Kevin's Third Birthday

Among the many exciting things that happened in November, my son turned three!

We ended up having two birthday parties for him. We had a local one the weekend before his birthday, and then another party actually on his birthday. He had a lot of fun at both.

Before all of his friends and family came over for the local party, he and I built a cardboard castle. I was taping the walls together, but that didn't seem to be working so well, so I decided to sew them together instead. The castle is still standing. It has two towers that can be entered from the main area, and a drawbridge that goes up and down. It's closed in the above picture. 

I was pretty proud of it when we finished. Kevin was also pretty excited to show it to his friends. 

The local party was pretty low-key. We had a piñata, and the kids enjoyed swinging at it. Kevin got to go first since it was his party, and it wasn't broken until my cousin took a whack at it. They all seemed to enjoy themselves. 

It was a Darth Vader piñata. 

Afterward, we had cake and ice cream. Kevin had chosen the cake himself. It was blue velvet and it tasted pretty good. We had cream cheese frosting on top, and I drew a dinosaur. Our boy loves dinosaurs right now.

He got some pretty fun things this year from us (like underwear and bed sheets), and his friends and family brought him some fun things. He was pretty excited about all of his gifts. Mostly, I think he really enjoyed having everyone over to play. 

For his birthday, we promised him that we'd take him to watch The Good Dinosaur. So, the night before he actually turned three, we went and watched it (he was still free). 

He loved it. My dad took the following picture of us at the theater. He and my mom came with us too, and we all really enjoyed it. Kevin loved the movie and his theater experience. It got a little loud sometimes for him, but he only covered his ears during one scene. 

He loved the popcorn though. We had to fight him to get to eat any of it.

The next day on Kevin's birthday, we went to my dad's school to play at his indoor playground and in his ball pit. Kevin had a great time. At one point, he went out to use the restroom. When we exited the restroom, he could see everyone playing through a low window. He headed toward the window while I went toward the door. I thought he was just going to look through it at his cousins. Instead, I heard a loud boing, and I looked to find that he had ran straight into the window and bounced off. Evidently, he thought it was the door. 

He cried for a while, I laughed for a while, and later I took a picture of him with his window. 

I'm such a mean mother.

He recovered pretty quickly, and was soon back to playing. After they had their fill of the playground, we went to the ball pit. He had a great time there.

We all really did. 

After we returned to my parents' home, we had another birthday party for Kevin. He opened a few presents, we sang a few times, blew out some candles, and generally had a great time. 

The birthday boy opening his presents.(I think my dad took this picture too)

He loved his gummy cake that his grandma made him.

It's kind of crazy that my baby is now three-years-old. It's really hard to believe that so much time has passed. 

How did this guy

turn into this guy?

Sometimes, I really miss having a baby around, but it is really fun to see how much Kevin is learning and growing each day. He's my good friend, and I love him very much. It is so fun to see the way that he plays with his dad, his uncles, and his dog. He has so much love and personality. 

Happy birthday, my son. I waited my whole life for you to come, and I can't tell you how grateful I am that we have you in our lives. Our home would be empty without you.

NaNoWriMo Report

Many of you may have noticed that I was a little bit scarce on this blog during November.

Usually, it's because I was busy writing for my NaNoWriMo goal, but it was also because November ended up being a pretty crazy month.

I was really close. I knew if I didn't get most of my story written before Thanksgiving that it would be really difficult to finish while we were in Idaho with family. I did pretty well, but I didn't get as far as I wanted to.

It's hard to write when these two want your attention!

My cousin, who is very good at NaNoWriMo, came to visit during Thanksgiving weekend and we had a writing party. I'm grateful that she encouraged me, because I was able to get quite a bit of writing done last
Friday thanks to her.

By Saturday night, I was at 39,312. Since I don't write on Sundays, that meant I had to write 10,688 words on Monday (yesterday). I knew I was unlikely to finish, but I was going to do my best.

