Happy Halloween!

Though our first photo will show you how much Henry liked getting on his neon green hairspray, we really did have a great and festive Halloween. We started it with a carnival last Saturday and then a fabulous dinner and trick-or-treat party at the church tonight. Gavin's Batman obsession continued to include Halloween and we were able to piece together a great costume for him. Anyone who has spent time with Henry in the last 4 months knows that he is the epitome of the Incredible Hulk, and prides himself in totally heinous outbursts, so you can understand why I immediately went with the idea when my friend Jessi suggested it.

They looked great and had a lot of fun. Here are some super cute shots.

We have already had several talks with Gavin about the fact that he doesn't get to "be" anything until next Halloween. And NO we do not dress up in costumes for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Tough concept for a preschooler apparently.

I voted today

This year on Election Day, I will be spending many many hours at a Salt Lake County polling location to assist all of those Americans exercising their right to vote that day. I have the job of working with the fancy touch-screens used by Utah voters, and trying to keep them from breaking, while helping people to be sure that they completed their vote correctly. While I have already learned a lot from the 4 hours of training that was provided for this job, it will be an interesting day for me. I hope to at least discover if the county clerk's office made the right choice in hiring several hundred people without asking for reference or ever meeting them. We shall see.

So, today I cast my absentee ballot and then took this incredibly attractive picture of myself, and realized a couple of things. One being that it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to actually notice what my hair looks like in the middle of the day and try to do something about it. More importantly though, that even though sometimes the choices we are given are like choosing between eating dirt and eating something worse, it is still better to make our own choice and not wait around for someone else to make it for us.

Get out the vote.

Pumpkin Time

On Sunday, we carved our Jack-o-lanterns. This was the first year since having Gavin that we actually carved the pumpkins... not that he is super deprived or anything, I just always found that it was easier to let them paint them than to deal with knives etc.

I think that my past idea might have been better than deciding to carve them... this was the face Gavin was making as we tried to convince him to stick his hand in the pumpkin to pull out the "junk." Needless to say, he never actually put his hand in, but he did use a spoon and scoop out about 2 seeds... and I did the rest.

Henry wasn't as afraid of the mess, but he still was just excited to get to swing around large utensils.

Gavin made our design, which was pretty much make all of the parts of the face look like mountains (aka triangles).

Caleb had more than enough help trying to make something a little more elaborate with his pumpkin.

I think this pretty much say it... we were satisfied with our results, and we have to light them almost every night, so that the boys can blow out the candles.

I is for Native American?

This week I taught preschool at my house, and we learned about the letter "I". I got the ideas for Thursdays lessons, from Jessi, who had "I" last year, and would have had it this year if she hadn't just had her newest bundle of joy. I was grateful to steal her theme for such a fun day at preschool. I would never have thought of "I is for Indians" on my own, but it turned out great, and I was even able to restrain myself from saying anything about white men killing them and stealing their land.

We started out our lesson with a very non-PC clip from the movie Peter Pan, that of course, the kids loved. Then we each chose Indian names and learned about petroglyphs. The kids each made a vest and attempted to draw a petroglyph of their new Indian name. Then they made a headdress and a paper plate music shaker. We ended our class with an Indian feast or dried meat (beef jerky), dried berries (raisins), and some mixed nuts. It was super fun.

Here's the class all dressed up.

They had to show off the drawings on the back

(click on the picture and it will enlarge so you can actually see the drawings).

Dancing Sheep (Lexi)Running Horse (Gavin)

Princess Piglet (Aiko)Juggling Clown (Parker)

Princess Pink Pig (Paili)

I loved having them each pick out their own name. Parker was really focused on being something related to Halloween coming up and Aiko and Paili are best friends so they really wanted to pick the same animal for their names. The following morning Caleb changed Gavin's name to Chief Whining Horse, which actually got him laughing instead of complaining.

Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim

Last weekend, Caleb left us for two days to drive to the Grand Canyon, hike from the South Rim to the North Rim (23 miles) and drive back home. We missed him a lot! But as he left on Friday morning Gavin said, "I sure hope Dad has fun." And I think he did. He went along with his brother- Nathan and his good friend- Nick, as well as Nick's brother-in-law. Caleb was able to finish the hike in a bit less than 10 hours, and while he was sore afterward, he was still able to walk around without much limping and tell the tale. He also impressed me with some really great photography.

Here is my handsome husband in a really beautiful place.

This was the night before, you can tell because their smiles are still pretty big.

Crossing the Colorado River.

This is a shot of Nathan on the climb out... he is that tiny guy.

Finally done... Great job guys. Now that is an endurance challenge.

The boys and I can't wait for Caleb to take us back to the Grand Canyon, but we probably won't go to do a hike like that.

New list

Well, I finally got smart and figured out how to put the cool little feature on my blog that lets me know when people have updated... the only drawback is that now I can't keep my list in the same order that it was. I know some of you may think that is fine, since my old order was mostly random, but actually it was highly calculated and planned in the way that made the most sense to me. It was sorted by the geographical region in which I met you, though not necessarily based on where you now live (the Gap being its own state entirely ;-)). I will miss my old sorting, but have now chosen to have it sorted based on who has updated most recently... Maybe that will guilt some of you into posting more often (hehe).

