to start potty training Milo. I started by checking out a few books and videos from the library to get the thought in his head. And then we did the 3-day run around 1/2 naked method (not sure of the official name) and it seemed to work like a charm. He also really took to the song from PBS' Daniel Tiger show, "If you have to go potty stop and go right away, flush and wash, and be on your way." Potty Training has been way less stressful than I thought it might be, hopefully he doesn't regress and start having accidents, but for now I am loving not changing diapers and it will be so nice to have just one baby in diapers at a time.

Grandma & Grandpa Flake Visit + Tour of Hollywood

 ^^ Our bus driver wasn't the best photographer (or driver for that matter)

Larry and Debbie didn't get to see a whole lot of us this summer since our time was pretty well dominated by the Williams' reunion and two weddings, but they made it out for a weekend at the end of August. Debbie had planned to stay for the whole week but wasn't feeling well, so she unfortunately changed her flight and headed back to Arizona with Larry ... but before they headed out of town we were able to take Milo to the pony rides and the train at Griffith Park and also headed in to Hollywood and took a Hollywood Homes tour. Larry is a master negotiator and got all 5 of us on the last tour of the day for $60. The tour was hilarious, I was a little nervous about it at first because it was in a sketchy 15 passenger van that had the roof sawed off and we nearly got T-boned in the first intersection that we passed through. But it ended up to be really fun to drive through the Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills to see some of the amazing views and real estate.

More fun in with Daddy

While we were in Idaho for Natalie & Edward's wedding, Jordan was offered a new position at his company which meant new responsibilities, a raise, and best of all an awesome new schedule where he gets off of work at 2:30pm ... It has been so nice to have him around in the afternoons and evenings we have been able to get a lot of things done and have a lot of fun as a family. Milo and I both love having Jordan around for grocery shopping, train rides, pony rides, afternoon trips to Disneyland, walks around the block, etc. ... We feel so blessed to be able to have so much time together as a family!

Idaho + Natalie & Edward

^^ First order of business ... ice cream bars with Papa

^^ Milo loved this mini drum set at Grandpa & Grandma's he sang a hilarious rock-n-roll rendition of "I am a Child of God" 

After the lovebirds got back from their honeymoon cruise, Michael, Felicia, Milo, and I headed out on a road trip to Idaho in my moms car. Milo did amazingly well on the road trip, didn't complain at all. It was a miracle. We made it from our house to my parents house in Boise in one day. We had a variety of crappy food and lots of sodas along the way. I was nervous about the trip since I am pregnant and Milo is two but it actually turned out to be a lot of fun and of course the fun continued after we arrived as well. Milo loves going to Grandma & Papas house. He loved all the new toys, the trampoline, Lucy, swimming, endless treats, garage sales, bike riding, etc. but the main reason for our visit was the wedding of my other sister Natalie and her now husband Edward. Natalie & Edward got married on August 3rd in the Boise Idaho Temple. It was a great day as well! At their wedding all of my siblings and their spouses were able to be in the temple together, the Williams' family is complete! And Edward is an awesome addition! Natalie and Edward had a fun backyard reception with BBQ food. Milo loved the corn on the cob and how cute is this picture that Natalie's friend took, one of my favorites ever.

Disneyland: Thunder Mountain Ranch

I know that I post way too much about Disneyland, but we love it. In July, we went to Disneyland knowing that it was going to be super busy, so we finally went and checked out some of the shows and less popular attractions like the Thunder Mountain Ranch. Milo absolutely loved the petting zoo. He was having a blast petting all of the goats and the horse which he claimed, "he's as tall as a mountain." Milo also got way more than his fair share of attention from Mickey & Minnie. It was getting embarrassing, the line was huge yet they kept pulling Milo back in for more kisses and hugs. Milo was loving it.