It's SANTA!

Oh my gosh!! To quote Dave, "Operation Sneaky Santa 2012...Wildly successful!"  It was a blast!  Here's how it all played out.
Josh, Mike and I left our house around 7:45pm to go see the Christmas lights. I left a present for Santa aka Dave, and Buddy aka Peter, to leave for Josh. We ended up taking the LONG way home and as we approached our house, Mike asked Josh if he had left the Christmas tree lights on.  Of course Mike had but it got Josh curious and looking into our front window.  When we pulled in the driveway Santa and Buddy walked into the living room and made a show of taking a present out of Santas bag.  As soon as Josh saw them he quietly said "Santa?" and then yelled "Santa!" as he fumbled to open the car door.  He jumped out, nearly falling on the ice, and ran to the front door.  I yelled at him that he needed a key so he comes running back in a panic asking for it.  During that time Santa was shading his eyes and looking out the window and Josh turned and waved at him although in his panicked rush I doubt he remembers that.  Mike gave Josh the key and while he was running to the front door, I watched as Santa and Buddy booked it out of the living room.  As soon as Josh opened the door he looked for Santa and Buddy, and when he didn't find them he said "How could they leave so fast?" to which Mike replied "Because it's Santa!"  I pointed out the present that Santa had left and went to move the car into the garage and let Santa and Buddy out at the same time since they were hiding in there.  They looked so legit!
While I was moving the car, Josh was talking to Mike and said "That elf looked kind of familiar.  It kind of looked like Buddy."   Mike told me that when I came back in, so I said to Josh "So, the movie must be real then, huh?"  Josh smiles and says "Yeah, cuz you could kind of see his brownish, blackish hair.  So it was really Buddy."  LOL
I asked Josh to tell me what happened so that I could blog about it so this is what happened in Josh's own words:

"We were pulling in the driveway.  The next thing I know it, is that I see Buddy and Santa in our house right by the living room.  So we all start to run in to see Santa but we were too late to see Santa."

The present was a pair of 'feet' pajamas and a Christmas glow stick.  Josh immediately put the pj's on and I said something about Santa wanting him to sleep good tonight so he brought him new pj's and Josh said "I'm definitely going to sleep good, just like last year" and then gave me a big hug.  What a great time!  My only regret is that our video camera isn't working and that I forgot to take pictures of Santa and Buddy through the window :(
We are now heading downstairs to watch Madagascar 3 and the Timothy Green movie until we all fall asleep.  And yes, Maria, my kid might just believe in Santa until he is 12 and after tonight, I'm ok with that!  Thanks so much Dave and Peter!

Stuff

Last night Josh and I were talking about hot chocolate and  he said "speaking about that, I don't want to speak about it." Haha

The wind was blowing like crazy last night and this morning and it made these snow drifts on our porch.  Josh got quite the kick out of it.

This morning Josh found that Sarah had packed his lunch for him.  He was so excited.  I was not thrilled, however, when he seriously thought he was going to take it for lunch.

 I told him he could take a few things and left him to choose while I made breakfast.  Later, when I opened his lunch box to see what he had picked, there was only the chocolate drink and the pack of gum. 

Christmas Stuff

 Josh's elf, Sarah, went missing for a few days after his friend Wesley "accidentally" touched her.

 The note says "Sarey Sara obot what hapind. Love Josh and Wesly."  I'm assuming that Josh wrote it since Wesley's name is misspelled.  I originally thought she'd only be gone for a day but then got too lazy so she was gone for quite a few days.  The day of the above picture, she was taking a bath in some peppermint marshmallows.  She's also been found sitting on top of the chandelier, hanging out in Josh's stocking, ridding Mike's ugly golden pheasant (no offense Mike) and decorating our Christmas tree with socks.

This pic is from today so Sarah is no longer on there and the socks have been moved and rehung countless times since I had put them there.  I, by which I mean Sarah, had originally only put up the white socks when at the last minute I added a few more black socks to give it variety.  It was a good thing too.  Josh figured out that Sarah had made a 'countdown' with the socks.  There were exactly the same number of socks as days left until Christmas.  Hmmm, I had no idea.  Good thing I was picky about having variety:)

Today Josh found her in the kitchen hiding in my plant.

We were in charge of last dessert Sunday and Josh made the dessert almost all by himself!  He was so proud.  It was hard to stand back and let him do it himself because it took him so long!  It was fun to watch though because he appointed one of the hershey kisses to be the leader and then all the other kisses had to follow and obey what the leader told them to do.  It was pretty interesting listening to his running commentary on it. 

