Shooting

I have a lot to update here, so just bear with me.

Ty has been trying to get me to go shooting with him since before we got married. Last Saturday we finally went, and I'm actually pretty good. My very first bullet even went in the innermost circle. I was quite pleased with myself and surprised by how much fun I had. We'll definitely be going again.

Halloween

We decided not to do anything this year for Halloween. In fact, Ty is at school right now studying. It's just too cold to be outside for any length of time and Leo is still too young to really be interested in the candy. (Side note about the candy: Ty and I each got to pick out a candy bar at Walmart yesterday because we weren't going to be able to eat Leo's trick-or-treat candy.) Any how, we did go to a Halloween activity with the other little kids in our ward on Thursday so Leo didn't miss out on the opportunity completely.

His favorite part, by far, was eating the snacks he got. (It was juice, pretzels and string cheese. The kid was in heaven.)

He was also slightly obsessed with this Tinker Bell wand, to the great distress of Tinker Bell.

I love this picture because it reminds me of this one from last year.

And here's Leo coloring his trick-or-treat bag.

Climbing

About a week ago Leo started climbing on everything. My life is hell. Honestly, I cannot keep him off of things. We have literally started putting our folding chairs away when we're not sitting on them just so he has fewer things to climb on. (And we use them at our kitchen table.)

For some reason he is obsessed with the toilet brush. I have yet to discover a hiding place that he can't find.

He thinks it's hilarious to climb up and sit in front of the computer/TV while you're trying to use/watch it.

And he's obsessed with eating cereal straight from the box.

He gets mad when I take pictures of him.

And he's also found several new ways to get stuck.

As usual, I have to take a picture before I help him out.

Ice Cream

We made homemade ice cream last night for a ward activity. We didn't have room in our freezer for the ice cream maker, so I had to scoop it out into several Tupperware containers in order for it to fit. When I was done I left a little bit in the bottom for Leo and I to eat. Well, it didn't take him long to commandeer the spoon and the container from me. He's definitely my kid!

Deer

So here's the deer story:

Last night I got in the car around 6:30 to go and pick up Ty from work. As we were driving down 900 East (it's a busy, 4 lane road) I see a little blur out of the corner of my eye. "What is th. . . oh crap!" And then a giant deer (it was at least as tall as the car)ran into the side of me, flipped over the top of the car, crushed the windshield on the passenger side and ran off.

I was a little freaked out, mostly because I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do (and Leo was screaming from the loud sound that the windshield made when it shattered.) SO I pulled into a gas station and called Ty. "I just hit a deer." I said. "Do we need to report it or something?"

Any how, long story short, we filled out a report and someone from Ty's work gave him a ride to the gas station where we were. The damage was really minimal. There's a dent on the driver's side over the front wheel and the windshield, of course, which we already had replaced.

Yes, that's deer hair stuck in the car.

So, this is the first time in weeks (yes, the "s" is supposed to be there) that all of the dishes have been done at the same time and I thought I would document it for posterity. (It took me two days to do it, and you'll notice I didn't take pictures of any of the other parts of the house because they're not clean.) I've been reading this book called Mothering With Spiritual Power by Debra Sansing Woods. Each chapter starts with a verse from the Book of Mormon and then goes on to tell how it changed her perspective on mothering. Chapter six is Alma 37:6 ". . .by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. . . ." She talks about how frustrated she used to get as a young mother because she could never seem to get her house clean all at once. She felt like she had to choose between taking care of her kids and taking care of her house. However, once she learned to utilize the "small and simple things" principle, she realized that the best way to do both was to just do a little bit each day. Then, even though the whole house was never spotless, no room ever got out of control dirty. I'm trying to implement this mindset into my life because my other option is to just stop cleaning altogether. Any how, I'll let you know how it goes.

P.S. This obviously applies to other things besides cleaning. For example, I'd been feeling like I didn't have any opportunity to sew, which is something that I love doing. Whenever I tried to sit down and work on a project Leo would freak out. So I've started working on things that can be done in bits and pieces. Now I'll pull out a project during nap time or after Leo is in bed for the night and work on it for 30 minutes or so. As long as I'm not too concerned about getting it done by a certain time it works great. Now I feel like I can still do things I enjoy without it causing a major uproar.

FYI

Apparently I really love the taste of chocolate and diet Coke. Not chocolate flavored diet Coke, just diet Coke at the same time as brownies or chocolate chip cookies. It warms my heart.

That's all.