Halloween!!

Halloween was a ton of fun this year. I was able to see family and do a little trick or treating with them since we didn't work at West Ridge for the holiday. Last year he was a little too little to enjoy it really anyway. It was a lame way for me to get candy :) But this year, oh man! Did Cailen love this holiday! We started out with trick-or-treating at the nearby Assisted Living Center. Cailen very quickly learned what all those pumpkin buckets contained. And he never got the hang of "one candy per bucket"!! He managed to get 4 pieces from this one lady! She gave him a few extra and then I think he sneaked one when we weren't looking! We went there with my sister-in-law Amy and her boy Noah. Cailen loves Noah and he thought his mask was pretty cool, not scary!

Cailen and his "loot"

After the Assisted Living Center, we headed home to take a nap to recharge before the night's activities! Cailen woke up at the perfect time to head over to our ward's Trunk-or-Treating at our nearby park. We left the back of our Xterra open with some goodies for those who walked by and went off in search of friends and neighbors to show off Cailen's and my costume and get some goodies. Mark has to work Saturdays and was hoping to get off earlier than normal, but it hadn't happened yet, so we were without our "captain." Still, out pirate costumes were a hit and Cailen got more than his fair share of ooh's and aah's. They thought he was so cute and little and to be walking around demanding candy was just cute (so they thought. I was trying, and failing, to get him to at least say please and thank you, if not trick-or-treat). He took his new skill of recognizing pumpkins and getting-more-than-one-piece-of-candy-because-I'm-cute to a whole new level here. Man, we got a ton of candy! They were giving out hot dogs and bottled water so we stopped for a bite there to refuel. While walking around the park, Cailen saw the tractors and 4-wheelers giving hay rides and desperately wanted to go on them. We ended up not since I didn't think he would go for sitting on some kid's lap instead of his mom's. So maybe next year he'll be a little more adventurous.

After Trunk-or-Treating, we decided enough was enough. We needed Daddy. So we went down to his work and stole him :) Well, they let him go early, but we think that Cailen and I had something to do with it. We were just too cute to say no to. So Mark hurried and changed into his pirate costume and we met up with his sister Trisha and her little boy Braxton for some good ol' neighborhood Trick-or-Treatin'! We went up and down just one street and that took enough time and we got enough candy that we're going to have sweets to last us through next Halloween and then some! Mark's brother Kenneth came with us too. All of us were dressed up, with the Barber family being pirates, Braxton was a mummy, Trisha was a greek goddess and Kenneth was a gladiator. It was hilarious and fun. Cailen got the hang of knocking on doors just as fast as the pumpkins full of candy! He HAD to knock on each door and often would get in the way of people opening the door because he was still knocking! He had to get his own candy out of the bowl or else he didn't think he got any. He often tried to get more than one (again) and he even tried to go into people's houses!!! (don't know where that came from) All in all, it was a fun fun night. It started to sprinkle a little at the end, so that was our cue to be done. We headed back to Mark's mom's house to check out the loot and then headed up to my parents' house to do one last trick-or-treat and take some posed pictures. So, there's Halloween 2008! Enjoy the pictures and videos!

Cailen getting candy, knocking on doors, and being impatient for more doors to knock on (he would not be still for a picture!)

The Barber Family Pirates!

Take-2: This Past Week

I already started typing this and had it halfway done when my stupid computer decided to freeze the internet page and close. It hadn't automatically saved because they whole time I was typing it was having issues. So there goes all that effort! We'll see how Take-2 goes.

This Wednesday was Mark's day off and we spent the first part of the day just hanging around because we could! We didn't have anywhere to be. Then Mark decided to mow the lawn and rather than be left inside by ourselves, Cailen and I went to join him. We watched him mow the lawn from our nice patch of grass and then Cailen decided he wanted to help. That didn't last too long and we moved on to the garden. When it snowed our garden was ruined but we wanted to see if there was anything left to salvage. There were a few pumpkins, we think some corn (we haven't dared husk them, we're a little afraid of the tiny things that have been sitting in the garden for awhile), and some carrots that we dug up. Cailen continued to "dig" up carrots resulting in being covered in dirt. We also went to inspect our grapes and Cailen realized he LOVES grapes. He ate about 20 straight in a row, even putting two in at once! We stopped there because I didn't want him to get sick and he was not very happy with me for taking him away from his dear grapes. All in all, a fun fall afternoon!

Here's Cailen enjoying the grapes. He even "feeds" Eeyore some :) Then he fell into a pile of smushed grapes and got a grape stain on his bum.

Later that night we went to a Halloween party with our friends John and Amber. They dressed as an emo couple, it was great! We were the Barber pirates and we all enjoyed eating black spaghetti! And we watched the Simpson's Halloween episodes from years past. Great fun!

The next day my sister in law was getting things out ready for Halloween night and came across some wigs. We had a little fashion show with Cailen and we think he enjoyed it too. Except for maybe the big tall wig and the long black wig. He didn't know what to think of those!

Isn't Cailen already pretty much bald? :)

That night was Project Night at Mark's mom's house. I had gotten some grapes from this lady I visit teach because she took all of ours! I had told her I wanted to make grape juice so she got me some. Then Amy, my sister in law who lives upstairs, and I went to pick the leftover grapes from our backyard. We got about half a cooler total. I took those to my mother in law's house and made grape juice! It was a pretty easy process actually. And fun to watch. It was pretty yummy too. Mark tested it for me. While I waited for the juice to be made, I did my filing, which I also took over. I have needed to reorganize my filing for some time now, so that was indeed a project! I still have a little to do in the way of putting it all back in the filing cabinet, but hey! I got two projects done! Cailen saw the grapes when I started making the juice and would not eat his dinner, the little stinker. He and his cousin Becca ate a bunch as I put them in the pot. Kids will be kids. But I ended up making 13 pints of grape juice! We just made our first batch to drink at home. We mixed it with some water and a little bit of sugar. Yummy!

