You can't help but love him.....

Stockton LOVES to be silly. He got these glasses trick-or-treating and he wears them almost every day. He calls them his "sunglasses". Every time I see them on him, I have to laugh. He loves making people laugh. He is almost always happy. He is SO animated and shows excitement at the smallest things. He keeps us laughing and smiling every day and what family doesn't need that??? We just can't get enough of him!

Tooth fairy hard at work....

We had another "first" in our house this week--Anistyn "FINALLY!" lost her first tooth! She knocked it loose with her fork eating dinner a few weeks ago, and her permanent tooth finally came in enough to make it loose enough to come out. Every night since it first became loose, I would check it to see if it's made any progress. On Monday night it was REALLY loose and I told her that with a couple little tugs, it would come right out. She said she wanted to try the string method that we had told her about, so I got a string and gave it a little tug. It didn't come all the way out, but it loosened it even more. She played with it for a few minutes and then let me give it one more little pull and.....POP! It came right out! She was so excited!!! She was hopping around the house, asking when the tooth fairy would come. I told her I had to email the tooth fairy to let her know, so it wouldn't be until the next night. (Yep--the tooth fairy uses email these days, as does Santa). So, Tuesday night, the tooth fairy snuck into her room to leave a Hello Kitty doll and her favorite gum, Bubble Tape. She woke up around 6am to check to see what was left and was thrilled! Whew! Being a tooth fairy can be exhausting. So much pressure! She already has another loose tooth, so this tooth fairy is gearing up for another drop soon.

Here she is right after the final pull:

And here she is the morning after the tooth fairy visited:

Her permanent tooth is already popping through and I wish it would hold off for awhile. I love that cute toothless grin!

And it came to pass.....

During this last General Conference, there was a talk given by Mary N. Cook, a counselor in the Young Women General Presidency. In her talk, she shared a story about a young mother who wanted to read the Book of Mormon with her children, but thought they were too young because most or all of them could not read yet. However, she decided that they would just start out with a few verses a day, and progress as the children learned to read. It took them 3 1/2 years to finish the Book of Mormon, but they finished. As I listened to this talk, I thought, "That is me. I have one child that can read, and one that cannot. Both have a short attention span. But if it takes us 4 years, then that is fine." So, we started reading the Book of Mormon as a family--one column per night after dinner. Anistyn reads her own verses, and Stockton repeats the words back as we tell them to him. Last night while we were reading, it came time for Stockton's turn. I read a few words for him to repeat. He looked at me and said "No, Mommy! It 'posed to say 'and it came to pass!!!' And we thought he wasn't listening.......

My hero....

As a side note to Halloween, while we were at my mom's office trick-or-treating, Stockton saw this man dressed as Buzz Lightyear. He said "Look at that Buzz Yiteyear--he is HUGE!" We just had to get a picture of them together as it was one of the cutest things I had ever seen. He kept looking up in him in complete awe, as if he was in the presence of the actual Buzz Lightyear.

Happy Halloween!!!

We had a great Halloween! Of course, when you have little kids, Halloween is really more a week, not just a day. This year we had 3 days in a row of festivities. On Thursday we were able to go to Anistyn's school Halloween parade. I hadn't been to one of those since I was in elementary school and it brought back lots of fun memories. We loved watching all of the kids, especially our cute little witch. Stockton also got to wear his costume to preschool that day, which he LOVED! On Friday, there was no school, which made it kind of nice so things didn't have to be so hectic. We first headed to Kevin's work, where the employees always get excited to see the little kids dressed up. Then we did the traditional "trick-or-treating at Grammy's work". My mom's employer buys TONS of candy (the GOOD stuff!) and passes it out to all of the employees, who invite their families to come trick-or-treat around the office. It's always a lot of fun and this year didn't disappoint. Afterwards we made a quick stop at my dad's office, which happens to be right across the street. Friday night we had our ward trunk-or-treat. This year we had it outside, which made it so fun! They even blocked off the entire street so it was safe for the kids. We had yummy soup and rolls and had a good time watching the kids play games and go through the spook alley. On Saturday, we did our usual activities (while fighting the pouring rain), then met up with Shannon, Ralph (who came into town to trick-or-treat with the grand kids), Matt, Dad, Stacie, Reagan, & Cole for dinner at Red Robin. After dinner we headed home to get into our costumes and then braved the rain to go trick-or-treating. Luckily, the rain subsided, but we were left with the wind. But we are hard core, so we stuck it out! It was a great Halloween and we loved our cute witch and Buzz Lightyear!