Back on All Hallows' Eve

Now that it's almost Thanksgiving, I figure it's about time to catch up on a couple pictures from Halloween. I, of course, saw this idea cycling around Pinterest and figured, "What the hey! It's a cute idea!" So, I broke out the sewing machine - which is getting harder and harder to do these days with Caden always wanting to do what I'm doing - and put together my little money-bag costume. Considering I'm not really a seamstress and I had no directions or pattern, I was happy with how it turned out!

 

 This is how we spent most of the evening...

A robber with her loot :)

"That was fun!"

Fun at the ward party!

We enjoyed going to the ward party the Saturday before Halloween. I helped at a craft booth for the primary kids and Michael ran a donut-eating contest booth - he will forever be known by the kids in the primary as "The Donut Man". :) The actual day of Halloween we pulled out all the stops and hopped by the stake trunk-or-treat (although there were about 15 cars there when we arrived and no one we knew unfortunately - sadly not Michael's best first impression of a LDS trunk-or-treat; we'll have to get him down to the San Pasqual Ward's - they do it well :D). We even had TWO trick-or-treaters this year...that's up 200% from last year! Woohoo! Oh, how Clackamas will forever have a special place in our hearts. <3 Overall, I believe it was a successful first Halloween for the little kiddo - he still has no idea what candy is, but getting to join in the excitement was good enough for him! (As long as he stayed away from the scary costumes...)

Ball! Ball! Ball!

     After several failed attempts at going to a pumpkin patch in October (rain, they were only open on the weekends, BYU football games...), we finally made it last Friday. It actually turned out to be a pretty good day to go - no rain and we had the place to ourselves! Despite the fact that he was freezing (the wind was incredibly nippy), Caden seemed to enjoy himself for our short venture around the grounds. I mean, seriously, how could this kid not love a who field full of "balls" as far as his little eyes could see?!

Not excited about being contained for a photo op.

Also, on the grounds, they had a bunch of farm animals! Caden was so excited to see all the animals he knows from his books in real life. The fact that they actually made noises caught him off guard a bit though...apparently my baa-ing sheep doesn't hold true to the actual thing. :)

Meeting the goats:

 

And the chickens! 

"Mom, they're REAL!"

 

   

 They also had sheep, rabbits, and pigs...but we were too busy meeting them to take pictures apparently. 

And then our long trek back to the car...

Stopping every few feet to get a another "ball".

 

 

  

 

 

He's trying so hard to climb everything these days!

 

A successful day at the pumpkin patch!

Nothing much in the Root household this past month. We enjoyed dry weather in Oregon (who knew there was such a thing?) from July until mid-October. (WHAT?! Thank you universe; I needed that.) However, these last couple weeks we've started to say goodbye to our beautiful backyard view. By mid-November, this will be just a collection of wintry sticks and twiggy trees. 

 So sad to see the leaves go... :(

And here of just a few pictures of Caden at his best these days!

Climbing...

 

Haircut time!

 

Playing his tunes. 

And his collection of favorite faces to make these days: 

 

He turns one in a week and a half! Time does fly, but I'm absolutely loving this stage. He's so interactive, responsive, and FUNNY! Right now he loves to say, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no..." when you do something he doesn't want. He's definitely a boy with his obsessive love of dogs, balls, birds, and big trucks. Randomly he'll come up to you and put his hand on your foot or leg and say, "Tickle, tickle, tickle." He understands "Come here.", "drink", and "cracker" (along with dog and ball). He also thinks all pictures are "Je, je" (Jesus), since we look at the picture of Jesus on his wall each morning. And he's mildly obsessed with this four generation picture I have of me, my mom, grandma, and great-grandma. He stares at that picture for a good long time and always wants me to take him down the hallway so he can look at it. If I say, "Go crazy!" he shakes his head back and forth and up and down until he falls over - cracks me up! :)

Overall, we're just having fun. I do wish he had kids his own age to interact with on a frequent basis, but until Michael finds work near family or we decide it's worth the effort to move that doesn't look like it's going to happen. We'll see how we survive another Oregon winter with it just being me and him each day! There will be lots of time for creativity. 

Such a JoY!

A fun video of the little man. He's a lot of fun to be around these days!

And just a few pics to show what he does with his time when he's not playing with tennis or soccer balls:

Plays with Turtle <3

Loves his books!

Reading his book to himself...

Being a little stud-muffin :)

LOVES eating peas!!

Walking wherever he wants to go...

Caden and his favorite moose, Moosey-moose.

Hugs for moose!

Between this and trips to the park, which I have yet to get pictures of him there, this is what we do all day! Even though it isn't much, it sure is a lot of fun spending the day with my little buddy.