Two Years + 4 Months

* Has a crazy obsession with noses, finger nails, and elbows. For some reason, he likes to touch these areas on other people. * Is learning his colors although every color is yellow in his mind. * He is starting to become to nursery bully. In the past few weeks, he seems to go crazy during the last 10 minutes of church and will push kids over. * I love that he is talking more and more. New sayings include "it's broke" to anything that doesn't work right, "that's funny", "yucky", and "it's messy". * Loves his Aunty Ashlee (Ashwee) and Uncle Scott. I think they are emerging as two of his favorite people. * Wheels on the Bus is one of his favorite songs. He does the hand movements and everything. To get his to quiet down, I sing the verse about the Mama's on the Bus and he does the motions and says "shh". * Enjoys cuddling with his Mama over anyone else. *  Will call any old lady Grandma. Today at church, there was an old lady sitting next to us. He started calling her Grandma and wanted to show her his toys. He also calls Jamie's mom Gamma when she visits. *

Hiking

Alice

This kid can sleep anywhere.

Don't let this cute face deceive you. He is not a hiker.

The Kieta's invited us to go hiking along some of their family. Zander had never been hiking before, but thought we'd give it a try. We hiked up the Wind Cave Trail in Usery Mountain Regional Park. It is a 3.2 mile round trip hike that is classified as moderately difficult. We were unaware of this and needless to say struggled to get up the trail. To say we are unfit would be an understatement. We carried Zander most of the way as he was super slow and kept falling down. He even fell asleep half way up, so Devin put him inside a baby sling so we could make it to the top. The view from the cave made the strenuous hike worth it. The weather was cooler and we had a beautiful view of the desert landscape and Phoenix area. The way down was a lot easier so I think we may give hiking another chance once it cools down more.

Roy Ishmel Reed

A week and a half after his accident, Grandpa Reed passed away on September 28th at 10pm. I don't think there was a moment over this past week that he didn't have a family member by his side. On Tuesday night, they were all able to witness a miracle as Grandpa woke up and begin to act like his old self again. Since he suffered from alzheimer's, he often called everyone Peggy Sue and asked the same questions over and over. For a brief time, he was able remember names, express his love for everyone, and crack jokes. I'm sad that we were unable to be there for that, but Devin and I will cherish all our memories with Grandpa Reed, especially our trip back to Arkansas with him in May. His funeral will be on Thursday and we are headed to Arkansas this weekend for another service and burial.

High Five Friday

1. This week has definitely been difficult for our family. With Grandpa Reed's accident, we've been spending a lot of time at the hospital and hospice.  He's been in and out of consciousness, but it's been nice to hear him talk and joke around when he has been awake. On Monday, he was transferred to a Hospice of the Valley facility near our house. While we know it will only be a matter of time, we are happy at the thought of him being reunited with Grandma Betty.

2. Devin called me one morning this week to tell me of something dumb he did. He now refuses to remind me which morning it was because he doesn't want me to put it on the blog. He ran out of gas on the way to work after dropping Zander off at Jamie's house. Instead of calling his coworkers to help out, he decided to walk a mile to the gas station because he was too embarrassed.

3.  Zander is becoming quite a casanova. Here is Zander and Alice during story time at Barnes and Noble this past week. Zander kept putting his arm on Alice's back. She kept pushing it off. I think he finally wore her down because she finally gave in and let him do it.

4. RHCP Concert. So good, it deserves to be mentioned twice.

5. Monday nights have just gotten more interesting in our house. That's right - Dancing with the Stars All Star Edition has just started. Everyone is really good, with the exception of Kirstie, Pamela, and Bristol. After the first episode, my favorites are Emmitt and Shawn. It will be an entertaining couple of weeks and then the new Bachelor will get started.

Paddle Boats

Date Night - Donovans & RHCP

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are Devin's favorite band. In fact, I was able to surprise him with tickets back in 2006 when they came to Phoenix for their Stadium Arcadium tour. We were both really excited for them to come out with another album after 6 years because we knew that they'd come on tour again. I bought tickets as soon as they went on sale and was starting to count down the days to their March concert. We then found out that it had been postponed to September. Not cool people. We waited an extra 6 months, but it was definitely worth it.

On concert day, we made it a date night. Devin got a gift card to Donovan's from work so we went there for dinner. Complimentary valet, VIP table seating, bread, caesar salad, mac&cheese, filet mignon, garlic potatoes, fresh veggies. It was delicious. After dinner, we headed to Jobing.com Arena. The Chili Peppers were great. They only played a few of their new songs and focused a lot on their classic hits. Devin was pumped to hear Suck My Kiss, Under the Bridge, and Throw Away Your Television. I was happy to hear By The Way, Wet Sand, and Higher Ground. Let's hope we don't have to wait another 6 years to see them in concert again.