Earlier this week I made some sugar cookies for Mike to take to his home teaching families.  I had some dough left over and just stuck it in the fridge.  Josh came to me on Saturday asking what he could do and I remembered the dough.  Perfect.  So I let him roll it out and pick his favorite shapes and he was able to get 9 cookies out of the leftover dough.  He decided to do Santas and Reindeer.  I helped with the cookie cutter part because the dough tends to get stuck in all the little spaces.  Turns out it wouldn't have matter since by the time Josh was done frosting them most of the Santas were down to one leg and this reindeer didn't even make it out with half it's legs intact!  He did frost and sprinkle them all by himself though and was very pleased with the way they turned out.  He brought one to me and after I told him it was delicious he hugged me and said "Yes! Yes!  I did it! I made some good cookies, huh?" 

FHE
Last night for FHE we did something a little bit different.  Josh's Great Grandma Meservy had sent a Christmas letter with a check for $30 saying that we would know how best to spend it.  I thought about using it to get a present for Josh but it just didn't feel right.  I knew he would be happy to receive a gift but at the same time, I didn't feel like it would make a lasting impression.  I've also been concerned about his lack of service for others but wanted it to come from his heart and not as a requirement or a chore from me.  So this is what I came up with.
We sang "Count Your Many Blessing's" for our opening hymn and then I read Great Grandma's letter to Josh. When I finished I asked him to tell us a couple things that she said in the letter.  He said something to the effect of "she said that we'd be blessed through the year and I really feel like that is true."  It was pretty sweet.  Anyway, I added that she spent most of her time in the Temple and then asked him if he heard the part about the money.  He said he had and then I pulled out a wad of 30 one dollar bills and told Josh that this was the money she was talking about.  His eyes lit up!  We counted it out together and then started talking about what we could do with it.  I wanted to let Josh feel in charge so I let him lead the conversation. He immediately said that we could split it up and then we'd each have $10 to spend. So I split the money up and he recounted everyone's pile to make sure that we all had $10.  Then we started talking about what we could spend this money on.  He said Christmas shopping and then he got all excited when he realized that he could buy this app for the kindle that he's been talking about for weeks.  It cost $7.  I acknowledge that idea and then started talking about how Mike and I could put our money together to buy a game and then we could buy something bigger than if we kept it separate.  He didn't think that was fair but when I asked if he wanted to put his money in too, he refused.  I could tell that he had already made up his mind that this money was going to buy him this app so I was relieved when Mike stepped in and said that Great Grandma spent a lot of time doing service and that she would probably want us to do service with this money too.
I asked Josh if we NEEDED this money.  He kind of quietly said no.  I asked him if she hadn't sent us this money if we would still be happy, if we would still have food to eat and clothes to wear.  He said yes.  Then Mike talked about how other people don't have everything that we have.  He asked Josh if he knew of anyone that might need this money more than we do.  Josh said he didn't know so Mike asked him about our neighbors Sammy and Oakley.  We talked about how their mom and dad aren't living together right now and how they're probably pretty sad about it.  I asked Josh if $30 could make their mom come back home to live and he said no.  Then Mike told him that maybe we couldn't bring them back together but that maybe we could give them a gift that could make them happy for a little bit.  Josh thought it was a good idea and quickly counted out how much money he could give them and still afford his app.  Darn it!  He handed me $3 and said that we could use that.  So we talked a little more about serving others and how we'd be blessed and then I put all of my money on the ground in front of us and said that I was willing to spend all my money on a gift for the girls.  Mike did the same thing.  Then Josh, with his eyes starting to fill with tears gathered up his other $7 and put it into the pile too.  I didn't want him to feel tricked or cheated out of his money and told him that I didn't want him to put his money in if he didn't want to.  With tears in his eyes he said "I know it's the best thing to do."  I opened my arms and he came and sat on my lap and I held him as he cried.  I again offered him a way out saying he didn't need to do it if he didn't feel good about it.  He just kept crying but said that he wanted to do it.  I had tears in my eyes as I rocked him.  We talked about how this was a hard thing to do and we expressed how proud we were of him.  He calmed down a little and then I asked if he was ready to go and help find some presents for the girls.  He said yes, and so off we went.
We went to Kmart and after looking at games, movies and toys, he decided on a Tom and Jerry Christmas movie, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and a pac-man video game.  We checked out and Josh handed the cashier the money without a complaint.  We stopped at McD's to get an icecream cone on the way home and then wrapped up the presents.  Josh told me that at school when they do the Ghosty Grams, that kids put a question mark under the 'from' if they don't want the person to know who gave it to them.  So when I wrote on the tags, I put a question mark under the 'from' spot.  Then we all bundled up and went into the snow storm and watched at Josh put the packages on their porch, rang the doorbell, and ran.  We ended with a prayer and Josh prayed that Sammy and Oakleys mom would come home so that they could be together as a family.  I was so proud of Josh last night and for that decision that he made. 

