The Wise Man

We signed a contract on a house this week (wahoo!).  Today we drove out to the house with Trustin's folks and his sister and her kids so they could see the house.  As we drove away Trustin told Zeke, "I think your cousins are so excited to play with you at our new house." Zeke responded, "I hope it is built on a rock." Zeke is a rather wise young man. 

Then he went on to say "I must go back to the house and then I will pick it up and check." Us practical folks in the front seat mentioned how heavy houses are but Zeke responded simply, "It's not too heavy for me because I am as strong as the Incredible Hulk.  Then we can see if there is a rock under it.  I hope it is a big rock."

Halloween Heroes

The odds of me blogging these days are rather slim.  We live close enough to grandparents that that motivating factor has disappeared.  But more importantly, we don't have our desktop computer set up and Trustin takes the laptop with him to work, along with all of our pictures.  Thus, in order for the planets to align enough for me to blog (with pictures at least) I have to have time, and the thought to do it when he's home.  The planets don't align often. 
But here is a bit about our Halloween, but I couldn't download half of them because our computer is having isues.

We got into Halloween this year.  How into it?

Pretty into it.  Yes, I am married to the most amazing guy. You've got to be a man to wear those horns with confidence. I love him.

We all went as superheros (for rather obvious reasons).  In case it isn't obvious, I went as Black Widow, Trustin was Loki, Ashlynn was Spidergirl and Zeke was Thor. 

The secret love between a hero and a villain. 

My cuties!  Ashlynn was beyond excited to be Spidergirl.  She loves Spiderman. Everytime she sees a picture of him in a book or store she points excitedly and shouts "Spidey, Spidey!" 

The mighty THOR

This was the first time the kids have really been trick or treating.  We took Zeke his first Halloween, but he slept through the whole thing and the last few years have just been Trunk-or-Treats.  So this was a fun experience.  We went to a Trunk or Treat on Friday and the kids had fun playing games and getting prizes, but they really loved the actual trick or treating. Zeke was so excited, but excitement was more reserved once we were actually out walking around.  In his sweet Zeke way he quietly went to every door whispering trick-or-treat and then heading off to the next door with a thank you when he remembered.  Ashlynn, who is typically quite reserved around strangers (and even family if she hasn't seen you in a week) found that the candy motivation easily overcame any fear of social situations.  She hurried to every door and held out her hand (she was quite put out if anybody tried to dodge her hand and put the candy straight into her pumpkin).  At at least two houses she tried to push her way inside when they opened the door.  She was always activiely pushing her way to the front of the candy line to get the best goodies.  Once she got the candy she was off to the next house.  She wouldn't let us carry her, and she definately wouldn't let us carry her pumpkin, she just dragged it along behind her and went in search of more candy.  She wasn't too concerned about where Zeke or any of the rest of us were.  Priorities folks, and candy is king.  Eventually she had her fill of obtaining candy and then was more interested in eating it (I'm sure none of you other parents have any experience with this...). 

When all the kids had enough we took our look back home and dumped it out, ate hot chocolate with marshmallows because we hadn't had enough sugar yet.  All in all, it was a rather deliciously good night.

Utah's got a lot to offer

We've adjusted to living in Utah quite well.  Here are a few reasons this transition has been quite easy:

1) There are dragons in the basement.  This particular one is Toothless. 

2) The company here is mighty fine. If I was good at taking pictures I could add photos of a bunch of cousins, uncles, aunts, and my parents too.  There's a lot of love in this state.

3) There is a couch with removable cushions.  Need I remind anyone how critical a role such a item of furniture has been in the imagination of the Zekester?  Here they have become SuperHero City.

4) To add flavor and excitement and some purpose for our young superheroes, we have also discovered the presence of villains in Utah.

5) Which means it is "Time to Hero Up," something we are always happy to do.

6) and the weather is distinctly unlike Vegas. Don't ask me if this is a good thing--I miss the sun--but Zeke was so excited to have snow!  In the morning we went out to give Daddy his daily loves in the car and kisses through the window before he left for work and when we walked back inside Zeke just kept right on walking straight out the back door.  "I have to get something," he said.  He then grabbed a kid sized snow shovel that he'd found the first day we moved here, and which he has been anxiously waiting to use, and he shoveled the patio.  It was adorable how excited he was to shovel snow.  Clearly he's not from around here.

After the patio was shoveled I convinced the kids to come get their actual snow clothes on and we spent most of the morning loving the inch and half of snow.  Ashlynn was mostly confused at first. Then she progressed to walk around observing the world like it was some strange enchanted place that she had never seen (because it was!).  This fascination with the snow led her to discover the delightful activity of dipping her binkie in the snow and then back in her mouth.  But eventually even such fun as that grew old and her fingers grew cold. None of us had gloves yet, as it was October and in my mind snow was not allowed yet.  Clearly I'm not from around here. 

Zeke was still far from done. We let the little popsicle lady head inside with Paca and kept going. "We've only made a Daddy snowman.  We must make a baby sister and a big brother and a Grandpa."  I kind of wanted that fourth one to be a Mommy, but it was either let it be a Grandpa or make a fifth snowman.  He could have made an entire Snowman family reunion (and by that I mean he could have played with the snow, thrown snow balls at me, and put carrot noses on while I followed his orders and built a family reunion of snowmen), but I guess I was a party pooper and burnt out at four.  The point of the story is, (and the look on his face epitomizes it) that Zeke LOVES snow.