Halloween fun and trick or treating...sort of

It seems like Halloween has lasted the whole month of October. Donovan got to wear his costume at least 4 times. On Tuesday we went to a party hosted by the Residence Life Department and Donovan had a blast. He painted pumpkins and decorated cookies with some of the soccer girls.
He did much better than I expected, I was impressed with his painting abilities. We may have to make painting one of our weekly activities.

I think he ate 2 of these cookies before I could frost them. I let the girls keep this one.
Tonight we went trick or treating at the retirement community where Scott works. The boys loved being able to run around and get treats! This is Donovan's "stem". The costume came with a cute little hat, but of course he wouldn't wear it so we improvised.One of the men had on some fun socks and Donovan had to take a good look and see what they felt like. Thankfully the man was very sweet and let him play. He thought the boys were very cute and he and his wife just kept talking to us. They were my favorite couple. The man's name was Harold but said he never liked that name so he has people call him "Cozie". His last name was Cozad or something like that.After we went trick or treating we intended to visit David and Joyce and then go around their neighborhood, but the boys decided they wanted to go inside and play with their grandkids, Chase and Henry. They both remembered that when we go to Joyce and David's house they go inside, so that is what they did.

When we got home, I had to adjust Donovan's car seat and before he went to bed he decided to play in it. It's funny how he usually screams when I try to put him in his seat, but when it isn't in the car he gets in all by himself.
We are in for another weekend without Bradley. The teams play on Sunday so he won't be home until very late Sunday night. Just a few more weeks of this!

7 things tag

I just got tagged by my friend Ashlee

7 Things that attract me to my husband
~ His Smile
~His eyes
~His obnoxious personality, I really do love it, most of the time.
~He has so much fun with Donovan, watching the two of them together makes me smile.
~His work ethic
~The passion he has for the things he loves (family, friends, SOCCER).
~His cute little bum.


7 Things I always say
~Huh? (I think I have a hearing problem)
~Donovan, don't touch that!
~Are you kidding me?
~Seriously?
~You're a nerd.
~What a moron (usually about students Brad complains about. They really are morons)
~Donovan, you are so cute.

7 Things I LOVE to eat
~Chocolate in most forms (hot chocolate, chocolate milk, candy bar, cookie, etc)
~warm rolls
~Soup, it's one reason I love Fall so much
~Homemade bread
~Popcorn, Brad and I usually eat it after Donovan goes to bed.
~I can't seem to stop eating sugar cookies.
~I love Cafe Rio pork burritos and most Gandolfo sandwiches, so it's a good thing we don't live in Utah.

7 Things I can do
~Make Donovan giggle
~Shop, I love to shop, and I could do it all day long if I had enough money.
~Talk to a one year old all day long
~I am getting very good at cleaning and not being so annoyed by it.
~Follow Donovan on his silly adventures
~Cook for my family
~text all day

7 Things I can't Do
~Talk on the phone, I prefer texting or emailing. I think I get it from my dad.
~Be mean, I'm not good at it. If I am, I feel really bad and have to apologize or it nags at me forever.
~Talk about my feelings.
~Cry in front of people. Brad has probably only seen me cry a handful of times.
~Make friends, I really suck at it, I am too shy.
~I can't stand all of the stupid little beetles that look like Ladybugs, they drive me nuts.
~Stop eating so much all of the time, especially junk food. I should join over-eaters anonymous or something.

I tag Raquel, MeChel, Tosha, Lesa, and Caleb's Heather

Donovan's nightly ritual

Every night after Donovan's bath, we let him have a little naked time. I know it probably isn't the best habit to start, but it makes getting him dressed later a little bit easier. There usually isn't quite as much screaming when we pin him down to put on lotion and a diaper after he gets to run around naked for a while. The funny thing is, he has to have his towel hood on. He gets mad if we take it off. Naked time doesn't really last too long, but he has fun and burns some energy.

a day in the life

I decided to take the camera along with Donovan and me for a day last week to show everyone our routine. Basically, when it is too cold and windy to go outside, we walk to Brad's office. Donovan ends up running around everywhere trying to get into everything and making the RA's and desk worker's laugh. He usually stops at Derek's office (Brad's co-worker) and tries to play with his blinds before running to Brad's office. He is usually pretty disappointed when Derek isn't there and his door is closed, but he tries to get to the blinds through the window anyway.

He loves to play with the mail slots at the front desk. When the fun people are working at the desk, they will peek at him through the slot.


Those were the two best videos of the day. He sure is a handful, but he is a cute little handful.

Brad showed Donovan how to get on his rocking chair the other day and now he climbs up there all the time.



