Ward Halloween Party/Trunk-or-Treat

So, first of all, I want to say thanks to everyone for the advice I got on Sam's "sleeping disorder." I have been thinking a lot about what you said, Melissa, and I am beginning to think that might be what is wrong with him some of the time (being scared), though I can't be sure. It sure fits with how he acts sometimes. Last night I tried comforting him more before bed and reading him some stories in his room, singing songs, etc. and he did sleep a lot better...all through the night, in fact! I can't say for sure if that's why, but we'll see I guess, as I do it more. I only heard him wake up once in the middle of the night whimpering "mama" but he quickly fell back asleep. I might need to get him a night light or something too. We will see how things work out!

Secondly, this is going to be another long post because I have a lot of pictures from the party and trunk-or-treat last night! It was lots of fun! First there was a carnival in the primary rooms and then what we called the "Fear Factory" in the nursery room, put on by the R.S. and Y.W. We had it really dark, with just a couple black lights and some orange hanging lights so you couldn't see much and the young women would lead small groups of kids through and have them see and feel different gross things. I will go more into detail with that with each picture. Then when all of that was done, everyone headed outside for the trunk-or-treat. That didn't last too long, of course because there aren't many people in the ward (there was just one line of cars)...that, and the sprinklers came on. :)

Anyway, it was a fun night and Sam had a blast getting into his dragon costume again! In fact, he was upset with me when I tried to take it off of him when it was over!

All the jars of gross specimens in the "Fear Factory"

This table had human hearts (canned whole tomatoes), fingernails (sunflower seed shells), and slimy maggots (over cooked rice in grease...SICK)...

Our "Haunted Village" made up of the gingerbread houses we made in Young Womens last week (you got to love all the roaches, mice, and mouse droppings all over everything...)

This is a human brain (cooked cauliflower), bloody scabby skin (grape skin), eyes (peeled grapes), and human insides (overcooked greasy spiral noodles and jello). Now, mind you, when people are feeling these it's practically dark, so it can be pretty gross at how they actually compare to the real things when you can't see what they look like!

Dead McKayla and her dead, decapitated husband. As people would come in she would say something like, "This is my husband. He killed me then I killed him, and these are all his insides..."

Destiny pooring the candy on Rebeca's head. She had her head in the candy bowl at the end of the "tour" and would scare people. :)

Cassy, the cute witch:

Rebeca waiting... I would have taken out her red eyes, but it kind of adds to the mood...

The darkened room from one angle...

Creepy Rebeca in the cob webs...

Missy heading up the hearts, fingernails, and maggots table...

Another shot of Rebeca in the webs...

Drew and Tara...the family of devils...

Bishop doing his balloon creations again...

The gorilla's (against the back wall...Brother Lopez) own grandson was even afraid of him!

Sarah couldn't decide what to be so she was a mix of everything...

Logan sporting the best costume of the night, in my opinion. It's too bad he had food in the way of his face...he was DANG cute. His brother, Canyon, was a cactus. :)

Destiny and little Tinkerbell (Brooklyn)...

Sam dancing with his balloon...

The little ones seemed to enjoy beating up on the props...Good thing Will doesn't have a real sword in his hands...

Becky and Sam...

Dave handing out candy to Scooby Doo (Andrew Swaner)...

How could anyone hate sleep so much?

I just have to blow off some steam. This last week has been both wonderful and ever so frustrating. When Sam is awake he has been so good and happy and just as cute as ever, his personality shining through more and more each day! But for some reason he has decided this last week that he HATES sleep! He always seems to be going through some sort of stage with his sleeping schedule but he usually, for the most part, does pretty well. He usually goes down really well for his one afternoon nap and then goes down REALLY well once it's his bedtime at night. He knows when it's time and some of the time would even ask for "night night" before I would offer.
Well for some reason that has changed and I am just hoping it's a stage. He now screams bloody murder every time I try to put him down. It doesn't matter what time of day or night it is, how tired he is, whether it's for nap or bedtime, etc. And the frustrating thing is he will act ready like he always does, and when I lay him down he even closes his eyes as if he is going to accept it, like usual, but then as soon as I leave the room the screaming starts. And it doesn't stop. He will scream and scream for about an hour before he finally falls asleep but in-between that time he will start dozing off because he is so tired, but he fights it with every ounce of his control.
And worse, he's been waking up in the middle of the night, a few times a night, doing the same thing and it doesn't matter what I do, I can't get him to go back to bed peacefully. So Dave and I lose sleep, laying there for a couple hours here and there throughout the night listening to him screaming until he cries himself back to sleep. I was laying in bed last night, listening to the shrieking, trying as hard as I could to breathe evenly and not go a-wall. It drives me absolutely insane (mostly at that time - the middle of the night when I am laying in bed exhausted) that he is so tired, needs to sleep, there is nothing wrong (that I know of), he doesn't need or want anything, but he wont sleep! He acts as though I am torturing him by trying to make him sleep!
I don't understand what has changed and there are times I think maybe it's because he is teething, but if that were the case, why would be usually be perfectly fine once he's up? Hopefully this doesn't last too much longer....who knows...maybe my patience is being tested and I am failing miserably. So, for the sake of my sanity, if anyone has any helpful advice it'd be greatly appreciated!

