A Mishmash* of Stuff

I know, I know, all three of you have been waiting, pleading with the cosmos, checking daily for an update. I don't know how so much time has gone by.

First, here are the pumpkin carving pictures I promised a long time ago:
Scoopin' out the GUTS!

Dane designed the "face" himself.



Because Dane has shown little interest in potty-training, we decided to go ahead a buy a little potty chair (instead of the toilet seat thing that I preferred so I wouldn't have to wipe poo out of a container). He did really well with number one, but he simply would not do number two. He'd wait until we put on a diaper at night and then let loose. To be continued...

We've also had lots of snow:


Following one particularly enjoyable snow outing, Dane told us he needed to go potty:


Soon, it became apparent that he was not just going potty...

He pooped! Hooray!
Dane could finally take down the Henry engine that has been hanging in our bathroom as poop incentive for probably five months.

Then we celebrated at Chick-fil-A! What a big boy!
We've had very few problems since then. I realize that every kid is different, and that the fact that Dane is still an only child makes a difference, but I think being patient and just waiting until Dane was willing (even if he's a little older than average) made the process quite easy. Hooray for Dane!

We had a great Thanksgiving with my aunt and uncle/cousins, my grandpa, and Joel's mom. The food was delicious, the company was fun, and we almost had enough pies for every adult to have one all to themselves.
The next day, Joel's mom took us to Chick-fil-A again! It is our favorite place.

And, we saw Santa!

I was also really excited to discover that a grown up Ginny Weasley was eating lunch in the next booth:


The following day was Joel's birthday. If I were a better wife, I would have had some profound, hilarious tribute to him on the special day...but I'm not, so here's what I got:
He is so excited about this present (he asked for it, I promise)

Dane loved singing to Daddy and helping him open his presents.

Yes, Joel is wearing a tweed jacket with leather patches.
Mom also took us out to the Braza Grill, a Brazilian Churrascaria, which was a big treat. We ate a lot.

We were also able to get a Four Generations of Hoods picture:

It's not a totally direct line of four generations, since Becky had to sit in for my Dad, but it is nice nonetheless. We're glad we got to spend time with Grand Pa again; Dane hasn't seen him since he was 9 months old!



And just today, this very day, (see, now I'm all caught up), we converted Dane's crib into a toddler "big boy" bed. He is almost 39 months old. Again, not having another child who needs a crib allowed us to keep him in a bed from which he could not escape. But now that he's getting up at night to go to the bathroom, we decided it was time for him to gain some independence.

There are a lot of cuter bedding sets out there, but how could I pass up the opportunity to fill Dane with joy with the assurance of sleeping with his best toy buds every night?


He has already noiselessly come out, used the bathroom, and returned to bed once tonight.
'sigh' He is so grown up.

Finally, I want to give you even more evidence of how cute Dane is:
I was practicing my violin, and Dane figured out how he could practice violin, too.

That is a ukulele and a tube for extra violin strings. Heehee.

*There is a family in our ward named Mismash. Also, a family named Bollwinkel.