And just for fun... Here are a few pictures from one of Caleb's hikes... to get us all pumped up for him to complete the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim this Saturday.

Oh...

Not sure if I need to say any more than what the title says. These guys just seem to be transforming right in front of my eyes. Over night Henry has become a little boy... and the crib went away. At the end of last week he started sleeping in a toddler bed. Gavin has always slept in a twin bed, but I don't think their room is big enough for 2 twin beds, and I still don't think they are big enough for bunk beds (even though Gavin asks me often if they are). He has made a seamless transition and his love for sleep has not been interupted. I just still can't believe he is so big. When Gavin hit these milestones we were so excited, but it almost brings tears to my eyes to see my little Henry snoozing away. And now when I get out the camera, he looks at me and smiles.

A little man's favorite shoes

September 2006

September 2008

Two boys, one pair of black wedges. Not sure why these attract them, but I just thought the comparison in these photos was too funny not to share.

Little Devils

This is what my boys have been acting like today.

They seem pretty proud of themselves too.

6 Happy Years

A few pictures of us this year...

Bryce Canyon

Ellis IslandEmpire State Building

...looks like we are still smiling... thank goodness.

We totally copied the Bergers on the dancing video, but the boy just loved watching it way too much not to make one. Now when Gavin sees it, he shouts out, "I'm a rockstar!" and starts trying to bust out some moves and get Henry to do it too... this will probably only result in injury.

The Cardons have Super Awesome Moves

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Sweet Ride

So I just can't help posting this video.

This was shot yesterday while Gavin and the two neighbor girls, Hannah and Catherine were entertaining themselves in front of the Wiley's house.

The sad part is probably that there are 2 adult women and mothers of these kids laughing in the background.. and also that we were not paying very close attention the first time they tried it, and they went flying under the front yard swing... where Henry was swinging nice and high... and Gavin ended up taking the swing full on in the head and getting knocked flat off the board. Oh well- that was before this video, so you can see that he was fully recovered. I would hate to see what these three end up doing for fun as teenagers, if this is the road they are on at 2, 3, and 4 years old.

First Day of Preschool

Today was Gavin's first day of our neighborhood preschool. He was pretty excited and now is quite proud of himself. There are 5 kids in his class, all of which are our neighbors and friends. We never have to go more than a block away to get to preschool. Henry and I also hosted the younger siblings of all of the kids in the class at our house this morning. They range in age from 2.5 years to 3 months, though the youngest one that we had here today is 9 months.

We are really looking forward to this year of learning and having fun with friends.

Wood to Burn

Friday night we headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a little campfire, in an attempt to get rid of the pile of old, spider collecting wood that has been sitting in our yard since long before we bought the place. We had a great time, and were even joined by several families of our friends... though I used all of the good daylight to only take pictures of my boys... sorry friends.

Gavin was pretty excited to be outside and in the mountains.

And Henry made it out of this adventure with only one large forehead bruise... pretty good for him. (Yep, that is a lighter he is running with... safety first.)

Side note: Henry had his 18 month check up last week as well, and my little bruiser weighed in at only 29lbs 2 ounces and was 32.75 inches tall... he is practically a light weight, I know.

The Things I find Peculiar about Me

I have been tagged... by McCall... now you can all see how lame I am...

6 Peculiar Things About Me

1. As a little kid I was super shy. In the first grade my teacher, Mrs. Nash (pronounced Mrs. Naaash in west Texas), told my parents that I was the "sweetest, quiet little girl." I don't remember being afraid to talk, but just that I didn't. I guess I outgrew that one... no one in high school believed that story about me.

2. One of my biggest pet peeves is a messed up rug. I hate when the bathroom mat is wrinkled or turned up on the corner and someone is just standing on it like they don't even notice. Its even worse for a kitchen or living room rug, just more than I can handle.

3. I laugh out loud at the Daily Show (with Jon Stewart). Caleb always thinks this is funny since I don't laugh out loud at TV often and he always does, but since upgrading our cable, I have watched this show often and I just can't help myself. I think that we should all be able to make fun of ourselves more often and I love to see politicians be able to take a joke, or make one. I find Jon Stewart quite enlightening.

4. I am an extremely picky eater. There are entire food groups that I won't even touch. As I have gotten older, I will try things at least once, but sometimes end up spitting them out.

5. I hate toothpaste, and Caleb says it is peculiar that I get my toothbrush wet before I put toothpaste on it. When we got married a single friend asked me if there were things about Caleb that surprised me, and I said, "Yeah, he brushes his teeth with cold water." She and he boyfriend then asked what water I used to brush my teeth and it turned out that I was the weirdo. I somehow manage to use toothpaste as much and I hate it, but sometimes it makes me gag so much that I puke, especially when I am pregnant.