My Smart Boy

Here is another short video of Sam counting my fingers. :) He's so cute and smart...

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z188/the_davenports/?action=view&current=100_0019.flv

Community Halloween Carnival...and some Twilight Geeks...

WARNING!! Long, long Post!
Well Grandpa Meyers was here this weekend in-between two business trips and even though it was a couple days it was so much fun having him here! It doesn't matter how little time we spend with family, we are always so sad when it ends! Sam loves having family around and he bonded so well with his Grandpa this time...it just melted my heart! We didn't know if he recognized him at first, but we think he did because of how fast we warmed up to him! And it's not like Sam lately to warm up to anyone fast that he doesn't already know! He immediately sat on his lap and started doing numbers, letters, shapes, and colors with him (that's one way anyone can suck him in...it doesn't matter how grumpy he is, he loves to learn and recite the alphabet, etc!).

He learned how to say Grandpa right away, though it sounds like a mix between "gapa" and "papa." And he was following him around like he usually does with me! When Grandpa would go in the bathroom he would stand at the door and whine and try going throughout the house to find him. One morning when he was showering Sam was so sad and he kept saying "Papa, shower!" over and over again.

Anyway, we loved having him here and we can't wait till just under four weeks when we can go to Colorado and see all our family!! We are so excited to be there for Thanksgiving but we know that when it comes time to go back home we will be sad. :(

Well, on Saturday night was our Bagdad community Halloween carnival and Grandpa was here so he got to go with us and see Sam as the cutest dragon ever and take pictures and stuff. It was a lot of work for me to chase him around and constantly get him out of trouble (there wasn't much for a toddler his age there to do), especially being pregnant. I don't know if something is wrong with me or out of the ordinary, but I am already having such a hard time bending over and if I'm on my feet too long my tailbone, back, pelvis, and abdomen hurt so bad that I can hardly walk normal. I had a hard time like that with Sam but it wasn't until the very end of my pregnancy...and I still have like three months left. Yay for me.... It's weird too because when I feel like this, my tailbone, spine, and pelvis pop with every movement I make. Especially steps, but even if I am just standing there and I lightly shift my weight from one foot to the other, I can feel all the little pops. I feel like I have no room in my short torso for this baby and it's throwing everything off and out! That part wasn't as bad when I was pregnant with Sam but maybe if I would have gone to the chiropracter and gotten adjusted after I had him like I was told to, I wouldn't be feeling it as bad this time. Who knows...

Anyway, back to my point...besides that, the carnival was so much fun! Sam was so sociable and wanted to run around and go up to people all night! Eventually I was able to keep him in one spot for a little bit while he and Colter (Peter Pan) played with each other with their balloon animals. Bishop had a booth set up where he was making balloon animals and things for kids and he quickly taught Dave how so Dave made a wiener dog for Sam. :)

Something that was really exciting for us and that confirmed we aren't the only ones that think Sam is the cutest: they were having a costume judging contest (Basha's, the local grocery store, was heading that up) and you were supposed to enter your kids when you came in but we didn't bother entering Sam because even though he was dang cute, his costume wasn't very original so we didn't think he would win. Well, about half-way through the carnival when we were getting ready to leave the Basha's manager saw him and commented on how cute he was and asked us if we entered him and we said no because we didn't think he'd win and he was like, "No, you have to enter him! I'll go get his number and enter him!" So we waited around until the end, tired and somewhat annoyed because we didn't think he would win, and right when we walked up to the booth where they were announcing the winners, we heard them call his number (he won first place for his age group)!!! We couldn't believe it but we were so excited! He was so cute and everyone knew it. :) (Yeah, I may be a little biased...) So he (well...Dave and I really) won a $25 gift certificate to the Bagdad Cafe...woo hoo! Free lunch! :)

Sam loved being a dragon so much! He had so much fun dressing up and didn't complain about his costume all night, which I thought he would. He is so excited to get in it again. When I was showing him pictures of him and the short little few second video clip that Grandpa took of him he was laughing so hard! I was showing the video over and over again and he was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe! I love my boy and I love that he is getting to the age to enjoy this kind of stuff!

