Happy Halloween

Love, Holden

Easy As 1-2-3

The lighting is bad, the clapping for himself almost drowns him out, and he won't even glance at the camera, but after months of effort, his ABC's are officially documented. Enjoy.

In Other News

I know it appeared that last weekend was all Holden's birthday, all the time, but that actually wasn't the case. It was a big weekend for other reasons as well.

1. We went to a rockin' 30th birthday bash for my sister, where we dressed up in our best 80's attire, played Tetris, and sang 80's karaoke.

Holden was trying on the Terrible Twos for size that night, so I tried to bribe him into being in a good mood with endless Fun Dip...It almost worked.

2. My brother came home from his LDS mission. He spoke in church, and we had a little shindig at my parent's house afterwards. I didn't take pictures of the event (what else is new), but here is a sa-weet picture of him before he left sporting his pre-mission 'stache.

3. One of my very favorite shows started again! As far as I'm concerned, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making The Team is the only good thing to come out of football season.

Holden's Birthday: Parts 1 and 2

Yes, you heard me, parts 1 and 2. And before you get all judgy, let me just remind you that this household hasn't seen a birthday since January, and we were in major need of some celebration.

We started off Holden's birthday weekend with a mother/son trip to the Children's Museum. I was excited about this, Holden not as much, as he requested on multiple occasions that both Cayden and Natalie join us.

Apparently I am okay company, because Holden seemed to have a good time after all. Here he is being enthralled by cupcake liners getting blown around by some sort of fan.

And here he is practicing his crazy eyes in front of the "flower" garden.

Then we met up with Reo for lunch, so that he could get in on the birthday action.

Holden and I then came home to decorate cupcakes to take to various family members. Holden took his job very seriously.

No pictures from the actual deliveries, because this is me we're talking about, and we all know by now that my ability to remember to take photos is hit and miss.

After taking a day to recover, we had some more family over for Holden's Elmo's World themed birthday dinner.

Elmo cupcakes and pizzas, handcrafted by your's truly. The idea was inspired by Dimpleprints .
Also on the menu was Mr Noodles and Cheese, Super Grover's Super Green Beans and Oscar's Trash Can Salad.

Decorations. Thanks to Hillary for the Holden's World logo.

Guests. My mom and my brother Andy must have been sitting in bad places for getting their photo taken, because once again, I failed to document. Sorry, guys!

Obligatory cake all over the face.

Present opening.


All in all, I'd say Holden had a great birthday weekend. And since he hasn't told me any differently, I bet he'd say that too.

The only downside was that it was too nice of weather for Holden and I to wear the Fall-like birthday outfits I picked for us...And let's be honest, when it comes to me, warm weather is never a downside.

Plus, it could be worse. The very same crazy eyes I mocked on my son could have made an appearance on me in the only family photo of the night. Oh, wait...

If you made it through that marathon post you deserve some sort of prize. Leftover Elmo cupcakes, perhaps?

Fall Weekend Getaway or Deja Vu (You Choose)

The longer I have this little blog, the more I remember that I am a creature of habit, and therefore the blog posts of Fall 2010 are shaping up to be eerily similar to the blog posts of Fall 2009, and I don't see any changes to that in the forseeable future, so consider yourself warned. On the bright side, you do get to see my cute kid doing all the things he did last year, but a year older, so you have that going for you.

My parents treated us to our annual family get together in the mountains last weekend, and once again, a good time was had by all. Especially my spoiled rotten child, who pretty much got to do whatever he wanted, including--but not limited to-- the following:

Providing a little extra defense during Foosball games...

Taking baths in giganto bathtubs...

Hanging out in creepy, sandy tunnels...

Convincing any sucker he could find into playing Rock Band with him, only to then bogart the drums the entire time...

And coloring every chance (and attempting to color on every surface) he could...

The grownups had their share of fun as well. We also colored...


And had a rousing Air Hockey Tournament of Champions. Sadly, the Mannings were eliminated in the first round (although, in my defense I was playing the number one seed, Cami. And in Reo's defense, he probably could have gotten some sort of reward for causing the most puck related injuries.)

(TOC winner, Ethan)

(Silver, Gold and Bronze Medalists)

Like I said, good times. And like most good times, I failed to bring out the camera as much as I wanted to, so that's about all I've got.

Stay tuned for more replicas of October 2009, coming all this month!