Elf on the Shelf day 2 & 3

Yesterday, Sarah, the elf on the shelf, hid herself underneath a cup in the cupboard.  The first thing Josh did when he woke up was check the pantry and then look around the house searching for her. He couldn't find her so I had Josh go get his own cup for breakfast and when he opened the cupboard he goes "woah!" as he jumps back. He was all smiles.

This morning Josh woke up and when he turned on the light in his bathroom he was surprised to see Sarah sitting on the counter.  He started laughing as he called me in and gave me a play by play of him walking into the bathroom and seeing Sarah.  He then comments on the fact that she's holding some nail polish and that's when I look down at his toes and bust up laughing.  He follows my gaze and starts laughing hysterically when he sees that 'Sarah' has painted the toenails on his right foot, blue.  We laugh for a little while and then I say that we should take a picture of Sarah so that we can put it on the blog.  He agrees and snaps a photo of her.  

I then suggest we take a picture of his toes.  This was his reaction:

HAHAHAHA!  Poor Josh. I kept asking why we couldn't take a picture of his toes and he finally said because he didn't want me to put it on the blog.  Shoot!  I asked him if I could take a picture if I promised not to put it on the blog and he agreed.  I didn't take it.  I knew it would end up on here and then I'd be a liar so instead I just put the camera away.  He did try to scrap it off before I told him about nail polish remover.   See, I'm not THAT mean.

Elf on the Shelf

Josh got an early Christmas present from Aunt Michelle yesterday, an Elf on the Shelf.  I've seen the Elf floating around on Pinterest like crazy and I loved some of the creative ideas so when she told me about it, I was thrilled.  She said that it was a boy elf but that she had a skirt you could put on it to make it a girl one and asked if I wanted it.  I said no because I figured Josh was a boy and he'd probably want a boy elf and besides, an elf is an elf, right?  Anyways, she had Josh watch a video that explained how it all 'worked'.  The gist of it is that the elf watches you and then flies home to Santa every night to report on your behavior.  Then in the morning, the kids have to look around and see if they can find where the elf 'landed' after his trip to the North Pole.  I caught Josh trying to hide a smile a few times during the movie and when it was over he tried to act all cool like it was no big deal.  His curiosity was definitely peaked though because he grabbed my hand and asked me to go downstairs and look at the elf with him.  I did and we spent the next few minutes talking about what to name it.  I asked if he wanted to name it a made up name like Twinkle or Buddy or if he wanted to name it a human name.  He immediately said human so I started spouting off boy names and he shook his head at each of them.  I kept asking him for suggestions and he finally said that he thought maybe it was actually a girl elf and so we needed to give her a girls name.  Ohhh.  So I named 3 girl names to start him off and he immediately picked Sarah, because it was also the name of his Mooshi Monster.  He was pretty pleased with this name and he came over close to me and kind of hugged me and said "I think she likes it because I can kind of see her smiling, can't you?"  
We headed back upstairs and I quietly asked Mike to go play ping pong with Josh for a few minutes.  He did and so I went downstairs and grabbed the skirt that I had previously declined and put it on 'Sarah'.  I then went and hung around with Josh and Mike until we were about ready to go.  Michelle was skyping with Jeremy, and Josh was telling him about the elf so I told him to run downstairs and bring it up so that Jer could see it.  He did and when he opened the box to show him, he was so surprised that it had a skirt on.  He was all smiles as he kept saying over and over again that it didn't have a skirt and then it did have a skirt.  "I definitely believe in it now" he said.
Before we headed home we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Monsivais' house so that Josh could return the 3DS that he had borrowed from Mars.  While there he wanted to show all the kids his new elf.  He was pretty proud of it.  Joshua decided to tease him and tried to touch the elf, which is absolutely FORBIDDEN!  Josh wouldn't let him, knowing that Sarah would lose her magic if touched, and protected her until Joshua left him alone.  Later, Joshua was giving Josh the mean eye and so Josh opened the book so that Sarah could see Joshua being mean.  He then said that Sarah was going to report that to Santa!  What a smart kid.
On the way home he asked me to make sure to put all this in his blog and he helped me take some pics to post too.