Love this little stinker!

Triple Date Night

We had a triple date night with the Clawsons and Kietas. It was this same time last year that we had our 1st annual mini golf tournament with the Kietas and lost terribly. It was time for redemption! On our 2nd annual mini golf tournament, we started off strong and even though we had a few hole in ones, we still lost. Watch out Kietas....we'll be practicing until next years tournament.

High Five Friday

1. Mum & Al visited us this past weekend. With work, they normally come Saturday night and spend Sunday with us but this time they were able to come on Friday night for the entire weekend. We found a new breakfast spot called The Good Egg, shopped at Harbor Freight, and these two spent some quality time with Zander as Devin and I went to see Les Mis.

2. Devin got 3 free tickets to see Les Miserables at ASU Gammage Auditorium. We were 11 rows from the stage and it was amazing! Have I mentioned how much I love musicals? I Dreamed A Dream, On My Own,
Master of the House, One More Day. Classic songs. We've only seen shows from the second balcony so it was great being so close to the show and actually being able to see the performers. I am so excited to see the new film version coming out on Christmas day.

3. On Thursday morning, we received the scary news that Grandpa Reed had fallen into a cement ditch and was airlifted to a nearby hospital. He was in ICU for head trauma, but has since moved out of ICU to a regular section of the hospital. His condition remains the same right now so we aren't really sure what is going to happen. We've been at the hospital to visit him over these past few days although he's been sedated and asleep most of the time.

4. My college roommate, Aimee, celebrated her 30th birthday with Princess Party. Everyone wore tiaras, we played Just Dance, and enjoyed a yummy castle birthday cake. Another 14 months and I'll be turning the big 3-0 too.

5. After a stressful day at work, I decided to cheer myself up with a little Zander/mom time. We went to Golden Spoon and shared some chocolate yogurt with peanut butter cups. My favorite part of our little date was when Zander tried to tell me a story. It was the longest story and he was so expressive with his facial expressions and hand gestures. I could only understand a few words, but it must have been really something really important.

Bath Time

High Five Friday

1. On Saturday, Devin helped his coworker move and came home with a surprise present for Zander - a train table. We were going to buy one for Zander's birthday but haven't gotten around to getting one yet. Thank goodness we didn't because nothing is better than getting something for free. Zander absolutely loves it! We'll have to get him a few more trains and tracks.

2. We've been serving as nursery leaders with another couple, the Allens. They are the only friends we've made in our new ward, even though we still haven't invited them over for games like we've been meaning to. On Sunday, we were talking about our trip to Florida, our family funeral in Thatcher, and how we visited a family cabin on Mount Graham. Morgan then told us about his family cabin on Mount Graham. We joked about how they are probably neighbors since there are not that many cabins up there. We soon found out that Morgan and Devin are second cousins. Morgan's grandpa is Brooks Daley who is the brother of Margaret Merrill (Daley), Devin's grandma. It's a small world for sure! We even saw Morgan's mom Lisa and his Grandpa at the funeral, but didn't make the connection earlier.

3.One of the reasons we picked our current house was for the side yard. We loved the idea of Zander playing outside and us having bbqs with our friends out there. When we moved in, it was nicely landscaped with vines, plants, and palm trees. Since then, it has grown like crazy and the heat has killed a lot of the plants. A few weeks ago I got out there to cut down the jungle of vines and slowly everything started dying. I was beginning to feel like the worst tenant ever until I looked out my window this past week. The vines are growing back and we even have flowers blossoming on the plants.  

4. We celebrated our nephew Tage's 2nd birthday on Tuesday with a family dinner.  

5. With Zander's love for Yo Gabba Gabba, I knew he had to be DJ Lance Rock for Halloween this year.  He is already set with all the plush characters and boom box so he just needed the costume. As soon as we got it in the mail, Zander put on the hat and glasses and wouldn't take it off. It is the cutest thing ever! I can't wait for trick or treating.  

I bought Zander a potty months ago hoping that he'd get be out of diapers sooner than later. I quickly found out that he was not ready at all so I decided to not push him. We've been talking about the potty a lot though. This past week I found a Sesame Street potty coloring book that came with a sticker chart. Zander's been practicing sitting on the potty and he gets to put a sticker on the chart afterwards. Today he had his first successful potty experience! He was so excited afterwards to put a sticker on the chart and eat a candy treat. Hopefully this means that he is one step closer to wearing big boy undies.