Yesterday, I typed a bit, played with Adam a bit and then wrote a bit more. By evening, I had written over 2,000 words. I had about three hours to write by the time Kevin went to bed.

I did my best, but I didn't quite make it. At 12:00 a.m., I had written 47,406. That means that yesterday, I wrote 8,094 words. So, I was pretty close, but I didn't quite make it.

There were times I could have written, and didn't, but generally when I wasn't writing, I was spending time with family. So I don't really regret the use of time.

However, as usual, NaNoWriMo has helped me do the most important thing. It has helped me establish a pattern of writing. The second draft of my story is going well, and I now have a goal to finish this draft before the end of the year.

I have a lot of blogging and catching up to do in the next week, but this post will suffice for today.

Thank you for those of you who checked up on me and asked me how the writing was going. I really appreciated the encouragement!

I'm hoping to write most days in December. A lot has been happening around here!

MM: Grig's New Job!

Today, Grig started his new job. He's been there since 6:00 this morning, so I'm assuming it's going okay.

Last week, we had a miracle that his old job, even though they technically fired him on the previous Friday, asked for volunteers to come and work in the line for one more week. Grig was great enough to volunteer. By doing so, we now have insurance for the whole month of November.

Monday night, as he completed his first day of volunteer work, he received a call about 7:00 p.m. It was a call from a job that he had applied for the week before. They told Grig that they wanted to offer him a job and asked when he could start. He felt as though he should finish out the time that he'd promised to finish, and told them that he could start the next Monday (today). I'm going to call the new job W&Fabricators on this blog.

They then told him to come in before then and get his drug testing and paperwork done.

As he hung up the phone, I didn't know what to feel. I should have been excited, but I wasn't really. In fact, I felt kind of nervous. I had been expecting to wait for months and months, and so, to have the blessing come so soon, was kind of strange. Lately, it has seemed that as soon as we had extra money, there was a reason to spend it. We are getting extra money, so I thought we were going to have to live off of it until Grig found a job.

I guess this goes to show that I don't know the mind of the Lord or His plan, but it's always better than we think.

After talking about it, we decided not to tell people until he started because we didn't want to jinx it. We were probably being silly, but we were worried.

I compared it to how you feel when you've been waiting to get pregnant for a long time, and suddenly you find out you are. (No, this is not an announcement.) :) You don't want it to go away, so you don't tell everyone right away. It might be silly, but that's how we felt. However, as the week went on, we began to get more excited and grateful about it.

The interesting about this particular place is that Grig first applied there because the car broke down  practically right next to it. As the car was getting repaired in the car repair shop that we always go to, he walked over to W&Fabricators next door and applied. They told him at the time (a couple months ago), that they didn't have any job openings, but they liked his work.

Then, two weeks ago, I was browsing jobs. I had felt kind of helpless during this whole process because there wasn't much I could do to help. So, I decided to look for jobs for him to apply too. One of the jobs I found was at W&Fabricators. I didn't recognize the name at first, but when I told Grig about the opening, he informed me that he had already applied there. He decided to call and ask if they still had his application and what else he needed to do in order to apply for the opening.

They told him to bring in his application again. He did, and they asked him to come in for an interview.

I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for this blessing. This job seems to be perfect in so many ways. It is closer to us, it has insurance, and it pays about as much for starting pay as Grig was making at the end of his previous job. It also is utilizing the skills that Grig has been working and going to school for.

This job feels right. Even the fact that we go to that particular car repair place is a miracle and a blessing. Grig is a little nervous, because he is going to be learning new skills and he doesn't want to mess up. However, we know that as we put our faith in the Lord and do our best, that he will qualify us for whatever work he gives us.

We love Grig! He's the best!

Halloween!

We had a great time on Halloween.

We decided to have a small party for Kevin and a few of his toddler friends. We started off with 5-10 kids in mind, but by the time we invited people, we ended up inviting about 30 kids. Luckily, not everyone came (though they all wo
uld have been welcome).