This is my favorite face.
We decorated Halloween sugar cookies today with Lenna and Mason. Donovan just ate the cookies, but it was still pretty fun.
Mason was a professional with the sprinkles. I think he used every color on each cookie.Life goes on. Nothing too exciting is happening right now. The soccer teams have the Region Tournament this weekend so Brad will be out of town again. Hopefully both teams will advance on to the District Tournament next weekend...not that I want to get rid of him, but he is much happier when the teams do well! I think it takes the edge off the stress of his day job. I will let you all know how it goes. Donovan is still going to his story times. Those will end the Wednesday before Thanksgiving week. He seems to like it, even though he tries to escape sometimes. It is good for him to be around other kids. There is one other boy in the group who is crazy like Donovan, they both climb and jump on everything. His mom and I have a good laugh every week watching our silly boys. The week before last the story lady brought out blocks and Donovan went around knocking over everyone's towers. Are we raising a bully? Anyway, nothing else is going on. We are just living life and enjoying our cute little boy. We are still in awe of how much we love the little guy, and how adorable he is.

Sunday walks and new snow boots

On Sunday, Brad was watching a football game and Donovan and I were bored, so we went for a long walk around campus. I was a little sad that all of the trees haven't changed color yet. Fall and Spring are my favorite seasons, especially out here, but the trees aren't cooperating. Some of the trees have already lost their leaves while others haven't even changed color yet.Donovan didn't mind though, he still likes to play with the dirt around the trees.We went up to the school and he was pushing the button to open the door, but everything is closed on Sunday so the door was locked. It still made a noise though, so he was happy.He loves to stomp on the storm drain whenever we pass it. He loves the noise it makes.


We had to stop to play in the dirt and find a stick.It was a nice walk, the weather was pretty perfect.

The other night, we were all watching Baby Einstein before bedtime. Donovan was enjoying the music and starting spinning. He is so cute.


Yesterday, Donovan and I went to Target and I decided to look at snow boots for him. I have the feeling he is going to enjoy the snow so we will spend plenty of time in it to make new boots worth the $18 (they were on sale). When we got home, I cut of the tags that were connecting them to make sure he could actually walk in them. He can definitely walk in them, and he wanted to wear them most of the day. When I would tell him to get his shoes so we could go for a walk, he brought me his boots. When I tried to take them off when we got home, he got a little upset with me. He cried until I put them back on. When we got home from mutual, he wanted to show his daddy his boots and grabbed them and sat on my lap so I would put them on. He loves his boots, and they look pretty good on him.One last video, I got an okay shot of Donovan running.

copy cat

Donovan is starting to mimic a lot of things Brad and I do. He cracks us up on a regular basis with his shenanigans.

What a cutie.The Halloween party went pretty well. Donovan was an adorable pumpkin and Mason makes a pretty believable Mr. Incredible.
I'm not sure why, but the people who had the party at their house had a lot of hula hoops. Donovan walked around with one for a while, I would have taken video but it was too dark.Donovan wanted to climb up the slide so bad, but was too tired and couldn't quite make it. That made him angry. I love this face.I have to tell this story because it made me laugh, and then it made me worry about the kind of education our children are (or aren't) getting. At church today, I was teaching the YW the lesson on being healthy. We read D&C 89 (Word of Wisdom) and when we came to the part about tobacco one of the girls asked me a question. Lenna will probably know who it was too. Here is our conversation:
Girl: I have a question, why are they talking about tobacco when it wasn't even invented back then?
At this point I am thinking, 'is she serious?'. I really couldn't tell if she seriously thought that.
Me: Actually it was used a long time before this revelation.
Girl: Are you serious?
I am sure she was thinking of our modern day cigarette. But still, what are they teaching in history? I swear I heard about the growing of tobacco in early American history in the 6th grade. In this same lesson, the same girl got up to write on the board for me and spelled the word excess x-s-e-s-s. Maybe it is just their particular town, or maybe she just doesn't think before she does or says things. This girl cracks me up most of the time though. I try really hard to be polite about correcting things, but I think she does and says dumb things on purpose a lot of the time...at least I hope she does.

Our little monkey

This morning while I was eating breakfast, Donovan brought me his little nose sucker (what do you call those?). I was wondering how he got it because I put things like that in a place where he can't reach. I went into his room to see what he was doing and saw this


He is so silly, after he figured this out I moved the Mickey car and this is what he did.


Donovan has also taught himself how to walk backwards. I haven't been able to capture it, but I am working on it! He is such a cute little stinker.Still no more bottle! I packed them up this morning. It really is a huge relief to have it done and out of the way. Our next big step is the potty! We have plenty of time to worry about that later though so I'm not even going to think about it until he is ready.

We are going to a church Halloween party tonight, so we will hopefully have some fun pictures of the pumpkin (Donovan) and Mr. Incredible (Mason) to post this weekend. I am so excited for Halloween to be fun again. It's too bad Donovan can't eat all of the candy he will get at the trunk or treat portion of the party, I guess we will just have to eat it for him. It's a sacrifice I will just have to be willing to make.

No more bottle, woot woot!

We are finally done with the bottle! It only took me 2 months to get up the courage to let him bawl in his bed. We had gone down to 2 bottles a day and on Saturday I had had enough and gave him a sippy cup of water to go down for his nap, he whimpered for about 2 minutes. I think I started at the perfect time, I really think he was ready. He hasn't had a bottle since Friday night. Woot! I am going to pack them up today so I won't be tempted if we have a bad night. He is growing up so fast!