He was not happy with the second picture though because it has a light spot on it from the flash so we had to take it again.

He said this one was much better.  He left the box standing up so that when Sarah needed to get out, all she had to do was walk out.  He's so thoughtful.

This morning he found Sarah in the pantry drinking the Butter Pecan syrup through a straw.  He loved it and was so excited to take a picture.

Randomness

I bought Gideon a bed yesterday, since he's getting old and all arthritisy, and this is what I found when I woke up this morning:

Poor Gideon.

Oh! I just found these pics from our road trip:

Food Groups

Josh: "My 4 favorite food groups are meat, meat, meat, and meat. 

1. Meat  2. Sloppy Joe meat  3. Steak  4. Chicken hearts."

Updates

It's not even 10am on the first day of Thanksgiving break and Josh has already told me that he's bored and has nothing to do.  Oh brother.

Wrestling
I don't feel that Josh has the passion and fierceness that it takes to be a wrestler.  Josh is all about playing and having fun and that is not what wrestling is about.  It's frustrating to watch because it seems like he turns into a rag doll as soon as his opponent touches him.  Then it's only a few short seconds until he's pinned.  He also has a bad attitude about it in that he justifies to himself and everyone else that the reason he doesn't win is because the other kid has been wrestling longer than he has.  Last night after his match the first thing he said was that the kid was a 3rd year wrestler.  So it's like he already has the attitude that he's going to lose before he even starts.  I did try to tape his last match but our video camera is on the fritz and doesn't want to work.  Wrestling continues until the end of Dec and I'm just going to try and bear it out.  I'm hoping that he'll not have the desire to try it again although if he asks to, I guess I wouldn't say no.

Turkey Gobbling Contest
Josh's school does a turkey gobbling contest every year.  The winner in each grade gets a frozen turkey.  This year Josh decided that he wanted to participate.  On Monday he competed against others in his class and was voted as the best gobbler in his class.  He was so pleased!  He told me all about it when he got home and then checked to make sure that we had enough room in the freezer in case he won the turkey. Tuesday he went up against all the winners of the other 3rd grade classes and gobbled in front of the whole school.  He asked if I could go and he also asked Dave and Misty although neither of them were able to make it.  I went and took Huds and Lynds and they loved it.  Josh was so nervous but he did a great job.  He didn't win, unfortunately, but he did get an orange turkey shaped sugar cookie as a consolation prize.  On the way home from school he asked if we could go buy a turkey since he didn't win one and I told him probably not but that we would be having turkey on Thursday for Thanksgiving.  "Yes!" he yelled as he jumped into the air "I love Turkey!"

California
Ita's funeral was last Saturday and I had decided that I wasn't going.  Nothing against Ita, but everything against Cali :)  Anyway, that Thurs I started getting an 'itch' to go down.  I attributed it to the fact that I enjoyed road trips.  I mentioned it to Dave and he said that they could probably squish me into their car.  I kind of thought about it and then when he texted me later to say that I could really go down with them if I wanted, I sat down and really thought about it.  I decided that it was just that I hate missing out on things and that I love road trips but that I didn't really want to go and that once I made an 'official decision' then it wouldn't bother me anymore.  I told him thanks but no thanks and went to bed.  The next morning however, I could not stop thinking about ways to make it work so that I could go down.  I then had the thought that I should take Josh down too.  Great, now what.  I ended up texting Kat so I could figure out about how much it would cost if we took her car and if she would even be willing to drive us down.  She's a terrible influence on me and at 9:30am I decided that we were going and that we'd leave at noon.  Good thing Kats always prepared!
I packed and got everything ready and then stopped at Josh's school to pick him up on our way out of town.  We went at lunch time and it was a little tricky finding him but I finally managed and he was surprised to see me because he had NO idea.  He asked what I was doing and I told him that we were going to Cali, right now.  He jumped up and down, he was so excited.  He got in the car and we left.
It was a crazy fast trip.  I'm glad I went and that Josh was able to be a part of it all.  I had some great bonding moments with Camden Monsivais at the cemetery, I killed Samuel with my awful singing voice at the funeral, and about went crazy trying to complete the tetris cube.  Good times.  I'm so grateful for my family and the great example they are.