6. I repeat myself a lot lately because sometimes my thoughts are so loud in my head that I can't always be sure whether or not I said something out loud or just thought it. My sister and Caleb often have to hear me say, "Did I already say that or just think it?" Does that mean I'm going nuts? Not sure, maybe I just don't have enough quiet time for my thoughts to be heard right now.

I tag Heidi, Jamie and Michi because I am dying to see if I would have picked any of the same ones that you do. :-)

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

I think this heading about sums up how I am feeling about my day...

The Good-

Of all of the household chores that I hate, dishes are the thing that I hate the most. For the first three years of our marriage we had a dishwasher, but then moved to Utah, where such a thing didn't exist in a rental property. In July, Caleb bought a dishwasher from someone on KSL and this weekend, he installed it for me. We had a perfect spot ready in the kitchen where the washer used to be (that's right, the laundry used to happen in the kitchen), and he was able to get it running pretty quickly. I have been quite excited. So far we have only run it twice, but I am looking forward to using it at my leisure. Hurray for great husbands everywhere! Especially mine!

The Bad-

Well, this morning while I was sweeping I noticed a weird smell coming from the corner of my dining room where I have a bench sitting next to the cold air return that leads to the basement. At first I thought Henry must have stashed some food behind the bench, but upon closer investigation I found nothing of the sort and continued on my cleaning spree. After a while I kept catching the weird smell and finally decided that it might be coming from the basement and probably was related to something that was no longer living. I decided to see for sure. When I opened the door the smell was thick, so I headed back up to the boys. Finally after being outside for a little while I thought the smell in the house was getting worse and left the boys in the neighbors yard to head down with a flashlight and check it out. The first thing I noticed was that the small mouse trap that is usually sitting in plain sight of the door wasn't there, so as I flashed the light around the corner I saw the culprit. A super huge rat, about the size of my foot. Of course, I yelled and ran out of there. Knowing that I was not tough enough to head by down there and bring the thing out, I asked my stay-at-home dad neighbor, Scott, and he was tough enough to do it for me. Even he thought the thing was really big. Last week the cable guy came to upgrade the cable and had gone down there and then left the door open, which we didn't notice until the next morning. We had a few small mice get in last winter, hence the trap that was there, but after sealing everything up and setting traps, we hadn't seen one since January. Though I had heard of these nasty things being seen in the neighborhood, I am just hoping that this is the last glimpse that I get of one. It was thoroughly disgusting. Pretty close to Princess Bride type of creature.

The Ugly-

Probably the best words to describe our new pet that seems to be living on the porch. We saw the little guy a few weeks back on the screen door and later in the flowerbed and today he returned to the porch. He is now more brown and much bigger, but still pretty cool. I am amazed that he can walk on the smooth boards of the window trim and then still make his way quickly up the glass of the window. This is the kind of animal intrusion that I prefer. Though cute fuzzy bunnies would beat all of this.

Bryce Canyon National Park

For Labor Day weekend we spent 3 nights at Bryce Canyon with family. My parents and sister, Bridgett came from New Mexico, and my sister, Heidi, and her husband Mark came with their kids, Joshua, Hannah, Rachel and Sara. We had a really great time camping and hiking and checking out the park. Most of us had never been to Bryce before and I was amazed at how unique and amazing it is, so close to Zions, but so different. We had some truely interesting weather while we were there as well. Luckily we were well prepared and able to stay dry and warm for the most part. Of course, we took about a million pictures, so here are a few highlights, followed by a slideshow for anyone with a long enough attention span.

This is a view of the main canyon from Bryce point as one of the storms was rolling in.

Like alot of other National Parks, Bryce has started offering shuttle service from places in and around the park. We stayed in a nice campground just outside the park, with a pool and a great grass tent camping area. We were also able to take the shuttle from there, which was super exciting for all of the kids, especially the Larson kids who had never ridden public transit except when visiting us in Salt Lake a couple of years ago. Gavin tried to pretend that he was an old pro at riding the bus and bragged to his cousins about having ridden one before. Here we are all waiting on the first day... the sunny and warm day.

Heidi and I... the photographers of the last photo.

We all survived on 2.5 mile hike which was beautiful and dropped down into the canyon. The hardest part was climbing back out at the end, since almost everyone was carrying a kid on their backs or shoulders for most of it. They all hiked really well, it was just hard to climb up the steep trail with short legs.

When the storm started to roll in, we realized that our tents had been spread out to be in the shade, but were also all sitting in low areas that would collect water. So we moved them to the highest area and grouped them together to fit under a tarp Mark had packed for just such a storm. The word tarp is kind of an understatement as the thing was about as big as my house and easily covered all 3 tents with walking room in between and a nice sitting area on one side. It was a nice tent city, and we all stayed dry and warm at night.

Then the storm rolled in... This is the view from Rainbow Point at the south end of the park. Usually you can see about 200 miles from this point... all the way to the Grand Canyon. When were were there, you could see about 20 feet, and it was freezing.

Gavin, Joshua, Hannah, Rachel and Nana.

Maybe we would have seen something like this. Caleb and Vatti did a sunset hike, and caught this amazing glimpse.