So another fun and dorky thing is that all of us girls made Twilight T-shirts and wore them that night (and are planning on wearing them at our ward Halloween party on Wednesday too). Becky pretty much did everything and created the logo that was put on the front of the shirt, which is so cute! She is so creative! Then each of us are, or have, picked a quote or line we wanted on the back of the shirt. They are all doing different ones (like, "Why am I covered in feathers?" etc.) because they are wearing them to see the movie together but since I won't be here I am going to do the same one as Destiny because I love it! It says, "I'm in love with a vampire named Edward. Did I mention my husband and two kids?" Dave (all of our husbands for that matter) think we are such dorks but who cares! I love it. And I don't feel stupid... :)

Anyway....this has been an incredibly long post so I will end it now, but I will post again in a few days after the ward party/trunk-or-treat! Here are some pictures and the really short video of Sam running around (literally only a few seconds long). At the end I also put the video grandpa took of him naming his magnetic letters. Oh, and isn't he cute in his Sesame Street PJs? :) He loves Elmo. He says it over and over again and we bought him Sesame Street shoes the other day too and he loves them! He always carries them around and says, "Elmo, Elmo!" Okay, I said I was done, didn't I?

Getting ready to go in!




Eating some licorice...

Mesmerized by the strobe light...

My hair looks so brown in this picture! Man I need some highlights! There's Lydia and little Megan (the witch) on the floor too.



Happy family! Sam somehow untied his balloon animal and was just carrying it around the rest of the night like this.

Here we are! Christa Johnson, Destiny Bolinger, Lydia Hulse (she couldn't find her black shirt so she used red instead!), Becky Brimhall, and me.

We are just so cute...

You can't see from the previous picture what Becky's lovely logo looked like, so here it is up close ("Twilight moms unite"):

The backs, though you can't see what they say. :) Lydia and I didn't have the backs on ours so we're just standing there....and I'm looking dorky.

Mommy and Daddy....

The back of our boy dragon with his costume contest number....




And it takes WAY too long to add videos on blogger for me for some reason (like 8 hours at least...I don't know what my computer's problem is...) so I have added the last one on Photobucket to save time. Here's the link:
http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z188/the_davenports/?action=view&current=GrandpaMeyersVisitOct08041.flv

As Autumn As it Gets

I just took these pictures of Sam in the backyard and thought they were cute so I wanted to post them. The dead leaves on the ground are the only thing that gives away the fall season here. :(

Halloween Gingerbread Houses

This was from the Young Womens activity last night. The girls made Halloween gingerbread houses and we will display them next week at our ward party/scare house as a haunted village. They had so much fun doing it and we all had fun pigging out! I got such a sugar high yesterday... :)

Tribute to My Boy

I was just looking at some pictures of Sam when he was just a tiny baby and it made me want to post some pictures of his life progressively month by month...lots of pictures. :) He has been such a wonderful little son, even with all his problems and stubborness. We can only hope our next one is as great as him. We know Sam with be such a good big brother!

Me about to go to the hospital to have him!

Newborn boy!

1 month old...

About 6 weeks old (I just had to put this one in because it;s so cute):

The six week man in his snazzy blessing tux....

2 months old...

About 2.5 months old...

3 months (what a chub!)

4 months...

5 months...

6 months...

7 months...

8 months...

About 8.5 months...Halloween 2007!

9 months...

10 months...Christmas 2007!

About 10.5 months...

11 months...

1 year!!!

13 months...

14 months...

15 months...

16 months...

17 months...

18 months...

19 months...

And lastly...20 months!


I just can't believe how much he has changed and grown over the last (almost) two years! He used to be so tiny, yet even when I look at pictures of him at only a month old he seemed so old and had such an old soul! I love my boy!