Tiny Monsters
Josh found a game at the kindle app store called Tiny Monsters and begged me to let him get it.  Since it was free I hummed and hawed for only a couple of hours before I said ok :)  It's this game where you have to hatch eggs and feed them and even breed them.  Josh was explaining this all to me and was telling me that he needed to buy a 'breeding den'.  I asked him what that was and he said "it's a place where the monsters can get in love." 

Snow

We had a HUGE snow storm here over the weekend.  Josh loved it and spent many hours playing outside.  He and Mike built a Pikachu pokemon snowman.  Ok, mostly Mike did, but Josh was out in the same yard so I think that counts.  Here's how it turned out.

Josh then started rolling a snowball for....I'm not sure what.  Mike had to help him at the end since it got too big for Josh to push.

Also this weekend was Lynds 2nd birthday!  Her mom asked me to make a Minnie Mouse pinata for her.

And last but not least, here's a pic of Huds that Mike took on Halloween.  He loved wearing the sombrero.

Blessed

So, this post is a little different.  It's not about Josh.  It's about me.  Weird, I know, but this is a story that I need to share.  So, here goes.

Mike and I went out of town on a 'vacation' of sorts this past Wed, Thurs, and Fri.  Mike would argue about the 'vacation' part since he had meetings all day, but I was definitely on vacation.  Kat and Misty were kind enough to take care of Josh and get him to and from school and all that jazz.  Friday I had agreed to do a research MRI in SLC and so the plan was that I would leave at 6:30 Fri morning and Mike would come home with a coworker after his morning meetings.  Friday morning I was up and ready to go by 6:15 and stopped to get gas and fill up the tires with air.  I also said a prayer of safety, mostly thinking of Josh and Gideon, never dreaming it would end up being for me.  I was on the road by 6:38 and my BFF (aka my GPS) predicted that I would arrive at my destination  40 min before I needed to be there.  I had plenty of time.

The weather was not great.  I drove through pockets of rain and snow and even stretches of dry, mostly clear skies.  I had been driving for about 3 1/2 hrs and it wasn't raining or snowing at this point but there were some wet spots on the road, when something terrible happened.  I had just passed some people so I was in the left lane, not speeding, but definitely going faster than I probably should have been, when I hit a huge patch of standing water.  My car started hydroplaning and heading straight for the center divider.  I tried to straighten out but it didn't seem to do any good so I finally over corrected and my car responded by sailing across the lanes and spinning around.  I was going backwards for a bit until I did another full turn, hit one of those metal mile post markers (but without the mile marker on it) and came to a stop on the right shoulder, perpendicular to the freeway.

I was freaked out.  I couldn't believe what had just happened.  I got out of the car to see what damage that metal pole had done to the car and to see if I would be able to get off the shoulder.  I could smell something, but couldn't tell if it was just burned rubber or antifreeze.  As I walked around the car, I couldn't see any obvious damage but I knew that I had hit the pole and so I figured there must be damage underneath.  A nice guy had stopped to see if I was ok, and he helped me push my car out of the soft shoulder.  Mike called at that exact moment and I tried to hold it together as I talked with him and told him what had happened.  He suggested that I take the car to a mechanic and have them check out the bottom to see the damage.  I was close to an exit and since the car seemed to be running ok I decided to take that exit and see if I could find a mechanic.  Before I drove off, I looked at my tire tracks and saw how they went straight into the metal pole that was now bent almost to the ground.

I found a mechanic and they were super kind about getting my car in so that they could look at it.  After what felt like forever, the mechanic came out to talk to me and said that my back right tire was way bad and that two out of the other three really needed to be replaced too but that he didn't carry those size tires and I would need to go somewhere else to get them.  But besides that, he could find nothing wrong with the car.  There was no damage to the underside and there was nothing leaking or punctured.  I couldn't believe it.

I canceled my appointment in SLC and headed home.  I had kept my composure until I arrived safely home and knelt down to say a prayer.  Then everything came out and I started bawling.  It was a very scary experience but I was also overwhelmed with the protection I had been blessed with.  Even with all the other cars on the road, at the time I was out of control, there was not a single car anywhere close to me.  I KNOW I hit that metal pole.  I felt the hit and I saw my tire marks run straight into it.  But neither I nor Mike can find any body damage to the car and the mechanic wasn't able to find anything wrong underneath it.  There's no luck about any of it.  I know that I was protected and blessed.  I'm so grateful for the power of prayer and I know that Heavenly Father was watching over me.