Kenneth Cope concert

I mooch off my parents for a lot of things. After all, what are parents for? Last night I mooched off them for their stake activity. They had a Kenneth Cope concert. Hello! Totally worth the mooching! We had GREAT seats. Fifth row I think, and I was dead center, practically eye to eye with Kennetch Cope. It was an amazing concert. He's kind of a quirky guy, but I loved his songs. They had such great messages. And he has such a strong testimony. That totally comes out in his songs. He believes so strongly in the gospel, in our Savior and in His ability to heal and strengthen us. It was a great testimony builer to hear him perform. Some of his song really hit me and so I found some links to listen to them on YouTube. I am so thankful for experiences like this that help me to get back into focus on what is important, what I need to be doing right now, what I need to be worrying about and spending my time on. I have a few goals in mind that came from last night and I really want to try to be even more in tune with the spirit. I also went Visiting Teaching yesterday and loved one quote in this months message:

Margaret D. Nadauld, former Young Women general president: “Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. … We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith” (“The Joy of Womanhood,” Liahona, Jan. 2001, 18; Ensign, Nov. 2000, 15).

I loved this because it again reminded me of what I need to be focusing on and what it is to be a woman. So many times I compare myself to women of the world or even just peers. But i shouldn't do that. I shouldn't aspire to be like them necessarily. I need to aspire to have worthy qualities maybe, but I need to especially aspire to be tender, kind, and faithful. That's the woman I want to be. Kenneth Cope said something last night that I thought was pretty insightful. We came to earth to get bodies, but those bodies aren't "us." We can't look in the mirror and not like what we see and then not like us. That's not US. We are the eternal spirits that come from our Eternal Father. Who cares about the other stuff? Well, I guess I should care a little. But I shouldn't let it get me down. I don't need to be the prettiest, the skinniest, the funniest. But I should be striving to be the most faithful, the most obedient, the most loving woman that I can be. He also commented on the Atonement and how without Christ, we are nothing. We can do nothing and we can achieve nothing. We need to realize this to realize that the things we do here on Earth aren't getting us into Heaven. We're not earning our way into Heaven. We're not going to deserve to go to Heaven. The only way we get into Heaven is through Jesus Christ. But of course what we do is important. EXTREMELY important. It shows our love for the Savior, for our Father. It shows that we believe in Him, it shows our FAITH. It shows that we know him. We can do good all around us, but unless we know Him, it's no good. Last night gave me a lot to think about and it's awesome. I have such a desire to prove my love for the Savior by being the best I can be. Mostly by trying to be the kind of person that the Savior was here on Earth. TRYING. I know I'll have a hard time, but it's that effort, that desire that I want to be evident. I want people to know that I love the Savior because of my countenance. I want His image in my countenance. Anyway, listen to these songs, they are truly inspiring and beautiful.

Boo at the Zoo and other fun times

So Halloween has been preceded this year by a few other occasions for Cailen to dress up. He's a pirate and I was a little nervous of how the hat, sword and eye patch would go, so I figured these other activities would be his practice for Halloween. Well, the eye patch works for like 2 seconds, and surprisingly, he kept the hat on for most of the time at the zoo. He did break the sword at the zoo so we had to buy him a new one for Halloween. Thank heavens for the dollar store!

We went to my parent's Halloween party for their ward last Friday, mostly because Mark was working and I didn't have anything better to do (translation: didn't have anything better that I wanted to do...those dishes, etc were going to have to wait!). He didn't like most of his accessories there, but managed to eat 2 1/2 hotdogs. He got a few pieces of candy playing some of the games. He liked to throw the balls at the bottles, but didn't really care if he got them in. And he liked to play with the rubber duckies but didn't care that the # on the bottom gave him a prize. And he got his face painted, and promptly smeared it :)

Boo at the Zoo (I think most of you who read my blog know what this is) is a chance for the kids to trick or treat at the zoo and see some animals. I went with my friend Allyson and her daughter Lily, who was a lion. Allyson made the costume herself and it turned out GREAT! Good job Allyson! Anyway, there were lots of businesses there handing out candy and Cailen got to see a few of the animals (the ones we could see through the crowd!) - zebras (he LOVED those), bears, giraffe, tiger, monkeys (also really loved these), turkeys, and a few others. He had a lot of fun, but was pretty tired. He conked out after we rode the carosel. He didn't know what to think about that ride; he held onto me pretty tight as he went back and forth between the elephant and the leopard, I think it was. All in all, lots of candy for "Cailen" (I think Mark and I have eaten most of it) and lots of fun hanging out with friends. We even got a coupon to Red Robin so we went there afterwards. Thanks Allyson for inviting us!

My little pirate in his "ship" or stroller. And Lily the Lion!

Trying to pose our little munchkins! And Cailen trying to climb in with the bears. Literally, he did try.

I LOVE this picture! Cailen is looking at the giraffes!

On the carousel.

On a random note, and to finish with the stuff I wanted to blog about today, Cailen ate cereal by himself for the first time today. No, not the rice cereal stuff. I mean Apple Jacks with milk! He did a pretty good job. I think he felt like a big boy eating cereal with Mommy. He would point to my cereal and then point to his, it was cute! He did end up making a mess of it while I went to brush my teeth. He poured out a lot of the milk and the remaining Apple Jacks onto his tray and was playing in the mess...are girls this messy or is it just boys!?! But I love him and love his little antics too. That's why I have the camera ready!