Bathtub, bonfire, pumpkin patch

Donovan was being so cute in the tub. He would blow bubbles in the water and laugh when he saw me watching. This is his new nose scrunching smile. Isn't it cute?


On Friday, Lenna was nice enough to watch Donovan so Brad and I could go with the rest of the Student Life department on a hayrack ride and to a bonfire. It was pretty fun. It was mostly nice to get out of the house and spend some time with adults!
Yesterday morning, we went to a pumpkin patch with Lenna, Scott, and Mason. It was a cute little place that didn't charge an entry fee, so we loved it!This was the pumpkin I chose!
Donovan had so much fun walking around through the pumpkin patch and weeds. He also had fun trying to pick up the heavy pumpkins.
"Your son is a witch"Donovan pulling the wagon full of pumpkins.
Driving the tractor. The owner was extremely nice and let the kids ride the tractors. We will definitely go there again next year (if we are still here).
This was my Jolly Roger pumpkin.
Here is Donovan's pumpkin. I tried to make it look like Donovan in pumpkin form. Notice the curl of the hair and the gapped teeth.
See if you can guess who this is! I will give you bonus points if you can figure out the quote that goes with this face.
Donovan loves his pumpkin. He likes to take off the lid and put it back on, over and over and over and over again.
We had a fun weekend! It's too bad we don't have anywhere to display our jack o' lanterns. I have the feeling if we put them outside, they would be smashed within the hour.

Short update

I thought I would update a few things that I keep forgetting. First of all, Donovan has his 2 top molars! Hooray! He handled it so well, I didn't even know they had cut through! He is such a big boy! He is also starting to get a little faster on his feet. He makes me laugh when he runs, it reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite (video to come...someday). He still loves everything Mickey. His new favorite song is Mickey Mouse Club March. His favorite part is the end, he likes to clap along and say "YAY".


Our child is such a stud. We went to the soccer games yesterday (they played Iowa Central, men won 1-0 in overtime and women won 4-0) and he made a few more friends. He was walking around and would sit by random people and play with their keys and phones. It's a good thing he is so cute, or they may not have been so happy about it. Sometimes I feel like I have zero control over my child, especially when we are in a new place. He likes to ignore me when I am talking to him or trying to get his attention. Does that ever go away? I don't think I remember ever listening to my parents :), I guess what goes around comes around.

Like father, like son

My boys are so cute. Brad might get mad at me for posting this, I don't think he knows I was recording. They are so silly together. Donovan loves to imitate his daddy, and vice versa.

We had a rainy day today and Donovan wanted to play outside, even though he has a cold (VERY runny nose, cough, etc). He cried when I made him go inside to put on his jacket (it started raining while we were walking around outside). He cried again when I made him go inside for good. I felt a little mean, but he is sick and I don't want it to get worse!
He doesn't look very happy, but he was! He has to splash in every puddle he sees.


This is a video of Donovan's new favorite sounds. Don't mind my babbling in the background, I am still trying to get a video of him doing his elephant impersonation. He has been giving kisses pretty liberally lately, but wasn't in the mood when I was taking this video...oh well, he was still being pretty cute.

D-baby's first pro soccer game

What a lucky boy Donovan is. He got go with us to Kansas City to watch the Wizards play the Chicago Fire. We saw the oh so handsome Brian McBride in person! I have to admit that he isn't quite as handsome in person, and he walks like a girl.

Brad won four tickets for winning something in the MLS Fantasy League and they took forever to get him his prize (almost a year), so they told him they would give him tickets to any Wizards game this year. We took Jordan and his girlfriend Nicole. They squished in the back with Donovan.Donovan was a very good boy during the game. We only had to leave our seats once and that was to change a diaper. He sat for most of it, and played with his cup in the cupholder and Jordan's shoe for the rest of the time. I think he enjoyed it. There were plenty of things to look at and point to, so he was happy! He was actually pretty mesmerized by the game. The game ended in a tie, which was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn't the most exciting game, but it was fun to be there.In other news, Donovan is adorable.

I couldn't resist

Don't get me wrong, I love Twilight and I am pretty excited to see the movie, even though I know it won't be nearly as good as the book. This made me laugh pretty hard. These people have way too much time on their hands! If you want to compare it with the real trailer click here

Probably not appropriate for a 1 year old...

I thought I would play some Kanye West for Donovan to see what he would do. It was pretty silly, he even tried to snap his fingers, but it didn't last for long. I don't blame him, I can only stand that kind of music occasionally.


Brad left this morning for Cheyenne. He will be gone until early Sunday. Donovan and I have a long weekend ahead of us! If you have any ideas to make it go by faster, let me know. It's strange, Brad really isn't home that often, he has to work until 9:00 most nights, but it is still sad not having him around for those 2 hours before I go to bed. I feel like I have been posting a lot lately, probably because I have. I am setting a goal to not post again until we have pictures from Donovan's first MLS game on the outside (I was pregnant for the 2 Wizards game we went to last summer).