Pinewood Derby and My Birthday

Even though Josh is old enough to be in scouts,  because of our ward  being split, he has only been to one meeting.  So when another ward offered to have our scouts participate in the pinewood derby with them, Josh was thrilled.  He and Mike made the car and Josh decided to stain it instead of paint it.  He also found some karate stickers that he wanted to decorate his car with.  The day of the race came and Josh was so excited.  We got to the church and they told us that there were 33 kids and that they were all going to get to race 4 times.  It....took....for....ever.  They also announced that they had cupcakes and hot chocolate to snack on and as soon as they said that, Josh couldn't have cared less about racing.  So Mike and I watched all the races while Josh watched a handful if that.  From his 4 races he got 2nd place in 2 of them and 3rd place in the other 2.  He didn't really care so neither did I.  When the races were FINALLY over, they started handing out awards.  Everyone got an award for something or another and Josh was no exception.  He was repeating this moment to me when it was over so I'll tell you how it went down in his eyes.
"They were saying all the awards and I thought there is no way that I'm getting an award.  And then they say 'most artistic' and I'm thinking it's not me and then I hear 'Josh Levie' and I'm like, that's me!  I couldn't believe it.  I got the most artistic!"
He was so excited to be given that award and bragged about it for the rest of the week.  He talked about how he was thinking about keeping this car for next year since it had won the most artistic.  He's such a goof.  Overall it was a good experience for him and he had fun.

My birthday came and went again.  Mike reminded Josh that it was my birthday and so he wished me happy birthday before he left for school.  When he got home I had him start on his homework.  He wanted to do his reading on my bed so we both went and laid down.  After he was done, I told him to go and finish the rest of his homework.  He jumped up and ran out of the room only to return again a few minutes later with his other homework.  I asked him what he was doing and he said "I'm going to come and do my homework by you.  I didn't have time to get you a birthday present so I thought 'I'll sit by her while I do my homework and spend time with you'."
I said "Oh bud!  That is so sweet.  I love it when you spend time with me.  That's a perfect birthday present!"  Then he gave me a kiss on the check.  I love that kid.

Halloween

So Josh decided that he wanted to be the green ninja from Ninjago for Halloween.  In case you don't know, his name is Lloyd.  I searched the internet like crazy looking for a costume that would work and I couldn't find anything.  That left me with little choice but to make it myself.  So Josh and I spent a day searching patterns and material until we finally found one that Josh mostly approved of.  I made the main jumpsuit of the costume and he was not impressed when he tried it on.  He said that he didn't like the zipper in the front because then people knew that it was a costume.
"As opposed to what?  Thinking you were really a green ninja?" I asked. 
"Yep" he responded.
He also didn't like the fact that the suit was so loose fitting.  So I had to go back and take everything in so that it was more form fitting.  After that, he tried it on again and I got the approval to move ahead with the rest of the costume.  He specifically requested the boot covers and arm cuffs to be this black shiny material and was very pleased with the way they turned out.  No complaints there. Phew.  Next,  the mask.  I made it like the directions said and when he tried it on with his jumpsuit, there was a space between that and his mask where you could see part of his neck.  He looks in the mirror and says "Mom, this is a BIG problem."
Oh brother.  I told him it wasn't a big deal and then I just sewed on some extra fabric to cover his neck.  This worked fine for him and we were down to the last detail of the costume...the dragon on the front.  We headed to the store to buy some fabric paint so I could paint it on but couldn't find any.  I was elated though when I spotted this iron on transfer and after some blackmailing, I convinced Josh that he would rather have this iron on even though it was smaller than it should have been, than to have to go to countless other stores looking for fabric paint that we might never find. (I might have exaggerated a little bit, but can you blame me?)

At last, he was able to try on his full costume and he was thrilled.  He did multiple ninja moves and he said that it made him feel like a real ninja.  Great.  

I told him to take off his mask so we could see who was really inside his costume but this is as far as he would go.

Here's a picture of him and Mike and Lynds when we went trick or treating at Mike's office.

Mike grew a mustache just for this costume.  It was a big hit with his coworkers....not so much with his wife.  To make sure he didn't offend anyone, he had me dress up as a mexican too so that we matched.  It was not as romantic as it sounds.  Hudson was also there but had just woken up so isn't in costume, although he did love the sombrero.  Props to Josh for taking this pic.