We ended up with about 30 people, parents included and about 12 kids under the age of 8. I cooked most of the food, though I had some help and some people brought more food. This is what the table looked like afterward:

My jello worms are in the white bowl. A lot of people wouldn't eat them because they looked gross. :) Success!

We had mummy hotdogs, deviled eggs, jello worms, and pie. My aunt brought some quesadillas and fruit. Some other friends brought some doughnuts. I also made lemonade. The night before, I took a clean plastic glove, filled it with water, and froze it. Then, I put the hand-shaped ice inside the lemonade so it looked like a creepy ghost hand. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. For games, we fished for bugs and had a pumpkin beanbag game. The kids got to keep their plastic bugs and they won glow-sticks by throwing the beanbags in the cardboard pumpkin's eye and mouth. 

Kevin was so excited for his "Halloween Party." The whole day that we were preparing for it, he kept talking about it. I think he really enjoyed himself and he loved having all the friends and family over. A big thank you to everyone that came. I hope you enjoyed it as well!

After the party, which we kept short so as not to infringe on Halloween time, Grig took Kevin trick-or-treating. Kevin dressed up as a knight. I stayed behind to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. 

I was pleased with how many people came by our house. 

Kevin had a pretty good haul too. 

Grig found a pretty nice treat while they were out as well. He was walking down the middle of the street, and he looked down to see something that looked like a giant roach. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a giant water beetle. 

Being my amazing husband, he caught it and brought it home. 

He's holding the bug in his hand.

We kept it until tonight, when we decided it would die if we didn't let it go hibernate. They eat bugs and fish. We don't have any of those in our house and winter is coming. It was fun to have around for a while though. 

Here's a closer look at the bug

We had an excellent Halloween, and our son was a fantastic kid. He had such a great time. The next day, he was pretty upset when I was putting the Halloween decorations away. He didn't want Halloween to end. Then I explained that next was Thanksgiving, then Kevin's birthday, and then Christmas and he decided that it was okay. 

I'm pretty excited for the holidays this year. He's at such a fun age!

MM: The Power of Toddler Prayers

Due to NaNoWriMo, my blogs may be a little shorter, but I'm still trying to continue writing.

Our car has been having a few issues lately. Mostly, it hates relief society meetings. The last two times I've gone to a relief society activity, the car wouldn't start after it finished. Grig hasn't had any problems with it at all. It just hates me.

I prayed really hard the first time it happened, and after a little while, it started up.

The second time, I came out of the church after helping clean up to discover my car wouldn't start again. I had Kevin in the back seat, and I prayed really hard, and it wouldn't start. So, Kevin and I went in to get some more things and ask if anybody could give us a jump. Some women said they'd be there in a minute. So, Kevin and I went back out to the car and tried again. The car once again wouldn't start.

So, I turned to the back seat and said to Kevin, "Would you pray that the car will start?" He nodded and folded his arms. Then he said a very simple prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help the car start.

Once he finished, I turned the key in the ignition again. The car started right up. Just as it did so, another woman drove up and asked if I still needed a jump. I told her I didn't, but thank you. We then drove home.

I know that the Lord answered my son's prayer. I think that He hears the prayers of little children and as long as the prayer isn't contrary to the Spirit, He answers their prayers.

Today, I asked Kevin if he wanted a brother or a sister. He became very excited and said, "Yes." Then, about ten minutes later, I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. He told me, "Brothers and sisters."

That was pretty funny. However, I explained to him that we couldn't choose when to have babies, but that Heavenly Father would send them. Then I asked him if he wanted to pray to ask Heavenly Father to send brothers and sisters. He said that he wanted to, so we kneeled down and he said a prayer.

I love how much he likes to pray and how much faith he has. I wish my faith was as strong. Toddlers are pretty amazing people, and miracles happen when they exercise their faith.

I love this kid