Baptism

Josh was baptized on Saturday, Sept 29th.  He was so excited.  He had been talking about this for weeks and we had already done FHE about it and even practiced the whole immersion thing.  He loves to have people over for BBQ's and parties so he planned out the menu and made sure that I knew exactly what he wanted.  I was ok with it though.  You can't get much easier than nachos with brownies and ice cream for dessert.  I thought it was super funny though that he made sure I knew he wanted brownies and ice cream, but when he went to get his dessert, he didn't want any brownies.  Strange.
Continuing on....the morning of his baptism he was pretty nervous and I assured him that everything would be ok and that he could practice with Mike before the actual event.  Unfortunately everything kind of just happened and he didn't get to practice before we arrived at the church but he then said that it was ok, so we went with it.  The baptism was great.  It was so good to see all of my family there (minus those who thought driving cross country was a little much for a 1/2 hr event.)

Brad and Misty gave him a baptism book to write down his feelings and thoughts about the day.  He didn't get much down but I'll share what's there.

When I was baptized by immersion, I felt scared because everyone in my family was in front of me and I wasn't ready because I didn't practice.  Also felt happy.

The water felt hot.

When I was washed clean from all my sins, I felt happy and hot.

When the priesthood holders laid their hands upon my head to give me the gift of the Holy Ghost, I felt weird. Why? Because it was just so heavy to have their hands on me and to be sitting in that big circle.

After the confirmation was complete and I had received the gift of the Holy Ghost, I felt happy.

He also wrote down his testimony:

SEP and Other News

I just got back from Josh's SEP and it was....ok.  Mrs. W. had all the kids fill out their own report  card, so to speak, and rate themselves on how they were doing in different areas of the class.  She said that Josh's has been the most accurate so far.  I guess that's a good thing.  He gave himself mostly 2's and 3's out of 4.  In spelling he's getting an 81%, writing 80%, math 93%, reading 69%, language arts 84% and homework 100%. 

She said that he's a little bit behind on reading which is weird because she had told me that he was on grade level at the beginning of the year.  I told her that and she looked through her records and said that it showed he was behind.  Oh well, not that it really matters.  It just means that I felt really good about his reading for a month and a half, no big deal.  Part of the reason that he's low in reading is because he doesn't always read what's on the page.  If it says "what is..." he'll say "what's".  It's frustrating because it doesn't change the meaning but he still gets marked down because that's not what's written.  Mrs. W also said that he's doing a better job listening but he's still struggling.  She mentioned that sometimes she'll be in front of the class talking and he'll be lost in his own world with his hands as guns shooting things.  I completely understand. Overall though, she's happy with where he's at and says that he's a great kid who gets along well with others and is kind. 

Now onto the weather....
Josh was so excited to see it hailing outside today.

In other news...
Josh started Wrestling yesterday!  I know, I know.  Gross, right?  2 of Mike's younger brothers  wrestled in HS and I refused to go watch them.  I just could not stomach watching guys roll around on a mat with nothing but a very revealing singlet on.  Blah.  So when one of Josh's cousins tried out wrestling a few years ago I was thrilled that Josh had NO desire to join him.  I was also excited when that said cousin only did one year of it and then decided he didn't like it.  I was sure I was in the clear.  Unfortunately, the stinking school sent home a flier announcing wrestling and Josh begged me to sign him up.  I deferred to Mike, hoping he would see how ridiculous of a request this was and say no, thereby making him the bad guy and me the innocent mom.  But...he said yes.   Darn him!  This is Josh after his very first practice yesterday.

Carving Pumpkins and Randomness

First the randomness.

The other day I asked Josh to please bring the recycling bin back up to the house after the garbage man had come.  It was a windy day and after a while Josh came back in and said "I can't do it.  The wind is too heavy, the recycling bin fell on me."

Josh was trying to tell me how long it took to do something and he said "It probably took 1 min less than 1/2 an hour."

The other day we were in the car and my legs were hurting (stupid RSL).  I kept changing positions until Mike asked what was wrong.  "My legs are killing me" I said.
Josh, thinking I was talking about my legs being asleep, chimed in saying "I know what you mean.  It's like their snores are all poky."
I laughed because I thought that was a great way to describe  how your legs feel when they're asleep but since that wasn't what was going on I said "No, my legs are just retarded."
To which Josh replies, "Don't you mean tired?"

Carving Pumpkins
Last week Josh went on a field trip to a corn maze.  He had a great time.  The first thing he asked me when he got home though was "Who are you going to vote for?"  Where did that come from?  Evidently at the maze you could either pick to go through Obama or Romney.  I told him who I was going to vote for and he said that's who he was voting for too.  Good kid.  Anyway, at the end they were all able to pick out a pumpkin to take home.  Josh had started prepping me the day before saying that he was going to bring home a surprise from his field trip but that he wouldn't tell me what it was.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that I'd been on enough of those field trips to know that he'd be bringing home a pumpkin.  He even carried it all the way home in his backpack so that I couldn't accidentally catch a glimpse of it.  It was pretty cute.

As soon as he got it home he wanted to carve it.  Normally I would have put it off and thought of a million and one things that we needed to do instead of this but after looking at the hopeful look on his face, I helped him get everything ready so he could carve it.  It wasn't really that bad, it's just the thought of it that seems hard.  Last time we did this, he didn't like touching all the 'guts' so this time I told him that there was no way I was doing it by myself and if he wasn't going to help, then we weren't going to carve the pumpkin.  He agreed to help and we were soon finished cleaning it all out.  I had him draw on the pumpkin where he wanted everything to go and how he wanted it to look and then I figured I'd have to do the carving.   But he got the carving knife out and with barely any assistance from me, carved his very first pumpkin all by himself.

I forgot to get a picture of his actually Jack-o-lantern until it had already turned all moldy but here it is anyway.

Now I Know

It is 5:15pm and Josh is finishing off a 'snack' consisting of fruit snacks, graham crackers and milk, and some yogurt.  "I don't know why you're eating so much when we're about to have dinner" I told him.
"Well, it's because I need to go to the bathroom so it's all going to come out anyways and then I'll still be hungry."

Now I Know

Weirdness

I noticed that Josh's toenails were horribly long and so I made him sit down so I could cut them.  I then went to cut his fingernails and noticed that all the ones on his right hand were nicely trimmed thanks to him diligently pulling them off.  I checked his left hand expecting to find the same thing, but these nails were long.  I started cutting his thumb nail and he yells "What?!  But that's my roughest one!""What do you need a rough one for?" I asked even though I didn't know what 'rough' meant.
"Because in case you don't cut my nails then I can scrap them off with that one."
Ohh.  Makes complete sense.  Or he could just ask me to cut them.  Hmmm.

Last night we went to the store and as we were walking down the candy/chip aisle, Josh exclaimed "Dove! Oh I LOVE everything that Dove makes.... I just haven't tried their candy bars yet....but I LOVE their soap!"

Disneyland

Once upon a time we took a trip to Disneyland and I procrastinated blogging about it and I've forgotten what happened so this will mostly just be pictures.
  

This is Josh the first morning we're in CA.  We didn't arrive until after midnight so we kind of slept in.  I was expecting him to be jumping up and down and begging to go go go, but that was not the case.  I had to ask him multiple times to put his DS away.

Josh begged us to go on the Indiana Jones ride first and we agreed.  This is a picture after it was over.  Turns out it was a little too scary for him

We had to beg Kat to be in this picture;)
 

These are pictures of Josh waiting patiently to see the Jedi training academy show.  The guy picked 10 or so kids and Josh did his best by jumping up and down and shouting but he still wasn't picked:( He was a good sport about it though and enjoyed the rest of the show.  He spent the Disney gift card I gave him on a light saber.

Splash Mountain...enough said.

Autotopia.  For some reason we had to beg Josh to go on this ride with us.  I love Mike in the second picture.  He looks like he's driving a stylish convertible.  Way to go!

I swear this was the longest wait EVER!  But it was so worth it, right?

Josh and Mike on the merry go round.  My brain is lose and this is one of the rides that I can barely stand to watch, let alone ride.  I probably should have sat out on Star Tours too since I had my eyes closed and my teeth clenched the whole time.

The breakfast of champions.  Josh was so excited that he got to have 2 doughnuts for breakfast.

This was our second day in CA and we spent it at Disneyland Adventures.  There was a "wilderness explorers camp" that was based on the movie up.  Josh loved it.

Here he was doing some rock climbing.

After passing off all his stations, he got a big hug from the UP dog.  Cute!

Mike and I waiting in line for the Muppets movie/show.  It was super fun, one of my favorite parts.